Abstract: analysis of scientific publications, the results of our own research on psychological stress and the characteristics of its impact on the human body from the standpoint of its biopsychosocial existence, based on the main provisions of the doctrine of the A.A. Ukhtomsky’s dominant and A. Maslow’s concept of the pyramid of needs, made it possible to substantiate the dependence of behavioral patterns of behavior depending on the characteristics of balance or imbalance of emotional and cognitive functions. Response to the impact of PS will be regulated by the balance or imbalance of emotional and cognitive functions, which will determine the hierarchy of reactions in A. Maslow’s pyramid of needs. At the same time, the primary, lower needs, located at the I and II stages, ensuring survival, will dominate the IV stage, which is responsible for meeting social needs. From the standpoint of the dominance of the cognitive function, which ensures the preservation of socially acceptable norms and rules of human behavior under the influence of PS, which occupies the IV stage in the pyramid of needs, A. Maslow will reflect the social component in the biopsychosocial concept of human existence. Demonstration of physiological affective behavior with partially retaining control of cognitive function over the response to the PS effect, which occupies stage II in A. Maslow’s pyramid of needs, as it is responsible for satisfying the need for security and generating anxiety, will correspond to the mental essence of a person as a biopsychosocial being. Accordingly, pathological affective behavior in response to PS, aimed at the implementation of the lower, unconscious instinctive reaction “fight-flight”, ensuring the survival of the organism as such, occupies the first stage in A. Maslow’s pyramid of needs and reflects the biological essence of human existence.
Keywords: cognitive function, emotional function, psychological stress, A. Maslow’s pyramid, A.A. Ukhtomsky’s dominant, physiological affect, pathological affect