Volitional act and the structure of the volitional act. The concept of will, features of volitional activity

Will- the highest level of arbitrary regulation of activity, which ensures overcoming difficulties in achieving the goal.

Among the levels of regulation of behavior are the following:

1.Involuntary regulation:

prepsychic involuntary reactions;

figurative (sensory and perceptual) regulation.

2. Arbitrary regulation:

• speech-thinking level of regulation.

3.Volitional regulation. Structure and content of volitional action:

• Emergence of Motivation and Preliminary Goal Setting
• The stage of discussion and the "struggle of motives" as a clash in the process of choosing one or another action of conflicting tendencies, desires, motives.
• making a decision regarding the choice of one or another variant of behavior is a kind of phase of “resolution” of the struggle of motives. At this stage, there is either a feeling of relief associated with resolving the situation and relieving tension, or a state of anxiety associated with uncertainty about the correctness. decision;
• execution, the implementation of the decision taken, the embodiment of one or another variant of actions in one's behavior (activity).

In most cases, decision-making and volitional behavior in general are associated with great internal tension, which sometimes acquires a stressful character. The presence of volitional effort experienced by the subject as his mental reality is very important. characteristic feature volitional act.

Volitional regulation is a lifetime education. Volitional regulation is associated with the manifestation of efforts that realize the activity of the individual, aimed at the conscious mobilization of her mental and physical forces.

Volitional effort is a mechanism of volitional regulation, a means of mobilization by the subject of his mental and physical capabilities.

A volitional action is a conscious and purposeful action, taken by the decision of the subject himself. The situation is overcoming difficulties, both external and internal, determined by additional motives, connections with changes in the meaning of the action (you cannot solve the problem at once, you need to make some effort).

Volitional behavior is the purposeful behavior of a person, manifested in the ability to manage oneself, one's actions and deeds on the basis of the desire to achieve a specific goal, by implementing special actions. The specifics of volitional regulation.

Will and regulation of activity.

It is traditionally believed that the main thing for the emergence of volitional regulation is the presence of barriers, obstacles in achieving the goal.L. M. Wecker believes that volitional regulation begins where there is at least a two-level hierarchy of activity programs, where it is necessary to correlate the levels of these programs and choose among them the level that meets the criteria of intellectual, emotional, moral and general social value.

Approximately the same meaning was put into the concept of will by I.M. Sechenov when he wrote that the will is the active side of the mind and moral feelings.

Volitional regulation includes the following components:

1. cognitive
2. emotional
3. behavioral (active)

The structure of the act of will includes the following components:

1. motivation and awareness of the goal;
2. struggle of motives;
3. the act of making a decision;
4. execution.

Volitional action is connected with needs, but does not follow directly from them. It is mediated by awareness of motives for action as motives and its result as goals (S. L. Rubinshtein).

Will arises when a person is capable of reflecting his own desires, can somehow relate to them. The will is inextricably linked with the available plan of action. Through volitional action, a person plans to achieve the goal facing him, subordinating his impulses to conscious control and changing the surrounding reality in accordance with his plan.

The main characteristics of the will. Volitional regulation of behavior. The concept of will is one of the most ancient, Aristotle tried to study it. Descartes. It was introduced as an explanatory concept. According to Aristotle, the concept of will was necessary to explain the generation of an action based not on the desires of a person, but on a reasonable decision about its existence. Realizing that knowledge in itself does not have motivation, but constantly confronted with the reality of human ethical actions, when the action is carried out not because one wants to, but because it is necessary, Aristotle was forced to look for a force capable of initiating such behavior.

The problem of the will, according to Aristotle, is the problem of giving the subject of action a motive power and thereby providing an incentive to action (or inhibiting, if necessary, a decrease in the motive power of the subject of action).

Previously, the will was seen as a supernatural force that takes precedence over other mental processes. There is no absolute will. We can speak of will when the impulse arises:

1. Volition phase: desire + aspiration + motive.
2. Choice phase: struggle of motives, decision making.
3. The phase of implementation by action, the decision turns into a bodily action. Our decision, behavior is determined by a strong motive. In the concept of Aristotle, the will determined not only the initiation of arbitrary actions, but also their choice and their regulation during implementation. Moreover, the will itself could be understood both as an independent force (formation) of the soul, and as a person's ability to a certain activity coming from himself.

Thus, the first paradigm within which the problem of will was posed was the generation of a person's action coming from himself. Consideration of the will in the context of the generation of action presupposes, first of all, the incentive function of the will, and such an approach can be conditionally designated as motivational, it is the most powerful in the study of the will.

It is characterized by the fact that the will is analyzed as the ability to initiate actions, or to strengthen the impulse to act when it is deficient, due to external or internal obstacles, the absence of an actually experienced desire for action, the presence of motives competing with the action being performed. Depending on the ideas about the mechanisms of this ability, the will is understood as:

• or as an independent mental education,
• either as an independent force of a non-psychological nature,
• either as a motivational or emotional formation (desire, affects, needs),
• or reduced to the state of the brain as a regulatory mechanism.

Later, a second approach to the study of the will was formulated, the Free Choice approach. Within the framework of this approach, the will is endowed with the function of choosing motives, goals and actions. One of the trends in the development of this approach is the transfer of studies of choice and, more broadly, decision-making into such areas of research that are not directly related to the problem of will and have their own conceptual apparatus. Therefore, the actual tasks of the "free choice" approach are to isolate the volitional aspects of the problem of choice and the development of adequate methods for their experimental study.

Within the framework of this approach, two variants of ideas about the will can be distinguished:

1. Will is considered as an independent force (voluntaristic type of theory);
2. Will comes down to functioning cognitive processes(intellectualistic theories).

Thus, in modern psychology, the problem of will is presented in two versions: as a problem of self-determination (motivational approach and the approach of “free choice”) and as a problem of self-regulation (regulatory approach).

When a person voluntarily accepts moral standards, the highest moral law and is guided by it in his actions, we can say that a person is morally free. To be free means to obey reason, not passions (Leibniz, Spinoza).

In psychology, freedom of choice is understood when a person, as a result of a struggle of motives, chooses the one that is stronger. Modern researchers of the will are Selivanova, Ivannikov, Platonov, the Will is defined by them as a conscious regulation by a person of his behavior as a result of overcoming internal and external obstacles to the path and goal. Will Structure: Purpose; Claim level; Volitional effort; Fighting motives; Decision-making; Performance.

Volitional effort can be at any stage of volitional action associated with overcoming obstacles. Willpower is a form of emotional stress that mobilizes everything internal resources a person who creates additional motives for action and experienced mental states of significant stress (Ivannikov). psychological mechanism volitional effort is to attract a new motive, thereby changing the meaning of the action in order to strengthen the primary motivation.

Will functions.

• Incentive;
• Brake (restrains unwanted actions)

In Western psychology:

• initiation of action (formation of intention);
• maintaining the primary intention in an active state until the goal is achieved.
• overcoming an obstacle.

Volitional regulation of behavior.

Volitional regulation is a particular type of arbitrary control and is characterized by the use of significant volitional efforts aimed at overcoming obstacles and difficulties, i.e. is a mechanism of self-mobilization.

Volitional regulation is necessary in order to keep in the field of consciousness the object that a person is thinking about for a long time, to maintain attention concentrated on it.

The will is involved in the regulation of almost all basic mental functions: sensations, perception, imagination, memory, thinking and speech.

The development of these cognitive processes from the lowest to the highest means the acquisition by a person of volitional control over them.

Often a judgment about the presence or absence of volitional regulation (volitional behavior) is made on the basis of the results achieved by a person. However, you can try to overcome the difficulty, but not overcome it.

In everyday use, the concept of “volitional regulation” is identified with the idea of ​​“willpower”. In this regard, it is customary to divide people into strong-willed and weak-willed.

The specific content of volitional regulation is understood by psychologists in different ways.

"Willpower" as the power of motive. The volitional activity of a person is determined by the strength of the motive (need), because the latter affects the degree of manifestation of volitional effort: if I really want to achieve the goal, then I will show more intense and longer volitional effort. Therefore, willpower is often replaced by the power of motive: if I want, then I do it. Yu.Yu. Palaima believes that “willpower” is, in essence, the strength of a motive, and that a person with a strong will is, first of all, a person with a strong motivation for behavior. Therefore, it is the mechanism of volitional regulation that a person has that determines the greater or lesser possibilities for the realization of desire.

"Willpower" as a struggle of motives. Often, willpower is reduced only to the "struggle of motives", which is one of the internal obstacles to activity. There are many situations when the choice of one or another alternative solution is not required, but volitional regulation is necessary, because. On the way to achieving the goal, there are various obstacles and difficulties. In such situations, the need remains, but the accompanying energy is not enough to overcome the difficulties that have arisen and achieve the goal, and the inclusion of a volitional mechanism is required to enhance the energy of action.

Inclusion in the regulation of emotions. Some psychologists believe that mobilization (additional energization) is carried out due to the emotion that arises in the presence of an obstacle as a reaction to the mismatch "I must-I can't", "I don't want - but I must." However, at the same time, volitional effort should not be replaced by such an emotional reaction. In addition, volitional efforts are also applied against the background of negative emotions, which contribute not to the mobilization, but to the demobilization of a person's capabilities. Therefore, volitional effort is considered to be the main mechanism of energy mobilization.

"Willpower" as an independent volitional quality. The moral component of the will (for example, a sense of duty) is non-specific in relation to different volitional qualities; there is no “willpower” that is manifested equally in all situations. One and the same person, as practice and experiments show, when meeting with various difficulties behaves differently: in some situations he shows great "willpower", in others - insignificant.

Therefore, the position of A. Puni is true that the manifestations of the will are always specific and conditioned by the difficulties that a person overcomes. On the other hand, attempts to define “willpower” as some kind of abstract indicator are also incorrect, as well as distinguishing people with high, medium and low levels of willpower development. “Willpower” as a general personality construct is either a product of a correlation analysis of self-assessments of various volitional manifestations, between which in most cases connections are found, or any one volitional manifestation taken for “willpower”, most often purposefulness and perseverance. It is more correct to speak about various manifestations of “willpower” (volitional regulation), called volitional qualities.

The activity of the individual, caused by natural and cultural, material and spiritual needs and acquiring a purposeful character, is realized in a variety of actions, with the help of which the transformation of the world around is carried out by a person.

Motivational sphere of a person

Human actions are determined by various motives. They arise in him in the process of his life while ensuring his existence and satisfying the demands that appear in accordance with the requirements for life that are inherent in the surrounding society and its culture. "Springs" pushing a person onto various activities, are embedded in the diverse stimuli of his activity, which psychologically appear in the form of drives, desires, aspirations, which, under certain conditions, acquire the character of life tasks. Man purposefully strives to solve them.

The totality of desires, aspirations, motives of various kinds, i.e., all the motivating forces of the personality, acquiring the character of motives for actions, deeds and forms of activity, forms a special, fairly significant area of ​​a person’s mental life, which is called the motivational sphere or personality orientation. In the motivational sphere, the prerequisites for the activity that arises in the process of complex connections person with reality.

The impulses to action that are formed in a person have a different character in their essence and psychological nature. This may be an action on an involuntary impulse - an instantaneous reaction to the received impact, and it may be a reaction of a delayed type - an action already considered, arising on the basis of weighing considerations, an accurate presentation of the result of an action, etc.

There are different types of human actions in terms of their level of consciousness and the nature of their conditionality by a task - a task that is immediate, momentary, or related to a distant, but important goal for a person. Human actions can be divided into two categories: involuntary actions and voluntary actions.

Involuntary actions are performed as a result of the emergence of unconscious or insufficiently clearly conscious motives (drives, attitudes, etc.). They are impulsive and lack a clear plan. An example of involuntary actions is the actions of a person in a state of passion, confusion, fear, amazement.

Arbitrary actions involve awareness of the goal, a preliminary presentation of those operations that can ensure its implementation. A special group of arbitrary actions are the so-called volitional actions. Volitional actions are conscious actions aimed at a specific goal and associated with the efforts required to overcome the obstacles that stand in the way of the goal.

The motivational sphere of a person contains the foundations of his most diverse actions - involuntary and volitional, conscious and little conscious.

What is the mechanism for the emergence of impulses in a person and their implementation in action (or in their delay and even extinction)? It is determined by the dynamic processes taking place in the motivational sphere. But it should be remembered that the motivational sphere of a person is not an autonomous system that operates independently of consciousness, rejecting some desires, aspirations, impulses and accepting others. The motivational sphere is connected with the whole personality, which, in the very nature of the motivational sphere, manifests its essence.

The motivational sphere as an area of ​​actual and potential (possible) human motives has a special structure. Various kinds of human motivations for action form a certain hierarchy in his mind. This means not only that a person has stronger and less powerful motives, but that for him there are more important and essential and less important motives. They are represented in his mind in a known hierarchy as more significant and less significant. This determines why a person in his actions is guided by such and such a motive (or rather, their complex), and not by another motive (or a group of them). The foregoing does not mean that such a hierarchy of motives is always and for all time preserved in a person's life. It changes with age and human development. What seems to be an essential impulse for a child may mean very little for a young man, but on the other hand, the young man develops other impulses that are very significant for him.

The hierarchy of motives also changes in connection with personality changes. We know that the motives of a person's actions are determined by different motive forces. These may be organic needs, primitive drives and higher interests associated with spiritual needs. And these motives, depending on the process of personality formation, can occupy a different place in its structure. For example, in the course of personality development, primitive drives as stimuli of action recede into the background, but requests of a higher order are actualized in the circle of human motives. But with the growing regression of the personality (alcoholic, drug addict, mentally ill), organic needs come to the fore in terms of the importance of motives in comparison with other categories of motives.

The motivational sphere of a person is characterized by dynamism. The ratio and hierarchy of motives can change depending on the nature of the person's perception and understanding of the situation that has come. The importance of incentives may vary depending on the circumstances. At the moment of danger (fire), a person can be indifferent to objects that are always dear and valuable to him and act guided by other motives.

Why does a hierarchy of motives arise in the human psyche, which affects the nature of his actions, on the paths of action he chooses? It arises in the course of the formation of a person's personality among the people around him, in the process of life in society with its institutions, value system, and way of life. This happens because a person masters certain norms of social behavior in appropriate situations. In the course of personal appropriation of social norms, a person develops ideas about what is due, rules, ideals of behavior, which turn for him into such a psychological formation as duty, which becomes the motivating cause of actions. In a person, moral rules and requirements for oneself arise in the mind, an experience of “should” is formed in relation to a certain range of actions, which, being the result of processing ideas about what should be, merged into a kind of integral experience, becomes the stimulus (motive) of action. In such actions, a person includes his conscious activity, discards, and sometimes suppresses other impulses and desires, and performs, despite possible difficulties, the planned actions.

Depending on the path of personality development that has been determined, the motivational sphere can be characterized by the predominance of certain types of motives in importance, for example, motives of a moral order, or motives of another type. The structure of the motivational sphere or orientation of a person is clearly characterized by the nature of the most significant motives for her (egoistic or social, motives of a narrow or broad plan), what kind of motives become leading in determining the ways and forms of action in various circumstances of life. The structure of a person's motivational sphere as a system of motivating forces that determine the forms of manifestations of a person's activity is an expression of the integral image of his entire personality, a dynamic form of expression of his essence.

The motivational sphere is directly related to the volitional activity of a person, because the motivational sphere contains those motivating forces that direct a person to perform volitional actions, determine the nature and psychological conditions for the implementation of a volitional act.

Personality and volitional activity

The volitional activity of a person consists not only in the fulfillment of the conscious goals set by him: he needs a pencil - he took it, he needs paper - he stretched out his hand for it. This activity is specific. Its essence lies in the fact that a person subordinates to the goals that stand before him and are of great importance to him, all other motives of behavior that are of less importance to him.

Will is a special form of human activity. It involves the regulation by a person of his behavior, the inhibition of a number of other aspirations and motives by him, provides for the organization of a chain of various actions in accordance with consciously set goals. Volitional activity consists in the fact that a person exercises power over himself, controls his own involuntary impulses and, if necessary, suppresses them. The manifestation of the will, i.e., the systematic implementation by a person of various kinds of volitional acts and volitional actions, is a kind of personality activity that is associated with the participation of consciousness in it. Volitional activity necessarily involves whole line acts characterized by a wide degree of awareness by the personality of its efforts and features of the ongoing mental processes. Here is an assessment of the current situation, and the choice of a path for future action, and the selection of means necessary to achieve the goal, decision making, etc.

In a number of cases, volitional activity is associated with the adoption of such decisions that determine life path person, reveal his public face, reveal his moral character. Therefore, the whole person as a consciously acting person is involved in the implementation of such volitional actions. At the same time, a person proceeds from established views, beliefs, attitudes and attitudes. moral principles. When performing responsible volitional actions that are significant for a person’s life path, in his mind, all his views, attitudes, beliefs are actualized (revived) in the form of separate thoughts, feelings and leave their mark on the assessment of the situation, on the nature of the decision made, on the choice of means for his decision. execution.

In the biographies of many public figures and cultural figures, one can find such episodes when making a decision brightly illuminated their spiritual appearance. L. N. Tolstoy, publishing the article "I can not be silent!" about the cruel repressions of the tsarist government; A. M. Gorky, writing the appeal "Who are you with, masters of culture?"; Georgy Dimitrov, acting not as an accused, but as an accuser at the Nazi-organized process of setting fire to the Reichstag - all of them, carrying out a responsible act of will, thereby revealed their worldview, put the world of their ideals and moral principles into the act. Significant examples of volitional behavior were given by people during the years of the Great Patriotic War. The military chronicle contains countless feats of our heroes.

The most important features of volitional activity

Volitional activity is characterized psychologically by a number of significant features.

One of the important properties of the flow of volitional activity in general or a separate volitional act is the awareness of the freedom to carry out an action - "I can do this, but I can do otherwise." Here there is no experience of the inevitable following of circumstances in which a person is completely powerless and to which he fatally submits. On the contrary, there is an experience of freedom of choice of decision. And this feeling of freedom to choose a decision is associated with the experience of responsibility for one's intentions and actions.

What does this mean? Materialistic psychology does not recognize the free will that idealists speak of, who imply that a spiritual act performed by a person is an uncaused, autonomous act, not subordinated to anything else, except own desires person.

In reality, all human actions, well or poorly realized, are objectively conditioned. And we can say with greater or lesser accuracy why he did this particular thing. Volitional activity of a person is completely determined. It is due to the formed warehouse of the personality, the nature of its motives and life goals that have arisen as a result of various influences in the conditions of a person's social life. At the same time, a variety of life circumstances, which determine volitional action, can serve as the immediate cause of volitional activity.

Volitional activity of a person is objectively conditioned, but this does not mean at all that psychologically it is perceived as some kind of forced external necessity, for the implementation of which a person is not responsible. Such a representation is wrong. Quite the opposite, only with a deterministic view is a strict and correct assessment possible, and not blaming anything on free will.

A characteristic feature of volitional activity is that volitional action is always carried out by a person as a person. It is in connection with this that volitional action is experienced as an act for which a person is fully responsible. Largely due to volitional activity, a person realizes himself as a person, realizes that he himself determines his life path and destiny.



Human behavior and activity is stimulated and regulated not only by emotions and feelings, but also by will. The will makes it possible to consciously control one's internal mental and external physical actions in the most difficult life situations. A person resorts to volitional regulation only when he needs to overcome the difficulties that arise on the way to achieving the goal. In all other cases, regulation may not be volitional, but deliberate, requiring no effort from the individual. You can perform a variety of complex actions, but they will not be volitional until a person forces himself to carry them out.

Volitional actions, like all conscious actions, have the same overall structure. Any conscious action is motivated by a certain motive (need). Then a goal is set, directed at the object through which the need will be satisfied. Since several motives can arise at the same time and they can be satisfied through various objects, it becomes necessary to make a decision - which motive should be satisfied first of all and which object should the goal be directed to. Next comes the planning of the action and the choice of means by which the goal will be achieved. The next step is to implement the action and get results. The action ends with an assessment of the result obtained and an understanding of whether the goal has been achieved or not.

According to this scheme, any conscious purposeful or, as it is called, deliberate action is carried out that does not need volitional regulation. What then is the difference between volitional action and intentional action and what additional elements, except for the above, take place in its structure?

First of all, volitional action, in contrast to intentional action, is stimulated, carried out and regulated with the participation of the will. What is will? It is difficult to answer this question. Therefore, in the latest textbooks, neither R.S. Nemov, nor V.I. Slobodchikov and E.I. There is no definition of will by Isaev. There is a definition of will only in study guide “General psychology!” 1986

"Will is a conscious organization and self-regulation by a person of his activity and behavior, aimed at overcoming difficulties in achieving the set goals." 1

This definition is too general and should be clarified to be used to explain volitional behavior. First of all, it is not clear what the will is as a mental phenomenon. Whether it is a mental process or a mental state or personality trait. Some psychologists believe that will is a mental process, others that it is a subjective state, others that it is a mental property of a person.

Based on the function of the will, it should be considered as a special intense subjective state of the personality that arose in extreme conditions. This tense mental state enables a person to mobilize all mental and physical resources to overcome the difficulties that have appeared on the way to achieving the goals. The state of tension of the psyche is manifested in the form of those volitional efforts that a person makes in the implementation of volitional behavior.

Will is a tense mental state of the individual, mobilizing all human resources to overcome the difficulties that have arisen on the way to achieving the goals. What changes must take place in a deliberate action in order for it to become volitional?

First of all, the motivational sphere changes. A motive that has arisen on the basis of desire is no longer enough. An additional motive is needed, which arises when it is necessary to act not as “I” want, but as “must”.

In this regard, the semantic assessment of the motive changes. It already has not only a narrowly egoistic meaning, but also acquires a moral, socially significant orientation. Now a person should be guided in his behavior not by personal desires and intentions, but by a sense of duty and responsibility to other people. But it is one thing to understand that you must act accordingly, and another thing to put it into practice. This is where the will is needed to make an effort and force yourself to act as you should.

This, in turn, leads to the fact that the second link in intentional behavior becomes more complicated. Now the goal of the action should be connected with the statement of the problem “how to act” and what means should be used to achieve it. Sometimes the goal can be achieved very quickly if the person is guided by the principle: "All means are good to achieve the goal." Here it is also necessary to show an effort of will in order to abandon unseemly means and take a more difficult path to achieve the goal.

Finally, the most complex volitional efforts must be shown in the implementation of volitional behavior, when internal and external obstacles arise in its implementation. Here, most often, it is necessary to show the will in order to mobilize all mental and physical resources to overcome them.

Internal obstacles are subjective. They are associated with ingrained bad habits and negative personality traits. In order to overcome them, it is necessary to mobilize all your forces and make a number of strong-willed efforts. For example, a student decides to improve his academic performance in all subjects in order to finish school well and go to college. But to achieve this goal, he needs to show a number of strong-willed efforts. First of all, he must overcome bad habits and inclinations: to prepare lessons somehow and at random, to spend time in entertainment, to engage in extraneous activities in the classroom, to avoid difficult tasks, not to complete them, etc.

Will- this is a conscious regulation by a person of his behavior and activities, expressed in the ability to overcome internal and external difficulties in the performance of purposeful actions and deeds.

The main features of the will:

· conscious purposefulness. In order to accomplish something, a person must consciously set a goal for himself and mobilize himself to achieve it;

· connection with thinking. A person can achieve something and mobilize himself for this only if he has thought and planned everything well;

· connection with movement. To achieve their goals, a person moves, changes forms of activity.

Will functions:

Choice of motives and goals.

· Regulation of motivation to action in case of insufficient or excessive motivation.

Organization of mental processes into an adequate system of actions performed by a person.

· Mobilization of mental and physical capabilities in overcoming obstacles that arise on the way to achieving goals.

Volitional action is associated with the awareness of the purpose of the activity, its significance, the subordination of one's impulses to conscious control and the change in the surrounding reality in accordance with one's intentions.

Characteristics of volitional action:

· It is conscious, purposeful, intentional, accepted for implementation by its own conscious decision.

Is an action necessary for external (social) or personal reasons, i.e. There are always grounds on which an action is accepted for execution.

Has an initial or manifested in the implementation of the lack of motivation (or inhibition).

As a result, it is provided with additional motivation (inhibition) due to the functioning of certain mechanisms and ends with the achievement of the intended goal.

Volitional actions are distinguished by the degree of complexity. In the case when the goal is clearly visible in the impulse and it directly turns into action, one speaks of a simple volitional act. A complex volitional act is preceded by taking into account the consequences, understanding the motives, making a decision, drawing up a plan for its implementation.

The volitional action of each person has its own special uniqueness, as it is a reflection of a relatively stable personality structure. Within the framework of individual differences in the volitional sphere, the selected parameters can characterize both the volitional act as a whole and its individual links. In particular, one of the main characteristics of the will is its strength.

Strength of will manifests itself at all stages of the volitional act, but most clearly in what obstacles are overcome with the help of volitional actions and what results are obtained in this case. It is the obstacles that are overcome through volitional efforts that are an objective indicator of the manifestation of willpower.

Volitional personality traits:

The first, starting stage of volitional action.

purposefulness- the ability of a person to subordinate his actions to set goals. Purposefulness is the most important motivational-volitional quality of a person, which determines the content and level of development of all other volitional qualities. Distinguish purposefulness strategic- the ability of a person to be guided in all his life by certain principles and ideals and purposefulness operational- the ability to set clear goals for individual actions and not be distracted from them in the process of execution.

Initiative- the ability to work creatively, taking action on one's own initiative.

Independence volitional act is manifested in the ability not to be influenced by various factors, to critically evaluate the advice and suggestions of other people, to act on the basis of one's views and beliefs.

Excerpt- the ability to slow down actions, feelings, thoughts that interfere with the implementation of the decision. It is the ability to constantly control one's behavior. A seasoned person will always be able to choose the level of activity that corresponds to the conditions and is justified by the circumstances.

self-control- the ability of a person to maintain inner peace, to act reasonably and prudently in difficult life situations.

Initiative, independence as the volitional qualities of a person are opposed to such qualities as suggestibility, pliability, inertia, but they must be distinguished from negativism as an unmotivated tendency to act contrary to others.

Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

The concept of will. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Will functions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4

Arbitrary and involuntary volitional actions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5

The structure of volitional action. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6

Volitional qualities. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7

Theories of will. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8

Will pathology. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10

Conclusion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

List of sources used. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13

Introduction

Will - the ability to choose activities and internal efforts necessary for its implementation. A specific act, irreducible to consciousness and activity as such. Carrying out a volitional action, a person opposes the power of directly experienced needs, impulsive desires: a volitional act is characterized not by the experience of "I want", but by the experience of "I must", "I must", awareness of the value characteristics of the purpose of the action. Volitional behavior includes decision-making, often accompanied by a struggle of motives, and its implementation.

Weakness of will, disorganization, action on the strongest motive, a relatively easy refusal to achieve the goal in spite of its objective significance - all this is characteristic of man.

We cannot always distinguish persistence from stubbornness, adherence to certain principles from striving, by all means to achieve our own, seeing in all this equal manifestations of will. Therefore, it is necessary to learn to separate the true manifestations of the will from the false ones.

The concept of will

Will is the most complex phenomenon in human psychology. Will can be defined as a kind of internal force of a psychological nature, capable of controlling psychological phenomena and human behavior. This is a form of internal control of behavior carried out by a person and associated with his consciousness, thinking.

Will is the highest level of regulation of human behavior. This is what makes it possible to set difficult goals for oneself, to achieve the set goals, overcoming internal and external obstacles thanks to the will, a person makes a conscious choice when he is faced with the need to choose among several forms of behavior.

The main difference between human behavior and the behavior of other creatures is will. For 300 years, science has made almost no progress in understanding the meaning of will and volitional regulation. This is due to the fact that will is a subjective phenomenon that does not have certain external manifestations and physiological signs; it is not known which brain structures are responsible for volitional regulation.

Will presupposes self-restraint, the restraint of some fairly strong drives, the conscious subordination of them to other, more significant, important goals, the ability to suppress the desires and impulses that directly arise in a given situation. On higher levels of its manifestation, the will presupposes reliance on spiritual goals and moral values on beliefs and ideals.

Will Functions

In general, volitional processes perform three main functions.

The first - initiating (directly related to motivational factors) is to force one or another action, behavior, activity to start, overcoming objective and subjective obstacles.

The second is stabilizing, associated with volitional efforts to maintain activity at the proper level in the event of external and internal interference of various kinds.

The third - inhibitory consists in the inhibition of other, often strong motives and desires, other behaviors.

Will as a process is not only one of the highest forms of organization of all other mental processes. In volitional processes, the personality and its mental processes are not only manifested, but also formed and developed. In this regard, one more function of the will is singled out - genetic, productive. As a result of its action, the level of awareness and organization of other mental processes increases, and the so-called volitional properties of the personality are formed - independence, determination, perseverance, self-control, purposefulness, etc.

Arbitrary and involuntary

volitional actions

Any human activity is always accompanied by specific actions that can be divided into two large groups: voluntary and involuntary. The main difference between voluntary actions is that they are carried out under the control of consciousness and require certain efforts on the part of a person aimed at achieving a consciously set song. For example, imagine a sick person who hardly takes a glass of water in his hand, brings it to his mouth, tilts it, makes a movement with his mouth, that is, performs a number of actions united by one goal - to quench his thirst. All individual actions, thanks to the efforts of consciousness aimed at regulating behavior, merge into one whole, and a person drinks water. These efforts are often called volitional regulation, or will.

Arbitrary or volitional actions develop on the basis of involuntary movements and actions. The simplest of the involuntary actions are reflex ones: constriction and expansion of the pupil, blinking, swallowing, sneezing, etc. The same class of movements includes pulling the hand away when touching a hot object, involuntarily turning the head in the direction of a sound, etc. Involuntary character Our expressive movements are also usually worn: when angry, we involuntarily clench our teeth; in surprise, we raise our eyebrows or open our mouths; when we are happy about something, we begin to smile, etc.

Volitional structure

The structure of volitional action can be represented as a diagram:

Volitional activity always consists of certain volitional actions, which contain all the signs and qualities of the will. In this action, the following simple steps can be clearly distinguished:

1) motivation;

3) decision making;

4) willpower.

Often the 1st, 2nd and 3rd stages are combined, calling this part of the volitional action the preparatory link, while the 4th stage is called the executive link. For a simple volitional action, it is characteristic that the choice of a goal, the decision to perform an action in a certain way, is carried out without a struggle of motives.

In a complex volitional action, the following stages are distinguished:

1) awareness of the goal and the desire to achieve it;

2) awareness of a number of opportunities to achieve the goal;

3) the emergence of motives that affirm or deny these possibilities;

4) struggle of motives and choice;

5) accepting one of the possibilities as a solution;

6) implementation of the adopted decision.

Volitional qualities

Volitional qualities are relatively stable mental formations independent of the specific situation, certifying the level of conscious self-regulation of behavior achieved by the individual, his power over himself. Volitional qualities combine the moral components of the will, which are formed in the process of education, and genetic ones, closely related to typological features. nervous system. For example, fear, the inability to endure fatigue for a long time, to make a quick decision to a large extent depend on the innate characteristics of a person (strength and weakness of the nervous system, its lability).

Volitional qualities include three components: proper psychological (moral), physiological (volitional effort) and neurodynamic (typological features of the nervous system).

Based on this, all volitional qualities are divided into "basal" (primary) and systemic (secondary). The primary ones are actually volitional qualities, which, in turn, are divided into two groups. The first group is characterized by purposefulness, the ability to keep an effort of will, this is patience, perseverance, perseverance.

The second group characterizes self-control and includes such qualities as courage, endurance, determination. It is important for the education of the will to present to the child the requirements that are appropriate and feasible for his age, with mandatory control over their implementation. Lack of control can create a habit of quitting before finishing. The manifestation of willpower is due to the moral motives of a person. The presence of a person's strong beliefs and a holistic worldview is the basis of the volitional organization of the personality.

Theories of will

To date, several scientific directions have been formed that interpret the concept of “will” in different ways: will as voluntarism, will as freedom of choice, will as arbitrary control of behavior, will as motivation, will as volitional regulation.

1. Will as voluntarism

In attempts to explain the mechanisms of human behavior within the framework of the problem of will, a direction arose that in 1883, with the light hand of the German sociologist F. Tennis, received the name "voluntarism" and recognizes the will as a special, supranatural force. According to the doctrine of voluntarism, volitional acts are not determined by anything, but they themselves determine the course of mental processes. The German philosophers A. Schopenhauer and E. Hartmann went even further, declaring the will to be a cosmic force, a blind and unconscious first principle from which all mental manifestations of a person originate. Consciousness and intellect are, according to Schopenhauer, secondary manifestations of the will. Spinoza denied causeless behavior, since "the will itself, like everything else, needs a cause." I. Kant recognized equally provable both the thesis about free will and the antithesis that the will is incapable. Solving the problem of human freedom, Kant subjected to critical analysis both the Christian doctrine of free will and the concept of mechanistic determinism.

2. Will as "free choice"

The Dutch philosopher B. Spinoza considered the struggle of impulses as a struggle of ideas. Spinoza's will acts as an awareness of external determination, which is subjectively perceived as one's own voluntary decision, as inner freedom.

However, the English thinker J. Locke tried to isolate the question of free choice from the general problem of free will. Freedom, on the other hand, consists "precisely in this, that we can act or not act according to our choice or desire."

The American psychologist W. James considered the main function of the will to make a decision about an action in the presence of two or more ideas of movement in the mind at the same time. Therefore, volitional effort consists in directing a person of his consciousness to an unattractive, but necessary object and focusing attention on it. Classifying himself as a voluntarist, W. James considered the will to be an independent force of the soul, with the ability to make decisions about action.

L.S. Vygotsky, when discussing the problem of will, also associated this concept with freedom of choice.

3. Will as "arbitrary motivation"

The concept of will as a determinant of human behavior originated in ancient Greece and for the first time was explicitly formulated by Aristotle. The philosopher understood that knowledge in itself is not the cause of rational behavior, but a certain force that causes action according to reason. This force is born, according to Aristotle, in the rational part of the soul, thanks to the combination of a rational connection with aspiration, which gives the decision a motivating force.

Rene Descartes understood the will as the ability of the soul to form desire and determine the impulse to any human action that cannot be explained on the basis of a reflex. The will can slow down the movements caused by passion. Reason, according to Descartes, is the will's own instrument.

G.I. Chelpanov singled out three elements in the act of will: desire, aspiration and effort. K.N. Kornilov emphasized that volitional actions are always based on a motive.

L.S. Vygotsky singled out two separate processes in volitional action: the first corresponds to a decision, the closing of a new brain connection, the creation of a special functional apparatus; the second - executive - consists in the work of the created apparatus, in the action according to the instructions, in the implementation of the decision.

4. Will as obligation

The specificity of this approach to understanding the will is that the will is considered as one of the incentive mechanisms, along with the actually experienced need.

Will pathology

Allocate the pathology of higher and lower volitional activity. The pathology of higher volitional activity includes hyperbulia. At the same time, a pathological distortion of the motivation of volitional activity is revealed. There is an extraordinary perseverance in achieving goals by any means.

Hypobulia is a decrease in volitional activity, accompanied by poverty of motives, lethargy, inactivity, poor speech, weakening of attention, impoverishment of thinking, decreased motor activity, and limited communication. Abulia - lack of motives, desires, drives. It is observed in chronic diseases with a decrease in intelligence and a weakening of affective activity. Often combined with symptoms such as: a decrease in social productivity - a deterioration in the performance of social roles and skills, a decrease in professional productivity - a deterioration in the performance of professional duties and skills, i.e. specific tasks and responsibilities, knowledge and standards in the professional field and its productivity ( material production, service, the sphere of science and art), social alienation is a form of behavior characterized by a persistent tendency to reject social interactions and ties, etc.

The pathology of the lower volitional activity includes the pathology of drives that are formed on the basis of instincts in the form of their strengthening, weakening or perversion. For example: pathology of the food instinct (bulimia - increased craving for food associated with a lack of satiety; anorexia - weakening or lack of hunger), pathology of the self-preservation instinct: phobias - an unreasonable feeling of fear for one's life; agoraphobia - fear of open spaces, situations close to them, such as the presence of a crowd and the inability to immediately return to a safe place (usually home); pathology of the sexual instinct (hypersexuality, gender identity disorders)

There are also disorders of habits and drives (propensity to gamble).

Conclusion

Will - the ability to choose activities and internal efforts necessary for its implementation. In general, volitional processes perform three main functions: initiating, stabilizing, and inhibiting.

Any human activity is always accompanied by specific actions that can be divided into two large groups: voluntary and involuntary.

The structure of the will can be represented as the following steps:

1) motivation;

2) awareness of the possibilities of achieving the goal;

3) decision making;

4) willpower.

The pathology of the will is divided into lower and higher. The pathology of higher volitional activity includes hyperbulia. The pathology of the lower volitional activity includes the pathology of drives that are formed on the basis of instincts in the form of their strengthening, weakening or perversion.