Competition as a metacategory of modern psychology. Part 1

The article presents the results of years of theoretically-methodological and psycholinguistic research and the role of the concept of «competition» in the psychological and interdisciplinary contexts. The concept of «competition» is considered as one of the basic metacategory in psychology and other human sciences, along with the concepts of “activity”, “communication” and “conflict”. After the psychosemantic research of concept “competition” it was established its intermediate position between the terms “race” and “conflict”. It was revealed the homonymous and context dependence of this concept, as well as the concept of “conflict”: in some cases competition is understood to be “situation”, and in others - the “strategy of behavior”. It were presented arguments in favor of the insufficiency of use of the category “conflict” for early warning of destructive forms of human interaction. Introduction to psychological practice the concepts of “competition” and “competitive environment” is regarded as a relevant way to the enrichment and analytical development of categorical apparatus of general psychological theory of activity. It is explained by the significant role of explicit or implicit competition in most human activities and behavior of animals. It was assumed that a new field of interdisciplinary research - “competitive analysis” must deal with identifying of the motives and strategies; there psychologists should have to perform a key role.