When we try to understand and explain why different people, placed in the same or approximately the same conditions by life circumstances, achieve different successes, we turn to the concept capabilities, believing that the difference in success can be quite satisfactorily explained by them. We use the same concept when we need to understand why some people acquire knowledge, skills and abilities faster and better than others. What are abilities?
The term “ability,” despite its long-standing and widespread use in psychology and the presence of many of its definitions in the literature, is ambiguous. If we summarize its definitions and try to present them in a compact classification, it will look like this:
1. Abilities are properties of the human soul, understood as a set of all kinds of mental processes and states. This is the broadest and oldest definition of ability available. Currently, it is practically no longer used in psychology.
2. Abilities represent a high level of development of general and special knowledge, skills and abilities that ensure a person’s successful performance of various types of activities. This definition appeared and was accepted in the psychology of the 18th-19th centuries, and is partly used today.
3. Abilities are something that cannot be reduced to knowledge, skills and abilities, but explains (ensures) their rapid acquisition, consolidation and effective use in practice. This definition is now accepted and most common. It is at the same time the narrowest and most accurate of all three.
Our domestic scientist B.M. Teplov made a significant contribution to the development of the general theory of abilities. It was he who proposed the third of the listed definitions of abilities, on which we will rely. Let us clarify it using references to the works of B.M. Teplov. The concept of “ability,” in his opinion, contains three ideas. “Firstly, abilities refer to individual psychological characteristics that distinguish one person from another... Secondly, abilities do not refer to any individual characteristics at all, but only those that are related to the success of performing any activity or many activities ... Thirdly, the concept of “ability” cannot be reduced to the knowledge, skills or abilities that have already been developed by a given person” 1 .
Abilities, B.M. Teplov believed, cannot exist except in a constant process of development. An ability that does not develop, which a person stops using in practice, is lost over time. Only through constant exercises associated with systematic studies of such complex types of human activity as music, technical and artistic creativity, mathematics, sports, etc., do we maintain and further develop the corresponding abilities.
The success of any activity does not depend on any one, but on a combination of different abilities, and this combination, which gives the same result, can be achieved in different ways. In the absence of the necessary inclinations to develop some abilities, their deficit can be compensated for by the stronger development of others. “One of the most important features of the human psyche,” wrote B.M. Teplov, “is the possibility of extremely wide compensation of some properties by others, as a result of which the relative weakness of any one ability does not at all exclude the possibility of successfully performing even such activities that are most closely related to this ability. The missing ability can be compensated within very wide limits by others that are highly developed in a given person.”
Let's consider the question of classifying human abilities. There are quite a lot of them. First of all, it is necessary to distinguish between natural or natural abilities (basically biologically determined) and specific human abilities that have a socio-historical origin.
Many of natural abilities are common in humans and animals, especially higher ones, for example, in monkeys. Such elementary abilities are perception, memory, thinking, and the ability for elementary communications at the level of expression. These abilities are directly related to innate inclinations, but are not identical to them, but are formed on their basis in the presence of elementary life experience through learning mechanisms such as conditioned reflex connections, operant conditioning, imprinting and a number of others. Otherwise, in terms of their abilities, their set and mechanisms of formation, humans and animals are fundamentally different from each other. A person, in addition to biologically determined ones, has abilities that ensure his life and development in the social environment. This general and special higher intellectual abilities, based on the use of speech and logic, theoretical and practical, educational and creative, subject and interpersonal.
Are common abilities include those that determine a person’s success in a wide variety of activities. These, for example, include mental abilities, subtlety and accuracy of manual movements, developed memory, perfect speech and a number of others. Special abilities determine a person’s success in specific types of activities, the implementation of which requires inclinations of a special kind and their development. Such abilities include musical, mathematical, linguistic, technical, literary, artistic and creative, sports and a number of others. The presence of general abilities in a person does not exclude the development of special ones and vice versa. Often general and special abilities coexist, mutually complementing and enriching each other.
Theoretical and practical abilities differ in that the former predetermine a person’s propensity for abstract theoretical thinking, and the latter for concrete, practical actions. Such abilities, unlike general and special ones, on the contrary, more often do not combine with each other, occurring together only in gifted, multi-talented people.
Educational and creative abilities differ from each other in that the former determine the success of training and education, a person’s assimilation of knowledge, skills, abilities, formation
the formation of personal qualities, while the second is the creation of objects of material and spiritual culture, the production of new ideas, discoveries and inventions, in a word - individual creativity in various fields of human activity.
Ability to communicate, interact with people, and subject-activity, or subject-cognitive, abilities are to the greatest extent socially conditioned. Examples of abilities of the first type include human speech as a means of communication (speech in its communicative function), the ability of interpersonal perception and evaluation of people, the ability of socio-psychological adaptation to various situations, the ability to come into contact with different people, to win them over, influence them, etc.
Examples of subject-cognitive abilities are well known. They are traditionally studied in general and differential psychology and are called abilities for various types of theoretical and practical activities.
Until now, in psychology, primary attention has been paid specifically to objective-activity abilities, although the abilities interpersonal character are no less important for the psychological development of a person, his socialization and his acquisition of the necessary forms of social behavior. Without mastery of speech as a means of communication, for example, without the ability to adapt to people, correctly perceive and evaluate them and their actions, interact with them and establish good relationships in various social situations, normal life and mental development of a person would be simply impossible. The absence of such abilities in a person would be an insurmountable obstacle precisely on the path of transforming him from a biological being into a social one.
In the development of communication abilities, one can probably distinguish its own stages of formation, its own specific inclinations. One of them is probably the innate ability of children to respond to their mother's face and voice. It determines the primary form of communication in the form of a revival complex. Subsequently, to the ability to communicate emotionally is added, developing on its basis, the ability to understand states, guess intentions and adapt one’s behavior to the mood of other people, assimilate and follow certain social norms in communicating with them.
From a psychological point of view, a social norm of behavior is nothing more than the ability to communicate with people, ideally embodied in the relevant knowledge and requirements, to behave in such a way as to be accepted and understood by them. By internalizing social norms, an individual acquires the ability to interact effectively with people. In everyday life, in the language familiar to us, it is no coincidence that we call a person who knows the rules of etiquette and knows how to follow them, capable of communicating with people.
With no less justification, abilities can be called the ability to convince others, achieve mutual understanding, and influence people. As for the ability to perceive people and give them correct assessments, it has long been considered a special kind of ability in social psychology. Moreover, for many years, the specialist literature has actively discussed the question of whether this ability is innate or acquired, as well as the possibility of its development in different people.
Both interpersonal and subject-related abilities complement each other. Thanks to their combination, a person gets the opportunity to develop fully and harmoniously.
It is not individual abilities that directly determine the success of any activity, but only their successful combination, exactly what is necessary for this activity. There is practically no activity in which success is determined by only one ability. On the other hand, the relative weakness of any one ability does not exclude the possibility of successfully performing the activity with which it is associated, since the missing ability can be compensated by others included in the complex that ensures this activity. For example, poor vision is partially compensated by the special development of hearing and skin sensitivity, and the lack of absolute sound-pitch hearing is compensated by the development of timbral hearing.
Abilities not only jointly determine the success of an activity, but also interact with each other, influencing each other. Depending on the presence and degree of development of other abilities included in the complex, each of them acquires a different character. This mutual influence is especially strong when it comes to interdependent abilities that jointly determine the success of an activity. The combination of various highly developed abilities is called giftedness, and this characteristic refers to a person who is capable of many different activities.
General concept of abilities
Abilities are the mental properties of a person, possessing which a person can relatively easily achieve success in a particular activity.
We always learn about people's abilities only from observing their activities. A person who shows better results in a given activity than others is usually called capable.
Types of abilities. There are as many abilities as there are different types of activities. You can have learning abilities, foreign languages, mathematics, scientific activities, musical, artistic, literary, organizational, technical abilities...
Human abilities can be divided into two groups: general abilities, i.e. those that manifest themselves in most basic types of human activity (good attention, memory, intelligence), and special abilities that manifest themselves only in certain special types of professional activities (musical abilities ).
Connection of abilities with knowledge and skills. It is necessary to distinguish abilities from knowledge and skills. The latter are based on acquired and fixed systems of temporary connections in the cerebral cortex (for example, knowledge of certain mathematical theorems, the ability to solve equations with two unknowns, etc.). Abilities are personality traits based on special characteristics of nervous activity that allow a person to perform a given activity well. However, abilities cannot be separated from knowledge. There is a characteristic mutual dependence between them: abilities facilitate the assimilation of knowledge (for a capable person they are given faster and easier), but vice versa, the acquisition of knowledge contributes to the development of abilities.
Connection of abilities with activities. Abilities are always associated with specific activities; outside of activity, they do not exist. At the same time, only in activity does the formation, formation and development of abilities occur: for the development of abilities, fruitful, systematic, sometimes persistent human activity in a given area is necessary.
The connection between abilities and personality orientation. Abilities are organically related to interests and the general level of development of a person’s personality. They manifest themselves with greatest force only in those types of activities that deeply interest a person and capture his entire personality.
Abilities and inclinations
A person is not born into the world already having certain abilities. Only some anatomical and physiological features of the body can be congenital, among which the features of the nervous system and brain are of greatest importance. These anatomical and physiological characteristics that form innate differences between people are called inclinations.
Inclinations are important for the development of abilities (for example, the properties of the auditory analyzer are important for musical abilities, the properties of the visual analyzer are important for visual abilities). But inclinations are only one of the conditions for the formation of abilities. By themselves, they do not in any way predetermine abilities. If a person, even with the most outstanding inclinations, does not engage in appropriate activities, his abilities will not develop.
One should not think that each ability corresponds to a special inclination. Every inclination has multiple meanings; on its basis, different abilities can be developed depending on how a person’s life proceeds.
Thus, inclinations, or, what is the same thing, natural prerequisites for development, do not yet contain abilities. Abilities can develop only in certain conditions of life and activity of people.
Therefore, temporary connections in the cerebral cortex play an important role in the development of abilities. Systems of conditioned connections give the more general features of the brain those qualities that make a person suitable for certain specific types of activity.
Of significant importance in the formation of abilities are, further, such features of higher nervous activity as the speed of formation and strength of conditioned reflexes, the speed of formation and strength of inhibitory reactions (especially differentiation), the speed of formation and ease of alteration of dynamic stereotypes. These features affect the success of various types of activities, including educational activities. The speed and strength of assimilation of new knowledge and skills (formation of new conditional connections), the ability to capture similarities and differences between objects and phenomena of reality (ease of differentiation), the ability to change habitual forms of activity and behavior in accordance with changing conditions (speed of alteration of dynamic stereotypes) depend on them ) etc.
Each of these features may have an unequal degree of development in different types of activity, which often determines the development of special abilities for certain types of activity.
Capabilities - These are individual psychological properties of a person that determine the success of performing certain types of activities and the suitability (readiness) of a person for a particular type of activity. Abilities are the functional integration of such personality properties that are most necessary for mastering a certain type of activity and for its successful implementation. Abilities are a measure of the correspondence of personality traits to the requirements of a specific activity. Abilities are revealed in the process of mastering an activity, in how quickly and thoroughly, easily and firmly a person masters the methods of its organization and implementation. Abilities determine a person’s ability to learn, acquire knowledge, skills and abilities. However, abilities cannot be reduced to knowledge, skills, and abilities. Abilities are manifested in the dynamics of their acquisition. Indicators of abilities can be considered: a) rate of progress in mastering the activity; b) the breadth of transfer of emerging mental qualities; c) the ratio of neuropsychic costs and the final result of the activity. A prerequisite for abilities that facilitates their development is inclinations.
Makings of– innate possibilities for the development of morphological, anatomical-physiological and psychological properties of the individual.
The deposits include:
1. Typological properties of the NS;
2. Level of development and correlation of signaling systems;
3. Natural properties of analyzers;
4. Variants of the structure of the cerebral cortex.
The inclinations are multi-valued, they can develop in different directions. Inclinations are only prerequisites for the development of abilities.
Abilities are divided into are common, necessary for any type of activity, and special, ensuring the success of certain types of activities. In the structure of the abilities of some people, general qualities can be extremely clearly expressed, which makes it possible to talk about the presence of versatile abilities that are common in relation to a wide range of different types of activities. General abilities (general personality traits) are very specific psychological manifestations. Depending on their severity, all people can be divided into three types:
1. artistic;
2. thinking;
3. average.
This typology is associated with the doctrine, according to which the higher nervous activity of a person is characterized by the presence of two signaling systems: the first signaling system (figurative, emotional); and the second signaling system (verbal). The artistic type is characterized by brightness of images and emotions. For the thinking type - the predominance of abstractions, logical constructions, for the middle type - an equal combination of images and logic.. A person’s attitude towards one or another type suggests that it is easier for him to master a very specific activity: for the artistic type - to become a musician, for the thinking type - to become a mathematician. But this does not mean a fatal doom to engage in a certain activity, it is only a predisposition to it.
Structure ability is a set of mental qualities that are necessary for the successful performance of an activity. The abilities of different people for the same activity may have a different structure due to the individual uniqueness of mental qualities and their combinations.
Abilities Compensationpossible through: a) acquiring the knowledge, skills and abilities necessary for this activity; b) formation of a typical style of this activity; c) development of other qualities.
The word success, if you think about the meaning of its original meaning, is associated with the concept of “being in time.” “Successful” means one who has time, “one who has time” means doing something on time. A successful person is a person who sets long-term goals and knows how to achieve them competently: in a timely manner, with minimal energy expenditure. If a person achieves his goals with great difficulty, then he can also be considered successful, but with certain reservations. The price paid for such success is sometimes too great: mental energy is wasted, strength and health are wasted. Success achieved at too great a cost is not complete. Successful people in the deep understanding of this word are not darlings of fate to whom everything floats into their hands; they are people who achieve great results with minimal costs. Their success is connected precisely with the ability to be on time, not to be late, and with the ability to sense the situation. Each step leading to the set goal is achieved in a timely manner, and this brings a feeling of deep satisfaction.
Let's turn to dictionaries. In the new Russian language dictionary, “success” is defined as:
1. Good luck in any business, successful achievement of a goal.
2. Recognition of such luck from others, public approval of something, someone’s achievements.
3. Public attention to someone, recognition of someone’s merits.
Dictionary of the Russian language S.I. Ozhegova contains the following definitions:
1. Luck in achieving something.
2. Public recognition.
True success is not only the satisfaction of basic needs, but a feeling of development and growth. That’s why it’s so important to set goals for yourself - so that you have motivation, something to strive for, something to achieve. Satisfaction of needs, opportunity for development and career growth are inextricably linked with professional activity. In addition, a person’s abilities play an important role in the success of professional activity, but they are only one of the conditions for success. The concept of “ability” was given in the first chapter of the work; I would like to dwell on the levels of development of abilities.
In Russian psychology, the following classification of levels of ability development is usually considered.
The combination of various highly developed abilities is called giftedness, and this characteristic refers to a person who is capable of many different activities. . Only the possibility of such successful performance of an activity depends on talent. To successfully perform any activity, it is necessary not only to have the appropriate combination of abilities, but also to possess the appropriate knowledge and skills.
In other words, if a child’s general physical abilities are superimposed on particular ones (for example, very high endurance, very developed muscles), plus good reaction speed, concentration and distribution of attention, then we can already assume giftedness in the field of boxing. And if this talent is combined with the experience gained in the boxing section and various kinds of competitions, then the child can become a champion.
It is important to understand that giftedness is almost always based on the direction of a person's interests. In a sense, interest is also an ability: the ability to maintain attention on something for a long time without visible effort. Interest in a particular subject can either promote the development of inclinations or inhibit it. It often happens that people without noticeable inclinations engage in a certain type of activity only because they like it.
The next level in the classification of abilities is talent. Talent is a high level of development of special abilities (musical, literary, etc.). Like giftedness, talent manifests itself and develops most often in activity. The activity of a talented person is distinguished by its novelty and originality of approach.
Talent is a set of abilities, their specific combination. A separate isolated ability, even a very highly developed one, cannot be called a talent. Among outstanding talents, you can, for example, find many people with both good and bad memory: in human creative activity, memory is only one of the factors on which success depends. But most likely there will be no result without flexibility of mind, rich imagination, strong will, and strong interest.
And finally, the highest level of classification is genius. This is the highest level of development of abilities. Genius leaves a noticeable mark on the development of culture and in the history of mankind. There are very few people of genius. There are no “genius positions” in society, that is, you cannot become a genius just because of your social position. A king or president also leaves a mark in the life of society, but if he did not exist, then another king or president would come. And “instead” of one genius there will no longer be another. At least for a while.
Abilities are always associated with certain types of activities; outside of activity, they do not exist. Only in activity does the formation, formation and development of abilities occur.
Labor activity is a conscious, energy-consuming, generally accepted expedient human activity that requires effort and work.
Any activity can be considered successful or unsuccessful. But the very concept of “professional success” has many meanings. It includes labor productivity. To assess success, product quality and error-free actions are also important. In some cases, the level of complexity of the problem being solved may serve as an indicator of success.
Let us dwell on the prerequisites for successful professional activity.
B.M. Teplov said that the success of professional activity depends on the individual abilities of a person, describing them in this way: “Abilities can only be called such individual psychological characteristics that are related to the success of performing one or another activity. However, it is not individual abilities as such that directly determine the possibility of successfully performing any activity, but only a peculiar combination of these abilities that characterizes a given person.”
Each person has his own individual style of professional activity, which affects its effectiveness. E.A. Klimov believes that individual style should be understood as the entire system of distinctive features of a given person’s activity, determined by the characteristics of his personality: “...individual style is an individually unique system of psychological means to which a person consciously or spontaneously resorts in order to best balance his (typologically determined) individuality with objective, external conditions of activity... Among the features of this kind that form the core of the individual style, there are always two categories: features that are conducive to success in a given environment (“A”), and features that are opposed to success (“B”). it is necessary to emphasize the purely functional nature of this division, i.e. the same feature of activity may appear, in one case, in category “A”, in another - in category “B”, depending on the nature of the objective requirements. leisurely and monotonous movements for inert people will be in category “A”, for example, when manually polishing a product, and in category “B”, if the task is to urgently and often change the nature of movements, for example, when maintaining balance on an unstable support... Formation of an individual style promotes the individual to ever higher levels of activity, and therefore contributes to the well-founded implementation of the principle “from each according to his ability.”
N.V. Samukina, defining the term success, speaks about it as follows: “Success in professional activity is manifested, first of all, in the employee achieving a significant goal and overcoming or transforming the conditions that impede the achievement of this goal.”
ON THE. Lavrova, analyzing the influence of personal characteristics on the success of professional activity in the “person - person” system, showed in her research that the requirements that are decisive for successful professional activity are more than diverse. She established that the subject of labor activity as a person is characterized by a certain specific set of stability of personal formations, which includes: motives, attitudes, orientation, modes of behavior, characterological characteristics and other structures that determine the originality of his individual psychological manifestations in professional activity.
Thus, it becomes clear that success in professional activity can be caused by various reasons.
Along with general requirements, each area of human activity makes certain specific requirements for the subject of career success. Let us dwell on the success factors of a manager’s professional activity.
All over the world at the beginning of the 21st century, the tendency to increase the ambition and competitiveness of people from various social groups (youth, intellectuals, businessmen, government officials, managers of all levels and ranks) has become relevant. The consequence of this was the desire to be successful in various areas of life. Young people already at the stage of university education discover this tendency, manifesting and representing their career goals and intentions. Perhaps this is facilitated by the sharp differentiation of educational opportunities of Russians that has begun in a number of recent decades, which determines the early inclusion of growing youth in tough competitive relations.
At all stages of the formation of society, the problem of management was quite acute and many tried to solve it.
And only in the second half of the last century the situation changed dramatically. Market relations dominated all spheres of social life. Large companies grew like mushrooms after rain, requiring a large number of top and middle level managers capable of making competent rational decisions and able to work with a large number of people. Therefore, managers were required to have high professionalism, competence, and the ability to balance their activities with existing laws. As a result, a group of people specifically engaged in management activities appears. The main task of which is the painstaking organization and daily management of production in order to ensure the greatest profit for the owners of the company. These people became known as managers.
Management activities make different demands on their subjects depending on their rank. The lower the rank of a manager, the closer he is to professional activities, the more in demand are his professional and business qualities, which determine professional success and indicate a high level of professionalism in a certain field. The higher the manager's service rank, the more his activities are of a public nature, and success is determined by the ability to organize subordinates to perform specific professional tasks. A manager needs qualities that reflect his ability to navigate the field of activity he manages and influence various groups of people with whom he interacts in order to solve management problems.
Let us dwell on those qualities of a manager that allow him to fully realize his career ambitions.
Firstly, the personal component. The personal component of a manager’s success includes everything that characterizes the managerial activity as an individual and personality in professional activities, relationships, interactions and communication.
Thus, the organizational skills of a manager include the ability to: know oneself; get to know people from incomplete data; study people in their daily activities; establish and maintain psychological contact with people around you; influence people; etc. Organizational abilities are based on character traits such as activity, independence, initiative, determination, certain strong-willed qualities, and the ability to foresee the results of one’s activities. professional labor ability
Secondly, communication skills. They contribute to the effectiveness of business interaction between the manager and employees. Communicative abilities include: organization, confidence, independence, ability to listen, modesty, commitment, sincerity, activity, tact, etc. The following qualities complicate business interaction: skepticism, shyness, overestimation of one’s capabilities, aggressiveness, complacency, isolation, hot temper, touchiness, distrust, suspicion, isolation, secrecy.
Thirdly, the manager's teaching abilities. The content of pedagogical abilities usually includes: psychological observation; the ability to project the personality of a subordinate and see the prospects for its development; pedagogical tact; the ability to objectively assess the level of professionalism of subordinates; interest in working with people; speaking ability, etc.
The most important component of the success of a manager’s professional activity is his competence. In science, competence is interpreted as a characteristic of possessing knowledge that allows one to judge something, express a weighty, authoritative opinion, awareness, and authority in a certain area. Therefore, a competent person is a knowledgeable, knowledgeable specialist in a certain field who has the right, based on his knowledge and authority, to do or decide something, to judge something.
A manager must be principled in all matters, be able to withstand pressure both “from above” and “from below”, consistently and firmly stand his ground, not hide his views, and firmly keep his word.
However, a leader must not only be well trained and highly educated, but also a creative person. He is required not only to believe in his own creative abilities, but also to appreciate such abilities in others, to be able to mobilize and use them. To do this, you need to be persistent, feel the need for change, be able to break with traditions, perceive new ideas and innovative solutions, and systematically use them. A creative leader typically works with groups using brainstorming techniques, encourages the free expression of emotions and ideas, and continually learns, including from their own mistakes.
Creativity is unthinkable without the ability to find information and share it with subordinates, listen to others no matter who they are, be open with colleagues, seek feedback, not isolate yourself from what threatens established views on the world, while questioning everything , understand the position of others, find people everywhere who are of at least some interest to the company.
All leading companies are characterized by the principle of “not leaving a single proposal, no matter how insignificant, unanswered.” For this purpose, for example, the Toyota company maintains monthly records of proposals, which are considered at various levels depending on the value of the proposal.
An excellent example of this is also the policy of IBM. Public opinion polls are conducted there twice a year. These are anonymous and voluntary surveys covering almost all IBM employees. The questionnaire used in the surveys is very voluminous. The questions cover a variety of aspects of IBM's life - from an assessment of personnel policies and the affairs of the company as a whole to salaries and working conditions in the workplace. Based on their results, each manager prepares an action plan to eliminate identified deficiencies and coordinates it with his subordinates.
But the most important thing for a manager is to grasp everything on the fly, to link newly acquired knowledge with old knowledge, to have the skill and ability to learn both on and off the job, increasing competence, but avoiding one-sided specialization.
It is impossible to lead people without self-confidence. Confident people know what they want. They never take shortcuts. Their views on issues are always clear and clear, and they strive to ensure that everyone knows about these views, and therefore freely express their point of view, ensuring that they are heard and understood, but at the same time respect other people and their opinions.
A good leader must be able to ensure employee ownership of the work. To do this, it is necessary to properly encourage people, to turn any, even the most tedious work, into an exciting game, looking for non-standard approaches. That is, in essence, take as an axiom Douglas McGregor’s theory “Y”, developed by him in the 60s, the first point of which states: “Work is as natural to a person as play.”
But the most important thing is that a manager must have the ability to lead, organize and support the work of a team, and be ready for action and risk. He must be able to determine the scope of his official powers, the ability to act independently of management, and encourage people to obey. To do this, the manager must have tolerance for the weaknesses of people that do not interfere with work, and intolerance for everything that interferes with the successful solution of the tasks facing him and the team.
It must be borne in mind that there does not exist, and will not exist, a manager who has universal abilities and acts equally effectively in any situation.
Analyzing all of the above, we can conclude that the success of professional activity is inextricably linked with a person’s abilities. Success factors are many and varied. We can conditionally identify general factors of professional success, characteristic of all professionals, and special factors, characteristic of their specific level. In addition, there are a number of factors that hinder a specialist’s career advancement. These include:
Physical factors that are determined by the state of the body (defects of the sensory organs, speech, low performance due to illness, etc.);
Social, which includes factors of a social nature;
A group of psychological factors, among which are conditions such as indecision, apprehension and other forms of fear, problems of intelligence, accentuation of the nature of unproductive orientation, deviations of behavior.
Since ability is a natural talent, a quality that allows a person to achieve his goals, much in professional activity and successful career growth depends on the person himself, his desires and aspirations. Abilities can only exist in a constant process of development.
Lecture: Human abilities
General characteristics of human abilities
Usually Abilities are understood as such individual characteristics that are conditions for the successful implementation of one or more activities. However, the term “ability,” despite its long-standing and widespread use in psychology, is interpreted ambiguously by many authors. If we summarize all the possible options for currently existing approaches to the study of abilities, they can be reduced to three main types. In the first case Abilities are understood as the totality of all possible mental processes and states. This is the broadest and oldest interpretation of the term “ability.” From the point of view of the second approach Abilities are understood as a high level of development of general and specialized knowledge, skills and abilities that ensure a person’s successful performance of various types of activities. This definition appeared and was accepted in the psychology of the 18th-19th centuries. and is quite common nowadays. Third approach is based on the assertion that abilities are something that cannot be reduced to knowledge, skills and abilities, but ensures their rapid acquisition, consolidation and effective use in practice.
In Russian psychology, experimental studies of abilities are most often based on the latter approach. The greatest contribution to its development was made by the famous domestic scientist B. M. Teplov. He identified the following three main features of the concept of “ability”.
Firstly, abilities are understood as individual psychological characteristics that distinguish one person from another; no one will talk about abilities when we are talking about properties in respect of which all people are equal.
Secondly, abilities are not called all individual characteristics, but only those that are related to the success of performing any activity or many activities.
Thirdly, the concept of “ability” is not limited to the knowledge, skills or abilities that have already been developed by a given person.
Abilities can be classified into:
Natural (or natural) abilities, basically biologically determined, associated with innate inclinations, formed on their basis in the presence of elementary life experience through learning mechanisms such as conditioned reflex connections (for example, such elementary abilities are perception, memory, the ability for elementary communication);
Specific human abilities, having a socio-historical origin and ensuring life and development in the social environment. Specific human abilities are in turn divided into:
A) general which determine a person’s success in a wide variety of activities and communication (mental abilities, developed memory and speech, accuracy and subtlety of hand movements, etc.), and special, which determine a person’s success in certain types of activity and communication, where a special kind of inclinations and their development are required (mathematical, technical, literary and linguistic, artistic and creative abilities, sports, etc.).
B) theoretical, determining a person’s propensity for abstract-logical thinking, and practical, underlying the propensity for concrete practical actions. The combination of these abilities is characteristic only of multi-talented people;
B) educational, which influence the success of pedagogical influence, a person’s assimilation of knowledge, abilities, skills, the formation of personality qualities, and creative associated with success in creating works of material and spiritual culture, new ideas, discoveries, inventions;
D) abilities to communicate, interact with people and subject-related abilities, related to the interaction of people with nature, technology, symbolic information, artistic images, etc.
Levels of ability development and individual differences
In psychology, the following classification of levels of development of abilities is most often found: ability, giftedness, talent, genius.
All abilities in the process of their development go through a number of stages, and in order for a certain ability to rise to a higher level in its development, it is necessary that it has already been sufficiently developed at the previous level. But for the development of abilities, there must initially be a certain foundation, which constitutes makings. Inclinations are understood as the anatomical and physiological characteristics of the nervous system, which form the natural basis for the development of abilities. For example, developmental features of various analyzers can act as innate inclinations. Thus, certain characteristics of auditory perception can act as the basis for the development of musical abilities.
It should be noted that the innate anatomical and physiological characteristics of the structure of the brain, sensory organs and movement, or innate inclinations, determine the natural basis of individual differences between people. According to I.P. Pavlov, the basis of individual differences is determined by the predominant type of higher nervous activity and the peculiarities of the relationship of signaling systems. Based on these criteria, three typological groups of people can be distinguished: artistic type (predominance of the first signaling system), thinking type (predominance of the second signaling system) and average type (equal representation).
The typological groups identified by Pavlov suggest the presence of various innate inclinations in representatives of one or another group. Thus, the main differences between the artistic type and the thinking type appear in the sphere of perception, where the “artist” is characterized by holistic perception, and the “thinker” is characterized by fragmentation of it into separate parts; in the sphere of imagination and thinking, “artists” have a predominance of figurative thinking and imagination, while “thinkers” are more characterized by abstract, theoretical thinking; in the emotional sphere, persons of the artistic type are distinguished by increased emotionality, while representatives of the thinking type are more characterized by rational, intellectual reactions to events.
It should be emphasized that the presence of certain inclinations in a person does not mean that he will develop certain abilities. For example, an essential prerequisite for the development of musical abilities is a keen ear. But the structure of the peripheral (auditory) and central nervous system is only a prerequisite for the development of musical abilities. The structure of the brain does not provide for what professions and specialties related to musical hearing may arise in human society. It is also not provided for what area of activity a person will choose for himself and what opportunities will be provided to him for the development of his existing 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 upbringing and the characteristics of the development of society. Inclinations develop and transform into abilities, provided that there is a need in society for certain professions, in particular, where a fine ear for music is needed. The second significant factor in the development of inclinations is the characteristics of upbringing.
The makings are non-specific. The presence of a certain type of inclinations in a person does not mean that on their basis, under favorable conditions, some specific ability must necessarily develop. Based on the same inclinations, different abilities can be developed depending on the nature of the requirements imposed by the activity. Thus, a person with good hearing and a sense of rhythm can become a musical performer, conductor, dancer, singer, music critic, teacher, composer, etc. At the same time, it cannot be assumed that inclinations do not influence the nature of future abilities. Thus, the features of the auditory analyzer will affect precisely those abilities that require a special level of development of this analyzer.
The next level of development is abilities. These are individual psychological characteristics of a person that ensure success in activities, communication and ease of mastering them.
Abilities are largely social and are formed in the process of specific human activities. Depending on whether conditions for the development of abilities exist or not, they can be potential And relevant.
Potential abilities are understood as those that are not realized in a specific type of activity, but are capable of being updated when the corresponding social conditions change. Actual abilities, as a rule, include those that are needed at a given moment and are implemented in a specific type of activity. Potential and actual abilities are an indirect indicator of the nature of the social conditions in which a person’s abilities develop. It is the nature of social conditions that prevents or promotes the development of potential abilities, and ensures or does not ensure their transformation into actual ones.
It should be noted that no single ability can by itself ensure the successful performance of an activity. The success of any activity always depends on a number of abilities. Observation alone, no matter how perfect, is not enough to become a good writer. For a writer, observation, imaginative memory, a number of thinking qualities, abilities related to writing, the ability to concentrate and a number of other abilities are of paramount importance.
On the other hand, the structure of any specific ability includes universal or general qualities that meet the requirements of various types of activity, and special qualities that ensure success in only one type of activity. For example, while studying mathematical abilities, V. A. Krutetsky found that to successfully perform mathematical activities it is necessary:
1) an active, positive attitude towards the subject, a tendency to engage in it, which turns into passion at a high level of development;
2) a number of character traits, primarily hard work, organization, independence, determination, perseverance, as well as stable intellectual feelings;
3) the presence during the activity of mental states favorable for its implementation;
4) a certain fund of knowledge, skills and abilities in the relevant field;
5) individual psychological characteristics in the sensory and mental spheres that meet the requirements of this activity.
Moreover, the first four the categories of the listed properties should be considered as general properties necessary for any activity, and not considered as components of abilities, since otherwise components of abilities should interests and inclinations, character traits, mental states, as well as skills and abilities.
The next level of ability development is giftedness. Giftedness is a unique combination of abilities that provides a person with the opportunity to successfully perform any activity.
In this definition, it is necessary to emphasize that it is not the successful performance of an activity that depends on giftedness, but only the possibility of such successful performance. To successfully perform any activity, it is necessary not only to have the appropriate combination of abilities, but also to master the necessary knowledge and skills. No matter how phenomenally mathematically gifted a person may be, if he has never studied mathematics, he will not be able to successfully perform the functions of the most ordinary specialist in this field. Giftedness determines only the possibility of achieving success in a particular activity, while the realization of this opportunity is determined by the extent to which the corresponding abilities will be developed and what knowledge and skills will be acquired.
Individual differences in gifted people are found mainly in the direction of their interests. Some people, for example, stop at mathematics, others at history, and still others at social work. Further development of abilities occurs in specific activities.
It should be noted that in the structure of abilities two groups of components can be distinguished. Some occupy a leading position, while others are auxiliary. Thus, in the structure of visual abilities, the leading properties will be the high natural sensitivity of the visual analyzer - a sense of line, proportion, shape, light and shade, color, rhythm, as well as the sensorimotor qualities of the artist’s hand, highly developed figurative memory, etc. The auxiliary qualities include the properties artistic imagination, emotional mood, emotional attitude towards what is depicted, etc.
Leading and auxiliary components of abilities form a unity that ensures the success of activities. However, the structure of abilities is a very flexible education. The ratio of leading and auxiliary qualities in a specific ability varies from person to person. Depending on which quality a person has as a leader, the formation of auxiliary qualities necessary for performing the activity occurs. Moreover, even within the same activity, people may have different combinations of qualities that will allow them to equally successfully perform this activity, compensating for shortcomings.
It should be noted that the lack of abilities does not mean that a person is unfit to perform a particular activity, since there are psychological mechanisms for compensating for missing abilities. Often, activities have to be carried out not only by those who have the ability to do it, but also by those who do not have them. If a person is forced to continue in this activity, he will consciously or unconsciously compensate for the lack of abilities by relying on the strengths of his personality. According to E.P. Ilyin, compensation can be carried out through acquired knowledge or skills, or through the formation of an individual-typical style of activity, or through another, more developed ability. The possibility of widespread 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 successfully performing the activity most closely related to this ability. The missing ability can be compensated within very wide limits by others that are highly developed in a given person. This is probably what ensures the possibility of successful human activity in a wide variety of areas.
When characterizing a person’s abilities, they often distinguish the level of their development as skill, i.e., excellence in a specific activity. When people talk about a person's skill, they primarily mean his ability to successfully engage in productive activities. However, it does not follow from this that mastery is expressed in the corresponding amount of ready-made skills and abilities. Mastery in any profession presupposes psychological readiness for creative solutions to emerging problems. It’s not without reason that they say: “Mastery is when “what” and “how” come at the same time,” emphasizing that for a master there is no gap between awareness of a creative task and finding ways to solve it.
The next level of development of human abilities is talent. The word “talent” is found in the Bible, where it has the meaning of a measure of silver that a lazy slave received from his master during his absence and chose to bury in the ground, instead of putting it into circulation and making a profit (hence the saying “bury your talent in the ground” ). Currently, talent is understood as a high level of development of special abilities (musical, literary, etc.). Just like abilities, talent manifests itself and develops in activity. The activity of a talented person is distinguished by its fundamental novelty and originality of approach.
The awakening of talent, as well as abilities in general, is socially conditioned. Which talents will receive the most favorable conditions for full development depends on the needs of the era and the characteristics of the specific tasks facing a given society.
It should be noted that talent is a certain combination of abilities, their totality. A separate isolated ability, even a very highly developed one, cannot be called a talent. For example, among outstanding talents you can find many people with both good and bad memory. This is due to the fact , that in human creative activity, memory is only one of the factors on which its success depends. But the results will not be achieved by inflexibility of the mind, rich imagination, strong will, and deep interest.
The highest level of development of abilities is called genius. ABOUT They say genius when a person’s creative achievements constitute an entire era in the life of society, in the development of culture. There are very few people of genius. It is generally accepted that over the entire five-thousand-year history of civilization there were no more than 400 people. The high level of talent that characterizes a genius is inevitably associated with excellence in various fields of activity. Among the geniuses who achieved such universalism are Aristotle, Leonardo da Vinci, R. Descartes, G. V. Leibniz, M. V. Lomonosov. For example, M.V. Lomonosov achieved outstanding results in various fields of knowledge: chemistry, astronomy, mathematics, and at the same time he was an artist, writer, linguist, and had an excellent knowledge of poetry. However, this does not mean that all individual qualities of a genius are developed to the same extent. Genius, as a rule, has its own “profile”, some side dominates in it, some abilities manifest themselves more clearly.
Capabilities- these are individual psychological characteristics of a person that ensure success in activities, in communication and the ease of mastering them.
They cannot be reduced to the knowledge, skills and abilities that a person has, but they ensure their rapid acquisition, fixation and effective practical application.
Abilities can be classified as follows:
- Natural (or natural). Basically, they are biologically determined, associated with innate inclinations, formed on their basis in the presence of elementary life experience through learning mechanisms - such as conditioned reflex connections.
- Specific human. They have a socio-historical origin and ensure life and development in the social environment.
The latter, in turn, are divided into:
- Are common: they determine a person’s success in a wide variety of activities and communication (mental abilities, developed memory and speech, accuracy and subtlety of hand movements, etc.). Special: they are associated with an individual’s success in certain types of activities and communication, where a special kind of inclinations are needed - mathematical, technical, literary-linguistic, artistic, sports and other abilities.
- Theoretical: determine a person’s propensity for abstract-logical thinking, and practical ones - underlie the propensity for concrete practical actions. Their combination is typical only for multi-talented people.
- Educational: influence the success of pedagogical influence, a person’s assimilation of knowledge, abilities, skills, and the formation of personality qualities. Creative: associated with success in creating works of material and spiritual culture, new ideas, discoveries, inventions. The highest degree of creative manifestations of a personality is called genius, and the highest degree of a person’s abilities in a certain activity (communication) is called talent.
- Abilities for communication, interaction with people and subject-related abilities, associated with the interaction of people with nature, technology, symbolic information, artistic images, etc.
A person who is disposed to many and different types of activity and communication has a general talent, i.e., a unity of general abilities that determines the range of his intellectual capabilities, the level and originality of activity and communication.
Thus, abilities are individual psychological characteristics of a person, manifested in his activities and being a condition for the success of its implementation. The speed, depth, ease and strength of the process of mastering knowledge, skills and abilities depend on them, but the abilities themselves are not reduced to knowledge and skills. Research has established that they develop in the process of individual life and are actively shaped by their environment and upbringing.
A deep analysis of the problem of abilities was given by B. M. Teplov. According to the concept he develops, anatomical, physiological and functional characteristics of a person can be innate, creating certain prerequisites for the development of abilities, called inclinations.
- Makings of- these are some genetically determined (innate) anatomical and physiological characteristics of the nervous system that constitute the individual natural basis (prerequisite) for the formation and development of abilities.
- Capabilities- not static, but dynamic formations; their formation and development occur in the process of a certain way of organized activity and communication. The development of abilities occurs in stages.
The makings are multi-valued; they are only prerequisites for the development of abilities that are not predetermined by them. The makings themselves are not aimed at anything. They influence, but not in a decisive way, the formation of such, determining different ways of their formation. Abilities develop in the process of activity and education. Inclinations only influence the level of achievement and speed of development.
Each ability has its own structure, which distinguishes between leading and auxiliary properties. For example, the leading properties of literary abilities are the characteristics of creative imagination and thinking, vivid, visual images of memory, a sense of language, and the development of aesthetic feelings. Similar properties of mathematical abilities are the ability to generalize and flexibility of thought processes. For pedagogical abilities, the leading ones are pedagogical tact, observation, love for children, and the need to transfer knowledge.
The following levels of abilities are distinguished: reproductive, which provides a high ability to assimilate ready-made knowledge, master existing patterns of activity and communication, and creative, which contributes to the creation of new, original ones. But it should be borne in mind that the reproductive level includes elements of the creative, and vice versa.
The same person may have different abilities, but one of them turns out to be more significant than the others. At the same time, different people exhibit the same abilities, although they are unequal in level of development. Since the beginning of the 20th century. Repeated attempts have been made to measure them (foreign psychologists G. Eysenck, J. Cattell, C. Spearman, A. Binet, etc.). Tests were used for this. However, a more accurate way of determining is to identify the dynamics of success in the process of activity. The success of performing any action is determined not by any individual abilities in themselves, but only by a combination of them, unique to each person. Success can be achieved in various ways. Thus, the insufficient development of an individual ability is compensated by others, on which the successful implementation of the same activity also depends.
Components of Teaching Abilities- constructive, organizational, communicative. The first are manifested in the desire and ability to develop the student’s personality, select and compositionally build educational material in relation to the age and individual characteristics of children. Organizational skills affect the ability to include students in various types of activities and skillfully influence the child’s personality. Communication skills are associated with the ability to establish correct relationships with children, feel the mood of the entire team, and understand each student.
Research into various types of special abilities is carried out mainly when vocational guidance and selection are carried out.
It was proposed to divide the entire variety of professions into five main types depending on the object to which they are directed (E. A. Klimov):
- P - nature (plants, animals);
- G- equipment (machines, materials);
- H- people, groups of people;
- Z- symbolic information (books, languages, codes, models);
- X- artistic images (art).
When solving problems of vocational guidance, it is advisable to determine, first of all, the young person’s inclinations for the listed types of professions.
The teacher not only transfers certain knowledge and skills to the student, but also forms and develops his abilities, helps him navigate the world of professions in order to choose the most suitable one according to the individual inclinations and abilities of this person.
The development of a person’s general abilities presupposes the development of his cognitive processes, memory, perception, thinking, and imagination.
An important point is complexity - the simultaneous improvement of several complementary abilities.
Individual characteristics of a person determine a unique style of activity (E. A. Klimov). It is characterized by:
- a sustainable system of techniques and methods of activity;
- the conditionality of this system by certain individual qualities;
- the fact that this system is a means of effectively adapting to objective requirements;
- the fact that the features of the style of activity are determined by the typological properties of the human nervous system.
