Soviet Psychology

ISSN: 0038-5751 (Print) (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/mrpo19

Some Prospective Problems of Soviet Psychology

A. N. Leont'yev

To cite this article: A. N. Leont'yev (1968) Some Prospective Problems of Soviet Psychology,
Soviet Psychology, 6:3-4, 112-125

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.2753/RPO1061-0405060304112

Published online: 20 Dec 2014.

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A. N. Leont'yev
(Department of Psychology, Moscow University)
Downloaded by [New York University] at 21:23 09 April 2016
SOME PROSPECTIVE PROBLEMS OF SOVIET PSYCHOLOGY*
Soviet psychology meets the fiftieth anniver-
sary of the Great October Socialist Revolution
with outstanding achievements, It is sufficient
to recall its success in dealing with such funda-
mental problems as those of the sociohistorical
character of the human mind, of activity, and of
consciousness, Moreover, new prospects, ema-
nating from the profound changes of recent years,
have opened up before psychology. These changes
have involved a considerable broadening in the
range of problems dealt with, an expansion of its
connections with practice, a more intensive de-
velopment of borderline investigations, and a
revision of its methodological arsenal, consist-
ing of the inclusion of mathematical methods
and the wide use of electrophysiological and
other objective indicators.
Until comparatively recently the greater part
of psychological research w a s in some way as-
sociated with problems of pedagogy; the upbring-
ing and instruction of children have constituted
the main practical areas served by psychology.
But now matters have changed markedly: life
*Translated by Michel Vale.
112
Voprosy psikhologii, 1967, -
13(6), 7-22
has presented psychology with a multiplicity of
timely problems extending far beyond the con-
fine s of pedagogy.
F i r s t and foremost, we have the problems
created by the technological revolution and the
ensuing modifications in the functions of human
labor, The development of automation in pro-
duction and the invention of automatic control
systems have resulted in the transferal of a sub-
stantial amount of the work of the operator to
the psychological level, i.e., to the level of per-
ception, memory, and thought. This has funda-
mentally altered the role of psychology in the
solution of problems involving a scientific or-
ganization of labor and in the perfection of the
technology of production.
When the chief portion of a worker's labor in-
volved the performance of external motor op-
erations, the most important problems involved
improving the efficiency of the procedures of
their performance, determining the best adapta-
tions of instruments and machines to the ana-
tomical-physiological capacities of man, work-
ing out the most favorable working conditions,
etc. All these problems could be solved, at
 VOL. VI, NO. 3-4
least in a rough approximation, by taking into
account elementary anthropometric, physiologi-
cal, and hygienic information, gradually accumu-
lated practical experience, and sometimes sim-
ply good sense. Of course, in these circum-
stances a number of psychological problems
a r o s e (especially in the context of the selection
of professions), but the role of psychological in-
vestigations was in general relatively minor.
Today, however, the situation is different. The
so-called psychological factor has acquired a
decisive significance. Because the most impor-
tant labor processes carried out by an operator
of automated control systems are in the form of
internal mental processes, even their initial de-
Downloaded by [New York University] at 21:23 09 April 2016
scription requires a special psychological in-
vestigation; indeed, neither simple objective ob-
servation nor self-observation is capable of
penetrating into the content and structure of
these processes. The same is true of the prob-
lem of adapting a machine to humans. Under
modern conditions it is not enough to rely on the
simplest anthropometric and chronometric data
for this; nor can purely empirical adjustments
of already constructed technological systems to
the capacity of the operator be relied on. Prac-
tically, this is impossible for a number of rea-
sons. Moreover, e r r o r s on this account - for
example, in the permitted overload of the opera-
tor with information fed to him, the inadequacy
of subjective algorithms of operations carried
out by him, o r states of acute stress in the op-
erator - render his labor unreliable, which
means that the performance of the automated
system in general becomes unreliable, regard-
l e s s of how reliably its technical components
function. Finally, technological progress has
confronted psychology with a totally new task: to
find such descriptions of human mental functions
as will permit technological modeling, and to
transmit their performance to a machine.
These problems constitute the subject matter
of new a r e a s of research: engineering psychology
and psychological bionics, which in recent years
have enjoyed rapid development in Soviet psy-
chology. It is difficult to overestimate the effect
that these new fields have had and are having on
the state of psychological science, Of course,
113
this effect cannot be compared with the effect
that the earlier psychotechnology has had. The
approach to mental processes as processes per-
forming labor, o r human work, fundamentally
a l t e r s not only the methods used for their analy-
sis but also the very conception of their nature;
moreover, this approach gives r i s e to new fun-
damental psychological problems, which we shall
examine later.
It should not be overlooked that another group
of problems, which have recently abruptly
arisen in connection with the resolutions of the
October (1964)and subsequent Plenums of the
Central Committee of the Communist Party of
the Soviet Union on the problems of further eco-
nomic development, have also had a profound ef-
fect on the development of the problems of So-
viet psychology. These problems concern the
scientific organization of labor, in the treatment
of which labor psychology in the broader sense
should occupy an important place, This field of
study deals not only with problems of improving
ecological conditions in production, optimization
of working conditions and organization, profes-
sional training and the selection of professions,
but also includes such questions as work motiva-
tion and stimulation, the constituting of labor
collectives and "small groups," problems of
so-called "human relations," etc. Research on
these subjects has only recently shown progress
in our country, but it is already easy to envision
their prospective importance. In contrast to
engineering psychology, which is chiefly con-
cerned with the performance of labor functions
- i.e., "microprocesses," as it were - labor
psychology deals predominantly with "macropro-
cesses," which much more directly reflect and
bear the characteristics of new - socialist -
relations of production. Thus, labor psychology
is destined to become for u s the psychology of
socialist and communist labor, which presents
new theoretical problems of the broadest gen-
e r a l psychological significance. To illustrate
the range and complexity of these new theoreti-
cal problems i t is sufficient to mention one: the
problem of investigating labor activity and labor
relations from the point of view of the subjective
overcoming of the alienation of work - the main
 114
factor that characterizes in our situation the
development of man as the subject of labor and
that determines the general psychological fea-
t u r e s of his labor activity. Indeed, the elimina-
tion of economic alienation hardly resolves this
problem automatically; on the contrary, only un-
d e r these circumstances does it f i r s t acquire
r e a l meaning as a subjective psychological prob-
lem.
Another s e t of problems characterizing the
present state of o u r psychology and its prospects
is in the field of medicine. This field has taken
shape primarily in Soviet psychology, and we
shall presently designate it as neuropsychology.
It is directly associated with neuropathological
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problems, especially with the diagnosis of local
brain injuries and the restoration of mental func-
tions that have become disturbed as a result of
these injuries. The practical importance of this
field is obvious, But it is no less important f o r
the solution of general psychological problems.
The study of pathological changes in higher men-
t a l processes and the possibilities of their "re-
construction" acquires the f o r c e of a genuine ex-
periment (created by putting out of commission
certain sections of the brain), which makes it
possible t o delve into their s t r u c t u r e and the
p r o c e s s of their formation. This, indeed, is one
of the most important theoretical problems of
psychology.
This field, which is most advanced in our coun-
t r y , although it is certainly not unique, is associ-
ated with medicine, Currently, a s h a r p interest
has a r i s e n in what is strictly called medical psy-
chology, i.e., such problems as the mental re-
sponses of a patient to his illness o r to the ac-
tions of a physician, and of course the psycho-
logical methods of the investigation and diagno-
sis of mental illness. An important factor in the
future m o r e rapid development of medical psy-
chology i n our country will undoubtedly b e the
recently introduced instruction in psychology in
medical institutes and the creation of l a r g e r
c a d r e s of psychologists in neural and psychiatric
hospitals.
What is the prospective r o l e of medical psy-
chology f r o m the point of view of the internal
situation in which Soviet psychological science
SOVIET PSYCHOLOGY
presently finds i t s e l f ? Or c o u r s e , the p r o g r e s s
of this branch of psychology will also have a n
influence on the broadening of its area of inquiry,
but, most important, this will occur mainly
by virtue of filling in the gaps that have existed
in this field f o r many y e a r s . Indeed, medical
psychology is one of the branches of psychology
that touches upon the most delicate, and if you
permit the expression, most intimate problems
of the psychology of personality, Consequently
it cannot avoid such questions as the problem of
conflict experiences, emotional trauma, the role
of the unconscious in the mind, and mental com-
pensation - i.e., precisely those questions that
i n past years have been ignored in our country
not only in pathopsychology and general psychol-
ogy, but a l s o in child psychology. This, frankly
speaking, h a s seriously impaired its develop-
ment.
The situation in social psychology is especially
complicated. T h e r e is no need to speak about
how necessary it is now t o elaborate sociopsy-
chological problems: these problems arise i n
all s p h e r e s of human relations - in production,
i n social life, in education, in legal m a t t e r s , and
in practical penitentiary work. Although it may
be said that all Soviet psychology has developed
as social psychology in the s e n s e that mental
activity and the human personality are regarded
as p r i m a r i l y social in nature, social psychology
h a s been almost totally neglected in our country
as a special branch of psychology. Studies in
this area have only recently been begun. Thus,
it is all the m o r e important that we evaluate
the prospects of r e s e a r c h in this area.
An analysis of the first Soviet studies in so-
cial psychology published by psychologists a s
well as sociologists leads one to the conclusion
that investigations t e r m e d sociopsychological
comprise two different t r e n d s and fulfill two
different functions. One of these involves the de-
velopment and u s e of psychological indicators
characterizing concrete social phenomena, In-
vestigations of these phenomena are sociological
as r e g a r d s both t h e i r subject and method, and
the psychological data employed have only a
referent o r , even m o r e precisely, an indicator
value. Although the u s e of psychological methods
 VOL. VI, NO. 3-4
in these investigations may play an important
role, t h i s alone does not render t h e investigations
themselves psychological, just as, let u s say,
the use of EEG or EMG indices in psychological
investigations does not make them electrophysi-
ological investigations. The use of data o r
methods from other sciences in an investigation
is not sufficient basis for considering such an in-
vestigation as a borderline, interdisciplinary
study. In the given case, i.e., in the case of con-
cretely sociological investigations employing
psychological indices, a clear realization of the
actual subject is especially essential. In the con-
t r a r y case, there arises a s h a r p tendency t o psy-
chologize social phenomena - a tendency that is
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basically alien to Marxism. This especially
b e a r s mention, in that the efforts of the majority
of contemporary foreign scientists a r e precisely
in the opposite direction, i.e., they use phycho-
logical data and methods in sociological investi-
gations in o r d e r t o implant subjectivist concep-
tions firmly in sociology.
The other trend evident in social psychology
involves the study of psychological phenomena
produced b y the conditions of the "immediate
community" of human activity. Here is meant
those phenomena that either arise or in general
exist only within the context of t h e relations of
an individual with other people, i.e., with the
community. Examples of such phenomena are
the well-known changes in the external and in-
ternal behavior produced by the "publicity fac-
tor," changes in perception under the influence
of an evaluation of a perceived event by other
people, phenomena such as the creation of a
"sense of community," and many other psycho-
logical phenomena of the s a m e class.
Although the problems dealt with by sociopsy-
chological investigations in this second area (we
shall call them truly sociopsychological) in many
aspects overlap the problems of general psychol-
ogy, labor psychology, and pedagogical psy-
chology, singling them out as a special inde-
pendent field is necessary not only f o r practi-
cal organizational but also f o r strategically sci-
entific reasons. This is because, although the
problems of general psychology, labor psychol-
ogy, or the psychology of education overlap so-
115
ciopsychological problems, they do not fully
cover them o r exhaust their subject matter.
Moreover, strictly sociopsychological phenom-
ena are characterized by internal, interrelated
circumstances, the elucidation of which requires
special investigations directed toward the s- ys-
-
tem of these phenomena.
Do we now possess a scientifically based pro-
gram f o r strictly sociopsychological investiga-
tions? It must be admitted that such a program
has not yet been formulated. T o formulate it, it
is not sufficient to elucidate the current prob-
l e m s with which social psychology is faced, They
must also be correctly interpreted theoretically,
and f o r this they must be regarded in a context
of fundamental psychological problems, such as
the problem of the sociohistorical nature of the
human mind, the problem of the relationship be-
tween individual and social consciousness, and
the problem of mental development. The com-
prehension of the problems of social psychology
i n the context of these and other fundamental
problems, the development of which h a s enjoyed
the service of the most important theoretical
equipment of Soviet psychology, is not only the
only way to formulate a scientific program for
sociopsychological investigations, but is also the
necessary condition f o r any effective contribution
of these investigations to general psychology.
The rapid progress of psychological science,
its rearmament, and, most important, the new
problems arising out of t h e technological revo-
lution now make it necessary t o examine the
prospects of the most backward region, s o to
speak, of Soviet psychology - pedagogical psy-
c hology.
Investigations in pedagogical psychology have
been given ample space in Soviet psychology,
and it would s e e m that they should have had a
decisive influence on pedagogy. This, however,
h a s not been the case. Of course, psychological
data are treated with favor b y the pedagogue,
but nonetheless psychology has not occupied the
place it deserves. In its methodological aspects,
t h i s situation is reflected in the inadequacy of
the relationships between the two sciences of
pedagogy and psychology.
Recently, much h a s been said about psychology
 116
being the scientific basis for pedagogy, in the
sense in which, let u s say, physics is the basis
of technology, But actually, psychological inves-
tigations of problems of upbringing and instruc-
tion remain under the sole control of pedagogy.
In pedagogical science, pedagogy formulates its
requirements of psychology, mainly in connec-
tion with problems of perfecting the didactic and
methodological views that it itself propounds;
correspondingly, it assimilates for itself from
psychology only that which conforms to these
views. It is very characteristic that even prac-
tical undertakings that do not ensue from exist-
ing pedagogical conceptions, such as, for ex-
ample, programmed instruction, the introduction
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of algebraic symbolism into elementary instruc-
tion in arithmetic, etc., remain, as it were, as
isolated incursions into pedagogy without chal-
lenging any of i t s general positions.
A s for psychology, the one-sidedness of its
relationship with pedagogy finds expression in
the narrowing of the range of psychological-peda-
gogical problems, which sharply limits the pos-
sibility of its introducing into pedagogy those
psychological ideas that could provide a basis
for the development of a new "pedagogical tech-
nology." Indeed, until recently, research on the
mental activity of students under existing peda-
gogical conditions has predominated in pedagogi-
cal psychology. Hence, operating within the ex-
isting pedagogical system, psychological re-
search not only has not been able to provide a
foundation for any kind of radical change, but by
introducing isolated improvements has even
had the effect of rooting this system more firmly.
The improvement and perfection of the existing
pedagogical system evidently constitute the most
appropriate formula for characterizing this as-
pect of psychological- pedagogical research.
Of course, in itself this a r e a of research is
not to be impugned, and there can be no question
of repudiating it. Rather, the conception of peda-
gogical psychology as a discipline that elabo-
rates the mutual relationship between psychology
and pedagogy must not retain i t s current empha-
sis. The chief task of pedagogical psychology
should be to advance pedagogical research, on
the one hand, on the basis of those new possibili-
SOVIET PSYCHOLOGY
ties made available to it by modern theoretical
achievements in general psychology, and, on the
other hand, on the basis of an independent formu-
lation of psychological problems occurring in
upbringing and instruction. This independent
formulation of pedagogical problems is the f i r s t
condition for pedagogical science to be able to
augment decisively the import of i t s influence
on pedagogy and practice in upbringing and in-
struction.
An analysis of new phenomena arising in our
society enablesus to outline, i n a broad perspec-
tive, certain psychological-pedagogical prob-
lems, whose solution is the burden of modern
psychology.
One of the consequences of the technological
revolution is that, as is known, progress in all
spheres of material and intellectual production
and operation has been unexpectedly accelerated.
This in turn has brought about a diminution in
the relative constancy o r lifetime of professional
knowledge and skills. Thus, whereas at the be-
ginning of the century knowledge acquired by a
young engineer or physician could be expected
to serve him for ten o r more years without es-
sential modifications, today the "moral detrition"
of knowledge acquired in higher or even insec-
ondary school begins literally on the first days fol-
lowing completion of one's education and con-
tinues extremely rapidly. Moreover, continuous
routine reeducation is becoming l e s s feasible
practically, from the point of view both of econ-
omy and of organization. Clearly, the only re-
course is to ensure that upbringing and instruc-
tion at all levels from the secondary school to
higher levels a r e able to bring about an assimi-
lation of knowledge that not only makes possible
its direct use, but also creates the capacity to
assimilate independently the new advances of
science and technology, i.e., the capacity to
advance independently in pace with accelerating
scientific and technological progress.
Can the problem be solved? If its solution is
attempted on the basis of existing pedagogical
principles, which correspond to completely dif-
f erent conditions and requirements, the possibil-
ity of solution is, at best, extremely remote. To
solve this problem, a change in the structure -
 VOL. VI, NO. 3-4
i.e., in the very nature of the intellectual activity
of students during the learning process - is nec-
essary, Thus, the problem should f i r s t and fore-
most be seen as a psychological problem.
Whether this problem is tackled as a problem of
"types of orientation," as a problem of the for-
mation of definite operational thought structures,
as a problem of the "heuristification" of knowl-
edge, o r in some other way, its solution requires
the carrying out of a broad program of psycho-
logical-pedagogical investigations, going far be-
yond the range of customary questions on the
role of visualization and repetition, the role of
speech, etc.
The case is in principle the same with other
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important psychological-pedagogical problems
- in particular, the problem of polytechnical in-
struction, including the problem of training in
productive labor, which even now, and especially
in the near future, cannot be solved as it has
been previously. Changes in the labor relations
between intellectual activity and external (di-
rectly practical) activity within the integral
structure of labor, the marked increase in im-
portance of the functions of labor organization,
and the increased complexity of the interper-
sonal relations between productive workers -
these factors introduce a whole series of psy-
chological-pedagogical questions, which hitherto
have either not arisen at all o r have appeared
only indirectly - f o r example, the problem of
the stages involved in establishing the relations
and forms of cooperation, the investigation of
which should provide one of the most important
bases for compiling a program for job training.
The aforementioned critical problems are
only a part of those prospective psychological-
pedagogical problems that in their elaboration
will at the present level of psychology unavoida-
bly create many, so to speak, "pedagogical dog-
mas," such as those of the primacy of material
education, the presumed vital importance of
sense experience in the acquisition of knowledge,
the automatic, as it were, educative influence of
the technological aspects of labor, i.e., the tech-
nology of labor and its external organization
(and in the more general sense, all activity,
simply understood, and not as the auto-activity
117
of the subject).
Finally, in speaking of the tasks of psychology
in the area of upbringing and instruction, one
more field of research relating psychology and
pedagogy must not be overlooked. A s in concrete
sociological investigation and strictly pedagog-
ical investigations, psychological indicators al-
ready play a vital role; this role is now espe-
cially increasing in importance,
This can be explained by the fact that the re-
quirements placed upon modern education have
as a goal not only the acquiring of a certain
level of material knowledge and skills, but also
the attainment of a definite level in the opera-
tional, logical, and psychological aspects of
cognitive activity, the thorough development of
which is the necessary condition for creating
what we have called "the capacity to advance in
pace with the accelerating scientific and tech-
nological progress." But this requires a direct
and special, i.e., psychological, investigation of
the intellectual development of students. Indeed,
without data on t h i s "formal" result of education,
pedagogy is deprived of a substantial amount of
information necessary for the regulation of edu-
cation.
Moreover, it is already inadequate to rely on
previously acquired empirical notions of age
peculiarities in the intellectual activity of stu-
dents. These notions are becoming vestigial,
sometimes acquiring the character of genuine
prejudices like, for example, the stubborn, per-
sistent prejudice of the fatality of the notorious
"concretism" of the thought of young school-age
children.
We a r e living in an e r a of rapid, accelerated
development, both physical and intellectual. The
availability of radio, television, the printed word,
increased population concentration leading to
increased direct human contact, and, finally, the
hitherto unexperienced pace of the changes in
the technological environment - all tremendously
increase the amount of information entering a
child's brain. But it is not only a matter of the
intensified feeding of information to the child:
a no l e s s important factor in the accelerated
pace of intellectual development is the change
in the character of the source of information
 118
and the measure of its abstraction. It is suffi-
cient to refer, for example, to the contrast, in
this respect, between speech transmitted by
means of technological media (radio, etc.) and
the speech of a live interlocutor, or to the immea-
surably greater level of abstraction of ideas
necessary to a child f o r his practical orientation
even to the simplest phenomena produced by
modern technology in everyday life.
However, in contrast to the acceleration of
physical development, on which we possess suf-
ficiently reliable scientific data, the changes
occurring during the course of intellectual de-
velopment have not as yet been studied, and we
a r e able to evaluate them only on the basis of
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the most general observations, or isolated, im-
mediately obvious facts, Moreover, it is quite
evident that pedagogy is not able to function
without some s o r t of tool for the continuous
observation of the changes that occur in the in-
tellectual capacities of students as they grow
olde r.
Thus, psychology is presently faced with an
urgent task, determined by two concomitant,
mutually related circumstances - namely, the
aforementioned change in the requirements of
education and the acceleration in intellectual
development. This task involves the formulation
of methods for appropriate diagnostic investiga-
tion. Such methods should conform t o at least
three conditions: first, they should be direct,
i.e., they should rely not on a n evaluation of
knowledge but on a study of the peculiarities of
intellectual activity itself; second, they should
be practically applicable for routine (although
selective) investigations; and finally, they should
yield mutually comparable data.
The fulfillment of the two latter conditions re-
quires, of course, that these methods take the
form of psychological tests, This should be es-
pecially stressed, because it is still possible to
stumble upon an incorrect and in essence purely
syncretic convergence of scientific, experimen-
tally based psychological tests which provide the
possibility of a qualitative evaluation, and so-
called tests f o r intellectual giftedness, whose
practical value has not only been correctly evalu-
ated in our country, but has also given rise to
SOVIET PSYCHOLOGY
objections in many countries of the world,
The problem here is very complicated, from
the point of view of scientific theory as well as
with respect to organization of research, if of
course it is to be solved properly, It also re-
quires the working out of a whole program,
which can be compiled only by the combined ef-
f o r t s of specialists in general, child, and peda-
gogical psychology, A special difficulty encoun-
tered in formulating such a program is that psy-
chological methods in the form of standardized
t e s t s require the most careful development and
checking on the basis of a large quantity of
quantitative material, and this assumes the or-
ganization of a special network with which large
amounts of data can be collected and analyzed.
J t will therefore not be possible to do without
the active assistance of the Ministry of Educa-
tion and its scientific methodological organs,
o r the direct cooperation of the schools them-
selves and preschool institutions,
Nevertheless, i t may be assumed that the vi-
tal importance of the creation of scientific tools
for obtaining systematic objective information
on how changes in vital social conditions, pro-
grams, and methods of instruction are reflected
in the intellectual development of children, ado-
lescents, and youth, and thereafter in the psy-
chological development of the personality as a
whole, fully justifies the necessary efforts ex-
pended.
***
We shall only touch on certain problems aris-
ing f o r the science of psychology out of life and
the practical activities involved in the building
of our society, But to shed light on prospective
scientific problems it is necessary a l s o to tra-
v e r s e another path - from the state of the science
itself and its given field of study. The signifi-
cance of this path is that it makes it possible
to distinguish the chief theoretical problems,
For psychology this is presently especially im-
po rtant.
The past few y e a r s have been critical f o r So-
viet psychology. Like psychology throughout the
world, Soviet psychology has experienced the
 VOL. VI, NO. 3-4
effects of powerful revolutionizing forces of other
sciences, with which it has established new re-
lationships of direct collaboration. This has
found expression in the extensive development of
borderline research. It may be said without any
exaggeration that the development of borderline
research has been the real hallmark of modern
psychology.
In collaborating with other sciences, psychol-
ogy has enriched its methods. and has discovered
new and promising approaches. As a result, the
accumulation of experimental data has acceler-
ated markedly in psychology, and several produc-
tive concrete scientific hypotheses have been ad-
vanced. However, all these indisputable achieve-
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ments of psychology should not create the illu-
sion that i t s theoretical and methodological prob-
lems have lost their timeliness and that they no
longer need be considered. Indeed, the case is
quite the contrary. New achievements in psychol-
ogy have been accompanied by new theoretical
difficulties and the emergence of new theoretical
problems, whose solution is of fundamental im-
portance f o r its further development.
The most important of these problems have
been created by the same factor that has been
responsible for the raising of the scientific level
of psychology - namely, the intensified develop-
ment of borderline, interdisciplinary research.
Psychology has been confronted in this area with
the conceptual systems and language of other
sciences, both biological and technical. Psycho-
logical papers begin to redound with neurophysio-
logical, technical, and cybernetic terms, and with
mathematical expressions, One could even re-
ceive the impression that psychology has begun
to forge its own language in learning an alien one.
This would probably not have been worth men-
tioning if it were not for the fact that behind this
situation lie certain more profound considera-
tions raising serious methodological questions.
One of these is the problem of the actual re-
lationships between psychological and physiologi-
cal research. This problem has newly arisen
just now because a t the present stage of scientific
development it is no longer possible to be con-
tent with general notions such as the view of the
identity of the mental and the physiological, o r
119
the impossibility of reducing the mental to the
physiological. We a r e now faced with another
question - namely, those scientific problems
arising at the "points of contact" between psy-
chology and physiology.
Until even quite recently, the formulation of
this question still rested on an unstable basis
and w a s sometimes denied in principle; quite
paradoxically, this was precisely during the
period when psychology w a s being most strongly
influenced by physiology, i.e., directly after the
Pavlovian Session in 1950. As we know, in our
country at that time there was a propagation of
views according to which psychology was sup-
posed to be engaged in the descriptive study of
subjective mental phenomena, while their sci-
entific causal explanation was to be given only
by the physiology of higher nervous activity.
These views, which were based on an incorrect
interpretation of the importance of I. P. Pavlov's
scientific contribution to psychology, led with
logical consistency t o a denial of the right of
psychophysiology to exist, i.e., a denial of pre-
cisely that a r e a of borderline research that com-
bined both sciences - psychology and physiology
- in a workable manner.
These views notwithstanding, interdisciplinary
psychophysiological research actually continued
to develop successfully. This was due not only
to the increased complexity of the problems and
methods of neurophysiology, which was increas-
ingly losing its previous limitedness, but also to
the complex nature of many of the tasks arising
in modern practice and requiring the combined
efforts of psychologists and physiologists.
The intensive development of interdisciplinary
research between psychology and neurophysiol-
ogy (as well as other biological sciences) gave
rise to new problems that were not covered
either by traditional psychological o r by strictly
physiological inquiry, and that were, moreover,
of prime importance for both sciences. The fo-
cal point here w a s occupied by problems associ-
ated with the newly discovered different levels
of the organization of activity in organisms, in-
cluding the higher, psychological levels. Investi-
gations at different levels have penetrated in-
creasingly deeply even into such traditional
 120
psychological areas as research on processes of
perception and memory.
The very employment of various indicators in
t h e measurement of sensation thresholds has
clearly revealed the existence of different sen-
sory levels. It was found that the contrasting of
some levels as "psychological" with other
levels as "physiological" was impossible
both in principle and f o r methodological reasons.
F o r example, it proved to be meaningless to re-
gard processes taking place on the level of ver-
balized sensations as mental processes, o r so-
called subsensory processes as only physiologi-
cal processes, if only because under certain
conditions the latter are also able to perform
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the function of orientation and regulation of com-
plex human activity (the phenomena of "preper-
ception," sensory interpretation, etc.).
Research continued t o progress successfully
on individual "blocks" of sensory systems with
their relatively autonomic internal regulations
and, finally, on neuron function. In the opposite
direction, so to speak, progress was being made
in research on higher sensory levels, i.e., the
levels of strictly perceptive activity, which in-
cludes such actions of the subject as active sen-
sory searching, discovery, and cognition of ob-
jects. One of the most theoretically important
results of these studies involved the discovery
of the fact that complex perceptual activity is
sometimes able to appear with the full comple-
ment of its constituent units, with their distinct
elementary regulations taking place on physio-
logical levels, and sometimes in its reduced and
internalized, purely psychological form, as de-
scribed by the classical psychology of perception.
Thus, perception has increasingly appeared in
these investigations as a multilevel activity in
structure, in which the lower levels s e r v e the
higher.
A conception that is similar in principle
evolved in the study of memory. Just as research
on sensory processes could no longer be handled
within the framework of the most elementary
distinction between sensation and perception, s o
research on memory processes long ago passed
beyond the concepts of "mechanical" and "logi-
cal" memory, and "voluntary" and "involuntary"
SOVlET PSYCHOLOGY
recall, In this area also, contemporary research
is being carried out on many different levels: on
the molecular and cellular levels, on the level
of the function of individual accumulator units,
on the level of short-term memory, and, finally,
on the level of traditional, so to speak, f o r m s
of memory, which include the uniquely human,
sociohistorical forms. Research on different
levels also evolved in the study of certain other
processes,
The most important methodological signifi-
cance of research on processes at different
levels is that i n all these investigations, although
in different aspects, the inconsistency of the
conception of the mental and physiological as
two different "entities," according to which one
(the psychological pattern) was superimposed
on the other (the physiological canvas), became
evident. This conception raised a scientific
question: how, precisely, are the threads of the
physiological "canvas" woven into the psychologi-
cal "patterns," and why are they woven into a
given particular pattern?
It cannot be said, however, that this problem
has been solved in contemporary research. It
has been the case that until now concrete re-
s e a r c h has advanced, as a rule, on the plane of
some definite level, i.e., horizontally, as it were.
Hence, the very concept of level is now increas-
ingly based on theoretical assumptions, which,
however, are quite valid. Actually, the levels
under study more often appear as individual
layers, the transitions between which have re-
mained uninvestigated or insufficiently investi-
gated, This also c r e a t e s numerous difficulties
in both psychology and psychophysiology.
The most important of these difficulties con-
sists in the fact that in the case of the unre-
solved problem of interlayer transition, the
study of individual, analytically distinct pro-
c e s s e s must be abstracted f r o m the fact that
these processes, each on its own level, s e r v e
mental activity with their special determination,
and depend on the position occupied by them in
the structure of this activity, Precisely this ab-
straction has given rise t o the tendency to apply
the language in which lower levels are described
to the levels where this language loses its
 VOL. VI, NO. 3-4
adequacy; however, neither psychological nor
psychophysiological research h a s been able t o
free itself from the necessity of this transition
to a different level.
In psychology this offers the threat of a resto-
ration of the physicalist approach, which ignores
the actually existing inverse relationships be-
tween the actualizing processes (mechanisms)
and the subjective activity that they actualize.
In psychophysiology it results in the incursion
of physiological (essentially minimophysiological)
concepts that give no clarification of psychologi-
cal concepts - for example, the concept of im-
age, subjective goal, etc. - but only express
them in a different language.
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Thus, the chief prospective theoretical task
objectively ensuing from the development of
borderline psychological-physiological investi-
gations is to bring about a "vertical synthesis,"
as it were, of the different levels on which pro-
c e s s e s underlying human mental activity take
place. In other words, this task may b e expressed
as the task of studying the hierarchical relation-
ships between processes taking place on differ-
ent levels within a single higher structure.
Such investigations are not new to Soviet psy-
chology. They have undergone preparation
through its most important achievements, It is
precisely in this a r e a that it is now necessary to
comprehend a view, presented as early as the
twenties by L. S. Vygotsky, on the mediated na-
ture of higher mental functions. This view
evolved in connection with the problem of the
transition f r o m elementary, natural mental func-
tions to higher "sociohistorical" functions. This
transition was not understood as the result of a
superimposition of higher functions onto more
elementary functions, but as a result of a
structural transformation of activity, correspond-
ing to some task, mnestic, intellectual, o r
motor. Thus, for example, mediated memoriza-
tion takes place as a result of a rearrangement
of elementary functions into new relationships
t o form a new "systematic structure."
F r o m this point of view, the most essential
element is the following. First, in the structure
of mediated activity, the laws regulating the ele-
mentary processes (i.e., processes on a lower
12 1
level) a r e not simply eliminated or masked, but
a r e relieved, in the precise meaning of the t e r m
(i.e., lifted off). Second, the development of pro-
c e s s e s on a higher sociohistorical level is not
t o be understood as the result of the linear, so
t o speak, evolution of elementary "natural" pro-
c e s s e s ; the transition to t h i s higher level is
caused by changes in the very type of relations
between the subject and the objective world, and
this level presumably b e a r s within it these new
relations, reflects them, and is determined by
them. Thus, as a result of mediation of the con-
nection between the subject and the objective
world by a tool, the action of the subject acquires
a new structure that reflects the new objective
relations: the properties of the tool, the object
of labor, and the purpose of labor - its product.
As we know, most r e s e a r c h based on the idea
of the sociohistorical nature of the human mind
has concentrated on the study of processes tak-
ing place at the highest psychological levels.
The problem of "interlevel" transitions that link
these levels with physiological levels has only
been touched upon. It has been investigated only
in isolated, chiefly pathopsychological and neuro-
psychological, studies. For example, experiments
on the righting of locomotive movements in pa-
tients with Parkinson's disease by altering the
level of their organization have been especially
demonstrative. This was done by employing an
external or even only a conceptual or symbolic
layout of a path that the patient w a s supposed to
traverse.
Like certain other experiments, these were
directly linked with systematic studies of the
levels of the buildup of movements (N. A. Bern-
shteyn), which paralleled multilevel vertical
synthesis - f r o m the most elementary morpho-
physiological levels to the higher psychological.
These studies began, as it were, f r o m below -
i.e., from the study primarily of the physiologi-
cal level - but their chief problem w a s to elu-
cidate the hierarchical relationship of these levels
not only with each other, but also with higher
psychological levels. Although the latter have
been outlined sketchily, their introduction into
the field of physiological analysis was of funda-
mental significance because this made it pos-
 122
sible to distinguish (this time from the physio-
logical point of view) the "transition points"
linking physiology and psychology.
It is not necessary to refer to other studies,
including the latest, that have actually made pos-
sible the creation of a program of investigations
aimed at the resolution of the theoretical prob-
lem that we have nominally designated as that of
the "vertical synthesis" of the levels of activity.
The methodological significance of this task
is that i t provides a demarcation between physi-
ology and psychology on the basis of the differ-
ence between the transitions studied by these
sciences. This criterion also makes it possible
to provide a demarcation between physiology, on
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the one hand (in its relationship to biochemistry
and biophysics), and psychophysiology (which
studies transitions between the physiological
and psychological levels) and psychology (which,
strictly speaking, studies the transitions be-
tween objective everyday life and the subjective,
i.e., transitions between the material and the
ideal), on the other.
Of course, this is only a very rough outline
that requires many explanations and stipulations.
If we nonetheless present this outline, i t must
be borne in mind that the possibility thereby ac-
quired of describing processes taking place at
the most different levels with the same language
creates the illusion that the boundaries between
those sciences that study intricately organized
living systems a r e effaced; for precisely this
reason it is important to note that this is a new
transition,
The theoretical foundations that have brought
the task of investigating interlevel transitions
into the foreground make it possible to perceive
the extremely great significance of their down-
ward direction, i.e., from the higher to the
lower levels. When w e study a multilevel living
system, the processes on the lower levels may
be manifested, depending on the investigatory
procedure, either on their own level as auto-
nomic o r as subjected to a higher level. It is
only in the latter case that research is able to
reveal those laws that render these processes
capable of new syntheses, and these laws a r e
also their principal laws,
SOVIET PSYCHOLOGY
For psychology, the realization of the neces-
sity for research to proceed upward from the
psychological levels indicates a change in its
self- conception; in this requirement psychology
discovers its most important role in the sci-
ences dealing with human activity.
Another tremendous theoretical and methodo-
logical problem has arisen i n psychology as a
result of the development of borderline techni-
cal-psychological research, This is the problem
of man and technology.
The aforementioned study of the levels of the
buildup of motion enabled u s to discover a prin-
ciple that made it possible to link in theory pro-
c e s s e s taking place at different levels. This is
the cybernetic principle of control by means of
continuous sensory corrections (feedback).
Later this principle acquired widespread popu-
larity, because it is applicable to any self-regu-
lating system, including inanimate ones. Thus,
it became possible to bring about a rapproche-
ment between the vital processes of live orga-
nisms and the process of technical cybernetic
machines.
This bringing together of fundamentally differ-
ent processes, which has now become customary
for us, is one of the most striking achievements
of modern science. Of course, even the old sci-
ence discerned certain analogies between living
organisms and machines, but their actual con-
vergence was still impossible; this required ab-
straction to a degree scarcely envisioned at
that time. This reconciliation between fundamen-
tally different sciences has given rise to numer-
ous questions, many of which concern psychol-
ogy. But by far the most influential on psychol-
ogy have been those questions that a r e provoked
by the study of the mutual relations between
men and automatic technical machines. The
elaboration of these problems has been the
chief subject of engineering psychology, which
as yet is the only field that deals with human
psychology in connection with the latest technol-
ogy (it is not by chance that "man and technology"
is sometimes written when "engineering psychol-
ogy" is meant).
Engineering psychology evolved during the
course of solving problems created by the new
 VOL. VI, NO. 3-4
technology. In contrast to the more general ques-
tions of the psychology of labor, t h e distinguish-
ing feature of special problems in engineering
psychology consists of the fact that these prob-
lems are determined by the approach to man as
a subsystem in the integral system of "man-ma-
chine," i.e., an approach primarily from the as-
pect of technology. Hence, the convergence of
processes in technological devices with human
mental processes naturally led to the application
of methods for describing the first to the descrip-
tion of the latter. Human activity began to be de-
scribed in the concepts of information theory, in
the language of mathematical logic, and with the
aid of mathematical formulae.
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The indisputable successes of engineering psy-
chology have to a great extent contributed to the
fact that i t s approach and conceptual vocabulary
have been extended to a wide range of psychologi-
cal problems. Although this has substantially en-
riched psychology and opened up new possibili-
ties of fruitful endeavor to it, it has also created
new theoretical difficulties. These difficulties
are to be found in engineering psychology itself,
to the extent that it has been forced to regard it-
self as also possessing those characteristic fea-
tures of human activity with respect to which the
approach from the viewpoint of a machine is ir-
relevant. These difficulties become even clearer
in investigations of general psychological prob-
lems, for example, in psychological investigations
of thought. They occur as a result of the fact
that the similarity of human activity to machine
processes introduces into psychology a new ab-
straction that is necessary f o r solving those
problems that require man and the machine to
be regarded, as it were, in the same cross-sec-
tional plane, but that beyond this plane lose their
adequacy .
However, and this should be especially
stressed, in the problem of "man and technology"
this plane is scarcely unique. Not to take this
into consideration would mean t o fall into the
t r a p of extreme fetishization of technology, i.e.,
to admit the one-sided subjection of man to the
machine, Moreover, the problem here is much
more complicated than it appears at first glance.
In the field of engineering psychology it is im-
123
possible to reject the approach to man from the
point of view of the requirements of a machine,
In the system of "man-machine" man must be sub-
ordinate t o the machine as an accessory to it.
Even when a problem of research is formulated
in the t e r m s "adapting the machine to man," this
expresses only a partial problem within the more
general problem of man's subordination t o the
machine. What human characteristics should a
machine be regarded as having in order for man
to operate it successfully? This is ultimately
the meaning of research on the problem of adapt-
ing a machine to man.
In order to pass beyond the engineering psy-
chology approach, which is a hindrance to the
development of the problem of "man and technol-
ogy," it is necessary to see the problem totally
differently: man must be seen in the machine,
rather than vice versa.
In other words, one must approach the prob-
lem from the point of view that the development
of tools and machines is a process of the ma-
terialization of transformed human functions in
them; that machines are, in Marx's words, "or-
gans of the human brain created by human hands,"
to which man imparts the performance of opera-
tions comprising his activity, i.e., operations
that in their aggregate exceed his capacities
with regard t o the amount of energy consumed
o r the necessary speed of action.
Only from this vantage point does the full psy-
chological import of the problem of man and
technology become evident. This problem now
appears as a problem of investigating transitions
of a double nature: on the one hand, transitions
in which human intellectual, mental activity is
transformed into a system of operations per-
formed by a machine, and, on the other hand, as
a problem of investigating reverse transitions
that provide f o r further change and development
of human intellectual activity as a result of the
assimilation and use of machines.
The timeliness of a concrete study of these
transitions has appeared in its true light only in
our era - the era of extensive automation of
production and the use of electronic brains,
which now makes it necessary to develop in psy-
chology the appropriate prospective programs
 124
of scientific investigations.
Let u s f i r s t turn to the problem of the f i r s t
type of transitions.
Human activity is a response to man's de-
mands; it is motivated and controlled by the men-
tal reflection of extant objective conditions and
an idea in the future - in particular, an idea of
the result that the activity is intended to achieve,
i.e., a conscious goal. Finally, it has an emo-
tional regulation that directly expresses its par-
tiality; in a word, it is the activity of an integral
subject affirming life.
Obviously, when we speak of the materializa-
tion of human activity in tools and the transfor-
mation of this activity into machine processes,
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w e do not at all mean to imply that on this ac-
count a machine becomes the subject of activity;
the real subject remains man. But this means
that this transformation assumes the transmis-
sion of only a certain content of human activity
to the machine; this content is, as it were,
stripped off and stops the existence of the activ-
ity: vital human activity dies in the machine.
The task is also to study this process of "strip-
ping off," which is primarily a psychological
process. It must be assumed that this is the re-
sult of a s e r i e s of transformations of the activ-
ity, occurring as consequences of its externali-
zation and communication. At present, only a
few stages of this process are known: namely,
the transformation of previously goal-directed
actions (external and internal or intellectual)
into operations, their transition to lower levels,
and, finally, their secondary analysis and the
perception of their objective algorithms re-
flected in the actions of the subject. It is only in
the last stages of these transformations that the
-real content of human activity becomes distin-
guished - i.e., that aspect that makes possible
i t s direct comparison with processes performed
by machines and permits their description in the
same language.
A study of the transitions discussed here is,
moreover, a study of the general process as a
result of which human activity, in realizing man's
vital relations with objective reality, leads to its
reflection, which is increasingly liberated from
subjectivity.
SOVIET PSYCHOLOGY
Man a c t s on his environment by following h i s
impulses and subjective aims; in other words,
in his activity he manifests himself as a subject
of life, and in this sense his activity is always
subjective (although this does not at all mean
that it is independent of his vital conditions and
circumstances), Moreover, man, in carrying
out his activity, unavoidably comes into direct
contact with the objective world and its objective
properties, connections, and relations that de-
termine those measures (operations) with which
activity becomes objectified. In other words, if
man expresses his subjectivity by either doing
o r not doing something, and in the reasons for
which he does a particular thing, nevertheless
the measures by means of which he realizes his
actions already no longer contain anything ema-
nating from the subject or personality. They re-
produce only the structural relations of actions
corresponding to interobject relations, which,
of course, a r e scarcely psychological; the l a w s
that they reflect and are subordinate to a r e the
objective laws of reality itself. Another task in-
volved in the problem of transitions linking hu-
man intellectual activity and the machine is the
effect that the use of machines has on man. In
imparting to a machine the performance of cog-
nitive operations, man not only relieves h i s
brain; he also a r m s it. F o r example, in the em-
ployment of computers he acquires the capacity
to solve problems that without the machine
would remain inaccessible to him.
But the effect of the participation of machines
in man's activity cannot be reduced to merely
the performance of operations that would other-
wise remain unaccomplished. The important
thing is that the more human intellectual activity
becomes objectified in machine processes, the
greater becomes man's abilities, and the more
man becomes capable of manifesting his "sub-
jectivity," or the force of his vital creative
thought.
This, then, is the content of the problem of
transitions, which w e provisionally termed "re-
verse." In psychology we are now discovering
the real premises for solving even this problem,
the general theoretical meaning of which can be
expressed as follows: the technological revolu-
 VOL. VI, NO. 3-4
tion has written a new page in the book of "ob-
jectified essential forces of man." This page
should be perused by our Marxist psychology.
The present paper has, of course, far from
exhausted even the most timely psychological
problems. In particular, the problem of the psy-
chological study of the human personality has
been beyond its scope, The vastness and many-
sidedness of this problem require a special treat-
ment, But even the little that has been said
serves as an indication of the prospects open to
psychology in our time.
Progress in technological science and econom-
ics, and the further development of socialist democ-
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racy, have made great demands on human activity.
The role of the human factor in all spheres of life in
our society is becoming increasingly pronounced,
But what is this "human factor"? It is first and fore-
most apsychological factor - the consciousness of
concrete individuals, the motivation of their activ-
125
ity, their spontaneous activity, their creativity.
Let u s express this in another way: the sci-
entific structuring of social life has for the first
time made possible the scientific ordering of
man's private life as well. The realization of
these possibilities constitutes the main task and
thrust of a psychological science that is freed of
mystifying idealist and positivist conceptions.
Psychology stands at the juncture between the
social and the natural sciences. Moreover, it
forms i t s own branch of knowledge. Hence, it
cannot develop its full possibilities as a compo-
nent of another science, such as physiology,
pedagogy, o r technology. On the contrary, i t s
chief prospects lie in i t s independent develop-
ment - in a theoretical comprehension of the
vast knowledge it has accumulated and in the
creation of a scientific system. Figuratively
speaking, psychology must develop not into a
bush, but into a trunk,