The founder of a new psychological branch of ethnopsychology. The origin of ethnopsychology in history and philosophy. in the domestic tradition

Topic 1. Ethnopsychology as a subject.

Plan

1. The concept of ethnopsychology.

2. History of ethnopsychology.

Ethnopsychology concept

Ethnopsychology is a science that arose at the intersection of social psychology, sociology and ethnography, which also, to one degree or another, study the national characteristics of the human psyche (Andreeva G.M.).

Ethnic psychology is an interdisciplinary branch of knowledge that studies and develops:

1) features of the psyche of people of different peoples and cultures;

2) problems of national peculiarities of world perception;

3) problems of national characteristics of relationships;

4) problems of a national character;

5) patterns of formation and function of national self-awareness and ethnic stereotypes;

6) patterns of formation of societies, national communities.

The term itself ethnopsychology is not generally accepted in world science, many scientists prefer to call themselves researchers in the field of "psychology of peoples", "psychological anthropology", "comparative cultural psychology", etc.

As for the "parental disciplines" of ethnopsychology, then, on the one hand, it is science, which in different countries is called ethnology, social or cultural anthropology, and on the other, psychology.

Objectstudies of ethnopsychology are nations, nationalities, national communities.

Thing -features of behavior, emotional reactions, psyche, character, as well as national identity and ethnic stereotypes.

Studying mental processes in representatives of ethnic groups, ethnopsychology applies certain research methods.

Widely used comparison and contrast method,in which analytical comparative models are built, ethnic groups, ethnic processes are classified and grouped according to certain principles, criteria and characteristics.

Behavioral methodis to observe the behavior of an individual and ethnic groups.

The methods of research in ethnopsychology include general psychological methods: observation, experiment, conversation, study of the products of activity, test .

Observation -the study of the external manifestations of the psyche of representatives of ethnic groups takes place in natural living conditions (it should be purposeful, systematic, a prerequisite is non-interference).

Experiment -active method. The experimenter creates the necessary conditions for activating the processes of interest to him. By repeating research under the same conditions with representatives of different ethnic groups, the experimenter can establish mental characteristics. it happens laboratory and natural ... In ethnopsychology, it is better to use natural. When there are two competing hypotheses, the decisive experiment.

Conversation method -is based on verbal communication and is private. It is used mainly in the study of the ethnic picture of the world. Activity product research -(drawings, written compositions, folklore).

Tests -should be a true indicator of the studied phenomenon or process; give the opportunity to study exactly what is being researched, and not a similar phenomenon; not only the result of the decision is important, but also the process itself; should exclude attempts to establish the limit of the possibilities of representatives of ethnic groups (Minus: the psychologist is subjective)

So, ethnopsychology is the science of facts, patterns and mechanisms of manifestation of mental typology, value orientations and behavior of representatives of one or another ethnic community. It describes and explains the features of behavior and its motives within a community and between ethnic groups living for centuries in the same geohistorical space.

This science is a related discipline with ethnography, ethnopedagogy, philosophy, history, political science and others interested in studying the social nature of man and his essence.

History of ethnopsychology

The first grains of ethnopsychological knowledge contain the works of ancient authors - philosophers and historians: Herodotus, Hippocrates, Tacitus, Pliny the Elder. Thus, the ancient Greek physician Hippocrates noted the influence of the environment on the formation of the psychological characteristics of people and put forward a general position according to which all differences between peoples, including their behavior and mores, are associated with nature and climate.

The first attempts to make peoples the subject of psychological observation were made in the 18th century. Thus, the French enlighteners introduced the concept of "the spirit of the people" and tried to solve the problem of its being conditioned by geographic factors. The idea of \u200b\u200ba folk spirit also penetrated into German philosophy of history in the 18th century. One of its most prominent representatives, I.G. Herder, considered the spirit of the people not as something incorporeal, he practically did not separate the concepts of "soul of the people" and "national character" and argued that the soul of the people can be known through its feelings, speech, deeds, i.e. it is necessary to study his whole life. But in the first place he put oral folk art, believing that it is the world of fantasy that reflects the folk character.

The English philosopher D. Hume and the great German thinkers I. Kant and G. Hegel also contributed to the development of knowledge about the character of peoples. All of them not only spoke out about the factors influencing the spirit of peoples, but also offered "psychological portraits" of some of them.

The development of ethnography, psychology, and linguistics led in the middle of the 19th century. to the emergence of ethnopsychology as an independent science. Creating a new discipline - psychology of peoples - was proclaimed in 1859 by the German scientists M. Lazarus and H. Steinthal. They explained the need for the development of this science, which is a part of psychology, by the need to investigate the laws of mental life not only of individual individuals, but also of entire nations (ethnic communities in the modern sense), in which people act "as a kind of unity." All individuals of the same people have "similar feelings, inclinations, desires", they all have the same national spirit, which German thinkers understood as the mental similarity of individuals belonging to a particular people, and at the same time as their self-consciousness.

The ideas of Lazarus and Steinthal immediately found a response in the scientific circles of the multinational Russian Empire, and in the 1870s, an attempt was made in Russia to "build" ethnopsychology into psychology. These ideas arose from the jurist, historian and philosopher K.D. Kavelin, who suggested the possibility of an "objective" method of studying folk psychology based on the products of spiritual activity - cultural monuments, customs, folklore, and beliefs.

The turn of the 19th and 20th centuries marked by the emergence of a holistic ethnopsychological concept of the German psychologist W. Wundt. He devoted twenty years of his life to writing a ten-volume Psychology of peoples... Wundt held the idea, fundamental for social psychology, that the joint life of individuals and their interaction with each other give rise to new phenomena with peculiar laws that, although they do not contradict the laws of individual consciousness, are not contained in them. And as these new phenomena, in other words, as the content of the soul of the people, he considered the general ideas, feelings and aspirations of many individuals. According to Wundt, the general ideas of many individuals are manifested in language, myths and customs, which should be studied by the psychology of peoples.

Another attempt to create ethnic psychology was made by the Russian thinker G.G. Shpet. He discussed with Wundt. According to Wundt, the products of spiritual culture are psychological products. Shpet argued that in itself there is nothing psychological in the cultural and historical content of folk life.

He believed that language, myths, morals, religion, science evoke certain experiences, "responses" to what is happening in culture carriers.

The ideas of Lazarus and Steinthal, Kavelin, Wundt, Shpet remained at the level of explanatory schemes that were not implemented in specific psychological studies. But the ideas of the first ethnopsychologists about the links between culture and the inner world of man were taken up by another science - cultural anthropology.

test questions

1. Definition of ethnopsychology.

2. What does ethnic psychology study?

3. The object of ethnopsychology research.

4. The subject of ethnopsychology research.

5. Methods of research in ethnopsychology.

7. When were the first attempts made to make peoples the subject of psychological observation?

8. The development of which sciences led to the emergence of ethnopsychology?

List of references

1. Andreeva G.M. Social Psychology. - M., 2011.

2. Krysko V.G., Sarakuev E.A. Introduction to Ethnopsychology. - M., 2012.

3. Lebedeva N.M. Introduction to ethnic and cross-cultural psychology - M., 2009.

4. Shpet G.G. Introduction to Ethnic Psychology. - SPb., 2010.

ETHNOPSYCHOLOGY AS AN INTERDISCIPLINARY AREA OF KNOWLEDGE

INTRODUCTION 2

1. Formation and development of ethnopsychology as a science. 3

2. Ethnopsychology as an interdisciplinary field of knowledge. five

CONCLUSION 10

LIST OF REFERENCES 11

INTRODUCTION

Ethnopsychology is an interdisciplinary branch of knowledge that studies the ethnocultural characteristics of the psyche of people, the psychological characteristics of ethnic groups, as well as the psychological aspects of interethnic relations. The term ethnopsychology itself is not generally accepted in world science, many scientists prefer to call themselves researchers in the field of "psychology of peoples", "psychological anthropology", "comparative cultural psychology", etc. 1.

The presence of several terms for designating ethnopsychology is due precisely to the fact that it is an interdisciplinary branch of knowledge. Its “close and distant relatives” include many scientific disciplines: sociology, linguistics, biology, ecology, etc. As for the "parental disciplines" of ethnopsychology, then, on the one hand, it is science, which in different countries is called ethnology, social or cultural anthropology, and on the other, psychology.

Ethnopsychology occupies an important place in a number of different sciences, since it introduces the theoretical and empirical foundations of science, gives an idea of \u200b\u200bthe cultural conditioning of the psyche and human behavior, the formation of personality in culture and social psychology of intercultural communication and interaction.

The founders of ethnopsychology are W. Wundt, G. Le Bon, G. Tarde, A. Fulle, and D. Ethnopsychological problems occupy a special, one might even say an exceptional place in the fate of social psychology as a branch of scientific knowledge.

1. Formation and development of ethnopsychology as a science.

Ethnopsychology - (from the Greek ethnos - tribe, people), an interdisciplinary branch of knowledge that studies the ethnic characteristics of the psyche of people, national character, patterns of formation and function of national identity, ethnic stereotypes, etc. 2.

The creation of a special discipline - "the psychology of peoples" - was proclaimed already in 1860 by M. Lazarus and H. Steinthal, who interpreted the "national spirit" as a special, closed formation, expressing the mental similarity of individuals belonging to a particular nation, and at the same time as their self-awareness; its content should be revealed through a comparative study of language, mythology, morality and culture.

At the beginning of the XX century. these ideas were developed and partially realized in the "psychology of peoples" by W. Wundt. Later in the United States, ethnopsychology was practically identified with the neo-Freudian theory, which tried to deduce the properties of the national character from the so-called "basic" or "modal" personality, which in turn was associated with the methods of raising children typical of this culture.

The first grains of ethnopsychological knowledge contain the works of ancient authors - philosophers and historians: Herodotus, Hippocrates, Tacitus, Pliny the Elder, etc. The first attempts to make peoples the subject of psychological observation were made in the 18th century. Thus, the French enlighteners introduced the concept of "the spirit of the people" and tried to solve the problem of its being conditioned by geographic factors. The idea of \u200b\u200bthe folk spirit also penetrated into the German philosophy of history of the 18th century.

The development of ethnography, psychology and linguistics led in the middle of the 19th century. to the emergence of ethnopsychology as an independent science. The creation of a new discipline - the psychology of peoples - was proclaimed in 1859 by the German scientists M. Lazarus and H. Steinthal.

They explained the need for the development of this science, which is a part of psychology, by the need to investigate the laws of mental life not only of individual individuals, but also of entire nations (ethnic communities in the modern sense), in which people act "as a kind of unity." All individuals of the same people have "similar feelings, inclinations, desires", they all have the same national spirit, which German thinkers understood as the mental similarity of individuals belonging to a particular nation, and at the same time as their self-consciousness 3.

The turn of the XIX-XX centuries. marked by the emergence of a holistic ethnopsychological concept of the German psychologist W. Wundt. Wundt held the idea, fundamental for social psychology, that the joint life of individuals and their interaction with each other give rise to new phenomena with peculiar laws that, although they do not contradict the laws of individual consciousness, are not contained in them. And as these new phenomena, in other words, as the content of the soul of the people, he considered the general ideas, feelings and aspirations of many individuals. According to Wundt, the general ideas of many individuals are manifested in language, myths and customs, which should be studied by the psychology of peoples 4.

Another attempt to create ethnic psychology, and under this name, was undertaken by the Russian thinker G. Shpet. He believed that the products of spiritual culture are psychological products, and asserted that in itself there is nothing psychological in the cultural and historical content of people's life. Psychologically something else is the attitude towards the products of culture, towards the meaning of cultural phenomena.

G. Shpet believed that language, myths, customs, religion, science evoke certain experiences in culture bearers, “responses” to what is happening before their eyes, minds and hearts. According to Shpet's concept, ethnic psychology should identify typical collective experiences, in other words, answer the questions: What does the people like? What is he afraid of? What is he worshiping? five

2. Ethnopsychology as an interdisciplinary field of knowledge.

Ethnopsychology is an interdisciplinary branch of knowledge that studies and develops:

1) features of the psyche of people of different peoples and cultures;

2) problems of the nature of the national;

3) problems of national peculiarities of world perception;

4) problems of national characteristics of relationships;

5) patterns of formation and function of national self-awareness, ethnic stereotypes;

6) patterns of formation of communities, etc.

In many ways, the presence of several terms to denote the science of ethnopsychology is due to the fact that it is an interdisciplinary field of knowledge. Various authors include many scientific disciplines in the composition of her "close and distant relatives": sociology, linguistics, biology, ecology, etc. As for her "parental" disciplines, then, on the one hand, it is science, which in different countries is called ethnology or cultural anthropology, and on the other, psychology. It is these connections that are most essential.

The two named disciplines interacted for a long time, but sporadically. But if in the 19th century they were not completely separated, if at the beginning of the 20th century many of the greatest scientists - from W. Bundt to Z. Freud - were experts in both fields, then a period of mutual neglect, even hostility, began. The only exception was the theory of "Culture and Personality", which developed within the framework of cultural anthropology, but used psychological concepts and methods 6.

The history of Russian science of the Soviet period was characterized by a clear lag in the development of ethnopsychological knowledge. Practically no research was carried out, but depending on the authors' affiliation to a particular science, ethnopsychology was considered: as a subdiscipline of ethnography; as a field of knowledge at the intersection of ethnography and psychology, closer to either ethnography or psychology; as a branch of psychology.

Currently, there are two types of ethnopsychology - cross-cultural and anthropological ethnopsychology (psychological anthropology) 7.

Their main difference is that anthropological ethnopsychology was formed on the basis of the interaction of cultural anthropology and various psychological theories (reformed psychoanalysis, cognitive psychology, humanistic psychology and symbolic interactionism of J.G. Mead), while cross-cultural psychology arose on the basis of social psychology.

Anthropological ethnopsychology appears in the 1920s. XX century, cross-cultural in 60-70 XX to 8.

The problem of the psychological characteristics of peoples was studied earlier, from about the end of the eighteenth century. In German education and German classical philosophy, this area of \u200b\u200bresearch was interpreted as the study of the "spirit of peoples", and from the middle of the twentieth century it was called "the psychology of peoples".

In world science, ethnopsychology in the XX century has developed significantly. As a result of the disunity of researchers, two ethnopsychologies even arose: ethnological, which today is most often called psychological anthropology, and psychological, for which the term comparative cultural (or cross-cultural) psychology is used. As M. Mead rightly noted, even when solving the same problems, cultural anthropologists and psychologists approached them with different standards and different conceptual schemes 9.

But if in the life of a modern person the awareness of his belonging to a particular people, the search for its characteristics - including the peculiarities of the psyche - play such an important role and have such a serious impact on relations between people - from interpersonal to interstate, then it is absolutely necessary to study the psychological aspect of the ethnic factor a.

It is necessary to develop ethnopsychology, as well as other sciences - ethnosociology, ethnopolitology - analyzing the numerous "national" problems facing modern society from different angles. Ethnopsychologists are called upon to find out where to look for the reasons for such frequent misunderstandings that arise during contacts between representatives of different nations; are there any culturally determined mental characteristics that cause members of one people to ignore, look down or discriminate against members of another people; are there psychological phenomena that contribute to the growth of interethnic tension and interethnic conflicts.

The development of ethnopsychology, especially its socio-psychological aspects, is currently important for international education. In ethnopsychology, special attention is paid to the study of the psychological causes of ethnic conflicts, finding effective ways to resolve them, as well as identifying the origins of the growth of national self-consciousness, its development in various social and national environments. The ongoing research in the field of ethnopsychology should help harmoniously combine the common interests of citizens with the interests of each individual nation. This is the humanistic and applied orientation of ethnopsychology.

If we bear in mind the future of ethnopsychology, its specificity can be designated as the study of systematic relationships between psychological and cultural variables when comparing ethnic communities.

Contemporary ethnopsychology does not represent a single whole either in terms of topics or methods. A number of independent directions 10 can be distinguished in it:

1) comparative studies of ethnic characteristics of psychophysiology, cognitive processes, memory, emotions, speech, etc., which theoretically and methodically constitute an integral part of the corresponding sections of general and social psychology;

2) cultural studies aimed at understanding the characteristics of the symbolic world and value orientations of folk culture; inextricably linked with the relevant sections of ethnography, folklore, art history, etc .;

3) studies of ethnic consciousness and self-awareness, borrowing the conceptual apparatus and methods from the relevant sections of social psychology, studying social attitudes, intergroup relations, etc .;

4) studies of ethnic characteristics of the socialization of children, the conceptual apparatus and methods of which are closest to sociology and child psychology.

Since the properties of the national culture and the properties of the constituent ethnos (ethnic community) of individuals are not identical, there are always certain differences between the cultural and psychological studies of ethnopsychology. In modern conditions, special attention in ethnopsychology is paid to the study of the psychological causes of ethnic conflicts, finding effective ways to resolve them, as well as identifying the sources of the growth of national self-awareness, its development in different social and national environments.

CONCLUSION

So, we can conclude that it is ethnopsychology that should attract the special attention of psychologists in connection with the exacerbation of interethnic tension on the territory of the Russian Federation, it is it that is included in the social and political problems of society.

In the existing social context, not only ethnopsychologists, but also teachers, social workers, representatives of many other professions, as much as they can, should contribute to the optimization of interethnic relations, at least at the everyday level. But the help of a psychologist or teacher will be effective if he not only understands the mechanisms of intergroup relations, but also relies on knowledge of the psychological differences between representatives of different ethnic groups and their connections with cultural, social, economic, environmental variables at the level of society. Only by identifying the psychological characteristics of interacting ethnic groups that can interfere with the establishment of relations between them, a practitioner can fulfill his ultimate task - to offer psychological ways to resolve them 11.

Ethnopsychological problems occupy a special, one might even say an exceptional place in the fate of social psychology as a branch of scientific knowledge. Both the past and the future of this discipline are closely related to the solution of a range of ethnopsychological problems. Ethnopsychology has made a huge contribution to the understanding of the socio-psychological mechanisms of the life of groups.

However, ethnopsychology has no less heuristic potential in the study of other problems of socio-psychological knowledge: personality, communication, etc.

LIST OF USED LITERATURE

Ageev V.S. Intergroup interaction: socio-psychological problems. - M., 1990.

Wundt V. Problems of the psychology of peoples. - M, 1998.

Lebedeva N.M. An introduction to ethnic and cross-cultural psychology. - M., 1999.

Lebedeva N.M. Cross-cultural psychology: goals and research methods. / Human ethology and related disciplines / Ed. M.L. Butovskoy. - M., 2004.

Lebedeva N.M. Ethnic and cross-cultural psychology // Ed. V. Druzhinin. Psychology textbook for students of humanitarian universities. - SPb, "PETER", 2000.

Personality. Culture. Ethnos. Contemporary psychological anthropology. - M., 2002.

Lurie S.V. Psychological anthropology. - M .: Publishing house: Alma Mater, 2005 .-- 624 p.

Mead M. Culture and the world of childhood. - M .: "Science", 1988.

Pavlenko V.P. Ethnopsychology. - M. 2005.

Platonov Yu. Fundamentals of Ethnopsychology. Textbook. - Peter, 2004.

Stefanenko T.G. Ethnopsychology. Textbook. - M., 2006.

Stefanenko T.G., Shlyagina E.I., Enikolopov S.N. Ethnopsychological research methods. - M., 1993.

Shikhirev P.N. Prospects for the theoretical development of ethnic psychology. // Ethnic psychology and society. - M., 1997.

Shpet G.G. Introduction to Ethnic Psychology. - SPb., 1996.

1 Pavlenko V.P. Ethnopsychology. - M. 2005.

2 Stefanenko T.G. Ethnopsychology. Textbook. - M., 2006.

3 Shikhirev P.N. Prospects for the theoretical development of ethnic psychology. // Ethnic psychology and society. - M., 1997.

4 Wundt V. Problems of the psychology of peoples. - M, 1998.

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Plan

Introduction

1. The concept of ethnopsychology

2. History of ethnopsychology

Conclusion

List of references

Introduction

The changes taking place in Russia in recent years are forcing us to rethink interethnic ties in all regions of the country. It is necessary to admit today: for a long time in our country there has been no increase in contradictions in one of the most difficult areas of human life - interethnic, which is now reflected in the economic, political, cultural and other spheres of society. Things have come to open interethnic conflicts, the resolution of which presents great difficulties.

The national policy in the country can and should be carried out on the basis of new approaches to the organization of complex ethnosocial and ethnopsychological studies of objective processes of the development of nations and national relations, the use of world experience in solving the national question, the development of scientifically based recommendations for politicians and leaders who came to power in national regions.

The correct strategy and tactics in conducting this kind of research and formulating the necessary recommendations for the practice of resolving interethnic conflicts and the corresponding educational work can be built on the basis of clear methodological and theoretical premises, which are the result of studying all socio-psychological phenomena manifested in interethnic relations.

The purpose of the abstract is to characterize ethnopsychology as a subject.

As a result of the disunity of researchers by the end of the 19th century. formed two ethnopsychologies : ethnological, which today is most often called psychological anthropology , and psychological, for which the term is used cross-cultural (or comparative cultural) psychology. Solving the same problems, ethnologists and psychologists approach them with different conceptual schemes.

Differences in the two research approaches can be grasped using the old philosophical opposition of understanding and explanation or modern concepts. emic and etic These terms, which are not translated into Russian, were formed by the American linguist K. Pike by analogy with the background ethics studying the sounds available in all languages, and the background emics learning sounds specific to one language. Later in all humanities, including ethnopsychology emic began to call a culture-specific approach that seeks to understand phenomena, and etic - a universalist approach that explains the studied phenomena.

The main features emic approaches in ethnopsychology are: the study of the psychological characteristics of the carriers of one culture with the desire to understand them; the use of culture-specific units of analysis and terms; gradual disclosure of the phenomenon under study, and, consequently, the impossibility of hypotheses; the need to restructure the way of thinking and everyday habits, since the study of any processes and phenomena, be it a person or ways of socializing children, is carried out from the point of view of a participant (from within the group); orientation to the possibility of collision with a new form of human behavior for the researcher.

The subject of psychological anthropology based on emic approach is the study of how an individual acts, thinks, feels in a given cultural environment. This does not mean that cultures are not compared with each other, but comparisons are made only after their thorough study, carried out, as a rule, in the field.

Currently, the main achievements of ethnopsychology are associated with this approach. But it also has serious limitations, since there is a danger that the researcher's own culture will become a standard for him to compare. The question always remains: can he so deeply immerse himself in someone else's, often very different from his own, culture in order to understand the peculiarities of the psyche of its carriers and give them an unmistakable or at least adequate description?

The main features etic - the approach that is characteristic of cross-cultural psychology can be considered: the study of the psychological life of individuals of two or more ethnic groups with a desire to explain intercultural differences and intercultural similarities; the use of units of analysis that are considered culturally free; the researcher takes the position of an external observer with a desire to distance himself from the studied ethnic groups; preliminary construction by the psychologist of the structure of the research and categories for its description, hypothesis.

The subject of cross-cultural psychology based on etic -approach, - the study of the similarities and differences of psychological variables in different cultures and ethnic communities. Cross-cultural research is carried out within the framework of different branches of psychology: general psychology studies the characteristics of perception, memory, thinking; industrial psychology - problems of labor organization and management; developmental psychology - methods of raising children in different nations. A special place is occupied by social psychology, since not only the patterns of behavior of people conditioned by their inclusion in ethnic communities, but also the psychological characteristics of these communities themselves are subjected to comparison.

The most obvious challenge facing cross-cultural psychology is to test the universality of existing psychological theories. This task has been called "transfer and test", as researchers seek to transfer their hypotheses to all new ethnic groups in order to test whether they are valid in many (and preferably all) cultural contexts. It is assumed that only after solving this problem, you can come to the ultimate goal - to try to collect and integrate the results and generalize them in a truly universal psychology.

It is impossible to list all the points that affect the reliability of the results of cross-cultural studies. It is especially dangerous if tendencies of ethnocentrism are manifested in the works of ethnopsychologists, when the standards of their culture are used as universal ones. As the Canadian psychologist J. Berry notes, quite often ethnocentrism in comparative cultural studies can be found when choosing a research subject without taking into account the characteristics of one of the studied cultures. For example, in the West, as a rule, the content of communication is studied, while for Eastern cultures the context in which it takes place is no less important.

American ethnopsychologist G. Triandis believes that in most cross-cultural studies we are dealing with pseudo- etic approach, since their authors cannot free themselves from the stereotypes of thinking of their culture. As a rule, the specificity of Western culture is "superimposed" on the phenomena of other cultural systems. To achieve the reliability of cross-cultural studies, it is first necessary to identify universal ( etic) phenomena and processes, then analyze them using culture-specific ( emic) methods and finally compare using etic an approach. Such a combined research requires joint efforts of psychologists and ethnologists, and, consequently, the creation of an interdisciplinary ethnopsychology. But although there has been a rapprochement between psychological anthropology and cross-cultural psychology, so far ethnopsychology is not a single whole.

Striving for the development of a unified ethnopsychology, one should not forget about its third branch - psychology of interethnic relations at the intersection of social psychology and sociology . Today, in the social context of the growth of interethnic tensions and incessant interethnic conflicts both in the world as a whole and in Russia, it is this branch of ethnopsychology that requires the utmost attention. Not only ethnopsychologists, but also teachers, social workers, representatives of other professions should contribute to the optimization of interethnic relations at least at the everyday level. But the help of a psychologist or teacher will be effective if he not only understands the mechanisms of intergroup relations, but also relies on knowledge of the psychological differences between representatives of different ethnic groups and their connections with cultural, social, economic, environmental variables at the level of society. Only by identifying the psychological characteristics of interacting ethnic groups that can interfere with the establishment of relations between them, a practitioner can fulfill his ultimate task - to offer psychological ways to resolve them.

Conclusion

Completing the work on the abstract, one can come to the conclusion that ethnic psychology is an interdisciplinary branch of knowledge that studies and develops: 1) the peculiarities of the psyche of people of different peoples and cultures; 2) problems of national peculiarities of world perception; 3) problems of national characteristics of relationships; 4) problems of a national character; 5) patterns of formation and function of national self-awareness and ethnic stereotypes; 6) patterns of formation of societies, national communities.

The plurality of points of view on the content, originality and role of ethnic determinants of perception and the abundance of works devoted to this issue in recent years both in Russia and abroad, once again demonstrate the relevance and importance of studying the features of interethnic perception. The nature of interethnic relations at the present stage, mass migrations, the growth of disintegration processes with the simultaneous striving of mankind to unite and erase state boundaries, make their own requirements for the choice of topics and methods of social psychology.

List of references

1. Andreeva G.M. Social Psychology. - M., 1996.

2. Krysko V.G., Sarakuev E.A. Introduction to Ethnopsychology. - M., 1996.

3. Lebedeva N.M. An introduction to ethnic and cross-cultural psychology. - M., 1999.

4. Shpet G.G. Introduction to Ethnic Psychology. - SPb., 1996.

The origin of ethnopsychology in history and philosophy

Grains of ethnopsychological knowledge are scattered in the works of ancient authors - philosophers and historians: Herodotus, Hippocrates, Tacitus, Pliny, Strabo. Already in Ancient Greece, the influence of the environment on the formation of psychological characteristics was noticed. The physician and founder of medical geography Hippocrates (460 BC - 377 or 356 BC) put forward a general position according to which all differences between peoples - including their behavior and mores - are related to the nature and climate of the country.

Herodotus (born between 490 and 480 - d. C. 425 BC) is the "father" not only of history, but also of ethnography. He himself wandered willingly and a lot and talked about the amazing features of the peoples he met during his travels. In the "History" of Herodotus, we meet with one of the first attempts at an etic approach, since the scientist seeks to explain the features of the life and character of different peoples that interest him with the natural environment around them and at the same time compares them with each other:

« Just as the sky in Egypt is different than anywhere else, and as their river differs in natural properties from other rivers, so the customs and customs of the Egyptians are in almost all respects opposite to the customs and customs of other peoples " (Herodotus, 1972: 91).

Rather, this is a pseudo-etic approach, since Herodotus compares any people with their compatriots - the Hellenes. The best example of an ethnographic sketch by Herodotus is considered to be the description of Scythia, made on the basis of personal observations: it tells about the gods, customs, rituals of twinning and funeral rites of the Scythians, retells the myths about their origin. He does not forget about character traits, highlighting their severity, inaccessibility, cruelty. Herodotus tries to explain the attributed qualities both by the features of the environment (Scythia is a plain rich in grass and well irrigated by deep rivers), and by the nomadic way of life of the Scythians, thanks to which “no one can overtake them, unless they themselves allow it” (Herodotus, 1972, p. 198). In the "History" of Herodotus, we meet with many interesting observations, although he often gives absolutely fantastic descriptions of supposedly existing peoples. In fairness, it should be noted that the historian himself does not believe in stories about a people with goat legs or people who sleep six months a year.

In modern times, the first attempts to make peoples the subject of psychological observations were made in the 18th century. Again, it was environment and climate that were seen as the factors underlying the differences between the two. So, discovering differences in intelligence, they explained them by external (temperature) climate conditions. The supposedly temperate climate of the Middle East and Western Europe is more conducive to the development of intelligence, and with it civilization, than the climate of tropical regions, where "the heat stifles human efforts."

But it wasn't just intelligence that was studied. The French enlighteners of the eighteenth century introduced the concept of "the spirit of the people" and tried to solve the problem of its being conditioned by geographical factors. The most prominent representative of geographical determinism among French philosophers is C. Montesquieu (1689-1755), who believed that “many things govern people: climate, religion, laws, principles of government, examples of the past, manners, customs; as a result of all this, a common spirit of the people is formed ”(Montesquieu, 1955, p. 412). But among many factors, he put climate in the first place. For example, "the peoples of hot climates", in his opinion, are "timid like old people", lazy, not capable of feats, but endowed with a vivid imagination. And the northern peoples are "brave like young men" and are not very sensitive to pleasures. At the same time, the climate affects the spirit of the people not only directly, but also indirectly: depending on climatic conditions and soil, traditions and customs are formed, which in turn affect the life of peoples. Montesquieu believed that in the course of history the direct influence of climate weakens, while the action of other causes increases. If "nature and climate rule almost exclusively over the savages," then "the Chinese are ruled by customs, in Japan tyrannical power belongs to laws", etc. (Ibid, p. 412).

The idea of \u200b\u200bthe folk spirit penetrated into the German philosophy of the history of the 18th century. One of its most prominent representatives, a friend of Schiller and Goethe, J. G. Herder (1744-1803) considered the spirit of the people not as something disembodied, he practically did not share the concepts of "national spirit", "soul of the people" and "national character". The soul of the people was not for him and something all-embracing, containing all its originality. Herder mentioned the “soul” among other signs of the people, together with language, prejudices, music, etc. He emphasized the dependence of mental components on climate and landscape, but also admitted the influence of lifestyle and upbringing, social structure and history. Realizing how difficult it is to reveal the mental characteristics of a particular people, the German thinker noted that "... one must live with one feeling with the nation in order to feel at least one of its inclinations" (Herder, 1959, p. 274). In other words, he groped for one of the main characteristics of the emic approach - the desire to study culture from the inside, merging with it.

The soul of the people, according to Herder, can be recognized through their feelings, speech, deeds, i.e. it is necessary to study his whole life. But in the first place he put oral folk art, believing that it is the fantasy world that reflects the folk spirit in the best way. As one of the first European folklorists, Herder tried to apply the results of his research in describing the features inherent in the "soul" of some of the peoples of Europe. But when he moved to the psychological level, the characteristics he distinguished turned out to be little connected with the peculiarities of folklore. So, he described the Germans as a people of courageous morals, noble valor, virtuous, bashful, able to deeply love, honest and truthful. Found Herder and the "disadvantage" of his compatriots: cautious, conscientious, not to say a slow and clumsy character. For us, the traits that Herder attributed to the neighbors of the Germans - the Slavs - are especially interesting: generosity, hospitality to the point of extravagance, love for "rural freedom." And at the same time, he considered the Slavs to be easily obedient and obedient (Ibid .: 267).

Herder's views are just one example of the close attention of European philosophers to the problem of national character or popular spirit. The English philosopher D. Hume and the great German thinkers I. Kant and G. Hegel also contributed to the development of knowledge about the character of peoples. All of them not only spoke out about the factors influencing the spirit of peoples, but also offered "psychological portraits" of some of them.

First step. The first grains of ethnopsychological knowledge contain the works of ancient authors - philosophers and historians: Herodotus, Hippocrates, Tacitus, etc. , including their behavior and mores, are associated with nature and climate.

For the first time, an attempt to make peoples the subject of psychological observations was made in the 18th century. Thus, the French enlighteners introduced the concept of "the spirit of the people" and tried to solve the problem of its being conditioned by geographic factors. The idea of \u200b\u200bthe folk spirit also penetrated into the German philosophy of history of the 18th century. One of its most prominent representatives I.G. Herder considered the spirit of the people not as something incorporeal, he practically did not separate the concepts of "soul of the people" and "national character" and argued that the soul of the people can be learned through their feelings, speech, deeds, that is, it is necessary to study their whole life. But in the first place he put oral folk art, believing that it is the world of fantasy that reflects the folk character.

The English philosopher D. Hume and the great German thinkers I. Kant and G. Hegel made their contribution to the development of knowledge about the character of peoples. All of them not only spoke about the factors influencing the spirit of peoples, but also offered "psychological portraits" of some of them.

Second phase. The development of ethnography, psychology and linguistics led in the middle of the 19th century. to the emergence of ethnopsychology as an independent science. The creation of a new discipline - the psychology of peoples - was proclaimed in 1859 by the German scientists M. Lazarus and H. Steinthal. They explained the need for the development of this science, which is a part of psychology, by the need to investigate the laws of mental life not only of individual individuals, but also of entire nations (ethnic communities in the modern sense), in which people act "as a kind of unity." All individuals of the same people have "similar feelings, inclinations, desires", they all have the same national spirit, which German thinkers understood as the mental similarity of individuals belonging to a particular people, and at the same time as their self-consciousness.

The ideas of M. Lazarus and H. Steinthal immediately found a response in scientific circles of the multinational Russian Empire, and in the 1870s an attempt was made in Russia to “build” ethnopsychology into psychology. These ideas arose from the jurist, historian and philosopher K.D. Kavelin, who expressed the idea of \u200b\u200bthe possibility of an “objective” method of studying folk psychology based on the products of spiritual activity - cultural monuments, customs, folklore, and beliefs.

Stage three. The turn of the XIX-XX centuries. marked by the emergence of a holistic ethnopsychological concept of the German psychologist W. Wundt, who devoted twenty years of his life to writing a ten-volume essay "The Psychology of Nations". W. Wundt carried out the idea, fundamental for social psychology, that the joint life of individuals and their interaction with each other give rise to new phenomena with peculiar laws, which, although they do not contradict the laws of individual consciousness, are not contained in them. And as these new phenomena, in other words, as the content of the soul of the people, he considered the general ideas, feelings and aspirations of many individuals. According to Wundt, the general ideas of many individuals are manifested in language, myths and customs, which should be studied by the psychology of peoples.

Another attempt to create ethnic psychology, moreover under this name, was undertaken by the Russian thinker G.G. Shpet (1996). Arguing against Wundt, in whose opinion the products of spiritual culture are psychological products, G.G. Shpet argued that in itself there is nothing psychological in the cultural and historical content of folk life. Psychologically, the other is the attitude to the products of culture, to the meaning of cultural phenomena. Shpet believed that language, myths, customs, religion, and science evoke certain feelings in culture carriers, “responses” to what is happening in front of their eyes, minds and hearts. According to Shpet's concept, ethnic psychology should identify typical collective experiences, in other words, answer the questions: What do the people like? What is he afraid of? What is he worshiping?

The ideas of Lazarus and Steinthal, Kavelin, Wundt, Shpet remained at the level of explanatory schemes that were not implemented in specific psychological studies. But the ideas of the first ethnopsychologists about the relationship of culture with the inner world of a person were taken up by another science - cultural anthropology (Lurie S.V., 1997).

Three branches of ethnopsychology. As a result of the disunity of researchers by the end of the XIX century. two ethnopsychologies were formed: ethnological, which today is most often called psychological anthropology, and psychological, for which the term "cross-cultural (or comparative-cultural) psychology" is used. Solving the same problems, ethnologists and psychologists approach them with different conceptual schemes.

The differences in the two research approaches can be grasped using the old philosophical opposition of understanding and explanation, or the modern concepts of emic and etic. These terms, which cannot be translated into Russian, were formed by the American linguist K. Pike by analogy with phonetics, which studies sounds that are available in all languages, and phonemics, which studies sounds specific to one language. Later, in all humanities, including ethnopsychology, emic began to be called a culture-specific approach that seeks to understand the phenomena, and etic is a universalist approach that explains the studied phenomena.

The main features of the emic-approach in ethnopsychology are: the study of the psychological characteristics of the carriers of one culture with the desire to understand them; the use of culture-specific units of analysis and terms; gradual disclosure of the phenomenon under study, and, consequently, the impossibility of hypotheses; the need to restructure the way of thinking and everyday habits, since the study of any processes and phenomena, be it a person or ways of socializing children, is carried out from the point of view of a participant (from within the group); orientation to the possibility of collision with a new form of human behavior for the researcher.

The subject of psychological anthropology, based on the emic-approach, is the study of how an individual acts, thinks, and feels in a given cultural environment. This does not mean at all that cultures are not compared with each other, but comparisons are made only after their thorough study, carried out, as a rule, in the field.

Lebedeva N.M. highlights the following features of the etic approach, which is characteristic of cross-cultural psychology: the study of the psychological life of individuals of two or more ethnic groups with the desire to explain intercultural differences and intercultural similarities; the use of units of analysis that are considered culturally free; the researcher takes the position of an external observer with a desire to distance himself from the studied ethnic groups; preliminary construction by the psychologist of the structure of the study and categories for its description, hypothesis (Lebedeva N.M., 1998).

The subject of cross-cultural psychology based on
etic-approach, - the study of the similarities and differences in psychological variables in different cultures and ethnic communities. Cross-cultural research is carried out within the framework of various branches of psychology: general psychology studies the characteristics of perception, memory, thinking; industrial - problems of labor organization and management; age - methods of raising children in different nations. A special place is occupied by social psychology, since not only the patterns of behavior of people conditioned by their inclusion in ethnic communities, but also the psychological characteristics of these communities themselves are subjected to comparison.

Yu.P. Platonov, L.G. Pochebut (1993) distinguish the third branch of ethnopsychology - the psychology of interethnic relations, which is at the junction of social psychology and sociology. Today, in the social context of the growth of interethnic tensions and incessant interethnic conflicts both in the world as a whole and in Russia, it is this branch of ethnopsychology that requires the utmost attention. Not only ethnopsychologists, but also teachers, social workers, representatives of other professions should contribute to the optimization of interethnic relations at least at the everyday level. But the help of a psychologist or teacher will be effective if he not only understands the mechanisms of intergroup relations, but also relies on knowledge of the psychological differences between representatives of different ethnic groups and their connections with cultural, social, economic, environmental variables at the level of society. Only by identifying the psychological characteristics of interacting ethnic groups, which can interfere with the establishment of relations between them, a practitioner can fulfill his ultimate task - to offer psychological ways to resolve them.