Specificity and Methods of Studying Individual Differences in the Works of V. D. Nebylitsyn

The article analyzes the scientific work of one of the most famous Russian psychologists of the 60–70s of the twentieth century, Vladimir Dmitrievich Nebylitsyn. It is emphasized that V. D. Nebylitsyn was the author of numerous psychological studies in the field of general and differential psychology. It is noted that thanks to him, the field of studying individual psychological differences between people has significantly expanded, the number of empirical studies in this area has increased. The aim of the article was to systematize the problems of higher nervous activity psychology studied by V. D. Nebylitsyn, as well as to analyze the methods of theoretical and, especially, applied research used by the scientist. Some biographical facts of V. D. Nebylitsynʼs creative path, his main achievements in the field of domestic differential psychology, as well as the most significant aspects of research activities are presented. Particular attention is paid to his characteristic of individual-typological differences in higher nervous activity, manifested in the partial properties of the nervous system, which is recognized as V. D. Nebylitsynʼs fundamental contribution to psychophysiology. It is emphasized that V. D. Nebylitsyn became one of the founders of the systemic approach to the study of the neurophysiological nature of human individuality, in particular temperament, including in its structure the general mental activity, motor skills and emotionality of the individual. At the same time, each of these components, according to the scientist, is characterized by a special structure and variety of mental manifestations. It is noted that V. D. Nebylitsynʼs great achievement in the field of methodology of psychological science was the introduction of the electrophysiological method into the experiment and the scientific substantiation of its significance. It is shown that this method made it possible to accurately study individual differences in the processes associated with human higher nervous activity. An example of such studies was the establishment of the relationship between mental activity and selfregulation of a person with general and specific properties of the nervous system, which became an important step towards systematizing the problems of differential psychology.