There is a huge difference between the human psyche and the psyche of the highest animal.

The first difference is the difference between the thinking of humans and animals. Thus, there is no comparison between the “language” of animals and the language of humans. While an animal can only give a signal to its fellows about phenomena limited to a given, immediate situation, a person can, with the help of language, inform other people about the past, present and future, and convey to them social experience. Each individual person, thanks to language, uses the experience developed in the centuries-old practice of society; he can gain knowledge about phenomena that he has never personally encountered. In addition, language allows a person to be aware of the content of most sensory impressions.

The difference in the “language” of animals and the language of man determines the difference in thinking, since each individual mental function develops in interaction with other functions.

Many experiments by researchers have shown that higher animals are characterized only by practical thinking. Only in the process of indicative manipulation is a monkey able to solve one or another situational problem and even create a “tool”. Abstract modes of thinking have not yet been observed in monkeys by any researcher who has ever studied the psyche of animals. An animal can act only within the limits of a clearly perceived situation; it cannot go beyond its limits, abstract from it and assimilate an abstract principle. The animal is a slave to the directly perceived situation.

Human behavior is characterized by the ability to abstract (be distracted) from a given specific situation and anticipate the consequences that may arise in connection with this situation. People are not slaves to a given situation; they are able to foresee the future.

Thus, the concrete, practical thinking of animals subordinates them to the immediate impression of a given situation, and man's ability for abstract thinking eliminates his direct dependence on a given situation. A person is able to act in accordance with a recognized need - consciously.

The second difference between man and animal is his ability to create and maintain tools. An animal creates a tool in a specific visual-effective situation. Outside of a specific situation, an animal never singles out a tool as a tool and does not keep it for future use. As soon as the tool has played its role in a given situation, it immediately ceases to exist for the monkey as a tool. So, if a monkey has just used a stick as a tool for pulling up a fetus, then after a while the animal can chew it out or calmly watch as another monkey does it.

Thus, animals do not live in a world of permanent things. In addition, the instrumental activity of animals is never performed collectively - at best, monkeys can observe the activity of their fellow, but they will never act together, helping each other.

Unlike an animal, a person creates a tool according to a pre-thought-out plan, uses it for its intended purpose and preserves it. Man lives in a world of relatively constant things, uses tools together with other people, borrows the experience of using tools from some and passes it on to other people.

The third, very significant difference between animals and humans is the difference in feelings. Both man and the higher animal do not remain indifferent to what is happening around them. Objects and phenomena of reality can evoke positive or negative emotions in animals and humans. However, only a person can have a developed ability to empathize with grief and rejoice with another person. Only man can enjoy the pictures of nature or experience intellectual feelings when realizing any fact of life.

The fourth most important difference between the human psyche and the psyche of animals lies in the conditions of their development. If the development of the psyche of the animal world followed the laws of biological evolution, then the development of the actual human psyche of human consciousness obeys the laws of historical development.

Both animals and humans have in their arsenal the well-known experience of generations in the form of instinctive actions to a certain type of stimulus. Both of them gain personal experience in all sorts of situations that life offers them. But only a person appropriates social experience, which develops his psyche to the greatest extent. From the moment of birth, a child masters ways of using tools and ways of communicating with other people.

Psychologists have established that without assimilation of the experience of humanity, without communication with one’s own kind, there will be no developed, strictly human feelings, the ability for voluntary attention and memory, the ability for abstract thinking will not develop, and a human personality will not be formed.

Cases of human children being raised among animals showed that in children raised by animals, it was impossible to detect those characteristics that distinguish a person from an animal. While a small monkey, by chance, left alone, without a herd, will still manifest itself as a monkey, a person only becomes a person if his development takes place among people.

The highest level of the psyche, characteristic of a person, forms consciousness. Consciousness is the highest, integrating form of the psyche, the result of the socio-historical conditions for the formation of a person in work activity with constant communication (using language) with other people.

What is the structure of consciousness, its most important psychological characteristics?

Its first characteristic is given in its very name: consciousness. Human consciousness includes a body of knowledge about the world around us. The structure of consciousness includes the most important cognitive processes, with the help of which a person constantly enriches his knowledge. These processes may include sensations and perceptions, memory, imagination and thinking. With the help of sensations and perceptions, with the direct reflection of stimuli affecting the brain, a sensory picture of the world as it appears to a person at the moment is formed in the mind. Memory allows you to renew images of the past in the mind, imagination allows you to build figurative models of what is an object of needs, but is absent at the present time. Thinking ensures problem solving through the use of generalized knowledge. A disruption, a disorder, not to mention a complete breakdown of any of these mental cognitive processes, inevitably becomes a disorder of consciousness.

The second characteristic of consciousness is the clear distinction between subject and object enshrined in it, i.e. of what belongs to a person’s “I” and his “not-I”. Man, who for the first time in the history of the organic world stood out from it and contrasted himself with his surroundings, continues to retain this opposition and distinction in his consciousness. He is the only one among living beings who is capable of self-knowledge, i.e. turn mental activity to self-exploration. A person makes a conscious self-assessment of his actions and himself as a whole. The separation of “I” from “not-I” - the path that every person goes through in childhood, is carried out in the process of forming a person’s self-awareness.

The third characteristic of consciousness is ensuring the goal-setting activity of a person. The functions of consciousness include the formation of goals of activity, while its motives are formed and weighed, volitional decisions are made, the progress of actions is taken into account and the necessary adjustments are made to it, etc. Any violation, as a result of illness or for some other reason, of the ability to carry out goal-setting activities, its coordination and direction, is considered as a violation of consciousness.

Finally, the fourth characteristic of consciousness is the inclusion of a certain attitude in its composition. The world of feelings inevitably enters a person’s consciousness, where complex objective and, above all, social relations in which a person is included are reflected. Emotional assessments of interpersonal relationships are represented in the human mind. And here, as in many other cases, pathology helps to better understand the essence of normal consciousness. In some mental illnesses, a disturbance of consciousness is characterized precisely by a disorder in the sphere of feelings and relationships.

A prerequisite for the formation and manifestation of all the above specific qualities of consciousness is language. In the process of speech activity, knowledge is accumulated, a person is enriched with the riches of human thought that humanity developed before him and for him, consolidated and transmitted to him in language. Language is a special objective system in which socio-historical experience or social consciousness is imprinted. Having been mastered by a specific person, language in a certain sense becomes his real consciousness.

The concept of “consciousness” is used in psychology, psychiatry and other sciences in a sense that corresponds to its main characteristics given above. At the same time, psychiatrists, who are constantly faced with the question of the presence, preservation or impairment of consciousness in a patient, understand consciousness as the ability contained in the psyche of a given person to give an account of the place, time, environment, state and mode of action of one’s own personality.

Consciousness, being a social product, is inherent only to man. Animals do not have consciousness.

There is no doubt that there is a huge difference between the human psyche and the animal psyche.

Thus, there is no comparison between the “language” of animals and the language of humans. While an animal can only give a signal to its fellows regarding phenomena limited to a given, immediate situation, a person can use his tongue inform other people about the past, present and future, transmit them social experience.

In the history of mankind, thanks to language, a restructuring of reflective capabilities has occurred: the reflection of the world in the human brain is most adequate. Each individual person, thanks to language, uses the experience developed in the centuries-old practice of society; he can gain knowledge about phenomena that he has never personally encountered. In addition, language allows a person to be aware of the content of most sensory impressions.

The difference in the “language” of animals and the language of man determines the difference in thinking. This is explained by the fact that each individual mental function develops in interaction with other functions.

Many experiments by researchers have shown that higher animals are characterized only by practical thinking. Only in the process of indicative manipulation is the monkey able to solve one or another situational problem. No researcher has yet observed abstract ways of thinking in monkeys.

An animal can act only within the limits of a clearly perceived situation, it cannot go beyond its limits, abstract from it and assimilate an abstract principle. The animal is a slave to the directly perceived situation.

Human behavior is characterized by the ability to abstract from a given specific situation and anticipate the consequences that may arise in connection with this situation.

Thus, The concrete, practical thinking of animals subordinates them to the immediate impression of a given situation; man's ability for abstract thinking eliminates his direct dependence on a given situation. A person is able to reflect not only the immediate influences of the environment, but also those that await him. A person is able to act in accordance with a recognized need - consciously. This is the first significant difference between the human psyche and the animal psyche.

The second difference between man and animal is his the ability to create and maintain tools. An animal creates a tool in a specific situation. Outside of a specific situation, the Animal will never single out a tool as a tool and does not keep it for future use. As soon as the tool has played its role in a given situation, it will immediately cease to exist as a tool for the monkey. Thus Animals do not live in a world of permanent things. Besides, instrumental activity of animals is never performed collectively- at best, monkeys can observe the activities of their fellow.

Unlike an animal a person creates a tool according to a pre-thought-out plan, uses it for its intended purpose and preserves it. Man lives in a world of relatively permanent things. A person uses a tool together with other people; he borrows the experience of using a tool from some and passes it on to other people.

The third distinctive feature of human mental activity is transfer of social experience. Both animals and humans have in their arsenal the well-known experience of generations in the form of instinctive actions to a certain type of stimulus. Both of them gain personal experience in all sorts of situations that life offers them. But only man appropriates social experience. social experience occupies a dominant place in the behavior of an individual. The human psyche is developed to the greatest extent by the social experience transmitted to him.. From the moment of birth, the child masters the ways of using tools and methods of communication. The mental functions of a person change qualitatively due to the individual subject’s mastery of the tools of human cultural development. A person develops higher, strictly human, functions (voluntary memory, voluntary attention, abstract thinking).

The development of feelings, as well as the development of abstract thinking, contains a way to most adequately reflect reality. Therefore, the fourth, very significant difference between animals and humans is difference in feelings. Of course, both man and the higher animal do not remain indifferent to what is happening around them. Objects and phenomena of reality can evoke in animals and humans certain types of attitudes towards what affects them - positive or negative emotions. However, only a person can have a developed ability to empathize with the grief and joy of another person.

The most important differences between the human psyche and the animal psyche lie in the conditions of their development. If throughout the development of the animal world the development of the psyche followed the laws of biological evolution, then the development of the human psyche itself, human consciousness, is subject to the laws of socio-historical development. Without assimilating the experience of humanity, without communicating with others like oneself, there will be no developed, strictly human feelings, the ability for voluntary attention and memory, the ability for abstract thinking will not develop, and a human personality will not be formed. This is evidenced by cases of human children being raised among animals.

Thus, all Mowgli children showed primitive animal reactions, and it was impossible to detect in them those features that distinguish a person from an animal. While a small monkey, by chance left alone, without a herd, will still manifest itself as a monkey, a person will only become a person if his development takes place among people.

The human psyche was prepared by the entire course of the evolution of matter. Analysis of mental development allows us to talk about biological prerequisites for the emergence of consciousness. Of course, the human ancestor had the ability to think objectively and could form many associations. Pre-humans, possessing a limb like a hand, could create elementary tools and use them in a specific situation. We find all this in modern apes.

However, consciousness cannot be derived directly from the evolution of animals: man is a product of social relations. The biological prerequisite for social relations was the herd. Human ancestors lived in herds, which allowed all individuals to best protect themselves from enemies and provide mutual assistance to each other.

The factor influencing the transformation of a monkey into a man, a herd into society, was work activity i.e. such activity, which is carried out by people during the joint production and use of tools.

In history comparative scientific works a separate, huge layer is devoted to the study of differences in the psyche of humans and animals.

The tendency of research work is such that with each new block of study it becomes clear that more and more similarities are discovered between humans and animals.

Which non-existent animal is better to draw for a psychologist? Find out about this from ours.

Who first called man a “social animal”?

Who defined man as a “social animal”?

Still in the works Aristotle, an ancient philosopher, whose works are still reread today by people of different nations, ages, and levels of education.

The ancient Greek thinker in his monograph “Politics” wrote that “man is a social (in another translation - political) animal.”

But this saying gained popularity many centuries later. The Persian Letters were published in 1721. Charles Montesquieu, in the 87th letter, the French master of words successfully and appropriately quoted Aristotle.

Sometimes people use the expression “social animal” as an ancient Greek combination of words roon politikon.

And the meaning of these words is that a person can only succeed as a person in society, among his own kind. Outside of society, he takes on the characteristics of an animal.

And this fundamental thought many anthropological studies.

Instincts in people

To put it simply, the human brain is divided into two functional parts.

One is responsible for thinking, and this is about 90%: for it to work, you need a lot of energy, and all the actions of this part of the brain take a relatively long time.

The remaining 10% of the brain is occupied by reptilian brain(conventional name). It is he who is responsible for a person’s base desires, for instincts.

The reptilian brain works faster, but is primitive in structure, responsible, for the most part, for the simplest instincts and simply for survival.

Reptilian-instinctive thinking, as you might guess, requires less energy. This part of the brain constantly tries to drown out the conscious part, which is responsible for logic and orderly behavior.

Consider some animal instincts, remaining in a person, can be illustrated with simple examples:

desire for self-preservation. The animal has such an instinct, and it is clearly expressed. A person also has it - he begins to be treated when he gets sick, avoids those places and situations that threaten him with death;
parental instinct. Most animals take care of their offspring, just like humans;
herd instinct. It is human nature to go with the crowd, not against it;
food instinct. Both humans and animals obtain food when they feel hungry.

Animal instincts must be subordinated to reason.

Only evolution towards the development of reason and self-control led to the emergence of altruists, highly moral people, and humanists.

Such traits move progress of society, civilization as a whole.

How to cope with the death of a pet? will help you!

The origins of the formation of lower forms of behavior and the development of higher mental functions

Psyche- this is a general concept, this is the name given to many subjective constants that are studied by psychological science.

Living beings, in the course of their evolutionary improvement, received an organ that took responsibility for managing important processes.

This organ is the nervous system. It is the optimization of the structure and tasks of the nervous system that has become the basic source of mental development.

The body acquires newest properties and organs in the course of changes that occur in the genotype: adaptation to the environment, survival due to mutations have become more useful in terms of life support.

The development of higher mental functions, of any mental formation based on the use of signs, is staged.

On the first (i.e. primitive stage) the operation occurs as it developed at the still primitive stages of behavior.

The second stage is called stage of naive psychology, and at the third stage a person applies the sign in an external way. In the next stage, the outer operation goes inward.

Sign systems are one of the most important inventions of mankind. The second signaling system (that is, speech) has become a powerful tool for self-government and self-regulation.

Comparative analysis

Man is an animal of the order of mammals. But it has evolved: significant differences have appeared in humans, despite the similarities in physiology and.

So, a person is distinguished from an animal:

It is worth noting the constant growth of needs. Everyone notices that human needs are constantly growing. This is not just a feature, but a significant difference between a person and an animal.

Animals need protection from the cold, food and everything that have not changed for centuries, their psyche is not tuned to the development of needs.

But human desire for better living conditions led to great geographical discoveries, to the achievements of Newton and Einstein, to the highest level of medicine, to electricity, the emergence of the Internet, etc.

But the same needs lead to World Wars.

Of course, many will remember tribes, which seem to have been preserved in antiquity. They lead the same lifestyle as their ancient ancestors, they are not going to develop, etc.

Scientists have many opinions on this matter: if you read the book “Totem and Taboo” by S. Freud, you can understand some of the patterns of development of humanity and specifically humans.

Perhaps such tribes are needed to balance the historical process, at least there are such theories.

But the following is also interesting: some African tribes resemble Potemkin villages. They they create a great show for tourists, while they themselves have mobile phones, know how to drive a car, etc.

How to persuade your mother to buy a dog? you will find on our website.

How does human activity differ from the behavior of animals?

Human activity has consciousness, i.e. she goal-oriented. A person clearly understands the goal, evaluates the ways to achieve it, plans, and perceives risks.

Differences in human activity:

The activity of animals is given to them initially, it is determined by the genotype, and develops according to the physiology of the maturation of the organism.

Expressing emotions

In 1872 Charles Darwin wrote the work “The Expression of Emotions in Man and Animals.”

And this publication became a revolution in understanding the similarities between the mental and the biological.

Darwin isolated three principles, explaining gestures and expressions that are unwittingly used by humans and animals:

the principle of useful associated habits;
the principle of antithesis;
the principle of actions explained by the structure of the NS, they are initially independent of the will.

The first difference between human emotions and animal emotions is that the emotions of the latter depend only on his biological needs. Human emotions are dependent on and.

Next difference: a person has a mind, he gives control to emotions, evaluates them, hides them, feigns them. Another difference— It’s human nature to learn, and that’s why his emotions change.

It is worth saying in conclusion that humans are characterized by the highest moral feelings, but animals do not have them.

But there are also similarities: both humans and animals are capable of experiencing interest, joy, aggression, disgust, etc.

The comparison between man and animal is a deep, fundamental topic.

Pavlov, Ukhtomsky, Bekhterev, continued the works of their predecessors and discovered new laws of psychology and physiology.

But man has not found the key to understanding all the secrets of the universe, including anthropological theories. The more interesting it is further - evolution cannot be stopped.

Types of mental structure, or how a person differs from an animal:

The origin of man and his psyche from the animal world has led some scientists to assert that there are no significant differences between the psyche of man and animals. Some of them relegated humans to the level of animals, while others, on the contrary, endowed animals with qualities inherent in humans. The anthropologization of the animal psyche has been widely used both in psychology and in fiction. Thus, the American psychologist Titchener wrote that the psychologist “tries, as far as possible, to put himself in the place of the animal, to find conditions under which his own expressive movements would be generally of the same kind; and then he tries to recreate the consciousness of the animal according to the properties of his human consciousness.”

Naturally, the question arises to what extent there are similarities between the psyche of humans and animals, and what their differences are.

1. First of all, the similarity between the human psyche and animals lies in the fact that they are characterized by lower forms of the psyche: sensory and perceptual. Both sense the properties and qualities of stimuli acting on the sense organs and perceive them. Animals, like humans, have visual, auditory, olfactory, gustatory and skin sensations. Both those and others have images of perceived objects. But perceptual images of humans are qualitatively different from images of animals, since they have not only an external, but also an internal, subjective orientation. On the basis of subjective images, a person begins to function objective consciousness, the content of which is determined by the images that make up the inner spiritual world of a person, connected both with external reality and with the physical existence of a person.

2. Elements of similarity in the psyche of humans and animals also occur intellectually. In higher animals, visual-effective thinking begins to manifest itself, which allows them to grasp connections and relationships between perceived objects, and find a way out of the problem situation that has arisen. However, the ability to intellect

1 Vygotsky S.L. Problems of general psychology. Thought and word. Collection cit., T.2. M., 1982, p. 311.

al actions in higher animals is only a potential possibility and is rarely realized under natural conditions, since problematic situations arise only in exceptional cases.

3. Some methods of communication are similar for humans and animals. Both humans and animals communicate through movements, postures, facial expressions, touches, etc. They are also characterized by sound communication. But in animals, sounds are only signals for the implementation of biological functions, while in humans they acquire semantic meaning and become a tool of intellectual activity. Thanks to this, a person acquires the highest form of intelligence - abstract theoretical thinking, which gives him the opportunity to free himself from the influences of the directly perceived environment and arbitrarily regulate his behavior. On the basis of abstract thinking, a person develops a higher ideal spiritual world, the content of which is views, beliefs, ideals and worldviews.

4. Both animals and humans are capable of passing on their experience to subsequent generations. But in animals it is transmitted biologically through inherited innate forms of behavior, while in people it is transmitted through special social learning carried out through language and speech, which are a means of consolidating, existing and transmitting the socio-historical to the individual -al experience.

5. Animals, like humans, are capable of experiencing emotions of pleasure and suffering, affection and gratitude, but only humans are characterized by socially conditioned moral feelings. Thanks to these feelings, a person develops a moral character associated with the experience of a sense of duty and conscience to people and to himself.

6. Humans and animals have similar natural needs, without the satisfaction of which they cannot live and develop as living beings. But a person, along with natural needs, has spiritual needs, thanks to which a person gains freedom and independence in his actions, both in relation to physical and mental states. The freedom of spirit of a person is the main difference between a highly moral person not only from animals, but also from his relatives, who care only about

your bodily well-being.

7. Animals and humans are capable of self-regulation. But in animals, self-regulation is unconscious, while in humans it is carried out consciously and has a volitional character. Will is inherent only to man. It gives him the opportunity to purposefully carry out behavior, mobilizing physical and mental resources to overcome obstacles that arise on the way to achieving a consciously set goal.

Thus, in the psyche of humans and animals there are many similarities, based on the common origins of the emergence of the elementary psyche in the animal world. But if the psyche of animals is determined exclusively by the natural conditions of existence, then in humans it has not only a natural, but also a social character. The psyche ensures not only the physical existence of a person, but also the spiritual, moral existence, which is the property of only man. But the spiritual development of a person does not occur spontaneously, but is carried out under the influence of purposeful education, which occurs in the family, school and in society.

Literature Gippenreiter Yu.B. Introduction to general psychology. M., 1988. Vygotsky L.S. Collected works. T. 2, M., 1982. Ladygina-Kots N.I. Development of the psyche in the process of evolution of organisms. M., 1958.

Leontyev A.N. Selected psychological works. T. 11. M., 1983. Luria A.R. An evolutionary introduction to psychology. M., 1975. Nemov R.S. Psychology. Book 1. General fundamentals of psychology. M., 1994. Rubinstein S.L. Fundamentals of general psychology. M., 1989. Titchener E. Textbook of psychology. M., 1914. Fabry K.E. Fundamentals of zoopsychology. M., 1976.

Comparison of the psyche of animals and humans

Initially, we will focus on the similarities between the psyche of humans and animals, while pointing out how humans differ from higher mammals.

The first difference is the motivation for all activities of animals and humans. In the first case, it is directly biologically based. In other words, the activity of an animal is permissible only in relation to an object, a vital biological need, all the time remaining within the limits of their instinctive, biological relationship to nature. This is a general law of nature. In this regard, the possibilities of mental reflection by animals of the reality around them are also fundamentally limited, since they cover only the aspects and properties of objects associated with the satisfaction of their biological needs. Therefore, animals, in contrast to humans, do not have a stable, objectively objective reflection of reality. Thus, for an animal, any object of the surrounding reality always appears inseparably from its subconscious needs.

Everything that exists in the psychology and behavior of an animal is acquired by it in one of two acceptable ways: passed on by inheritance or acquired through the learning process. But at the same time, it is important that in addition to the inherited and received experience, a person also has a deliberately regulated formation process associated with training and upbringing.

Both humans and higher animals have common innate abilities to perceive the world in the form of images and remember information. In addition, all central types of sensations: vision, touch, hearing, smell, skin sensitivity, taste, etc. - are present in humans and animals from birth. But again, man demonstrates his advantage: perception and memory differ from similar functions in animals.

Firstly, in humans, compared to animals, the corresponding cognitive processes have special qualities: perception is “meaningful, constancy, objectivity,” and memory is “random.” Secondly, the memory of an animal compared to the memory of a person is significantly limited. They can use throughout their lives exclusively the information that they acquire independently. In humans the situation is different. We can say without fear that his memory has practically no boundaries. In addition, thanks to the invention of “sign systems,” people can record information, store it, and transmit it from generation to generation through objects of material and spiritual culture.

No less important differences are found in the thinking of humans and animals. Both of the above types of living beings, almost from birth, have at their disposal the possible ability to find the answer to primitive practical problems “in a visually effective way.” nevertheless, already at the next 2 stages of the formation of intelligence - in visual-figurative and verbal-logical thinking - striking differences are revealed between them.

Only higher animals can probably operate with images, and this is still a controversial issue among scientists. A person shows this ability after 2 and 3 years. If we talk about verbal-logical thinking, then animals do not even have any signs of this type of intelligence, since neither the meanings nor the logic of words (concepts) are available to them.

In higher mammals, mainly monkeys and humans, due to the high level of brain formation, previously absent abilities arise that make it possible to find a solution to a problem without preliminary test manipulations.

Obviously, the most advanced monkeys in the process of evolution and, undoubtedly, humans were able to develop this ability to establish connections between various components of a situation and ultimately come to the correct decision through inference, without resorting to experimental actions performed at random.

Inferences are used in a wide variety of situations of everyday existence, whether we are talking about moving from place to place, about completing a task, or about receiving and comprehending information coming from the environment in which an individual lives.

Thus, at higher stages of evolution, especially complex types of behavior with a complex structure begin to form, including:

tentative research activities leading to the formation of a scheme for solving the problem;

formation of plastically variable behavior programs aimed at achieving goals;

comparison of completed actions with the original intention. Characteristic of this structure of complex activity is its self-controlling nature: if the activity leads to the desired result, it ends, but if not, the appropriate signals are sent to the animal’s brain and efforts to find a solution to the problem begin again.

Systematic studies of the intellectual behavior of higher animals were founded by the well-known psychologist W. Keller from Germany. To study this form of behavior, W. Keller placed monkeys in difficult conditions when direct achievement of the goal was impossible.

The monkey had to either use a circuitous path to get the bait, or use special tools prepared earlier for its purpose. So, in particular, the monkey was placed in a cage of a sufficiently large size, near which bait was placed at such a distance that the monkey could not reach it in the usual way. She could only get it by taking a roundabout route through the door located in the back wall of the cage.

Research conducted by Keller allowed us to observe the following picture. At first, the monkey tried to get the bait directly to no avail: reaching for it or jumping. Thereupon she gave up her fruitless efforts, and a period followed when the monkey sat motionless and barely “thought” about the situation, which was accompanied by appropriate eye movements, until it reached the correct solution to the problems. It is specific that the solution to the problem moved from the period of direct trials to the period preceding the observation attempt, and the monkey’s movement was made only by the implementation of a previously formed “solution plan.”

It is very difficult to explain how an animal comes to an intellectual solution to a problem, and this process is interpreted by all kinds of researchers this way and that. Some believe it is possible to connect these forms of ape behavior with human intelligence and analyze them as a manifestation of creative insight. The Austrian psychologist K. Wühler believes that the use of tools by monkeys should be considered as the result of the transfer of long-past experience (“monkeys living in trees had to pull fruits to themselves by the branches”). According to current researchers, the basis of intellectual behavior is the reconstruction of complex relationships between individual things. Animals are able to understand the relationships between objects and anticipate the outcome under given conditions. I.P. Pavlov, our Russian biologist, called the intellectual behavior of monkeys “manual thinking.”

So, intellectual behavior, which is characteristic of higher mammals and reaches especially high development in apes, represents the upper limit of the development of the psyche, beyond which begins the history of the formation of a completely different psyche, a new type, characteristic only of man - the history of the development of human consciousness . The prehistory of human consciousness consists, as we have traced, of a long and complex process of development of the animal psyche. If you take a holistic look at this path, then its main stages and the laws governing them are clearly defined. The development of the psyche of animals is associated with the process of their biological evolution and is subject to the general laws of this process. Each new stage of mental development is fundamentally caused by the transition to new external conditions of existence of animals and a new step in the complication of their physical organization.

A more difficult question is the comparison of the manifestation of emotions in animals and humans. The difficulty of solving it lies in the fact that the primary emotions that exist in humans and animals are innate in nature. Both types of living beings, apparently, feel them in the same way and behave uniformly in corresponding emotional situations. Higher animals and humans have much in common in external ways of expressing emotions. In them you can observe something similar to a person’s moods, his affects and stress.

Here is one rather comical example. Demonstration of a grin is the most widespread instinctive program among vertebrates. Its purpose is to prevent you from meeting someone who is armed and ready to fend for yourself. Primates use it very widely during contacts. A person, in turn, bares his teeth when there is strong fear or anger. It’s unpleasant to be the recipient of such a demonstration and you don’t want to do it at all.

At the same time, humans have higher moral feelings that animals do not have. They, unlike “trivial” emotions, are brought up and changed under the influence of social conditions.

Scientists have spent a lot of effort and time trying to understand the issue of the unity and difference in the motivation of behavior of people and animals. Both undoubtedly have many common, purely organic needs, and in this regard it is difficult to find even slightly noticeable motivational differences between animals and humans.

There are also a number of needs in relation to which the question of fundamental differences between humans and animals seems unambiguously and definitely unsolvable, i.e. controversial. These are the needs for communication (contacts with one’s own kind and other living beings), aggressiveness, dominance (motive of power), altruism. Their elementary signs can be observed in animals, and it is still not known whether they are inherited by humans or acquired by them as a result of socialization.

Humans also have specific social needs, close analogues of which cannot be found in any animal. These are spiritual needs, needs that have a moral and value basis, creative needs, the need for self-improvement, aesthetic and a number of other needs.

Biosocial development of the person of the future

So, in the process of anthropogenesis, a new human genotype was formed. Thanks to which man became an autonomous being. Animals are unconscious, they are guided by instincts...

The origin and evolution of the psyche

Zoopsychology of animals

Communication channel Animals Humans Tactile Tactile information dominates in invertebrates. For example, in termite colonies there are blind worker termites that have a developed tactile communication channel...

Intellectual abilities, self-awareness, communication and socialization of the individual

Self-consciousness is the subject's consciousness of himself as opposed to something else - other subjects and the world in general; This is a person’s awareness of his social status and his vital needs, thoughts, feelings, motives, instincts, experiences...

General concept of psychology

Psyche is a property of highly organized living matter, which consists in the subject’s active reflection of the objective world, in the subject’s construction of a picture of this world that is inalienable from him and the regulation of behavior and activity on this basis...

The concept of the psyche and its evolution

In Russian psychology, the opinion has long been established that animal behavior is essentially instinctive behavior. Instincts are also associated with those forms of behavior that are acquired by a particular animal during its life...

Origin and development of human consciousness

In phylogenesis, the psyche has gone from the level of simple irritability to consciousness. The stages of this path are as follows: Taxis. This is an elementary form of irritability, observed even in plants (tropism). It is aimed at finding a favorable environment...

Psychology and pedagogy

Reflex theory formulates three main trends in the development of the psyche of living organisms: 1) complication of forms of behavior (forms of motor activity); 2) improving the ability to individually learn; 3) complication of forms...

Development of the psyche and consciousness

There are several stages in the development of the psyche. The stage of the elementary sensory psyche is simple unconditioned reflexes. Lowest level: animals are characterized by the appearance of elementary forms of movements, weak plasticity of behavior...

Development of the human and animal psyche

The history of comparative research has provided many examples of the commonalities that are found in the psyche of humans and animals. The tendency to construct the facts obtained in these studies is as follows...

Comparison of the psyche of animals and humans

b Comparative studies of anthropogenetically significant features of the psyche at different evolutionary levels (features of the psyche of animals, which are considered as prerequisites for the emergence of the human psyche)...

Comparative characteristics of the transformation of care for offspring in phylogenesis

Comparative studies of the ontogenesis of humans and higher animals have a long history. Features of child development at the preverbal stage of ontogenesis are in many ways comparable to those of higher mammals...

Physiological foundations of the human psyche and health

Psyche is the ability of the brain to perceive and evaluate the world around us, to recreate on the basis of this the internal subjective image of the world and the image of itself in it (worldview), to determine based on this...

Man and his psyche

The human psyche is a qualitatively higher level than the psyche of animals (Homo sapiens - Homo sapiens). Human consciousness and intelligence developed in the process of work...