Communicative core of personality

In the 1960s at the psychological faculty of Leningrad (currently St. Petersburg) State University, the direction of social psychology was born, called "cognition of man by man." Over time, this direction has become one of the fundamental scientific schools of Russian psychology. ^[2] In the scientific works of the Russian psychologist, a specialist in the field of personality psychology and social psychology, Alexei Alexandrovich Bodalev , who from 1979 to 1986 was the dean of the faculty of psychology at Moscow State University. M.V. Lomonosov and the head. Department of General Psychology, ^[3] for the first time in psychological science, the features of the formation of the communicative core of the personality were studied. By the communicative core of the personality A. A. Bodalev understands everything that relates to a person’s personality and what his interaction with other people or communities depends on. Factors such as character traits, emotional characteristics, perceptual abilities (cognition of the object of communication), i.e. what is also called communicative ability. ^[4] A.A Bodalyov identified and described the relationship between the main characteristics of the processes of perception, memory, imagination, thinking that people experience when interacting with each other, and the characteristics of the motivation and needs of the participants in communication, as well as their behavior. ^[five]

The communicative core of the personality is manifested in communication with other people or communities, in various forms of verbal and non-verbal behavior, in various forms of knowledge about individuals and social groups, which are actualized in him in interaction with them, as well as in the various experiences arising from this. A person who comes into contact with other people has a certain orientation. Such qualities as deceit, rudeness, cruelty, viciousness, secrecy in the aggregate form the communicative core of a personality of one type. Such qualities as altruism and mercy, conscience and sincerity, kindness and attentiveness to others, on the contrary, form the communicative core of another type of personality. The manifestation of various qualities in real life allows you to determine the level of perception and understanding of other individuals or groups of people inherent in a person, to establish a certain attitude towards them at the level of emotions.

Studying the problems of forming the communicative core of the personality, V.N. Kunitsyna identified and outlined six levels of communication success based on the association of groups with close values ​​of the communication success index. The success rate was calculated as the arithmetic average of the sum of three generalized indices: contact, communicative compatibility and adaptability. V.N. Kunitsyna characterized each of the levels of communication success, also describing the psychological properties that form the basis of the communicative core of the personality ^[6] :

1. Level of skill and freedom of communication
2. Leadership level
3. Radical partner level
4. Hard-conservative level
5. Authoritarian-aggressive level
6. Level of neurotic loneliness and shyness

Level of Mastery and Freedom in Communication

A person who is able to establish and maintain such a level of communication has high compatibility, contact and flexibility. Such people are distinguished by high adaptability and high involvement in social relations, lack of alienation and adequacy of response.

Leader Level

Leadership is easily achieved by extroverts, who have good skills in establishing and maintaining communication. These are leaders by nature, self-confident and satisfied with the existing relations in a close circle. ^[7] They easily find mutual understanding with people, avoiding unnecessary quarrels and misunderstandings. They show courage and high activity in interaction with others. As a rule, such people do not have excessive sensitivity. Possessing a variety of ways of influencing and influencing people, they can resort to manipulation.

Radical Partner Level

A radical partner level is achieved by people who successfully work in a group and find a common solution. They have self-control and are attentive interlocutors. A person who can maintain communication at this level is practical and not aggressive.

Tough Conservative Level

The rigidly conservative level is characteristic of prudent and non-conformal introverts who do not fully control their emotions. Such people are rarely noticed manifestations of empathy.

Authoritarian-aggressive level

Authoritarian-aggressive level is noted among aggressive and at the same time authoritarian people. They lack flexibility in ways of influence and partner orientation, low self-esteem and high anxiety are noted. They are emotionally unstable, frustrated, conflicted, irritable, inflated, impatient, incredulous.

Neurotic loneliness and shyness

The level of neurotic loneliness and shyness is found in insecure people, extremely lonely and autistic. They are characterized by low adaptability and high neuroticism.

It is necessary to consider the qualities that are part of the communicative core of the personality, not as permanent, fatally inherent in a person, but as subject to change. With a change in the motivations and needs of the individual, with a change in the subjective value for her of the people and groups with whom he communicates, as well as under the influence of transformation in her self-concept, the qualities of the personality change, and subsequently the entire communicative core of the personality. ^{[8] The} change in the communicative core of the personality is associated with the richness or poverty of the impressions that the person receives from social contacts. One of the key factors affecting the development of social relationships should be considered the subjective significance for a person of that part of reality (nature, work, teaching, family, etc.), in contacts with which his communicative sphere is actualized.

So the motivation and needs of the individual affect the reflection of other people and communities, the attitude towards them and the nature of behavioral contacts with them. Satisfying or dissatisfying them in communication changes the reflection of other people and communities, the emotional response to them and behavior in relation to them. ^[9] Also, a person’s abilities, which actively influence the person’s processes of cognition of the surrounding reality, the reaction of its emotional sphere and human behavior, have a significant influence.

Here we should talk about decentration, empathy , identification and reflection. A person’s readiness for full-fledged interpersonal communication is a complex multicomponent process, which involves the simultaneous development of the human psyche in several interrelated directions.

- Bodalev A.A. Communication psychology