THE DEVELOPMENT OF D.N. UZNADZE’S THEORY OF SET IN THE WORKS OF HIS CONTEMPORARIES, PUPILS, AND FOLLOWERS

Abstract

Ideas as for the theory of set of both famous Uznadze’s contemporaries and his pupils are analized in the paper. Ivan Pavlov’s views on the set as a link in the chain of a subject’s interaction with the outer world are revealed. S. Rubinstein understood the set as a person’s conscious attitude that is manifested in his/her direction towards active goals, selective motivation, and readiness for action. A. Leontiev suggested the three-link system of analysis, that is objective conditions ‒ set ‒ activity, to be the original methodological principle of the Soviet psychology. Among D. Uznadze’s followers who enriched the theory of set there are A. Bochorishvili who understood a set as an illustration of social and historical origin of consciousness; R. Natadze who investigated the determining function of imagination through a set action in bevavior; I. Bzhalava who elaborated new methodical approaches to learning fixed sets that allowed discovering new phenomena of perception; and A. Prangishvili who developed the grounds of the theory of set in the direction of problems of social psychology and strengthened them in other spheres of psychology. Basic positions of the theory of set are analyzed in accordance with the cognitivist paradigm. Uznadze’s doctrine about the two-level psychic regulation is related to inter-related schemas of cognitive sphere functioning although in the cognitive paradigm the category of personality does not carry any significant meaning

Keywords

• actual set
• fixed set
• subpsychic
• objectivation
• moral needs
• cognitive processes