Destruction - what is it, the main causes and symptoms, what types and forms are there?

What is a pattern?

A pattern is a scheme or model of behavior brought to automaticity that a person uses in everyday life. We can talk about patterns in any area where behavior patterns are used: daily brushing of teeth, a morning cup of coffee, a handshake at a meeting, the way you cut vegetables for soup or introducing a new employee.

Etymologically, the concept comes from the English word pattern - template, pattern. In addition to psychology, patterns are found in physics, mathematics, programming, design, music, construction, and philosophy . From a physiological point of view, patterns form in our brain in the same way as habits. But a psychological model of behavior is a more voluminous and complex concept than a reflex or instinct. This is a whole program in our brain according to which we live and interact with people around us.

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Another interesting feature of the pattern is that the entire pattern of behavior is activated when any part of it is activated. For example, when we smell the aroma of coffee from a coffee shop, we buy cookies to accompany the drink. Or we plunge into joyful memories when the word “Christmas tree” is mentioned. So part of the pattern is the trigger that fires the whole pattern. Experts call this a code. But psychological models are not mindless sequences of actions, but meaningful behavioral responses. For example, endless hand washing is a neurosis. But washing your hands after a walk is a pattern.

Pattern in psychology

A psychological pattern reflects a stable pattern of behavior of individuals. Such behavioral patterns can be seen by observing the people around you. Everyone behaves differently in different circumstances, but still each individual adheres to his own style.

If you trace some patterns of behavior, you can more easily communicate with others. By studying the behavioral patterns of other people, a person begins to understand what can be expected from them, or to act in relation to these individuals, knowing in advance what reaction to expect.

For example, if a person by nature is taciturn, rather reserved, and prefers to spend his free time alone or in the company of one friend, then naturally he will feel very awkward in a large company and may even be offended if he were pulled into a large group without warning. and a noisy company, to a party where everyone is having fun and getting to know each other.

You should look out for a person’s interests in order to predict what reaction he might have, and act accordingly so that no one is offended. Observing how people's behavior patterns manifest themselves and change is a very useful and interesting activity.

In psychology, there is a type of pattern called hypnotic - these are special repeated verbal formulas with the help of which a person can be immersed in a hypnotic trance state. It may happen that a person will not even realize that he has been hypnotized. This method is widely used in NLP, and competent manipulators are also good at it for their own selfish purposes.

If a person experiences situations in which he experiences difficulties interacting with the outside world, he seeks help from a psychologist. Having expressed all the painful things, having passed a certain number of tests, the client can often hear from the psychologist that the problem lies in his negative behavior model. Subsequently, the client is prescribed a course of psychocorrection.

Types of pattern behavior.

Pattern behavior is a convenient mechanism that we inherited from our ancestors. It is explained by the principle of rationality - if a reaction has helped several times, it will help in the future. After all, it is much easier to use a ready-made model than to come up with a new one every time.

In reality, we use many more patterns than we realize. Therefore, behavioral models have a fairly ramified classification:

• Social and individual . Social patterns are shaking hands, waving or bowing when meeting, the habit of holding doors behind you or letting another person through. You can call it culture. Individual patterns are a person’s personal habits: the way they eat or drive, the sequence of actions while getting ready for work in the morning.
• Congenital and acquired . Congenital patterns are our genetics at the level of instincts: screaming as a reaction to pain, resting after activity, smiling at the sight of a loved one. Acquired patterns appear as a result of upbringing, under the influence of parents and the environment.
• Positive and negative . Positive patterns help us communicate harmoniously, develop, take care of our health, and overcome obstacles. These are all useful habits from brushing your teeth to smiling when you meet. Negative ones interfere with life, accumulate painful experiences, but are resolved after a visit to a psychotherapist.

There are patterns:

• Communicative or social: facial expressions, gestures, voice and intonation that a person uses when meeting, meeting or communicating.
• Thinking: thoughts, conclusions, generalizations, logical conclusions as a result of the actions of others or after events.
• Motor: defensive reactions in case of danger, postures, facial expressions and gestures during communication, movement in space.
• Emotional: a range of reactions to irritation, insult, humor, compliments, and other people’s aggression.
• Linguistic or linguistic: certain phrases, speech forms, dialogues, lines or repetitions that we use in everyday speech.
• Cultural: cultural patterns, values, ideas specific to a particular community or tribe.

How Behavioral Patterns Work

People, in principle, are characterized by stereotyping behavior: we develop certain ways of interacting with the world around us. This is explained by the principle of rationality - instead of inventing new ones every time

ways to respond to a particular phenomenon, it is easier to use a ready-made model. This applies to all patterns - thinking, verbal, behavioral, and many others.

Patterns of behavior are formed in the process of training, education, and observation of others. This process starts from childhood and is most active in childhood. We look at what patterns other people use in different situations and we adopt (or don't adopt) those patterns. We inherited this rather convenient and effective method of learning and socialization from our ancestors, for whom it was one of the means of survival (it should be noted that copying behavior is used not only by humans and is very common in the animal world, but this area is beyond the scope of our article) .

Returning to modern man, we note that in childhood patterns are often simply copied almost unchanged (this is why they say that the best way to raise a child is to demonstrate to him certain behavioral characteristics by example). As we get older and our behavior patterns become more complex, the patterns are borrowed less obviously and less actively. In addition, they, as a rule, are not taken in their original form, but are modified to “fit” into our character, other behavior patterns, etc. Perhaps the best reflection of the whole process will be the saying: “Whoever you mess with, you’ll gain from it.” And here we are not only talking about negative qualities - you can also “acquire” positive models.

Why correct children's patterns?

At birth, the baby receives basic behavior patterns. As you grow older, habits, stereotypes, and upbringing are layered on top of your innate patterns. Together they form a person's character. The child's psyche is very flexible. If parents closely monitor their child's behavior, they can recognize and remove potentially harmful psychological patterns. To begin with, you can conduct a “marshmallow test” with your child.

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marshmallow experiment ” or marshmallow test was first Walter Mischel . Children 4-6 years old were placed in front of a table on which there was a plate with one marshmallow. The presenter explained to the child: if he sits alone with a treat for 15 minutes and does not eat, then he will then receive two marshmallows. The children remained in the room. Some waited until the end of the experiment, but most gave up in the first minute. Scientists traced the fate of the children in the future. It turned out that patient children later achieved more in life than others.

If parents want to raise a child so that he chooses a “treat later,” it is worth starting from the first years of life: with regular brushing of teeth, cleaning up toys, gifts or other rewards. Parents' persistence and patience will help their child create a pattern of self-control and not be tempted by today's marshmallows. True, quite recently, the purity of this experiment was questioned , since it turned out that there is a big dependence between how rich a child grew up in a family and his ability to resist temptations. And it is not surprising that children from wealthy families were more likely to succeed later in life, as they could receive a better education and have more influential connections.

User classification

In an era when the Internet can be found even in your refrigerator, a person has partially become depersonalized. On the Internet, no one will know that you are a cat.

However, on the other end of the line there is still a person (until the AI ​​systems pass the Turing test, but even then all will not be lost), who has his own habits, tastes, views and fears.
Based on them, we, like psychologists, can both predict his behavior and manipulate him. As one of the bases for classifying user behavior on the Internet, let’s take a behavioral model that is familiar to us—temperaments. Let's adapt it to the realities of the web:

1. Cholerics
   are activists. As a rule, such users want to quickly get everything they need from your product. They don't like to waste time. Looking for something, finding something, understanding something is not in their habits.
2. Phlegmatic people
   are unhurried. Before performing any action, be sure to understand. Can read agreements, all texts on pop-up windows. We are ready to devote our time to studying the product, but only if it is really necessary.
3. Sanguine people
   are hot. Such users should always be kept on their toes, because... when he loses interest, he simply “merges.” Like choleric people, they quickly react to all incoming information. The difference is that they easily accept their own mistakes.
4. Melancholic people
   are fearful. They are afraid to make a mistake. When a problem or complex action arises, they prefer not to deal with it, but simply close it and forget. Such users usually do not choose to pay by card directly on the website, because They are afraid, for example, of making mistakes when entering data.

Ideally, product design should take all of these types into account (with some exceptions, of course). However, you shouldn’t overdo it, because, as you know, you can’t please everyone right away. In the first stages of development, it is best to take weaknesses of all types and eliminate the possibility of their occurrence as much as possible.

How to use patterns to study other people?

By observing the patterned behavior of other people, you can predict their actions. Simple examples from life: if a friend constantly borrows money and does not pay it back, then he will not return the money to you. If a friend criticizes everyone, then she will speak poorly of you in front of strangers. Our ancestors knew about this feature of the psyche. It’s not for nothing that the groom was advised to look at his future mother-in-law to find out what his wife would be like.

Another way to use other people's patterns is to provoke or manipulate the behavior of another person . Many methods have been known to us since childhood: to take the victim “weakly”, to flatter or admire, to provoke a conflict or scandal, to cause feelings of guilt or shame. Knowing the behavioral patterns of a person you know, you can get the necessary information from him or force him to take the desired action. Knowing your own patterns will help you recognize the provocateur and develop stable immunity against them.

Customer behavior patterns are closely monitored by marketers. After all, knowledge of behavioral patterns is like reconnaissance before a battle; it gives 85% of the result. Knowing “how people buy” helps marketers influence buyers further. This includes display of expensive goods at eye level, checkout stands with toys, quick ordering, and delivery of bulky goods.

Congenital and acquired patterns

Hereditary patterns are those behavioral characteristics that a person receives in the first minutes of his life. This is a genetic program that works at the level of instincts and reflexes. The innate pattern is given to a person by nature. This model comes in many forms. For example, the nutritional form is manifested in the process of sucking in an infant. Acquired patterns of behavior are the subsequent development of a person, his learning, the formation of worldview, habits, way of thinking, etc.

Sometimes there is confusion between innate and acquired patterns. So, when a child, just like one of the parents, performs some operation in a certain way, they talk about genetic similarity. In fact, this is just the result of imitation.

Pattern tracking.

Behavioral patterns are the basis of a person. Our brain is designed in such a way that actions repeated several times automatically become unconscious. On the one hand, behavior patterns brought to automaticity save energy. On the other hand, they prevent you from acting consciously, switching flexibly in different situations, and realizing yourself as an individual. Negative behavior patterns lead to stress, anxiety, neuroses and physical illnesses:

• The habit of scrolling through social networks before bed leads to lack of sleep, and the habit of eating on the go and skipping breakfast and lunch leads to surges in blood sugar levels, tremors, and dizziness.
• The habit of generalizing all events “I was unlucky today, that means I’m a loser” provokes a bad mood and depression.
• The habit of being rude to your opponent leads to problems at work and in your personal life.

Changing them is difficult, getting rid of them is even more difficult. By changing your behavior patterns, you can copy the patterns of successful people and achieve success. But changing the model is not so easy. Some behavior patterns become an extension of our personality and ourselves.

Conclusions:

• Psychological patterns are frozen patterns of action found in our life experience.
• The formation of psychological patterns begins in childhood and can be corrected at an early age.
• Our behavior patterns protect and limit at the same time.
• It is difficult to remove negative patterns; it is easier to replace them with positive ones.

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Is it possible to change the pattern?

Patterns of behavior are the basis of a person. They are very stable, so it is very difficult to change them or even get rid of them altogether. However, you can control the pattern. What it is? For example, a person develops some kind of phobia. He turns to a specialist for help. He, in turn, offers him a certain algorithm of actions, by performing which the patient learns to control his fears. He is not able to get rid of them forever, but he can change his “positions of power.”

The greatest interest is generated by experiments in replacing patterns with opposite ones. There is a known case when an introverted woman came to the famous psychotherapist Milton Erickson asking him to help her become a more open and friendly person. Based on the patient’s hobby—flower growing—Erickson advised her to purchase 200 pots of violets and care for them. As the sprouts began to take root, the woman was supposed to send a pot to friends and strangers on their birthday, engagement, wedding, or to someone who was sick. Caring for two hundred violets distracted the woman from her depressive thoughts, and she soon became the “queen of violets” in her state. From a withdrawn person prone to severe depression, this woman turned into a desirable, open and friendly person.

Keywords

Another key to understanding people is to listen carefully to the key words that a person pronounces in speech. The subconscious is thousands of times faster than the conscious mind, so each person involuntarily says key words that reflect his behavior pattern. A simple example: if a person often says the words “I’ll try,” “probably,” “maybe” in various contexts, there is a possibility that he does not want to take responsibility.

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How to change patterns?

The transmission of behavioral patterns from generation to generation makes it difficult for a person to get rid of one or another accepted stereotype. But this can all be fixed. A person's conscious and subconscious minds are powerful forces that can help us think and behave in new ways. Thinking plays a huge role and can be both an obstacle to liberation from ineffective patterns and a helper.

How to change thinking patterns?

What does it mean - a destructive pattern? These are the thoughts and attitudes that prevent you from successfully solving any life problems. To develop new effective thinking patterns, you can try to follow the recommendations of a psychologist:

1. An experience or situation, upon closer examination, appears to be negative, but if you change your perspective and try to look at the positives, a new solution to the problem may be born.
2. Only one way and not another, either black or white, good and evil - all this can be called polarized or extreme thinking, characteristic of many people brought up in strictness, perfectionists, but life is more multifaceted, and not everything can be fit into a framework.
3. Inflating the problem to catastrophic proportions. Stop! It's time to stop, breathe out and not go deeper into panic, but think: “What can I do now, what is the next step to solve the problem, do I need help or can I handle it myself?” This method helps to get out of a state of helplessness and develops creative entrepreneurship.
4. Self-fixation or personalization. Many people seriously think that all the problems in their close circle are related to them. “I made him angry again,” “She feels bad because of me!” The important thing to understand here is that people have a right to their feelings, and it is their responsibility.

How to change behavior patterns?

Changing behavior patterns is difficult and time-consuming work on yourself. To do this, you need to start tracking your thoughts and reactions to events happening around you. What causes fear or stupor, and what causes aggression. Analyze: “How can I react differently?” All these primary reactions are patterns that need to be reviewed and replaced. It is important to remember the following:

• established reactions are not the only correct ones;
• apply a different reaction to the event, it is better to sit down and write in detail how “I will react differently”;
• when the opportunity arises, repeat a new pattern of behavior to reinforce it, watch how it works, change the nuances (a new habit is consolidated within a month).

Forms of destructive behavior

Depending on the characteristics of a person’s relationship with society and the degree of adaptation in it, destructive behavior can take the following forms:

1. Radical adaptation . In such a situation, a person tries to completely change and adapt the surrounding reality to himself.
2. Hyper-adaptation , in which a person sets unattainable goals and objectives.
3. Conformist adaptation . With this form of behavior, the person visually adapts to those dogmas and norms that he does not accept.
4. Deviant adaptation , that is, the commission of actions and deeds that contradict accepted norms.
5. Socio-psychological disadaptation , during which a person is sure that he is not obliged to adapt to society and comply with its norms and laws.

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