Will - the ability of a person to make decisions based on the thought process and direct his thoughts and actions in accordance with the decision.
Will as an active decision-making process is opposed to a passive, unreasonable reaction to surrounding stimuli.
Will is the ability of an individual to consciously and purposefully regulate and control his behavior and activity, expressed in the ability to mobilize mental and physical capabilities to overcome difficulties and obstacles that stand in the way of the goal.
The most important characteristic of volitional behavior is self-determination. Man acts arbitrarily, does not obey the influence of external causes. Arbitrariness and over-situationality are the main principles of volitional behavior.
Willpower is an act of manifestation, which is aimed at mobilizing all the mental and physical capabilities of a person, aimed at overcoming obstacles in the process of activity.
Content
Determining Will in Psychology
The concept of will was born in philosophy , where the will is defined as the ability of the mind to self-determination, including moral , and the generation of specific causality. [1] Passing to psychology and neurology, the definition of will has lost its moral aspect and has been interpreted only as a mental function. The traditional attribution of the will to higher mental functions speaks of the idea of it as a property of a person, but not of an animal, although some animal studies cast doubt on this idea.
In the most general sense, the will is considered in psychology as the ability of a person to conscious self-regulation. Will is necessary both for the commission of an action and for the abandonment of it. The basic element of the will is the act of informed decision-making. The will is close to the concept of freedom in existential psychology in the sense that a person who makes such an informed decision must break away from the momentary situation and either turn to his attitude to himself, his values, or turn to imagination , logic and model the consequences of the proposed action.
In a more general philosophical and psychological understanding of the will presented by S. L. Rubinstein . Rubinstein writes: “actions regulated by a conscious goal and attitude to it as a motive are volitional actions” [2] . This definition allows you to clearly separate the concept of will from the concept of desire, the concept of motivation . In this definition, there is a separation from the momentary situation in the form of a relationship to the goal, its awareness. The ratio of motive and goal is also important. In the case when the goal and motive coincide, at least in the consciousness of the subject, the subject controls his activities completely , it is not spontaneous in nature - there is a will in the activity.
Some psychologists confuse the concept of will as a mental function with a person’s ability to strive to achieve a goal, as a result of which one can come across such definitions: “Will - conscious regulation by the subject of his activity and behavior, ensuring overcoming difficulties in achieving the goal ...”. [3]
In sociology, the concept of will also takes place. The sociologist F.N. Ilyasov, for example, defines the will as "the ability of the subject to create a hierarchized system of values and make efforts to achieve higher values, neglecting lower-order values." [four]
The structure of the volitional act
Volitional actions are divided into simple and complex. The simple ones are those where a person without hesitation goes to the intended goal. In a complex act, between the motivation and the action itself, a rather complicated process is wedged in that complicates this action.
In a complex volitional act, scientists distinguish four phases:
- - the occurrence of motivation and preliminary goal setting.
- - discussion and struggle of motives.
- - making decisions.
- - execution of the decision.
A distinctive feature of the course of a volitional act is that the form of its implementation is volitional effort at any phase. The execution of the volitional act is connected with a sensation of neuropsychic tension.
See also
- Will (philosophy)
- Willpower (self-control)
- free will
Notes
- ↑ New philosophical encyclopedia
- ↑ Rubinstein S. L. Being and consciousness // Selected philosophical and psychological works. Fundamentals of ontology, logic and psychology. - M .: Nauka, 1997, p. 173
- ↑ Brief Psychological Dictionary / Comp. L. A. Karpenko; Under the total. ed. A.V. Petrovsky, M.G. Yaroshevsky. - M .: Politizdat, 1985, p. 48
- ↑ Ilyasov F. N. Methodology of the resource approach to the analysis of labor motives and attitudes // Monitoring of public opinion: economic and social changes. 2013. No. 5. P. 17.
Literature
- Will // Big Russian Encyclopedia. Volume 5. - M. , 2006. - S. 697-698.
- Kelly McGonigal. Willpower. How to develop and strengthen - M .: "Mann, Ivanov and Ferber", 2012. - S. 312. - ISBN 978-5-91657-382-4