2nd year student Latysheva I.S.
THE ROLE OF IMAGINATION IN HUMAN LIFE
Course work
Supervisor - Shubovskaya S.V. .
Cherepovets
Chapter I .
Introduction.
Creative activity is called any such human activity that creates something new, no matter whether it is created by creative activity by some thing of the external world or a well-known structure of the mind or feeling, living and manifesting itself only in the person himself. All human activity can be divided into 2 main types of actions.
1. The first type of activity can be called reproducing; or reproductive; it is closely connected with memory, its essence lies in the fact that a person reproduces or repeats previously created and developed methods of behavior, or revives traces of previous impressions.
2. Besides reproducing activity, it is easy to notice in human behavior another kind of this activity, namely, combining or creative activity. Any human activity, the result of which is not the reproduction of impressions or actions that were in his experience, but the consciousness of new images or actions, will belong to this second kind of creative or combining behavior. If human activity were limited to one reproduction of the old, then a person would be a creature turned only to the past, and would be able to adapt to the future only insofar as it reproduces this past. It is the creative activity of a person that makes him a being, turned to the future, creating it and modifying his present. This creative activity, based on the combining ability of our brain, psychology calls imagination or fantasy. Usually, imagination, or fantasy, does not mean exactly what is meant by these words in science. In everyday life, imagination or fantasy is called everything that is unreal, that does not correspond to reality and that, therefore, cannot have any practical serious significance. In fact, imagination, as the basis of all creative activity, is equally manifested resolutely in all aspects of cultural life, making artistic, scientific and technical creativity possible. In this sense, everything that surrounds us and that is made by the hand of man, the whole world of culture, in contrast to the natural world, is all a product of human imagination and creativity based on this imagination.
Imagination is a special form of the human psyche, which stands apart from other mental processes and at the same time occupies an intermediate position between perception, thinking and memory. The specificity of this form of the mental process lies in the fact that imagination is probably characteristic
only for a person and in a strange way is associated with the activity of the organism, being at the same time the most "mental" of all mental processes and states. The latter means that the ideal and mysterious nature of the psyche is not manifested in anything other than imagination. It can be assumed that it was the imagination, the desire to understand and explain it, that attracted attention to psychic phenomena in antiquity, supported and continues to stimulate it and niches for days. As for the mysteriousness of this phenomenon, it consists in the fact that until now we know almost nothing about the mechanism of imagination, including its anatomical and physiological basis. Where is the imagination localized in the human brain? With the work of what nervous organic structures known to us is it connected? We have almost nothing concrete to answer to these important questions. In any case, we can say much less about this than, for example, about sensations, perception, attention and memory, which, of course, does not speak about the small significance of this phenomenon in human psychology and behavior. Here the situation is just the opposite, namely: we know a lot about the importance of imagination in a person's life, how it affects his mental processes and states, and even the body. This prompts us to highlight and specifically consider the problem of imagination. Thanks to imagination, a person creates, intelligently plans his activities and controls. Almost all human material and spiritual culture is a product of the imagination and creativity of people, and what significance this culture has for the mental development and improvement of the "homo sapiens" species, we already know quite well. Imagination takes a person beyond the limits of his momentary existence, reminds him of the past, reveals the future. Possessing a rich imagination, a person can “live” in different times, which no other living creature in the world can afford. The past is fixed in images of memory, voluntarily resurrected by an effort of will, the future is presented in dreams and fantasies. Imagination is the basis of visual-figurative thinking, which allows a person to navigate a situation and solve problems without the direct intervention of practical actions. It helps him a lot in those cases of life when practical actions are either impossible, or difficult, or simply inappropriate (undesirable). The perception of the imagination is different in that its images do not always correspond to reality, they have elements of fantasy, fiction. If the imagination paints such pictures to consciousness, to which nothing or little corresponds in reality, then it is called fantasy. If, in addition, the imagination is aimed at the future, it is called a dream.
The purpose of this work is to study psychological literature on the topic of "imagination", the task is to show that imagination really plays a huge role in human life. The object of research is imagination as a mental process, and the objects are types, methods of creating images of imagination, the influence of imagination on human life and creativity.
Chapter II .
Concept, types and functions of imagination.
1. The concept of imagination.
According to E.V. Ilyenkov, the essence of imagination lies in the ability to "grasp" the whole before the part, in the ability, on the basis of a separate hint, the tendency to build an integral image. (Quoted on 18, 349). Distinctive
a peculiarity of imagination is a kind of "departure from reality", when a new image is built on the basis of a separate feature of reality, and not just the existing ideas are reconstructed, which is characteristic of the functioning of an internal plan of action. (Quoted on 34, 123).
Imagination- it is a necessary element of a person's creative activity, expressed in the construction of an image of the products of labor, and ensuring the creation of a program of behavior in those cases when the problem situation is also characterized by uncertainty. Depending on the various circumstances that characterize the problem situation, one and the same task can be solved both with the help of imagination and with the help of thinking. Hence we can conclude that imagination works at that stage of cognition when the uncertainty of the situation is very high. Fantasy allows you to "jump" over some stages of thinking and still imagine the final result.
Imagination is inherent only in man. According to E.V. Ilyenkov: “The taken fantasy itself, or the power of imagination, belongs to the number of not only the most precious, but also universal, universal abilities that distinguish a person from an animal. Without it, one cannot take a single step, not only in art, unless, of course, it is a step in place. Without the power of imagination, it would be impossible even to recognize an old friend, if he suddenly grew a beard, it would be impossible even to cross the street through the stream of cars. Humanity devoid of fantasy would never launch rockets into space. " (Quoted at 17). And according to K. Marx: “The spider performs the operations of a weaver, and the bee, by rebuilding its wax cells, puts some people-architects to shame. But even the worst architect differs from the best bee in that, before building a cell from wax, he has already built it in his head. In the process of labor, the result is obtained, which at the beginning of this process was already in the mind of a person. " (Quoted on 24, 182).
The neurophysiological basis of imagination is the formation of temporary neural connections in the field of the first and second signaling systems, their dissociation (disintegration into separate elements) and unification into new systems under the influence of various motivations. Imagination is associated with emotions, the activity of subcortical formations of the brain, but recent studies confirm that the physiological mechanisms of imagination are located not only in the cortex, but also in deeper parts of the brain, for example, the hypothalamic-limbic system. It has been experimentally found that when the hypothalamic-limbic system is damaged, a person can experience characteristic mental disorders: it seems that his behavior is not regulated by a specific program and consists of a series of separate, isolated acts, however, themselves quite complex and holistic. Under the influence of the imagination, corresponding organic changes occur in a person. So, figuratively representing certain physical actions, one can cause an increase in the work of the heart and respiratory organs.
Imagination processes are of analytical and synthetic nature. Its main tendency is the transformation of representations (images), which ultimately ensures the creation of a model of a situation that is deliberately new, which has not previously appeared. Analyzing the mechanism of imagination, it is necessary to emphasize that its essence is the process of transforming ideas, creating new images based on existing ones. Imagination, fantasy is a reflection of reality in new, unexpected, unusual combinations and connections. Even if you come up with something completely extraordinary, then upon careful consideration it will turn out that all the elements from which the fiction was formed, taken from life, gleaned from past experience, are the results of a deliberate analysis of countless facts. It is not without reason that LS Vygotsky said: “The creative activity of the imagination is directly dependent on the richness and diversity of the previous human experience, because experience is the material from which the constructions of fantasy are created. The richer a person's experience, the more material his imagination has at his disposal. " (Quoted on 4, 10).
Cognitive activity
Imagination
1. The concept of imagination. The value of imagination.
2. Physiological bases of imagination.
3. Types of imagination
4. Forms of synthesis.
Imagination concept. The value of imagination.
Along with images of memory, which are copies of perception, a person can create mcompletely new images. The images can represent both that which we did not directly perceive, and that which did not exist in our experience at all, and even that which does not really exist in such a form. These are images of the imagination. So, imaginationis a cognitive process that consists of the creation of new images, on the basis of which new actions and objects arise.
Each image created in the imagination is, to some extent, both the reproduction and transformation of reality. Playback- the main characteristic of memory, conversion -the main characteristic of the imagination. If the main function of memory is the preservation of experience, then the main function of imagination is its transformation.
Images of imagination are based on representations of memory. But these beliefs are undergoing a profound change. Memory representations are images of objects and phenomena that we do not perceive at the moment, but once perceived. But we can, proceeding from knowledge and relying on the experience of mankind, create for ourselves ideas about such things that we ourselves have never perceived before. For example, I can imagine a sandy desert or rainforest, although I have never been there. Imagination is the creation of something that has not yet existed in a person's experience, that he did not perceive in the past and that he has not met before. Nevertheless, everything new, created in the imagination, is always connected in one way or another with reality. All representations of the imagination are built from the material received in past perceptions and stored in memory.
Imagination is one of the fundamental characteristics of a person. It most clearly shows the difference between man and animal ancestors.
With the help of imagination, a person reflects real reality, but in different, unusual, often unexpected combinations and connections. Imagination transforms reality and creates new images on this basis. Imagination is closely connected with thinking, therefore, it is able to actively transform life impressions, acquired knowledge, data of perception and ideas. In general, imagination is associated with all aspects of a person's mental activity: with his perception, memory, thinking, feelings.
The value of imagination.The main meaning of imagination lies in the fact that without it any human work would be impossible, since it is impossible to work without imagining the final result and intermediate results. Without imagination, progress would not be possible in science, technology, or art. All school subjects (not only such as history, biology, geography, literature, but also such as mathematics, language) cannot be fully assimilated without the activity of the imagination.
The activity of the imagination is always correlated with reality. Practice is a criterion for the correctness of the images of the imagination. Practice makes it possible to concretize ideas, makes them clearer, more definite, and contributes to their implementation. The creative concept is enriched, tested and clarified in the process of real implementation. While the plan is only in the head, it is not yet completely clear to man. A similar process of realization of images of imagination occurs in the creative work of an artist, musician, and writer.
Any new image, new idea is correlated with reality and, in case of discrepancy, are discarded as false or corrected. The scientist checks the hypothesis with real: facts, observations, experiment. The designer-inventor finds out the utility of the invention, the compliance of the invention with the requirements that are imposed on it, the possibility of its practical application. An artist, a sculptor, a writer strive for the life's truthfulness of the work, since the display of life's truth is a necessary condition for influencing people. The teacher, projecting the student's personality, imagining, anticipating the results of educational influences, always looks very closely at the results of these influences and, if necessary, changes them.
2.Physiological bases of imagination.
Imagination is a cognitive process and is based on the analytical and synthetic activity of the human brain. Analysishelps to highlight individual parts and signs of objects or phenomena, synthesis- combine into new, hitherto not met combinations. As a result, an image or a system of images is created in which real reality is reflected by a person in a new, transformed, changed form and content. The physiological basis of imagination is the formation of new combinations of temporary neural connections that have already formed in the cerebral cortex.
Types of imagination
Psychologists distinguish types of imagination for the following reasons.
1. Activity levelcreation of new images by a person and awareness of these images:
Involuntary or passiveimagination - new images arise under the influence of little-realized or unconscious needs. These are dreams, hallucinations, daydreams, states of "mindless rest".
Sleep is a diffuse inhibition of the cerebral hemispheres. When complete and deep inhibition occurs, sleep is deep, dreamless. But inhibition occurs unevenly, especially in the initial stage of sleep and in the last stage before awakening. Dreams are caused by the work of a group of cells that are not inhibited.
Dreams are characteristic:
Sensual authenticity. When I see a dream, I do not doubt for a minute that all this is happening to me in reality. Only after waking up, “shaking off” the dream, I will be able to take a critical view of the fantasies I have dreamed;
Incredible quirkiness of connections and combinations of images;
An explicit connection with the immediate needs of the person.
Sleep is a product of a healthy psyche. All people see dreams. Research in recent years has led scientists to believe that dreams are even necessary for the normal functioning of our brain. If you deprive a person of dreams, it can lead to mental disorders. Hallucinations are the product of a sick or unhealthy psyche.
Hallucinationis also a passive, unintended imagination. In people, mentally abnormal or not entirely healthy, the images of fantasy acquire the features of reality. In the mentally ill, they compete with what he actually perceives. If a long-dead relative appears to him, he talks to him as if he were alive, not for a minute doubts the reality of the latter. Such "waking dreams" are called hallucinations.
Hallucinations appear with various mental illnesses, under the influence of strong experiences - feelings of melancholy, fear, obsessive thoughts.
When auditory hallucinationsthe patient hears voices, music, sounds. Voices threaten him, then ask for something. At the same time, voices are quiet, loud, "commanding", as a result of which a person commits unexpected actions. This mental disorder often arises from alcoholism.
Visual hallucinationsusually occur with diseases such as epilepsy, hysteria, as well as in alcoholics who have reached the state of delirium tremens.
These phenomena are explained by the fact that significant parts of the brain of the mentally ill are constantly inhibited to a greater or lesser extent. Traces of past perceptions, combined in images of fantasy, cause the same reaction as real stimuli.
Dreams -it is a passive but deliberate imagination. These are dreams that have nothing to do with the will to fulfill them. People dream of something pleasant, joyful, tempting, and in the dreams, the connection between fantasy and needs and desires is clearly visible.
2.By originality arbitrary (active) imagination is divided into recreational, or reproductive, and creative.
Recreational, or reproductive,imagination is the construction of an image of an object, a phenomenon in accordance with its verbal description or according to a drawing, diagram, picture. In the process of re-creating imagination, new images appear, but new ones are subjective, for a given person, but objectively they already exist. They are already embodied in certain cultural objects. When reading fiction and educational literature, when studying geographical, historical and other descriptions, it is constantly necessary to recreate with the help of fantasy what is said in these sources.
Creative imagination -it is the independent creation of new images that are realized in the original products of activity. Images are created without relying on a ready-made description or conventional image.
The role of the creative imagination is enormous. New original works are created that have never existed. However, their characters (among artists, sculptors, writers) are so vital, real that you begin to treat them as if they were alive.
A special kind of imagination is a dream. A dream is always aimed at the future, at the prospects for the life and activities of a particular person, a particular person. The dream allows you to plan for the future and organize your behavior to fulfill it.
A dream does not give an immediate objective product of activity, but always is an impetus to activity.
Forms of synthesis.
In the images that arise in the imagination, there are always features of images already known to man. But in the new image they are transformed, changed, combined into unusual combinations.
The essence of imagination lies in the ability to notice and highlight specific signs and properties in objects and phenomena and transfer them to other objects. There are several techniques of imagination.
Combining- a combination of individual elements of various images of objects in new, more or less unusual combinations. Combination is a creative synthesis, and not a simple sum of already known elements, it is a process of significant transformation of the elements from which a new image is built. Remember A.S. Pushkin:
Near the curvaceous sea is a green oak, A golden chain on that oak, And day and night, a scientist cat Everything walks around in a chain. Goes to the right - the song starts, To the left - says a fairy tale ... There are miracles, there the devil wanders, the Mermaid sits on the branches ...
A special case of combination - agglutination- a way to create a new image by connecting, gluing together completely different objects or their properties. For example, a centaur, dragon, sphinx - a lion with a human head or a flying carpet, when the ability to fly was transferred from a bird to another object. Such connections of different objects exist not only in art, but also in technology: trolleybus, snowmobile, amphibious tank, etc.
Accentuation- underlining certain features (for example, the image of a giant). This method underlies the creation of cartoons and friendly cartoons (smart - very high forehead, lack of intelligence - low).
Emphasis manifests itself in several specific actions.
Imagination plays an important role in every creative process, and especially its significance is great in artistic creation. The essence of artistic imagination lies, first of all, in being able to create new images capable of being a carrier of ideological content. The special power of the artistic imagination lies in creating a new situation, not by violating, but by maintaining the basic requirements of vitality.
Fundamentally wrong is the idea that the more bizarre and outlandish a work, the more imagination its author has. The imagination of Leo Tolstoy is in no way weaker than that of Edgar Alan Poe. It's just different. After all, the more realistic the work, the more powerful the imagination must be in order to make the described picture visual and figurative. Indeed, as you know, a powerful creative imagination is recognized not so much by what a person can invent, invent, but by how he knows how to transform reality in accordance with the requirements of an artistic design. But the observance of vitality and reality does not mean, of course, a photographically accurate copy of what is perceived, because a real artist has not only the necessary technique, but also a special view of things, different from the view of a non-creative person. Therefore, the main task of a work of art is to show others what the artist sees, so that others can see it. Even in a portrait, the artist does not photograph the depicted person, but transforms what he perceives. The product of such imagination often gives a deeper and more accurate picture than even photography can do.
Imagination in artistic creation allows, of course, a significant departure from reality, a significant deviation from it. Artistic creativity is expressed not only in the portrait, it includes sculpture, and a fairy tale, and a fantastic story. Both in a fairy tale and in fiction, deviations can be very large, but in any case they must be motivated by the concept, the idea of \u200b\u200bthe work. And the more significant these deviations about reality, the more motivated they should be, otherwise they will not be understood and appreciated. The creative imagination uses this kind of fiction, a deviation about some features of reality, in order to give imagery and clarity to the real world, the main idea or concept.
Some experiences, feelings of people in everyday life may be invisible to the eye of the layman, while the artist's imagination, deviating about reality, transforms it, illuminating and convexly showing some especially important part of this reality for him. To move away from reality in order to penetrate deeper into it and better understand it - this is the logic of creative imagination.
Imagination is equally necessary in scientific creativity. In science, it is formed no less than in creativity, but only in other forms.
Even the English chemist Priestley, who discovered oxygen, stated that all great discoveries can only be made by scientists who give "full scope to their imaginations." The role of fantasy in science was highly appreciated by Lenin, believing that "it is needed not only by the poet. Even in mathematics it is needed, because fantasy is a quality of the greatest value." The specific role of imagination in scientific creativity lies in the fact that it transforms the figurative content of a problem and thereby contributes to its solution. imagination creative fantasy intellectual
The role of imagination is shown very clearly in experimental research. The experimenter, contemplating an experiment, must, using his knowledge and hypotheses, the achievements of science and technology, imagine a situation that would satisfy all the required conditions. In other words, he must imagine carrying out such an experiment and understand its goals and consequences. One of the scientists who always "carried out an experiment" with his imagination before a real experiment was the physicist E. Rutherford.
As we already know, imagination is always the creation of something new as a result of processing past experience. No creative activity is possible without imagination, therefore creativity is a complex mental process associated with the character, interests, abilities of the individual.
Sometimes older people find it difficult to imagine something unusual and start fantasizing, but this does not mean that they have lost the ability to imagine. Every person has an imagination, just as he gets older, a person trains him less and less. And to train the imagination, as psychologists advise, it is necessary from the very childhood.
Creative activity develops the feelings of children. While creating, the child experiences a whole range of positive emotions, both from the process of activity and from the result obtained.
Creativity contributes to the optimal and intensive development of such mental functions as memory, thinking, perception, attention. But it is they who determine the success of the child's studies.
Does creative activity develop the personality of the child, help him learn moral and ethical norms? distinguish between good and evil, compassion and hatred, courage and cowardice. Creating works of creativity, the child reflects in them his understanding of life and the world, his positive and negative qualities, comprehends and evaluates them in a new way. Creativity also develops aesthetic feelings in the child. Through this activity, the child's susceptibility to the world, the appreciation of beauty, is formed.
All children, especially older preschoolers and schoolchildren of junior and middle age, love to engage in art. They sing and dance with enthusiasm, sculpt and paint, compose music and fairy tales, perform on stage, participate in contests, exhibitions and quizzes, etc. Because creativity makes a child's life richer, fuller, more joyful and interesting.
Children are able to engage in creativity, not only regardless of place and time, but, most importantly, regardless of personal complexes. An adult, often critically evaluating his creative abilities, is embarrassed to show them. Children, unlike adults, are able to sincerely express themselves in artistic activities, not paying attention to shyness.
Creative activity is of particular importance for gifted and talented children. Giftedness is a complex of abilities that allows one to have special achievements in a specific field of art, science, professional or other activity. Not many children are distinguished by pronounced talent and giftedness. For a gifted child, imagination is the main characteristic quality, he needs constant activity of fantasy. Unusual approaches to solving problems, original associations - all this is characteristic of a talented child and is the result of imagination.
Giftedness and talent are closely related to advanced development. Talented children perform better than their peers, and they achieve these results much easier. These children are more sensitive to the world around them, and in specific periods they are characterized by a particularly high sensitivity. Such periods are called "sensitive" by psychologists. During these periods, a specific function (for example, speech or logical memory) is most susceptible to stimuli from the outside world, it is easy to train and intensively develops, and children show special achievements in various activities. And if an ordinary child can experience a "sensitive" period for one function, then a talented child demonstrates the "sensitivity" of many functions at once.
With the help of creativity and imagination, naturally, the child forms his personality. And there is a special area of \u200b\u200ba child's life that provides specific opportunities for personal development - this is play. The main mental function that ensures play is just imagination. Imagining play situations and realizing them, the child forms a number of personality traits in himself, such as justice, courage, honesty, a sense of humor and others. Through the work of the imagination, compensation for the child's still insufficient real abilities to overcome life difficulties and conflicts occurs.
Being engaged in creativity (for which imagination is also primary), the child forms in himself such a quality as spirituality. With spirituality, imagination is included in all cognitive activity, accompanied by especially positive emotions. A rich work of imagination is often associated with the development of such an important personality trait as optimism.
Of particular interest to scientists are imaginary companions that many children design - imaginary relatives, imaginary friends, fairies and elves, animals, dolls and other objects. One study involved 210 children; and 45 of them were found to have imaginary companions: of this number, 21 were the only children in the family and another 21 had only one relative each. Observers noted that although 45 children had many opportunities to play with other children, they did not. An imaginary companion? this is the creation of the child himself, he, in principle, can endow him with any properties and make the personification treat him as he wishes. It should be noted that play involving such companions sometimes reflects the attitudes of the parents, and is there a case of a girl who had two imaginary companions? one was endowed with all the virtues, as she understood them, and the other? all the flaws that she found in herself. But it should be noted that psychiatrists regard such fantasies as symptoms of mental disorder; from their point of view, such personifications are created to compensate for the lack of warmth and cordiality in real life.
In adolescence, when personal development becomes dominant, such a form of imagination as a dream - the image of a desired future - acquires special significance.
A teenager dreams of something that gives him joy, that satisfies his deepest desires and needs. In dreams, a teenager builds a desired personal life program, which often determines its main meaning. Often dreams are unrealistic, that is, only the goal is defined, but not the ways to achieve it, however, at the stage of adolescence, this still has a positive character, since it allows the teenager in an imaginary plan to “sort through” different options for the future, choose his own way of solving the problem ...
Imagination is important personally and for an adult. People who retain a vivid imagination in adulthood are distinguished by talent, they are often called richly gifted individuals.
With age, most of us lose the ability to fantasize: how difficult it is sometimes to come up with a new fairy tale for a child. For the preservation and development of imagination, there are a number of exercises that are described in detail in the special pedagogical literature.
In one of the US laboratories for the creation of artificial intelligence, scientists were faced with the problem: how to teach a machine to see? It would seem that everything is simple: put on the camera, plug in the microcircuit, and everything is in order! But no.
The task was not only to teach "to see", but to make the robot can perceive not only individual objects, but entire scenes. To do this, he needs to learn a huge amount of information about the subject through the visual organs. For example, its position in relation to other objects in space, the quality of its surface, its size, color characteristics, purpose, etc.
All this presents quite great difficulties for the machine. For example, to see the relative position of bodies in space, you need to have stereoscopic vision, but this problem is completely solvable. It is much more important and more difficult to teach the machine to "understand" any situation or scene. After all, scientists still do not quite understand how this process occurs in humans, what can we say about a machine!
Only the goal is clear: you need to create an artificial imagination in the machine, and then, having examined several separate objects, it will be able to imagine the situation as a whole and analyze it. This means that it will be possible to create artificial intelligence.
plan
1. The value of imagination in human life
2. Imagination as a cognitive mental process
3. Images of imagination, methods of their creation
4. Types and individual originality of imagination
The value of imagination in human life
Imagination is a specifically human cognitive mental process, which is also called imaginative activity. Its significance in human life is revealed by the functions of imagination.
Imagination functions
Heuristic: imagination is an indispensable factor in all types of creativity.
Predictions: ensures the setting of the goal of activity as an ideal image of the future result. The house that a person plans to build, she first draws in her imagination.
And then he acts in accordance with this mental image. This feature is called lookahead mapping.
Practical: man creates the world of culture along with the existing world of nature. Each cultural object is a realized concept of a person, which has no analogues in nature.
Cognitive: man discovers the essence of phenomena unattainable to the senses. For example, in non-Euclidean geometry there are statements that cannot be verified in practice, but which come true in imaginary conditions. Its founder is M.K. Lobachevsky - called his theory "imaginary geometry".
Aesthetic: human construction of beauty, the embodiment of ideas about harmony, proportionality in works of art.
Influence on personality development through a dream and an ideal that provide the setting of life prospects and is an expression of life creation.
Dream - the image of the desired future. It encourages a person to act, mobilizes her efforts.
Ideal - this idea of \u200b\u200bthe highest perfection, it seems, determines the way a person acts. It is an integral part of the worldview; organizes and directs human activities.
Imagination as a cognitive mental process
To unlock the essence of imagination, you need to answer two questions. At first, can be considered imagination independent mental process, what is the fundamental difference between imagination, first of all, in comparison with figurative thinking and representations of memory? Secondly, can be considered imagination cognitive process?
Let's analyze the first question. For a long time, psychologists identified imagination with either figurative thinking or with representations of memory and did not study it independently (Wolf, Ribot). The fact is that the traditional understanding of imagination as the creation of something new does not clearly distinguish it from other cognitive processes. The same signs are inherent in other cognitive processes. So, the formation of an image of perception is already the creation of a new one (A. Leont'ev). The memory image also evolves over time (storage activity).
To distinguish images of imagination from representation, you need to evaluate how creative the process of constructing these images was; how important is the rupture of the image with reality. It is more characteristic of the imagination to reveal these signs. In representation, a person seeks to recreate past experiences as close to reality as possible. In the creative imagination, a person sets the goal to create a new image that does not exist in reality. Even in the reproductive imagination, the goal is to build an image of something that really exists, but that which was not in the past experience (the image of the ocean, if we did not see it). Imagination differs from other mental processes and the dynamics of its development in ontogenesis, as can be seen from Fig. 9.
Figure: 9. The ratio of the development of imagination and intelligence in ontogenesis Legend: LK - development of imagination; RO - development of intelligence; LR - age development.
As seen from Fig. 9, the development of imagination is especially intense in the early stages of ontogenesis, and then falls. The development of intelligence begins later and gradually increases.
A.V. Petrovsky believes that the specificity of imagination in comparison with thinking is in a different display of a problem situation. If it is clear, the number of unknowns does not exceed the ability of thinking to find them, then the problem is solved on the basis of the laws of logic (the work of a practicing engineer). The situation with many unknowns, when thinking is ineffective, is solved with the help of imagination (the work of an engineer-inventor).
Some psychologists contrast imagination with other cognitive processes. After all, the latter is a reflection of really existing phenomena, and imagination creates pictures that do not exist in reality. Imagination really represents a certain departure from the surrounding reality, but it always retains a connection with reality. This connection is confirmed by the following facts.
1. New images arise from life impressions, the elements of the image exist in reality, although in other combinations (pegasus, sphinx, centaur).
2. When creating new images, the known patterns are taken into account. Thanks to this, the images of the imagination can really be embodied. For example, out of 108 ideas described in the works of science fiction writer J. Verne, ten remain unrealized, and out of 50 ideas contained in the works of A. Belyaev - three.
3. Thanks to imagination, we restore pictures known from descriptions: events of the past, surfaces of unattainable planets.
4. Through mental images, a person expresses his emotional states. On the other hand, images of imagination evoke emotions in a person, accompanied by real experiences. So, the child is really afraid of scary fairy-tale characters. L. Vygotsky called this fact "the law of the emotional reality of imagination."
Thus, the analysis of the questions posed leads to the conclusion that imagination is an independent cognitive mental process, in which there is an active anticipatory character of human cognition.
Imagination - a peculiar form of reflection of objective reality, a mental process consisting in the creation of new images by processing the material of perceptions and ideas formed in previous experience. Therefore, images of imagination are called secondary.
Imagination is the most important aspect of our life. Imagine for a moment that the person had no fantasy. We would be deprived of almost all scientific discoveries and works of art, images created by the greatest writers and inventions of designers. Children would not hear fairy tales and would not be able to play many games. How could they learn the school curriculum without imagination? Thanks to imagination, a person creates, intelligently plans and manages his activities. Almost all human material and spiritual culture is a product of the imagination and creativity of people. Imagination takes a person beyond the limits of his momentary existence, reminds him of the past, opens the future. Together with a decrease in the ability to fantasize, a person's personality becomes impoverished, the possibilities of creative thinking decrease, and interest in art and science dies out. Imagination is the highest mental function and reflects reality. However, with the help of imagination, a mental retreat beyond the limits of the directly perceived is carried out. Its main task is to present the expected result before its implementation. With the help of imagination, we form an image of an object, situation, conditions that never existed or does not exist at a given moment.
It's easier to say - deprive a person of fantasy, and progress will stop! Hence, imagination, fantasy is the highest and most necessary ability of a person. However, fantasy, like any form of mental reflection, must have a positive direction of development. It should contribute to a better knowledge of the world around, self-disclosure and self-improvement of the individual, and not develop into passive daydreaming, replacing real life with dreams.
Methods:
1. Verbal Fantasy Technique (speech imagination).
The child is asked to come up with a story (story, fairy tale) about any living being (person, animal) or about something else of the child's choice and present it orally for 5 minutes. It takes up to one minute to come up with a theme or plot for a story (story, fairy tale), and then the child starts the story.
2. Drawing technique
In this technique, the child is offered a standard sheet of paper and felt-tip pens (at least 6 different colors). The child is given the task to come up with and paint a picture. This takes 5 minutes. The analysis of the picture and the assessment of the child's fantasy in points was carried out in the same way as the analysis of oral creativity in the previous method, using the same parameters and using the same protocol.
3. Sculpture technique.
The child is offered a set of plasticine and the task, using it, in 5 minutes, to make some kind of craft, to mold it from plasticine.
In children of primary school age, several types of imagination are distinguished. It can be recreating(creating an image of an item according to its description) and creative (the creation of new images requiring the selection of material in accordance with the intention). The creation of images of the imagination is carried out using several methods:
- Agglutination, that is, "gluing" of various parts that are not connected in everyday life. An example is the classic character of fairy tales, man-beast or man-bird;
- Hyperbolization... This is a paradoxical increase or decrease in an object or its individual parts. An example is the fairytale characters Dwarf Nose, Gulliver, or Boy-with-finger.
- Schematization... In this case, the individual views merge, the differences are smoothed out. The main features of similarity are clearly worked out;
- Typing. Characterized by the allocation of an essential, recurring feature and its embodiment in a specific image. For example, there are professional images of a doctor, astronaut, miner, etc.
Synthesis and analogy are the basis for creating any fantasy images. The analogy can be close, immediate and distant, stepwise. For example, the appearance of an airplane resembles a soaring bird. This is a close analogy. A spaceship is a distant analogy to a spaceship.
Give a definition of the concepts of "temperament" and "character". Name three types of character by physique (Kretschmer). Describe the four types of higher nervous activity according to I.P. Pavlov. How is it necessary to bring up children with pronounced features of temperament?
Temperament- congenital features of the individual, manifested in the intensity, pace and rhythm of the course of mental processes and states.
Character is a set of stable personality traits that determine a person's attitude to other people, himself, activities, the world around him.
Kretschmer distinguishes 3 types of character:
1. Schizotimic - leptosomatic and asthenic constitution. A person is withdrawn, prone to fluctuations of emotions from irritation to dryness, stubborn, with difficulty adapting to the environment, prone to abstraction.
2. Cyclothymic- picnic physique. Emotions fluctuate between joy and sadness, a person is realistic in his views, communicates easily.
3. Ixotimicfrom the Greek. Ixos-stringy - athletic build. Calm, restrained, a little impressionable, petty, difficult to adapt to a change of environment.
The theory developed by I.P. Pavlov, connects a person's temperament with the properties of the nervous system: strength, mobility and balance. The combination of properties determines the type of higher nervous activity.
There are four main types of higher nervous activity:
Strong, unbalanced (with a predominance of arousal processes);
Strong, balanced, agile;
Strong, balanced, inert;
Pavlov linked this typology with temperament stipes. A strong, unbalanced type of nervous system - in choleric people; strong, balanced, mobile - among sanguine people; strong, balanced, inert - in phlegmatic people; weak - in melancholic people.
Educational workrequires an individual approach to persons with pronounced features of temperament. In particular:
A sharply negative assessment of actions suppresses self-confidence in persons with a weak type of GNI and, conversely, stimulates “ strong ";
- choleric needs to educate restraint, endurance, calmness and orderliness in work;
- melancholicyou should instill self-confidence, relaxed communication in a circle of unfamiliar faces and a new environment;
- phlegmaticshould be kept from a tendency to apathy, indifference and laziness;
- sanguineit is necessary to accustom one to concentration, a tendency to complete the work begun and the depth of their study.