Throughout life, personality development occurs evenly. Personal development

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Personality development
PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT - change in its quantitative and quality properties. - this is the development of her worldview, self-awareness, attitude to reality, character, abilities, mental processes, accumulation of experience. There are a number of steps in individual development person: early childhood, preschool, primary school, adolescence, youth, mature, elderly. The historical-evolutionary approach examines the interaction between nature, society and the individual. In this scheme biological properties personality (for example, type nervous system, inclinations) act as impersonal prerequisites for personality development, which in the process life path become the result of this development, and society acts as a condition for the implementation of activities during which a person joins the world of culture. The basis and driving force for personal development is joint activity in which the individual assimilates given social roles.

List of random tags:
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Gall Franz - Gall Franz (1758 - 1828) - German doctor, creator of phrenology. According to his ideas, mental functions are determined by the development of the cerebral cortex, as evidenced by the irregularities of the skull.
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The unity of consciousness and activity - UNITY OF CONSCIOUSNESS AND ACTIVITY - is the initial principle of Marxist psychologists, the essence of which is the recognition of the priority of a person’s objective activity over his psyche. Consciousness as a reflection of reality is manifested and formed in activity. Activity without consciousness is deprived of orientation and reflexivity. Consciousness without connection with objective activity inevitably degenerates into abstraction or creeping empiricism. It is in the course of activity that the image, the ideal plan, is objectified and materialized. E.s. and etc. acts as a principle of research among many Marxist psychologists. Experimentally, they showed that in activity sensations, perceptions, memory, thinking, imagination develop, knowledge, emotional and volitional processes, and abilities are formed. Unilaterally postulating the principle of the unity of the psyche and activity, many Soviet psychologists lost sight of the fact that *... activity is organized and directed by psychology... the psyche is necessary condition activities...*
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A. Bergson's Theory of Memory - A. Bergson's Theory of Memory is a concept that distinguishes two types of memory: habit memory, or body memory, which is based on physiological brain processes, and recollection memory, or memory of the spirit, unrelated to brain activity.

Personal development is a lifelong process. It is a way for people to evaluate their skills and qualities, reflect on their life goals and set new ones to realize and maximize their potential. This page will help you identify the skills needed to set life goals that can improve your job prospects, boost your self-confidence and lead to a more fulfilling, high-quality life. Plan and make meaningful, positive and effective life decisions for your future to ensure personal empowerment.

Although early development and early development in the family, at school, etc. can help shape us as adults, personal development doesn't have to stop until later in life. This page contains information and advice designed to help you think about your personal development and how you can work to achieve your goals and reach your full potential .Personal Development" and "Personal Empowerment" are two areas that overlap and intertwine, so we encourage you to read this page in conjunction with our "Personal Empowerment" page.

Why is personal development important?

There are many ideas related to personal development, one of which is Abraham Maslow's process of self-actualization.

Self-realization

Maslow (1970) suggests that all people have a built-in need for personal development, which occurs through a process called self-actualization.

The extent to which people can develop depends on the satisfaction of certain needs, and these needs form a hierarchy. A higher level of need can only be achieved if one level of need is satisfied. However, as changes occur throughout life, the level of need motivating a person's behavior at any given time will also change.

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs: Physiological needs, safety needs, love and belonging, aesthetic needs, cognitive needs, and self-actualization needs.

• At the bottom of the hierarchy are the basic physiological needs for food, drink, sex and sleep, i.e. survival basics.
• Secondly, there are safety and security needs, both physically and economically.
• Third, progress can be made in satisfying the need for love and belonging.
• The fourth level relates to satisfying the need for self-esteem. This is the level most closely associated with “self-improvement.”
• The fifth level is associated with the need for understanding. This level includes more abstract ideas such as curiosity and the search for meaning or purpose and deeper understanding.
• The sixth concerns the aesthetic needs of beauty, symmetry and order.
• Finally, at the top of Maslow's hierarchy is the need for self-actualization.

Maslow (1970, p.383) says that all people should see themselves as competent and autonomous, and every person has unlimited opportunities for growth.

Self-realization refers to the fulfillment of a person's desire to become what he wants. In other words, it is about self-realization and the need to realize your full potential as a unique human being. For Maslow, the path to self-realization includes being in touch with your feelings, experiencing life fully and concentratedly.

Personal development management

There are a number of steps you need to take to manage your personal development.

Developing a Personal Vision

Personal development can be just for fun, but most of us find it easier to motivate ourselves to learn and improve if we have a goal for it. Developing your personal vision—a clear idea of ​​where you want to be in a few months or years and why—is an important part of developing that goal.

We discuss this in more detail on our pages: Developing a Personal Vision, Improving and Narrowing Your Mind, and Setting Personal Goals.

Planning your personal development

Once you have a clear idea of ​​where you want to be, you can start planning how to get there. Compilation individual plan development is not necessary, but makes the planning process more realistic.

Read more about this part of the process on our Planning Your Personal Development page.

If you are having a hard time identifying which areas you need to focus on for development and improvement, you may find it helpful to read our pages on personal SWOT analysis and identifying areas for improvement.

Starting the improvement process

There are several in various ways, with which you can learn and develop.

Our page "Increasing Efficiency - Some Specific Techniques" explains some ways of learning, including a method called knowledge transfer.

Our learning preferences page suggests how different types educational process may be more effective for certain people. You may also find our page on learning styles helpful in understanding how you like to learn.

Recording the results of personality development

It is often helpful to keep a record of your personal development. By recording key learning and development events as they happen, you can reflect on your progress at a later stage. This reflection can help motivate you to acquire new skills in the future. Try to keep a study log or journal as you develop your skills and knowledge.

Review and revision of personal development plans

To learn more effectively, it is important to reflect on your experiences and reflect on what you have learned. Regularly reviewing your personal development plans and your development activities will allow you to learn from what you have done. It also ensures that your activities continue to move you towards achieving your goals and that your goals or vision remain relevant to you.

the process of personality formation as a social quality of an individual as a result of his socialization and upbringing. Possessing natural anatomical and physiological prerequisites for the formation of personality, during socialization the child interacts with the world, mastering the achievements of humanity. The abilities and functions formed in this process reproduce historically formed human qualities in the individual. The child’s mastery of reality is realized in his activities with the help of adults, therefore the process of education is the leading one in the development of personality. Based on what the child has already learned, adults organize his activities to master new aspects of reality, new forms and characteristics of behavior.

Personal development is realized in activities controlled by a system of motives inherent in a given individual. The activity-mediated type of relationship that a person develops with the reference group (or person) itself is a determining, leading factor in personality development. Needs act as a prerequisite and result of personality development. Its driving force is the internal contradiction between growing needs and real opportunities their satisfaction. The system of interpersonal relations in groups generates a contradiction between the individual’s need for personalization and the objective interest of the reference group to accept only manifestations of his individuality that correspond to the values, tasks and norms of the functioning and development of this community. This contradiction is resolved in joint activities.

In the very general view Personal development can be represented as the process of a person’s entry into a new social environment and integration into it as a result of this process. When an individual enters a relatively stable social community, under favorable circumstances he goes through three phases of personal development:

1) adaptation - involves the assimilation of current values ​​and norms and mastery of the corresponding means and forms of activity, and therefore, to some extent, the assimilation of the individual to other members of the community;

2) individualization - generated by the growing contradictions between the need to “be like everyone else” and the desire for maximum personalization, which is characterized by the search for means and ways to indicate one’s individuality;

3) integration - determined by the contradiction between the desire to be ideally represented by one’s characteristics and differences in the community, and the need of the community to accept, approve and develop only those of its characteristics that contribute to its development and therefore the development of oneself as an individual in the group; if the contradiction is not eliminated, disintegration occurs and, as a consequence, either the isolation of the individual, or his displacement from the community, or degradation.

If an individual is not able to overcome the difficulties of the adaptation period, he may develop qualities of conformity, dependence, timidity, and uncertainty. If in the second phase of development an individual, presenting personal properties that are referent to the group, does not meet mutual understanding, then this can contribute to the formation of negativism, aggressiveness, and suspicion. Upon successful completion of the integration phase in a highly developed prosocial community, the individual develops such qualities as humanity, trust in people, justice, collective self-determination, demandingness towards himself and others, etc.

Since situations of adaptation (disadaptation), individualization (deindividuation) and integration (disintegration) with the sequential or parallel entry of an individual into various groups are reproduced many times, the corresponding personal new formations are fixed, and as a result a fairly stable personality structure is formed. Social situation of development, where it occurs social development personality, dynamic. Along with the dynamics of personality development within a relatively stable age stage, the dynamics of the sequential inclusion of the personality in communities differing in the level of development unfold, each of which dominates in certain age periods. The type of personality development is determined by the type of group into which it is integrated.

Personality development and mental development. The individual has a psyche, i.e. the inalienable ability of his brain to build a picture of the world and, on its basis, regulate his activities. At the same time, the individual acts as a person, being the subject of interhuman, social relations in nature.

One cannot be separated from the other - it is impossible to imagine a normal person included in social connections - i.e. personality - deprived of the mental world, consciousness, just as it is impossible to imagine a normal person with consciousness who would not act as a subject of inter-individual relations, i.e. would not be a person. However, this, of course, does not mean that the personality of the subject and the psyche of the subject are identical concepts. Their unity does not imply identity (it is no coincidence that the word “psyche of the individual” is used, but, of course, not “personality of the psyche”).

Let's give concrete example. Attractiveness (attraction) is a characteristic of a person’s personality. However, it cannot be considered as a characteristic of his psyche, if only because this person is attractive to others, and it is in the psyches of these people, consciously or unconsciously, that an emotional attitude towards him as an attractive person is formed, and an appropriate attitude is formed. Of course, the attractiveness of a person presupposes that he has a set of certain individual psychological qualities. However, no even the most sophisticated psychological analysis, addressed to these individual psychological characteristics, cannot in itself explain why in some communities this subject turns out to be an attractive person, and in others - a repulsive person. To answer this question, a socio-psychological analysis of these communities is necessary, and this becomes an essential condition for understanding personality. So, without identifying the level of development of the group, it is impossible to explain the reasons for the attractiveness or unattractiveness of an individual. It is possible to describe in detail the qualities of the psyche, a hero or a villain, but without the actions they commit, and therefore, without analyzing the changes that these actions (good deeds or atrocities ) are produced in the life activity of other people, it is impossible to characterize them psychologically, and they will not appear to us as individuals.

A person who finds himself on a desert island, fenced off for a long time, perhaps forever, from society, can be neither a noble person nor a scoundrel, neither honest nor dishonest, neither kind nor evil, although for a long time he retains those individual psychological characteristics, which underlie the formation of these personality characteristics.

Significant conclusions follow from this. Psychology traditionally considers mainly the development of the psyche of children and adolescents (the formation of memory, thinking, imagination, will, feelings, etc.), identifies general age-related psychological patterns that are revealed, and only partially addresses the problems of personality development. The obvious discrepancy between the concepts of “psyche” and “personality”, as well as the concepts of “mental development” and “personal development”, with all their unity, suggests the need to highlight a special process of personality development as a social, systemic quality of a person, a subject of a system of human relations.

The process of personality development, thus, cannot be reduced to a set of developing cognitive, emotional and volitional components that characterize a person’s individuality, although it is inseparable from them.

The concept of personality, although constantly used, is not sufficiently disclosed and often turns out to be synonymous with consciousness, self-awareness, attitude, or the psyche in general.

Currently, certain theoretical ideas, hypotheses and concepts are emerging that seek to provide a psychological justification for the process of personality development, without separating it from the process of mental development, but also without dissolving it in the general flow mental development child. Thus, a socio-psychological concept of the development of the personality of a child and adolescent has been proposed.

What determines the development of an individual’s personality in ontogenesis? The determinant of personality development is the activity-mediated type of relationship that a person develops with the most referent (meaningful to him) group (groups) during this period. These relationships are mediated by the content and nature of the activities that this reference group sets, and the communication that develops within it. Based on this we can conclude that The development of the group acts as a factor in the development of the individual in the group.

According to the concept of personalization, an individual is characterized the need to be an individual(i.e. to be and remain to the maximum extent represented by qualities that are significant to him in the life activity of other people, to carry out transformations of their semantic sphere through his activity) and the ability to be a person(i.e., a set of individual characteristics and means that allow one to perform actions that ensure the satisfaction of the need to be an individual).

The best opportunities for realizing this need are created by a group in which the personalization of everyone is a condition for the personalization of everyone.

Personality development in a relatively stable group. In the most general form, personality development can be represented as the process of its entry into a new social environment and integration into it. Are we talking about the child’s transition from kindergarten to school, a teenager to a new company, an applicant to a work collective, a conscript to an army unit, or we are talking about personal development on a global scale - in its longevity and integrity - from infancy to civil maturity, this process cannot be thought of except as entry into society -historical existence, represented in a person’s life by his participation in the activities of various groups in which he becomes familiar and which he actively masters.

The measure of stability of this environment varies. Only conditionally can we accept it as constant, unchanging.

It is possible to construct a model of personality development when it enters a relatively stable social environment (see Fig. 22). In this case, the development of personality in it is subject to psychological patterns, which are necessarily reproduced almost independently of the specific characteristics of the community in which it takes place - both in the first grades of school, and in a new company, and in a production team, and in a military unit they will more or less identical. The stages of personality development in a relatively stable community are called phases of personality development. Three phases of personality development can be distinguished: adaptation,. individualization and integration.

Rice. 22.

Model of personality development in a group: P - the need to “be an individual”; C - the ability to “be a person”; I is the initial level of development; P is the result of development achieved at this phase; solid bold arrow - prosocial development; dotted arrow - asocial development.

The first phase of personality formation involves the active assimilation of the norms in force in the community and mastery of the corresponding forms and means of activity. Bringing with you to new group everything that constitutes his individuality, the subject cannot manifest himself as a person before he masters the norms in force in the group (moral, educational, production, etc.) and masters those techniques and means of activity that other members of the group possess. He has an objective need to “be like everyone else,” to adapt as much as possible in the community. This is achieved (some more, others less successfully) due to the subjectively experienced loss of some of their individual differences with the possible illusion of dissolution in the “general mass.” Subjectively - because in fact the individual often continues himself in other people through his actions, changes in the motivational and semantic sphere of other people that are important specifically for them, and not just for himself. Objectively, already at this stage, under certain circumstances, he can act as a person for others, although without properly realizing this fact, which is essential for him. At the same time, in group activity, favorable conditions may arise for the emergence of such personality traits that a given individual did not have before, but which other members of the group have or are already developing and which correspond to the level of group development and support this level. So, first phase - adaptation .

The second phase is generated by an intensifying contradiction between the achieved result of adaptation - the fact that the subject has become “like everyone else” in the group - and the individual’s need for maximum personalization, which was not satisfied at the first stage. At this phase, the search for means and ways to designate one’s individuality and fix it increases. So, for example, a teenager who finds himself in a new company of older guys, who initially strives not to stand out in any way, diligently assimilates the accepted norms of communication, vocabulary, clothing style, generally accepted interests and tastes, having finally coped with the difficulties of the adaptation period, begins to feel vaguely and sometimes he is acutely aware that by adhering to this tactic, he loses himself as a person. In this regard, realizing to the maximum extent the need to be ideally represented among his friends, the teenager mobilizes all his internal resources for the active transmission of his individuality (for example, erudition, sports success, “experience” in relations between the sexes, courage bordering on bravado, a special style of dancing, etc.), intensifies the search in this reference group of people who can provide his optimal personalization. This second phase - individualization.

The third phase is determined by the contradictions between the desire of the subject that developed in the previous phase to be ideally represented in others by his own characteristics and differences that are significant to him - on the one hand, and the need of the community to accept, approve and cultivate only those demonstrated by him individual characteristics, which appeal to her, correspond to her values, standards, contribute to the success of joint activities, etc. - on the other.

Having become members of the production team, yesterday's schoolchildren, having undergone adaptation, in the second phase of the formation of their personality, strive to find ways to designate their individuality, their characteristics, which others carefully look at. As a result, these identified positive differences (ingenuity, hard work, humor, dedication, etc.) are accepted and supported - the integration of the individual into the community occurs. Integration is also observed when it is not so much the individual who brings his need for personalization into line with the needs of the community, but rather the community that transforms its needs in accordance with the needs of the individual, who in this case occupies the position of leader. However, mutual transformation of the individual and the group always occurs one way or another.

If the contradiction between the individual and the group is not eliminated, disintegration occurs, its consequence being either the displacement of the individual from a given community, or its actual isolation in it, which leads to the consolidation of the characteristics of egocentric individualization, or its return to an even earlier phase of development. Often the latter is accompanied by the adoption of appropriate educational measures that ensure effective adaptation young man, which obviously has not previously been successfully implemented and completed.

So, third phase - integration of the individual into the community. Within the framework of this phase in group activity, the individual develops new personality formations - traits that not only he did not have, but perhaps other members of the group did not have, but which meet the needs and needs of group development and the individual’s own need to realize a significant "contribution" to the life of the group.

Each of the listed phases acts as a moment of formation of personality in its most important manifestations and qualities - microcycles of its development take place here. If a person fails to overcome the difficulties of the adaptation period in a social environment that is consistently significant for him and enters the second phase of development, he will most likely develop qualities of conformity, dependence, lack of initiative, timidity, and lack of confidence in himself and his capabilities. Throughout his entire stay in this community, he seems to “slip” in the first phase of the formation and affirmation of himself as an individual, and this leads to serious personal deformation. If, already in the phase of individualization and trying to ensure his representation among the members of a community that is significant to him, he presents to them his individual differences, which they do not accept and reject as not corresponding to the needs of the community, then this contributes to the development of such personal new formations as negativism, aggressiveness, suspicion, inadequate inflated self-esteem. If he successfully passes the integration phase in a highly developed prosocial community, he develops positive qualities personality.

Significant changes, subject to the same sequence of phases of personality development, occur whenever the social situation in which the individual is included is significantly transformed. A leader, due to certain circumstances, has lost his leading role, is sometimes forced to go through the adaptation phase again in the same community, find the strength and means for active individualization and be integrated into the community due to the positive contribution that contributes to its development and his own development as a person.

Due to the fact that a person’s social development situation changes many times throughout his life and he enters more than one relatively stable and reference community for him, adaptation or disadaptation, individualization or deindividuation, integration or disintegration are reproduced many times, and the corresponding new formations are consolidated , a person develops a fairly stable structure of his individuality.

So, the source of development and affirmation of personality is the contradiction between the individual’s need for personalization and the objective interest of the community of reference for him to accept only those manifestations of his individuality that correspond to the tasks, norms and conditions of functioning and development in this community. Successful overcoming of this contradiction ensures the integration of the individual in the group, and more broadly in the system of social relations.

Personal development in a changing environment. The social environment in which a person exists and changes is only relatively stable, and is itself in a state of constant change and development. It turns into new and new facets and includes a person in more and more new situations, new groups, and generally in new circumstances of life. For example, the relatively smooth development of personality in high school undergoes a change during the transition to production team or military unit.

Accepted in one reference group, a person turns out to be unintegrated and rejected in another, into which he is included after or simultaneously with the first. He again and again has to assert himself in his personal position. Thus, knots of new contradictions are tied, complicating the process of personality formation, in their extreme manifestations leading to neurotic breakdowns. In addition, the reference groups themselves are in the process of development, forming a dynamic system, changes to which the individual can adapt only if he actively participates in the reproduction of these changes. Therefore, along with the internal dynamics of the development of the individual within a relatively stable social community, it is necessary to take into account the objective dynamics of the development of those groups in which the individual is included, and their specific characteristics and non-identity with each other.

Personality develops in groups hierarchically located at the stages of ontogenesis. The character and characteristics of personality development are determined by the level of development of the group in which it is included and in which it is integrated.

The personality of a child, teenager, young man develops as a result of consistent inclusion in communities that differ in the level of development, dominant at different age levels, and, thus, the development of personality is determined by the development process of the group in which it is integrated.

The features of the integration of an individual in communities of different levels of development are subject to patterns specific to these groups, and transferring them to groups of a different level of development cannot but lead to serious theoretical errors and incorrectly made practical decisions. The stages of personality development in a changing social environment are called periods of development.

Age periodization of personality development. The above theoretical foundations allow us to understand the process of age-related personality development.

Pedagogy and psychology distinguish the following age stages of personality formation: early childhood (pre-school) age (0-3), kindergarten (4-6), junior school age(6-10), middle school age (11-15), senior school age (16-17).

In the early childhood Personal development is carried out primarily in the family, which, depending on the educational tactics adopted in it, either acts as a pro-social association or collective (with the predominance of the tactics of “family cooperation”), or distorts the development of the child’s personality. The latter happens in groups low level development, where confrontation dominates the relationship between parents and children. Depending on the nature of family relationships, for example, the child’s personality may initially develop as either gentle, caring, not afraid to admit his mistakes and missteps, open, and not shying away from responsibility. little man, or as a cowardly, lazy, greedy, capricious selfish person. The importance of the period of early childhood for the formation of personality, which was noted by many psychologists and the role of which was often mystified by Freudianism, actually lies in the fact that from the first year of his conscious life the child is in a fairly developed group and, to the extent of his inherent activity, assimilates the type of relationships that formed in her, transforming them into the features of his developing personality.

The phases of development in early childhood record the following results: first - adaptation at the level of mastering the simplest skills, mastering language as a means of inclusion in social life with the initial inability to isolate one’s “I” from surrounding phenomena; the second is individualization, opposing oneself to others: “my mother”, “I am my mother’s”, “my toys”, etc., demonstrating in behavior one’s differences from others; the third is integration, which allows you to manage your behavior, take into account those around you, obey the demands of adults, present realistic requests to them, etc.

The upbringing and development of a child, beginning and continuing in the family, from 3-4 years, occurs simultaneously in kindergarten, in a group of peers under the guidance of a teacher, where a new situation of personality development arises. The transition to this new stage of personality development is not determined by psychological laws (they only ensure one’s readiness for this transition), but is determined externally by social reasons, which include the development of the system of preschool institutions, their prestige, parents’ employment in production, etc. If the transition to a new period is not prepared within the previous age period by the successful passage of the integration phase, then here (as at the boundary between any other age periods) conditions arise for a crisis in personality development - the child’s adaptation in kindergarten turns out to be difficult.

Preschool age characterized by the inclusion of a child in a group of peers in kindergarten, managed by a teacher, who, as a rule, becomes for him, along with his parents, the most reference person. The teacher, relying on the help of the family, strives, using various types and forms of activity (play, study, work, sports, etc.) as a mediating factor, to rally children around him, forming humanity, hard work, and other socially valuable qualities.

Three phases of personality development within this period involve: adaptation - the assimilation of norms and methods of behavior approved by parents and educators in conditions of interaction with others; individualization - the child’s desire to find something in himself that distinguishes him from other children, either positively in various types of amateur activities, or in pranks and whims - in both cases, focusing on the assessment not so much of other children as of parents and teachers; integration - harmonization of the preschooler’s unconscious desire to indicate through his actions his own uniqueness and the readiness of adults to accept only that in him that corresponds to the socially conditioned and most important task for them of ensuring the child’s successful transition to a new stage - to school and, consequently, to the third period of personality development.

At primary school age the situation of personality development is in many ways similar to the previous one. The three phases that form it give the student the opportunity to enter a completely new group of classmates, which is initially diffuse in nature. The teacher leading this group turns out to be, in comparison with the kindergarten teacher, even more of a referent for the children, since she, using the apparatus of daily grades, regulates the child’s relationships with both his peers and with adults, primarily with parents, and shapes their attitude towards him and his attitude towards himself “as another”.

It is noteworthy that not so much in itself educational activities acts as a factor in personality development junior school student, how much is the attitude of adults to his educational activities, to his academic performance, discipline and diligence. The educational activity itself, as a personality-forming factor, apparently acquires maximum significance at high school age, which is characterized by a conscious attitude to learning, the formation of a worldview in the conditions of educational training (in literature, history, physics, biology, etc. lessons). The third phase of the period of primary school age means, in all likelihood, not only the integration of the student in the “student-student” system, but also, above all, in the “student-teacher”, “student-parent” system.

Specific feature adolescence , in comparison with the previous ones, is that joining it does not mean joining a new group (unless a reference group has arisen outside of school, which very often happens), but represents the further development of the individual in a developing group, but in changed conditions and circumstances (the appearance of subject teachers instead of one teacher in junior classes, the beginnings of joint labor activity in agriculture, the opportunity to spend time at a disco, etc.) in the presence of significant restructuring of the body in the conditions of rapid puberty.

The groups themselves become different and change qualitatively. Many new tasks in various significant types of activity give rise to many communities, from which in some cases associations that are prosocial in nature are formed, and in others associations arise that inhibit and sometimes distort the development of the individual.

Microcycles of adolescent personality development occur for the same schoolchild in parallel in different reference groups that are competitive for him in their importance. Successful integration in one of them (for example, in a school drama club or in communication with a classmate at the time of first love) can be combined with disintegration in a company in which he had previously gone through the adaptation phase, not without difficulties. Individual qualities valued in one group are rejected in another group, where other activities and other value orientations and standards dominate, and this blocks the possibility of successful integration within it. The contradictions in a teenager’s intergroup position are no less important than the contradictions that arise within the microcycle of his development.

The need to “be an individual” at this age takes on a distinct form of self-affirmation, explained by the relatively protracted nature of individualization, since the personally significant qualities of a teenager, which allow him to fit, for example, into the circle of a friendly group of peers, often do not at all correspond to the requirements of teachers, parents and adults in general, who In this case, they strive to push it back to the stage of primary adaptation.

Plurality, easy turnover and substantive differences of reference groups, while inhibiting the passage of the integration phase, at the same time create specific features of the adolescent’s psychology and participate in the formation of psychological new formations. Sustainable positive integration of the individual is ensured by his inclusion in the group top level development - either in the case of its transition to a new community, or as a result of the unification of the same group of schoolchildren around an exciting activity.

A prosocial reference group becomes a genuine collective, while an asocial association can degenerate into a corporate group.

The process of personality development in various groups - specific feature youth, in terms of its time parameters, it goes beyond the boundaries of high school age, which can be designated as the period of early adolescence. Adaptation, individualization and integration of personality ensure the formation of a mature personality and are a condition for the formation of groups to which they belong. Organic integration of the individual in a highly developed group, therefore, means that the characteristics of the collective act as characteristics of the individual (group as personal, personal as group).

In this way, a multi-stage periodization scheme is constructed, in which eras, epochs, periods and phases of personality development are distinguished (Fig. 23).

All preschool and school age are included in one "the era of ascent to social maturity." This era does not end with the period of early adolescence and the schoolchild receiving a certificate of maturity, but continues in new groups, where yesterday’s schoolchild organically enters into rights economically, legally, politically and morally mature man, a full member of society.

Identifying the “era of ascent to social maturity” is necessary and appropriate. If we imagine the social environment in its global characteristics as relatively stable and remember that the goal of education literally from the first years of a child’s life and throughout all subsequent years remains the development of his personality, then the entire path to the realization of this goal can be interpreted as a single and integral stage . In this case, in accordance with the provisions justified above, it assumes three phases of personality development, its entry into the social whole, i.e. the already mentioned adaptation, individualization and integration.

Extended in time, they act as macrophases of personality development within one era, designated as three eras: childhood, adolescence, youth. It is in this way that the child ultimately turns into a mature, independent personality, capable, ready to reproduce and raise a new person, to continue himself in his children. The third macrophase (epoch), starting at school, goes beyond its chronological limits. Adolescence acts as an era of turning point, aggravation of contradictions, which is typical for the stage of individualization.

Epochs are divided into periods of personality development in a specific environment, in types of groups characteristic of each age stage, differing in level of development. The periods, in turn, as already indicated, are divided into phases (here microphases) of personality development.

The era of childhood is the longest macrophase of personality development and covers three age periods(pre-school, preschool, junior school), the era of adolescence and the period of adolescence coincide. The era of youth and the period of early adolescence, in turn, partially coincide (early adolescence is limited to the framework of being at school).

The first macrophase (the era of childhood) is characterized by relative the predominance of adaptation over individualization, for the second (the era of adolescence) - individualization over adaptation(years of turning point, aggravation of contradictions), for the third (era of youth) - dominance integration over individualization.

This concept of personality development allows us to combine the approaches of social and developmental psychology.

So, personality is formed and develops in the conditions of a person’s concrete historical existence, in activities (work, study, etc.). The leading role in the processes of personality formation is played by training and education.

The concept of personality formation in psychology and pedagogy. The concept of “personality formation” is used in two senses.

First - personality formation. its development, those. the process and result of this development. Taken in this meaning, the concept of personality formation is the subject of psychological study, the task of which is to find out what is (is available, experimentally identified, discovered) and what can be in a developing personality under the conditions of targeted educational influences.

This is actually psychological approach to the formation of personality.

Second meaning- formation of personality as its purposeful education(if one can say so, “molding”, “sculpting”, “designing”; A.S. Makarenko successfully called this process “personality design”). This is actually pedagogical approach to the identification of tasks and methods of personality formation. The pedagogical approach presupposes the need to find out what and how should be formed in an individual so that he meets the requirements that society places on him.

Mixing psychological and pedagogical approaches to personality formation should not be allowed, otherwise the desired may be replaced by the actual.

Pedagogy determines the tasks of the correct approach to the process of forming the personality of young people, and reveals what should be formed in the process of education. Pedagogy, when developing methods of educational work, offers its own techniques and methods for achieving the set goal, talks about how to form integrity, truthfulness, kindness and other important personality qualities.

The task of psychology is to study the initial level of formation personal qualities from specific schoolchildren and in specific groups (student, professional, family, etc.), find out the results of educational work, including what was actually formed and what remained a task, what actual transformations of the teenager’s personality turned out to be productive and socially valuable , and which ones were unproductive, how the process of personality formation took place (what difficulties had to be faced, how successful it was, etc.).

Pedagogical and psychological approaches to personality formation are not identical to each other, but form an indissoluble unity. It is pointless to study the formation of personality from the position of a psychologist if you do not know what methods teachers used and what goals they pursued, and if you do not strive to improve these methods. The work of a teacher would be no less unpromising if he did not use the capabilities of a psychologist who identifies the real characteristics of schoolchildren, and would not be psychologically sophisticated in the reasons for the undesirable qualities that sometimes arise in his students, as if in parallel and independently of the application, it would seem, indisputable forms and methods of education, if he had not seen the diverse, sometimes contradictory, psychological consequences of his specific pedagogical work etc.

In a formative psychological and pedagogical experiment, the positions of a teacher and a psychologist can be combined. However, even in this case, one should not erase the difference between what and how a psychologist as a teacher should form in a student’s personality (the goals of education are set not by psychology, but by society, and methods are developed by pedagogy), and what the teacher as a psychologist should investigate, finding out what was and what became in the structure of the developing personality as a result of pedagogical influence.

Personality is a systemic quality of an individual, acquired by him in the course of cultural and historical development (A. N. Leontyev). As a person, a person manifests himself in a system of relationships. However, relationships in turn influence the formation of personality. What other patterns can be identified in the development of personality, and what factors influence its formation - let's figure it out.

Determinants are factors and conditions that play a leading role in the development of something. In our case, these are the leading factors in the development of personality.

Heredity

Who is a formed personality

Psychology has proven that a person is not born, but rather becomes. However, the question of who can be considered a person remains open. There is still no single list of requirements, description of properties or classification of criteria. But some features characteristic of a formed personality can be identified.

1. Activity. It implies voluntary activity, the ability to manage one’s life in any situation.
2. Subjectivity. It assumes control over one’s life and responsibility for choice, that is, the role of the author of life.
3. Bias. The ability to evaluate the surrounding reality, accept something or not, that is, not be indifferent to the world and your life.
4. Mindfulness. The ability to express oneself in public forms.

Development criteria

From the above, we can highlight the criteria for personality development, or personal growth:

• strengthening subjectivity;
• integrity and integration into the world;
• productivity growth;
• development of mental (spiritual) qualities and abilities.

A characteristic feature of a mature personality is overcoming and acquiring a broad identity (the ability to identify oneself with the world, society, situations, nature; a sense of community and understanding).

• In children and adolescents, personality development is assessed according to the characteristics of socialization and reflection.
• In adults - by the ability to self-actualize, the ability to accept responsibility and stand out from society, maintaining a connection with it.

Self-awareness as a separate component and sign of personality development

Self-awareness (the product of which is the Self-concept) is actively formed in, although its origins begin much earlier. It flows from the consciousness of the individual. This is a system of attitudes, an attitude towards oneself. You can read more about self-awareness in the article.

Development process

The development of personality can be characterized through the development of its system. That is, a person develops as a personality when:

• the duration of the needs increases;
• needs become conscious and acquire a social character;
• needs move from lower to higher (spiritual, existential).

Stages of Personality Development

The goal of personal development is to gain personal freedom. There are several classifications of stages of personality development.

E. Erickson's concept

E. Erikson’s theory seems interesting to me in terms of considering personality development. The psychoanalyst noted 8 stages, at each of which a person faces opposing forces of his personality. If the conflict is resolved successfully, then certain new personality traits are formed, that is, development occurs. Otherwise, a person is overtaken by neurosis and maladjustment.

So, among the stages of personality development the following can be distinguished:

1. Contradiction of trust and distrust in the world around us (from birth to one year).
2. Conflict of independence with shame and doubts (from one year to 3 years).
3. Contradiction between initiative and guilt (from 4 to 5 years).
4. Contradiction between hard work and feelings of inferiority (from 6 to 11 years).
5. The contradiction between awareness of identity with a particular gender and a lack of understanding of the behavior characteristic of it (from 12 to 18 years).
6. Contradiction between the desire for intimate relationships and the feeling of isolation from others (early adulthood).
7. Contradiction between vital activity and focus on one’s problems, needs, interests (middle adulthood).
8. Contradiction between the feeling of fullness of life and despair (late adulthood).

Concept by V. I. Slobodchikov

The psychologist considered the formation of personality from the perspective of the development of a person’s subjectivity in relation to his behavior and psyche.

Revival (up to a year)

A characteristic feature of this stage is the child’s familiarity with his body, its awareness, which is reflected in motor, sensory and sociable actions.

Animation (from 11 months to 6.5 years)

The child begins to define himself in the world, for which the baby learns to walk and handle objects. Little by little, the baby masters cultural skills and abilities. At 3 years old, the child realizes his desires and capabilities, which is expressed by the position “I myself.”

Personalization (from 5.5 years to 13-18 years)

At this stage, a person first realizes himself as the creator (real or potential) of his own life. In interaction with senior mentors and peers, the individual builds the boundaries of identity and begins to understand his own responsibility for the future.

Individualization (from 17-21 years old to 31-42 years old)

At this stage, a person appropriates and individualizes all social values, passing them through the prism of his own worldview and personal position. A person overcomes group restrictions, environmental assessments and builds his “self”. He moves away from stereotypes, outside opinions and pressure. For the first time, he himself accepts or does not accept what the world gives him.

Universalization (from 39-45 years old and onwards)

The stage of universalization is characterized by going beyond individuality to the level of existentiality. A person comprehends himself as an element of all humanity in the context of what has happened in the history of the world and what will happen.

As we see, personality development is closely related to age development. But if you pay attention to the dates indicated in brackets, you can note their wide range. Moreover, the older a person becomes physiologically, the wider the range of personal development. From this arises what is popularly called “precocious” or “stuck in development.” But now you know that, perhaps, no one got stuck anywhere and “ran away”; the point is in the difference between physical and personal development.

In addition, personality development can be considered as a change in a person’s individual psychological space, which includes:

• body;
• surrounding personally significant objects;
• habits;
• relationships, connections;
• values.

These elements do not appear immediately; they accumulate as the child develops physically. But in an adult personality, all these elements can be distinguished. For the favorable development of personality, the integrity of the above components is important.

Life path

The structure of personality is formed in the process of life, that is, in the development of a person as a subject of his own life. The goals, motives and values ​​of the individual are reflected in the life plan, which structures the life path.

Simply put, this is a person’s life script. There is still no consensus on this issue.

• Some scientists (S. L. Rubinshtein, B. G. Ananyev), mainly domestic ones, are of the opinion that only a person forms and regulates his script. That is, he consciously chooses the path, but not without the help and influence of his parents.
• Other researchers (Adler, Berne, Rogers) adhere to the theory of the unconscious. And among the leading factors that determine the scenario are the parents’ parenting style and their personal characteristics, the child’s birth order, first and last name, random stress factors and situations, and upbringing by grandparents.

Personal growth

Personal growth is a product of life’s journey, considered through an assessment of an individual’s ability to manage his life, build relationships with others, defend his beliefs, and perceive life as one in all its diversity.

• The basis of this is reflection. A quality that begins to develop in childhood and which involves a person’s analysis of his own actions. This is an element of self-awareness - introspection.
• The second basic element arising from reflection is personal autonomy, that is, self-control, taking responsibility for one’s choice and the right to make this choice.

Personal growth is closely related to self-esteem and evaluation, or rather, it is nothing more than a transition from a system of external criteria to a system of internal ones, based on personal beliefs.

Afterword

Personal development is a difficult and contradictory process that continues throughout life. A stop in development is fraught with degradation and disintegration of personality.

Personality formation is a purposeful and organized process. At first it is organized by the parents and the child’s environment, and later by the person himself and the environment.

Thus, the formation and development of personality occurs in the process of human interaction with the outside world and people. However, in order to become a person, you need to learn to set boundaries between the understanding of “yourself” and “not yourself.” What does it mean:

• participation in the life of society, but not total dissolution in it;
• the ability to resist and maintain individuality.

Recently, it has been important to talk not only about the creative element of personality, but also about the creative principle, which means “being the creator of life.”

The question of the boundaries of the influence of the biological and social in a person during the development of personality has not yet been settled. Gene research continues. Scientists do not rule out that in the future some phenomena recognized as acquired will actually be transferred to the category of hereditary ones.