Professional

Professional - a person who has made a certain occupation (business) as his profession ; a person who has become a highly qualified specialist in any field of activity; a well-trained specialist with skills , qualifications , and, if necessary, permission to perform duties in his specialty.

A professional is usually a member of a community of qualified professionals with skills in a specific field (profession). Such communities train and educate their members outside primary (university) education, also develop codes of conduct ( Hippocratic oaths ) and industry standards, and they also have the right to issue permits ( licenses ) for professional activities and monitor the activities of their members.

Professionals are often called highly qualified specialists in creative professions - medicine, law, architecture, construction - often having independent status as an individual entrepreneur. Professionals usually make money using their skills, their activity is their profession.

Content

Etymology

It comes from the Latin profess - to swear, promise, confirm: qualified specialists have a reputation that needs to be constantly “confirmed”, and they “swear” and “promise” to use their knowledge and skills to do the work.

Key Features

The basic characteristics of a professional formulated by Harvard University professor Howard Gardner and President of the Carnegie Endowment for Improving Teaching Lee Shulman:

Commitment to the interests of consumers and society as a whole.
The presence of the necessary theoretical knowledge.
Possession of the necessary skills and techniques for this profession.
The ability to formulate holistic judgments in the face of ethical uncertainty.
A systematic approach to learning.
Timely payment of their labor.
Participation in the development of a professional community responsible for the quality of practice and education in a specific professional field ^[1] .

There are a number of signs that distinguish a professional from a non-professional : understanding the essential foundations of professional activity, the ability to reflect, the ability to predict processes and phenomena that are in the zone of professional vision, the completeness of the subject and the ability to model the system of professional activity. Professionals are characterized by: high speed of professional actions with the inclusion of intuitive processes; the novelty and originality of the activity against the backdrop of the rejection of stereotypes, the removal of psychological barriers and protective mechanisms; continuity and inexhaustibility of creative processes; unconscious regulation (automatism) of professional activity ^[2] .

As the most important system-forming factor of a person as a professional, E. F. Zeer singles out a personal orientation , which includes the following components: motives, value orientations, professional position, and professional self-determination. The author showed that at different stages of the formation of a professional, these components have different psychological content, due to the nature of the leading activities and the level of professional development of a person ^[3] .

The work of a professional is not limited to what is visible to an outside observer; a professional person (as a carrier of a specific property called professionalism ) from the standpoint of cognition should be considered as some multilevel system that has not only external functions, but also complex diverse internal, in particular mental , functions. According to E. A. Klimov, professionalism appears not just as a certain high level of knowledge, skills and results that are manifested in this field of activity, but as a certain systemic organization of consciousness, the psyche of a professional person ^[4] .

Based on the principles of human knowledge (according to B. G. Ananiev ), a professional is a person as a whole: as an individual (the biological essence of a professional person), as a person (his social essence), as an entity and as an individual ( uniqueness of a given person) ^{[5 ]} . In the process of human professionalization (the formation of professionalism), all its levels undergo changes, and to a greater extent, professional development occurs at the mental and psychophysiological level. The individuality inherent in a professional is formed on the basis of the relationship between the characteristics of a person as a professional person and as a subject of professional activity , which are caused by the natural properties of a person as an individual. Moreover, the formation of a professional person occurs during professional activity and under its influence ^[6] .

A professional is characterized by high productivity and labor efficiency , and a professional steadily demonstrates these indicators in a wide variety of situations and working conditions, including those that objectively impede the achievement of the result ^[7] .

The process of becoming a professional goes through several stages. Mastery is the highest level of mastery of various aspects of activity.

In the Explanatory Dictionary of Ozhegov, the word "master" means " specialist who has achieved high art in his field ." One of the definitions that is given to the Master of Dahl's Explanatory Dictionary :

the master is “ especially knowledgeable or skilled in his field ” ^[8]

In this sense, the master is a professional who has achieved a high level of professionalism in a particular profession ^[9] . The stage of professional excellence is characterized by a creative and innovative level of professional activity. The driving factor in the further professional development of the individual is the need for self-realization, self-fulfillment ^[10] .

Notes

↑ John Bogle . Do not believe the numbers! Reflections on investor fallacies, capitalism, mutual funds, index investing, entrepreneurship, idealism and heroes = Don’t Count On It !. - M .: Alpina Publisher , 2013 .-- 545 p. - ISBN 978-5-9614-1816-3 .
↑ Gorchakova V. G. Efficiency and femininity: Psychological features of the professionalism of women. - Chelyabinsk: RECPOL, 1999 .-- 224 p.
↑ Seer E.F. Psychology of professions. - Textbook. allowance. - 2nd ed., Revised. - M .; Ekaterinburg: Academic Project; Business Book, 2003 .-- 336 p.
↑ Klimov E. A. Psychology of a professional. - M .; Voronezh: Publishing House "Institute of Practical Psychology"; publishing house of NPO MODEK, 1996. - 400 p.
↑ Ananiev B. G. Man as a subject of knowledge. - SPb. : Peter, 2001 .-- 288 p.
↑ Sukhodolsky G.V. Fundamentals of the psychological theory of activity. - 2nd ed. - M .: Publishing House of LCI, 2008 .-- 168 p.
↑ Druzhilov S. A. A systematic approach to the study of the psychological phenomenon of human professionalism // Bulletin of Tomsk State Pedagogical University. - 2005. - T. 45 , No. 1 (45) . - S. 51-55 .
↑ Master (neopr.) . Explanatory dictionary of living Great Russian language .
↑ Markova A.K. Psychology of professionalism. - M .: International Humanitarian Fund “Knowledge”, 1996. - 312 p.
↑ Borovikova S. A. Professional self-determination. // Psychological support of professional activities / Ed. G. S. Nikiforova. - SPb. : Publishing House of St. Petersburg. state University, 1991 .-- S. 6-22.

Literature

Ponomarenko V.A., Vorona A. A. Formation of the personality of a professional // Development of B.F. Lomov's ideas in studies in labor psychology and engineering psychology. - M .: Institute of Psychology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 1992. - S. 75-87.
Klimov E. A. Psychology of a professional. - M.: Publishing House "Institute of Practical Psychology"; Voronezh: Publishing house "MODEK", 1996. - 400 p.
Markova A.K. Psychology of professionalism. - M.: International Humanitarian Fund "Knowledge", 1996. - 312 p.
Ponomarenko V. A. Psychology of professional spirituality. - M .: Publishing house "Master", 1998. - 162 p.
Povarenkov Yu. P. Psychological content of the professional development of man. - M.: Publishing House of the University of the Russian Academy of Education (URAO), 2002. - 160 p.
Fonarev A. R. Psychological features of the personal formation of a professional: monograph. - M.: Publishing House Mosk. psychological and social. in-that; Voronezh: Publishing house "MODEK", 2005. - 560 p.
Druzhilov S. A. Psychology of professionalism. - Kharkov: From the Humanitarian Center, 2011. - 296 p.

[1] John Bogle . Do not believe the numbers! Reflections on investor fallacies, capitalism, mutual funds, index investing, entrepreneurship, idealism and heroes = Don’t Count On It !. - M .: Alpina Publisher , 2013 .-- 545 p. - ISBN 978-5-9614-1816-3 .

[2] Gorchakova V. G. Efficiency and femininity: Psychological features of the professionalism of women. - Chelyabinsk: RECPOL, 1999 .-- 224 p.

[3] Seer E.F. Psychology of professions. - Textbook. allowance. - 2nd ed., Revised. - M .; Ekaterinburg: Academic Project; Business Book, 2003 .-- 336 p.

[4] Klimov E. A. Psychology of a professional. - M .; Voronezh: Publishing House "Institute of Practical Psychology"; publishing house of NPO MODEK, 1996. - 400 p.

[5] Ananiev B. G. Man as a subject of knowledge. - SPb. : Peter, 2001 .-- 288 p.

[6] Sukhodolsky G.V. Fundamentals of the psychological theory of activity. - 2nd ed. - M .: Publishing House of LCI, 2008 .-- 168 p.

[7] Druzhilov S. A. A systematic approach to the study of the psychological phenomenon of human professionalism // Bulletin of Tomsk State Pedagogical University. - 2005. - T. 45 , No. 1 (45) . - S. 51-55 .

[8] Master (neopr.) . Explanatory dictionary of living Great Russian language .

[9] Markova A.K. Psychology of professionalism. - M .: International Humanitarian Fund “Knowledge”, 1996. - 312 p.

[10] Borovikova S. A. Professional self-determination. // Psychological support of professional activities / Ed. G. S. Nikiforova. - SPb. : Publishing House of St. Petersburg. state University, 1991 .-- S. 6-22.