What is the mentality of a person? Definition and types
History of the term
The origin of the word mentality is taken to lead from Latin: mentis - soul or mind and alis - others.
The term was introduced by the French ethnologist and anthropologist Levi-Bruhl, he applied it to the thinking of primitive tribes, whose way of life he studied. Contrasting the prelogical thinking of primitive people and the logical thinking of modern people, he called the mentality of the representatives of tribes a mentality.
The term has got accustomed at first in a historical science, it was designated by set of features, values and installations of any people. Then spread in psychology to characterize the individual characteristics of the individual, in sociology - as a characteristic of the worldview of different social groups.
Definition of
The mentality of is the train of thoughts, the perception of the world around you and yourself in it, the spiritual spirit and the value system inherent in one human personality or group of people. Their manifestation is constant and passes unnoticed. To see the bright contrast between one's own and another's mentality is possible in a different cultural milieu or among representatives of other peoples.
In a word, the concept of mentality is expressed - the mindset.
Personality mentality
This concept is used to emphasize the special features of the consciousness of a particular person, his difference from the social environment or other individuals.
The structure of the mentality of the personality is multifaceted, it is logical to assume that a person does not become its owner in a short time.
When and how the mentality of the
is formed The formation of the mentality takes about 12 years. It begins at the age of three and is completed by the age of 14-16.
External factors affect the development of the sides of the mentality, the main ones are:
- mentality of parents;
- books and films, read and viewed at the growing stage;
- physical strength and mental stability;
- perception of the impact of stronger personalities: teachers, idols, older people;
- media;
- policy of the state;
- school.
The formed mentality includes a system of values, resulting from it goals and means to achieve them.
Features of mental development have vivid manifestations in conflicts of goals and values. For example, the material well-being and life of a person: is it possible to kill another for the sake of enrichment?
Society's mentality
To determine the mentality of a society, one can use the universal formula:
Mentality of society = public consciousness - universal values.
So, the love for relatives and their children, the bitterness of their loss, the hatred for those who hurt them, are common to all people. But the moral acceptability of blood feud is a feature of the national mentality of the Eastern peoples, approved by religion and popular tradition.
Public mentality - accepted in the society forms of behavior, the stereotypes of life decisions and opinions that distinguish this community from others.
The mentality of society, of course, greatly affects the mentality of the individual. The degree of his influence depends on the activity or passivity of a particular individual in public life.
Mentality and human consciousness
Regarding the norms and rules that a person has mastered consciously, the mentality is unconscious ideas, impressions and images, on the basis of which a particular person perceives and interprets the environment.
Mentality can not be identified with consciousness completely, it can not coincide with every action, word and thought of a person. But the mentality always serves as their background, it defines the boundaries of the ethically permitted and unacceptable behavior for a person.
Typology of mentality
Sociological and psychological analysis of biographies and letters of outstanding personalities, history and memoir literature allowed to distinguish four types of mentality:
- The barbarous is the oldest known type. It is distinguished by high survival, endurance, activity of sexual behavior. The freshness of feelings and perception, the search for new experiences, the absence of fear of risk and death.
In the social life, the "barbarian" relates himself to his family, friends, colleagues. He perceives the threat to his microgroup as directed against him personally. For the sake of the safety of our neighbors, we are ready to destroy the source of danger from whomsoever it may emanate.
Persuasion of a religious or philosophical sense "barbarian" changes easily, but not because of impermanence, but because of the frivolous perception of abstract ideas in principle.
- The aristocratic originated with the development of the feudal system in Europe. He is characterized by independence, bordering on pride, subtlety in manners and sexual preferences. The desire to impress with an external shine, the skill consciously resisting fear, straightforwardness and sincerity as derivatives of repugnance to lies.
The most complete in society "aristocrat" connects itself with the family, more precisely - with children.
Fidelity to beliefs and principles is a distinctive feature of an aristocratic type, stemming not only from high morality, but also from fear of looking weak.
- The Intellectual - the mentality of the beginning of the Renaissance, formed with a higher standard of living and security than the two previous ones, as a result, the viability of the person has significantly decreased.
The Intellectual mentality is characterized by a non-demonstrative disregard for comfort and convenience, high efficiency, priority of public relations over personal, undeveloped aesthetics of sexual relations, a strong fear of death and pain.
"Intel" aspires to enter a large social group: the church, the society of scientists, the Masonic lodge. He is not devoted to their individual representatives, but he remains faithful to the values to the end.
- The bourgeois mentality is the youngest, it took shape in the 16th and 17th centuries. Its distinctive features are frugality and economy, workaholism, spiritual stinginess and insincerity, emphasis on functionality and accumulation. Economic relations have a clear superiority over personal relations.
"Bourgeois" merges with its social stratum and the economic system of the state. Fidelity to family and friends is not its distinguishing features. It can defend religion and morality in words, but this does not mean that it follows them in practice.
So, the formation of the mentality of human communities occurs throughout history: it changed, was supplemented by new features, deprived of its non-viable parties.
The typology of the individual mentality evolved during the development of public relations and is now expressed by four types, which are extremely rare in pure form. But they form interesting combinations of traits in the characters of people and color the mental consciousness of entire nations.