Need for achievement and success in life

The problem of success, achievements, recognition has a long history, and remains acutely relevant today.

Popular science literature offers the modern reader easy success in the professional, family, business, political and other spheres when mastering certain algorithms for controlling one's own consciousness, setting it up in a purely positive way, algorithms for productive interaction, benevolent or manipulative communication, achieving self-confidence, constructive conflict resolution.

Personal effectiveness and life satisfaction are closely related to success in life.

In ancient Greece, the so called agonal personality type was popular , focused on the deployment of internal creative potential, a high level of disclosure of abilities, efficiency in achievements, and victory in competitions. The motives of the Greeks were not rational or utilitarian, and achievements did not occur only where it was really vital or very necessary. The main thing was considered to demonstrate their skills in any kind of activity, which led to the "Greek miracle".

Hesiod believed that the social causes and personal conditioning of wealth and poverty as success and failure lie in the abilities and efforts of the individual aimed at achieving a high standard of living. The motives of fame and recognition were distinguished by Plato, defining fame as a form of assessment by society of a person's real and imaginary values.

The idea of ​​success, one of the most important in American culture, is closely related to the well known phenomenon of mass consciousness - the "American Dream." In mass culture, there is a socio-psychological type of “self-made person”. She embodies the American Dream due to the presence of such properties as ambition, desire to win, ability to work, discipline, risk taking, independence, independence in achieving goals, practicality.

According to D. McCleland, striving for success in large and small communities is almost the main motive of human activity.

W. James, the founder of pragmatism, at the beginning of the twentieth century. showed the relationship between self-esteem of a person, the level of her aspirations and the desire for success.

Its classic formula is:

Success depends on the self-esteem and aspirations of the individual:

success = self-esteem / ambition.

A great contribution to the study of the problem of success belongs to the representatives of the K. Levin school, who proved that not the degree of complexity of the problem, but the level of the individual's aspirations becomes the decisive factor in determining some result as successful or unsuccessful. If the result reaches the expected due to the level of aspiration or exceeds it, there is a feeling of success, if not, the person experiences failure. As a rule, after a success, the level of a person's aspirations rises, and after a failure, it decreases.

Recently, in the minds of postmodern society, the old formula for individual success, which is achieved in tough competition, has gradually been replaced by a new formula with a different content: not success through competition, but success through cooperation. People realized that their success can only be shared and, by implementing this new model, they learn to avoid conflicts, help each other, and develop trust in partners. This model turned out to be psychologically more comfortable and effective.

Success is a positive result of persistent and difficult activity, it is traditionally understood as the realization of a certain aspiration of a person in a specific life situation, achieving the desired social position and experiencing satisfaction and high self-esteem.

Success is closely related to the social nature of a person, the successful structuring of his psychological space and time.

To succeed, a person must belong to society and at the same time be isolated from it.

Then she will be able to merge with the professional group, feeling herself a single whole with it, and at the same time stand out, become noticeable, irreplaceable, recognized. In addition, she should feel the flow of time in her life, not putting off for the distant future what needs to be achieved now.

Elements of Success model broadcast

Success models broadcast by the mass media or removed from memoirs, biographies and interviews contain the following elements:

i. scope of activity (one or more, public-private).

ii. life circumstances (obstacles, crisis situations).

iii. social indicators of success (public recognition, financial achievements, authority, power).

iv. individual indicators of success (new identity, self-esteem, life satisfaction).

v. internal resources (business, moral, creative, social and psychological competence, coping strategies, etc.),

vi. resources of the environment (support, help, patronage, luck).

Motivation for success

The chances of becoming successful are greater for a person who has the appropriate abilities and motives, expressed dispositions to achieve, who is already familiar with victories and believes in himself. As a rule, the corresponding personality structure is formed in childhood, and the first successes are happily experienced in the family. Although counter-scenarios are also possible, when a person who was never supported by parents and teachers, despite life circumstances, proves to himself and his former environment what he is worth.

The concept of achievement motivation has become widespread in social psychology over the past decades, although there is no consensus on what is more important for achieving success: abilities, knowledge, skills, skills or strength of motivation, the nature of the goal, the desire to work, and efforts.

The motive for success is often viewed as an autonomous need that is practically unrelated to the value orientations of the individual.

F. McClalland defines achievement motivation as the striving to demonstrate one's abilities and efforts as clearly as possible in order to achieve success. J. Atkinson, who was the first to describe in the structure of motivation the presence of not only a motive for success, but also a motive for avoiding failure, emphasizes the ability to experience pride in one's own hard work.

Male and female success

The success of a man is most often approved, perceived as what was expected, and explained primarily by his abilities. Women's success is commented on differently: the woman either tried very hard, or she was just lucky. Even the application of one's own efforts and dedication have a certain negative connotation in the eyes of those around them, which, as it were, emphasizes the lack of abilities that have to be compensated for with “eternal” female virtues: thoroughness and patience.

Such well-established stereotypes cannot but influence women's and men's interpretations of their own achievements. Men perceive themselves more as successful, value their victories more than women, who think that nothing special is happening in their lives. The main thing is that everyone should be healthy and live peacefully, and their own achievements are not so great to remember about them.

Among the personal characteristics of a person that contribute to his success, according to content analysis, the following are most often mentioned: external data, skill, talent, perseverance, dedication to his work. In the descriptions of women, appearance attracts the most attention, and in the descriptions of men they speak primarily of their skill. Among the indicators of success for men, property and money predominate, while for women - recognition of the close environment and a sense of inner satisfaction.

A successful woman is credited with such traits as kindness, taste, a sense of beauty, patience. In relation to men, most often they talk about endurance, energy, views, convictions, values.

For men, external - social - indicators of success (recognition, financial achievements) are more important, while for women - internal - individual (self-esteem, new identity). Men are more inclined to treat themselves as successful, fixing their success primarily in the public sphere, and women are still not very focused on assessing themselves as successful, except in a private sphere that is closed to outsiders.

The feminine fear of success, which has been analyzed in detail in numerous publications, has not been recorded lately in developed countries, although it still remains a domestic reality, which is directly influenced by stable stereotypes of mass consciousness.

Literature:

Social psychology of personality in questions and answers / Ed. V.A.Labunskoy: Textbook. allowance. - M., 2001.

Social Psychology. Encyclopedia. words. in 6 volumes / Ed. M. Yu. Kondratyev. - M., 2005.

Fundamentals of Social Psychology. Textbook // Ed. MM. Slyusarevsky. - K., 2008.

Psychology of personality: Dictionary-reference // Ed. P. P. Ermine, T. M. Titarenko. - K., 2001.