An act of will is a complex, multi-stage process, including a need (desire) that determines the motivation of behavior, awareness of the need, struggle of motives, choice of method of implementation, launch of implementation, control of implementation.

Stages of volitional action (volitional act):

emergence of motivation and goal setting

struggle of motives – a stage associated with decision making

decision making is the phase of “resolving” the struggle of motives. At this stage, there is either a feeling of relief associated with resolving the situation and relieving tension, or a state of anxiety associated with uncertainty about the correctness of the decision made

execution - implementation decision taken, embodiment of one or another option

The main features of a volitional act: a) applying effort to perform a volitional act; b) the presence of a well-thought-out plan for the implementation of a behavioral act; c) increased attention to such a behavioral act and the absence of direct pleasure received in the process and as a result of its execution; d) often the efforts of the will are aimed not only at defeating circumstances, but at overcoming oneself.

40. Inclinations and abilities.

Capabilities - an individual psychological property of a person that determines the success and speed of mastering knowledge, skills and abilities in a certain field of activity, but cannot be reduced to knowledge, skills and abilities.

Makings of– anatomical, physiological, biologically based prerequisites for the development of abilities.

Inclinations create the prerequisites for the development of abilities. They are very diverse and multi-valued (features of mental cognitive, emotional-volitional processes, mental properties and states, formations).

Abilities are determined by inclinations, but in no case are they predetermined by them.

The makings themselves are not aimed at anything. They contribute to the formation of abilities in the process of human life. According to the vast majority of psychologists, a person does not fully realize his inclinations in the process of his life.

Abilities must be updated. Actualization of abilities is carried out using appropriate psychological mechanisms:

Motivational mechanism - without motive, without desire, abilities will not be realized.

An operating mechanism is a set of operations (methods) by which abilities are realized, because abilities from the word are a method.

Functional mechanism (procedural) - the quality of mental processes through which the functioning of the operational mechanism of abilities is carried out.

Each ability has its own specifics and at the same time a general structure.

The same person may have developed different abilities for different types of activities, but one of them, as a rule, will be more significant than the others, on the one hand, on the other hand different people the same abilities are observed, but they differ in the level of their development.

To measure the level of development of abilities, different methods are used: Eysenck, Cattell, Spearman, Binet, etc. At the same time, it should be emphasized that more objective results are provided by methods for identifying the dynamics of success in the process of activity. The success of an individual is largely predetermined not by a single ability, but by a combination of a number of abilities. The combination of abilities is purely individual.

Will– the process of a person’s conscious regulation of his behavior and activities, expressed in the ability to overcome internal and external difficulties.

The will performs the following functions:

Incentive and guiding towards achieving the set goal while overcoming difficulties.

Brake the function of the will is manifested in restraining unwanted activity, motives and actions that do not correspond to the worldview, ideals and beliefs of the individual.

Regulatory the function is expressed in voluntary regulation of actions, mental processes and behavior, in overcoming obstacles.

Developmental the function is that volitional regulation is aimed at improving the subject’s behavior.

The structure of the volitional act.

An act of will may have a different structure, depending on the number of components, and the duration of the stages of its implementation. Volitional actions can be simple and complex.

TO simple volitional actions These include those in which a person, without hesitation, goes towards the intended goal, that is, the incentive to action directly turns into the action itself.

IN complex act of will At least four phases can be distinguished:

First phase– the emergence of motivation and preliminary goal setting.

Second phase– discussion and struggle of motives.

Third phase- decision-making.

Fourth phase– execution of the decision.

First phase characterizes the beginning of a volitional act. An act of will begins with the emergence of an impulse, which is expressed in the desire to do something. As the goal is realized, this desire turns into a desire, to which is added an attitude towards its implementation. If the orientation towards realizing the goal has not been formed, then the act of will may end there before it has even begun. Thus, for the emergence of a volitional act, the emergence of motives and their transformation into goals is necessary.

Second phase a volitional act is characterized by the active inclusion of cognitive and mental processes in it. At this stage, the motivational part of the action or deed is formed. The fact is that the motives that appeared at the first stage in the form of desires may contradict each other. And the individual is forced to analyze these motives, remove the contradictions that exist between them, and make a choice.

Third phase associated with accepting one of the possibilities as a solution. However, not all people make decisions quickly; prolonged hesitation is possible while searching for additional facts that will help confirm their decision.

Fourth phase -- execution of this decision and achievement of the goal. Without execution of the decision, the act of will is considered incomplete. Execution of a decision presupposes overcoming external obstacles and objective difficulties of the case itself.

Structure of volitional action:

motivational and incentive link (goal, motives);

executive level (methods of action and behavior, both external, proposed by someone, and internal, developed by yourself);

evaluative-effective link (results of actions).

Volitional personality traits.

The will has certain qualities: strength, stability and breadth.

Strength of will - degree of arousal of volitional effort.

Stability of will - consistency of manifestation in similar situations.

Latitude of will - the number of activities (sports, study, work, etc.) in which will is manifested.

Will is inextricably linked with personality and manifests itself in its qualities. V.A. Ivannikov identifies three blocks strong-willed qualities personalities:

moral-volitional quality(responsibility, commitment, energy, initiative, independence, discipline);

emotional - volitional (commitment, endurance, patience, calmness);

actually strong-willed (courage, courage, determination, perseverance).

Responsibility – external or internal control over activities, reflecting the social, moral and legal attitude towards society, expressed in the fulfillment of accepted moral and legal norms and rules, one’s duty.

Mandatory – (executiveness) - the quality of will, manifested in the accurate, rigorous and systematic execution of decisions made.

Initiative – the ability to make attempts to implement ideas that arise in a person.

Independence – the ability to consciously make decisions and the ability not to be influenced by various factors that impede the achievement of a goal, the ability to critically evaluate the advice and suggestions of other people, act on the basis of one’s views and beliefs, and at the same time make adjustments to one’s actions based on the advice received.

Discipline – conscious subordination of one's behavior to social norms and established order.

Determination – conscious and active orientation of the individual towards achieving a certain result of activity.

Excerpt – (self-control) - the ability to restrain one’s feelings when required, avoidance of impulsive and rash actions, the ability to control oneself and force oneself to carry out a planned action, as well as refrain from doing what one wants to do, but which seems unreasonable or wrong.

Courage – the ability to overcome fear and take justifiable risks to achieve a goal, despite the dangers to personal well-being.

Courage – a high degree of self-control, which clearly manifests itself in difficult and dangerous circumstances, in the fight against unusual difficulties. Courage is a complex quality. It requires courage, endurance and perseverance.

Determination – absence of unnecessary hesitation and doubt when there is a struggle of motives, timely and quick decision-making. An example of the opposite quality of indecision is the situation of “Buridan’s donkey,” who, not daring to eat one of the equal armfuls of hay, died of hunger.

Perseverance – a person’s ability to mobilize their capabilities for a long-term struggle with difficulties. Not to be confused with stubbornness and negativism.

Negativism – an unmotivated, unfounded tendency to act contrary to other people, to contradict them, although reasonable considerations do not provide grounds for such actions.

Stubbornness – a stubborn person always tries to insist on his own, despite the inexpediency of this action, guided not by the arguments of reason, but by personal desires, despite their inconsistency.

Will

Will is a person’s conscious regulation of his behavior and activities, associated with overcoming internal and external obstacles

Will is a human ability, manifested in self-determination and self-regulation of its activities and various mental processes. Thanks to the will, a person can own initiative, based on a perceived need, to perform actions in a pre-planned direction and with a pre-determined force. Moreover, he can organize his mental activity and guide her. With willpower you can restrain external manifestation emotions or even show the completely opposite.

The will directs or restrains a person’s activity, organizes mental activity based on existing tasks and requirements as problematic situation, and specific, social requirements one way or another social group. Initially, the concept of will was introduced to explain motives and actions carried out by own decisions person, but not meeting his desires. Then it began to be used to explain the possibility of free choice in the event of a conflict of human desires associated with the formulation of problems of free will.

main functions of the will: 1) choice of motives and goals; 2) regulation of the impulse to action in case of insufficient or excessive motivation; 3) organization of mental processes into a system adequate to the activity performed by a person; 4) mobilization of physical and mental capabilities when overcoming obstacles in achieving the goal .

For the occurrence volitional regulation certain conditions are necessary - the presence of obstacles and obstacles. Will manifests itself when difficulties appear on the way to the goal: external obstacles - time, space, people’s opposition, physical properties objects, etc.; internal obstacles - relationships and attitudes, painful conditions, fatigue, etc. All these obstacles, reflected in consciousness, cause volitional effort, which creates the necessary tone to overcome difficulties.

Volitional act and its structure

Volitional action can be realized in simple and complex forms

In a simple act of will, the impulse to action is directed towards a more or less conscious goal and can directly turn into action. A simple act of will has two phases: 1) the emergence of an impulse and awareness of the goal; 2) achieving the goal.

A complex volitional action is characterized by an indirect conscious process: the action is preceded by taking into account its consequences, awareness of motives, and planning. Such an action requires significant effort, patience, perseverance, and the ability to organize oneself to carry out the action.

In complex volitional action, four phases are distinguished: 1) the emergence of motivation and preliminary goal setting; 2) the stage of thinking and the struggle of motives; 3) decision making; 4) execution.

1. First, initial phase act of will lies in the previous goal setting. A necessary condition goal setting is the emergence of a certain motive, motivation and associated aspiration. The aspiration experienced by a person can be perceived differently by her and influence her activities in different ways. Depending on the nature of his awareness, the desire can be expressed in the form of attraction, desire and desire.

The process of goal setting is associated with the emergence of a conscious effective desire or desires.

It should be noted, however, that in a complex act of will, the active desire that arises does not always immediately lead to corresponding actions. This happens when a person simultaneously has several desires and motives that contradict each other. At the same time, conflicting desires may concern both the goal itself and the means of its implementation.

2. In such cases, a choice of goal and a choice of means to achieve it occurs, which is the content of the second phase of the act of will. When choosing a goal or means of influence, there is a need to discuss their acceptability, which involves weighing various arguments for and against the proposed goals or means of achieving them, requires an assessment of conflicting desires, an analysis of circumstances, reasoning, and hard work of thinking.

Choice accepted goal often characterized by a pronounced struggle of motives. This struggle reflects the presence of internal obstacles in a person, conflicting motivations, desires, aspirations that collide and come into conflict with each other. For example, the desire to go for a walk with friends or stay to help your mother. . In the case where the goal is clear and acceptable, a struggle may arise between conflicting impulses about choosing one or another means of achieving the goal. For example, how to prepare for class - take notes on the question yourself or copy it.

Volitional qualities of personality and their formation

Carrying out different kinds activity, while overcoming external and internal obstacles, a person develops in himself volitional qualities that characterize him as a person and have great importance for study, work.

Strong-willed qualities include: purposefulness, determination, courage, courage, initiative, perseverance, independence, endurance, discipline.

Purposefulness is a volitional property of a personality, manifested in a person’s subordination of his behavior to a stable life goal, readiness to give all strength and abilities to achieve it. This long-term goal determines private goals as necessary steps on the way to achieving the main goal; everything superfluous and unnecessary is discarded. It must be remembered, however, that for some people, determination takes an individualized direction. They also bet clear goals, however, their content reflects only personal needs and interests.

Decisiveness is a strong-willed personality trait, which manifests itself in the quick and thoughtful choice of a goal and the determination of ways to achieve it. Determination is especially evident in difficult situations choices associated with risk. The opposite of this quality - indecision - can manifest itself in an endless struggle of motives, in constant revisions of an already made decision.

Courage is a person’s ability to overcome feelings of fear and confusion. Courage is manifested not only in actions when a person’s life is in danger; the brave will not be afraid difficult work, great responsibility, not afraid of failure. Courage requires a reasonable, healthy attitude to reality. True courage of a strong-willed person is overcoming fear and taking into account threatening dangers. A brave person is aware of his capabilities and thinks through his actions sufficiently.

Perseverance is a strong-willed personality trait, which manifests itself in the ability to follow through on decisions made, achieve a set goal, overcoming any obstacles on the way to it. Perseverance must be distinguished from negative quality will - stubbornness. A stubborn person only admits own opinion, own arguments and strives to be guided by them in actions and deeds, although these arguments may be erroneous.

Self-control, or self-control, is a strong-willed personality trait that manifests itself in the ability to restrain mental and physical manifestations that interfere with achieving a goal. The opposite negative quality is impulsiveness, the tendency to act on the first impulse, hastily, without thinking about one’s actions.

Courage is a complex personality quality that presupposes not only courage, but also perseverance, endurance, self-confidence, and the rightness of one’s cause. Courage is manifested in a person’s ability to achieve a goal, despite the danger to life and personal well-being, overcoming adversity, suffering and deprivation.

Initiative is a strong-willed quality, thanks to which a person acts creatively. This is an active and bold flexibility of human actions and actions that meets the time and conditions.

Independence is a strong-willed personality trait, manifested in the ability to set goals on one’s own initiative, find ways to achieve them and practically implement decisions made. An independent person does not give in to attempts to persuade him to take actions that are not consistent with his beliefs. The opposite quality to independence is suggestibility. A suggestible person easily succumbs to the influence of others, he does not know how to think critically about other people's advice, resist them, he accepts any other people's advice, even obviously untenable ones.

Discipline is a volitional property of a person, manifested in the conscious submission of one’s behavior social rules and standards. Conscious discipline is manifested in the fact that a person, without coercion, recognizes the obligation to follow labor rules, academic discipline, socialist society and fights for the implementation of them by others.

Volitional qualities, like other personality qualities, are developed in activity. What is meant here is not artificial exercises, but the training of volitional efforts in the process of performing everyday duties. Important role The personal example of the leader and the requirements of the team play a role in the development of strong-willed qualities.

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Introduction

volitional quality act of person

"Will in its proper sense arises when a person is capable of reflecting his drives, can relate to them in one way or another. To do this, the individual must be able to rise above his drives and, abstracting from them, realize himself... as a subject... who... rising over them, able to make a choice between them."

S.L. Rubinstein. The concept of will

Often, when making a decision and understanding the need to act, a person is in no hurry to implement it.

Even psychologists cannot always explain why people sometimes do nothing to implement their plans, decisions, satisfaction even acutely. necessary needs. When people who have necessary knowledge holding similar beliefs and views on life, with to varying degrees intensity begin to solve the task facing them or when, when faced with difficulties, some of them stop their attempts, while others act with renewed energy - these phenomena are associated with such a feature of the psyche as will. Will is a person’s conscious regulation of his behavior and activities, expressed in the ability to overcome internal and external difficulties when performing purposeful actions and deeds.

The task of the will is to control our behavior, conscious self-regulation of our activity, especially in cases where obstacles to a normal life arise.

Psychological structure of the volitional act

Any human activity is always accompanied by concrete actions, which can be divided into two large groups: voluntary and involuntary. The main difference between voluntary actions is that they are carried out under the control of consciousness and require certain efforts on the part of a person aimed at achieving a consciously set goal. For example, let’s imagine a sick person who with difficulty takes a glass of water in his hand, brings it to his mouth, tilts it, makes movements with his mouth, that is, performs a whole series of actions united by one goal - to quench his thirst. All individual actions, thanks to the efforts of consciousness aimed at regulating behavior, merge into one whole, and the person drinks water. These efforts are often called volitional regulation or will.

The main function of the will is the conscious regulation of activity in difficult living conditions. This regulation is based on the interaction of excitation and inhibition processes nervous system. In accordance with this, it is customary to single out as a specification of the above general function the other two are activating and inhibiting.

It should be noted that not every action aimed at overcoming an obstacle is volitional. For example, a person running away from a dog can overcome very difficult obstacles and even climb a tall tree, but these actions are not volitional, since they are caused primarily by external reasons, and not the internal attitudes of a person. Thus, the most important feature volitional actions aimed at overcoming obstacles is the awareness of the significance of the goal that must be fought for, the awareness of the need to achieve it. The more significant a goal is for a person, the more obstacles he overcomes. That's why volitional actions may vary not only in their degree of complexity, but also in the degree awareness.

Usually we are more or less clearly aware of why we perform certain actions, we know the goal we are striving to achieve. There are times when a person is aware of what he is doing, but cannot explain why he is doing it. Most often this happens when a person is overwhelmed by some strong feelings, is experiencing emotional excitement. Such actions are usually called impulsive. The degree of awareness of such actions is greatly reduced. Having committed rash actions, a person often regrets what he did. But the will lies precisely in the fact that a person is able to restrain himself from committing rash acts during affective outbursts. Therefore, the will is connected with mental activity And feelings.

Human volitional qualities and their development

The human will is characterized by certain qualities. First of all, it is customary to highlight willpower as a generalized ability to overcome significant difficulties that arise on the way to achieving a goal. The more serious the obstacle that you have overcome on the way to your goal, the stronger your will. It is the obstacles overcome through volitional efforts that are an objective indicator of the manifestation of willpower.

Among various manifestations willpower, it is customary to highlight such personality traits: How excerpt And self-control , which are expressed:

in the ability to restrain your feelings when required;

in preventing impulsive and rash actions;

in the ability to control oneself and force oneself to carry out the intended action, as well as to refrain from doing what one wants to do, but which seems unreasonable or wrong.

Another characteristic of will is determination . Purposefulness is usually understood as the conscious and active orientation of an individual towards achieving a certain result of activity. Very often, when talking about determination, they use such a concept as perseverance . This concept is almost identical to the concept of determination and characterizes a person’s desire to achieve a goal even in the most difficult conditions. Typically, a distinction is made between strategic purposefulness, that is, the ability to be guided in all one’s life activities by certain principles and ideals, and operational purposefulness, which consists in the ability to set clear goals for individual actions and not deviate from them in the process of achieving them.

It is customary to distinguish from persistence stubbornness. Stubbornness most often acts as a negative quality in a person. A stubborn person always tries to insist on his own, despite the inexpediency of this action. As a rule, a stubborn person in his activities is guided not by the arguments of reason, but by personal desires, despite their failure. In essence, a stubborn person does not control his will, since he does not know how to control himself and his desires.

An important characteristic of the will is initiative . Initiative lies in the ability to make attempts to implement ideas that arise in a person. For many people, overcoming their own inertia is the most difficult moment of an act of will. Only an independent person can take the first conscious step towards the implementation of a new idea.

Independence -- this is a characteristic of will that is directly related to initiative. Independence is manifested in the ability to consciously make decisions and the ability not to be influenced various factors that hinder the achievement of the goal. An independent person is capable of critically evaluating the advice and suggestions of other people, acting on the basis of his views and beliefs, and at the same time making adjustments to his actions based on the advice received.

Negativism should be distinguished from independence. Negativism manifests itself in an unmotivated, unfounded tendency to act contrary to other people, to contradict them, although reasonable considerations do not provide grounds for such actions. Negativism is regarded by most psychologists as weakness of will, expressed in the inability to subordinate one’s actions to the arguments of reason, conscious motives of behavior, in the inability to resist one’s desires, leading to idleness, etc. Very often, idleness is associated with laziness. It is laziness that is comprehensive characteristic qualities that are opposite in meaning positive qualities will.

It should be noted that the initiative shown by a person, in addition to independence, is always associated with another quality of will - decisiveness . Decisiveness lies in the absence of unnecessary hesitation and doubt during the struggle of motives, in timely and quick acceptance decisions. First of all, determination is manifested in the choice of the dominant motive, as well as in the choice of adequate means of achieving the goal. Decisiveness also manifests itself when implementing a decision. Decisive people are characterized by a quick and energetic transition from the choice of actions and means to the actual execution of the action.

From determination, as a positive volitional quality, it is necessary to distinguish impulsiveness, which is characterized by haste in decision-making and rashness of actions. Impulsive person does not think before taking action, does not take into account the consequences of what he does, and therefore often repents of what he has done. The haste in making a decision by such a person is usually explained by his indecision, the fact that making a decision for him is an extremely difficult and painful process, so he strives to get rid of it as soon as possible.

An extremely important volitional quality of a person is subsequence human actions. The sequence of actions characterizes the fact that all actions performed by a person follow from a single guiding principle, to which a person subordinates everything secondary and incidental. The sequence of actions, in turn, is closely related to self-control And self-esteem .

The actions taken will only be carried out when a person controls his activities. Otherwise, the actions performed and the goal that a person strives for diverge. In the process of achieving a goal, self-control ensures the dominance of leading motives over secondary ones. The quality of self-control and its adequacy largely depend on the individual’s self-esteem. So, low self-esteem can cause a person to lose self-confidence. In this case, a person’s desire to achieve the goal may gradually fade away and what was planned will never be accomplished. Sometimes, on the contrary, a person overestimates himself and his capabilities. In this case, it is customary to talk about inflated self-esteem, which does not allow one to adequately coordinate and adjust one’s actions on the way to achieving the set goal. As a result, the ability to achieve what was planned becomes much more difficult and, more often than not, what was previously planned is not fully realized in practice.

The will, like most other higher mental processes, is formed during the age-related development of a person. Thus, in a newborn child, reflex movements predominate, as well as some instinctive actions. Volitional, conscious actions begin to form much later. Moreover, the child’s first desires are characterized by great instability. Desires quickly replace each other and very often are of an uncertain nature. Only in the fourth year of life do desires acquire a more or less stable character.

At the same age, children first experience the emergence of a struggle of motives. For example, two-year-old children, after some hesitation, can make a choice between several possible actions. However, a choice made depending on moral motives becomes possible for children no earlier than the end of the third year of life. This happens only when the child can already control his behavior. This requires, on the one hand, a fairly high level of development, and on the other, some formation of moral attitudes. Both develop under the influence of training and education, in the process of constant interaction with adults. The nature of the emerging moral attitudes largely depends on the moral attitudes of the adult, since in the first years of life the child strives to imitate the actions of adults, and gradually, in the process of mental development, he begins to analyze the actions of the adult and draw appropriate conclusions.

The development of volitional regulation of behavior in humans occurs in several directions. On the one hand, this is the transformation of involuntary mental processes into voluntary ones, on the other hand, a person gains control over his behavior, and on the third, the development of volitional qualities of the individual. All these processes ontogenetically begin from the moment in life when the child masters speech and learns to use it as effective means mental and behavioral self-regulation.

Within each of these directions of development of the will, as it strengthens, its own specific transformations occur, gradually raising the process and mechanisms of volitional regulation to a higher level. high levels. For example, inside cognitive processes the will first appears in the form of external speech regulation and only then - in terms of the intra-speech process. In the behavioral aspect, volitional control first concerns voluntary movements individual parts body, and subsequently - planning and controlling complex sets of movements, including inhibition of some and activation of other muscle complexes. In the field of formation of volitional qualities of a person, the development of will can be represented as a movement from primary to secondary and then to tertiary volitional qualities.

Another direction in the development of will is manifested in the fact that a person consciously sets himself more and more difficult tasks and pursues increasingly distant goals that require significant volitional efforts over a fairly long period of time. For example, a schoolboy still in adolescence may set himself the task of developing such abilities for the formation of which he does not have expressed natural inclinations. At the same time, he can set himself the goal of engaging in a complex and prestigious activity in the future, the successful implementation of which requires such abilities. There are quite a few life examples how people who became famous scientists, artists, writers achieved their goals without having good inclinations, mainly due to increased performance and will. The development of will in children is closely correlated with the enrichment of their motivational and moral sphere. Inclusion in the regulation of activity of higher motives and values, increasing their status in the general hierarchy of incentives that govern activity, the ability to highlight and evaluate the moral side of performed actions - all this important points in the education of will in children. The motivation for an act, which includes volitional regulation, becomes conscious, and the act itself becomes voluntary. Such an action is always performed on the basis of an arbitrarily constructed hierarchy of motives, where the top level is occupied by a highly moral motivation, which gives moral satisfaction to a person if the activity is successful. A good example such activities can be performed by excess activities associated with higher moral values performed on a voluntary basis and aimed at benefiting people.

Improving the volitional regulation of behavior in children is associated with their general intellectual development, with the advent of motivational and personal reflection. Therefore, to educate the child’s will in isolation from his general psychological development almost impossible. Otherwise, instead of will and perseverance as undoubtedly positive and valuable personal qualities Their antipodes may arise and take hold: stubbornness and rigidity.

Games play a special role in the development of will in children in all of these areas, and each type play activity makes its own specific contribution to the improvement of the volitional process. Constructive object games that appear first in age development child, contribute to the accelerated formation of voluntary regulation of actions. Role-playing games lead to the consolidation of the child’s necessary volitional personality traits. In addition to this task, collective games with rules solve another problem: strengthening the self-regulation of actions. The teaching that appears in last years preschool childhood and turning into a leading activity in school, makes the greatest contribution to the development of voluntary self-regulation of cognitive processes.

The concept of “will” is used by psychiatry, psychology, physiology and philosophy. On personal level will manifests itself in such properties as willpower, energy, perseverance, endurance, etc. They can be considered as primary, or basic, volitional qualities of a person. Such qualities determine behavior that is characterized by all or most of the properties described above. The will ensures the fulfillment of two interrelated functions - incentive and inhibitory - and manifests itself in them. Will is understood as a complex mental process that causes human activity and awakens him to act in a directed manner.

The development of will in a person is associated with such actions as:

1) transformation of involuntary mental processes into voluntary ones;

2) a person’s acquisition of control over his behavior;

3) development of strong-willed personality traits;

4) and also with the fact that a person consciously sets himself more and more difficult tasks and pursues more and more distant goals that require significant volitional efforts over a long time.

Will is a person’s ability to overcome obstacles and achieve a goal. Specifically, it appears in such character traits as determination, determination, perseverance, and courage. These character traits can contribute to the achievement of both socially useful and antisocial goals.

List of used literature

1. Maklakov A. General psychology

2. Rubinstein S. L. Basics general psychology. - St. Petersburg: Peter, 1999

3. Ilyin E. P. Psychology of will. -- St. Petersburg: Peter, 2000

4. V.A. Krutetsky"Psychology", Moscow 1999

5. Psychology - textbook Moscow 1998

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Functions of the will

The will ensures the fulfillment of two interrelated functions - incentive and inhibitory - and manifests itself in them.

The incentive function is provided by human activity, which generates action due to the specific internal states of the subject, revealed at the moment of the action itself (for example: a person in need of obtaining the necessary information calls out to a friend, experiencing a state of irritation, allows himself to be rude to others, etc.).

In contrast to volitional behavior, which is characterized by unintentionality, activity is characterized by volitionality, i.e. conditioning of action by a consciously set goal. Activity may not be caused by the requirements of the momentary situation, the desire to adapt to it, to act within the boundaries of the given. It is characterized by supra-situationalism, i.e. going beyond the initial goals, the ability of a person to rise above the level of the requirements of the situation, to set goals that are redundant in relation to the original task (such as “risk for the sake of risk”, creative impulse, etc.).

According to V.A. Vannikov, the main psychological function of the will is to strengthen motivation and improve, on this basis, the conscious regulation of actions. Real mechanism The generation of an additional incentive to action is a conscious change in the meaning of the action by the person performing it. The meaning of an action is usually associated with a struggle of motives and changes with certain, deliberate mental efforts.

The need for volitional action arises when an obstacle appears in the path of motivated activity. An act of will is associated with overcoming it. First, however, it is necessary to understand and comprehend the essence of the problem that has arisen.

Volitional action is always associated with the consciousness of the purpose of the activity, its significance, and the subordination of the actions performed to this purpose. Sometimes there is a need to give a special meaning to a goal, and in this case the participation of the will in the regulation of activity comes down to finding the appropriate meaning, the increased value of this activity. Otherwise, it is necessary to find additional incentives to carry out, to complete an already started activity, and then the volitional meaning-forming function is associated with the process of performing the activity. In the third case, the goal may be to teach something, and actions associated with learning acquire a volitional character.

The energy and source of volitional actions is always, in one way or another, connected with the actual needs of a person. Relying on them, a person gives conscious meaning to his voluntary actions. In this regard, volitional actions are no less determined than any others, only they are associated with consciousness, hard work of thinking and overcoming difficulties.

Volitional regulation can be included in activity at any of the stages of its implementation: initiation of activity, choice of means and methods of its implementation, adherence to the intended plan or deviation from it, control of execution. The peculiarity of the inclusion of volitional regulation at the initial moment of activity is that a person, consciously abandoning some drives, motives and goals, prefers others and implements them contrary to momentary, immediate impulses. Will in choosing an action is manifested in the fact that, having consciously abandoned the usual way of solving a problem, the individual chooses another, sometimes more difficult, and tries not to deviate from it. Finally, volitional regulation of control over the execution of an action consists in the fact that a person consciously forces himself to carefully check the correctness of the actions performed when there is almost no strength and desire left to do this. Particular difficulties in terms of volitional regulation are presented for a person by such activities where problems of volitional control arise throughout the entire path of the activity, from the very beginning to the end.

A typical case of the inclusion of will in the management of activity is a situation associated with the struggle of difficultly compatible motives, each of which requires the performance of different actions at the same moment in time. Then the consciousness and thinking of a person, being included in the volitional regulation of his behavior, look for additional incentives in order to make one of the drives stronger, to give it greater meaning in the current situation. Psychologically, this means an active search for connections between the goal and the activity being carried out with the highest spiritual values of a person, consciously giving them much greater significance than they had at the beginning.

The following characteristic features of will can be distinguished:

Endurance and perseverance of will, which are characterized by the fact that energetic activity covers long periods of a person’s life striving to achieve a goal.

Fundamental consistency and constancy of will, as opposed to fickleness and inconsistency. The fundamental consistency is that all a person’s actions flow from a single guiding principle of his life, to which a person subordinates everything incidental and secondary

Criticality of the will, contrasting its easy suggestibility and tendency to act rashly. This feature lies in deep thoughtfulness and self-critical assessment of all one’s actions. Such a person can be persuaded to change his line of behavior only through well-founded argumentation.

Decisiveness, which consists in the absence of unnecessary hesitation in the conflict of motives, in quickly making decisions and boldly implementing them.

Will is characterized by the ability to subordinate one’s personal, individual aspirations to the will of the collective, the will of the class to which the person belongs.