Individuality- this is the possession of a set of certain characteristics that help to distinguish an individual from others and establish his uniqueness. Individuality includes a set of qualities that help distinguish a person from representatives of his species, as well as a phenomenology of the ways in which they are interrelated. This set of qualities develops and is shaped by the surrounding people, society, family, and accumulated childhood experience. However, what is important is the extent to which the individual will independently shape himself and follow the chosen individual path.
In psychology, individuality is a collection of qualities of perceptual processes and interests. There are expressed and hidden forms. With pronounced individuality, external distinctive features appear - an open manifestation of abilities; with internal it is assumed that the unique abilities inherent in nature do not find a place of application or conditions for manifestation. Each of the stages of development, from the borrowed and generally accepted manner of behavior to its own uniqueness in life, has its own version, its own individual pattern. Man is called to develop his uniqueness.
The concept of individuality
The concept of individuality has entered into several scientific fields and is based on different components of the definition, respectively. From a biological perspective, this concept includes the uniqueness and originality of each individual within a species, and the species itself among other living beings. Biological characteristics of individuality include genetically transmitted parameters, such as appearance, life expectancy, age-related changes, intraspecific and feminine-masculine features of manifestation.
However, regarding the human being, it is worth considering individuality as a special unique form of being in society; this allows us to move away from an exclusively biological consideration of this concept, where everything is initially laid down by nature. Since it is impossible to consider only the uniqueness of the retina or fingerprints as individuality, it is necessary to take into account social qualities and the psychological aspect; uniqueness consists of unique combinations of biological and social.
Let's dwell on the psychological characteristics. A person’s individuality appears as a set of psychological categories: temperament, intelligence, character, habits and hobbies, communication and choice of activities, features of perceptual processes. However, simply having unique qualities is not enough to understand individuality; it is very important to pay attention to the type of unique relationships between these qualities.
In psychology, individuality is the analysis (qualitative and quantitative) of a person's unique characteristics. Individuality can manifest itself in one or several areas at the same time. The difference in the degree of development and predominance of any characteristics and qualities, together with different ways to use the stored data, gives rise to the uniqueness of each.
Man is not an isolated, separate being, but a member of a collective. An individual is individual when he prefers not to be limited by collective norms, but transforms them and his own personality in order to reach a higher level.
Individual personality traits are largely considered acquired, with the exception of those few characteristics that are characteristic of everyone. The dissimilarity of each person develops and is formed from several basic components. The first component is heredity. The biological property of a living organism in humans predetermines both external signs and behavioral reactions to certain types of events. The second component is the environment. This includes the culture in which a person was born and raised, norms of behavior, ideals, and values of this culture; family, where life scenarios, behavioral stereotypes, prejudices about people and phenomena originate; belonging to certain social groups. The third component is the characteristics of temperament, character, i.e. The very individuality of a person also has no small influence on the formation of further individuality.
Nowadays, the issue of erasing individuality with the help of the media is increasingly being raised, where reactions are standardized, the ability for active thinking and analysis is weakened, the variability of behavioral reactions is reduced, so everything is presented in a ready-made form, with priorities set and hints to the necessary conclusion. For people who have not formed their individuality (children, teenagers), this can lead to standardization of thinking and actions, lack of criticism and a stop in the formation of their own personality. When society imposes standards of behavior and response, it calls into question the formation of personality as such. There is a massification of consciousness, the disappearance of individuality, personal responsibility, and one’s own decisions.
A person with a formed individuality is a mature person who is quite independent, relies in decisions on his own opinion, independent of the majority, and whose motivational sphere is developed.
Personality and individuality
The concepts of man, individuality, personality within the framework of the consideration of psychology are not identical, although for a certain time they were used interchangeably. Man, individuality, personality are concepts of the same order, although their sharp division is wrong, because characterize one object. A person is inherently binary - he can be guided by both sociality and sociality.
The concept of a person reflects the type of mammal - a biosocial creature that is endowed with consciousness, thinking, has speech, logic, is distinguished by upright posture, and has a highly developed brain and sociality. From many facts it is known that children who grew up outside of human society remain at the level of development of the animals of the group that was close, even with subsequent training (the fairy tale about Mowgli is a myth). A person is born in a world where the conditions and rules of life were already formed by other people before him, and accordingly acquires adaptive abilities and skills that meet the standards of this world.
Individuality in psychology is the reflected originality of an individual, taken separately from a species, its biological properties (this description of the concept can be applied to both humans and animals). The initially inherent physiological unique characteristics of a person, as a result of socialization and development, receive enormous variability in personal manifestation. Personality is directly related to a person’s ideological position, social conditioning, and the development of one’s own uniqueness.
The concepts of man and individuality are interconnected, flowing and determining each other as separate elements. Personality is unthinkable without individuality, since, subject to social influence, a person chooses individual paths of self-expression.
Individuality is considered not together and synonymously with personality, but separately, as its independent property. The formation of personality is subordinated to individuality; A person’s reactions are determined by the non-standard nature of his consciousness and inherent characteristics.
Individuality, as a part or characteristic of the phenomenological personality, is a person’s own, unique way of living his life, appears as a way of expressing his own unique world and path, which is determined by a combination of the influence of a person’s own discretion and social predispositions. On this path of becoming unique and realizing all individually inherent potential, a personality begins to form.
The concept of personality appeared to reflect the subjective activity of a person, reflecting the life-creative orientation and social components.
The development of any form of personality in its vector of orientation differs from the vector of individuality development. The formation of personality is predetermined by socialization, the development of general norms of behavior for everyone. Individuality is manifested in the separation of a person from society, in his isolation, dissimilarity, the ability to express himself, to distinguish himself.
Personality is a human essence, whose actions have a social definition, are socially oriented, and meet spiritual, ideological and moral social norms; constant and . The phenomenology of personal qualities does not include biological qualities and those abilities that are not socially conditioned. Human personality is dynamic, a system capable of flexibility and change, while maintaining stability.
Personal development comes with the ability to adjust one’s attitude towards oneself, one’s worldview, to reevaluate and revise the experience gained due to changes in information, conditions and knowledge. The personality itself is comparable to a set of social masks (boss, father, lover, etc.). Interaction not at the level of role masks is impersonal. Personality changes occur when there are dramatic changes in life situations, when a person’s social role changes and it is necessary to reconsider one’s behavior, skills, and self-perception.
The combination and dualistic opposition of individuality and personality can be traced in this structure of the relationship between the biological and the social in human development:
- lower - biological factors transmitted genetically (appearance, age and species characteristics);
— perceptual features;
— human social experience;
- highest - personality orientation (character, world views, social ideas).
In childhood, biological factors that determine uniqueness predominate; over time, they become involved, and then the social aspects of determining personality characteristics take on a leading role. Changes occur thanks to the individual himself and his socialization, during which the conscious assimilation of social principles must occur.
Personality traits and qualities are stable characteristics that remain clearly manifested even when the external circumstances of the subject’s life change. Under the same conditions, completely different personalities develop, or the same different personalities remain. How everything will turn out and what it will transform into depends on the qualities initially received by the individual, the direction and aspiration of his individuality, the degree of personal development and the construction of a unique creative life path. The inner world, personal manifestation does not depend on the external introduction of facts, but on the internal work of processing incoming information.
It’s easier to be an individual, but it’s more difficult to be a person; it requires awareness, responsibility, and constant development. But such an attractive idea that everyone in society should have the most developed level of individuality poses a danger to the social system in the form of a threat to its stability.
a term denoting the uniqueness of a human being. If the definition of individual emphasizes that an individual person is a representative of a species, then the concept of individuality, on the contrary, reveals the specificity, originality of a given representative of universality, in which he is not similar to others.
Excellent definition
Incomplete definition ↓
INDIVIDUALITY
1) originality, a set of qualities and distinctive properties that express the essence of a special, separate individual; imprecisely used to designate a single individual, as opposed to an indistinguishable mass of people (each, however, having its own individuality). 2) In contrast to the personality, it is specific, unique in the individual. Individuality as such has an ideal value character, i.e. individual value is independent of actual personality. The ethical value of a person lies in remaining true to himself, in the authenticity and positivity of his essence. In a broad sense, it is equivalent to Kant's intelligible character. The implementation of this ethical value, i.e. self-realization of the individual is a virtue. But this virtue as such is unattainable; it can only be achieved through the individual implementation of fundamental values (goodness, nobility, perfection, purity). The individual's responsibility for his self-realization as a person coincides with the responsibility for everything that is within the sphere of his freedom and power. In particular, the individual “ethos” (Ethos is the moral value of the individual) consists of the main direction chosen in the process of self-realization of fundamental values, i.e. it is characterized by the form in which an action is performed in the presence of single-order values (see Ethics). In accordance with this, the personality is axiologically autonomous (see Imperative, Man). Historically, a “great individual” should by no means be particularly virtuous, but should always clothe his characteristic main direction of realizing values in a particularly bright and effective form. The greatness of individuality lies in the specificity of the relationship to the realm of values. The attractiveness of true individuality lies in the fact that for the person living with it, on the one hand, it opens up a new kingdom of values, and on the other hand, a stable and clear structure.
Excellent definition
Incomplete definition ↓
Who wouldn’t want to stand out from the crowd, and every time they hear someone say that they are truly a great individual, raise their head higher with pride?
Let's figure out what it is, and why people pay so much attention to this phenomenon. So, individuality or individual consciousness is what makes us special, unique, different from the rest.
Meaning of the term
In psychology there are the terms “individual”, “individuality”, “personality”. Let's look at whether there are similarities between them and what are the differences. The common man may mistakenly think that the concept of “individuality” is a synonym for the word “individual”.
However, an individual is just a representative of the human species, different from the rest in morphological terms (height, weight, color of skin, hair, eyes) and psychologically (emotionality, temperament, talent). The meaning of the word “individuality” is broader; it presupposes that a person has originality, a set of characteristics, original features that are unique to him.
It is also wrong to identify individuality and personality, since the concepts reflect completely different aspects of the spiritual essence of the individual. Personality is a stable system of moral, social, cultural, intellectual properties, expressed through individual characteristics of consciousness, as well as through human activity. These three hypostases are interconnected; they cannot exist without each other: the individual is always connected with the personality; There is no personality without individuality.
How our “exclusivity” is formed
The property of individuality is manifested in an individual from birth: for example, babies demonstrate different attitudes to external stimuli, different reactions to the actions of their mother. Growing up, children first attend kindergarten, then school, learn to interact with the world around them, gain experience, and develop intelligence. A child, constantly being in society, develops his own distinctive style of communication, activity and attitude towards the world.
1. Hobbies and abilities. Test your child for abilities or aptitudes for any activity. Offer different activities that suit your child’s inclinations, let him choose what he likes best. It doesn’t matter if your hobbies change dramatically.
2. Temperament and character. The first parameter characterizes the speed of psychological processes and is hereditary. Character can be formed, but you need to act very carefully so as not to encounter active opposition from the child.
3. Thinking. Try to instill in your child a love of out-of-the-box thinking. The ability to look at the world from a different angle will come in handy more than once in his life.
A little theory
For many centuries, the minds of scientists have been occupied by the question: what is individuality? He is considered the most famous specialist in this matter. He is the founder of individual psychology, which studies this phenomenon. The psychologist claims that it is common for a person to have complexes, feeling his imaginary inferiority, and the manifestation of individuality is a way to get rid of shortcomings.
The psychologist cited numerous examples from history: the stutterer Demosthenes, who became a famous speaker; Wilm Rudolph - a track and field athlete who had a physical disability; the weakling Theodore Roosevelt, who became President of the United States, and so on. All of these people overcame inferiority and were able to consolidate a sense of superiority as the main motivating force for action.
Among Russian psychologists who have studied individual consciousness, the most famous is B. Ananyev. He believed that the characteristics of a person’s individuality are expressed through a set of psychological, physical and active qualities, in other words, a person is a complex system. The psychologist for the first time introduces the concept of “individuality structure,” which is a hierarchy of three levels: mental processes, states, and properties of the individual.
The manifestation of mental maturity is a very important sign of individuality. Ananyev believed that bright individuality can manifest itself not only through differences, but also through integrity. He saw in man a creator of culture, considered the connection between generations and assessed the role of historical heritage in individuality. Such an anthropological definition of this phenomenon allows us to better understand man as a product of the historical process.
With the development of the Internet and social networks, it has become easier to achieve success and recognition; the main thing is not to give up, not to give up what you started. A person must believe in himself, try to follow his own path without turning aside. Remember: bright appearance alone is not a guarantee of exclusivity; your inner world is no less important. Work on yourself, be persistent, be determined and believe that you will achieve the desired result. Author: Ekaterina Volkova
from lat. indivisible, individual) - originality, uniqueness of human properties. The concept of I. is used in psychology to describe two phenomena.
1. When analyzing individual psychological differences, intelligence is understood as the uniqueness of a person’s psychological properties, manifested in different spheres (intelligence, temperament, personality). In this context, personality is contrasted with the “average” person, or, in other words, the manifestations of the properties of an individual person are contrasted with their typical manifestations (average group tendencies). Obviously, only by comparison with data on a typical (general) m. individual differences are manifested, but it would be a mistake to limit ourselves only to typical data, replacing with them the knowledge of a particular person.
2. When analyzing the hierarchical organization of a person’s psychological properties, I. acts as the highest level of this hierarchy in relation to the individual and personal levels: individual - personality - I. In this case, I. is a relatively closed system and is a unique combination of all the properties of a person as an individual and personality. According to the figurative expression of B. G. Ananyev, personality is the “top” of the structure of psychological properties, and I. is the “depth” of personality. The integrity of personality in this case is determined by the unity of properties belonging to different hierarchical levels, cause-and-effect relationships between properties of different levels, and the leading role of personality properties that transform individual properties.
A specific method of studying I. is the idiographic approach proposed by V. Stern and developed in detail by Amer. psychologist Gordon Allport (Allport, 1897-1967). Methods of idiographic study of information are focused on the study of individual people (rather than indicators averaged over a group) and are aimed at depicting information as a unique whole.
In Russian psychology, the problems of personality were developed in the studies of Ananyev and V.S. Merlin, who supplemented the principle of structure inherent in the hierarchical structure of individuality with the genetic principle (principle of development). See Personality Properties. (M. S. Egorova.)
Editor's addition: Let's add a few specific examples of the idiographic type of research by Russian psychologists, which, as it seems to us, have already become classics: Luria A.R. A small book about great memory (The Mind of a Mnemonist). - M., 1968; Luria A. R. The Lost and Returned World (The Story of One Wound). - M., 1971; Luria A. R., Yudovich F. Ya. Speech and the development of mental processes in a child. - M., 1956; Menchinskaya N. A. Diary of child development. M.-L., 1948; Menchinskaya N. A. Development of the child’s psyche: Mother’s Diary. - M., 1957; Mukhina V.S. Twins. - M., 1969. See also Longitudinal study.
Sometimes they say about a person: “He (she) is a great individual.” Usually these words mean that such a person is somehow different from the rest. But is this good or bad? And is it so pleasant to be this “great individual”? But this concept is not only everyday. Individuality is also a psychological term. At the same time, its interpretation is quite interesting.
How do we understand individuality in everyday life?
In the broad sense of the word, individuality is what distinguishes a phenomenon or being from others similar to it. Of course, it is possible, and moreover, necessary, to use this term in relation to a person.
We use the concept of “individuality” when we want to say that each person is a unique person. No two people are alike, and each of us thinks, feels and lives differently. And that's completely normal.
What do Western psychologists say about this?
In Western classical psychology, the concept of “individuality” is inextricably linked with the name of Alfred Adler. His teaching, by the way, is called individual psychology. The theory is based on the idea of the so-called “inferiority complex” that all people try to overcome. And they do it in different ways, using individual styles of activity.
It was the works of Alfred Adler that became the starting point from which the study of the phenomenon of individuality by psychologists began. Interestingly, this term is not always used. Sometimes they talk about cognitive styles or personal constructs, but they still mean the term “individuality”.
This phenomenon was studied not only in the West; eminent domestic researchers also made a great contribution to psychological science.
The concept of human individuality in Russian psychology
Probably, the famous Soviet psychologist Boris Gerasimovich Ananyev studied individuality most thoroughly. In his works, a person’s personality was considered not as any of its characteristic features or even as a combination of these features. Man, according to B.G. Ananyev, is a holistic structure.
Accordingly, individuality is not a simple accumulation of character traits or other properties. Everything is much more complicated. Individuality is a person, this is that very holistic and organic structure, what we call personality.
B.G. Ananyev considered a person’s individuality through the prism of several groups of important qualities. These are his physical properties, for example, height and weight, and psychological (the same character and temperament), and activity, that is, the characteristics of his performance of various types of work.
However, with individuality, not everything is so simple. In fact, it is of great practical importance for psychology, and therefore its research has been carried out for decades. In Russian psychology, the problem of human individuality is even highlighted, the study of which continues to this day.
On the problem of individuality in psychology
Why is it so important to study this psychological phenomenon? It would seem that everything is clear and precise: people are different, each of them is an individual. Then what's the problem?
The fact is that not only psychology, but also any science about man, when analyzing any experimental data, for example, reading speed, is faced with individual expressions of a trait in a person. The same height and weight are different, but their fluctuation is within a certain limit of the norm, unless, of course, we take into account the cases of gigantism and dwarfism.
This means that any scientist who undertakes an experiment must take into account the individuality of each of his subjects. And in the study, the results will be the sum of the distinctive characteristics of different people.
But individuality is not a static concept. With age, certain indicators identified in tests may change in one subject. For example, a fifth grader always reads faster than a second grader. It turns out that a person’s abilities do not remain static and unchanged, they develop. And in the same way, individuality itself develops.
A few words about the development of individuality
If a person has individuality, then he is a person. Personality develops in virtually the same way as its distinctive features: intelligence, motivational sphere, and preferred style of activity are formed. And this process is consistent.
The development of individuality begins in early childhood, when the child interacts with his parents and learns about the world around him. Then the child begins to communicate more with his peers in the children's group, and even later - he goes to school and interacts with educators and teachers. And all these social relationships contribute to the child becoming an individual, and at the same time becoming different from other people.
It turns out that the concept of individuality is inseparable from the concept of personality. But these words are not synonymous. In Russian psychology, special attention is paid to the correct interpretation of such words as “personality”, “individual” and “individuality”.
Psychological triad: “personality - individual - individuality”
How do these concepts differ?
Let us begin, perhaps, with the definition of the word “individual”. An individual is a separate representative of the human race. This concept is used not only in psychology, but also in biology and many other sciences. When the word “individual” is used, most often it also refers to the biological characteristics of a person, such as height, weight, eye color, and his psychological qualities.
Personality is a rather ambiguous concept. When we say in everyday life about a person that he is an interesting person, we most likely mean the totality of his internal qualities and the features of his worldview. Psychologists define personality as a system of internal qualities through which a person perceives reality, or as a kind of connecting link for all mental processes, or as a set of social roles.
In addition, sometimes personality is understood as certain sublime moral qualities of a person, his nobility. In this case, the letter conveys a sublime meaning through the use of a capital letter - Personality.
Individuality, as we already know, is a set of unique human properties. This is what distinguishes one person from another.
Thus, in the triad “personality - individual - individuality” there is an interconnection of all concepts. But they are not equivalent to each other.
And yet it’s good to be an individual
From a psychological point of view, this is undoubtedly true. A person who has a pronounced individuality is independent. He does not depend on the opinion of the majority, he has his own view of the world, his own attitude to reality. In addition, he has a developed motivational sphere. That is, such a person always knows what he wants to achieve in life, and, moreover, he does everything to achieve his goal.
Thus, we can conclude that a person who has individuality is a mature person.
However, the everyday understanding of a scientific term sometimes plays its own special role, and then a different meaning is assigned to this concept. For example, they talk about individuality, meaning some kind of media personality. However, on television screens, as a rule, we see an image carefully thought out by professional image makers. Is it possible to say, for example, about a child who has become a “star” that he is an individual? After all, he actually cannot be considered a mature person.
Individuality is also spoken of in cases where a person tries to stand out from the crowd and does everything to have a bright appearance. But such a person will not always be a mature person, because the reasons that forced him to become noticeable are not always obvious or disclosed honestly. Sometimes such a “bright personality” has a heavy burden of psychological problems.
In conclusion
Human individuality is a multifaceted concept. It is used both in everyday life and in psychology; it has great theoretical and practical significance for science. Yet the word “individuality” carries a positive emotional charge. And, probably, each of us strives to find it - individuality.