Mental work (intellectual activity). Labor intensity as a quantitative characteristic of mental work


Noun, number of synonyms: 3 intellectual (11) intellectual (10) ... Synonym dictionary

Physiology of labor- is a science that studies the functioning of the human body during work. Its task is to develop principles and norms that contribute to the improvement and improvement of working conditions, as well as standardization of labor. Physiology is the science of... ... Wikipedia

Physiology of labor- a section of physiology that studies the patterns of physiological processes and the features of their regulation during human labor activity, i.e. the labor process in its physiological manifestations. F. t. solves two main problems: ... ... Great Soviet Encyclopedia

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EQUIPMENT AS A MEANS OF LABOR- is understood as a system of means aimed at achieving certain goals. But technology is neutral in relation to the goal and can be used as an effort-saving, mediator. It serves economic satisfaction... ... Philosophy of Science and Technology: Thematic Dictionary

Mental retardation

Mental retardation- Mental retardation ICD 10 F70. F79. ICD 9 317 ... Wikipedia

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Books

  • Compilation, translation and study of the 4 Gospels. In 3 parts (in one book), L. N. Tolstoy. Lifetime edition. St. Petersburg, 1906. Printing house of the Partnership I. N. Kushnerev and Co. Owner's binding. The condition is good. The period of work on translation and research of the Gospels...

There is an opinion that mental work is easier and more prestigious than physical work. We think many people have heard: “If you don’t take up your studies, you’ll work hard all your life” or “ " For some, these are serious arguments to sit down with books and, ultimately, receive a guarantee of a profitable and dust-free job - a diploma. Someone, on the contrary, believes that strong hands will always find work, and poring over a textbook is the lot of white-handed people and weaklings. will dot all the i’s so that you don’t choose your future profession in captivity of stereotypes.

What is the difference between mental and physical labor?

Brainwork is a mental activity consisting of reviewing and summarizing information that must be changed in a certain way. For example, we are faced with a task, and in order to complete it correctly, we must analyze the condition, build a solution algorithm, having previously selected and synthesized the necessary knowledge.

The basis physical labor constitute human muscular efforts aimed at transforming the surrounding world.

In fact, such a strict distinction is conditional. Essentially, these are two sides of the same coin. In primitive times, such a division simply did not exist: in order to catch a mammoth, you had to use your brain, think through a plan of action, organize a trap and, of course, give it your all.


Over time, society was divided into poor and rich, and hard physical labor became the lot of the former, and mental labor - the privilege of the latter. This situation persisted for centuries.

In the 21st century, the share of mental work has increased significantly and continues to increase due to the constant growth of information. The development of technology has made it possible for people to make their work much easier.

But this does not mean that mental work is completely devoid of physical activity and vice versa. We are talking, rather, about the predominance of one type of activity over another.


Disadvantages of mental work

During mental work, our brain is not only regulating (as in physical work), but also the main working organ, therefore intellectual stress affects the state of the central nervous system and overall well-being in general.

Mental work always causes nervous and emotional stress. And if you organize the work process incorrectly, you can drive yourself to exhaustion and neurosis. A sedentary lifestyle, characteristic of this type of activity, can also play a cruel joke: weight gain, disorders of the musculoskeletal system, etc. You definitely need to arrange breaks for yourself and exercise sessions. A healthy body not only has a healthy mind, but also a healthy brain. So, if you have health problems, mental work will not save the situation.


The benefits of physical labor

Physical activity improves brain function and the condition of our body as a whole. It’s much more pleasant to solve any problem, feeling cheerful and full of energy, than terribly tired and with a sore head, you’ll agree.

Physical labor has the same beneficial effect on the body as playing sports. Moderate loads strengthen the body, but you should be careful here: any strength has a limit and you should not test it.

The work may involve performing the same type of operations, which are reproduced automatically over time. In this case, the problem arises of what to do with your head. The answer is simple: it needs to be loaded with useful information and entertaining puzzles. In my free time, read books, solve crosswords, solve a Rubik's cube - in general, do whatever your heart desires. Otherwise, work may soon become boring.


In both cases, you need to properly organize your daily routine, workload and nutrition. When working mentally, you should eat fatty fish (trout, salmon, sardines), porridge (oatmeal and rice), tomatoes and all types of cabbage, walnuts, eggs. Sweets in moderation won't hurt either. And during physical activity - baked goods, potatoes, pasta, meat, eggs, fish. Alternate mental and physical work, then work will be joyful and beneficial.

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Mental (intellectual) work

Mental work combines work related to the reception and transmission of information, requiring activation of the processes of thinking, attention, and memory.

Mental work consists of processing and analyzing a large volume of varied information, and as a consequence of this, the mobilization of memory and attention, the frequency of stressful situations. However, muscle loads are usually insignificant; daily energy consumption is 10-11.7 MJ (2000-2400 kcal) per day.

This type of work is characterized by a significant decrease in motor activity (hypokinesia), which leads to cardiovascular pathology; prolonged mental stress depresses the psyche, impairs the functions of attention and memory. The main indicator of mental work is tension, which reflects the load on the central nervous system.

Forms of mental labor are divided into operator, managerial, creative work, the work of medical workers, the work of teachers, students and students. They differ in the organization of the labor process, the uniformity of the workload, and the degree of emotional stress.

Forms of mental work.

Camera work

In the conditions of modern multifactor production, the functions of management and control over the operation of technological lines, the processes of product distribution and customer service come to the fore. For example, the work of a wholesale warehouse dispatcher or the chief administrator of a supermarket is associated with processing a large amount of information in a short time and increased neuro-emotional tension.

Managerial work (managers of enterprises, institutions). It is characterized by a large increase in the volume of information with a lack of time to process it, great personal responsibility for decisions made, stressful and conflict situations.

Creative work (scientists, writers, designers, artists, painters). The most complex form, as it requires a large amount of memory, tension, and attention. Leads to increased neuro-emotional tension, tachycardia, increased blood pressure, ECG changes and other changes in autonomic functions.

The work of teachers, trade and medical workers, workers in all service sectors - constant contact with people, increased responsibility, frequent lack of time and information to make the right decision, which leads to high nervous and emotional stress.

The work of pupils and students. Concentration of memory and attention is required. There are stressful situations (exams, tests).

The weight of the brain is 2% of the body weight, and it consumes energy (15 - 20)% of the total metabolism in the body. 100 g of the cerebral cortex consumes 5 - 6 times more oxygen than skeletal muscle of the same weight during physical work.

Daily energy expenditure during mental work increases by 48% when reading aloud while sitting; 90% when giving lectures; by 90-100% for computer operators. In addition, the brain is prone to inertia, because after stopping work, the thought process continues, mental work does not stop, which leads to greater fatigue and exhaustion of the central nervous system than during physical labor.

Physiologist N.E. Vvedensky (1852 - 1922) developed issues of hygiene of mental labor and recommended the following conditions to ensure high performance:

the need for gradual involvement in work;

strict rhythm of work, equally excluding both overwork and inactivity;

consistency and systematicity of mental work;

correct alternation of work and rest.

It is not easy to define mental work, since its result cannot always be obtained in material embodiment; often only sheets of paper, drawings and formulas yellowed with time remain for descendants, as the fruits of many years of efforts of a genius. To define the concept of mental work, let’s turn to different information sources.

Mind- WITH human ability to think, the basis of conscious, intelligent life ( WITH m.: Ozhegov WITH

Work

1. Purposeful human activity aimed at creating material and spiritual values ​​with the help of production tools. Mind physical t. Physical t. 2. Work, occupation. 3. U effort directed towards achieving something. 4. The result of an activity, work, work. 5. Instilling skills in some professional, economic activity. ( WITH m.: Ozhegov WITH.I., Shvedova N.Yu. Explanatory dictionary of the Russian language)

Mind creative work, intellectual work ( I intellectual labor; Mental labor) - work activity in which:

 the organ that creates the product is the brain;

 mental energy costs predominate;

 the product of labor is information formatted in a certain way.

It follows that

Mind creative work – mental activity, the product of which is information formatted in a certain way (www.glossary.ru)

Mind Real labor is a purely human sphere of activity. If we consider the entire labor activity of a person as an object of study, then mental work will be the subject of our study, since training and education are unthinkable without a clear understanding of the characteristics of this type of labor activity.

Intelligentsia and intellectual property

Who does mental work? Each profession has its own workshop, its own workshop affiliation, and the bearers of this profession. Mind real work rightfully belongs to the intelligentsia.

Intelligentsia– people of mental work with education and special knowledge in various fields of science, technology and culture; social class of people engaged in such work ( WITH m.: Ozhegov WITH.I., Shvedova N.Yu. Explanatory dictionary of the Russian language).

Understand e intelligentsia comes from the Latin word intelligens, which means “understanding, thinking, reasonable.” As is commonly believed, the word “intelligentsia” was introduced by the ancient Roman thinker Cicero. There is another approach, the most popular in Russian social philosophy, according to which those who can be considered the moral standard of society are considered the intelligentsia. And this is no coincidence. According to academician D. WITH. Likhachev, for “the education of the intelligentsia it is necessary... to combine university knowledge with free thinking and free ideological behavior.” But the question arises: to what extent is the worldview of the modern intelligentsia moral? Unfortunately, the fruits of mental labor can be both useful and destructive, and sometimes simply terrible, which has been confirmed more than once by history.

What is the final product of mental labor? This is the intellectual property of a thinking person.

Intellectual property- a product of human mental activity, created in the form of inventions, works of science, literature, art and other objects of mental labor and fixed on paper or technotronic information media. ( WITH Vol. 1 of the Model Law “On Archives and Archive Funds”, adopted by a resolution of the Inter-Parliamentary Assembly of the Participating States WITH Commonwealth of Independent States dated April 3, 1999 No. 13-9. (Interparliamentary Assembly Newsletter WITH NG, 1999, No. 21).

Of course, all these terms and definitions are directly related to the work of the teacher transmitting his knowledge and the student receiving education at a higher educational institution. Mental work will become even more important when a specialist who graduates from Alma Mater begins his career as a manager, psychologist, economist, lawyer, translator or programmer. High technologies associated primarily with mental work, humanization and informatization, improving the quality of life of each member of society require high productivity from knowledge workers, the new intelligentsia. Moreover, one of the most important tasks of an intellectual is to maintain and increase “clarity of mind” constantly and unchanged throughout his entire working life. U Now it is absolutely clear that the leaders in the world economy and the leaders in living standards will be those countries that provide the highest productivity of mental labor.

Brainwork.
Features of intellectual work.

Characteristics of mental work:

Mental work (intellectual work) includes activities related to the reception and processing of information, requiring intense functioning of the processes of attention, memory, thinking, and emotional sphere.

Scientific and technological progress increases every year the number of people performing primarily mental work.

Many professions with a traditional predominance of physical labor currently have a strong tendency to increase the share of the mental component.

Most modern professions are characterized by an accelerated pace, a sharp increase in the volume of information, a lack of time for making decisions, and an increase in the social significance of these decisions and personal responsibility.

These factors often lead to nervous overload, and as a result, to the occurrence of cardiovascular and nervous diseases.

Main types of mental work:

The main types of mental labor in modern production can be divided into the following groups:

Features of intellectual work:

A scientific analysis of the prevalence of neuropsychic and cardiovascular diseases among mental workers indicates that intense mental activity in itself, not complicated by negative emotional factors, does not have an adverse effect on the human body. With relatively calm, regulated (as a rule, without time pressure), intellectual work of designers, cardiovascular morbidity is low (in particular, 2 times lower than for telephone operators, whose work is associated with time pressure and a high emotional background). The most emotionally stressful work in modern production conditions is the work of executives, in whom hypertension and coronary heart disease reach 40-50% and occur at a relatively younger age.

Among the risk factors for cardiovascular pathology in mental workers, in addition to increased neuro-emotional tension, experts identify hypokinesia, monotony, high pace, three-shift work schedule, excess weight, smoking, and hereditary predisposition. Of these, occupational factors lead to heart and vascular diseases 5 times more often than all other risk factors combined.

Special studies show that negative emotiogenic factors cause pathology in mental workers much more often than in manual workers. People forced to suppress their desire to “discharge” put themselves at risk of illness. Some people cling to the deceptive appearance of relief that alcohol or drugs provide. And the solution is simple: regular physical activity (at least in the form of long, fast walks).

Let us consider in more detail the mechanisms of mental activity (features of intellectual work).

During mental work, the brain is not only a regulatory, but also a working organ, therefore the influence of intellectual stress affects primarily the functional state of the central nervous system. The main condition for a stable labor process during mental work is the development and maintenance of a stable dominant, which devalues ​​a high level of performance.

The doctrine of dominance is confirmed today. The phenomenon of dominance is explained by the formation of a center of increased excitability in the central nervous system: stimulation of a wide variety of receptive fields begins to cause a reflex response characteristic of the activity of this particular dominant area. The dominant is a temporary association (constellation or constellation) of nerve centers and other structures of the body to achieve a goal that is extremely necessary for the body. If the specified goal is achieved and the problem is solved, the dominant ceases to exist and the association disintegrates.

It should be noted that mental activity is not realized by the entire brain as a whole, the different parts of which function very differently. Certain morphophysiological substrates, which are complex functional systems and include numerous cortical and subcortical structures, correspond to types of mental activity that differ in content. A variety of mental processes are accompanied by activation of the corresponding functional system. In this case, both specific (in particular, sensory) and nonspecific (reticular formation) brain structures are activated. During mental activity, local activation develops in many areas of the brain. If generalized, general changes in brain activity accompany any type of mental activity, then local activation processes develop in the corresponding areas of the cortex and subcortical formations with all the variety of activities: perception, memorization, thinking, movements.

Any mental work causes neuro-emotional stress. Each type of activity requires its own optimum of emotional stress, at which the body’s reactions are most perfect and effective. Under the influence of the social environment, a person’s emotional apparatus has reached a high degree of development, is extremely complex and reacts not so much to physiological stimuli as to complex and subtle socio-psychological motives, largely determined by professional activity. Especially often, emotional stress arises in a person in the process of evaluative activity (choosing alternatives) and organizing new types of activities in accordance with the dominant need. Emotional activation is essential when solving complex mental problems. Emotions always act as an organizer of purposeful mental activity, although the presence of activation does not guarantee the achievement of the right result, and excessive overexertion can cause a breakdown.

Intensity of mental activity is a characteristic of work that reflects the physiological cost of the load during mental work. The main reason for increased tension and resulting violations of adequate regulation of functions is overload of the sensitive (afferent), central and executive (effector) links of the functional systems that carry out labor activities. This occurs, in particular, when a person distinguishes signals with similar parameters, attempts to isolate a useful signal from noise, performs extremely precise and clear movements, and the need to make a decision with an alternative choice under time pressure.

Certain semantic characteristics of work activity also lead to a certain tension: the significance of the work, its danger, responsibility.

Success in modern work activity largely depends on the personal characteristics of a knowledge worker. Business qualities (the ability to navigate a difficult situation, efficiency, literacy, etc.) can be determined and predicted using multifactor personality questionnaires, in particular the 16-factor personality questionnaire (R. Cattell), the standardized method of personality research (SMIL), some others. For information, along with psychological questionnaires, there are currently a very large number of survey companies on the Internet offering everyone paid questionnaires. That is, survey companies pay money to fill out their questionnaires. At the same time, the topics of surveys can be completely different, including, for example, “On medical prevention of occupational diseases,” as well as many others.

When analyzing the personalities of leaders of leading enterprises using psychological questionnaires, it was found that their most pronounced qualities were persistence in achieving goals, responsibility, discipline and even conformism. For a group of experienced foremen and foremen in production shops, the most characteristic features were self-confidence, conscientiousness, responsibility, and balance. At the same time, a correlation analysis between the factors of the questionnaire and the level of blood pressure in the examined persons of managerial intellectual work showed that increased sensitivity and suspicion contribute to the disease of hypertension and coronary heart disease.

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