The solution of the problem of a person’s system diagnostics

At first sight it may seem that the selection and systematization of available diagnostic techniques and devices will be enough to solve the problem of a person’s system diagnostics. Closer analysis shows insufficiency and sometimes unacceptability of such approach because of the great number of their typical disadvantages.

First of all, serious disadvantages caused by non-use of system approach are revealed while creating the diagnostic techniques and diagnostic equipment (Yu. A. Tsagarelly, 1989). Thus, the non-use of system-structural approach leads to the incompleteness of the diagnostics. The practice of musicality diagnostics widely spread in musical educational institutions, is a typical example. Of six components of musicality only three are traditionally diagnosed because of the absence of ideas of its structure, and that is extremely incomplete. The diagnostics of such important qualities as musical thinking, musical imagination, emotional response on music is left “behind the board”. Those abilities, which researchers deal with, are diagnosed incompletely. For example when we take a musical rhythmic ability, they diagnose only one of its three components – the ability to percept a rhythmic figure. The diagnostics of abilities to percept meter and tempo relations is missed.

The non-use of system-functional approach leads to the non-validity of the diagnostics because of the wrong comprehension of functional essence of investigated quality. For example many teachers and psychologists erratically interpret the inner musical hearing as a variety of musical hearing, i.e. as a function of perception. It causes a number of unsuccessful attempts of diagnosing and developing it as an acoustical perception. But system-functional analysis shows that inner hearing is not a perception at all. Because there is no any phenomenon of sound oscillations perception as they have no external physical source – some shaking body. The internal musical-acoustical representations are formed on the basis of circulation of impulses on self-contained nervous chains of the brain or on the basis of biochemical changes in albuminous molecules of nervous cells. In these cases there appear reproductive acoustical representations that are function of musical memory (short-term – in the first case, and long-term – in the second). Another way of the origin of acoustical representations is the formation of new neuronic links during processing the information. So there appear productive acoustical representations which are the function of musical thinking.

The non-use of system-genetic approach causes a tangle in defining the importance (hierarchical status) of investigated qualities. Because of this less important component is investigated more profoundly than more important one.

Secondly, some disadvantages caused by poor registration of principles of system approach are revealed. So, the principle of modeling is obviously insufficiently taken into account. Because of this for the diagnostics of qualities which are displayed in extreme situation (of reliability, psycho-emotional steadiness, stability) they often use situations making harm to examinees’ psyche (instead of using the simplified model of extreme situation).

Ignoring the postulate of integrity (the principle of physics) often leads to the separation of investigating methods chosen by psychologists, to the variegation (fragmentariness) of the received results and conclusions.

Many diagnostic techniques don’t formulate the examinee’s purpose of activity concretely, that is connected with insufficient taking into account the principle of purpose conditionality.

A number of techniques don’t take into account the principle of purposefulness and that’s why they discount the examinee’s ability to predict the logic of experiment, etc.

Thirdly, the deficit of psycho-diagnostic equipment often leads to a hyper-trophied role of blank methods. They try to investigate the qualities of all the levels of a person’s structure without exceptions with their help. However, it the use of blank methods while studying social and socio-psychological qualities is justified, it is unreasonable to diagnose somatic and psycho-physiological qualities using the same method. Because subjective sensations of a body’s temperature or the degree of activation of cerebral hemispheres can’t replace exact instrumental investigations. Besides not all the examinees have adequate self-appraisal which is the basis of blank testing. There also may be insincere answers.

In fourth, there are some cases when even good techniques stop working because they are used in different conditions without adapting. So when doing Lusher’s color test they show the colors that essentially differ from the original. Low qualified translations of the questionnaires into foreign languages and poor registration of local mentality in their contents cause their wrong comprehension and non-adequate answers.

In fifth, poor industrial release of psycho-diagnostic equipment leads to unsatisfactory standardization, low availability. Besides this equipment, as a rule, is created for scientific investigations and is not used for mass and complex practical psychology.

Taking into account the above-mentioned, we have formulated the criteria (principles) of selection and creation of the methods and equipment for a person’s system diagnostics.