Inclinations, abilities, skills and abilities

The inclinations given to us by nature - the anatomical and physiological features of the brain and nervous system - determine the predisposition to the most effective types of activity. In this lies the secret of the psychic energy of the innate inclination. Predisposition means a pronounced adaptability to a particular activity, an internal motivating craving for it. A predisposition to any activity, that is, a deposit, is a genetic program of the easiest and therefore acceptable and pleasant style of existence for an individual. The deposit is like a coiled spring, striving to straighten up and act. His energy manifests spontaneously. There is no deposit - there is no psychic energy corresponding to it. If it exists, then it declares itself regardless of the will of the individual. It can only be suppressed by more powerful psychic energy. For example, deliberately not giving it an outlet, blocking it with competing values ​​or needs. The more clearly the inclination is expressed, the more tangible in the behavior of its energy moment - the desire to "break out", to materialize. Let us recall how actively, for example, musical, visual, mathematical and other inclinations declare themselves - a gifted person cannot but show them or hide them. He is driven by powerful psychic energy of natural potentials.

Developing on the basis of practice, knowledge and experience, inclinations serve as the basis for the development of various abilities - this is already a new energy force. It incorporates the energy-information richness of knowledge and experience.

As a result of training on the basis of inclinations and abilities, skills are formed - actions regulated by rules and knowledge. Skills have internal energy, which is concentrated in the acquired action algorithms, ready for implementation.

If the skills are repeated many times and, in the end, become automatic, more complex and well-formed actions arise - skills: motor, intellectual, labor, communicative. What is each skill? This is an energetically capacious program of behavior that seeks to be embodied in physical acts - business operations, labor practices, etc., or in intellectual actions, that is, in a new form of psychic energy.

It is impossible not to admire how purposefully nature unites the power of psychic energy around innate and acquired potentials. The mechanics are surprisingly elegant: the energy of inclinations is transformed into a new enhanced quality - the energy of abilities; abilities are reinforced by the energy of skills; Skills turn into even more effective and spontaneous power - skills. The energy boost doesn't end there. The experience gained in the process of implementing skills and abilities usually leads to the emergence of more and more advanced skills and abilities, the development of which requires new knowledge.

Such a probable sequence in the interaction of innate and acquired potentials of the individual, influencing each other, is possible due to the fact that each of them has psychic energy. It is transmitted from one link to another, transforms, intensifies or weakens, becomes more or less dynamic, determining the energy essence and manifestations of the individual. What is happening resembles a kind of perpetual motion machine, in which one potency, which has psychic energy, stimulates another. In the end, a closed energy circuit is formed inside the personality, which stimulates active self-realization.

The psychic energy of various innate and acquired potentials of the individual - inclinations and abilities, skills and abilities, knowledge and experience - arises due to the fact that the internal involuntarily strives for external reproduction, for embodiment in materialized forms.

Materialization occurs in actions, deeds, initiatives, results of labor, in products of creativity, in intellectual activity, in the roles performed. A naturally gifted person, whose abilities have also been developed and reinforced with knowledge, has such powerful psychic energy that it is enough for various types of creative activity. Or the energy is so great that it neutralizes or suppresses many other manifestations of the personality. Such is the "mechanics" of emotional manifestations of giftedness - obsession, indomitable thirst for activity to the point of self-forgetfulness. Remember what a specific energy field talented and brilliant people have. As a rule, they are surrounded by an aura of spirituality, especially noticeable at the moment of realization of inclinations, when they seem to dissolve in the process of creativity. They forget about time, do not notice what is happening, do not think about the essentials. They merge with the result of their creations - whether it be poetry, dance, music, invention or sculpture. They are immersed in a seething stream of psychic energy, which is produced by the natural forces of giftedness. The eccentricity or extravagance of a genius is entirely explained by an excess of psychic energy of inclinations and abilities, which often blocks various areas of his activity, except for the manifestation of the “gift of God”.

Exploratory reflex, curiosity and inquisitiveness

In essence, these are genetic programs for the cognitive activity of many highly developed living beings. Thanks to them, knowledge and assessment of the state occurs environment without which it is impossible to adapt to it and survive. Naturally, in humans, this “software trio” operates at a higher and more harmonious level than in other animals with a psyche.

Elementary educational program, which ensures survival, is an exploratory reflex. Instinctive forces predominate in it, but there are already elements of psychic energy. This is easy to verify by tracing the "work" of the reflex. He encourages the animal to carefully observe and examine the habitat: what is happening, is there a threat of danger, no matter how something happens. The brain automatically and tirelessly, at the subconscious level, converts the energy of external influences into psychic energy. Everything happens according to this scheme:

Sensations and perceptions fix physical states and changes in the environment;

The energy of the reflected external influences activates the memory - the receptacle of the ideal: the impressions just received enliven the images stored in it;

The psychic charge of images makes thinking “work” - new impressions and old images are compared, conclusions are drawn: the environment is favorable or something threatens.

If the fixed state of the environment does not correspond to the image stored in the memory, a feeling of anxiety and anxiety arises. This is psychic energy, and it forces one to make one or another conclusion: one must take protective measures, one can take risks, or one must remain calm. The exploratory reflex is a reliable tool for survival, however, an animal leading a mobile lifestyle cannot do without it alone. After all, the research reflex allows only to fix and evaluate the state of the environment. But it is changeable and sometimes unexpected, which makes the animal look beyond the boundaries of the obvious and the probable. Otherwise, one cannot anticipate events, one cannot anticipate the hidden, one cannot discern the dangerous.

Curiosity, a more powerful program of cognitive activity, comes into play, accompanied by emotion. Curiosity involves the psychic energy of a once-accomplished accidental discovery - it led to the unexpected, to surprise.

Curiosity is driven by the psychic energy of anticipation of novelty - unknown sensations and discoveries.

The psyche is terribly "curious" - it needs changes, discoveries and upheavals. The mechanism of curiosity is fundamentally the same in a variety of manifestations. In a cat sniffing corners and objects in a new situation. In an infant who reacts to a new toy by feeling and taking it in his mouth, trying to look into its insides. A woman is a seeker of love adventures, longing for sharp turns of fate and meetings with surprises. A man who has a passion for change in space and time. The essence of curiosity is that the psyche makes fluctuations: from the familiar to the new, from the outdated to the unknown, from interest to boredom. Some areas of the brain are temporarily involved and gradually "get tired", others, under the influence of a new one, are connected and get to work. But they will soon adapt and will wait for the rest. Under the influence of internal and external influences, the zones of active action periodically change in the brain.

In the "period of hesitation", in the process of shifting from the experienced and known to the new and unknown, the psychic energy of a pleasant state is generated.

That is why the process of knowledge is usually more important for the curious than the object of knowledge and the triumph of victory. I would like to repeat the pleasant state of the “period of hesitation”. That's why curiosity, if it's inherent this person, comes to him seriously and for a long time.

curiosity is more high step cognitive activity inherent in people. Curiosity is already a stable personality trait that has certain inclinations and is brought up in certain conditions. The psychic energy of many manifestations of the ideal "works" for curiosity; experiencing the joy of discovery, striving for new knowledge, for unraveling deep mysteries and complex phenomena, the driving force of knowledge and experience. The intellect plays an exceptional role, of course.

Intelligence

The psychic energy of the intellect lies in its natural potentials - in the quality of its organization as a system. It is known that any well-organized system performs its functions better than poorly organized one. good intelligence is a powerful source of psychic energy.

Intelligence, like any ability, operates on the principle of "giftedness", that is, depending on the quality and organization of its substructures.

These are cognitive mental processes - perception, memory, ideas, attention, thinking. Moreover, each cognitive process is a completely independent source of psychic energy. Let's take perception. The more active, intense and wider it manifests itself, the more it produces psychic energy. After all, perception forms images of the surrounding reality and impressions from internal states. Each image or impression is a fragment of the ideal, an information-energetic model, a cast of reality.

An image is a compact and convenient unit of the ideal for storage in the brain, which has a charge of psychic energy.

For the time being, images are stored in memory, but the moment will come when the energy concentrated in them will begin to act. The image generates a joyful or sad memory. The image encourages to move towards the intended goal, attracts and beckons. Image gives meaning to our actions. It acts as a measure in evaluating new experiences. The psychic energy of the image makes the thought act: how, what, in what sequence it is necessary to implement in order for the desired to become reality.

The energy nature of memory leaves no doubt. It stores information and energy carriers of the ideal that are very different in their origin: images of objects and people, everyday experience and professional knowledge, information from the field of science and culture, properties of physical and chemical substances, impressions of childhood, adolescence and youth, etc. The influence of memory on the internal and external activity of the individual is so huge that it sometimes has a destructive effect on the psyche and relationships with others. It is no coincidence that we say: “memory haunts”, “memories disturb”, “memories arise by themselves”. The energy content of memory determines not only the volume, but also the quality of the information stored in it. The predominance of positively or negatively emotionally colored episodes, as you know, affects the state of the individual, her communicative style and the nature of interaction with partners.

The most powerful source of psychic energy is thinking. By nature, human thinking is “stuffed” with numerous programs - operations suitable for different cases: analysis, synthesis, classification, typology of phenomena and objects, determining the likelihood of development and occurrence of events, building judgments and conclusions, etc. Thinking programs are potential information - energy forces. A kind of compressed springs, ready to straighten and act at the right moment.

The variety and quality level of mental programs available to an individual determines the strength and communicative properties of his mental energy generated by intellect.

What mental operations are most characteristic of you? You are best able, like Sherlock Holmes, to go from the particular to the general, or, like the Marxist philosopher, from general theory to private? You easily operate with concepts? If everything is going well with the operations of thinking, you produce outwardly a sufficiently powerful energy of the intellect. It attracts the attention of equally intelligent partners, prompts them to reciprocate the work of the mind.

If any mental operations "sink" or are unusual for you, then an energy vacuum is formed in their place. Weak intellectual potencies are accompanied by feeble psychic energy. The intellect, which has flaws, generates distorted images of reality, builds dubious or false conclusions. As a result, he forms an ugly energy biofield in which a partner with normative intelligence feels uncomfortable.

Plans, goals, intentions

These are products of intellectual activity that have a reserve of psychic energy. Where does it come from? Firstly, these are forms of manifestation of the ideal, and, as we have recognized, it is a carrier of information and energy. Secondly, plans, goals and intentions are associated with survival, more precisely with one of its forms - purposeful self-regulation. And everything that ensures survival is equipped with energy.

The energy of "plans" is generated due to the fact that a person is programmed by nature to survive with the help of purposeful influence on the internal and external environment.

What does this mean? Nature arranged people in such a way that they are able to actively influence external and internal reality, adapting it for themselves. Not only adapt to the environment, like most living beings, but change it according to your goals, needs, ideas. The chain of psychological events in this case is as follows:

Having examined and assessed reality, a person becomes aware of its unsatisfactory state;

There is an experience of dissatisfaction with the environment (the threat of destructive influence, inconsistency with existing experience, lack of desired behavior);

This encourages you to find a way out - to set goals, make plans, streamline intentions.

As you can see, in the energy mechanism of "plans" there are many coercive forces that control the psyche. Sometimes a society or an individual becomes a victim of their own intentions. Remember K. Marx: "The theory, having mastered the consciousness of the masses, becomes a material force." Commenting on the true statement of the classic, one can clarify: the psychic energy of plans, goals, intentions, indeed, is capable of transforming into material forms of its manifestation - into actions and deeds. At the same time, the quality of the psychic energy of the “plans” undoubtedly affects those around. There is no doubt about the validity of the everyday conclusion about “purity of thoughts” - good goals, plans and intentions have a reserve of positive mental energy that has a beneficial effect on others.

Habits, attachments, tastes

These manifestations of the personality concentrate the energy of in vivo assimilated information. The better and more diverse the formed habits, attachments, tastes, the more they are energized. In addition, they have additional energy potential, since they are a set of algorithms - habitual, memorized, consistent actions and assessments. Any algorithm has spontaneous energy, which is formed due to the fact that it tends to reproduce. A person uses algorithms because they facilitate the implementation of activities, direct them along the path of least resistance.

Demonstrating habits, attachments, tastes, the individual directs his mental activity along the beaten paths, due to which the energy of freedom and lightness appears.

So the river is gaining strength, rushing along the laid channel. The stability of habits, the dictates of attachments, the obsession of tastes are explained by the ease of the flow of mental processes, which brings some satisfaction to a person.

Ideals, values, beliefs

Ideals, values, beliefs are the main components of the psyche that make up the level of consciousness in it. It is formed as a result of assessments, arguments, disputes of a person with himself or with others. It must be admitted that the world of consciousness is the most powerful source of psychic energy. First, because the conscious stores a huge amount of information received during life. Its energy tension depends not only on the number of storage units, but also on the embedded meaning, strength and persuasiveness of the arguments with which the person supports his consciousness. Try to take away someone's faith, try to convince someone of the controversial nature of his views or doubtful assessments. You will definitely encounter resistance and rejection of your attempts. It is the psychic energy of the partner that counteracts the alien influence. Secondly, ideals, values, beliefs are highly energized due to the fact that they live their own lives: they appear, develop, transform, disappear, and most importantly, they contradict each other. When the elements of consciousness are contradictory, another energetic premise arises. A person is arranged in such a way that voluntarily or involuntarily strives for some orderliness of his inner world, overcoming the internal conflict. This is the condition of his normal existence. Destruction and disharmony at the conscious level makes a person inferior, fills him with experiences and suffering.

A person seeks to get rid of internal disharmony, to overcome the contradictions between the components of his consciousness - such is an additional source of mental energy.

Wanting to eliminate disharmony between the individual components of his consciousness, a person resorts to various meaningful tricks and unconscious tricks. He ignores the truth if it does not coincide with his ideals, values, beliefs. He distorts information that does not suit him, belittles the role of reliable facts, and underestimates the strength of his opponents. He wants to see something that is not really there. He avoids the truth and lies. And all this for the sake of one thing - to get rid of the psychological discomfort caused by the conflict of certain components of the ideal. But it is almost impossible to ignore objectivity; it again and again reveals its true face. This makes a person again and again resort to psychological defense mechanisms, injure himself and others. Mental energy of "ideals" constantly circulates between partners.

Interests and motives

Interests and motives are the link between internal and external. Both mental realities reflect the desire of a person to influence the ratio of internal and external. For some reason, a person seeks to coordinate or subordinate his states, needs, inclinations, skills, values, that is, the internal, to the external - the requirements, conditions, opinions of others, the properties of objects. In the interests and motives there is a program that explains, first of all, to the individual himself his own actions: why and why he should influence the external environment or his inner world. Such a program is the source of psychic energy. At the same time, any interest expresses an explanatory program of human actions based on knowledge of the properties and values ​​of the external environment - objects, phenomena, people. Motives determine the program of actions dictated by internal states.

Thus, the energy potential of interests and motives is determined by driving force programs with the help of which a person more or less clearly and decisively (hence the magnitude of energy) formulates for himself and for others an explanation of his actions.

Subconscious and unconscious

The subconscious and unconscious in a person is its second essence, which has no less energy potential than the conscious world. At the subconscious level, as well as at the conscious level, inclinations and abilities, skills and abilities, experience and knowledge, needs and intentions, habits and attachments, interests and motives declare themselves. Due to the subconscious (preconscious and unconscious), the personality at least doubles, becomes more voluminous, deeper, more complex. Accordingly, her mental energy increases. In addition, the annals of the subconscious contain repressed ideas, inclinations, immoral and impulsive tendencies that a person does not want or cannot realize in himself, so as not to disturb psychological comfort, or at least preserve a transferable idea of ​​\u200b\u200bhis own Self.

The unconscious is a constantly operating source of psychic energy, ready to materialize in its other various manifestations and behavioral acts.

According to 3. Freud, the unconscious and subconscious manifest themselves, in particular, in aggression, fears, forbidden desires, stubbornness, cruelty, sadism, in the desire to do evil or in the form of so-called minor symptoms - slips of the tongue, jokes, paradoxes, slips of the tongue. If it is impossible to “break through” the blockade of the conscious, this psychic energy pushes the personality from within, deforms and makes it abnormal. Sublimation (redirection of psychic energy), neuroses, associations, dreams and regressions (primitive behavior) are also forms of manifestation and neutralization of psychic energy.

Psychic energy is the most important attribute of the will. When we think about the will, it is not by chance that we use words that show a connection with energy: we must mobilize, restrain our impulses, intensify our strength, overcome fatigue and apathy. Will is the ability of a person to act in the direction of a consciously set goal, while overcoming internal obstacles. Such obstacles arise in the form of psychic energies when a person experiences the action of multidirectional or opposite forces, tendencies. The conflict of energies can be overcome only by increasing one or another opposing energy force. The force that our mind or emotion “supports” will prevail.

Volitional effort is the energy of thought or emotion, with the help of which we redirect psychic energy from one energy source to another.

The will overcomes the conflict of multidirectional psychic energies and sends a signal of psychic energy to the physiological level, where other forms of energy come into play, in particular, mechanical. As a result, a person forces himself to work, change his lifestyle, overcome distances. Redoing poorly done work, etc.

So, we have mentioned some sources of psychic energy and shown their connection with emotions. Others are yet to be discussed in the pages of this book - their normal and anomalous effects, their significance in different areas- in business communication, love, family, principles and patterns of their manifestation. Nevertheless, the foregoing is sufficient to verify the following:

Mental energy is a real phenomenon of the inner world of a person and his interaction with others;

The sources of psychic energy are diverse and cover almost the entire spectrum of the psychic - needs, inclinations, skills, cognitive activity, habits and attachments, interests and motives, ideals and beliefs, will, conscious and subconscious;

Psychic energy generated by various sources certainly touches the realm of emotions. They are, as it were, “embedded” in various aspects of behavior and are an integral part of a person’s energy.

Knowing your abilities is necessary for us, in particular, for the optimal choice of a field of activity. Choosing a profession is a complex and multidimensional task, and it is often necessary to solve it not only for school graduates, but also for adults, quite mature people.

Firstly, it is far from always possible for us to “get into the top ten” on the very first attempt, that is, already at the age of seventeen, we can accurately choose the most suitable profession; perhaps such cases are the exception rather than the rule. At least, situations are not uncommon when, by the time of receiving a diploma or a little later, a young specialist discovers that the choice he made is far from ideal: a real acquaintance with the chosen job may show that it does not meet the expectations, interests, abilities of a person.

Secondly, we live in a not very stable society. Economic instability, social upheaval, rapid technological progress - all these are the reasons that very often adults have to think about changing their profession. We will not delve into socio-economic problems now, since this topic is already on everyone's lips, but about technical progress worth a special mention.

Today, perhaps in any area professional activity new requirements are imposed on employees; it is necessary to know and be able to do what we were not taught in secondary and higher educational institutions ten or fifteen years ago. For example, almost any field requires at least minimal computer literacy. New technologies and new quality standards are being introduced in production. Employers are paying more and more attention to the psychological characteristics of their subordinates, and even the very procedure for searching for vacancies and entering the service today is largely different from what it was in the recent past.

A separate article on the psychological selection of personnel, all its "pluses" and "minuses" is available.

In view of the foregoing, the problem of identifying one's own abilities and a competent, psychologically justified choice of a profession at one time or another turns out to be relevant for almost every one of us. Therefore, we offer the reader a detailed discussion of these issues.

What are abilities?

The very concept of abilities in the science of human soul introduced by Plato four centuries before the onset of a new era. He wrote that “not all men are equally capable of the same duties; because people are very different in their abilities; some are born to rule, others to help, and others to agriculture and handicrafts.” This is how the idea was formulated that people are unequal in their abilities from birth, "as Plato argued, human nature cannot do two arts or two sciences well at the same time."

What is the meaning of today's psychologists in the concept of "ability"?

Abilities are defined as individual psychological characteristics of a person, which express his readiness to master certain types of activities and to successfully implement them.

We have already analyzed temperament, personality type, and features of the emotional sphere in other articles: “”, “”, “”, so we will not dwell on this in detail here.

What is the difference between these psychological features of a person as abilities from those named above?

As stated in the definition of Yu. B. Gippenreiter, this difference lies in the fact that abilities are associated with the successful implementation of a certain type of activity. So, first of all, we must understand that when we talk about abilities, we are not talking about the properties of temperament, not about extraversion / introversion or other typological features, but about something fundamentally different.

Further, the words “readiness to master and carry out certain types of activity” are also important. Abilities are not the same as knowledge or skills: on the one hand, the very presence of abilities in some business does not necessarily mean that a person will succeed in it - it’s not for nothing that we often hear about “unrealized” abilities. On the other hand, a person may have a deep knowledge of music theory, but in the absence of musical abilities, he cannot become a great performer, and the ability to quickly count in the mind does not mean mathematical ability and, accordingly, success in the field of scientific mathematical activity.

In general, today in science there are two main approaches to understanding abilities.

The first , general psychological, refers to the ability to manifest any human capabilities to carry out any activity; With this approach, knowledge and skills are also related to abilities. Proponents of this approach talk about the presence of a person's general abilities - intelligence, learning, creativity (the ability to be creative).

The "formula of abilities" was also derived:

Ability = success / difficulty.

That is, with an underdeveloped ability for a certain type of activity, a person has to make very great efforts, and success, however, may not be too noticeable. And vice versa, the easier it is for a person to succeed in some activity, the more developed his corresponding ability is. But it is fundamental for the adherents of this approach that all people have common abilities, and in principle, with more or less serious efforts, everyone can succeed in any activity.

Second approach - differentiated, or individual psychological, pays special attention to differences in abilities among different people. Ingenuity, ability to mental transformations, creativity are considered not as qualities inherent in all people, but precisely as distinctive features capable people.

Supporters of this approach refuse to reduce abilities to the training received, the result of training, and recognize that a person has internal, “natural” prerequisites for the successful mastery of a particular activity.

For example, the world-famous inventor Edison was self-taught, who did not even know elementary laws electrical engineering. This did not become an obstacle for him, and individual talent allowed him to achieve unprecedented success in invention.

In the differences between these two approaches, we are again faced with one of the most common questions in psychology: what in a person comes from nature, and what from upbringing? Let's take a closer look at how this issue is discussed in the Skills Appendix.

Congenital or acquired?

With regard to abilities, this question has always been especially exciting. After all, a lot depends on the presence or absence of abilities in the life of any person. The problem of abilities is extremely important not only for psychologists, but also for teachers; moreover, at certain moments in history, this problem acquired both social and ideological significance.

So, do we inherit abilities, or are they formed in our lifetime, under the influence of upbringing and training?

Throughout the history of psychology, researchers have given a variety of, sometimes diametrically opposed, answers to this question.

In the second half of the 19th century, natural scientists were inspired and captivated by Charles Darwin's theory of evolution. At the moment there is no point in discussing the strengths and weaknesses of this theory, but it is indisputable that Darwin's ideas had a huge impact on the development of all human sciences. This fully applies to psychology. So, one of the most staunch supporters of Darwinism, the British scientist-encyclopedist Sir Francis Galton, became in a certain sense the founder of the psychological study of abilities.

It was precisely the problem of heritability/intravital development of genius that was at the center of his attention, and his two notable works have very revealing titles: "Hereditary Geniuses" and "English Scientists: Nature and Education."

According to Galton, abilities (among which, first of all, he was interested in intelligence) are individual traits conducive to survival. According to the Darwinian principle natural selection intelligence, which ensures the best adaptation of the human individual to environmental conditions, is inherited, like many physical characteristics.

Galton enthusiastically collected facts confirming the heritability of intelligence, and using statistical methods formulated evidence that genius and special abilities in specific areas (for example, the ability to study certain sciences) are transmitted in families from generation to generation. Following Galton, other scientists became interested in research on the heritability of abilities, talent, and genius.

The main evidence of supporters of the point of view according to which these individual characteristics are determined by heredity are as follows: First of all, it is often pointed out that abilities usually manifest themselves very early in children - at an age when they simply would not have had time to form under the influence of education, but could only be inherited. Indeed, Mozart's musical talents made themselves known when the genius was only three years old, and the famous mathematician Wilhelm Gauss began to show extraordinary mathematical abilities, being only a year older. The remarkable Russian artists I. Repin and V. Surikov showed their artistic talent at a very early age, long before they were systematically taught to draw.

An even more compelling argument is the existence of professional dynasties: this proof goes back precisely to the research of Sir Francis Galton, who in his research collected many examples of such families in which giftedness distinguished representatives of many generations. (Actually, he himself served as a good confirmation of this phenomenon, given that Charles Darwin, who meant so much to him as a scientist, was his cousin, their common grandfather was the famous physician, poet and philosopher Erasmus Darwin, and indeed this large branched family gave the world a lot of talented, no doubt intellectually gifted people.)

Indeed, we all know examples of such dynasties: the musicians Bachs, the acting dynasty of the Samoilovs, the artists and architects Bryullovs, the famous circus dynasties - Kyo, Durovs, Zapashnys. There are dynasties of biologists and mathematicians, financiers and philologists, and there is nothing to say about medical dynasties - sometimes it seems that the profession of a doctor is indeed inherited, like eye color and nose shape.

In addition to the accumulation and some statistical processing of such data, psychologists, of course, conducted (and are conducting) special studies concerning the inheritance of specific abilities. Thus, Yu. B. Gippenreiter gives an example of one of this kind of work: researchers studied the musical abilities of children, comparing them with the corresponding abilities of their parents.

The main results of the study were as follows:

Parents/Children Pronounced musicality Complete lack of musicality

Both are musical 85% 7%

Both are not musical 25% 58%

At first glance, the findings, like everything we know about professional dynasties, support the idea that abilities are heritable. But already a second, slightly more thoughtful look is enough to doubt this.

Indeed, is it possible in all these cases to exclude the influence of the environment, the conditions of upbringing, development, and training?

After all, it is quite obvious that in a musical family a child is surrounded by music from birth, and with a high degree of probability it can be assumed that musician parents pay special attention to the musical development of their child. The same applies to all other dynasties: by virtue of family traditions or simply because of their personal inclinations and interests, parents create conditions for the child to develop "family" abilities. Simply put, they teach the child, first of all, what they themselves know best.

Consequently, data such as the above on the "heritability" of abilities actually reflect not only the genetic, but also the environmental contribution: the influence of both heredity and developmental conditions.

To study the problems of heritability of the acquisition of certain psychological properties, the twin method is more reliable. Here, nature itself goes to meet the researchers, providing them with unique material for work. After all, identical twins have a completely identical set of genes. Thus, one can compare, for example, how similar in some respects are children with the same developmental conditions, but somewhat different hereditary material (just brothers and sisters), and children who are identical both in environmental conditions and in heredity.

Another option is to study identical twins growing up in different conditions (which happens, for example, in cases of divorce of parents with separation of children, when twins are adopted into different families).

"Twin studies" to a certain extent confirm the genetic prerequisites for abilities: identical twins show much more similarity in the level of certain abilities than "unequal" brothers and sisters. Moreover, even twins separated at a very early age, brought up in very different conditions, still show a striking similarity in many respects (we are talking specifically about the severity of certain abilities).

Many, but far from all. Moreover, even twins living in the same family still have far from identical abilities. So a preliminary conclusion can be drawn: heredity plays a role in the formation of abilities, but so far we cannot say which one.

Let us now look at the evidence of opponents - supporters of the idea, according to which the environment plays a decisive role in the development of abilities - living conditions, features of education and training.

Let's start with non-strict, but very illustrative examples - the achievements of great teachers, who sometimes gather around themselves real pleiades of gifted students, very reminiscent of professional dynasties, but they are based not on the work of genes, but on the work of the teachers themselves.

One of these unique masters was the Japanese musician-teacher Shinichi Suzuki. His main postulate was that every child is talented. Talent is not inherited, it is potentially inherent in any child. The disclosure of potential abilities depends only on the environment in which the child grows and develops.

“As for innate inclinations or heredity, I am convinced that only the physiological characteristics of the organism are inherited. From the moment of birth, everything else depends only on psychological influence that the environment has on the child. Only this determines all his abilities and talents ”(Shinichi Suzuki).

Suzuki taught the violin to very young (3-4-year-old) children: not a few dozen, but several thousand of his students gathered at concert performances! Only a handful of them became truly outstanding musicians (that is, no more than the average of very talented musicians among ordinary people) - but all of Suzuki's students turned out to be able to learn to play the violin and get great pleasure from it.

An ear for music is very often considered a purely hereditary ability: it is either present or absent from birth. Suzuki had a very different point of view: he firmly believed that hearing could be developed in any child. You can object: you know for sure either from your own experience or from the experience of acquaintances - deaf parents usually have the same children. Is this not heredity?

According to Shinichi Suzuki, the problem is not in heredity, but in the experience that the child has acquired. When is it discovered that he allegedly has no ear for music? The earliest is three or four years, but usually later, at six or seven, when he is brought to audition at a music school. But after all, by this time he had already managed to learn a lot - including ... non-musicality.

Suzuki explained it this way: from birth, a child listens to how his mother sings (and all mothers sing songs to their child at least from time to time). And if the mother sings incorrectly, the child remembers just such, false, melodies. By the way, the Japanese teacher sees this as one of the proofs that every child has surprisingly accurate hearing! After all, the baby still managed to remember and reproduce the melody exactly as it was performed by the mother. In other words, he learned to sing out of tune. And heredity does not play a role here.

Further, Suzuki's thought led to the following conclusion: if a child has learned to be non-musical, then it is quite possible to re-teach him, that is, to develop musical abilities in him. And Suzuki did indeed develop a technique by which he achieved almost one hundred percent success in developing hearing in children of non-musical parents.

If the work of individual outstanding teachers is still unique examples, and they cannot, as such, be considered as rigorous scientific evidence, then there are more common examples of lifetime development of abilities. In this sense, studies of various cultures provide very rich material. It is known that representatives of some cultures sometimes have (massively) some specific features - it can be assumed that these abilities are actively developed in each person from a given culture due to some external circumstances.

In order to give an example, let us turn to the work of Yu. B. Gippenreiter. Together with O. V. Ovchinnikova and under the guidance of a prominent psychologist A. N. Leontiev, she studied pitch hearing (which, by the way, is the basis of musical abilities); very interesting results were obtained. Researchers have found that approximately one in three adult Russians have no developed pitch hearing at all. But all the Vietnamese who took part in the study turned out to be the owners of absolute pitch!

Scientists explain this impressive difference by the fact that the Russian and Vietnamese languages ​​are fundamentally different: one is a timbre language, and the other is a tonal language (just like, for example, Chinese). What is tonal language? It is a language in which the meaning of the spoken words is determined, among other things, by the pitch of the sound. Clearly, in our mother tongue there is no such function: pronounced sounds differ in timbre, not in tone. Thus, every Vietnamese is “forced” to develop musical abilities (specifically, pitch hearing) from the very first year of life, in the process of mastering speech. A Russian-speaking (or Ukrainian-speaking) child does not receive such mandatory training.

In addition to numerous studies of abilities in humans, psychologists often use data obtained in experiments on animals in their debates about innate and acquired abilities. And here supporters of both points of view can find evidence of their innocence! Here are just a couple of examples.

Experiment 1 Lab rats were trained to find a way out of a maze. After observing the behavior of the animals, the experimenters selected the most successful rats (the most “intelligent”), and the most “stupid” animals, who were slower than others, coped with the task, were assigned to another group. Further, the animals were crossed within each group, thus deducing the line of "smart" and the line of "stupid" rats. After several generations, the differences between the success of "capable" and "incapable" animals reached quite impressive proportions. Thus, it has been shown that the genetic predisposition to successful learning exists and can accumulate from generation to generation.

Experiment 2 The rat pups, belonging to an artificially bred "intelligent" family, were raised in a very stimulus-poor environment. They did not have any impressions, opportunities to learn something, to act actively. II, on the contrary, rat pups from the "stupid" line were created an enriched, developing environment for development. After the rat pups grew up, they were placed in a maze and the success of its passage was evaluated. This time, the results of the "smart" rats raised in a depleted environment were as low as those of the "stupid" animals from the first experiment. The success of the initially "stupid" rats, which had good developmental conditions, was comparable to the performance of "smart" rats from the experiment.

Based on all the facts described (and, of course, a huge number of others obtained by scientists over centuries of observations and experiments, studies of abilities in humans and animals), we can draw the following conclusion: “Environmental factors have a weight commensurate with the factor of heredity, and can sometimes completely compensate or, conversely, neutralize the effect of the latter.

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Capabilities- individual psychological characteristics of a person, which are a condition for the productive performance of a particular activity.
Two ability formulas can be formulated:
1. Objective Formula:
Ability = Productivity / "Price". This formula allows you to evaluate the ability by correlating the productivity of an activity and its "price" - the costs that it requires from a person. For example, the solution of a problem "for the top five" to one high school student can be given effortlessly, without any preparation, and from another it may require many hours of daily lessons.
Subjective formula:
2. Ability = Success / Difficulty. This formula allows you to conduct a self-assessment of abilities, involves comparing the success of an activity with its difficulty. A person considers himself the most capable of those activities in which he achieves maximum results using minimum costs.
About the presence of certain abilities in a person make it possible to judge the following signs:
a) a high rate of learning of the relevant activity;
b) breadth of skill transfer (having learned how to use an operation in one situation, a person is able to easily apply them in other situations);
c) economy of performance of this activity;
d) its individual originality;
e) striving for this activity, sometimes in spite of the circumstances.
Abilities can be divided into general and special:
— General abilities provide relative ease and productivity of a wide range of activities. These include intellectual, psychomotor, communication and creative abilities, without which it is difficult to imagine any human activity.
— Special abilities ensure success certain types activities; these are musical, mathematical, artistic.
The problem of the ratio of congenital and acquired in abilities is solved by means of the concept of makings.
Makings- these are congenital anatomical and physiological features of the nervous system, which form the natural basis for the development of abilities. These include individual typological properties of the nervous system, the level of relative development of signal systems, the properties of analyzers, structural features and functional maturity of individual areas of the cerebral cortex. In the process of life, a person manages to realize far from all his inclinations in his abilities. Many of them remain unclaimed.
Factors that determine the development of abilities include:
– makings that create the natural foundation of abilities, as well as the so-called social heredity, which determines the conditions of family education;
– macro-environment factors- features of the society in which a person was born and lives. Society creates models of training and education that can create conditions for the development of abilities, forms social demands for certain types of activities, influences the choice of priority areas of activity by forming public opinion about them.
To denote a high level of development of abilities in psychology concepts are used "giftedness", "talent" and "genius".
giftedness- a qualitatively unique combination of abilities that ensures the success of a particular activity.
Characteristics of Giftedness:
1) early, accelerated pace of development;
2) high mental activity, desire for new information.
giftedness- this is the result of a complex interaction of natural inclinations and factors of the social environment mediated by activity.
A high degree of giftedness in any field, outstanding abilities are usually called talent. The presence of talent is judged by the results of human activity, which should be distinguished by fundamental novelty and originality.
Talent- it is always a combination of abilities, their totality. A single isolated ability, even a very highly developed one, cannot be called a talent.
The highest degree of manifestation of human creative powers was named genius.
Genius, unlike talent, is not just the highest degree of giftedness, but is associated with the creation of qualitatively new creations that make up separate eras in the life of society, in the development of culture. It is the highest level of integration of all human inclinations and abilities.

Summarizing the current approaches in psychology, we can define capabilities as individual psychological characteristics of a person, which are a condition for the productive performance of a particular activity.

The features that distinguish abilities from other mental properties were formulated in the studies of B.M. Teplov. The first sign of abilities is their close connection with individual differences between people: abilities include only those personality traits that distinguish one person from another.

“No one will talk about abilities where it is a matter of properties in respect of which all people are equal” [Teplov, 1961].

As the second sign of abilities, their relationship with the activity being carried out is considered: abilities are only those personality traits that are related to the success of a particular activity.

Such properties as, for example, irascibility, lethargy, slowness, which are undoubtedly the individual characteristics of some people, are usually not called abilities, because they are not considered as conditions for the success of any activity [Teplov, 1961].

And, finally, the third sign: abilities are not limited to knowledge, skills and abilities that have already been formed in a person.

It often happens that the teacher is not satisfied with the work of the student, although this latter reveals no less knowledge than some of his comrades, whose progress pleases the same teacher. The teacher motivates his dissatisfaction with the fact that this student does not work enough; with good work, the student, “taking into account his abilities”, could have much more knowledge, skills and abilities.

When a young worker is nominated for some organizational work and this promotion is motivated by “good organizational abilities”, it is assumed that, although he may not yet have the necessary skills and abilities, thanks to his abilities he will be able to quickly and successfully acquire them [ Teplov, 1961].

The fact is that the achievement of the same level of knowledge, skills and abilities from one person requires the maximum use of all the resources of the psyche and body, while the other costs practically nothing. Abilities are manifested in the speed and ease of acquiring knowledge, skills and abilities.

Two peculiar formulas of abilities can be formulated:

Capability = Productivity / "Price" (objective formula).

Ability = Success / Difficulty (subjective formula).

The "objective" formula makes it possible to evaluate abilities by correlating the productivity of an activity and its "price" - the costs that it requires from a person. So, for example, the solution of problems in geometry "for the top five" to one high school student can be given effortlessly, without any preparation, and from another require many hours of daily lessons.

The "subjective" formula that allows a person to conduct a self-assessment of abilities involves comparing the success of an activity with its difficulty. According to this formula, a person considers himself the most capable of those activities in which he achieves maximum results using minimum costs.

So about that a person has certain abilities make it possible to judge well-defined signs: a high rate of learning of the relevant activity, breadth of skill transfer (having learned how to use an operation in one situation, a person is able to easily apply them in other similar situations), energy efficiency in performing this activity and its individual originality, as well as high motivation, desire for this activity, sometimes in spite of circumstances.

These signs are clearly visible, for example, in the case of Petya V., who, being interested in mathematics, at the beginning of the fifth grade independently mastered trigonometry and a few weeks later submitted to the astronomy Olympiad for high school students the calculations necessary to create solar batteries for a spacecraft flying to Mars.

Can't talk about ability where it exists before the beginning its development, just as one cannot speak of a faculty that has reached its full development, completed its development. Abilities exist only in development, only in movement. This development is carried out in the process of one or another practical or theoretical activity. Outside of activity, the ability can neither arise nor develop.

Absolute pitch as an ability does not exist in a child before he first faced the task of recognizing the pitch of a sound. Before that, there was only an anatomical and physiological fact- the possibility of recognizing the pitch of sounds [Teplov, 1961].

The development of abilities is carried out in a spiral. A certain level of abilities determines the inclusion of a person in activities in which skills are formed and differentiated, creating a platform for the emergence of a new level of abilities that allows for more efficient activities.

Thus, abilities are closely related to the activity carried out by a person, and are manifested in its various characteristics. The more abilities a person has for a particular activity, the easier it is given to him and the more efficiently it is carried out. However, it often happens that not only those who have the ability to do it, but also those who do not have them, have to engage in some type of activity.

If an incapable person is forced to continue engaging in unsuitable activities for himself, he will consciously or unconsciously compensate for the lack of abilities, relying on the strengths of his personality. Such compensation can be done in different ways. One of them is the acquisition of knowledge, skills or abilities necessary to perform a particular activity. Another way of compensating abilities is connected with the involvement in the activity of another, more developed ability.

Absolute pitch plays an important role in the structure of musical abilities.- the ability to recognize the pitch of individual sounds without having to compare them with other sounds whose pitch is known. Research shows that this ability is based on innate inclinations that are either given to a person or not. However, the ability to recognize the pitch of individual sounds can also be developed in people without such inclinations, relying on other abilities.- relative pitch or timbre pitch. The mechanisms for recognizing the pitch of sounds with real absolute hearing and with specially developed, so-called "pseudo-absolute" hearing will be completely different, but practical results may in some cases be exactly the same [Teplov, 1961].

And, finally, the lack of expressed abilities for activity can be compensated by the formation of her individual style. The individual style of activity, taking shape in it, manifests itself in a stable system of techniques and methods for its implementation; it is a means of adaptation to the requirements of activity.

The possibility of a wide compensation of some properties by others leads to the fact that the relative weakness of any one ability does not at all exclude the possibility of successful performance of the activity most closely related to this ability. The missing ability can be compensated within a very wide range by other highly developed abilities in a given person. Probably, this is what ensures the possibility of successful human activity in various fields.

Human abilities are heterogeneous. For various reasons, there are different types of abilities.

First, abilities can be divided into natural and specifically human. Natural (or natural) abilities are basically biologically determined, formed on the basis of innate properties in the presence of elementary experience through learning mechanisms such as conditioned reflex connections. This type of ability is common to humans and many higher animals: perception, memory, thinking, the ability to communicate. The essential difference in this regard lies in the fact that the opportunities to acquire life experience from a person are much wider, due to which natural abilities become the basis for the formation of so-called specifically human abilities that have a socio-historical origin and ensure life and development in a social environment.

Secondly, according to the breadth, general and special abilities are distinguished. General abilities are such individual properties of a person that ensure the relative ease and productivity of a wide range of activities. These include intellectual, psychomotor, communicative and creative abilities, without the manifestation of which it is difficult to imagine any human activity in general. The essence of general abilities lies precisely in the fact that without them any adaptive human activity is impossible.

Special abilities, unlike general ones, ensure the success of certain types of activities; these are musical, mathematical, artistic and other types of abilities. They manifest themselves in specific areas and are not associated with the manifestation of abilities in other areas.

Judging by the biographical data, A. S. Pushkin was not given mathematics in his lyceum years. D. I. Mendeleev at school was distinguished by great success in the field of mathematics and physics, and in the subjects of the language cycle he had a solid "one".

General and special abilities do not conflict, but coexist, mutually complementing each other. In some cases high level development of general abilities can act as special abilities in relation to certain types of activities. This makes the division of abilities into general and special rather conditional.

For example, almost any activity in the modern world requires the ability to perform simple mathematical operations: add, subtract, multiply, divide. They can be considered as an element of intellectual abilities. However, there are people in whom these abilities are developed so highly that the speed of assimilation of mathematical concepts and operations, the ability to solve extremely complex problems allows them to engage in specialized activities in the field of mathematical sciences.

Thirdly, according to the direction, theoretical and practical abilities can be distinguished. Theoretical abilities predetermine a person's inclination to abstract reflections, practical - to real, concrete actions. Unlike general and special abilities, theoretical and practical abilities most often do not combine with each other. In the same person, they are extremely rare, and such a combination is evidence of the versatility of his development.

And, finally, fourthly, there is a division into educational (reproductive) and creative abilities according to the level of their development in a person. The former determine the success of training, the assimilation of knowledge, skills and abilities by a person, characterize the learning process of the corresponding activity. The latter determine the possibility of arbitrary use of the experience gained in the course of training to create something fundamentally new, original. However, we must not forget that any reproductive activity includes elements of creativity, and creative activity, in turn, includes reproductive activity, without which it is impossible.

It is the creative level of development of abilities that ensures the development of mankind. But such development is possible only when the next generation learns the experience accumulated by the previous one. Therefore, sometimes learning abilities are considered as general, and creative ones as special ones that determine the success of creative activity.

Each ability has its own structure, leading and auxiliary properties are distinguished in it.

An example of the leading properties for pedagogical abilities is tact, observation, the need to transfer knowledge and love for children. For artistic abilities, such properties are developed creative imagination and thinking, the ability to create vivid visual images, developed aesthetic feelings, as well as volitional qualities facilitating the implementation of the idea into reality [Gamezo, Domashenko, 1988].

As has been repeatedly noted, abilities are those properties that distinguish one person from another. In this regard, over the past century and a half, the question of the nature of their occurrence has been actively discussed in psychology. Really, capabilities- are these innate mental properties or personality traits that develop over the course of life?

The first point of view - about the innate nature of abilities - has been actively developed in psychology since the 1860s. thanks to the work of the English psychologist and anthropologist F. Galton, who, after conducting a survey of more than 300 representatives of the English intellectual elite, came to the conclusion that abilities are a hereditary trait that manifests itself in a number of generations. This position dates back to ancient times, when Plato formulated the idea that training and education can only change the rate of appearance, but not the very presence or absence of abilities.

A large number of diverse facts speak in favor of the concept of the innate nature of abilities.

So, for many outstanding people, abilities manifested themselves in early childhood, when the impact of training and education could not yet be decisive: Mozart's musical talent was revealed at the age of three, Haydn- at four; A. Karpov's chess talent showed itself at the age of five, etc.

The facts of kinship of people with similar abilities deserve special attention. In particular, in the Bach family, musical abilities manifested themselves long before I.S. Bach. founder of the musical tradition inXVIin. became a baker W. Bach, who diverted his soul after work with music and singing. Today, researchers count in the Bach family from. 20 to 60 musicians. It was also established that the great-grandmother of L.I. Tolstoy Olga Trubetskaya and the great-grandmother of A.S. Pushkin Evdokia Trubetskaya were sisters. A relationship was found between the philosophers Schelling and Hegel, etc.

Representatives of the second point of view on the nature of abilities believe that the latter are entirely determined by the quality of education and training. Back in the 18th century the French sensationalist philosopher K. A. Helvetius proclaimed that genius can be formed through education. Proponents of this trend, as evidence of their position, cite numerous examples of “Mowgli children”, demonstrating the impossibility of developing abilities outside of human society, the facts of the formation of certain abilities in periods of adulthood and old age (in particular, A. N. Leontiev showed the possibility of forming a musical ear at any age), etc.

The final conclusion of this concept was the position that any ability can be formed in each person. Adhering to this view, the American scientist W. Ushby argues that abilities are determined by childhood experience of intellectual activity, in which only the ability to learn or the ability to think independently is laid. At present, adherents of this concept in the United States and Western Europe create special centers for "growing" gifted children.

AT domestic psychology It is generally accepted that the concepts of a purely hereditary or social nature of abilities are certainly interesting, but none of them explains all the facts of the manifestation of abilities. The problem of the ratio of innate and acquired in abilities is solved through the concept of inclinations.

Makings- these are congenital anatomical and physiological features of the nervous system, which form the natural basis for the development of abilities. These include the individual typological properties of the nervous system, the level of relative development of signaling systems, the properties of analyzers, structural features and functional maturity of individual areas of the cerebral cortex. All these features, apparently, are not limited to the hereditary capabilities of a person (as S.L. Rubinshtein believed), since, in addition to genetics, many prenatal and early postnatal factors take part in their formation.

The inclinations are polyfunctional, that is, they are non-specific in relation to specific types of activity. The same inclinations can be the basis for the formation of different abilities (for example, a strong nervous system may be needed both in sports and in the study of foreign languages).

At the same time, it is also not entirely fair to assert that inclinations are absolutely neutral in relation to future abilities. So, the features of the visual analyzer will affect, first of all, those abilities in which vision is involved (for example, visual), and the features speech centers brain - on those based on verbal communication. Thus, makings are selectively correlated with different types of activities.

It is important that abilities are not a direct function of inclinations per se. Inclinations are included in the development of abilities only as a starting point, a prerequisite, but not the only condition. The natural prerequisites for development, according to B. M. Teplov, do not have a qualitative certainty, a meaningful moment.

For example, an essential prerequisite for the development of musical abilities is the normative structure and functioning of the auditory analyzer. However, the presence of an auditory analyzer in a person does not provide for what professions and specialties related to musical hearing may arise in human society. It is also not provided what area of ​​activity a person will choose for himself, whether he will be engaged in music, what opportunities will be provided to him for the development of his inclinations. Consequently, to what extent a person's inclinations will be developed depends on the conditions of his individual development.

Thus, the development of inclinations is a socially conditioned process that is associated with the conditions of education and the characteristics of the development of society. Inclinations develop and transform into abilities, provided that a need arises in society for certain types of activity. The second significant factor in the development of inclinations is the features of training and education that allow a person to gain and consolidate experience in activities that correspond to developing abilities. It is important to remember that the development of abilities does not occur due to the mechanical inclusion of a person in a particular activity, but only under the condition of his own activity. Depending on the presence or absence of conditions for the development of abilities, they are usually divided into potential and actual: potential abilities, unlike actual ones, do not manifest themselves in activity, but can be updated when social conditions change.

Summarizing, one can list factors that determine the development of abilities. These include inclinations that create the natural foundation of abilities, as well as the so-called social heredity, which determines the conditions for family education (it is obvious that in the Bach family, which was discussed above, children immersed themselves in the musical environment from childhood, saw parental interest in music , got access to musical instruments, etc.).

Another group of conditions for the development of abilities is made up of macroenvironment factors - the characteristics of the society in which a person was born and lives. Society creates models of education and upbringing that can, to a greater or lesser extent, create conditions for the development of abilities (for example, a system of specialized classes at school), forms social demands for certain types of activities, influences a person’s choice of priority areas of activity by forming public opinion about them, etc.

The concept of abilities and inclinations. AT broad sense words, abilities - this is every physical and mental property of an individual, taken from the point of view of his practical application. Abilities are a property of a system that manifests itself only in the process of interaction of the system with something. Abilities are those properties of an individual on which the possibility of implementation and the degree of effectiveness of an activity depend. According to B. M. Teplov, abilities have 3 main features:

1. Individual characteristics that noticeably distinguish one person from another;
2. These are not all features, but only those that are directly related to the success of some activity;
3. Abilities are not limited to the knowledge, skills and abilities that have already been developed by a given individual, on which the speed of their acquisition depends.

Abilities are revealed in the speed, depth and strength of mastering the methods and techniques of activity. Abilities are presented in two ways: in the subjective and objective formula. Objective Ability Formula: This is the ratio of productivity to cost. Subjective formula of abilities: this is the ratio of the success of the activity to the difficulty. Abilities are manifested, first of all, in the ability to master an unknown activity, the ability to learn ways of non-standard activities, and they are manifested in the ability to improvise activities. Along with the concept of ability, there is the concept of suitability. Fitness is the result of comparing an individual's abilities with those of other individuals in that activity. Ability and fitness coincide in activities of a competitive type (for example, in sports). Outside of inclusion in the activity, it is generally not correct to talk about abilities. Inclinations are the initial prerequisites for the development of abilities (often they talk about general species inclinations). There are 2 points of view on the nature of deposits:

1. Makings are the anatomical and physiological features of the body (Teplov);
2. Inclinations are the most elementary, most common and simple natural mental features(Myasishchev, Platonov).

In this sense, the makings include those properties that most strongly affect productivity. From the characteristics of sensations, the inclinations include: the speed of discrimination; feel accuracy. Perception properties include: speed of perception; speed of discrimination; accuracy of perception; distinction accuracy. Of the characteristics of memory in the makings include: volume; memorization speed; playback speed; memorization accuracy; reproduction accuracy; recognition accuracy and storage duration. The characteristics of representations and imagination include: speed and accuracy. Thinking includes: speed of thinking; flexibility; originality; dynamism; accuracy of operations; solution accuracy. The characteristics of attention include: duration of concentration; breadth of distribution; switching speed; switching accuracy; no switching errors (Shadrikov model). Naturally, the makings are determined by the activity for which they are considered. Actual problems psychology of abilities (B.M. Teplov, V.A. Krutetsky, V.D. Shadrikov, etc.). B. M. Teplov considered abilities in terms of individual psychological differences and introduced three main features into their definition. He understood abilities as individual psychological characteristics that distinguish one person from another, are related to the success of one or many activities and ensure the ease and speed of acquiring knowledge and skills. Abilities, he believed, can only exist in a constant process of development. An ability that is not developed is lost over time. It is only through constant exercise (music) that we maintain and develop the corresponding abilities. The material collected by V. A. Krutetsky (a Soviet psychologist who studied the mathematical abilities of schoolchildren) allowed him to build general scheme structures of mathematical abilities in school age.

1. Obtaining mathematical information: the ability to formalize the perception of mathematical material, grasping the formal structure of the problem.

2. Processing of mathematical information:

1. the ability for logical thinking in the field of quantitative and spatial relations, numerical and symbolic symbolism. The ability to think in mathematical symbols;
2. ability to generalize quickly and broadly mathematical objects, relationships and actions;
3. the ability to curtail the process of mathematical reasoning and the system of corresponding actions. The ability to think in folded structures;
4. flexibility of thought processes in mathematical activity;
5. striving for clarity, simplicity, economy and rationality of decisions;
6. the ability to quickly and freely restructure the direction of the thought process, switch from direct to reverse thought (reversibility of the thought process in mathematical reasoning).

3. Storage of mathematical information: mathematical memory (generalized memory for mathematical relations, typical characteristics, reasoning and proof schemes, methods for solving problems and principles of approach to them).

4. General synthetic component: the mathematical orientation of the mind. The selected components are closely connected, influence each other and form in their totality a single system, an integral structure, a kind of syndrome of mathematical talent, a mathematical mindset. Optional and not included: speed of thought processes; computational abilities, etc. Ability is defined by Shadrikov as a property of functional systems that implement individual mental functions, which have an individual measure of severity, manifested in the success and qualitative originality of the development of activities. VD Shadrikov experimentally proved that the development of giftedness and abilities is carried out through a change in functional and operational mechanisms. A special place in the development of giftedness and abilities is given to the formation of operational mechanisms of the features of efficiency. This process underlies the development of professional abilities from general abilities and giftedness. On the basis of theoretical provisions on the essence of giftedness and abilities, he proposed general principles for diagnosing abilities and a method for diagnosing mnemonic abilities, which he refers to as "the method of deploying mnemonic activity." V. D. Shadrikov introduced the concept of “spiritual abilities” into modern psychology, revealed its essence, determined the place of spiritual abilities in the system of intellectual qualities of a person, showed that the development of abilities goes through a triple determination: the first - by the development environment, the second - by the requirements of activity, the third - individual values ​​and meanings.

abilities and activities. Abilities do not exist in finished form in humans. They are formed and developed in the process of mastering any type of activity. In the process of mastering the activity, a person acquires the skills and abilities necessary for its implementation. Each person, by virtue of his bodily organization, can master any activity and acquire the appropriate skills and abilities. But for one they can be carried out at a high level, and for another at a low level. Of course, skills and abilities are associated with abilities, but they should not be identified, since abilities are the mental properties of a person, and skills and abilities are automated methods and ways of performing activities. The indicated signs focus on the difference in aspects of the problem of abilities, but they are united by the general thesis about the manifestation and formation of abilities in activity, put forward and substantiated by S. L. Rubinshtein and B. M. Teplov. S.L. Rubinstein noted: "Abilities are a system of generalized mental activities fixed in an individual." However, the desire to concretize the understanding of abilities, linking it with different types of activity, leads to an underestimation of the activity of the individual as a subject of development and the possibility of using her abilities. The thing is that when abilities are considered as a factor that determines the success of an activity, then they are more often abstracted from individual characteristics, as a result, the characteristics of the activity itself turn out to be the main ones.

General and special abilities. Most researchers of the problem of abilities agree that general and special abilities do not conflict, but coexist, mutually complementing and enriching each other. Moreover, in some cases, a high level of development of general abilities can act as special abilities in relation to certain types of activity. Such interaction by some authors is explained by the fact that general abilities, in their opinion, are the basis for the development of special ones. Other researchers, explaining the relationship between general and special abilities, emphasize that the division of abilities into general and special is very conditional. Among the general abilities include the abilities manifested in communication, interaction with people. These abilities are socially determined. They are formed in a person in the process of his life in society. Without this group of abilities, it is very difficult for a person to live among his own kind. So, without the ability to speak as a means of communication, without the ability to adapt in a society of people, that is, to correctly perceive and evaluate the actions of people, interact with them and establish good relationships in various social situations, a normal life and mental development of a person would be simply impossible. The lack of such abilities in a person would be an insurmountable obstacle on the way of his transformation from a biological being into a social one. Special abilities are distinguished separately. According to Dobrokhotova and Branina, this includes:

1. Abilities aimed at "serving people": psychotherapists, healers, conspirators;
2. Abilities that are of practical interest only to the owner himself: the ability to phenomenal memory; the ability to see numbers and operate with them, etc.;
3. Inexplicable personality traits that are not dependent on either motives or the appearance of a person: repulsive people; attracting;
4. intuitive knowledge.

Cognitive abilities. Cognitive abilities are properties of the intellect that reveal themselves when solving problems (tasks). Convergent ability is an indicator of the correctness and speed of finding the only possible (normative) answer when solving a problem (task, situation). Divergent abilities (creativity) - the ability to generate many original ideas. Or, in other words, the ability to activate cognitive patterns of PIs.

Intelligence. Intelligence is a relatively stable structure of the mental abilities of an individual. Intelligence (from lat. intellectus - understanding, cognition) - a system of all cognitive abilities of an individual: sensations, perceptions, memory, representations, thinking, imagination. The general ability to learn and solve problems, which determines the success of any activity and underlies other abilities. The level of intelligence correlates with both life expectancy and socioeconomic status. Intelligence is primarily the ability to learn from experience and the ability to bring it to the level of abstract thinking. Intelligence is manifested in the ability to measure the significance and relevance of the subject. Commonly accepted models of intelligence in modern psychology no. At the same time, the most common interpretations of the concept of intelligence are as follows:

1. Intelligence - the ability to give correct answers based on facts or faith;
2. Intelligence is the ability to carry out abstract thinking;
3. Intelligence - the ability to adapt to environmental conditions;
4. Intelligence - the ability to solve problems without trial and error in the mind;
5. Intelligence - the ability to learn or gain experience;
6. Intelligence is the ability to learn and solve problems that determine success in any activity and underlie other abilities;
7. Intelligence is the ability to acquire other abilities;
8. Intelligence is the ability to inhibit or modify instinctive behaviors;
9. Intelligence is a form of organization and reorganization of one's own mental experience.

There are the following explanatory approaches in understanding intelligence:

1. Sociocultural approach: intelligence is the result of socialization and assimilation of culture;
2. Genetic approach: this is a consequence of the increasingly complex adaptation to environmental requirements in natural conditions of interaction with the outside world;
3. Process-activity approach: intelligence is understood as special form human activity;
4. Educational approach: intelligence is understood as a product of purposeful learning;
5. Informational approach: intelligence is understood as a set of elementary processes of information processing;
6. Phenomenological approach: intelligence is understood as a special form of the content of consciousness;
7. Structural-level approach: intelligence is understood as a system of multi-level cognitive processes;
8. Regulatory approach: intelligence is understood as a factor of self-regulating mental activity.

In most studies, it is customary to differentiate biological intelligence, psychometric intelligence, and social intelligence. In addition, it is customary to distinguish between behavioral intelligence, verbal intelligence, spatial intelligence, formal sign intelligence, etc. The concept of general intelligence. In foreign psychodiagnostics, a psychometric model of intelligence has been formed, which is usually recognized as traditional. This model is based on the following provisions:

1. The existence of a single all-pervading faculty, called the general intelligence, or G, is admitted;
2. General intelligence has a biological basis, and in accordance with this, it highly correlates with heredity (h) and various psychophysiological indicators;
3. Intelligence tests measure biological intelligence.

Verbal and non-verbal intelligence. Verbal intelligence (verbal):

1. The content depends on the context;
2. Content and operations are continuous;
3. Operations are space invariant;
4. Operations are irreversible;
5. There is a certain emotional richness;
6. There is semantic ambiguity;
7. Independence of the operation from the situation. Non-verbal intelligence (figurative).

Intelligence diagnostics.

one). Diagnosis of non-verbal intelligence. Raven's progressive matrices. The test is suitable for both younger students and adults. Designed around 1936. The test questionnaire covers 60 tasks (5 series of 12 tasks). When solving tasks, there are 3 main mental processes:

1. Attention - attentiveness;
2. Perception - susceptibility;
3. Thinking is understanding.

Therefore, testing with Raven's progressive matrices is not a test of general intelligence, but tests the sharpness and accuracy of attention, and clarity of thinking.

2). Test "Structure of intelligence". Amthauer method (diagnosis of mental development from 13 to 61 years). The test was created in 1953. The test was adapted in 1984 for Russian schoolchildren by M.K. Akimov. The test includes 9 subtests. 1, 2, 3, 4 and 9th s / t verbal. They require the ability to treat words as symbols. 5th and 6th s / t - mathematical. 7th and 8th s / t - visual-spatial.

3). MEDIS (method of express diagnostics of intellectual abilities). Designed for class 1. Designed by Shchelbanova, Alberina. The methodology consists of 4 subtests, each contains 5 tasks (awareness, logical thinking and etc.).

four). GIT (group intelligence test). Designed for children 10 years old, students in grades 5-6. Designed by Bath. Translation and adaptation by Borisova, Kozlova, Logina. The test contains 7 s / t (arithmetic problems, determination of similarities and differences, etc.).

5). Methodology for the study of intelligence Veksler. The test is used to diagnose readiness for school. Wechsler intelligence measurement scale for preschoolers from 4 to 6.5 years old. First appeared in 1967. There are 12 subtests in the children's test (+ labyrinth). There are 11 subtests in the adult test. And etc. Creative skills. A relatively independent characteristic of abilities is their creativity. Most often, creativity is denoted by the concept of creativity. Creativity is the ability to respond adaptively to the need for new approaches and new products. The main properties of creativity are: originality; solvency; validity and adequacy of the task; product suitability. Creativity is the ability to discover. The study creative people regardless of the field of activity, highlights the following characteristics:

1. Vigilance in search of a problem ("curiosity");
2. The ability to "collapse" information, that is, the ability to concise and precise formulations;
3. The ability to "cohesion", i.e. the ability to link new information with existing information;
4. The ability to transfer, i.e., to apply old experience in a new situation;
5. High mobilization readiness of memory;
6. Ability to get things done.

Qualitative and quantitative characteristics of abilities. Abilities were characterized as individual psychological characteristics, i.e., such qualities that distinguish one person from another. That is why, speaking of abilities, it is necessary to characterize these differences. They can be both qualitative and quantitative. Qualitative characteristics of abilities. Considered from the side of their qualitative features, abilities act as a complex set of psychological properties of a person, ensuring the success of an activity, as a set of " variables, allowing you to go to the goal in different ways. On the whole, a qualitative characteristic of abilities makes it possible to answer the question in which sphere of labor activity (design, pedagogical, economic, sports, etc.) is it easier for a person to find himself, to discover great successes and achievements. Thus, the qualitative characteristics of abilities are inextricably linked with the quantitative characteristics. Having found out what specific psychological qualities meet the requirements of this activity, one can further answer the question to what extent they are developed in a person: to a greater or lesser extent in comparison with his comrades at work and study. Quantitative characteristics of abilities.

Problem quantitative measurements abilities has big story in psychology. Also in late XIX- early XX century. A number of bourgeois psychologists (Kettell, Spearman, and others), under the influence of the requirements caused by the need to carry out professional selection for mass specialties, came up with a proposal to identify the level of students' abilities. Levels of ability development. Giftedness, talent, genius. Abilities are endowed with certain qualitative characteristics. The initial level of ability, above average, is giftedness.

Giftedness can be obvious, as well as hidden and potential. A hidden form of giftedness is manifested in unregulated forms of activity. Potential giftedness is unmanifested giftedness. Special abilities appear earlier than general ones. One of the first criteria of intellectual giftedness is the reaction time, but not the speed itself, but the choice of speed: this is the ability to determine when, with what speed one should think, and also act depending on the task or conditions in which it is being solved. In fact, intellectual giftedness is the ability to allocate resources. There are many classifications of giftedness. This classification is based on the following criteria:

1. Breadth of manifestation: general and special giftedness;
2. Preferred activity type: academic; creative; artistic; sports talent, etc.;
3. Intensity of manifestation: increased readiness for learning; gifted; highly gifted; exceptionally gifted;
4. By type of manifestation: explicit and hidden;
5. By age characteristics manifestations: stable and coming.

Giftedness is understood as a qualitatively peculiar combination of abilities that determine a particularly successful activity, not guaranteeing success, but only creating the possibility of achieving it. Talent is the ability to act, manifested at the level of creativity, i.e., the creation of a new product. Genius is the highest degree of giftedness and talent, their exceptionally high level. Kurt Lewin identified the following as signs of genius:

1. Genius is characterized by loneliness;
2. The central characteristic of genius is originality;
3. The presence of prolonged confusion in one's own thoughts;
4. hard work;
5. Favorability of the situation;
6. The significance of one or more non-hedonistic values.

W. James emphasized that the main thing in genius is the ability to perceive the world in an unusual way. Genius does not necessarily have moral integrity. To their surroundings, they often appear infantile, eccentric, or unhappy. Problems of diagnosing abilities. Ability tests are designed to assess the ability of the subject to master the knowledge, skills, abilities necessary for one or more activities. Tests of general abilities provide a measure of the level of mastery of many types of activities (identified with tests of intelligence). There are separate tests for special abilities. Abilities and cognitive styles. In cognitive psychology, the concept of "cognitive style" is used to highlight interindividual differences in the processes of obtaining and processing information, as well as to distinguish types of people depending on the characteristics of their cognitive orientation. Create a situation where a person would receive information only within the framework of their preferred ways of perceiving and processing it educational material, almost impossible. It is necessary to create conditions so that a person has the opportunity to develop any cognitive styles, especially on initial stage learning. A. M. Mitina, studying the work of foreign scientists on the study of cognitive learning styles, came to the conclusion that there is a connection between the cognitive learning behavior of a person and his natural temperament. Based on this, she gives a typology of cognitive styles, which looks like this:

1. Active - passive. Some listeners themselves actively seek new information and are called self-directed learners, others passively perceive information provided to them by someone else;
2. Assimilator - accommodator. In the assimilator, the dominant learning abilities are abstract conceptualization and reflective observation; forte accommodator - in active experimentation and learning through concrete experience;
3. Concrete - abstract. Some students like to start with a specific situation, such as an experience; others prefer to start with abstract theoretical ideas;
4. Converters- divergers. The converger is better at abstract conceptualization and active experimentation, while the diverger is better at reflective observation and concrete experience;
5. Dependency - Independence from the general information field. Perception in the first case largely depends on the general organization of the information field, in the second case parts of the information field are perceived as discrete, separate from the organized field;
6. Focusing - scanning. If a problem is presented to the listeners, the focusers will study it as a whole and generate hypotheses that are refined as new information becomes available; "scanners" will choose one aspect of the problem and will accept it as a solution until subsequent information refutes this one, at which time they are forced to resume solving the problem;
7. Holistic - serial. Some students "see" the phenomenon as a whole, others - connect together, "string" the parts;
8. Thinking is impulsive. In the first case, the phenomenon is considered and studied in its entirety; in the second case, students "grab" the first idea that comes to their mind; the second strategy fails more often than the first.
9. Inertness is flexibility. Inertness or rigidity is manifested in the fact that, having once known effective method learning, the student seeks to use it in all learning situations; this creates certain difficulties, since problems arise, the solution of which requires long approaches. Flexibility as a characteristic of learning behavior consists in the possibility of a flexible change in cognitive style depending on the task at hand.

Formation of abilities. The considered ratio of inclinations and abilities shows that, although the development of abilities depends on natural prerequisites, which are far from being the same for different people, abilities are not so much a gift of nature as a product of human history. Abilities are formed in work and activity. Being realized in these or those achievements, human abilities are not only manifested, but also formed and developed. Dependence of ability development on teaching methods. At school age for the development of mental abilities great importance has a teaching method. As a rule, the most effective method is one that enables students to show independence and activity in mastering knowledge, skills and abilities. Only with this method do students develop an interest in the school subject, and in the future, the need to engage in the relevant science.

The role of inclinations and interests in the formation of abilities. An essential factor in the development of a person's abilities is stable special interests. Special interests are interests in the content of a certain area of ​​human activity, which develop into a propensity to professionally engage in this type of activity. Cognitive interest here stimulates the effective mastery of techniques and methods of activity. Inclinations are a positive selective attitude towards some activity. Highest Degree Inclinations are passion for some activity. Tendencies are revealed through the duration and repetition of activity. Accounting for abilities in the process of training and education. Equally important for the development of abilities in childhood are the family conditions of education. If family members are engaged in it, and in the presence of innate inclinations, the child quickly develops abilities.

Problems of differentiated learning. In solving any problem, there is always the same task - to achieve maximum results with minimal losses. The problem is solved mainly by improving, polishing existing pedagogical technologies, changes in the rate of submission of information. At the same time, the pedagogical doctrine proceeds from a quantitative assessment of the capabilities of children. This approach led to the so-called tiered learning, the division of children into smart, average and stupid. In our school, at the moment, the practice of differentiation is represented by a wide variety of manifestations. The most important view differentiation in teaching in all classes becomes level differentiation, understood as intra-class differentiation, in which students get the right and opportunity to independently choose the level of study of the subject. The goals of level differentiation are to ensure that all students achieve a basic level of training, which is state standard education, and at the same time creating conditions for the development of students who show individual abilities.

Pedagogical abilities are divided into 3 groups: personal (representing personality traits), didactic (associated with the transfer of information) and organizational and communicative (associated with the organizational function and communication