“How to survive in a crisis!” Everyone, consciously or not, asks themselves this question every day. It is asked by business owners meeting at expert magazine events and exhibitions, by housewives in the kitchen and in the supermarket, by clients who come to the company office, by pensioners at the market, and by students in the canteen. My clients have asked me this question many times. It is customary in times of economic crisis to look for answers to the question of survival in the field of finance and economics. Since I am not a financial advisor, I could not give real advice in this area. I found the answer in the field of knowledge in which I am an expert, in psychotechnology. Since the article is devoted to ways of surviving during an economic crisis, I think it is appropriate to agree on what the concepts used below mean. For a reader who does not want to go deeper into this, it is better to immediately proceed to reading the anti-crisis recommendations by following the link: If you are interested, we invite you to continue! In sociology, political science and economic science there is the concept of Economic Man - this is “the idea of ​​a person as a rationally thinking subject who makes his plans and actions based on the principle of obtaining maximum benefit” (Raizberg B.A., Lozovsky L.Sh., Starodubtseva E.B.. Modern economic dictionary. - 2nd ed., revised M.: INFRA-M. 1999) A more extensive definition is given in the book “Politics. Explanatory Dictionary" under the general editorship of Doctor of Economics. Osadchey I.M. ECONOMIC MAN (sometimes "rational economic man") An individual who uses his labor or his resources in the market in his own interests. An imaginary person about whom sociologists have long been debating. The battles are noisy and sharp, but they usually lead nowhere due to the confusion that the two meanings of the term give rise to. In a narrow sense, he is a reasonable egoist; in a broad sense, he is a reasonable person, but not necessarily an egoist, always acting in accordance with the generally accepted principles of conformist economic theory. ...At a less abstract level, economic man is believed to prefer a larger quantity of a good to a smaller one, however... (the next unit of a good will become a less valuable acquisition for him than the previous one). If we consider the problem in a more general sense, then, when choosing from two different sets of goods, the more an individual already has of one good, the more of it he wants to have in order to compensate for the loss of a unit of another." "Psychologists have shown that individuals do not follow ... the sequence of choice when its “framework” changes (for example, people are ready to take risks when there is a choice between the possibility of winning and remaining in the same position, but do not take risks when one has to choose between staying in the same position and loss)” “Economic man - in the broadest sense of this term - tends to give maximum value to utility, however, if financial assistance to Somalia makes him happier than anything else, he gives money to Somalia. The economic man - in the narrow sense - pays too much attention to personal well-being. A common criticism of economic theory is its premise that most people are (or, worse, should be) economic people in the narrow sense of the term. Economists, in turn, justify themselves by asserting that an economical person is in fact always economic in the broad sense of the term.” So, we have become acquainted with how economists and sociologists see a person in his economic form. Now let's move on to the concept of economic man in the psychological sense. In order to engage in economic activity (work, handle money, produce, consume, manage a household, etc.), a person must have an appropriately developed function. Each of us has a subpersonality that is formed from childhood and develops throughout our lives, which can conventionally be called an Economic Man. Naturally, the meaning of this concept is somewhat different than in the above-mentionedsciences. To make the meaning of the subpersonality of the Economic Man and his role in the economic life and activity of a person clearer, I will say a few words about what lies under the concept of subpersonality. “Subpersonality is a convenient model ... that does not claim the status of an original. When they talk about subpersonality “, they mean a certain set of attitudes, behavioral stereotypes, beliefs, drives, etc., which takes on a holistic, discernible form only in our consciousness” - this is the definition given to mental education by the founder of psychosynthesis, Roberto Assagioli. The number and characteristics, personification of subpersonalities vary from person to person of people. This depends on the characteristics of the individual, life experience, childhood history, the level of development of a person’s imagination and much more. A developed subpersonality has its own portrait, peculiarities of physiology, posture, movements, intonation and facial expressions peculiar only to it, its own history, its own beliefs and realized values. An example of bureaucracies that are, so to speak, well-known can be “critic”, “idea generator”, “practitioner-implementer”, activated during brainstorming sessions that Walt Disney successfully used in his time when developing new products for the animation studio. Another example is the well-known psychological and social model from transactional analysis, the Krapman Triangle, consisting of a “victim”, a “persecutor” and a “rescuer”. Subpersonalities become participants in internal conflicts, cause ambivalence of a person’s feelings and desires, as a result, a decrease in the quality of life and low efficiency of economic activity. Subpersonality is a convenient way to communicate with yourself and organize yourself: “Spender, I ask you not to tempt me to go shopping today!” At the same time, the Spender, fueling the desire of the main personality to try on, try, bargain, calculate, buy, enjoy what was purchased... defends some personal values, for example, satisfies the emotional hunger of a person in this way. But at the same time, in a literal, economic sense, it ruins the owner! Subpersonalities are automatically involved, a person is not aware of them and, as a result, does not control them. This automatism often leads to the fact that the values ​​realized by the subpersonality or the methods of their implementation (or both together) are outdated and do not correspond to the context of the situation, although they were useful (sometimes they were the only option for behavior) in the past. The success of a person in his career, business, and ordinary economic activities depends on the state of the Economic Man subpersonality. Agree, each of us can remember an effective businessman and not so much, a good housewife and not so much, an excellent caretaker and not so much. In our time, Economic Man has begun to develop from an increasingly earlier age. Children are becoming more and more aware of prices, they know how to receive money from their parents (and this is also not an easy job), they know how to manage it (not one of them threw away these pieces of paper, confusing it with garbage), they are more and more efficient in consumption (but, alas, they are less and less efficient in production of results, who wants to do the work of a janitor on a subbotnik, but don’t even ask about weeding the garden at the dacha) Economic Man is a complex mental formation that becomes more complex along with the complication of economic life in society. Do you agree that just recently few people knew that you could make money on the stock exchange through speculation? What is speculation? A very ambiguous concept! Do I have the right to speculate (perceived as a synonym for “deceive”) if all my ancestors were honest workers? So the individual has to resolve this value conflict within himself if a person wants to make money from currency trading. And the question of economic risk! What about the question of rational and emotional when making an investment decision? What about the question of fairness and the right to remuneration for an ordinary sales manager? The question is, what to do to survive the economic crisis...! Let's turn to academic psychology, what does it think abouteconomic man? The materials presented below are taken from the work of E.V. Ankudinova “Economic socialization as a psychological phenomenon”, published in the 11th issue of the TSPU Bulletin. She writes: “Considering the existing types of personalities, scientists have identified a type of economic person, which is characterized by “creativity, practicality, desire to the usefulness of cognition and activity, the activity of thinking” (E. Spranger) B.G. Ananyev considered economic status in the structure of personality, considering it one of the fundamental structural elements that allow a person to adapt to the economic world around him. “An economic person is characterized by economic behavior (his activities as an economic entity), economic consciousness, economic roles, which together is a manifestation of subpersonality Economic Man. Economic behavior is determined by the perception, comprehension and understanding of the situation in which a person finds himself, followed by his economic actions. How timely a person perceived, comprehended and understood the threats of increasing economic instability will determine whether he will take out a high-interest loan or moderate his consumer claims! But how many have been tempted by these advertising phrases about long terms, small interest rates, and large dividends?! But this is only a conversation about a certain rational component. And how many people perceived, comprehended, understood, but did not realize, did not accept reality. What got in the way? This is where attitudes, experience, emotions, values, prejudices, complexes, perception filters, preferred unconscious strategies, etc. come to light. “bumps” on the road to an individual’s economic efficiency. The behavior of an Economic Man can be analyzed using a three-component scheme: - a cognitive component, which determines what theoretical knowledge a person has on a specific issue, what ideas he has formed or learned - an emotional component, which determines a person’s subjective attitude to the situation, his feelings are an effective-dynamic component that determines the specific actions and actions of a person. A.V. Boyarintseva, based on the person’s preferred attitude towards himself and others, from the model of personal success, identified several basic models of the manifestation of the Economic Man: - taking model, the essence of which is to submit to the stronger for the sake of obtaining one’s own benefit; mastering, exploiting - taking everything you need, subjugating the weaker; saving, acquisitive - accumulating wealth by not spending money and maintaining emotional alienation from people; exchanging, market - creating an attractive an image that promotes effective contacts with people. Which model is closer to you, have you wondered? It is clear that in reality there are no pure types; in different areas of a person’s economic activity he will demonstrate his favorite models. The psychological trap is that they can already limit a person’s economic efficiency, rather than contribute to his success. And he, poor thing, thinks: “I do everything as before, bought it cheaper, sold it more expensive, but it doesn’t work!” (entrepreneur) or “Why am I not within the budget...rubles, I’ve always cooked this way?” (housewife) or “Somehow before, with the same actions, there were twice as many clients?!” (company manager) The key to survival in ancient times of our species was the ability to adapt! Nothing has changed even now. Just not the jungle, predators and weather elements, but a market economy - a world for adaptation, adaptation. The level of adaptability of the Economic Man determines his success in satisfying all levels of individual needs, from basic to higher! Now a few words about the economic crisis! The crisis in the economy and personality! At first glance, it’s not very logical! Here is the economic crisis and the economy of the state, business, company - a direct destructive impact inall the diversity is evident! The economic crisis seems distant and virtual to many. But the state, the company consists of people, it has no other thinking heads and doing hands, except for the heads and hands of its employees. Thus, the economic crisis breaks through the pressure of the boundaries of the state, company, business and indirectly tests the strength of the psychological boundaries of each person. It affects the state of the Economic Man in each of us. It doesn’t matter whether a housewife manages a budget of one month’s salary of her husband and is afraid of not paying it off, a student is worried about tomorrow’s employment and obtaining a guaranteed source of income, a businessman is torn between options for economic decisions, a trader is excitedly analyzing graph curves, or someone else! It doesn’t matter who is involved in what economic activity, during a crisis we all acutely feel those invisible cause-and-effect threads that connect us with the economy as a whole. These threads become titanium and tighten. Marvelous. For some reason the expression “on the neck” came up! Maybe there are lucky people who have less acute impressions of growing inflation, catastrophic rise in prices, cuts, ruin, growing uncertainty and unpredictability with payments, taxes, and expenses? Since the economic crisis predetermines the future, a person constantly consciously looks into it through forecasts, news analysis, and predictions. Unconsciously, he does the same, looks at pictures of the future in his imagination. But because of the general negative news, the effect of emotional contagion, the real daily deterioration of things, these films are predominantly catastrophic in content. Therefore, at the stage when the crisis begins and develops, anxiety and fear predominate. When the crisis reaches its peak, reaches a plateau and declines, along with the above, depressive states begin to predominate. There are also cases when the psyche cannot cope and a person sees the only way out for himself - illness (psychosomatics) or death. The company counts on the efficient work of its employees. And those, being in the grip of negative emotions, can they work with full efficiency? Productivity is falling, demotivation is growing, business profitability is falling, employees... And so the crisis finally moves into the heads and emotions of people, and increasingly into the company’s field! The company is getting poorer and is unable to provide employees with guarantees. A pathological cycle arises. And the family as an economic system falls into the same trap! When things become more difficult for the economy as a whole, things become worse for the Economic Man in each of us. And his role cannot be underestimated! After all, this role is key in satisfying basic needs. Even a free concert of a world-class star will not give you pleasure if there is hunger in your stomach that is not your aunt! You won’t be able to fulfill your aesthetic needs in art if you don’t earn money for tickets! If the Economic Man, relatively speaking, is not healthy, has fallen into psychological traps, is fighting in an internal conflict, then all other roles (mother, spouse, father, friend, sexual partner, specialist, son, etc.) suffer, the personality cannot cope with the stress real life, makes inadequate decisions, gets disastrous results. The consequences in the form of a collapsed career or business, financial collapse, a destroyed family, the invasion of diseases, and lost identity are not long in coming. In this case, it is optimal to contact an anti-crisis psychologist. On the one hand, this is a specialist who is knowledgeable in economic psychology, business and the laws of personality functioning in an organization, on the other hand, he has psychotherapeutic techniques, especially in the field of working with personal crisis states. You can, of course, resort to self-help! But it always sounds strange to me that, as self-help, a person decided to perform an ophthalmological operation on his own, or decided to independently repair a complex household appliance.?