Portrait of Personality and its Study by Psychosemantics

Gaivoronskaya Aleksandra Aleksandrovna ORCID: 0000-0002-1924-3622 PhD in Psychology employee of the Cognitive Research Laboratory 214005, Russia, g. Smolensk, ul. Novokievskaya, 2, kv. kv 192 aleksagai@rambler.ru Other publications by this author

Psychological massage is a detailed description of personality characteristics. The unit of personality analysis is the personal meaning. In the aggregate of other meanings, personal meaning forms a hierarchical structure that can be rebuilt in the course of life and, depending on experience, transform the content of meanings in this hierarchy. The ways of interpreting reality, filled with different meanings, reflect different motives of activity. "A system of interacting factors, conditions and means, structures of various relationships and connections, on the basis of which motives arise and act as the direction of human activity" (Leontiev, 1982. p. 6) ^[1]. The complex of actions, their organization in behavioral schemes, the development of individual solutions, experience, orientation is a character. The explanation of character as a private substructure of personality was considered in a number of works by A.G. Asmolov (1996)^[2], B.S. Bratusya (1994) ^[3], D.A. Leontiev (2013) ^[4] and others.

Everyday consciousness is a set of ideas, attitudes, stereotypes based on direct everyday experience, or so-called "pre-scientific" knowledge. Pre-scientific knowledge (observation, experience) was designated by J. Bruner and R. Tagiuri as an "implicit" theory (model) of personality (Bruner, Tagiuri, 1954) ^[5]. Implicitness (pre-science) is associated with unconscious ideas, expectations and manifests itself in behavior ^[6]. The study of implicit theories, according to R. Stenberg, contributes to the description of typical everyday behavior (p. Stenberg 1985) ^[7].

The ideas of constructivism (pluralism of truth, multiplicity of different cultural and historical models of the world) are reflected in works related to psychosemantics. The role of individual constructs in cognition and description of the world, linguistic and cultural-historical mediation of cognitive processes, the ideas of many ways to describe different phenomena and the relativity of truths are the basis of the psychosemantic approach (Petrenko, 2009) ^[8]. A construct is a way of interpreting or interpreting the world. An organized system of more or less important constructs is created and used to explain events and phenomena (Kelly, 2000) ^[9]. Rethinking, restructuring, processing, "modulating attitudes" reflects the semantic fullness of the studied construct (Leontiev, 2021) ^[10]. Possible scenarios for the development of the future are predetermined by constructs and constructs, changing, can change the meaning of a phenomenon. A portrait of a personality is a psychological construct with the help of which a picture of the world of a personality is modeled. A.N. Leontiev, using the concept of "image of the world" ("amodal", created on the basis of reality, woven from different "fabrics"), believes that the "image of the world" is based on the "picture of the world" [11S.D. Smirnov believes that the "picture of the world" consists of a certain psychological reality, which is formed when interacting with the external and internal world [12]. At the same time, the picture of the world is in the same semantic space with the concepts of "worldview", "mentality", "cognitive style", "methods of categorization", etc.

 One of the tasks of psychosemantics is to study the picture of the world of personality, where experimental psychosemantics studies the genesis, structure, functioning of the system of meanings, methods of categorization, and subjective semantics considers the picture of the world of personality as a kind of reality model consisting of self-image, phenomena and their explanation. "The picture of the world (according to E.Y. Artemyeva) in the narrow sense of the word, is an aggregation of various semantics" (Artemyeva, 1980) ^[13]. Psychosemantic methods are aimed at reconstructing implicit theories of personality and solve the following tasks: connecting the studied meaning of this phenomenon with other meanings, systems of meanings, highlighting and interpreting the most significant, significant among these connections and reconstructing the model of this phenomenon (Solomin, 2009) ^[14].

The psychosemantic approach to the portrait of a personality is a description of a psychological (semantic) structure that contains properties-signs that can be used to characterize a personality. This structure is formed by various types of values "classifying" this construct as a "psychological portrait".

The purpose of the study was to study what is understood, how it is explained, what content is put into the construct "portrait of personality" and its compilation. Research methods: the method of definition of concepts, the method of mini-essays, content and microsemantic analysis.

The study involved 182 young people receiving psychological education, aged 17 to 20 years, 22 women, the average age of young people M = 19 years, standard deviation SD = 1.79. This study is of a pilot nature, related to the number of samples, as well as the objectives of the study.

To obtain individual constructs when describing a portrait of a personality, respondents were asked to answer questions:

· What is a personality portrait?

·                        What does a portrait of a person consist of?

· Why do I need a portrait of a person?

In the course of the study, respondents described their ideas about the portrait of a personality in the form of free mini-stories, using specific examples from personal experience. Detection of different explanations in the interpretation of this phenomenon, identification of psychological characteristics of the interpretation process (intellectual /cognitive/ or evaluative), namely - inconsistency in interpretation, problemness (depth of interpretation) and context of interpretation – (breadth, diversity) contributed to the study of the psychological portrait of the individual.

Description and analysis of the results of the study.

Content analysis of the protocols of mini-essays allowed us to obtain a description of the "portrait of personality" construct, where the leading contents are: the inner world, the "decoding" of personality, typological features, signs, personality sphere, the inner world of a person, characteristic features, complex psychological characteristics, human qualities, behavioral manners, a tool that allows you to get to know a person better, means, indicators, contains criteria, etc. The categories describing the "personality portrait" construct reflect

· comprehensive characterization of qualities,

· a tool for studying a person,

· inner world, the sphere of personality.

The protocols mention the constructs of the portrait associated with the activities of the individual, its capabilities, needs. For example, "If a person is a military man, then his portrait will be associated with such qualities as courage, determination" (Tanya, 18l.). The portrait also contains a set of properties and characteristics. For example, from Lena's essay 20l.: "A psychological portrait should contain something in common that is in any portrait, but it should also be different from other portraits", "A psychological portrait, for example, of a teacher is appearance, correct speech, culture of behavior" (Tatiana, 20l.), "The portrait of a manager is connected with the fact that he knows how to work with people, has determination, enthusiasm" (Nikolay, 19l.), "A portrait of a personality is a short cut of properties and characteristics relevant at a given time" (Nastya 20l.).

Upbringing and self-education can be reflected in the characteristics contained in the portrait of a person. For example: "Education is very important for a person, because it is pleasant to communicate with him, he observes the rules of decency" (Elena 20l.), "Those who play sports have the will, the desire to win" (Ivan, 19l.), "All scientists are silent scattered" (Yuri 19l.). Desires, aspirations, interests were described with the help of hobbies: "Embroidery characterizes a person as diligent, patient" (Tanya 18l.), "Stamps are collected by people who are inclined to seclusion" (Peter 19l.). The inner world was described by respondents as a unique world containing beliefs, values, principles. For example: "A person with a rich inner world is an interesting interlocutor" (Maria 18l.), 

When describing what the portrait of a person consists of, the type of temperament was indicated in the protocols. The leading content of a psychological portrait is a type of higher nervous activity (a set of innate and acquired properties of the nervous system that determine the temperament of a person): strong, balanced, mobile; strong, balanced, inert; strong, unbalanced; weak. It is especially important for the respondents whether they have or lack strong-willed qualities, such as self-control, self-esteem, discipline, organization. Taking into account such qualities in a psychological portrait conveys the level of awareness, ways of self-control. The protocols also considered such constructs as intellectual qualities: creative thinking, logic, flexibility (mobility). An equally important construct is the communicative abilities that ensure the effectiveness of communication, namely, perception, evaluation of oneself and others, understanding, structuring and transmitting the information received, speaking to others and the ability to adapt to the person with whom communication is taking place, perception and interpretation of verbal and non–verbal signals, the ability to understand the subtext and context, as well as anticipate the trajectory of the conversation, etc.

Categories describing the content on the basis of which a portrait of a person is built:

· type of higher nervous activity,

· strong-willed, intellectual qualities,

· communication skills,

· neuropsychic stability,

· emotional characteristics.

It is interesting to note that in the works there were such constructs: "attitude to dangerous situations m" (Maria, 19l.), "ways out of dangerous, traumatic situations" (Dmitry, 20l.), "ways of planning your future" (Vera, 19l.), "reaction to danger" (Sveta, 17 l.), "resentment", "jealousy", "envy", "hostility" (Anton, 17 l.), etc.

A psychological portrait, according to respondents, is needed in order to:

· be able to find an individual approach to the individual (the "key"),

· establish a line of conduct for effective communication,

· identify strengths and weaknesses in the interaction,

· identify hidden psychological traumas,

· identify compatibility,

· determine compliance with the positioned qualities ("to be and to seem"),

· determine the prospects for cooperation,

· predict behavior in a certain situation,

· determine the best candidate for the position,

· helps to look at yourself from the other side.

When drawing up a portrait of a personality, according to respondents, it is important to take into account personal data – gender, age, external parameters, as well as social status – position, specialty, marital status. For example, "Nowadays it is important to know a person's sexual orientation, because there are people whose behavior can change only from what gender they consider themselves to be" (Vera, 20l.), "It is of great importance who a person is, a leader or a subordinate" (Yura, 17l.), "If a woman has a lot of children, then she tries to be a caring mother" (Ira, 17l.), "An elderly person looks confident because he has a lot of knowledge about life ..." (Sergey, 18l.). Understanding such features is necessary in order for the simulated characteristics to correspond to the social situation in which he is personality. A short biography, where the main, most important events and moments of life are indicated, will help to more accurately establish the characteristic features of this personality, identify leading behavioral patterns, predict actions and deeds. For example, "I know that I.I. took part in hostilities, and therefore he has an explosive character" (Lyusya, 19l.).

Separately, the protocols indicated the qualities associated with the profession. For example: for a doctor, it is decency, responsibility, intelligence, humanity. For a psychologist: empathy, friendliness, sociability, politeness, cheerfulness. For an expert conducting a forensic examination, such personal qualities as honesty, independence, integrity, impartiality are important. For the teacher – decency, tolerance, benevolence, delicacy, integrity.

According to respondents, it is better to use projective techniques to obtain a psychological portrait. The most frequently mentioned in the protocols were such techniques as Rorschach spots, Lusher test, Sondi test, S. Dellinger psychogeometric test, drawing tests ("non-existent animal", "tree", "elephant", etc.). The use of classical techniques, according to respondents, is too energy-consuming, boring and uninteresting.

As a result of the conducted research, it can be concluded that the use of psychosemantic tools for the interpretation of the "portrait of personality" contributes to the disclosure of the characteristics of this phenomenon, namely, how the levels of categorization highlighted in the course of the study correlate with significant topics describing the psychological portrait, that is, the portrait of a personality is a complex characteristic of qualities reflecting the inner world, the orientation of the personality and being a tool for the study of man.

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