Personality orientation - what is it in psychology, its types

The essence

The orientation of a person in psychology is defined as a set of various stable aspirations for action, interests, ideals, which is the main factor in a person’s reaction to various life situations.

A system of stable motives is formed throughout life and determines a person’s attitude towards various objects and events. In terms of general characteristics, it is the orientation that determines the general needs of the individual, what he strives for throughout his life.

Directed motivation determines the individual’s professional achievements, building relationships in the family and other areas of activity that are important for a particular person. Areas without each of which a given personality will not be able to actively develop. We can say that orientation is attitudes that become the main qualities of a person.

Of course, the behavior of a particular person differs depending on the circumstances and the behavior of the people around him. Speaking about direction, we mean a system of stable behavioral characteristics that are formed under the influence of upbringing, education, and the immediate social environment of residence.

Stability is another basic characteristic of directionality. It is expressed in the sequence of behavioral principles, the predictability of reactions to certain stimuli.

Motives as a factor in shaping direction

Orientation is associated with the motivational-need and cognitive sphere of the individual. The orientation of the individual, on the one hand, is determined by environmental conditions, and on the other hand, it itself determines the behavior of the individual.

In the motivational aspect, the following types of personality orientations can be distinguished:

• Ideological and spiritual. The desire to understand the universe, solve issues of a universal scale, think in the direction of preserving and developing all humanity.
• Individual and personal. The desire to satisfy the needs of one’s “I”, self-expression, and maintaining individuality.
• Instinctive-physiological. The desire to satisfy bodily needs to preserve the species and the individual.

Based on the consideration of several approaches to the theory of personality orientation (Myasishchev and those described above), 9 types of orientation can be distinguished (figure below).

Options for personality orientation

Forms

The orientation of personality in psychology is characterized by a number of basic coherent forms that determine a person’s productivity and determine the selectivity of relationships.

Directional forms

A person’s main life orientation is expressed in his goals for life, priorities, hobbies, worldview, and beliefs. Let's consider all forms of directionality:

• Wish

This form implies not only the desired object, but also the methods of obtaining it. Also, the desires of the individual give rise to the formation of goals.

• Pursuit

It is a desire with a deliberate choice and a plan to achieve what you want.

• Interest

This is a focus on learning new information, a manifestation of a person’s cognitive needs.

• Addiction

It is expressed in a person’s desire to engage in any particular activity. As a result, he improves his skills in his chosen field to achieve success.

• Worldview

Includes views on life, as well as a person’s place in it.

• Belief

A form of direction that encourages a person to act in accordance with his views on life.

• Ideal

An ideal image for a person, which he strives to embody.

• Installation

The attitude can be: positive, negative, neutral and consists of a person’s outlook on life and values.

• Position

Includes the motives and desires of a person that guide him in life.

• Target

The result that a person wants to achieve in his activities.

Kinds

In psychology there is a concept of different types of orientation. They cannot be the best or the worst. Each type determines the behavior of an individual in various fields of activity, his behavior in certain situations.

• Personal - characteristic of people who are very strong, strong-willed individuals. They are self-confident, rely only on their own strengths, move towards their goal independently, without expecting outside help. Very often, such individuals are considered selfish, as they are focused on building and implementing their own plans, without being interested in the opinions of others. A person with this type of orientation is very purposeful and responsible. He knows how to organize activities and follows drawn up plans. An individual focused on self-interest is able to take responsibility and will not look for blame among others. Negatively, personal focus leads to a need for solitude. It is difficult for such individuals to redirect their responsibilities to anyone.
• Focus on others – characterized by an increased need for communication and dependence on public opinion. The individual feels uncomfortable when performing a task on his own; approval from the outside is very important to him. Individual plans and aspirations in this case are impossible. Going beyond the rules accepted in the environment is considered a disaster. Focus on other people allows the individual to be interested in social life and take an active part in all events. Such people are loved in the team and in the family, they are reliable performers, always ready to help. Since a healthy environment is more important to them than personal comfort, other-oriented individuals find the key to any character and get along with everyone.
• Business – this type of orientation allows people to successfully conduct any business, not only in business. They know how to find a way out of any situation and take advantage of any circumstances. A business approach allows you to find a favorable position not only for yourself, but also for the team or any surrounding society. People with a business type of orientation often become the soul of the company; they themselves love society, but at the same time they do not allow themselves to obey other people’s rules.
• Emotional – characteristic of individuals who have a very highly developed ability to emotionally empathize with current events. A person of this type is very sensitive to the pain of others, responsive and always ready to help. Emotional orientation, as a rule, is inherent in people of art, as it allows one to penetrate deeply into the mood of a fictional work and character. Emotional instability and frequent mood swings bring such an individual many anxious experiences, often for an invented reason.
• Social – characterized by increased observation of events occurring in human society. A socially oriented person often becomes a political or public figure. He can lead, he can obey, but his activities must be connected with society. Such a person always subtly senses what is happening and is able to predict the development of events.

Types of directionality

The orientation of a personality can have different aspects of its manifestation.

Psychologists distinguish three main types of orientation: towards people as members of a team, towards work and its results and towards one’s own personality.

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• The focus on interaction is manifested when the performer of the work is aimed at communication, improving relations with colleagues and superiors. Communication needs dictate certain behavior patterns for the employee: he, as a rule, yields to the opinion of the team and does not want to take leadership. He is primarily interested in the joint activity itself, even if this does not guarantee the success of the work and his personal participation in this process is minimal.
• Business orientation manifests itself when an individual has a need to achieve a goal. A person with this orientation wants to take charge and strives to prove his point of view to the rest of the group; but he does this reasonably, with a sincere desire to achieve benefits for all participants in the process. Such an employee strives to achieve maximum productivity from himself and from the team, he is active in acquiring new knowledge and skills.
• Personal orientation occurs among people who have a need to ensure their own well-being, achieve primacy and prestige. Such a person is primarily interested in himself, his feelings, views and experiences; he pays little attention to the needs of others. He may ignore employees, subordinates or superiors, and be negligent in doing the work itself if it is not related to achieving his own material or spiritual well-being.

Structure

Personality structure in the generally accepted sense is a combination of numerous connections between different elements of personality. Determining which connections and components are fundamental is a rather controversial issue. This leads to the fact that almost every specialist in the field of psychology who studies personality creates his own assessment structure.

The most widespread among domestic psychologists is a structure that identifies four main elements of personality:

• direction;
• experience;
• mental processes;
• properties of a biopsychic nature.

  

In turn, the directional structure consists of the types and forms described above, and is also characterized by the following qualities:

• The level of social orientation determines the importance of a person in society, his ideology, and moral character.
• Breadth is the number of different interests in one person. This quality, in turn, has a variant when the individual is carried away by many things without penetrating deeply. In this case, an amateurish judgment about a little bit of everything appears. The opposite side of breadth of focus is a thorough knowledge of one of the areas of activity.
• Intensity is an emotional warehouse orientation. The level of this quality: from vague attraction to undeniable conviction.
• Stability and perseverance are a manifestation of strong-willed characteristics.
• Efficiency is the degree of activity of an individual in achieving his goals.

Experience is manifested in such elements as:

• knowledge;
• skills;
• habits;
• skills.

Experience accumulates in the individual under the influence of both innate abilities and the influence of the surrounding social environment.

Mental processes include:

• memory;
• thinking;
• perception;
• imagination;
• feelings.

Despite the presence in this component of many innate unique aspects of character, mental processes are formed mainly under the influence of society.

Unlike experience and mental processes, biopsychic properties are determined by heredity.

Their manifestations:

• temperament;
• sexual characteristics;
• age difference;
• pathological deviations.

Focus structure

The choice of activity largely depends on motivation, divided into 2 types:

• The external one is the approval of one’s actions by the people around him.
• Internal contains the interest in the execution of the work process.

When a person is intrinsically motivated, it is very good for him, because in this way he develops himself. The more strongly motivated a person is, the more confident he is in his abilities and has a more powerful desire to achieve his goals.

It is very important for a person to understand the purpose for which he performs work; only then will it be done efficiently. If the work does not bring benefits and bring a person closer to his goal, then he will quickly abandon it because of its inexpediency and boredom.

Focus and motivation

The orientation of personality in psychology in terms of motivation to achieve is considered from various points of view. Some psychiatrists, by defining motivation, mean mental urges to action, others - a specific reason that encourages action.

There is an opinion that a motive is a need formed in a person to satisfy significant interests. Of all the theories of motivation, a general definition of the concept can be distinguished. Motivation is an internal stimulus of an individual that encourages activity aimed at satisfying a specific need.

The needs themselves can be different, from simple, biological, to sublime social.

American doctor of psychology Maslow developed a structure that includes five basic needs in a strict hierarchy:

1. Physiological needs are the most powerful and urgent of all. Until a person satisfies the basic need for food, comfort, and a healthy balance in the body, he cannot set higher goals.
2. Security - this need comes to the fore after the first essential need is provided. Personal security is not only protection from enemy attack, which may arise in rare cases of hostilities or outside aggression. Household safety involves the desire for stability and legislative protection. This concept also means freedom from chaos and uncertainty about the future. In everyday life, this desire manifests itself in the desire to get a stable job and create a reserve of funds for various unforeseen cases.
3. The need for love and affection includes the desire for communication, friendship, and love relationships. This desire is always inherent in a person, but is especially activated after the first two needs are satisfied.
4. The need for recognition includes personal growth and the desire to gain respect in society. A person needs to feel needed and useful to others. The absence of such a feeling leads to weakness and self-doubt. Loss in this matter leads to depression and neurological diseases.
5. Self-actualization is the search for one’s essence, one’s “I”, the desire to idealize oneself. It can manifest itself in different ways, depending on your personal interests. Some people strive for sensational scientific discoveries, while others want to become an ideal parent or housewife. The need for a high form of self-realization appears at the highest stage of development, when all previous needs are satisfied.

Any activity carried out by a person is greatly influenced by motivation factors.

• External motivation encourages you to perform some task in order to express yourself in public opinion, in order to receive approval and praise.
• Internal motivation is a much stronger mechanism for the movement of the individual. The result is not achieved for fame or approval, but to satisfy personal interest. It is internal motivation that encourages discoveries and new inventions.
• Awareness is a correct understanding of the need for the process and the expected result. Carrying out incomprehensible tasks and unconscious activities creates boredom and lack of interest in such work.
• Interests and satisfaction of needs. When an activity brings excitement, satisfaction and elation to a person, the result is very high. If at the same time the person also receives satisfaction of his needs, recognition, his desire to find the meaning of life intensifies. In case of dissatisfaction of spiritual and personal interests in a person, doubt in his abilities increases, his aspirations and energy are suppressed.

What is personality orientation

Personality orientation

is a set of needs, desires, beliefs, interests, motives of a person, his ideals and value orientations. All this gives human life a certain meaning.

Paradoxically, human life acquires some meaning only after it is limited by something. It is impossible to want and desire absolutely everything, especially when it comes to directly opposite things (you cannot want to drive a good car and walk at the same time). The “paradox” is explained simply if we compare a person to a radio or television: when it receives all channels at the same time, “white noise” arises, and only after eliminating all channels except one does it begin to transmit specific information that can be seen and heard. Personal orientation is an innate phenomenon; it, of course, can change over time, but the initial impetus is laid by nature.

The motives that characterize a person are dominant and secondary. The first ones are the basis of human behavior; they also have the greatest stability.

Professional orientation by personality type

Personality orientation in psychology is not divided into categories of “bad” types and “good”. The human structure of the psychotype is very multifaceted. Each type has a number of positive and negative traits, which, with the right approach, can be turned into advantages. Determining your focus is very important when choosing a profession.

Engaging in an activity that does not suit the individual by his nature will not benefit either society or the person himself. Some professional centers use a variety of tests to determine personality type. Most of them are based on the methods of psychologist John Holland. His concept identifies 6 main types of social orientation.

Test for professional orientation of personality according to Holland in psychology.

Direction as a core characteristic of personality.

Most psychologists identify orientation as the leading component of personality structure. The orientation of the individual is always socially conditioned and formed in the process of education.

Focus

is a complex personal formation that determines all individual behavior, attitude towards oneself and others.
Direction is a set of stable motives that orient the behavior and activity of an individual relatively independently of specific conditions.
Characterized by the dominant needs, interests, inclinations, beliefs, worldview, attitudes and goals of her life and activities. The needs of a person are the need he or she feels for something.

motives are those internal forces that are associated with needs and encourage him to perform certain activities.

Worldview is a person’s developed system of beliefs, views on nature, society, human relationships, which have become his internal property and deposited in his consciousness in the form of certain life goals and interests, relationships, positions.

attitudes are his internal disposition to carry out a particular activity or inhibit his own activity. Attitudes have important functional significance: they act as states of readiness that allow an individual to more effectively perform certain activities. Their main functions: determine the sustainable nature of the activity; free the individual from the need to make decisions and arbitrarily control the course of activities in standard situations.

Desire is a conscious need and attraction to something very specific. It should be noted that desire, being sufficiently conscious, has a motivating force. It sharpens awareness of the purpose of future action and the construction of its plan. This form of focus is characterized by awareness not only of one’s need, but also of possible ways to satisfy it.

Another form of orientation is desire: it arises when a volitional component is included in the structure of desire. Aspiration is often considered as a very specific motivation for activity.

The next form of manifestation of personality orientation is the ideal . An ideal is the objective goal of an individual’s inclination, concretized in an image or representation, i.e., what he strives for, what he is oriented toward. A person’s ideals can act as one of the most significant characteristics of a person’s worldview, that is, his system of views on the objective world, on the place of a person in it, on a person’s attitude to the reality around him and to himself. The worldview reflects not only ideals, but also the value orientations of people, their principles of knowledge and activity, and their beliefs.

Goals are the most significant objects, phenomena, tasks and objects for a person, the achievement and possession of which constitute the essence of his life and activity. Goals

realize the needs of the individual and act as
images of the final result of the activity.
Personal activity. Needs as a source of activity. Motivation as a manifestation of individual needs. Types of motives.

Personality is formed in the process of active interaction with the outside world. Activity

- a property of all living things. The activity of the individual is manifested in its conscious, selective actions.

Activity ensures both adaptation to the environment and its change, and stimulates the individual’s participation in life and activity.

There were different points of view on the issue of the sources of personality activity in psychology:

— 3. Freud

— considered libido energy and aggressive needs to be the source of activity. But since the satisfaction of these needs encounters obstacles from the outside world, they are forced out of consciousness in the form of symbols - in the form of dreams, in myths, in images of art, prompting activity to perform certain actions and deeds.

- neo-Freudians K. Jung, A. Adler, E. Fromm

and others opposed the excessive biologizing concept of 3. Freud, trying to sociologize his teaching; come from the recognition of the decisive role of the environment, thereby putting forward mechanisms of social order.

In developing the problem of personality activity, modern psychology relies on the idea of ​​the active nature of reflection, the origin of consciousness from work, and its leading role in human behavior and activity. The source of personality activity is
needs .
Needs are a person’s need for something. Need

- the main source of human and animal activity; an internal state of need, expressing their dependence on specific conditions of existence.

Need is the need experienced by a person to eliminate deviations from the parameters of life that are optimal for him as a biological being, an individual and a personality.

The characteristic features of the needs are:

- any need has its own subject, i.e. it is always an awareness of the need for something. The specific substantive nature of the need, usually associated either with an object that people strive to possess, or with any activity that should give a person satisfaction

(for example, a certain job, game, etc.);

- more or less clear awareness of a given need, accompanied by characteristic emotional states (attractiveness of an object associated with a given need; displeasure, and sometimes suffering from unsatisfied needs, etc.);

- the presence, although often poorly realized, but always present, of an emotional-volitional state, oriented towards the search for possible ways to satisfy needs;

- weakening or complete disappearance of these states, and in some cases even their transformation into opposite states when previously realized needs are satisfied (for example, a feeling of disgust at the sight of food in a state of satiety);

- the re-emergence of a need, when the need underlying it again makes itself felt.

Human needs are diverse. According to their origin, needs are divided into natural and cultural. They are divided into material - needs for food, clothing, warmth, housing, etc., and spiritual , associated with human social existence - needs for social activity, work, communication with each other, acquiring knowledge, studying sciences and arts, in creativity, etc.

Types of needs

A. Maslow's pyramid of human needs

Needs are expressed in motives (objectified needs) ,

that is, in direct motivation to activity.

Motive

- an incentive to activity associated with the satisfaction of a specific need. Motive is also often understood as the reason underlying the choice of actions and actions, the set of external and internal conditions that cause the activity of the subject. Thus, the need for food can lead to apparently completely different activities to satisfy it. These different activities correspond to different motives.

In terms of their role or function, not all motives aimed at one activity are equivalent. As a rule, one of them is the main one, the others are secondary.

A.N. Leontyev considered a motive as an object that meets a particular need, and believed that they perform a dual function: 1 - they stimulate and direct activity. These are incentive motives;

2 - give the activity a subjective character, personal meaning.” These are meaning-forming motives. All motives can be divided into two groups: conscious and unconscious .

Conscious

motives are characterized by the fact that a person is aware of what motivates him to act, what is the content of his needs. They define life goals that guide a person’s activities over a long period of his life.

Conscious motives include: interests, beliefs, worldviews of the individual.

Interest

- emotionally rich focus on objects associated with the manifestation of cognitive needs (from the Latin interest - matters). Interest manifests itself in increased attention to an object of lasting significance. Interest is a specific form of manifestation of a cognitive need that ensures that the individual is focused on understanding the goals of the activity and thereby contributes to the individual’s orientation in the surrounding reality.

Characteristics of interest as one of the types of motive

Belief

is a system of individual motives that encourages her to act in accordance with her views, principles, and worldview.

Worldview

- a system of established views on the world around us and our place in it.

Achievement motive

- a characteristic of a person’s motivational sphere, reflecting the desire for the best performance of activities in situations of achievement.

Unconscious motives -

characterized by the fact that a person is not aware of what motivates him to activity, what is the content of his needs.
Unconscious ,
conformism, and attitudes.

Attractions

are expressed in the fact that a person seeks to satisfy an insufficiently realized need.

It is the drives that are often the “morning incentive to perform a certain action.

Installation

- an unconscious state of a person’s readiness to perceive, evaluate and act in a certain way in relation to the people or objects around him. (“Attitude theory” was founded by the Georgian psychologist D. Uznadze.)

Conformism

is the subordination of the individual to group pressure. As a personality trait, conformity manifests itself in the fact that a person acts unconsciously, choosing the point of view of others, regardless of whether it corresponds or does not correspond to his own internal position.

Motive determines the type of behavior of an individual, giving it a certain direction. The term "motivation " is a broader concept than the term "motive".

Motivation

- a set of motives that encourage a person to be active.

Motivation is the excitation of functional systems caused by an actualized need, causing directed activity of the body.

The motivational sphere of a person determines the scale and nature of his personality.

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Correct goal setting and self-confidence

The direction of the individual and the correct setting of goals determine the success and satisfaction from one’s activities.

A goal is an image outlined in dreams, the circumstances in which a particular person sees himself. Many far-fetched goals remain unfulfilled dreams if a person does not plan the right ways to achieve them. When determining personal growth and the peak that you plan to achieve, you need to remember the basic important rules.

• It is important at the beginning of your journey to identify for yourself the area of ​​activity that is most significant at the present time. For some, this will be achieving success in science, while for others it is important to improve their appearance.
• You need to rely only on yourself and your strength to achieve the pinnacle of your plans. Independence in this matter will allow you to realistically assess failures and draw conclusions without blaming anyone else.
• Goals must be realistic in accordance with the inclinations and abilities of the individual.
• Ideas need to be formulated correctly. We need specifics: Not “I want to become a scientist,” but “to defend my doctoral dissertation”; not “lose weight”, but “lose 20 kg”.
• Psychologists advise writing down your goals, breaking them down into time periods, and making specific time plans.
• You must always be prepared for the fact that goals may change under the influence of external circumstances. A person develops throughout his life, as does the surrounding society. What seems very important today may fade into the background in a few years. There's nothing wrong with that. Flexibility makes a person less vulnerable to changes in external circumstances.

  

• The goal should be a personal dream, and not formed under the influence of anyone. For example, trying to fulfill the parents’ dream of seeing their son, an artist by nature, an engineer or a doctor, will not bring happiness to anyone. Working towards your dreams should be rewarding.
• Formulating a clear, conscious goal is not enough. You need to believe in it, cement confidence in your success in your subconscious.

A very broad concept in the structure of personality is orientation in psychology. It takes many people a long time to realize their calling; sometimes a person spends years doing something that only brings him fatigue and loss of self-confidence. The fates of many outstanding people are an example of correctly setting goals and working on oneself on the path to success.

Author: Nadya Boyko