Video Summary - 09-10 Отечественная психология

Main ideas and concepts

Course structure / topic sequence
- The lecture is part of an introductory psychology course and begins the 4th topic.
- Prior topics positioned the “person” in different ways; now the focus shifts to the natural individual.
- The 4th topic is: the emergence and development of the psyche.
  - 5th topic: the person in society
  - 6th topic: the person as an agent/implementer (in the context of their functioning/realization)
Authority / source framing
- The lecturer emphasizes Aleksei Nikolaevich Leontiev and his book “Problems of Mental Development” as central reading.
- Anecdotes characterize Leontiev as foundational for the faculty and for psychological science (including references to historical events and the opening of the faculty).
What the lecture aims to do
- Analyze two major questions (and preparations for a third):
  1. Criteria of the psyche and a hypothesis about how sensitivity arises.
  2. The psyche as orienting activity (with Galperin as the key source for how it “realizes”/works).
  3. Later: stages of development of the psyche and animal behavior, presented as a structured 3×3 table plan.

Methods / framework used in the lecture

A) “Personality as a tester” approach (briefly used as justification)

The lecturer treats personality as a “critical tester” of cultural texts, implying that students should evaluate Leontiev’s ideas by whether they withstand critical examination.

B) Two approaches to identifying criteria (structural vs functional)

The lecture proposes two ways to answer: “Where is the psyche?”

Structural approach
- Search for a physical/structural substrate (e.g., the nervous system).
Functional approach
- Search for what the psyche is for—how it functions to solve life tasks.

The functional approach is favored via the principle of unity of psyche and life activity, linked to Rubinstein as a methodological principle.

C) Planned table method for stages

Students are instructed to prepare a 3×3 table (9 cells) using only keywords in each cell.
The table’s first column expresses a developmental contradiction driving change.
Stages are connected to:
- different forms of reflection (sensation, perception, thinking),
- and different forms of behavior (instinct, training/learning, etc.).

Detailed concept outline: Criteria of the psyche

Step 1: Ask for a criterion, not “Do animals/plants have a psyche?”

The lecturer criticizes vague questions such as:

“Do animals have a psyche?”
“Do plants have a psyche?”

Instead, the discussion should begin with:

“What criterion determines whether something has a psyche?”

Step 2: Review of classical “too narrow / too broad” criteria (rejected)

Anthropopsychism (human-only psyche)
- Claim: psyche belongs only to humans
- Rejected because, if based on reflection/introspection, it becomes too narrow and blocks studying animal cognition.
Panpsychism (psyche everywhere)
- Claim: mentality is a property of all matter
- Rejected because it dissolves the problem—psyche is “everywhere,” becomes indistinguishable, and science loses focus.
Biopsychism (psyche as a property of living matter)
- Claim: psyche belongs to living organisms
- Rejected because even if closer than the others, it still doesn’t provide a specific criterion for psyche; it points broadly to “life,” not psyche.

Result: criteria move toward sensitivity and signaling

Because classical criteria fail to distinguish psyche properly, the lecture turns to Leontiev/Zaporozhets with a hypothesis:

sensitivity arises as a special case of irritability, and serves as a marker of psyche.

Detailed concept outline: Hypothesis about the emergence of sensitivity (Leontiev/Zaporozhets)

Key evolutionary-theoretic background

Leontiev is described as relying on Severtsev, an evolutionary biologist who treats psyche as:
- a factor that becomes important for evolution at some stage.

Step 1: Two types of environments (conditional division)

Homogeneous environment
- Harmful/useful qualities are mixed “like broth.”
Heterogeneous environment
- Useful and harmful properties are objectified and separated into distinct things.

Step 2: Irritability vs sensitivity

Irritability
- Ability to respond to vital influences
- Treated as pre-psyche responsiveness that can exist without psyche.
Sensitivity (signaling)
- Emerges when organisms must respond to biologically neutral properties that function as signals for biologically important things.
- Example: a spider “responds” to a neutral-vibrating object as a signal rather than because it is food.

Step 3: What sensitivity means in the lecture

Sensitivity is presented as:

a signaling function of psyche,
defining the capacity to reflect biologically neutral (abiotic) properties linked objectively to biologically important (biotic) properties.

Step 4: Conceptual definition (as stated)

Sensitivity = the ability of the subject to reflect biologically neutral properties of the environment as signals of biologically important properties.

Detailed concept outline: The psyche as orienting activity (Galperin), and where psyche is needed

Leontiev vs Galperin distinction (as framed)

Leontiev: focuses on how the psyche arises (genesis).
Galperin: focuses on how psyche is realized / how it works.

Orientation as a component of action (Galperin)

Any action contains three parts:

Orientation in the conditions
Execution of the action
Control of the result

Orientation means:

preceding action mentally,
anticipating action,
directing behavior in a situation.

Orienting reflex vs orienting exploratory activity (Pavlov background)

Orienting reflex
- Treated as physiological; not involving psyche.
Orienting exploratory activity
- Treated as special research behavior tied to curiosity:
- “What is it? What are the conditions?”

Orientation content (expanded by Galperin)

Orientation includes:

Research the situation
Evaluate objects by significance
Determine possible movement paths
Form examples of actions toward objects
Manage execution of those actions

Emotional orientation is included

Orientation is not only cognitive; it also supports emotional reactions.

Example: fear when someone speaks from behind depends on orientation.

Galperin’s key conclusion: subject of psychology

Mental life forms are treated as forms of orienting activity.
Therefore, the subject of psychology is the orienting part of mental functions.

When psyche/orientation is not needed vs needed

Not needed under standard conditions
- instinct-like behavior is enough (e.g., flycatcher, ant lion examples),
- familiar movement patterns (e.g., walking on a known sidewalk).
Needed when conditions become non-standard or suddenly change
- examples include:
  - oxygen shortage requiring new tasks,
  - predators needing flexible correct choices during hunting,
  - polar hunting anecdote (bear attempts reflecting adaptation to future attempts).

Stages of psyche development and animal behavior (planned and partially described)

Table design instructions (how it will be filled)

Students prepare a 3×3 table.
Development is driven by a contradiction:
- between environment type and changes in what can be reflected and how behavior is organized.

Link to philosophy: forms of reflection (used to name stages)

Sensation → properties (sensory)
Perception → objects as holistic images
Thinking → rational cognition of essential relations via concepts

Stage 1 (described in detail; later stages prepared for further coverage)

Environment type
- heterogeneous, objective, eternally formed
Content / what is reflected
- properties of objects, including biologically neutral properties
Form of reflection
- sensation (stage named “elementary sensory”)
Form of behavior
- instinct (also connected to “unconditioned reflexes” in Pavlov terminology)
- includes definitions and examples.

Instinct: classical and modern clarifications

Classical definition
- instinct = species experience
- genetically determined / innate
- a rigid chain of elementary movements triggered by environmental properties
- “links” form a chain (behaviorism analogy)
Rigidity example
- insect larva/pupa behavior is tested by replacing a required cue with a glass-tube setup; behavior fails if requirements are not met exactly as originally structured.
Modern ideas
- instinct can involve special learning
- examples:
  - imprinting (Konrad Lorenz)
    - goslings follow a moving object (mother replaced by dummy/pillow variants)
    - learning becomes irreversible and depends on key stimuli (often movement).

Leontiev experiment preview / transition to Stage 2

A Leontiev-type example is used to indicate that later stages involve distinguishing objects and relations:

catfish initially responds to smell and searches indirectly when the goal is blocked,
later it adjusts when conditions change, implying learning that requires more than simple property-response.

Stage 2 (conceptual description; “naming” not fully shown in this segment)

The second stage is tied to:
- reflection of objects as holistic images (perception),
- and behavior that can be trained / skill-like, with more flexible adaptation.
The lecture indicates the table will use:
- “perceptual stage” naming (sensory vs perceptual contrast).

Speakers / sources featured (as named in the subtitles)

Aleksei Nikolaevich Leontiev
Alexander Vladimirovich Zaporozhets
T. Yakovlevich Goryn / Yakovlevich Gorin (as transcribed)
Petr Yakovlevich Galperin
Lev Semenovich Vygotsky (mentioned indirectly as Galperin’s main associate)
S. L. Rubinstein
Ivan Petrovich Pavlov
Alexei Nikolaevich Severtsev
Jean Piaget
Konrad Lawrence (Konrad Lorenz) (imprinting)
Ernst Krenkel (polar explorer anecdote)
Edward Thorndike (cat in puzzle cage comparison)
Tolman (maze/rat research; transcribed unclearly)
Fabre (Jean-Henri Fabre) (instinct rigidity example)
Aristotle (reference for concepts: volume/content)

09-10 Отечественная психология

Key takeaways