Understanding Intervention in Psychological Development
Postulates in Intervention
Consider psychological development as a result of the individual’s active intervention in the world through knowledge, control of their own body, and conscious action. Development involves identity as a single process, encompassing functions and psychological neuromotor skills. The complex mental abilities (analysis, synthesis, abstraction, symbolization, etc.) are based on the degree of processing of the body schema. The body is the basic dimension, the indispensable means to establish a relationship with the world. Movement is the necessary action for relational behavior.
The Means
The character of an individual’s adaptive implementation depends on their perception of the context and the subject they interact with. The adaptive success of their response depends on the effectiveness of their perceptual operation and the specific treatment of sensory information (analysis, synthesis, filtering, or organization). Only by understanding the meaning given to each element in the equation (Organism – Environment) can we ascertain the value of the action, which aims to preserve the necessary homeostatic relationship between the two for adaptation.
The World of Objects
The environment and the world consist of a cluster of objects, among which the subject’s body is one. Among them are a series of relationships governed by principles of a diverse nature that we need to understand to interact with them in the most satisfactory and effective adaptive way. The object becomes a multipurpose institution that suggests a specific relationship for each of these possibilities. Each field of application involves environmental knowledge to achieve specific goals. Regarding the world of objects, the methodology must consider that the relationships established not only involve the acquisition or use of abilities and skills but also the nature of this selection, which can be cognitive, transitive, symbolic, or affective.
The World of Others
In the world, there are not only objects, but the relationships we have with them can acquire very different characteristics when linked to others. With reference to the world of others, P. Vayer refers to the complex framework that structures this relationship and especially to the socialization processes that integrate the individual within the group and govern the interactions that occur among its members. This generic view requires certain resources of a diverse nature to establish these links, which in most cases, possess an affective, emotional, symbolic, or social aspect. Whatever the strategy chosen to achieve these objectives or reconstruct the structure and processes of socialization and relationships with others, it should be based on two basic components: empathy and body language.
The Relationship
The precise nature of the relationship, in each case, not only characterizes it but is also determined by the intentional orientation of the adaptive process. This requires the implementation of a concrete behavioral format. When we refer to the relationship, we can highlight two basic meanings: the identification of links that the subject must establish with the world and themselves as a result of the interaction, and the nature of the cognitive, emotional, affective, or symbolic content that defines this relationship. The establishment of these links of various kinds leads to four types of effects:
- The implementation of behavior that, at times, with a particular orientation, will aim to achieve a new balance between interacting elements or, sometimes, the transitive action that establishes the same elation.
- Providing the individual who acts or observes with a certain level of knowledge, whatever the character and content that characterizes the relationship.
- Ordering the adaptive context that places the individual, conditioning and establishing the limits of their own actions and, consequently, modulating their personality.
- The relationship itself contains a factor, content, and theme that make it an essential tool of communication.
Parsing of Intervention
We can draw three areas of intervention:
- Autoperception: This gives the subject an awareness of their own reality and, therefore, behavioral availability.
- Behavioral or Dynamic Organization: This enables an appropriate response to other circumstances that make up their existential context.
- The Type of Relationship Established: This will determine the most appropriate behavior to solve the equation of life, as behavior depends on the character of the relationship established between the individual and the environment.
Different Perspectives on Body Schema
Basquin
This author interprets the body schema as purely neurological, a mental representation of the body that allows the formation and implementation of operational strategies.
Psychoanalytic Orientation
The affective experiences of the body are identified with the libidinal pulse and the memorization of the experience.
Boscaini
- Body Functional: This stresses the instrumental character that provides the basic physical qualities and some of the basic psychomotor and neuromotor skills.
- Cognitive Body: This is responsible for the design of behavior as a result of a complex sensory-motor process in which information is treated according to the state of development and maturation of the cognitive apparatus and its distinguishing qualities.
- Body Tonic – Emotional and Fantasy: This results from the emotional biography of the building as a result of emotional experiences whose impact is felt both consciously and unconsciously in fantasy.
Frosting
- Body Image: The sum of all sensations and feelings related to the body (how the body feels).
- Body Schema: Body segment alignment and the tension or relaxation needed to maintain posture.
- Body Concept: Factual knowledge of the body, conditioned by the information we possess about it (for example, knowing that you have eyes, two shoulders that connect the arms to the body, etc.).