Interiorization is the process of forming the structures of the human psyche through the acquisition of life experience. The concept comes from the French “interiorisation”, which means the transition from outside to inside, and from the Latin “interior”, which means internal. The term interiorization itself and synonyms for it are very rare. This is a specific term, often used only in the appropriate context. Therefore, there are no synonyms for the word interiorization as such, and only in rare cases is it used together with the word “transition”, which means, accordingly, the transition from external to internal.
Before a certain complex action is assimilated by the human mind, it is realized from the outside. Thanks to internalization, people can talk about themselves, introduce themselves and that it is very important to think to themselves without disturbing others.
Social interiorization means borrowing the basic categories of individual consciousness from social experience and ideas. This state is expressed in the ability of the human psyche to operate with images of any objects that are not in the field of vision at the moment. These can be objects, objects, phenomena, events with which a person has ever interacted, or he can imagine something that he has never even seen, construct events that can happen, or once happened. A person can go beyond the boundaries of a given moment, events can move in the past and future, in time and space.
The concept of internalization is characteristic only in relation to people; animals do not have such an ability, their brain does not have the opportunity to go beyond the existing situation. The instrument of internalization is the word, and the means of transition from situation to situation is speech action. The word identifies and records the most important properties of things and the methods developed by human practice by which information is processed. Human behavior goes beyond the influence of the external situation that previously determined the behavior of the animal. The correct use of words contributes to the assimilation of significant properties of things, phenomena and methods of information management. Thanks to the process of interiorization, a person, with the help of words, is able to adopt the experience of all humanity, as well as previous generations, or the experience of unknown people, hundreds and even thousands of kilometers away. In Russian science, Vygotsky was the first to introduce this term. He believed that all functions of the human psyche are formed as external, social forms of communication between people in the form of work or other activities.
Vygotsky understood the concept of internalization as the transformation of external actions into a person’s internal conscious plan. The development of the psyche begins from the outside under the influence of social factors existing in society. Collective forms of activity are built into human consciousness through internalization and become individual. After Vygotsky, Halperin began studying this phenomenon and made it the basis of systematic, step-by-step education. Nietzsche understood this concept in his own way. He said that instincts that do not come out, still manifest themselves, but from the inside - this is what he called interiorization.
What is interiorization
Interiorization is the process of forming a person’s mental structures through the acquisition of life experience. Translated from Latin, this word means a transition from external to internal, that is, in the process of interiorization, external activity gradually turns into mental operations.
In psychology
Internalization in psychology is briefly defined as the process of formation of mental processes through the assimilation of external activities that are accepted in society.
In pedagogy
In pedagogy, interiorization, in simple words, is the process of developing a child’s ability to handle symbols. That is, at first the child performs external activities, and over time it “collapses” and becomes more and more symbolic. In the theory of education, they most often talk about the stages of internalization of value orientations.
History of the development of the concept
The author of the term is considered to be the French sociologist Emile Durkheim (1858-1917). At the same time, his understanding of what interiorization is was very different from the modern one. He considered it one of the key elements of socialization , a connecting link between the internal and external world of the human psyche. Many of his colleagues also considered interiorization a purely sociological concept.
Later, Pierre Janet (1859-1947), Jean Piaget (1896-1980) and other representatives of the French school of psychology began to consider it as a psychological concept. They used the term “interiorization” to refer to the transfer of social thinking characteristic of an individual’s social group into his inner psyche.
This concept was brought to its modern form by the Soviet scientist Lev Vygotsky (1896-1934). In his opinion, interiorization is the most important factor in the formation of the human psyche and thinking. Later, his research was continued and significantly supplemented by Pyotr Halperin (1902-1988).
Stages of interiorization
At the first stage, the adult influences the child with words, encouraging him to act. For example, he tells him: “Come on, let’s build a pyramid.”
On the second, the baby masters the way of addressing himself, tries to influence himself with the help of words and performs the action. He can turn to himself: “Misha, let’s build a pyramid?”, and after that he begins the activity.
At the third stage, the child already confidently influences himself with words, and does this in his mind, and not out loud.
The sequence of stages of internalization of value guidelines is exactly the same: first, the adult reports the correctness of this or that action, then the child pronounces it out loud, and, ultimately, assimilates it at the mental level.
Study methods
The study of internalization is carried out through:
- a conversation that allows you to assess the internal integrity of the individual and the ability to transfer observations and actions received in the outside world and society into your inner world;
- monitoring the process of internalization of the child;
- experiments conducted in a natural environment, and allowing us to find out how quickly a person’s consciousness allows him to assimilate new experience;
- testing.
Mechanism of interiorization
The mechanism of internalization or transformation of actions, according to P.Ya. Halperin, includes 6 stages.
At the first stage, a motivational component is included, best if it is a manifestation of natural cognitive interest. But there may also be an adult’s call for activity, for example: “Today we will learn to fold objects.”
At the second stage - the indicative component. The child watches as an adult adds one to two cubes and gets three.
The third stage is material. The child takes objects and puts them together himself.
The fourth is the stage of external speech. The child, already without objects, can say: “If you add three to two, you get five.”
The fifth is the stage of inner speech. The kid says the whole phrase to himself: “If you add three to one, you get four.”
The sixth is the stage of mental action. Speech is curtailed and mental action is performed at a very high speed, that is, the child learns to count in his head.
Exteriorization and creativity
It is believed that exteriorization occupies a special position in creativity. Sometimes experts do not mention other examples of the mechanism of exteriorization in psychology, believing that the creative side is superior when interpreting this concept.
This is not a completely correct approach, because exteriorization directly affects your thought processes, regardless of what specialization you have chosen. You are just using a method of thinking
It is important for a teacher, a businessman, and any athlete to be able to use it. Even the average housewife plans her activities and sets the type of thinking when creating grocery lists for the store
But let's return to the creative sphere. There is nowhere in this segment without exteriorization. Let's look at why this happens.
Artists. A painting is not created from scratch; its creation is preceded by a lot of work. If the order is commercial, the work plan is first approved; if not, the artist immediately proceeds to the stage of creating a sketch. You have to go through dozens of drafts before the idea from the subconscious is transferred to paper in the desired form.
Only after creating a clear plan does the performer begin the creative process.
Writers. Novels and stories are also not created “out of nowhere.” We all know the story of JK Rowling: she came up with the famous Harry Potter series on the subway, but did not start drafting future books right away, but sketched out a rough outline of the characters.
It is very important to transfer the outlines of the heroes and their characteristics into the real world, to allow the internal to become external. After all, one of the common problems of writers is lack of motivation and frequent procrastination.
The exteriorization mechanism will also help you see the real results of your work.
Musicians. Writing notes, thinking through lines of songs, even carefully selecting musical instruments - all this characterizes the mental activity of musicians. Inspiration can only give an impetus, everything else depends on thought processes.
Careful planning helps create the concept of a future album, and the transfer of subconscious desires and images onto paper ensures the creation of a new music cover
In creativity, more than anywhere else, it is important to convey the correct message to the viewer, reader or listener
As you can see, creativity does not only work through inspiration. Too much depends on the correctness of thought processes.
Areas of application
Interiorization is most often used in the educational process, when a teacher needs to teach a child to perform various mental actions. It is also used in the process of education: the child develops mental actions regarding correct behavior in society.
In adult life, internalization can also be used in relationships between superior and subordinate or between mentor and trainee.
Social adaptation
Social internalization also begins from birth. Here the following levels of relationship between the individual and society are distinguished:
- close circle of friends (parents, brothers, sisters and other relatives);
- middle circle (neighbors, kindergarten, school, friends, etc.);
- distant circle (small homeland and country of birth as a whole).
In communicating with relatives, the child adopts, i.e. internalizes, family values - this is the type of relationship between parents, intrafamily interests, patterns of behavior with others, religious preferences and attitude towards the world as a whole.
Going beyond the family, the child observes the patterns of relationships adopted by people with whom he often comes into contact, and can adopt their ways of acting.
Birth in a certain country also leaves a special imprint on a person’s self-determination: cultural and religious traditions, language of communication, national cuisine, moral values and individuals whom society has chosen as its heroes. For example, in Soviet society of the 30-40s of the last century, the heroes were pilots, Stakhanovites, party leaders, and the younger generation wanted to be like them. Then the heroes were cosmonauts, “new Russians”, oligarchs, etc. Success in society will depend on the level of a person’s compliance with external ideals currently accepted in society.
An example of interiorization in psychology
The process of internalization in psychology can be clearly seen in the example of a child who assembles a sorter. First, the adult shows him and says: “A round figurine goes into a round hole, an asterisk goes into an asterisk.” Then the baby says the same thing out loud to himself and performs the action. At the next stage, he pronounces the necessary actions only mentally. At the last stage, he quickly matches the figures with the holes and successfully performs the actions at high speed, without thinking, and without errors.
Notes
- ↑Interiorization // Dictionary.ru
- ↑Yasnitsky, A. (2018). Vygotsky's science of Superman: from Utopia to concrete psychology. In Yasnitsky, A. (Ed.). (2018). Questioning Vygotsky's Legacy: Scientific Psychology or Heroic Cult. London & New York: Routledge.
- ↑'Vygotsky' on Google Scholar
- ↑Cit. by: May R.
Discovery of Genesis. - M.: Institute of General Humanitarian Research, 2004. - P. 91. - ↑ Kovalev G. A., Radzikhovsky L. A.
Communication and the problem of internalization // Questions of psychology: journal. - 1985. - No. 1. - P. 110-120.
This page was last edited on April 3, 2022 at 11:15 am. Sources used:
- https://strelkamag.com/ru/article/vocabulary-intriorisation
- https://wiki2.org/ru/interiorization
Classification
Interiorization is similar to adaptation. It has 3 types, each of which belongs to a specific age:
- Initial. Typical for newborns. The child begins to explore the outside world and interacts with it through games with his mother or father. Adults show the child toys how to use them correctly. The baby looks at their actions, remembers them, and then repeats them.
- School adaptation. Learning depends on the thought process. At this stage, the internalization of the personality depends on motivation, type of temperament, and characteristics of the development of the nervous system.
- Social adaptation. This type of internalization begins at birth and continues throughout life.
The last type of adaptation is divided into three circles, depending on the proximity of communication with other people:
- the first is close relatives;
- middle - neighbors, friends, distant relatives;
- distant - acquaintances, colleagues.
Debriefing script
Each conversation should have a script; it will be an additional support for a psychologist who also has to work in extreme conditions.
Debriefing is often carried out in the form of a training session, when participants sit in a circle, but in this case they prefer not to leave empty space in the center, because this unusual environment can be perceived by the participants as a threat. To make the conditions as comfortable as possible, use a round table.
Debriefing consists of three main parts:
1. Reproduction of what happened.
2. Analysis of symptoms and reactions.
3. Mobilization of the psychological state of health.
In addition, the entire process is divided into phases:
- Acquaintance. As in a regular training, participants must give a name and tell some information about themselves.
- Statement of facts. At this stage, the victims tell what exactly they had to endure. How they realized that trouble was approaching, their further actions.
- Impression phase. Participants share their experiences, thoughts, emotions. If the conversation reaches a dead end, the coach must warm it up with questions: “What did you think about what happened?”, “How did you assess the situation around you?”
- Feeling phase. The longest and most important stage. Many victims experience emotions that were previously unfamiliar to them, which makes them seem wild, strange, and shameful. Everyone believes that such a revolution of consciousness is happening only to him, but during the conversation he understands that everyone is experiencing similar feelings. Mutual support and emotional connection are born. This key point in the debriefing depends primarily on the trainer, who must encourage participants to be sincere.
- Symptom phase. It doesn’t have to be singled out as separate; it is often included in the previous one.
- The presenter and his assistants (also psychologists) must process information about the feelings of the participants, give instructions for the future, and talk about possible psychological manifestations.
- Training to smooth out negative psychological manifestations in the future. At this stage it is possible to arrange another meeting.
