For many years in psychology it was believed that the only method of cognition of mental phenomena is the subjective method of introspection - direct observation by a person of his own mental processes. At the same time, the modern development of psychological science has shown the impossibility of the subjective research method of the psyche, the impossibility with its help to discover really the laws of mental phenomena. So, we can conclude that self-observation cannot be the main method for studying the psyche. At the same time, this does not mean that in the study of mental processes it is not at all necessary to take into account the statement of a person about what he is experiencing and how exactly. Thus, the method of self-observation can be considered as auxiliary in the study of personality. Considering its results in combination with other methods, one can obtain valuable material about the facts being investigated. Introspection, introspection involves the manifestation of the ability of a person to be aware of himself, his qualities, actions, deeds, attitude towards society, towards other people, towards himself. On its basis, the manager's self-esteem is formed, which can be overestimated, underestimated or adequate.

In accordance with the principle of objectivity, an integral system of methods and techniques is used to study personality phenomena. Among them, the most common is the observation method. The significance and value of the named method lies in the fact that the material for observation is taken directly from life when observing the mental activity of people, which is found in their movements, actions, actions, statements.

The questionnaire method has much in common with the conversation method, in which, unlike the conversation method, personal contact is not required. We are talking about a questionnaire (questionnaire letter), which is a set of questions ordered by meaning and form. There are certain requirements that should be adhered to when conducting a survey: first, the questions during the survey remain unchanged; secondly, first you need to instruct on how to fill out the questionnaire; third, there is a guarantee of anonymity; fourthly, the reliability and reliability of the information that can be obtained as a result of the survey is largely predetermined by the design and editing of the questions. The advantage of the questionnaire method over the conversation is the ability to collect a large amount of material, to learn a large number of managers, representatives of different categories of management personnel. And the disadvantage of this method is that the objectivity of the information received is significantly influenced, on the one hand, by the presence or absence of the respondent's attitude to sincerity in answers, from the other, by the respondent's ability to objectively assess the actions of people, situations, their own qualities and the qualities of others. of people.

The test (from the English lest - trial, exam, test) is one of the methods by which certain psychological qualities of a person are established, the presence or absence of certain abilities, skills, abilities. It is used for the purpose of diagnostics and is a kind of experiment, which at the same time has an examination, measuring character. Consequently, it is customary to call a test specially designed tasks and problem situations, the use of which, as a result of quantitative and qualitative assessment, can become an indicator of the development of certain psychological qualities and personality traits. Modern psychodiagnostics distinguishes and uses the following main types of tests:

• 1) mecmy of intelligence (tasks for logical relationships, generalization, ingenuity);
• 2) tests of achievements (we are talking about identifying the degree of specific knowledge);
• 3) personality tests (for the purpose of studying) personality characteristics, its psychological qualities);
• 4) projective tests (these tests are used if properties and characteristics are amenable to research, in the existence of which a person is not completely sure, unaware or does not want to recognize in himself, for example, negative traits, motives. The test takers are introduced into an uncertain situation, from which they must independently get out or make a final decision);
• 5) tests of creativity (with their help, the development of creative abilities is investigated). Regarding the form, then for this feature the test methods are divided into verbal, non-verbal and mixed.

The value of the test largely depends on the correctness of its use and compliance with the conditions of psychological testing. A correctly applied test allows you to collect a large amount of information in a short time, quite valuable material for a qualitative psychological analysis. All this increases the productivity of research work.

The experimental method is fundamental in psychology. Its advantage over other methods is that the researcher himself causes the phenomena that interest him, and does not wait for them to appear. Experimental method is considered to be the most reliable means of obtaining information possible. In psychology, it is understood as an interaction organized by a researcher between a researcher or a group of subjects and an experimental situation in order to establish the patterns of this interaction and the replaceable ones, on which it depends. It is more closely related to theory than other methods. That is why it can be carried out only when the researcher has an idea of ​​the nature of the process under study, of the factors that determine the experiment.

There are two types of psychological experiment: natural (it is based on controlling the behavior of the subjects under natural conditions: special experimental conditions are created that do not raise the usual course of events); laboratory (provides for research in artificial conditions, using measuring equipment, instruments and other experimental material). A laboratory experiment has a number of advantages, which consist in obtaining more accurate results through the use of special rooms, measuring equipment, simulators; the ability to simulate conditions that are rarely encountered in everyday life; achieving the greatest accuracy of registration of the action of the investigated in comparison with observation, etc. The disadvantage of a laboratory experiment is that artificial conditions are created for the subjects, which significantly affect the manifestation of their psyche. The use of an experiment provides for the observance of certain requirements: setting a goal; planning; putting forward a hypothesis; choice of subjects.

The biographical method is a method of synthetic description of a person as a person and a subject of activity. This method is historical and at the same time genetic, because it allows tracing the dynamics of a person's life path, taking into account the economic, social, moral, ethnopsychological and psychophysiological aspects. Its subject is the life path of a person, and the sources of biographical information are the person himself and the events of the environment that surrounds him.

As a rule, the following personality characteristics are distinguished:

1) Socio-psychological:

• Status,
• Social position,
• Social roles, etc.

2) Individual psychological

• Characteristics of the communicative sphere,
• Interests, needs, attitudes, etc.

3) Individual-typological

• Properties nervous system,
• Temperament,
• Characteristics of the rate of mental activity.

Personality research problems

1. Individuality of personality traits. An individualistic approach is important here.

2. Moral assessment of personality traits. The subject, as a rule, strives for a positive assessment, therefore, chooses socially approved answers. There are also several ways to deal with this installation:

• Presentation of various scales of the questionnaire,
• Introducing a time limit,
• Imaginary non-value.

3. Manifestations of personality activity.

Personality research methods

Does not currently exist general classification methods of personality research in psychology, so we will consider a few of them.

Note 1

Classification of personality research methods (V.M.Bleikher, L.F.Burlachuk)

1) The method of observation, as well as the methods closest to it (biographical method, clinical conversation, analysis of anamnesis, etc.).

2) Experimental methods.

3) Questionnaires.

4) Projective methods.

The classification of methods according to B.G. Ananiev is shown in Figure 1.

Let's consider the most commonly used methods for personality research.

1. Method of conversation. Of great importance in this method is the formulation of questions. Also, only subjective information is obtained here.

2. Natural experiment according to AF Lazursky. Unlike a standard experiment, its natural appearance occurs under natural conditions for the subject.

3. Biographical method. The biographical method is a special study of groups of people, which is based on the analysis of their biographies. Biographical methods in psychology are methods for studying the life path of an individual. Some of the first developments of this method belong to N. A. Rybnikov and S. Buhler.

4. Method of document analysis. The method of document analysis is based on the study of information in its various manifestations: text, photo and video materials, etc. This group also includes the method of content analysis. Content analysis is a method of studying information, which consists in translating it into quantitative indicators and their subsequent processing.

5. Personality questionnaires:

• One-dimensional
• Multidimensional.

Observation method.Observation- the main method of studying personality, something without which there is no approach to the study of personality. Observation presupposes purposeful learning.

1 natural observation- This is the observation and registration of the observed manifestations in real life (real life conditions). Natural observation is a rich source of information.

2. Field observation. This study combines the features of natural observation and appropriate experimental control.

Survey method (interview). One of the oldest and most widespread methods of obtaining information about people. In all its variety, interview forms can be divided into structured and unstructured.

Assessment of the interview method:

Can give extremely useful information about the personality of the individual and his life situation.

Interpretation of interview data is highly subjective and can be influenced by the interviewer's bias. In addition, the personality of the interviewer can subtly influence how open and sincere the respondent is during the interview.

The interview method must be used in conjunction with objective methods.

Standardized tests (self-report methods). The term "self-report" in this case is used in the meaning of any information that the subject directly communicates about himself by answering certain questions or by choosing one of

available assertions subject to a limited number of options (eg, yes, no, don’t know). Self-report questionnaires differ from each other in the number of personality characteristics measured simultaneously.

Experimental method. Unlike other approaches, the experimental method allows researchers not only to control and predict certain phenomena, but also to explain them.

Requiring ethical principles for conducting an experiment(L. Kjell, D. Ziegler, 1997):

Informed Consent Principle,

The principle of safety for the life and health of subjects,

Confidentiality.

Clinical case study method. The medical history method provides an opportunity for in-depth analysis of the individual. This method is aimed primarily at the diagnosis and treatment of individuals suffering from emotional disorders. In addition, the study of clinical cases was important in

the creation of a number of personality theories and in the study of healthy individuals over the years. When describing the client's past (describing a clinical case), different methods are used: biographical and autobiographical essays, personality questionnaires and projective tests, interviews, as well as information received from those people who know well this person... Although case histories are a valuable source of knowledge about people, this method is not free from some of the disadvantages associated with the fact that the object of study here is a specific person.

Projective methods. The term "projective method" was proposed by L. Frank to designate assessment methods in which subjects are given vague stimuli, the content of which does not imply clear responses due to a given culture. Such methods, which are rather an indirect approach to assessing personality, allow people to "project" their feelings, needs, attitudes and attitude towards life onto indefinite material. It is assumed that responses to test stimuli reveal signs of suppressed impulses, personality defense mechanisms, and other "internal" aspects of the personality.

Correlation method. The correlation method is used to establish relationships between and within variables. Researchers using the correlation method are usually interested in answering specific questions. For example, can college performance predict future professional success. The correlation coefficient as a primary statistic indicates the direction and strength of the relationship between variables.

Research method - a way, a way of obtaining the necessary information about psychological phenomena in the sphere of labor and management, psychological characteristics of management activities and participants in the management process.

The aggregate scientific methods collection, processing and analysis of facts in the field of management ensures the implementation of the goals and objectives of psychological research. The psychological methods of management psychology include:

· Psychological methods of studying personality in the control system;

· Socio-psychological methods of studying the organization in the management structure;

· Methods aimed at solving managerial tasks and implementing managerial decisions.

There are various classifications of management psychology methods. Distinguish, for example, methods of empirical research, modeling methods. According to another classification - methods of collecting information and methods of processing it. This division is, as a rule, conditional, since any research method of data collection presupposes a certain program for their processing.

This group of methods is aimed, first of all, at collecting the formation regarding the selection and distribution of personnel in the organization, studying psychological characteristics relationships between people.

Self-observation method. In psychology, the time lasted was considered the only method of cognition of mental phenomena subjective method (introspection, lat.introspecto - I look inside) who finds himself in introspection.

Self-observation - direct observation by a person of his own mental processes.

Introspection, introspection provide for the manifestation of the ability of the individual to be aware of himself, his qualities, actions, deeds, attitude towards society, towards other people towards himself. However, the modern development of psychological science has shown the inconsistency of this method of studying the psyche, the impossibility with its help to discover the laws of mental phenomena. Therefore, self-observation cannot be the main method for studying the psyche. But this does not mean that in the study of mental processes it is not at all necessary to take into account the statements of a person about what and how she is experiencing. On this basis, the method of self-observation in the study of the personality of a leader in the management process is considered as auxiliary. Its results in combination with other methods provide valuable material about the object under study. On the basis of self-observation, the manager's self-esteem is formed, which can be overestimated, underestimated or adequate.

Observation method. This is the most widespread method of studying the phenomena of managerial activity and the personality of a leader from the system of objective methods.

Observation method- deliberate, systematic and purposeful perception and fixation of mental phenomena in order to study their specific changes under certain conditions, analyze them and use them in practice.

Observation makes it possible to obtain interesting information about a person, the manner of her behavior, the nature of relationships with other people, the peculiarities of his communication, influence on others, and the like.

The meaning and value of this method lies in the direct observation of the mental activity of people (in their movements, actions, actions, statements). This method is characterized as one of the empirical methods of psychological research, which manifests itself in the sensory cognition of the investigated phenomenon, subject. Besides observation as a scientific method(it is always purposeful, planned and systematic and is a method psychological study people when they move from a description to an explanation of the psychological nature of phenomena), there is also life observation.

In management, using the observation method, professionally significant features of various mental processes are clarified by studying and comparing the external manifestations of human activity, facial expressions, gestures, communicative qualities, and labor results. Scientific observation is subject to the following rules and requirements:

· Determination of the investigated facts and their observation;

· Choice of observation method;

· Folding the plan and research program;

· Focus of observation on essential phenomena, separation of the essential from the insignificant, the main from the secondary;

· Objective and accurate registration of facts, formulation of certain conclusions from them;

· Keeping a log of observations and registration of events, verbatim records, protocols, etc., in which they record not only the facts that characterize the actions, actions, behavior, but also the conditions in which they occur;

· Conducting observations in natural conditions without interfering with the course of events;

· Carrying out repeated similar observations (at the same object and under the same conditions) to check the validity and reliability of the results obtained;

Repetition of observations in different time, in different conditions and situations.

When using the observation method, the following difficulties may arise:

· The risk of receiving biased, biased information about the object under study;

· Impossibility of separating accidental facts from natural ones;

· Subjectivity of the data obtained (the results of observation are influenced by the personal qualities of the researcher, his life experience, attitudes, emotional states, etc.);

· Lack of opportunities for the researcher to change the course, to initiate a repetition of a mental phenomenon, to have to wait for certain processes;

· The need for a significant investment of time;

· Impossibility of quantitative analysis of the collected material.

The advantage of this method lies in the fact that the psyche is in natural conditions, that is, observation provides information about the actions of individuals, regardless of their attitudes towards the desired, approved behavior. Its most common phenomena are included surveillance(provides that the researcher himself for a certain time belongs to the group of the research object) and unencumbered surveillance(observation "from the side", that is, the researcher is not a member of the group - the object of observation).

Depending on the position of the observer relative to the objects of study, there are open(the individuals under study, the groups know that they are the object of observation), covert surveillance(the investigated persons, groups are not informed and do not know about the observation of their behavior and activities).

The regularity of observation is divided into systematic(the researcher constantly visits the object under study for a certain time) and episodic(the researcher visits a certain object not systematically, but from time to time). Observation can also be solid, when all manifestations of psychological activity are recorded for a certain time, and selective, when only those phenomena are registered that directly relate to the issue that is being studied (for example, the style of relations between employees and the leader; the individual approach of the leader to subordinates, etc.).

The observation method has the following varieties:

· method of generalization of independent characteristics. It is necessary when summarizing the observation data of the management staff (top and middle management, colleagues, subordinates), carried out independently of each other at different times, in different conditions and types of activities;

· psychological analysis of the products of activity. It helps to study not the activity itself, but its product;

· method of describing significant situations. Provides monitoring of events important to the organization.

The leader, who constantly resorts to the method of scientific observation, gradually develops psychological observation, and the ability to observe people and use the data of these observations in managerial work is a component of the professional skill of the leader.

Polling methods. They are used to find out whether the respondents understand certain tasks, life situations, and also in order to obtain information about interests, views, feelings, motives of activity and personality behavior.

The survey method is to obtain information about objective or subjective facts from the words of the respondents (respondents).

These methods provide for the collection of information, the source of which is a verbal message, the respondent's judgments, and are based on direct (conversation, interview) or mediated (questioning) socio-psychological interaction between the researcher and the respondent (respondent). The combination of these methods are:

· sociological survey. It is aimed at obtaining information about the external aspect of the respondents' activities, and its results are transferred to the functioning community groups and society as a whole;

· socio-psychological survey. Provides for the identification of deep characteristics, internal mechanisms for the formation of actions;

· conversation. It is a way of obtaining information based on verbal (verbal) communication. The manager, using this method, aims to find out certain ideas of the employee, his thoughts, concepts, goals of professional activity, labor interests, difficulties, the content of experiences, attitudes towards work, and the like. The information obtained makes it possible to accurately predict the behavior of an individual in certain situations, to generalize practical experience and to find questions that need to be answered; special experimental verification;

· questionnaire method. Unlike a conversation, it does not provide for personal contact. The questionnaire (questionnaire) contains a set of questions sorted by content and form. During the questionnaire, one should adhere to the following requirements: 1) invariability of questions; 2) instructions on how to fill out the questionnaire; 3) anonymity; 4) clarity, conciseness, gradual complication of questions, taking into account the individual psychological characteristics of the respondent (education level, age, gender, inclinations and advantages, etc.).

Each questionnaire mainly contains communicative components: an epigraph, an appeal to the respondent (this is done with the aim of creating a positive emotional mood of the respondent, promoting the activation of his mental activity in the right direction, etc.); a message about the purpose of the study, the conditions for anonymity of the survey, the direction of using the results obtained and their meaning, the rules for filling out the questionnaire; the main part of the questionnaire, which contains information about facts, behavior, product of activity, motives, assessments and opinions of the respondents; the question about the socio-demographic characteristics of the respondents (a kind of visiting card of the respondent, his schematic self-portrait, which can be placed both at the beginning and at the end of the questionnaire) ...

The advantage of the questionnaire method is the ability to collect a large amount of material, to learn a large number of managers, representatives of different categories of management personnel. Its disadvantage is that the objectivity of the information received is significantly influenced by the presence or absence of the respondent's attitude towards sincerity in answers and his ability to objectively assess the actions of people, situations, his own qualities and the qualities of other people.

Test Method(eng. test - exam, test). With its help, certain psychological qualities of a person are determined, the presence or absence of certain abilities (didactic, communicative, organizational), skills, abilities. As a kind of examination, measuring experiment, it is used for the purpose of diagnostics. The test contains specially designed tasks and problem situations, the use of which, as a result of quantitative and qualitative assessment, can become an indicator of the development of certain psychological qualities and personality traits.

Modern psychodiagnostics distinguishes and uses the following main types of tests: intelligence tests(tasks for logical relationships, generalization, ingenuity); achievement tests(to identify the degree of specific knowledge); personality tests(in order to study the characteristics of a person, her psychological qualities); projective tests(they are resorted to during the study of properties and characteristics in the existence of which a person is not sure, does not realize or does not want to recognize them in himself, for example, negative traits, motives); creativity tests(with their help, the development of creative abilities is investigated).

In terms of form, test methods are divided into verbal (verbal), non-verbal and mixed.

The value of the test largely depends on its correct use and compliance with the conditions of psychological testing. A correctly applied test makes it possible to collect for a short time a lot of information, valuable material for high-quality psychological analysis, which increases the productivity of research work.

Experimental method. It is the main research method in psychology, the most reliable means of obtaining reliable information. Its advantage lies in the fact that the researcher does not expect the phenomena that interest him, but causes them, organizing the interaction between the investigated and the experimental situation in order to establish the laws of this interaction and the variables on which it depends. The experimental method is more than other methods associated with theory and is impossible without the knowledge of the researcher about the nature of the process under study, about the factors that determine the experiment.

A psychological experiment has the following varieties:

· natural, which is based on controlling the behavior of the subjects under natural conditions (special experimental conditions are created that do not disrupt the usual course of events);

· laboratory, which provides for research in artificial conditions, using measuring equipment, instruments and other experimental material. Thanks to the use of special rooms, measuring equipment, simulators, the ability to simulate conditions that rarely occur in everyday life, the high accuracy of recording the actions of the investigated in comparison with observation, and the like, a laboratory experiment provides reliable results. Its disadvantages are that the artificial conditions in which the subjects find themselves significantly affect the manifestation of their psyche and that not all mental phenomena can be learned.

An experiment requires adherence to a set goal, planning, hypothesis, and choice of subjects.

Method of studying documents. In the psychology of document management, it is considered specially created objects intended for the transfer and storage of information, as well as any information that contains data on changes in the content of the individual's labor, the amount of work performed by him, relations in the organization, and the like. The source of information is the minutes of meetings, work plans, personnel documentation, etc.

Documents are conventionally divided into types:

· By status: official (government materials, decrees, statistical reporting archives, orders); unofficial (questionnaires, complaints, memoirs, letters, photographs);

· By form: written texts (printed, typewritten, handwritten); phonetic (magnetic records, records, laser disks); iconographic (film, video, photo documents, paintings);

· By source of information: primary (created on the basis of direct observation or direct survey); secondary (processed and generalized primary information);

· By the degree of personification: personal (autobiography, personal cards, characteristics, statements, questionnaires, complaints); impersonal (reports, minutes, archival documents).

Working with documents requires special training from the researcher: the ability to determine the reliability of the information presented in the documents (to find out the purpose for which the document was drawn up, its author and initiator; analyze the intentions of the persons who drew up the document; highlight the description of events and their assessment; find out whether the author was document by a witness of the recorded event, retold it from the words of others, whether the document was based on data received from others, etc.). For example, the personal data of a person who is hired contains valuable information about his character, biography, etc. In such situations, first of all, pay attention to the following parameters:

· appearance filling out a document (personal sheet on personnel records and autobiography);

· Legibility of handwriting and clarity of presentation of the material;

· Missed or unanswered questions;

· Break in work;

· Contradictions of the data specified in the document;

· Frequency of job change (how often the applicant changed his job);

· Reasons for changing jobs.

Correct study of personal data makes it possible not only to get a general impression of the employee, but also to prepare for a conversation with him.

Methods for studying documents are divided into quality(unformalized) and quantitative(formalized). At the heart of any of them are the processes of understanding the text and the interpretation by the researcher of the information that it contains. In practice, they use different methods of studying documents or their combination. The most common is the content analysis and biographical method.

Content analysis(eng. content - content). Its essence lies in the selection in the text of the document of certain units of content for their statistical processing (calculation of the frequency of use of these units: terms, estimates, etc.). Content analysis is a way of translating interpreted textual information into quantitative indicators with mathematical and statistical processing.

Biographical method. It is effective when studying personal documents (letters, diaries, autobiographies, etc.). Analyzing, for example, the personal data of an applicant for a managerial position, they take into account a certain relationship between the style of leadership and the length of service of the manager. With a work experience of up to three years, the manager seeks to establish complete mutual understanding with the team; from 3 to 7 years old, inclined to experiment, trying to find new methods of leadership; for more than 7 years he has been fluent in the entire arsenal of management methods. However, managers with more than 20 years of experience in management work, due to age characteristics, make decisions with caution, they are inherent in conservatism.

Professional experience can be wide (for managers who consistently work in different positions) and such that it is repeated (managers who hold one managerial position for a long time have it). The experience that is repeated can negatively affect the work of the leader, because over time, interest in working in one place is lost, especially if there are no material moral incentives.

The critical periods of adaptation in leadership positions are: "entering the position" - the first year of work; transition to the stage of optimal productivity - 2.5-3 years; the appearance of some signs of a decrease in performance after 6-7 years of work. Therefore, it is desirable that the term of work in one managerial position does not exceed 7 years. At the same time, the level of management is also significant (for example, the foremen of production sections achieve the greatest efficiency in their work in the period from 1.5 to 4 years of experience, and the heads of shops and departments from 2 to 5 years). For managers of the rank of directors of the enterprise and above, the period of the most effective activity may slightly exceed the indicated benchmarks. The greatest success is achieved by those managers who have completed their previous positions in a shorter time. For example, for directors of factories, the number of previous management levels is on average 8-10, and the time to reach the post of director is 18-22 years. It is estimated that the average time spent in previous positions is about 2.2 years, that is, managers in previous positions did not go beyond the period of maximum efficiency and reached the highest level of management in the prime of their physical strength and creativity (F. Udalov, G. Shchekin).

There is also a certain relationship between planning a professional career and periods of personality development. Psychologists say that periods of creative upsurge, active realization of the potential of a person fall on 23-28, 33-39, 43-50 years. It is at this time that it is advisable to plan the most important personnel movements. A sharp reassessment of values, when the achieved results seem insufficient and there is a feeling that life is wasted, typical for the period of 29-32, 40-42 years.

With the help of the biographical method, a synthetic description of a person as a person and a subject of activity occurs. It is both historical and genetic, because it allows you to trace the dynamics of a person's life path, taking into account the economic, social, moral, ethnopsychological and psychophysiological aspects. Its subject is the life path of a person, and the sources of biographical information are the person himself and the events of the environment that surrounds him. The analysis of the characterological characteristics of a person based on the biographical method is mainly carried out according to the following indicators:

· Life path data;

· Stages of socialization (family, school, university, etc.);

Development environment (residence, educational establishments, circles for interests and the like);

Interests and hobbies in different periods life;

· Health status (in particular, human-borne diseases).

As a rule, the biographical method provides answers to the following questions of the questionnaire: In what family were you born? How was your childhood? How did your family live? How did the family treat each other? What are your earliest memories? What did you like about school and what did you dislike? How did your relationship with your parents develop at this time? Who were your friends? What were you interested in and what did you think about your future life? How did you live when you became an adult? How did you choose your profession? How did you spend your leisure time? What is the most interesting and most important for you? What are your life plans?

Based on the results obtained, a special table of personal development is added, to which in chronological order write down the dates, events associated with them, experiences about them. Then the answers are processed by the method of content analysis. The interpretation of the results involves the analysis of:

· Social situation of personality development;

· The main background of emotional experiences in different periods of development;

· Value orientations, orientation, interests, tendencies, communication environment, social activity of the individual;

· The main conflicts and driving forces of personality development.

Consequently, possession of methods for studying the psychological characteristics of a person and the ability to use them in practice are the most important conditions for the creative work of a manager and staff.

Socio-psychological methods of studying the organization in the management structure.

Socio-psychological methods are based on the use of socio-psychological mechanisms operating in the organization (we are talking about the organization as groups; people, collective): relationships in formal and informal groups, status - role-based implementation of the social needs of the individual, etc. This group methods, which include methods of influence, the method of sociometry, the method of group assessment of the individual, is distinguished by its motivational characteristic, which determines the characteristics of the impact.

Methods of exposure. Since managerial activity does not exist outside of communication and interaction, the main determinant mutual influence of people is its content characteristic. The methods of influence are aimed precisely at detecting changes in the behavior and activities of the communication partner. On the other hand, suggestion, imitation, persuasion, etc. - specific mechanisms of influence with the help of which the regulation of the behavior of individuals is carried out. Among the methods of exposure, there are: conviction(impact on the consciousness of a person through an appeal to her critical judgment); suggestion(the process of influencing the mental sphere of a person, associated with a decrease in the consciousness and criticality of the perception of information); imitation(impact on the mental sphere of a person with the aim of conscious or unconscious repetition of someone else's actions, gestures, manners, lifestyle, etc.); infection(influence on the emotional sphere of a person; the process of transferring an emotional state from one individual to another at the psychophysiological level of contact, in addition to the actual semantic influence). The main sources of information about a socio-psychological phenomenon in an organization are: characteristics of real behavior, activities of an individual and a group (verbal and non-verbal behavior, actions and actions, etc.); features of individual and group consciousness (social attitudes, value orientations, social ideas, expectations, beliefs, etc.); situations of social interaction; characteristics of the products of material and spiritual activity of an individual, group, etc.

Sociometry method. Developed by J. Moreno, the method is used during the study of emotional and psychological relationships in a group (organization). Sociometric methodology aims to study group differentiation. Everyone is asked to give answers, for example, to such questions: Who would you like to be elected as a leader? Who would you like to solve a group assignment with? etc. The basis for evaluation and choice is the feeling of sympathy or antipathy towards others. As a rule, three candidates are named. At the same time, it is noted who would be chosen first, second, third. Choices can be mutually positive, mutually negative or positive, or negative for the chooser, negative or positive for the chooser. The number of positive and negative choices is recorded on the matrix, after which the percentages in each of them are calculated. The method makes it possible to reveal the real place of a personality in a group with its business qualities, popularity, between personal relationships.

The method of group personality assessment. This method is based on the phenomenon of group ideas about each as a result of mutual cognition in the process of joint activity, communication and makes it possible to obtain personality characteristics through mutual evaluation. With its help, the qualities of a person are assessed (according to the presented list) using the following techniques: direct assessment; ranking of qualities; pairwise comparison, etc. The content of the qualities that are assessed is determined by the objectives of the study, and their number is different - from 20 to 150.

The use of socio-psychological methods in the psychology of management is aimed at ensuring the growing social needs of the participants in the management process, their development, increasing the managerial activity of the individual and the effective activity of the organization.

Methods aimed at solving managerial problems and making managerial decisions.

Solving managerial problems and making managerial decisions is always a choice of an alternative, which requires from the participants in the managerial process competence, creativity, activity, determination and provides for the use of appropriate methods.

Good idea method. This is the oldest method that involves the manifestation of intuition. Since the problem is not always clearly formulated, based on intuition, its formulation and solution often comes with lightning speed.

Brainstorming method. Its essence lies in the generation of ideas by the members of a creative group headed by a specialist. Decisions are made by other specialists (5 people). They get to know the ideas put forward during the brainstorming session and choose the ones that are worth implementing (usually about 10% of the ideas put forward). The choice of an idea is associated with its discussion by authoritative experts.

Synectic method. The method developed by Gordon literally means the method of compounding. It has much in common with the brainstorming method, but differs from it in the organization of the work of a creative group selected to solve a specific problem. The procedure for its application covers four phases: 1) consideration by all members of the creative group of the problem and attempts to find ways and solutions with the fixation of considerations on the forms (in workbooks); 2) joint election of the group leader, who expresses in detail his opinion on the solution of the problem; 3) the participants express their understanding of a possible way to solve the discussion problem, agreeing different views and developing a model for solving the problem (if the discussion does not lead to a common approach in solving the managerial problem, various methods of coordination are used); 4) the analysis by invited experts-experts of the assessments of the problem put forward by the creative group and the model of its solution proposed by it.

Diary method. If a managerial task is very complex and requires a significant effort of creative efforts for a long time to solve, create a special group of experts, the participants of which are allowed to work collectively, as well as separately. Each of them daily for one or two weeks writes observations in a notebook and formulates conclusions about a possible solution to the problem. The results of the work are discussed at a joint discussion. To summarize observations, considerations, suggestions for the formulation of topics for discussion, the leader can personally familiarize himself with the notes in each diary.

Delphi method. It is used when the solution of a problem involves the advancement and justification of alternatives. It has several main stages:

· The assessment by each participant of the proposed alternative according to the degree of subjective preference according to a 10-point system (the highest score is considered one, not ten). For this purpose, alternatives are assigned points in a hierarchical sequence; analyze the scores of all persons in the group for all alternatives and calculate the average for each;

· Comparison of the participants' assessments with the average values ​​(according to the 10-point system indicate the extent to which the assessments coincide), the second calculation of the average value;

· Multiplying two averages for each alternative and determining the best (alternative with the smallest value). A matrix of values ​​is used for calculations.

Method "635". This is a variation on the brainstorming method, which involves gradually coming up with new solutions and focusing only on the main ideas. The "635" method is implemented as follows: the main ideas come in turn to groups of people; they add their thoughts on a possible solution to the problem. Each of the six members of the creative group is offered special forms, which reflect 18 ideas (6 people x 3 ideas). After filling out (it takes about half an hour), the forms already contain 108 ideas.

Method "635" requires compliance with the following conditions: ensuring the heterogeneity of the composition of the group; formulation of the problem before starting the work of the group; notification of problems 2-3 days before the start of work; prohibition of oral exchange of information between group members.

· Experts - for each option under discussion, two representatives of the concept “for” (defenders of the solution option) and opponents (rejecting this option) all put forward their arguments, which the experts record on a special board (this stage lasts 10-15 minutes);

· Representatives of the concept “for” and “against” change places and give additional arguments “for” and “against” regarding the options under consideration, which are also recorded on the scoreboard;

· Experts discuss all evidence and, if necessary, supplement it; distributed in 4-6 people to improve the proposed options.

The method of utopian games. This method assumes Active participation creative group in solving the formulated problem. Each participant makes unrealistic (utopian) statements in the form of ideas. When applying this method, it is advisable to adhere to the following conditions:

· Not be guided by the action of a specific organization, the peculiarities of its functioning, etc.

· Do not take into account the order of planning in the organization;

· Decisions made earlier (targets, directives, etc.) should not affect the work of the creative group;

· Focus on the future. The presented ideas are divided by means of points into two large categories: the model of "utopias" and the model of "non-utopias". The first model includes forecasts of the desired future, the second includes forecasts of an undesirable future. The “Utopias” model is supplemented with factors that prevent the implementation of utopian ideas, and the “non-utopias” model includes factors that cause undesirable tendencies. The ideas expressed are evaluated using a preference matrix. This scoring method consists of summing individual scores.

Delbeck's method. It is used to solve tasks that require knowledge in different industries, and provides for an active creative approach to solving the problems of the group by each person. The method covers several stages:

· Definition of the problem;

· Identifying factors that contribute to and hinder the implementation of the goal, and establishing a connection between them;

· Search for solutions to the problem and the choice of the most optimal option.

The Delbeck method provides for the following order of work:

1. A short description (within 15 minutes) by each member of the group, independently of each other, of the specific management situation.

2. Reading and recording of the most characteristic sentences.

3. Correction of errors and inaccuracies in the wording of the group's persons with the help of questions and answers.

4. Fixing the number of identical offers.

5. Raising the number of sentences that differ to a minimum or to zero.

6. Synthesis of sentences that express the opinion of the group and highlight the actual situation that has developed.

7. Concise description of what each person wants in the group.

8. Discussion on the proposal, which assesses the current situation, is held for 20 minutes.

9. Submission after discussion by each of the group of three proposals for the degree of importance.

10. Formulation of the goal in the form of a proposal with which the majority of participants agree.

11. Adding a list of factors that impede the achievement of the goal.

12. Determination of factors that contribute to the achievement of the goal.

13. Folding a plan for the implementation of organizational change.

Much less often they use such methods of solving managerial tasks and making managerial decisions as the method of control questions, the method of morphological analysis, the method of role-playing games, etc.

When applying each method, the problem of information quality arises. The information obtained in the course of the study must meet the requirements of accuracy (depends on the sensitivity of the methods used to measure the studied qualities), validity (determined by the suitability of the method to investigate exactly those qualities of the object that are being studied) and reliability (which means the stability of the results with repeated experiments by different researchers).

The need to assess the business qualities of a person as a manager arises not only when attesting or identifying the degree of compliance of a person with a position. It is also necessary when forming a reserve of managers or when selecting candidates for an emerging vacancy not only from among the personnel, but also from outsiders for a given enterprise, division, etc.

To assess persons who have been at the enterprise for a sufficiently long time, you can use "A standardized methodology for adding the business characteristics of the head" developed by E.S. Zharikov.

This technique is a set of forms with a list of evaluative statements that characterize the following qualities of a leader:

· Thinking;

· Ability to make a decision; competence;

· Functional features; incentives to motivate to work;

· attitude to work;

• mental traits;

· Ethical characteristics.

The technique is designed to determine the degree of compliance of managers with the requirements of the work performed; for self-assessment of managers; to organize retraining of personnel, taking into account their personal characteristics; to guide the employees responsible for the selection, placement and training of management personnel.

The Standardized Business Attribution Technique (SIF) can be applied in several ways.

1. Arbitrary standard characteristic. It is built from standardized statements selected from questionnaires and recorded in any convenient order. The choice in this case is determined by the goal - to reflect in the characteristic the qualities or properties that are most developed in a given person that are needed to carry out a certain work. In other words, the SMAH is used as a “stockpile” of clearly formulated evaluative statements.

Such a characteristic requires from the compiler detailed knowledge of the working conditions, personal and professional qualities of managers.

The disadvantages of this method of using the IMSDH are the possibility of arbitrary choice of expressions for assessments and the difficulty in comparing the characteristics of two or more workers due to the lack of a common list of criteria.

2. Expert judgment... The questionnaires of the standardized methodology are used in the same way as the forms for the collective examination of a management employee, as a result of which an average idea of ​​the manager is created according to all the criteria laid down in the methodology. To compile a characteristic in this way requires special organizational work, selection and training of experts. For a more objective assessment of business and personal qualities, it is advisable to conduct an expert assessment “from above” (by leaders of a higher rank), “horizontally” (by persons of the same rank with the subject) and “from below” (subordinates). Each expert group must consist of at least 3 people. All persons included in the expert groups should know the subject well for working together. The procedure for assessing a manager is as follows. The experts are given blanks with evaluative statements and familiarized with the instructions for filling it out. The assessment is carried out in three stages.

First, the experts must correlate the statements placed on the forms with the properties, abilities, skills, characteristics and qualities of the person being assessed, and also intuitively assess the frequency of their manifestation in work. Results should be recorded in the appropriate column.

Then the experts must correlate the statements not with the frequency of manifestation of the properties of the evaluated in real practical work, but its potentialities.

After that, the statements must be correlated with the requirements of the work that the person being assessed does (or will do).

It is advisable to carry out evaluations of all three evaluations different colors or different signs. The processing of the materials of the expert assessment is carried out as follows. First, on each form, the total of points is calculated at each stage of the assessment separately and put down, respectively, in the column RK (implementation of qualities) and in the column PV (potential opportunities). Then the points for each card of all experts are summed up, and this amount is divided by the number of experts (the distribution must be done up to tenths).

Thus, for each quality (card), an average score is determined for implementation (AC) and for potential capabilities (PV) of the head.

3. Self-esteem. The technique can also be used as a means of self-assessment. Applying self-esteem in conjunction with expert judgment allows you to get additional information about the adequacy of the self-esteem of the subject, which is important when deciding on his recommendation for a particular position.

The Oriented Questionnaire (OA) provides very useful information about a person. Smykla and M. Kuchera, allowing to determine the orientation of the personality.

Orientation is a complex personality formation that determines all personality behavior, attitude towards oneself and the environment. Direction manifests itself in needs, interests, ideals, beliefs, dominant motives of activity and behavior, and worldview.

Directionality as a system of personality's relationship to reality is the following triad; treating other people as team members; attitude to work and results, products of labor; attitude towards oneself, one's personality. In accordance with this, the focus on interaction (VD), business focus on the task (H3) and personal focus, or focus on oneself (NS) are distinguished.

Determining the orientation of the personality of an employee is of paramount importance for the practice of personnel work, since the effectiveness of the selection, placement and further use of personnel in production depends on this. This provision will become clear after familiarization with the characteristics of various types of direction.

The focus on interaction (VD) takes place when the actions of the employee are determined by his need for communication, the desire to maintain a good relationship with fellow workers. As a rule, people with a focus on interaction give in to the pressure of the group, do not take over the leadership. Such an employee shows interest in joint activities, even without contributing to the successful completion of the task and his actual assistance may be minimal, He is interested not so much in the final result of the activity, as in the joint activity itself.

Business orientation reflects the preference of the motives associated with the achievement of the group's goal. An employee with such a focus takes leadership into his own hands when it comes to choosing a task, tries to reasonably prove his point of view, which is considered useful for completing the task. Usually such a person seeks to cooperate with the team and achieves the greatest productivity of the work of subordinates. It is characterized by a passion for mastering new skills and abilities, the very process of activity, a desire for knowledge.

Personal orientation (LN) creates the advantage of the motives of one's own well-being, striving for personal superiority and prestige. Such a person is most often busy with himself, his feelings, experiences and reacts little to the needs of the people around him, ignores employees or the work that he has to do. He sees in work, first of all, an opportunity to satisfy his claims, regardless of the interests of other employees and colleagues.

Employees are known to differ markedly in who they tend to attribute responsibility for their own actions. The tendency of a person to ascribe responsibility for the results of his activity to external circumstances, or, on the contrary, to his own efforts and abilities, psychologists call the localization of control.

For the first time concept locus of control suggested by the American psychologist J. Rotter to distinguish between people according to where they localize control over events that are significant for themselves.

There are two extreme types of such localization, or locus of control: internal and external. In the first case, a person believes that the events that happen to her, first of all, depend on her personal qualities, such as competence, purposefulness, level of abilities, and are the natural result of his own activity. In the second case, a person is convinced that his successes and failures are the result of such external forces as luck, chance, environmental pressure, other people, etc.

Employees belonging to this category will always find an explanation for the unsatisfactory assessment of their activities (the materials were not brought in on time, the machine broke down, the master of the task explained the wrong one) or their behavior (was late for work because there was no transport for a long time, the alarm did not ring, the elevator broke down, etc.). etc.).

Psychologists have found that a person's belonging to one or another type of localization of control affects the diverse characteristics of his psyche and behavior.

The characteristic features of internals are: emotional stability, moral normality, gullibility, imagination, cordiality, sophistication, sociability and high willpower.

Employees who are characterized by such localization of control are more responsible, consistent in achieving the goal, prone to introspection, sociable, independent. They are more productive in decision-making and risk situations. They are more willing to delay their pleasure in order to achieve a distant but more valuable good. Interns are more convinced than externalists that hard work is more likely to lead to high productivity, and high productivity leads to high “rewards”. Their overall job satisfaction is significantly higher than that of external workers.

Among externalals, the tendency towards external localization of control is associated with such personality traits as irresponsibility, lack of confidence in their abilities, anxiety, the desire to postpone the implementation of their intentions again and again.

In general, external people are more likely to be suspicious, anxious, depressed, aggressive, conformable, dogmatic, authoritarian, unscrupulous, cynical, and have a tendency to deceive. The external leadership style is more directive and is based on negative sanctions.

In general, to get an idea of ​​the availability of the necessary data for a candidate for managers, the correct answers should be found to the following questions:

· What kind of person is required for this place?

· Does the leader correspond to the position he occupies as a person with certain abilities and orientation?

· What are its strengths and weaknesses?

· Does his qualification correspond to the requirements of this position?

· Is his qualifications sufficient to be objective?

Similar information.

Personality is the most complex mental construct in which many are closely intertwined. A change in even one of these factors significantly affects its relationship with other factors and the personality as a whole. This is associated with a variety of approaches to the study of personality - various aspects of the study of personality come from different concepts, they differ methodologically according to the object of which science is the study of personality.

IN last years there has been a significant increase in interest in research on the personality characteristics of mentally ill patients both in pathopsychology and in clinical psychiatry... This is explained by a number of circumstances: firstly, personality changes have a certain nosological specificity and can be used to resolve issues differential diagnosis; secondly, the analysis of premorbid personality traits can be useful in establishing possible reasons the origin of a number of diseases (and not only mental, but also, for example, peptic ulcer, diseases of the cardiovascular system); thirdly, the characteristic of personality changes during the course of the disease enriches our understanding of its pathogenetic mechanisms; fourthly, taking into account personality traits is very important for the rational construction of a complex of rehabilitation measures. Given the complexity of the concept of personality, one should immediately agree that there is no single method of its study, no matter how complete and versatile it may seem to us, that can give an integral characterization of the personality. With the help of experimental research, we obtain only a partial characterization of the personality, which satisfies us insofar as it evaluates certain personal manifestations that are important for solving a specific problem.

Currently, there are many experimental psychological techniques, methods, techniques aimed at studying personality. They, as already indicated, differ in the peculiarities of the approach to the problem itself (we are talking about a fundamental, methodological difference), a variety of interests of researchers (personality is studied in educational psychology, in labor psychology, in social and pathological psychology, etc.) and focus on various manifestations of personality. Of course, the interests of researchers and the tasks they face often coincide, and this explains the fact that the methods of studying personality in social psychology are adopted by pathopsychologists, the methods of pathopsychology are borrowed by specialists working in the field of labor psychology.

There is not even any clear and even more generally accepted classification of the methods used to study personality. V.M.Bleikher and L.F.Burlachuk (1978) proposed as a conditional next classification personality research methods:
1) and methods close to it (study of biographies, clinical conversation, analysis of subjective and objective anamnesis, etc.);
2) special experimental methods (modeling of certain types of activities, situations, some hardware techniques, etc.);
3) personal and other methods based on assessment and self-esteem;
4) projective methods.

As will be seen from what follows, the distinction between these four groups of methods is very conditional and can be used mainly for pragmatic and didactic purposes.

K. Leonhard (1968) considered observation to be one of the most important methods of personality diagnostics, giving preference to it in comparison with methods such as personality questionnaires. At the same time, he attaches particular importance to the opportunity to observe a person directly, to study his behavior at work and at home, in a family, among friends and acquaintances, in a narrow circle and with a large number of people. The particular importance of observing facial expressions, gestures and intonations of the subject, which are often more objective criteria of personality manifestations than words, is emphasized. Observation should not be passive-contemplative. In the process of observation, the pathopsychologist analyzes the phenomena that he sees from the point of view of the patient's activity in a certain situation and, for this purpose, exerts a certain influence on the developing situation in order to stimulate certain behavioral reactions of the subject. Observation is a deliberate and purposeful perception conditioned by the task of activity (M.S. Rogovin, 1979). In a clinical conversation, the features of the patient's biography, the inherent features of personal reactions, his attitude to his own character, and the features of the subject's behavior in specific situations are analyzed. The latter were considered by K. Leonhard as the most important methodological point in the analysis of personality. MS Lebedinsky (1971) paid special attention to the study of the patient's personality to the study of diaries and autobiographies, compiled by him at the request of the doctor, or kept earlier.

For the study of personality in the process of activity, special methods are used, which will be discussed below. It should only be noted that for an experienced psychologist, such material is given by any psychological techniques aimed at the study of cognitive activity. For example, according to the results of a test for memorizing 10 words, one can judge the presence of apathetic changes in a patient with schizophrenia (memorization curve of the "plateau" type), an overestimated or underestimated level of aspirations, etc.

Significant methodological and methodological difficulties arise before the psychologist in connection with the use of personality questionnaires. Personal characteristics obtained in terms of self-esteem are of significant interest for a pathopsychologist, but the need to compare self-esteem data with indicators that objectively represent a person is often overlooked. Of the most frequently used personality questionnaires, only MMPI has satisfactory rating scales that allow judging the adequacy of the subject's self-esteem. The disadvantage of the design of many personality questionnaires should be considered their explicit purposefulness for the subject. This primarily applies to monothematic questionnaires such as anxiety scale.

Thus, the information obtained with the help of personality questionnaires can be adequately assessed only by comparing it with the data of an objective assessment of the personality, as well as supplementing it with the results of personality research in the process of activity, by projective methods. The selection of methods that complement one or another personality questionnaire is largely determined by the task of the study. For example, when studying the internal picture of the disease, the position of the patient in relation to his disease is significantly clarified by the introduction of methods of the type into the experiment.

By projective we mean such methods of indirect study of personality, which are based on the construction of a specific, plastic situation, which, due to the activity of the perception process, creates the most favorable conditions for the manifestation of tendencies, attitudes, emotional states and other personality traits (V.M.Bleikher, L.F. . Burlachuk, 1976, 1978). E. T. Sokolova (1980) believes that, focused on the study of unconscious or not fully conscious forms of motivation, is practically the only psychological method of penetration into the most intimate area of ​​the human psyche. If the majority of psychological techniques, according to E. T. Sokolova, are aimed at studying how and by what means the objective nature of a person's reflection of the external world is achieved, then projective techniques aim at identifying a kind of “subjective deviations”, personal “interpretations”, and the latter by no means always objective, not always, as a rule, personally significant.

It should be remembered that the range of projective techniques is much wider than the list of methodological techniques that are traditionally included in this group of techniques (V.M.Bleikher, L.I. Zavilyanskaya, 1970, 1976). Elements of projectivity can be found in most pathopsychological methods and techniques. Moreover, there is reason to believe that a conversation with a subject, directed in a special way, may contain elements of projectivity. In particular, this can be achieved when discussing with the patient certain collisions of life or containing a deep subtext of works of art, phenomena of social life.

In the aspect of the problem of projectivity, V.E.Renge (1976) has been analyzed. At the same time, it was found that a number of techniques (pictograms, self-esteem research, level of aspirations, etc.) are based on stimulation that is ambiguous for the patient and does not limit the scope of the "choice" of answers. The possibility of obtaining a relatively large number of answers from the subject depends to a large extent on the characteristics of the conduct. An important factor in this is, according to V.E.Renge, the unconsciousness of the subjects of the true goals of the application of the techniques.

This circumstance, for example, was taken into account in the modification of the TAT method by H.K. Kiyashchenko (1965). According to our observations, to a large extent the principle of projectivity is inherent in the classification method. In this regard, one should agree with V.E.Renge that there are no methods for studying only personal characteristics or only cognitive processes. The main role is played by the creation of as favorable conditions as possible for the actualization of the projectivity factor in the process of performing the task, which to a certain extent is determined not only by the knowledge and skill of the psychologist, but is also a special art.

Research on the level of aspirations
The concept was developed by the school psychologists K. Lewin. In particular, the method of experimental research of the level of claims by R. Knorre (1930) was created. In the experiment, it was found that the level of aspirations depends on how successfully the examinee performs the experimental tasks. VN Myasishchev (1935) distinguished two sides of the level of aspirations - objective-principled and subjective-personal. The latter is closely related to self-esteem, feelings of inferiority, self-affirmation tendencies and the desire to see in the performance indicators a decrease or increase in working capacity. The author pointed out that the ratio of these moments determines the level of claims of patients, especially in psychogenic diseases.

The level of aspirations is not an unambiguous, stable personality characteristic (B.V. Zeigarnik, 1969, 1972; V.S. Merlin, 1970). You can distinguish the initial level of aspirations, which is determined by the degree of difficulty of the tasks that a person considers feasible for himself, corresponding to his capabilities. Further, we can talk about the well-known dynamics of the level of aspirations in accordance with the extent to which the level of aspirations turned out to be adequate to the level of achievements. As a result of human activity (this also applies to the conditions of the experimental situation), finally, a certain level of aspirations typical for a given personality is established.

In the formation of the level of aspirations, an important role is played by the correspondence of the subject's activity to his assumptions about the degree of complexity of tasks, the implementation of which would bring him satisfaction. VS Merlin (1970) attached great importance to social factors, believing that in the same activity there are different social norms of achievement for different social categories, depending on the position, specialty, qualifications of the individual. This factor plays a well-known role in the experimental study of the level of aspirations - even the correct performance of experimental tasks with a certain self-assessment of the subject may not be perceived by him as successful. Hence follows the principle of the importance of the value of the selection of experimental tasks.

The nature of the subject's reaction to success or failure is primarily determined by how stable his self-esteem is. Analyzing the dynamics of the level of claims, V.S.Merlin found that the ease or difficulty of adapting a person to activity by changing the level of claims depends on the properties of temperament (anxiety, extra- or introversion, emotionality) and on such purely personal properties as the initial level claims, the adequacy or inadequacy of self-esteem, the degree of its stability, motives for self-assertion.

In addition to self-esteem, in the dynamics of the level of aspirations, such moments as the attitude of the subject to the situation of the experiment and the investigator, the assessment of the subject's activity by the experimenter who registers success or failure in the course of the experiment, and the nature of the experimental tasks play a significant role.

In the laboratory of B.V. Zeigarnik, a variant of the methodology for studying the level of claims was developed (B.I.Bezhanishvili, 1967). In front of the patient in two rows, 24 cards are laid out with the back side up. In each row (from 1 to 12 and from 1 a to 12a), the cards contain questions of increasing difficulty, for example:
1. Write 3 words on the letter "Ш".
but. Write 5 words on the letter "H". 3. Write the names of 5 cities with the letter "L".
3 a. Write 6 names with the letter "B". 10. Write the names of 5 writers with the letter "C". 10a. Write the names of 5 famous Soviet film actors with the letter "L". 12. Write the names of 7 French artists.
12a. Write the names of famous Russian artists with the letter "K".

The examinee is informed that in each row the cards are arranged according to the increasing degree of difficulty of the task, that in parallel in two rows there are cards of the same difficulty. Then he is offered, according to his capabilities, to choose tasks of one difficulty or another and to complete them. The subject is warned that a certain time is allowed for each task, but he is not told what time. By turning on the stopwatch every time the subject takes a new card, the researcher, if desired, can tell the subject that he did not meet the prescribed time and therefore the task is considered unfulfilled. This allows the researcher to artificially create “failure”.

The experience is carefully recorded. Attention is drawn to the extent to which the patient's level of claims corresponds to his capabilities (intellectual level, education) and how he reacts to success or failure.

Some patients, after successfully completing, for example, the third task, immediately take the 8th or 9th card, others, on the contrary, are extremely careful - after completing the task correctly, they take the card either of the same degree of difficulty or the next one. The same is true in case of failure - some subjects take a card of the same complexity or slightly less difficult, while others, having not completed the ninth task, move on to the second or third, which indicates the extreme fragility of their level of aspirations. It is also possible that the patient behaves in such a way that, in spite of failure, he continues to choose more and more difficult tasks. This indicates a lack of critical thinking.

NK Kalita (1971) found that the questions used in B.I.Bezhanishvili's version, aimed at identifying the general educational level, are difficult to rank. The degree of their difficulty is determined not only by the volume of life knowledge and the level of education of the subject, but also largely depends on the range of his interests. In search of more objective criteria for establishing the degree of difficulty of tasks, N.K. Kalita suggested using pictures that differ from each other in the number of elements. Here the criterion of complexity is the number of differences between the compared pictures. In addition, control examinations can establish the time spent by healthy people on completing tasks of varying degrees of complexity. As for the rest, the study of the level of claims in the modification of N.K. Kalita has not changed.

For the study, tasks of a different kind can also be used, in the selection of which it is possible to relatively objectively establish their gradation according to the degree of difficulty: Koos cubes, one of the series of Raven tables. For each of the tasks, it is necessary to select a parallel one, approximately equal in degree of difficulty.

The results of the study can be presented for greater clarity and ease of analysis in the form of a graph.

Studies of the level of aspirations with an assessment of some quantitative indicators are of interest. Such a study can be important for the objective characterization of the degree of mental defect of the subject. An attempt to modify the methodology for studying the level of aspirations was undertaken by V.K.Gerbachevsky (1969), who used all the subtests of the D. Wexler scale (WAIS) for this. However, the modification of V.K.Gerbachevsky seems to us difficult for pathopsychological research, and therefore we slightly modified the version of the Zeigarnik-Bezhanishvili method. According to the instructions, the subject should, out of 24 cards containing questions of different difficulty, choose 11 according to his capabilities (of which the first 10 are taken into account). The response time is not regulated, that is, it is important to take into account the actual performance of the tasks, however, the subject is advised, if it is impossible to answer the question, immediately say about it. Taking into account the well-known increase in the difficulty of the questions included in the cards, the answers are accordingly evaluated in points, for example, the correct answer on the card No. 1 and No. 1a - 1 point, No. 2 and No. 2a - 2 points, No. 8 and No. 8a - 8 points and so on. In this case, just as according to V. K. Gerbachevsky, the value of the level of aspirations (the total score of the selected cards) and the level of achievements (the sum of the points scored) are determined. In addition, an average is calculated that determines the trend of activity after a successful or unsuccessful response. For example, if the subject answered 7 out of 10 questions, the total of points on the cards selected after a successful answer is calculated separately and divided by 7. The average indicator of the tendency of activity after 3 unsuccessful answers is determined in the same way. To assess the choice of the card, after the last answer, the subject is offered the unaccounted 11th task.

The methodology for studying the level of claims, as practical experience shows, makes it possible to detect the personal characteristics of patients with schizophrenia, manic-depressive (circular) psychosis, epilepsy, cerebral atherosclerosis, and other organic brain lesions occurring with characterological changes.

Self-assessment study according to the method of T. Dembo - S. Ya. Rubinstein
The technique was proposed by S. Ya. (1970) for research. It used the method of T. Dembo, with the help of which the subject's ideas about his happiness were revealed. S. Ya. Rubinstein significantly changed this methodology, expanded it, introduced four (health, mental development, character and happiness) instead of one scale. It should be noted that the use of a reference scale to characterize any personal property is much more conducive to identifying the position of the subject than the use of alternative techniques such as a polarity profile and an adjective sheet, when the subject is offered a set of definitions (confident - timid, healthy - sick) and asked to indicate his own condition (N. Hermann, 1967). In the method of T. Dembo - S. Ya. Rubinstein, the subject is given the opportunity to determine his condition according to the scales chosen for self-assessment, taking into account a number of nuances that reflect the degree of severity of a particular personality trait.

The technique is extremely simple. A vertical line is drawn on a sheet of paper, about which the subject is told that it denotes happiness, and the upper pole corresponds to a state of complete happiness, and the lower one is occupied by the most unhappy people. The subject is asked to mark his place on this line with a line or circle. The same vertical lines are drawn to express the patient's self-assessment according to health scales, mental development, character. Then they begin a conversation with the patient, in which they find out his idea of ​​happiness and unhappiness, health and ill health, good and bad character, etc. It is found out why the patient made a mark in a certain place on the scale to indicate his characteristics. For example, what prompted him to put a mark in this place on the health scale, whether he considers himself healthy or sick, if sick, then what kind of disease, whom does he consider sick.

A peculiar version of the technique is described by TM Gabriyal (1972) using each of the scales with seven categories, for example: the most sick, very sick, more or less sick, moderately sick, more or less healthy, very healthy, the healthiest. The use of scales with such a gradation, according to the author's observation, provides more subtle differences in identifying the position of the subjects.

Depending on the specific task facing the researcher, other scales can be introduced into the methodology. So, when examining patients with alcoholism, we use the scales of mood, family well-being and service achievements. When examining patients in a depressed state, scales of mood, ideas about the future (optimistic or pessimistic), anxiety, self-confidence, etc. are introduced.

In the analysis of the results obtained by S. Ya. Rubinshtein, the main attention is paid not so much to the location of the marks on the scales, but to the discussion of these marks. Mentally healthy people, according to S. Ya. Rubinstein's observations, tend to define their place on all scales by a point "slightly above the middle." In mentally ill people there is a tendency to relate the points of marks to the poles of the lines and the "positional" attitude towards the researcher disappears, which, according to S. Ya. Rubinstein, plays an important role in determining their place on the scale lines by mentally healthy, regardless of their self-esteem and real life situation ...

The data obtained with the help of this technique acquire special interest when compared with the results of examination in this patient of the peculiarities of thinking and the emotional-volitional sphere. In this case, a violation of self-criticality, depressive self-esteem, and euphoricity can be revealed. Comparison of data on self-esteem with objective indicators for a number of experimental psychological techniques to a certain extent makes it possible to judge the patient's inherent level of claims, the degree of its adequacy. One might think that self-esteem in some mental illnesses does not remain constant and its nature depends not only on the specificity of psychopathological manifestations, but also on the stage of the disease.

Eysenck's personality questionnaire
The personal one is a variant created by the author (H. J. Eysenck, 1964) in the process of revising the Maudsley questionnaire proposed by him (1952) and, like the previous one, is aimed at studying the factors of extra- and introversion, neuroticism.

The concepts of extra- and introversion were introduced by representatives of the psychoanalytic school.

S. Jung distinguished between extra- and introverted rational (mental and emotional) and irrational (sensory and intuitive) psychological types... According to K. Leonhard (1970), the criteria for distinguishing C. Jung were mainly reduced to the subjectivity and objectivity of thinking. N. J. Eysenck (1964) associates extra- and introversion with the degree of excitation and inhibition in the central nervous system, considering this factor, which is largely innate, as a result of the balance of the processes of excitation and inhibition. In this case, a special role is given to the influence of the state reticular formation on the relationship of the main nervous processes. N. J. Eysenck also points out the importance of biological factors in this: some drugs introvert a person, while antidepressants extrovert him. Typical extrovert and introvert are considered by N. J. Eysenck as personalities - opposite edges of the continuum, to which different people in one way or another approaching.

According to N. J. Eysenck, an extrovert is sociable, loves to parties, has many friends, needs people to talk to them, does not like to read and study himself. He craves excitement, takes risks, acts under the influence of the moment, is impulsive.

The extrovert loves tricky jokes, does not go into his pocket for a word, usually likes change. He is carefree, good-naturedly cheerful, optimistic, loves to laugh, prefers movement and action, tends to be aggressive, quick-tempered. His emotions and feelings are not strictly controlled and cannot always be relied on.

In contrast to the extrovert, the introvert is calm, shy, introspective. He prefers a book to communication with people. Restrained and distant from everyone except close friends. She plans her actions in advance. Doesn't trust sudden urges. He is serious about making decisions, loves order in everything. He controls his feelings, rarely acts aggressively, does not lose his temper. You can rely on an introvert. He is somewhat pessimistic and highly values ​​ethical standards.

N. J. Eysenck himself believes that the characteristic of intro- and extrovert described by him only resembles that described by C. Jung, but is not identical to it. K. Leonhard believed that N. J. Eysenck's description of an extravert corresponds to the picture of a hypomanic state and believes that the factor of extra- and introversion cannot be associated with temperamental traits. According to K. Leonhard, the concepts of intro- and extraversion represent their own mental sphere, and for the extravert the world of sensations has a decisive influence, and for the introvert the world of representations, so that one is stimulated and controlled more from the outside, and the other more from the inside.

It should be noted that the point of view of K. Leonhard largely corresponds to the views of V.N.Myasishchev (1926), who defined these personality types from the clinical and psychological point of view as expansive and impressive, and from the neurophysiological side - excitable and inhibited.

J. Gray (1968) raises the question of the identity of the parameters of the strength of the nervous system and intro- and extraversion, and the pole of weakness of the nervous system corresponds to the pole of introversion. At the same time, J. Gray considers the parameter of the strength of the nervous system in terms of levels of activation - a weak nervous system is considered by him as a system of more high level reactions in comparison with a strong nervous system, provided that they are exposed to objectively identical physical stimuli.

J. Strelau (1970) found that extraversion is positively associated with the strength of the excitation process and the mobility of nervous processes. At the same time, there is no connection between extraversion and the force of inhibition (in the typology of I.P. Pavlov, the inhibition force is established exclusively for conditional inhibition, in the concept of J. Strelau we are talking about "temporary" inhibition, consisting of conditional and protective, that is, of two different types of braking). All three properties of the nervous system (excitation force, inhibition force and mobility of nervous processes), according to J. Strelau, are negatively associated with the parameter of neuroticism. All this testifies to the illegality of the comparison of personality typology according to N. J. Eysenck with the types of higher nervous activity according to IP Pavlov.

The factor of neuroticism (or neuroticism) testifies, according to N. J. Eysenck, to the emotional and psychological stability and instability, stability - instability and is considered in connection with the congenital lability of the autonomic nervous system. In this scale of personality traits, opposite tendencies are expressed by discordance and concordance. At the same time, a person of “external norm” is at one pole, behind which is a susceptibility to all kinds of psychological perturbations that lead to an imbalance in neuropsychic activity. At the other extreme are individuals who are psychologically stable, adapting well to the surrounding social microenvironment.

The factor of neuroticism is assigned an extremely important role in the diathesis-stress hypothesis of the etiopathogenesis of neuroses created by H. J. Eysenck, according to which neurosis is considered as a consequence of the constellation of stress and a predisposition to neurosis. Neuroticism reflects a predisposition to neurosis, predisposition. With pronounced neuroticism, according to N. J. Eysenck, insignificant stress is enough, and, conversely, with a low index of neuroticism, a strong stress is required for neurosis to develop in order for neurosis to develop.

In addition, a control scale (scale of lies) was introduced into Eysenck's questionnaire. It serves to identify subjects with a "desired reactive attitude", that is, with a tendency to respond to questions in such a way as to obtain the desired results for the subject.

The questionnaire is designed in 2 parallel forms (A and B), allowing re-examination after any experimental procedures. The questions, in comparison with MMPI, differ in the simplicity of their wording. An important fact is that the correlation between the scales of extraversion and neuroticism is reduced to zero.

The questionnaire consists of 57 questions, including 24 on the extraversion scale, 24 on the neuroticism scale and 9 on the lie scale.

The research is preceded by an instruction stating that personality traits are being investigated, not mental abilities. It is proposed to answer the questions without hesitation, immediately, since the first reaction of the subject to the question is important. The questions can only be answered "yes" or "no", you cannot skip them.

Then questions are presented either in a special notebook (this facilitates the assessment, since it allows you to use the key in the form of a stencil with specially cut windows), or printed on cards with appropriately cut corners (for subsequent accounting).

Here are some typical questions.

So, the following questions testify to extroversion (the corresponding answer is marked in parentheses; if the answer is opposite, it is counted in the indicator of introversion):
Do you like the excitement and bustle around you? (Yes).
Are you one of those people who do not go into your pocket for a word? (Yes).
Do you usually stay in the shade at parties or in companies? (Not).
Do you prefer to work alone? (Not).

The maximum score on the extraversion scale in this version of Eysenck's questionnaire is 24 points. Extraversion is indicated by an indicator above 12 points. With an indicator below 12 points, they speak of introversion.

Typical questions on the neuroticism scale:
Do you feel sometimes happy and sometimes sad for no reason? (on the scale of neuroticism, only positive responses are taken into account).
Do you get in a bad mood sometimes?
Do you easily succumb to mood swings?
How often have you lost sleep due to feelings of anxiety?
Neuroticism is evidenced by a score exceeding 12 points on this scale.
Examples of questions on the scale of lies:
Do you always do what you are ordered to do immediately and without complaint? (Yes).
Do you sometimes laugh at indecent jokes? (Not).
Do you brag sometimes? (Not).
Do you always reply to emails immediately after reading them? (Yes).

An indicator of 4-5 points on the scale of lies is already considered critical. A high score on this scale indicates the tendency of the subject to give "good" answers. This tendency is also manifested in the answers to questions on other scales, but the scale of lies was conceived as a kind of indicator of demonstrativeness in the behavior of the subject.

It should be noted that the scale of lies in Eysenck's questionnaire does not always contribute to the solution of the task. Indicators for it primarily correlate with the intellectual level of the subject. Often, persons with pronounced hysterical features and a tendency to be demonstrative in behavior, but possessing good intelligence, immediately determine the direction of the questions contained in this scale and, considering them negatively characterizing the subject, give the minimum indicators on this scale. Thus, it is obvious that the scale of lies is more indicative of personal primitiveness than demonstrativeness in answers.

According to N. J. Eysenck (1964, 1968), dysthymic symptoms are observed in introverts, hysterical and psychopathic in extroverts. Patients with neurosis differ only in the index of extraversion. According to the index of neuroticism, healthy and neurotic patients (psychopaths) are located at the extreme poles. In patients with schizophrenia, a low index of neuroticism is observed, in patients in a depressed state, it is high. With age, there was a tendency towards a decrease in the indices of neuroticism and extraversion.

These data H. J. Eysenck need clarification. In particular, in cases of psychopathy, a study using a questionnaire reveals a known difference in indicators. So, psychopaths of the schizoid and psychasthenic circle, according to our observations, often show introversion. Different forms of neuroses also differ not only in terms of extraversion. Patients with hysteria are often characterized by a high rate of lies and an exaggeratedly high rate of neuroticism, which often does not correspond to the objectively observed clinical picture.

In the last versions of the Eysenck questionnaire (1968, 1975), questions were introduced on the scale of psychoticism. The factor of psychoticism is understood as a tendency to deviations from the mental norm, a kind of predisposition to psychosis. The total number of questions - from 78 to 101. According to S. Eysenck and H. J. Eysenck (1969), indicators on the psychotic scale depend on the sex and age of the subjects, they are lower in women, higher in adolescents and the elderly. They also depend on the socio-economic status of the surveyed. However, the most significant difference in the factor of psychoticism turned out to be when comparing healthy subjects with patients with psychoses, that is, with more severe neuroses, as well as with persons in prison.

There is also a personality questionnaire by S. Eysenck (1965), adapted for examining children from the age of 7. It contains 60 questions, compiled taking into account age and interpreted on the scales of extra- and introversion, neuroticism and lies.

Questionnaire of the level of subjective control (USC) (E. F. Bazhin, E. A. Golynkina, A. M. Etkind, 1993)

The technique is an original domestic adaptation of the J. B. Rotter scale of locus of control, created in the USA in the 60s.

The theoretical basis of the methodology is the provision that one of the most important psychological characteristics of a person is the degree of independence, independence and activity of a person in achieving goals, the development of a sense of personal responsibility for events happening to him. Based on this, there are persons who localize control over events significant for themselves outside (external type of control), that is, those who believe that events occurring with them are the result of external forces - chance, other people, etc., and persons who have internal localization of control (internal type of control) - such people explain significant events as a result of their own activities.

In contrast to J.'s concept, which postulated the universality of the individual's locus of control in relation to any types of events and situations that he has to face, the authors of the USC technique, based on the results of numerous experimental studies, showed the insufficiency and unacceptability of trans-situational views on the locus of control. They proposed measuring the locus of control as a multidimensional profile, the components of which are tied to types of social situations of varying degrees of generalization. Therefore, several scales are distinguished in the methodology - general internality of Io, internality in the field of Id achievements, internality in the field of Id failures, internality in family relations Is, internality in the field of industrial relations Ip, internality in the field of interpersonal relations, and internality in the field of health and disease. ...

The methodology consists of 44 statements, for each of which the subject must choose one of 6 proposed answer options (completely disagree, disagree, rather disagree, rather agree, agree, completely agree). For the convenience of processing, it is advisable to use special forms. The processing of the technique consists in calculating raw points using the keys and then translating them into the walls (from 1 to 10).

Here is the content of individual statements of the methodology:
1. Career advancement depends more on a lucky coincidence than on a person's own abilities and efforts.
8. I often feel that I have little influence on what happens to me.
21. The life of most people depends on the coincidence of circumstances.
27. If I really want to, I can win over almost anyone.
42. Capable people those who have failed to realize their potential should only blame themselves for this.

The technique has an extremely wide use for solving a wide variety of practical problems of psychology, medicine, pedagogy, etc. It has been shown that internals prefer non-directive methods of psychotherapy, while external ones prefer directive (S. V. Abramowicz, SI Abramowicz, N. V. Robak , C. Jackson, 1971); found a positive correlation of externality with anxiety (ES Butterfield, 1964; D. S. Strassberg, 1973); with mental illness, in particular with schizophrenia (R. L. Cromwell, D. Rosenthal, D. Schacow, T. P. Zahn., 1968; T. J. Lottman, A. S. DeWolfe, 1972) and depression (S. I. Abramowicz, 1969); there are indications of a connection between the severity of symptoms and the severity of externality (J. Shibut, 1968) and suicidal tendencies (S. Williams, J. B. Nickels, 1969), etc.

EG Ksenofontova (1999) developed a new version of the USC methodology, which simplifies the research for the subjects (alternative answers like "yes" - "no" are assumed) and introduces a number of new scales ("Predisposition to self-accusation") and subscales (" Internality in describing personal experience ", Internality in judgments about life in general", "Readiness for activities related to overcoming difficulties", "Readiness for independent planning, implementation of activities and responsibility for it", "Denial of activity", "Professional and social the aspect of internality "," The professional and procedural aspect of internality "," Competence in the field of interpersonal relations "," Responsibility in the field of interpersonal relations ").

Method of psychological diagnostics of the index lifestyle(IZHS)
The first Russian-language technique for diagnosing types of psychological defense was adapted in the Russian Federation by the staff of the Laboratory of Medical Psychology of the V.M.Bekhterev Psychoneurological Institute (St. Petersburg) under the leadership of L.I. Wasserman (E. B. Klubova, O. F. Eryshev, N. N. Petrova, I. G. Bespalko and others) and published in 1998.

The theoretical basis of the technique is the concept of R. Plu-check -X. Kellerman, suggesting a specific network of relationships between different levels of personality: the level of emotions, protection and disposition (that is, a hereditary predisposition to mental illness). Certain defense mechanisms are designed to regulate certain emotions. There are eight main defense mechanisms (denial, repression, regression, compensation, projection, substitution, intellectualization, reactive formations) that interact with eight basic emotions (acceptance, anger, surprise, sadness, disgust, fear, expectation, joy). The defense mechanisms exhibit qualities of both polarity and similarity. The main diagnostic types are formed by their characteristic styles of defense, a person can use any combination of defense mechanisms, all defenses are based on a suppression mechanism, which originally arose in order to defeat the feeling of fear.

Questionnaire for the study of accentuated personality traits
The questionnaire for the study of accentuated personality traits was developed by N. Schmieschek (1970) based on the concept of accentuated personalities by K. Leonhard, (1964, 1968). According to her, there are personality traits (accentuated), which in themselves are not yet pathological, but can, under certain conditions, develop in positive and negative directions. These features are, as it were, a sharpening of some inherent in each person, unique, individual properties, an extreme version of the norm. In psychopaths, these traits are especially pronounced. According to the observations of K. Leonhard, neuroses, as a rule, arise in accentuated individuals. E. Ya. Sternberg (1970) draws an analogy between the concepts of "accentuated personality" K. Leonhard and "schizothymia" E. Kretschmer. The selection of a group of accentuated personalities can be fruitful for the development of clinical issues and etiopathogenesis in borderline psychiatry, including in the study of somatopsychic correlates in some somatic diseases, in the origin of which the personality characteristics of the patient play a prominent role. According to E. Ya. Sternberg, the concept of accentuated personalities may also be useful for studying the personality traits of relatives of mentally ill patients.

K. Leonhard identified 10 main ones:
1. Hypertensive personality, characterized by a tendency to elevated mood.
2. "Stuck" personality - with a tendency to delay, "stuck" affect and delusional (paranoid) reactions.
3. Emotive, affective-labile personalities.
4. Pedantic personality, with a predominance of features of rigidity, low mobility of nervous processes, pedantry.
5. Anxious personalities, with a predominance of anxiety traits in the character.
6. Cyclothymic personality, with a tendency to phase fluctuations in mood.
7. Demonstrative personality - with hysterical character traits.
8. Excitable individuals - with a tendency to heightened, impulsive reactivity in the sphere of drives.
9. Dysthymic personality - with a tendency to mood disorders, subdepressive.
10. Exalted personality, prone to affective exaltation.

All these groups of accentuated personalities are united by K. Leonhard according to the principle of accentuation of character traits or temperament. The accentuation of character traits, "characteristics of aspirations" include demonstrativeness (in pathology - psychopathy of the hysterical circle), pedantry (in pathology - anankastic psychopathy), a tendency to "get stuck" (in pathology - paranoid psychopaths) and excitability (in pathology - epileptoid psychopaths) ... Other types of accentuation K. Leonhard refers to the characteristics of temperament, they reflect the pace and depth of affective reactions.

The Shmishek questionnaire consists of 88 questions. Here are some typical questions:

To identify:
Are you entrepreneurial? (Yes).
Can you entertain the community, be the life of the party? (Yes).
To identify the tendency to "get stuck":
Do you vigorously defend your interests when injustice is committed against you? (Yes).
Do you stand up for people against whom injustice has been committed? (Yes).
Do you persist in achieving your goal if there are many obstacles along the way? (Yes).
To identify pedantry:
Do you have doubts about the quality of its performance at the end of some work and do you resort to checking whether everything was done correctly? (Yes).
Does it annoy you if the curtain or tablecloth hangs unevenly, are you trying to fix it? (Yes).
To identify anxiety:
Weren't you afraid of thunderstorms, dogs in childhood? (Yes).
Are you worried about going down to a dark cellar, entering an empty, unlit room? (Yes).
To identify cyclothymic:
Do you have transitions from a cheerful mood to a very sad one? (Yes).
Does it happen to you that, going to bed in an excellent mood, in the morning you get up in a bad mood, which lasts for several hours? (Yes).

To identify demonstrativeness:
Have you ever sobbed while experiencing a severe nervous shock? (Yes).
Did you readily recite poetry at school? (Yes).
Isn't it difficult for you to perform on stage or from the pulpit in front of a large audience? (Not).

To identify excitability:
Do you easily get angry? (Yes).
Can you use your hands when you are angry with someone? (Yes).
Do you take sudden, impulsive acts under the influence of alcohol? (Yes).

To identify dysthymic:
Are you capable of being playful and fun? (Not).
Do you like being in society? (Not). To identify exaltation:
Do you have states when you are filled with happiness? (Yes).
Can you despair under the influence of frustration? (Yes).

The answers to the questions are entered in the registration sheet, and then, using specially prepared keys, the indicator is calculated for each type of personal accentuation. The use of appropriate ratios makes these indicators comparable. The maximum indicator for each type of accentuation is 24 points. An indicator exceeding 12 points is considered a sign of accentuation. The results can be expressed graphically as a personality accentuation profile. It is possible to calculate the average indicator of accentuation, equal to the quotient of dividing the sum of all indicators for certain types of accentuation by 10. Shmishek's method was adapted for the study of children and adolescents, taking into account their age characteristics and interests (I.V. Kruk, 1975).

One of the variants of the Schmischek questionnaire is the Littmann-Schmischek questionnaire (E. Littmann, K. G. Schmieschek, 1982). It includes 9 scales from the Schmishek questionnaire (exalted scale is excluded) with the addition of extra-introversion and sincerity (lie) scales according to N. J. Eysenck. This questionnaire was adapted and standardized by us (V.M.Bleikher, N.B. Feldman, 1985). The questionnaire consists of 114 questions. The answers are assessed using special coefficients. The results on individual scales from 1 to 6 points are considered as the norm, 7 points - as a tendency to accentuation, 8 points - as a manifestation of a clear personal accentuation.

To determine the reliability of the results, their reliability in a statistically significant group of patients, the examination was carried out using a questionnaire and with the help of standards - maps containing a list of the main signs of types of accentuation. The selection of standards was carried out by people close to the patient. At the same time, a match was found in 95% of cases. This result indicates the sufficient accuracy of the questionnaire.

The total number of accentuated personalities among healthy subjects was 39%. According to K. Leonhard, accentuation is observed in about half of the healthy.

According to the study of healthy twins by the method (VM Bleikher, NB Feldman, 1986), a significant heritability of the types of personal accentuation and their significant genetic determinism were found.

Toronto Alexithymic Scale
The term "alexithymia" was introduced in 1972 by P. E. Sifheos to denote certain personal characteristics of patients with psychosomatic disorders - the difficulty of finding suitable words to describe their own feelings, impoverishment of fantasy, a utilitarian way of thinking, a tendency to use actions in conflict and stressful situations. Literally translated, the term "alexithymia" means: "there are no words to denote feelings." In the future, this term took a strong position in the special literature, and the concept of alexithymia became widespread and creatively developed.

J. Ruesch (1948), P. Marty and de M. M "Uzan (1963) found that patients suffering from classical psychosomatic diseases often show difficulties in verbal and symbolic expression of emotions. At present, alexithymia is determined by the following cognitive-affective psychological features:
1) difficulty in defining (identifying) and describing one's own feelings;
2) difficulty in distinguishing between feelings and bodily sensations;
3) a decrease in the ability to symbolize (poverty of fantasy and other manifestations, imagination);
4) focusing more on external events than on internal experiences.

As clinical experience shows, in most patients with psychosomatic disorders, alexithymic manifestations are irreversible, despite long-term and intensive psychotherapy.

In addition to patients with psychosomatic disorders, alexithymia can also occur in healthy people.

Of the numerous methods for measuring alexithymia in the Russian-speaking contingent, only one has been adapted - the Toronto alexithymic scale.
(Bekhterev Psychoneurological Institute, 1994). It was created by G. J. Taylor et al in 1985 using a concept-oriented, factorial approach. In its modern form, the scale consists of 26 statements, with the help of which the subject can characterize himself using five gradations of answers: "completely disagree", "rather disagree", "neither one nor the other," "rather agree", "completely agree ". Examples of scale statements:
1. When I cry, I always know why.
8. I find it difficult to find the right words for my feelings.
18. I rarely dream.
21. It is very important to be able to understand emotions.

In the course of the study, the subject is asked to choose for each of the statements the most suitable answer from the proposed ones; in this case, the numerical designation of the answer is the number of points scored by the subject for this statement in the case of the so-called positive points on the scale. The scale also contains 10 negative points; to obtain the final grade in points, for which the opposite assessment should be put on these points, sustained in a negative way: for example, grade 1 gets 5 points, 2-4, 3-3, 4-2, 5-1. The total of positive and negative points is calculated.

According to the staff of the Neuropsychiatric Institute. V.M.Bekhtereva (D. B. Eresko, G. L. Isurina, E. V. Kaidanovskaya, B. D. Karvasarsky et al., 1994), who adapted the methodology in Russian, healthy persons have indicators according to this method 59.3 ± 1.3 points. Patients with psychosomatic diseases (patients with hypertension, bronchial asthma, peptic ulcer) had an average value of 72.09 ± 0.82, and no significant differences were found within this group. Patients with neuroses (obsessive-phobic neurosis) had an indicator on a scale of 70.1 ± 1.3, not significantly differing from the group of patients with psychosomatic diseases. Thus, with the help of the Toronto alexithymic scale, one can only diagnose the "combined" group of neuroses and; its differentiation requires further directed clinical and psychological research.