The theory of compensation has come a long way of development in close relationship with the history of the development of special education. For a long time, the basic principle of mental development was considered to be the self-development of initially incorporated abilities, therefore, in the processes of compensation, external influence was considered only as an impetus to their spontaneous development. Often the role of such a push was assigned to the word, which was attributed to a mystical effect on the human psyche.
A special place in the interpretation of the problem of compensation is occupied by the theory of overcompensation by the Austrian psychologist and psychiatrist Adler, who put forward a number of new ideas. Among them are the principle of internal unity of the psychological life of the individual and emphasizing the role of the social rather than biological factor in the mental development of a person. From Adler's point of view, man is the most biologically inept creature, so he initially has a feeling of low value. The feeling of low value is especially acutely experienced in childhood, which is the main engine of the child's mental development, and the discrepancy between what one would like creates a complex dynamic tension. Even more dramatic are the experiences of failure by children with severe physical or mental disabilities. In this case, an “inferiority complex” arises, the presence of which, depending on a number of circumstances, can block development, creating the ground for neurosis, and turn on hypercompensation mechanisms.
Self-feeling of inferiority, defectiveness, according to Adler, is a constant stimulus for a person to develop his psyche, i.e. a defect, unfitness, low value - not only a minus, but also a plus, a source of strength, an incentive to overcompensate. In an effort to overcome feelings of inferiority and assert himself among others, a person actualizes his creative abilities.
In his works, Adler cites many examples of hypercompensation, pointing out that the mechanism for its implementation is associated with a person's natural feeling of low value, on the one hand, and a pronounced motive for superiority, on the other. The desire for excellence is understood by Adler positively, as a tendency to development, to self-improvement.
Adler himself repeatedly emphasized that cases of overcompensation are not so numerous. But, even being isolated, they are valuable for science, because with unencumbered brightness they demonstrate the hidden possibilities of human nature, the ability of the individual to resist the most unfavorable conditions of his existence, to develop in spite of them.
It should be especially emphasized that in Russian psychology the fate of Adler's ideas was not easy. Individual psychology was received with enthusiasm. The peak of Adler's unprecedented popularity came in the second half of the 20s of the 15th century. A particularly strong influence of his ideas was observed in special psychology and correctional pedagogy. But the drama of the situation was that the position of overcompensation was completely misunderstood. Adlerian psychology was considered proof of the optimistic fact that almost any physical or mental disturbance automatically leads to a super developmental effect.
In connection with the spread of a distorted interpretation of the ideas of individual psychology, in 1927 Vygotsky published the article Defect and Overcompensation. This work is not critical, but exclusively analytical. Vygotsky consistently and very patiently, judging by numerous repetitions, reproduces and interprets the main provisions of hypercompensation, warning the reader against a simplified understanding. It is hardly possible to seriously assert that pathology is capable of stimulating development. If a person is in cramped conditions and achieves something, not due to illness, but only in spite of it, due to colossal volitional efforts and abilities. The idea of overcompensation is valuable in that it positively “assesses not suffering in itself, but its overcoming; not humility before a defect, but rebellion against it; not weakness in itself, but the impulses and sources of strength contained in it.
Adler's individual psychology significantly enriched the practice of teaching and educating children with physical and mental disabilities. In particular, on its basis, methods of emotional education and a system psychological help parents.
The theory of compensation of mental functions by L.S. Vygotsky. L.S. Vygotsky from his works critically analyzed the existing views on the problem of compensation for mental functions and substantiated the understanding of compensation for mental functions and substantiated the understanding of compensation as a synthesis of biological and social factors. According to Vygotsky, Adler derives the basic psychological law of the transformation of organic inferiority through the subjective feeling of low value, which is an assessment of one's social position, in the striving for compensation and overcompensation.
L.S. Vygotsky formulates the so-called law of turning a defect into a plus of compensation, according to which the positive originality of a child with deviant development is created primarily not by the fact that certain functions fall out of him, but by the fact that their loss brings new formations to life representing in their unity the reaction of the individual to the defect.
In the process of compensation and remedial education, "bypasses" of the process of the formation of the psyche are formed. Achieving in his development the same as a normal child, a deaf or blind child achieves this in a different way, by different ways and means. As Sorokin notes, the normal path of development is considered not because the result is always achieved in a certain way, and not on the basis that this method is the most economical way to achieve the desired result. Deviant development is a development forced by unfavorable conditions to take a detour, largely losing the characteristics of optimality. Achieving this or that result comes at a high psychophysiological “price”; the efforts that a child with developmental disabilities expends are significantly higher than normal.
An example is the ability for spatial orientation in persons with profound visual impairments. In children deprived of sight from an early age, some abilities are intensively developed, reaching a minimum development in the norm. For example, the "sixth sense" as the ability to catch the presence of approaching objects arises as a result of the developing ability to integrate stimuli perceived by the surviving analyzers. If for the sighted, orientation in space is relatively simple and proceeds automatically, then for the blind it is a complex act that requires serious effort. In this case, the achievement of the same result is associated with different exertion of forces, expenditure of nervous and psychic energy and, therefore, have a different "price". The consequence of this is an increase in the load falling on the central nervous system. It is no coincidence that many authors note a higher frequency of manifestation in persons with deviations in the development of neurotic symptoms, a tendency to maladjustment and a decrease in frustration tolerance.
When considering Vygotsky's theory of compensation for mental functions, several important points can be distinguished.
First, Vygotsky attached great importance to the inclusion of abnormal children in a variety of socially significant activities, the creation of active and effective forms of children's experience. As Vygotsky said, when a sense organ fails, other organs begin to perform functions that are not usually performed by them. Vision in a deaf person, touch in a blind person do not play the same role as in a person with preserved sense organs, since they must perceive and process a huge amount of information that normal people pass through in a different way. The essence of working with children who have some kind of impairment, for example in the sensory sphere, should not be in the development of their remaining organs of perception, but in more active and effective forms of children's experience.
Secondly, this is a provision on the connection between the general tasks of education and special methods, the subordination of special education to the social, their interdependence. The need for special education was not denied - teaching children with any disabilities requires special pedagogical equipment, special techniques and methods. For example, in case of hearing impairment, the issue of teaching oral speech to deaf-mute children becomes not only a special issue of the method of teaching its articulation, but also the central issue of deaf pedagogy. It is necessary as early as possible to organize the life of a child with hearing impairment in such a way that speech is necessary and interesting for him. “It is necessary to create a need for universal human speech, then speech will appear.”
Thirdly, Vygotsky saw the main way to compensate people with various disabilities in their inclusion in active labor activity, which provides the possibility of forming higher forms of cooperation. Vygotsky highly appreciated the physical possibilities of compensation, for example, in people with sensory impairments, while he believed that many types of work activities were available to such people, with the exception of some areas directly related to the primary impairment. With the right approach to business, it is thanks to the inclusion in labor activity the door to life opens, conditions are created for full integration into society.
Fourthly, Vygotsky’s position that “blindness, deafness and frequent defects do not make their wearer defective” has a deep national and practical meaning. In his opinion, it is not the defect in itself that decides the fate of the individual, but its socio-psychological implementation. Vygotsky believed that the compensatory potential of an individual is fully revealed only on the condition that the defect becomes conscious. At the same time, the level of compensation is determined, on the one hand, by the nature and degree of the defect, the reserve forces of the organism, and, on the other hand, by external social conditions. This situation is very clearly illustrated by the words of Tsiolkovsky, who had a hearing impairment since childhood: “Deafness was my chase, the whip that drove me all my life. She alienated me from people, from stereotyped happiness, made me concentrate, surrender to my science-inspired thoughts. Without her, I would never have done and completed so many works. Thus, both biological and social factors are included in the processes of compensation of mental functions.
The effect of adaptation of a child with developmental disabilities also depends on his individual characteristics. The more preserved cognitive abilities he has, the higher the effect of adaptation. Of particular importance are personal qualities: interest, positive emotional orientation to the world around, ability to voluntary activity, personality activity.
Later, in the works of domestic psychologists, the development of problems of compensation for mental functions was continued.
So far, we have been oversimplifying the matter when we assumed that a person makes decisions about his employment, paying attention only to the level of wages. In fact, people are also interested in the non-monetary aspects of their work. Other equal conditions people prefer clean and safe activities to dirty and dangerous ones. Jobs that confer power and prestige are often preferred to occupations that lack these characteristic features. I. Fischer called this kind of income mental. Therefore, we will make our model more complete by recognizing that a person offers his labor services in the type of occupation where the whole set of monetary and non-monetary (or mental according to Fisher) characteristics will bring him the highest possible level of utility.
Let's imagine a group of people with the same abilities and level of education, choosing between the work of university lecturers and managers of commercial enterprises. Let teaching have more desirable properties - less stress, flexible working hours, opportunities to communicate with educated colleagues and talented youth. If all this is true, then what type of occupation will representatives of this group of people choose if the monetary remuneration of the work of university teachers and managers of commercial enterprises is the same? Hardly anyone wants to be a manager trading company. As a result, the wages of the managers of commercial enterprises will have to increase in order to attract workers to the management of commercial enterprises. The marginal worker (the last one to accept a given occupation) will derive the same utility from both kinds of occupation.
Therefore, occupations with less desirable characteristics should bring higher monetary rewards. An additional remuneration of this kind is called a compensating wage difference. If a university teacher earns 2 million rubles. per month less than the manager of a trading enterprise, then he estimates the non-monetary characteristics of his occupation at least 2 million rubles.
Empirical research can assess compensating wage differences associated with certain features of different occupations. For example, the influence of mortality rates associated with various occupations on the level of wages. Classes were compared that required the same qualifications (education, experience), but differed in the degree of occupational risk. Compensating difference theory says that people whose jobs involve more risk will earn higher wages. One study found that an increase in mortality per 10,000 occupations resulted in a 5.5% increase in annual wages.
Compensating differences explain wage differences among occupations requiring the same skill level. Therefore, that a garbage collector earns less than a lawyer is not against the theory, although garbage collection is less pleasant than a lawyer's job. The theory predicts only that a janitor will have a higher salary than an employee with equal qualifications, but with more comfortable working conditions, for example, a janitor in a residential building.
To illustrate this, let's assume for simplicity that each occupation has a single non-monetary trait, safety, as measured by the proportion of the occupation that avoided serious harm during the year. The theory of compensating wage differences indicates that for an individual with a given skill level, the wage rate is the lower, the safer work. On fig. 13.10 curve Bx represents various combinations of wage rates and security levels (S) available to Alexander and Boris, who have the same level
qualifications (secondary education, five years of work experience). The convexity of this curve away from the origin indicates that the safer the occupation, the more expensive each additional unit of safety in terms of wages that has to be sacrificed. The indifference curve UA belongs to Alexander's indifference map, & UB belongs to Boris's indifference map. Alexander will choose an occupation with wA wage rate and security Curve B2 represents the combinations of wage rates and security levels available to Victoria and Nikolai who are more highly qualified (higher education, seven years of work experience). The C/B indifference curve characterizes Victoria's preferences, and the UH curve characterizes Nikolai's preferences. Note that Victoria's salary when she is chosen is lower than Boris's, although her qualifications are higher. The fact that Victoria is more qualified is reflected in the fact that, for every given level of security, Victoria can expect a higher wage rate than Boris (B2 lies higher than B1). Victoria prefers safe working conditions so much (steep indifference curves) and Boris is so risk-averse that Victoria's salary was lower than Boris's. However, Nikolay has both a higher salary and a safer occupation than Boris, thanks to his higher qualifications. All these observations are in accordance with the theory of compensating differences. Since B1 and Bg are negatively sloped, each individual has the choice of substituting wages for security, and vice versa. Of course, compensating differences are not the only source of differences in the wages of people with the same ability. Discrimination against workers on the basis of gender or nationality by employers can also lead to differences in wages. Finally, conditions of imperfect competition in the labor market are another source of wage differentials, especially relevant for countries with economies in transition. For example, access to some classes can be opened only with belonging to a certain clan, clan, grouping. Wage differences that compensate for "non-wage" differences in job characteristics are called compensatory wage differences. market will lead the firm to zero economic profit and to an iso-profit curve corresponding to zero profit (Fig. 6.26). The employee, in accordance with his preferences, can choose various jobs offered to him by firms, while maximizing his utility function. So, in fig. 6.3 Employees are equally satisfied with both the workplace in firm A and the workplace in firm B. At the same time, in the first case, the combination wage-risk degree is wb Rb; in the second case, w2, R2 An increase in the degree of risk by (R2-Ri) is accompanied by an increase in wages by (w2-wi), which in this case will constitute a compensatory difference. With incomplete awareness of the degree of risk (Fig. 6.6), the employee, taking wages w0, expects that he is at point K with a degree of risk R ', in fact, he is at point F, corresponding to a lower level of utility and degree of risk R „. Setting the standard R will move the worker to point D (w , R), corresponding to an even lower level of utility, but setting the labor safety standard in the range from R ”to Ro would allow the worker to improve his situation and either move to a higher level of utility compared to with the one on which it is located (R' ' lt; R lt; Ro), or, at least, remaining at the same level of utility, reduce the degree of risk (R = R”). Employees of the service sector, the middle link of bank workers, receive wages in the United States that are much inferior in terms of wages to workers in the chemical, automotive and construction industries. This situation is connected not only with the level of qualification, but also with working conditions. Inconveniences in work, the harmful nature of production must be compensated by wages. Often, workers who receive lower hourly wages have a number of benefits that are not recorded in monetary terms, but actually increase real wages. Figure 9-15 illustrates compensatory wage differences. Workers in an industry that is less attractive in terms of working conditions receive a compensatory difference of $4 per hour. It should be borne in mind that there are significant differences in wages and in the regional plan. The fact is that not all people can easily and quickly change their place of residence. This is especially difficult for the older generation. There are various institutional and other barriers to labor migration. Finally, in a number of countries labor discrimination persists based on race or ethnicity, sex, age, or religion. Although in most developed countries such discrimination is officially prohibited, in reality it still occurs. This is especially true for developing countries where the market economy is in its infancy. One thing is certain: directed actions to develop abilities, improve skills, any investment in human capital increase the possibility of obtaining higher wages. More skilled workers may receive a steady surplus income - economic rent, payment for a rare resource - their skills or abilities. Just as the leading firms receive producer surplus, the most productive workers receive economic rents. Consider the industry labor market. The supply curve of labor has a positive slope. The desire to attract additional workers to the industry is associated with increasing opportunity costs. The demand curve for labor has, as a rule, a negative slope (Fig. 9-16). Under equilibrium conditions, wages will reach the level w E . The most productive workers were ready to work, receiving a salary equal to w o , but in reality they receive w E . The difference between the minimum (reserved) price of labor
and the market price constitutes economic rent. For all workers, it is equal to the area of the triangle w o Ew E. In conditions of perfect competition, the presence of economic rent is an incentive for the influx of new workers into the industry. Therefore, in a competitive industry, the supply curve in the long run becomes perfectly elastic and economic rent disappears. However, in cases where new workers do not have the skills of old ones, economic rent can persist for a long time. This is typical for industries that attract unique human resources. Pop stars, famous film actors, famous athletes receive very high fees. Their abilities are unique, and therefore the supply of such workers is very limited (there is only one A. Schwarzenegger, only one A. Pugacheva, etc.). It is completely inelastic. As a result, the growth in demand is expressed in the growth of the price of labor, in the increase in wages. Consider Fig. 9-17. The initial demand for labor is indicated by the curve D 1, and the supply of labor - S. Under conditions of inelastic supply, the price of labor depends entirely on demand. An artist's rise in popularity means a sharp shift in the demand curve
from position D 1 to position D 2 . Thus, the fee that the artist receives increases from w 1 to w 2 . The area of the quadrilateral w 1 E 1 E 2 w 2 represents the economic rent. Economic rent-
this is a resource fee, an offer thathorn is strictly limited. It represents the difference between the actual payment for the services of a specific resource and the minimum price that must be paid in order to induce the owner of this resource to sell it. We will discuss economic rent in more detail in the next chapter.
The hedonic theory of wages suggests that a worker seeks to increase his utility by choosing a job. This utility depends both on the amount of wages and on other characteristics of the workplace (positive and negative), in relation to which the employee has preferences.
The compensatory wage differential model is based on the following assumptions:
Worker preferences are described by a utility function
U = u(W, XO,
where W - salary, X! - "non-salary" characteristics of the workplace.
Consider the case of negative characteristics on the example of the risk of injury and occupational diseases - R.
Then the employee's utility function U = u(W, R) and u'(W) gt; Oh, u'(R) lt; 0.
Worker preferences are described by a family of indifference curves (Figure 6.2a). The concavity of the curves reflects the decreasing marginal rate of wage substitution for risk.
Since risk reduction requires the employer to increase costs, employer preferences can be described by a family of iso-profit curves, their convexity reflecting diminishing marginal revenue as risk decreases. Competition for 
a) Indifference curves b) Isoprofit curve
employer's employee
Rice. 6.2. Indifference curves of employee and employer iso-profits reflecting their preferences for wages and risk of injury 
Rice. 6.3. Compensatory differences in wages for varying degrees of risk
In the market as a whole, the intersection of all possible combinations of jobs on offer produces a market wage-risk supply curve that will be positively sloped and flatter than individual firm iso-profit curves. The points of contact with the curve formed by the intersection of all possible preferences of workers form the set of wage-risk solutions (Fig. 6.4). 
Rice. 6.4. Market supply curve wage-degree
injury risk
The impact of labor protection standards on the labor market
The theory of compensatory differences in wages makes it possible to analyze the impact of labor safety standards on the labor market.
On fig. 6.5 shows the situation when labor safety standards are set with full knowledge
employees about the degree of risk. In this case, two options are possible. The first (Fig. 6.5a), when the establishment of the standard R will transfer the worker from point A (wo, Ro) to point B (w і, R) with a lower degree of risk and with a lower wage, corresponding to a lower level of utility. The second (Fig. 6.56), when the establishment of the standard R will transfer the employer to the higher iso-profit curve corresponding to lower profits, in this case the employee will also move from point A to point C (w 2, R) with lower wages, but corresponding to the level of utility on which he was. 
a) Diminishing utility b) Diminishing profits
employer's employee
Rice. 6.5. The impact of labor safety regulations with complete information about the degree of risk 
Rice. 6.6. The impact of labor safety standards with incomplete information about the degree of riskEconomic rent
