The phenomenon of bitter candy is a phenomenon that illustrates the first birth of a person in ontogenesis in accordance with the theory of personality of A. N. Leontyev . The phenomenon demonstrates that the success of solving a problem depends not only on its content, but primarily on the motive that forms the task for the child (the child has a need to prove his right to receive an object by efforts that he could avoid). The phenomenon is observed in a specially created situation: the child is given a difficult task, which is obviously impossible by the rules. The reward for a successful assignment is candy. The child, who achieved the desired result by breaking the rule and receiving candy, showed a negative emotional reaction - candy for them turned out to be “bitter”.
In pedagogical and psychological literature, the primary preschool and adolescence are indicated as crucial in this regard. A personality is born twice: the first time - when a child manifests itself in explicit forms of polymotivation and the subordination of his actions, the second time - when his conscious personality arises.
The effect of bitter candy can be observed in children aged three years, when social norms become stronger than the child’s direct attraction. At this stage of development, a crisis of three years arises: the child confidently declares his own "I". The effect is manifested throughout pre-school childhood, including the crisis of seven years and is its striking sign [1] .
Content
Phenomenon Study Procedure
A preschooler child (up to 7 years old) receives from the experimenter an almost impossible task: to get a removed object without getting up from a chair. The researcher leaves, continuing to observe the child from the neighboring room through the Gesell mirror . After several unsuccessful attempts, the child gets up, takes the object that attracts him and returns to the place. The experimenter enters, praises him and offers a candy as a reward. The child refuses to treat, and after repeated offers begins to cry. The candy turns out to be “bitter” for him. The child’s actions corresponded to two different motives, that is, they performed a double function: one in relation to the experimenter, the other in relation to the subject (award). As observation shows, while the child was getting the object, the situation was not experienced by him as a conflict, as a situation of “error”. The hierarchical relationship between the two activities was revealed only at the moment of renewed communication with the experimenter, post factum: the candy turned out to be bitter, bitter in its subjective, personal, individual meaning. This phenomenon has also been investigated by other psychologists: E. V. Subbotsky, V. I. Asnin, V. A. Petrovsky and others. V. A. Petrovsky has a series of works devoted to what he calls “risk for risk” and “sublimation of difficulty.” He experimentally showed that there are people who steadily strive for the border of a given situation. They approach her to test their capabilities and the possibilities of the border. The motivation for exploring boundaries in children is also quite developed. With this investigated behavior, they test themselves.
Studies of the phenomenon of E.V. Saturday
In the early 1970s, an experimental psychologist, psychology department of Moscow State University. M.V. Lomonosov Evgeny Subbotsky conducted an experiment in which the preschool children were subjects. This study was conducted to objectify the phenomenon of “bitter candy” and to identify a group of children who did not have this phenomenon.
Experiment procedure: with the help of a special scapula, the child had to get the ball out of the box. If he did, then he received a reward - candy. But the blade was not suitable for solving this problem. Then the experimenter left the room, leaving the child with two possibilities: try to solve the problem according to the instructions or take the ball out of the box. Upon returning, the psychologist gave all the children who could get the toy promised candy. On the way home or later, some of the children who received the candy were nervous and even cried, worried. But, some of the children did not have a negative reaction, which indicates that the first birth of the person did not occur.
Experiment V.I. Asnina
The experiment procedure was similar, but the child was given another instruction: “Get it out as you want, how you can. You can do anything you want. ” Children aged 7-12 did not use the wand as an aid and could not complete the task. Children 3-6 years old immediately took a wand and received an item. Results: in children of different ages various motives of their activity are manifested. The younger ones have the same goals and motives: they require the child to get the item and he performs the task. When a child has his own motives for action, he acts in accordance with them, however, if the child does not know how to complete the task, this does not mean that he is unable to complete it. The child’s behavior can be explained by emotions and characteristics of the motives of activity, namely, motives and determines the solution of the task of the experimental situation. Research indicates the dependence of intellectual processes on the motivation of activity.
This study was conducted to compare two age groups - preschoolers and schoolchildren aged 7-12 years. It was revealed that during the whole preschool age the effect of “bitter candy” is manifested and that children of different ages have different motivations.
Interpretation of results
Interpreting the results, it can be noted that the child was put in a situation with a conflict of several motives - the primary subordination of motives and their hierarchization takes place. One of them is to take the thing of interest (immediate motivation); the other is to fulfill the condition of an adult (“social” motive). The moment the adult left, the immediate impulse prevailed - that is, to take the thing of interest. However, with the advent of the experimenter, another motive becomes relevant, the value of which has still increased with undeserved remuneration. The child’s refusal and tears in this situation are proof of the beginning of the process of mastering social norms and the subordination of motives, although not completed. This is due to the expansion of the circle of social relations into which the child enters, the number of activities that implement these relations increases, and contradictions arise already within the circle of social motives corresponding to them.
The fact that it is in the presence of adult experiences that the child begins to be determined by a social motive is very important. It serves as a vivid proof of the general position that the “knots” of the personality are tied in interpersonal relationships and only then become elements of the internal structure of the personality.
According to A.N. Leont'ev, the second birth of a person occurs already in adolescence, when a child who, as a result of previous activities, has already developed a certain relatively stable hierarchy of motives, is faced with the need to revise it.
Criterion for the first birth of an individual
The criterion for the birth of a person is the adoption by the subject of social norms and values as motives of their own behavior. Outwardly, this manifests itself, for example, in the child’s ability to “not take” an object of interest to him only because “the mother forbade him to touch it”. Even when no one sees him, the child can walk around this object, but will not touch it. This means that the social norm that acts as an external regulator of the child’s behavior (before the child did not touch the subject only in the presence of a parent or other adult), now it becomes an internal form of regulation and goes into the internal plan. [2] .
Presentation
VV Petukhov and VV Stolin narrow the scope of the concept of “personality”. According to their point of view, as a result of the “first birth”, not a personality is born, but a social individual who perceives the social norm as an important internal regulator of behavior for him, but does not even think about possible alternative social norms. A social individual may never turn into a person: after all, the formation of a subject as a person implies an increase in his responsibility and independence, which often results in the emergence of new problems for the subject.
The phenomenon of “bitter candy” refers to the system of semantic formations. Prior to these studies, the study of the semantic sphere was declared inaccessible to scientific analysis, requiring only comprehension, understanding and empathy. An example of research of another class are those that are focused on the desire to approach the meanings as such, outside the broad life context that formed them and in which they find their manifestation and realization. An example of the latter is experiments such as those in which the “Asnin phenomenon”, the “bitter candy” phenomenon, was obtained; many studies based on the principles of holistic pathopsychological research developed by B.V. Zeigarnik, S. Ya. Rubinshtein; from recent works - research by E. V. Subbotsky, V. A. Petrovsky and others. Further design and testing of methods based on the principle of activity mediation, methods designed to diagnose, and in cases of correction and education, to change semantic formations, is one of important prospects for the psychological study of personality. These studies reflect qualitative changes in the research of meaning in Russian psychology.
Sources
- ↑ L.F. Obukhova. Child (age) psychology >> 2. The crisis of seven years and the problem of readiness for schooling. . azps.ru. Date of treatment December 12, 2017.
- ↑ Leontyev Alexey. Activity. Consciousness. Personality - Alexei Leontyev . www.e-reading.club. Date of treatment November 27, 2017.
Literature
- Leontiev A. N. Activity. Consciousness. Personality. M .: Politizdat , 1975
- Obukhova L.F. Children's (age-related) psychology. M., 1996.
- Petukhov V.V. Personality development in ontogenesis. Lectures
- Smirnova E.O. Children's psychology. St. Petersburg: Peter , 2009.
- Sokolova E.E. Individual and personality. Two births of personality, according to A. N. Leontyev, and their criteria
- Sokolova E.E. Introduction to Psychology. General Psychology: in 7 vols. / Ed. B. S. Bratusya . Volume 1.. M., 2007. Chapter 8. § 3. P. 257—261