Foreign terms are being actively introduced into the lexicon of Russian psychology: creativity, management, training, marketing and many others, including image. But these are not just new words, but concepts, concepts that must be correlated with the established conceptual structure of Russian psychology.
The need for psychological research of the image at the present stage of the development of science is due to the essential contradictions between the rapidly developing social practice of the functioning of images in various spheres of social life and the need for its theoretical understanding.
Command-administrative methods of management are being replaced by methods based on persuasion and other means of socio-psychological influence. Among these funds, an important place is occupied by the image of a leader, specialist, civil servant. Being one of the powerful means of psychological influence, the image simultaneously performs the function of self-expression, self-manifestation of the subject displayed in it, as well as the functions of self-knowledge, self-development, and self-improvement closely related to it. Carrying out productive activities to create his image, a person not only demonstrates to his social environment his most attractive individual, personal and professional-activity qualities, but also learns to see himself "from the outside", to realize his weaknesses and shortcomings,
In recent years, the concept of image has firmly entered circulation in periodicals, television, advertising, and has penetrated into everyday speech. As a rule, the image is perceived by people as some value, associated with the success of this or that activity, individual or collective. Awareness of the value of a good image is formed into a social order, the answer to it is the rapid development of image-making - a professional activity to create and transform an image
1. Theoretical foundations of the problem of definition and creation of the image.
The origins of the problematics of the image
The development of an integral concept of the image as a personal phenomenon makes it necessary to form an objective idea of the state of the problematic of the image as a whole. It is advisable to start solving this problem by considering the ideological sources and premises of this concept, and they should be sought not only in the history of socio-psychological science, but in the entire complex of human sciences, taking into account social practice.
From what has been said, the need for an analytical-synthetic approach to the study of the state of the problematics of the image follows. The essence of this approach is seen in the fact that, first, through analysis, in various areas of knowledge about a person, such approaches, aspects, ideas, concepts that can serve as "building blocks" in the construction of a scientific concept of the image, and then synthesize them into a kind of conceptual unity, a kind of " the theory of the middle level ”(LS Vygotsky), which will serve as the foundation for building a scientific concept of the image. Indeed, according to LS Vygotsky, the "theory of the middle level" is necessary precisely in order to organically combine together, on the one hand, the provisions developed at the level of the philosophical worldview, and on the other hand, "facts and conceptual schemes, contained in various psychological theories ”. To create a theory like this,
Within the framework of this work, the subject of research is the image as a phenomenon of intersubjective interaction, and as an explanatory principle, the concept of the image of the subject as an image of a person taken in his subjective dimension, developed at the philosophical and worldview level .. This means, firstly, that the person-prototype, represented in this image, is perceived not as a passive object, unchanging in its basic qualities, but as a source of activity that transforms both the surrounding world of objects and culture as a whole, and itself, aimed at self-improvement. Secondly, speaking about the image of the subject, and not just about the image of a person, it is understood that the activity of a person-prototype extends to this image itself, that a person is not only a subject of activity in general, but the subject of this own image, actively and consciously builds it, creates it, taking into account the perception of other people and the goals of their activities. Thirdly, the very perception of the subject's image differs significantly from the perception of the image of an object, even if a person acts as such an object. When the image of the subject is perceived, such relations arise between the perceiving subject and the subject-prototype, which do not exist when the prototype is the object.
It should be noted that the basis of the previous ancient approaches to the study of the image of the subject were two well-known classical directions of philosophy: from Plato and from Aristotle.
On the part of representatives of psychological science, interest in such a phenomenon as image is increasing, as evidenced by a sharp increase in recent years in the number of scientific publications on topics related to the image, or affecting certain aspects and aspects of it. Meanwhile, an integral psychological concept of the image has not yet been created.
Among foreign authors engaged in research and practical development in the field of personal image formation, one should name such specialists as P. Bird, S. Black, F. Bouari, P. Weil, T.D. Swan, M. Spillane, R. Hoff, P. Chisholm, B. Schwalbe, etc. Among domestic studies, these are works that reveal the role and significance of image in various spheres of social life (E.N.Bogdanov, A.V. Garmonova, V. G. Zazykin, Z.M. Zotova, E.V. Egorova Tantma A.Yu. Panasyuk, Yu.V. Sinyagin and others), aimed at studying the principles, mechanisms and technologies of forming a politician's image (E.V. Averin, I.N. Gomerov, O. I. Gordeeva, N. A. Gulbinsky, P.S. Gurevich, I. G. Dubov, O. V. Ivannikova, A. Yu. Panasyuk, G. G. Pocheppov, N. A. Sorokina, O.N. Feofanov, RF.Furs, E.B. Shestopal and others), businessman (E.A. Blazhnov, V.A.Ivanchenko, R.L. Krichevsky, F.A. V.M.
Along with research materials directly devoted to the image, we relied on a vast array of theoretical and empirical data directly or indirectly related to the problem of image.
In the Russian psychological tradition, research areas such as the study of perception, including the construction of an image, the analysis of individual and collective activities, the study of communication and social cognition (B.G. Ananiev, V.L. Barabanshchikov, A. A. Bodalev, S. M. Vasilevsky, B. M. Velichkovsky, A. V. Zaporozhets, V. P. Zinchenko, A. N. Leontiev, A. D. Logvinenko, I. M. Sechenov, S. D. . Smirnov, E. N. Sokolov and others).
No less important for image research is the development of the problem of communication as subject-subject interaction (K.A. Abulkhanova-Slavskaya, B.G. Ananiev, A.G. Asmolov, A.A. Bodalev, A.V. Brushlinsky; A. A. Leontiev, B.F. Lomov, S.L. Rubinstein, V.V. Rubtsov and others), which was concretized in the study of problems of social perception and social cognition (V.S. Ageev, G.M. Andreeva, N.N.Bogomolova, A.I. Dontsov, M.Yu. Kondratyev, V.A.Labunskaya, V.F. Petrenko, T.G. Stefanenko, I.P. Shkuratova, A.G. Shmelev, etc. ).
There is no doubt about the close connection of the image with such a psychological concept as the self-concept, to the development of which both foreign and domestic psychologists and acmeologists have made a significant contribution (V.S.Agapov, E.P. Belinskaya, R. Berne, A. A. Bodalev, A. S. Guseva, A. A. Derkach, I. S. Kon, N. V. Kuzmina, O. V. Moskalenko, K. Rogers, O. A. Tikhomandritskaya, K. Horney, E. . Erickson, etc.)
Image research is enriched by understanding the results of studying the effect of self-presentation and self-presentation strategies, analyzing interpersonal feedback, developing effective psychotechnologies (O.S. Anisimov. R. Baumeister, J. Gotley, E. Goffman, E. Jones, E. L. Dotsenko, V.G. Zazykin, S. Carver, A.V. Kirichenko, A.Yu. Panasyuk, L.A. Petrovskaya, O.V.Solovieva, S. Wortman and others).
The essence and meaning of imageology.
The problem of the image and technologies for its implementation is dealt with by the applied scientific branch of human studies called imageology. It was created in our country, although some authors of publications on imageology shyly ignore this fact, do not attach due importance to the Russian interpretation of the original concept. The main purpose of imageology is to scientifically substantiate how to create an attractive image, how to build models of decent behavior that are adequate to those life situations in which we find ourselves.
Imageology is a call to everyone to be charming and able to bring light to people. It contributes to the external manifestation of a person's deep need to be a worthy person. Imageology is a dream about a noble image of every citizen, possessing which is an indispensable condition for creating a democratic and humane society.
Imageology is a theoretical reflection of the specifics of the Russian mentality, in which the mentality of people plays a huge role. Russians are humanitarian. It is no coincidence that in the Code of Laws of the Russian Empire in 1897, humanity, zeal for the common good, patronage of the innocent and offended were highlighted as spiritual values that make up the main criteria for lawmaking and law-abidingness.
Imageology is a technology of influence. Blaise Pascal wrote that there are two ways to influence people: "a way to convince" and "a way to please." Of these, the last is the most effective, he argued, regretting that he did not own it properly.
In our time, it is extremely difficult to have a personal impact on people and especially on young people. There are many reasons for this, but one of the main ones is that in the age of the development of mass communication, the effect of live communication and direct personal impact is blocked in the psyche of people by the presence of information clichés, vague spiritual values, skepticism towards moral authorities in it. B. Pascal is right when he draws attention to the logical sequence of the use of methods of influencing people: first you need to be able to please them, and then try to convince them of something. Without an attractive image, i.e. the ability to mentally win over a person, this problem cannot be solved. This is the pragmatic purpose of imageology.
Today it is difficult to find a major politician who has not specifically addressed the image-makers. The image of such individuals is polished literally to the smallest detail. For example, on the faces of older people, facial expressions more strongly capture age-related changes, so during television broadcasts, their faces are moved at a certain distance from the shooting camera. Or such a fact: the background on which the personality is presented is very important. Margaret Thatcher found it difficult to gain political acceptance in a country with such a conservative order. Therefore, her image makers paid close attention to the choice of interiors: most of her TV performances were filmed at home against the background of a lighted fireplace. Which is purely in the English classic spirit.
A decent image has always worried business people and professional leaders. Let us recall the Russian businessman Savva Morozov, Marshal of the Soviet Union I.S. Konev, American manager Lee Iacoccu. The selection of the given names is not accidental. These are encyclopedically educated people, talented organizers with the effect of personal charm. That is why their personal talent and professionalism, having a "marketable" appearance, enjoyed great recognition, which helped them solve many business problems.
