The Study of Subjective and Personal Characteristics in Line with the System-Subject Approach

The paper deals with the category formation of "subject" in Russian psychology in line with the subject-activity approach of S.L. Rubinshtein. Then the idea of the subject was developed in the works of A.V. Brushlinsky, as well as in the systemic-subjective approach of E.A. Sergienko. It is shown that S.L. Rubinshtein formulated the position about the subject as an active doer, the creator of his life and history. This position was further significantly enriched by A.V. Brushlinsky due to his continuum-genetic theory and resulted in a new direction – the subject psychology as an integrative study of human psychology. The system-subject approach of E.A. Sergienko is a development of the subject psychology and combines systemic and subject-activity approaches. It substantiates the level understanding of the criteria of subjectivity. It is proposed to consider the categories of subject and personality in the unity of individuality, but at the same time having their own specifics. The personality is a nuclear, content aspect (generation of meanings, values, orientation). While the subject is an individual opportunity for choices, goals, and the implementation of tasks, taking into account both situations, as well as individual orientation and interactions’ meanings. The specific functions of the subject and personality are described. The development concept of subject and personality at the entire ontogenesis stage is presented. A processual understanding of psychological maturity is proposed. Studies clarifying and verifying the system-subject approach are summarized: the subject and the personality characteristics of people of different professions in relation to the time perspective; mental resources for regulating behavior at the late ontogenesis stage. It is concluded that the development principle and the subject psychology can become the basis for a holistic study of human psychology and the unification of various schools and paradigms, theory and practice.

Antsyferova, L. I. (2006). Personality Development and Problems of Gerontology.  2nd edition. Moscow, Institut psikhologii RAN Press. (In Russian)

Bandura, A. (2008). An agentic perspective on positive psychology. In: S. J. Lopez (ed.). Positive Psychology: Exploring the best in people (pp. 167–196). Wesport, Greenwood Publishing Company.

Bogdanovich, N. V. (2004). Subject as a Category of Psychology in Russia.  PhD dissertation (Psychology). Moscow. (In Russian)

Brezina, T. (2020). Freedom of action, freedom of choice, and desistance from crime: Pitfalls and opportunities in the study of human agency. Journal of Developmental and Life-Course Criminology, 6 (2), 224–244. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40865-019-00111-w

Brushlinskii, A. V. (1999). Psychology of the subject and his activity. In: V. N. Druzhinin (ed.), Sovremennaia psikhologiia: Spravochnoe rukovodstvo (pp. 330–346). Moscow, Institut psikhologii RAN Press. (In Russian)

Brushlinskii, A. V. (2002). On the criteria of the subject. In: A. V. Brushlinskii (ed.). Psikhologiia Individual’nogo i Gruppovogo Sub”ekta (pp. 9–33). Moscow, Institut psikhologii RAN Press. (In Russian

Brushlinskii, A. V. (2003). Psychology of the Subject. Moscow, Institut psikhologii RAN Press, St. Petersburg, Aleteiia Publ. (In Russian)

Chistiakova, N. V. (2013). Molecular Genetic Prerequisites for Behavior Control as a Factor of Psychological Readiness for Childbirth.  PhD dissertation (Psychology). Moscow. (In Russian)

Dattathrani, S., De’, R. (2023). The concept of agency in the era of artificial intelligence: Dimensions and degrees. Information Systems Frontiers, 25 (1), 29–54. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10796-022-10336-8

Harre, R. (1983). Personal Being: a theory for individual psychology.  Oxford, Blackwell.

Hewson, M. (2010). Agency. In: A. Mills, G. Durepos, E. Wiebe (eds.). Encyclopedia of Case Study Research (pp. 12–16). Thousand Oaks, SAGE Publications. http://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781412957397.n5

Kotelevtsev, N. A., Khomutova, O. M. (2020). Modern understanding of the category of subject and subjectivity in the research of foreign scientists. Uchenye Zapiski: Elektronnyi nauchnyi zhurnal Kurskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta, 2 (54). Available at: https://apimag.kursksu.ru/api/v1/get_pdf/3645/ (accessed: 17.03.2023). (In Russian)

Lebedeva, E. I., Vilenskaia, G. A., Ulanova, A. Yu., Filippu, O. Yu., Pavlova, N. S. (2023). Social competence in adolescents with different level of theory of mind. Psikhologicheskii Zhurnal, 44 (1), 43–54. https://doi.org/10.31857/S020595920024342-2 (In Russian)

Leont’ev, D. A. (2010). What gives psychology the concept of the subject: Subjectivity as a dimension of personality. Epistemologiia i Filosofiia Nauki,  3 (25), 135–153.

Madary, M. (2022). The illusion of agency in human — computer interaction. Neuroethics, 15 (1), 16. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12152-022-09491-1

Markus, H. R., Kitayama, S. (2003). Models of agency: Sociocultural diversity in the constructor of action. In: V. Murphy-Berman, J. Berman (eds.). Cross-Cultural Differences in Perspectives on the Self (pp. 18–74). Lincoln, University of Nebraska Press.

Mikova, T. S. (2012). Subjective and personal characteristics of women with traumatic experience of artificial termination of pregnancy.  PhD dissertation (Psychology). Moscow. (In Russian)

Panov, V. I. (2020). Ecopsychology of development: epistemological and ontological paradigms. Poznanie i Perezhivanie, 1 (1), 38–54. https://doi.org/10.51217/cogexp_2020_01_01_03 (In Russian)

Panov, V. I. (2022). Ecopsychological approach to psyche development: stages, prerequisites, constructs. Teoreticheskaia i Eksperimental’naia Psikhologiia, 3, 100–117. https://doi.org/10.24412/2073-0861-2022-3-100-117 (In Russian)

Pavlova, N. S. (2022a). Chapter X. Successful aging in late ontogenesis. In: N. E. Kharlamenkova, V. V. Znakov, E. A. Sergienko, N. N. Kazymova (eds), Onto- i sub”ektogenez psikhicheskogo razvitiia cheloveka (pp. 220–234). Moscow, Institut psikhologii RAN Press. http://dx.doi.org/10.38098/mng_22_0452 (In Russian)

Pavlova, N. S. (2022b). The study of subjective life quality and subjective well-being in late ontogenesis. Sibirskii psikhologicheskii zhurnal, 86, 84–102. http://dx.doi.org/10.17223/17267080/86/5 (In Russian)

Pavlova, N. S., Sergienko, E. A. (2016). Subject and personal regulation of behavior as a manifestation of man’s individuality. Psikhologicheskii Zhurnal,  37 (2), 43–56. (In Russian)

Petrich, D. M. (2020). A self-determination theory perspective on human agency, desistance from crime, and correctional rehabilitation. Journal of Developmental and Life-Course Criminology, 6 (3), 353–379. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40865-020-00141-9

Popa, E. (2021). Human goals are constitutive of agency in artificial intelligence (AI). Philosophy & Technology, 34, 1731–1750. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13347-021-00483-2

Rovane, C. (2019). Is group agency a social phenomenon? Synthese, 196 (12), 4869–4898. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11229-017-1384-1

Rubinshtein, S. L. (2002). Fundamentals of General Psychology.  St. Petersburg, Piter Publ. (In Russian)

Rubinshtein, S. L. (2012). Being and Consciousness.  St. Petersburg, Piter Publ. (In Russian)

Selezneva, M. V. (2015). The comparative analysis of the terms “subject” and “agency” in the foreign psychology. Vestnik RUDN. Ser. Psikhologiia i pedagogika,  2, 47–53. (In Russian)

Sergienko, E. A. (2021). Mental Development from the Standpoint of a System-Subject Approach. Moscow, Institut psikhologii RAN Press. https://doi.org/10.38098/mng_21_0435 (In Russian)

Sergienko, E. A., Ulanova, A. Yu., Lebedeva, E. I. (2020). Theory of mind: structure and dynamics.  Moscow, Institut psikhologii RAN Press. (In Russian)

Sergienko, E. A., Vilenskaia, G. A., Kovaleva, Yu. V. (2010). Behavior Control as Subject Regulation.  Moscow, Institut psikhologii RAN Press. (In Russian)

Sergienko, E. A., Znakov, V. V., Kharlamenkova, N. E. (2018). Individual subject in psychology. In: A. L. Zhuravlev, E. A. Sergienko (eds). Razrabotka Poniatii Sovremennoi Psikhologii (pp. 63–115). Moscow, Institut psikhologii RAN Press. (In Russian)

Silver, C. A., Tatler, B. W., Chakravarthi, R., Timmermans B. (2021). Social Agency as a continuum. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 28 (2), 434–453. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13423-020-01845-1

Vetrova, I. I. (2011). Correlation of behavior control, coping and psychological defenses. In: A. L. Zhuravlev, E. A. Sergienko (eds). Stress, Vygoranie, Sovladanie v Sovremennom Kontekste (pp. 275–295). Moscow, Institut psikhologii RAN Press. (In Russian)

Vetrova, I. I. (2016). Behavior control as a factor proactive coping in adolescence. In: A. L. Zhuravlev, E. A. Sergienko, N. V. Tarabrina, N. E. Kharlamenkova (eds.). Psikhologiia Povsednevnogo i Travmaticheskogo Stressa: Ugrozy, posledstviia i sovladanie (pp. 419–440). Moscow, Institut psikhologii RAN Press. (In Russian)

Vilenskaia, G. A. (2007). Environmental and genetic influences on behavior control in early human being’s ontogenesis. Psikhologicheskii Zhurnal,  28 (4), 52–63. (In Russian)

Vilenskaia, G. A. (2009). Regulation of behavior at an early age. In: A. L. Zhuravlev, E. A. Sergienko, A. V. Karpov (eds.). Psikhologiia Segodnia: Teoriia, obrazovanie i praktika (pp. 70–86). Moscow, Institut psikhologii RAN Press. (In Russian)

Znakov, V. V. (2014). Theoretical foundations of psychology of understanding of a multi-dimensional world. Voprosy Psikhologii,  4, 16–29. (In Russian)

Znakov, V. V. (2016). Psychology of Understanding the Human World.  Moscow, Institut psikhologii RAN Press. (In Russian)

Znakov, V. V. (2021). Psychology of the Possible: A new research direction of understanding. Moscow, Institut psikhologii RAN Press. https://doi.org/10.38098/mng.2021.12.48.001 (In Russian)

Znakov, V. V., Sergienko, E. A. (2018). Andrei Vladimirovich Brushlinskii: A life devoted to science. Metodologiia i Istoriia Psikhologii, 2, 5–21. https://doi.org/10.7868/S1819265318020012 (In Russian)