Personality- this is not an innate and genetically determined characteristic of a person. A child is born a biological individual who is yet to become an individual. However, this can only happen under certain conditions.
The initial and natural condition for the formation of personality is normal (without pathological deviations) biological nature (individual organization) child. The presence of corresponding deviations either complicates or makes personality development completely impossible. This is especially true for the brain and sense organs. For example, with a congenital or previously acquired brain abnormality, a child may develop a mental illness such as mental retardation. It is expressed in underdevelopment of the intellect (mental retardation) and the personality as a whole. With deep oligophrenia (in the stage of idiocy), a child cannot become a person at all, even under the most favorable conditions of upbringing. He is doomed to an individual (animal) existence.
Congenital anomalies of vision (blindness) or hearing (deafness) also significantly complicate the process of personal development.
To overcome and compensate for such deviations, it is necessary to use special correctional training, development and education. Generally, individual properties and characteristics of a person act as factors that facilitate or hinder development certain personal formations: interests, character traits, abilities, self-esteem, etc. Therefore, they need to be well known and taken into account when developing strategies and tactics of education. It must be said that they have not been studied well enough. These questions are the subject of such a branch of psychology as psychogenetics.
Personality development is an active process of a child’s learning social norms and their corresponding modes of behavior. It requires from him enormous efforts aimed at mastering his own biological essence, overcoming immediate natural desires and capabilities (to behave as I want and as I can) and subordinating them to social necessity (as I should). For example, a child does not want to collect his toys, but he must master the ability to overcome this immediate urge and follow the appropriate social norm. Therefore, another main condition for the formation of personality is the presence of a social environment, that is, specific people - carriers and transmitters of social norms. These are people with whom the child has significant relationships: parents, family members, relatives, educators, teachers, peers, neighbors, heroes of works of art and films, historical figures, clergy, etc. The lack of a social environment makes personal development impossible. This is evidenced by numerous cases of “raising” children among animals.
In their psychological essence they were similar to their " educators” and had nothing personal. All possible anomalies and defects in the social environment lead to corresponding personality defects in children raised in such conditions. An example of these are children who grew up in dysfunctional families, orphanages, correctional colonies, etc.
The process of transmitting social norms to a child is called education. It can be purposeful or spontaneous. Purposeful education is specially organized and orderly pedagogical process, consisting of such pedagogical acts as familiarization with social norms, demonstration of standard methods of behavior, organization of exercises, control, encouragement and punishment, etc. Spontaneous education is, as it were, built into the real everyday life of the teacher and student. It consists of the same pedagogical acts, although it does not pursue special pedagogical goals. Therefore, obtaining some educational results is most likely a by-product of other actions.
Education should not be understood as a process of one-sided activity of teachers. Social norms and the corresponding modes of behavior are not “invested” in the child, but are acquired (appropriated) by him on the basis of his own active activity and communication. Other people (parents, educators, etc.) only contribute to this with varying degrees of success. For example, in order to instill a responsible attitude towards learning in a first-grader, parents and teachers can take many methods of pedagogical influence: explanation, demonstration of positive examples, organization of activities, encouragement, punishment, etc. However, they cannot carry out that system of specific educational activities, which make up and on the basis of which a responsible attitude towards learning is formed. This is a daily routine homework, writing in a diary, putting away the necessary textbooks and things, etc. Each of them requires certain skills from the child, and most importantly, the ability to overcome his own individual essence, which can be expressed in a natural lack of desire to do this.
Thus, the next extremely important condition for personality development is the active activity of the child, aimed at assimilating social norms and ways of behavior. It can be considered as a kind of tool for assimilating social experience. In order for an activity (existential activity) to have a developmental effect, it must meet certain requirements. First of all, this concerns its substantive compliance with assimilated social norms. For example, it is impossible to cultivate courage (bold behavior) outside of situations of overcoming danger. There are also many other psychological conditions for the organization of life (communication and activity), under which it becomes possible to effectively assimilate social norms and form stable personal formations. This includes the factor of appropriateness of upbringing to age, the amount of exercise, the nature of motivation, etc.
Patterns of development
Personal development is not random or chaotic, but in many ways a natural process. It obeys certain rules, which are called psychological laws of development. They record the most general and essential properties of personal development, knowledge of which allows us to better understand this phenomenon.
The first of the laws we are considering answers the question about the causes, sources and driving forces of personality development. In other words, what makes a child develop and where is the source of development. Psychological research shows that the child initially has the ability to develop. The source of development is his needs, the need to satisfy which stimulates the development of corresponding psychological capabilities and means: abilities, character traits, volitional qualities, etc. The development of psychological capabilities, in turn, leads to the emergence of new needs and motives, etc. These developmental cycles continuously follow each other, raising the child to ever higher levels of personal development. Thus, the source of personal development lies in the child himself. The people around him or life circumstances can only speed up or slow down this process, but they are not able to stop it. It does not at all follow from this that the mental development of the individual is carried out on the basis of biological maturation. Developability (ability to develop) represents only the potential opportunity to become an individual. This can happen only under certain conditions.
The development of a person’s personality is not smooth, but spasmodic. Relatively long (up to several years) periods of fairly calm and uniform development are replaced by fairly short (up to several months) periods of sharp and significant personal changes. They are very important in their psychological consequences and significance for the individual. It is no coincidence that they are called critical moments of development, or age-related crises. They are experienced quite hard on a subjective level, which is also reflected in the child’s behavior and in his relationships with people around him. Age-related crises form unique psychological boundaries between age periods. Throughout personal development, several age-related crises are distinguished. They occur most clearly in the following periods: 1 year, 3 years, 6-7 years and 11-14 years.
The development of a person’s personality is carried out in stages and consistently. Each age period naturally follows from the previous one and creates the prerequisites and conditions for the subsequent one. Each of them is absolutely necessary and mandatory for the full development of a person’s personality, since it provides particularly favorable conditions for the formation of certain mental functions and personal properties. This feature of age periods is called sensitivity. In Russian psychology, it is customary to distinguish six periods of age-related development:
1) infancy (from birth to one year);
2) early before school age(from 1 to 3 years);
3) junior and middle preschool age (from 4-5 to 6-7 years);
4) junior school age (from 6-7 to 10-11 years);
5) adolescence (from 10-11 to 13-14 years);
6) early adolescence (from 13-14 to 16-17 years).
By this time, the person reaches a fairly high level of personal maturity, which does not mean the cessation of mental development.
The next very important property of development is its irreversibility. This eliminates any possibility of repeating a certain age period again. Each period of life is unique and inimitable in its own way. Formed personal substructures and qualities are either impossible or almost impossible to change, just as it is impossible to fully compensate for what was not formed in a timely manner. This places a huge responsibility on people involved in education and upbringing.
Unlike other living beings, man has a dual nature. On the one hand, his behavior is influenced by features of anatomy, physiology, and psyche. On the other hand, he obeys the laws of society. If in the first case we are talking about the formation of a person as an individual, then in the second there is the development of personality. What is the difference between these processes? What is personality? Why is it formed in society? What stages does it go through in its improvement? Are there many levels of personality development? What mechanisms trigger this process? Let's consider this topic.
What is personality development?
Personality development is an element of the general formation of a person, associated with his consciousness and self-awareness. It concerns the sphere of socialization, since outside of society a person lives according to the laws of the animal world. Personality is formed through interaction with other people. In private, without cultural contact and exchange of information, this process is not possible. To avoid confusion, we present the following related concepts:
- Human- representative biological species Homo sapiens;
- Individual(individual) – a separate organism capable of independent existence;
- Personality– a subject of sociocultural life, endowed with reason, morality, and spiritual qualities.
Respectively, personal development determines those aspects of life that alienate us from animal nature and endow us with socially significant qualities. This concept should not be confused with personal development, which covers all possible areas, including physical fitness, level of intelligence or emotionality. Personal development is related to self-identity. It is not opposed to other types of improvement, justifying the saying “a healthy mind in a healthy body.”
By the way, the levels of personality development partly repeat the needs shown in Maslow’s Pyramid. The initial stage is the satisfaction of functions necessary for life, gradually rising to the level of spirituality and self-awareness.
Levels of personality development
Many classifications of the structure of personal development have been invented. On average, there are seven main levels, which were proposed by Russian sociologists Dmitry Nevirko and Valentin Nemirovsky. According to their theory, people combine the following successive levels of development:
- Survival– maintaining physical integrity;
- Reproduction– reproduction and material consumption;
- Control– the ability to be responsible for oneself and others;
- Feelings– knowledge of love, mercy, benevolence;
- Perfection– desire for expertise and creation;
- Wisdom– improvement of intellect and spirituality;
- Enlightenment– connection with the spiritual principle, a feeling of happiness and harmony.
Anyone should ideally pass each of these levels. At the same time, the process of personality development is associated with life lessons. If someone jumps over a “step”, then he will have to catch up. A person who is “stuck” at one of the levels simply has not yet learned his lesson, or perhaps simply has not received it yet. Either he is taking another lesson, or he is not yet ready for a new one. One of the first motives of personal development is self-affirmation, which is later replaced by concern for one’s neighbor. It is this transition from egocentrism to empathy (sympathy) that is one of the most difficult and responsible stages of improvement. We'll talk more about this process in the next section.
Stages of Personality Development
Most go through the same natural stages of development. They are caused by physiological and mental characteristics. Each age has its own challenges and life lessons.
A full description of these processes includes the theory of personality development formulated by the American psychologist Erik Erikson, which includes a description of normal and undesirable options for events. According to this doctrine, the following can be distinguished: fundamental postulates:
- The stages of personality development are identical for everyone;
- Improvement does not stop from birth to death;
- Personality development is closely related to life stages;
- Transitions between different stages are associated with personality crises;
- During a crisis, a person’s self-identification weakens;
- There is no guarantee of successful completion of each stage;
- Society is not an antagonist for man in his improvement;
- The formation of individuality involves going through eight stages.
The psychology of personality development is closely related to the course of physiological processes in the body, which differ at each specific age. In psychotherapeutic practice it is customary to distinguish such stages of personality development:
- Oral phase– the first period of a baby’s life, building a system of trust and mistrust;
- Creative phase– the preschool period of life, when the child begins to invent activities for himself, not just imitating others;
- Latent phase– covers ages from 6 to 11 years, manifested in a growing interest in new things;
- Teenage phase– the period from 12 to 18 years, when a radical revaluation of values occurs;
- Beginning of maturity– time of intimacy or loneliness, searching for a partner to form a family;
- Mature age– a period of reflection on the future of new generations, the final stage of socialization of the individual;
- Old age– a balance between wisdom, understanding of life, and a sense of satisfaction from the path traveled.
Each stage of personality development brings something new to its self-identification, even if physical or mental improvement is stopped, due to physiological characteristics specific age. This is the phenomenon of personality development, which does not depend on the state of the organism as a whole. Strength or intelligence can be enhanced to certain levels until aging occurs. Personal development does not stop even in old age. In order for this process to continue, there must be factors that stimulate improvement.
Driving forces of personality development
Any improvement involves leaving your comfort zone. Accordingly, the conditions for personal development also “push” a person out of his usual environment, forcing him to think differently. The main mechanisms of personal growth include:
- Isolation – acceptance of one’s individuality;
- Identification– human self-identification, search for analogues;
- Self-esteem– choosing your own “ecological niche” in society.
It is these mechanisms of personality development that force you to reconsider your attitude towards life, leave your comfort zone, and improve spiritually.
After the question of self-esteem and satisfaction of his “ego,” a person thinks about helping other people, his mark in history. Further, individuals move to the stage of spiritual enlightenment, trying to realize the universal truth and feel the harmony of the universe.
The main mechanism of “vertical” transitions is the “horizontal” accumulation of experience and knowledge, which allows one to rise to a qualitative level high level personal development.
Since man is a biosocial phenomenon, his formation is subject to a number of factors, including animal and spiritual components. Personal development begins when more low levels existences are satisfied. You should not think that other aspects of life are less important, because emotions, strength and intelligence also shape a person’s personality and help him fully develop spiritually.
Personality is one of those phenomena that is rarely interpreted in the same way by two different authors. All definitions of personality are determined in one way or another by two opposing views on its development. From the point of view of some, each personality is formed and develops in accordance with its innate qualities and abilities, and the social environment plays a very insignificant role. Representatives of another point of view completely reject the innate internal traits and abilities of the individual, believing that personality is a certain product, completely formed in the course of social experience. Obviously, this is an extreme point of view of the process of personality formation. In our analysis we must, of course, take into account how biological features personality and its social experience.
Personality development factors
At the same time, practice shows that social factors in personality formation are more significant. The definition of personality given by V. Yadov seems satisfactory: “Personality is the integrity of a person’s social properties, a product of social development and the inclusion of the individual in the system of social relations through active activity and communication.” In accordance with this view, personality develops from a biological organism exclusively thanks to various types of social cultural experience. At the same time, it is not denied that she has abilities, temperament and predisposition, which significantly influence the process of formation of personality traits.
To analyze the emergence and development of personality traits, we will divide the factors that influence the formation of personality into the following types: 1) biological heredity; 2) physical environment; 3) culture; 4) group experience; 5) unique individual experience. Let us analyze the influence of these factors on personality. The process of personal socialization occurs mainly under the influence of group experience. At the same time, a person forms his “I” image based on the perception of how others think about him and how he is assessed by others. In order for such perception to be successful, the person takes on the roles of others and looks at his behavior and his inner world through the eyes of these others. By forming his “I”-image, a person is socialized. However, there is not a single identical process of socialization and not a single identical personality, since the individual experience of each of them is unique and inimitable.
Personality development process
To truly know yourself and be yourself, you need to consciously choose the process of personal development. There are many different types and variants of this process: physical, mental, emotional, spiritual development of a person’s personality. The form of this is not so important - our intention to develop is much more important. It really doesn’t matter whether the process of personality formation is carried out through books, consultations, seminars, audio recordings, religion, yoga, classes with a specialist, meditation techniques, spirituality, lectures, prayer, metaphysics, video tutorials or a combination of all these or something else . Each of these methods is wonderful and can serve as a catalyst for our self-knowledge, healing, change and, ultimately, the formation and development of personality.
We too often become fixated on the shape of our development, trying to find the right way to “grow.” In reality, the method is not that important. What is important is our commitment to the process of development, which will constantly change throughout our lives, as will the technologies of self-improvement that we decide to use. For the formation and development of a person’s personality, the following questions are the most profound and significant. Why do I want to develop? What is important to pay attention to, what to deal with, what to heal and change in yourself and your life? How to create the best conditions to support, strengthen the process of personal development and achieve maximum effect?
Conditions for personality development
Conditions are those components or characteristics of the environment in which the student develops. The system of all living conditions forms the human environment. It is possible to distinguish subsystems of biological, psychological and social conditions. Development conditions are divided into necessary and sufficient. Necessary conditions for the development of personality are the internal objective regularity of the emergence, existence and effectiveness of the development of students. They determine developmental training and education.
Sufficient conditions are associated with the causes, foundations, and contradictions of development. The appearance of each neoplasm is prepared by its own cause, its own conditions. The absence or insufficiency of necessary and sufficient conditions leads to a cessation or slowdown in the development of students (including in upbringing, training and socialization). The stages and patterns of the conditions of personality development in each direction are experimentally studied in the relevant sciences: biological, psychological and social. In the educational process, all three areas are merged into a single system of multilateral development of students, which is mediated by the influence of the environment, the child’s capabilities and the purposeful activities of adults.
In pedagogy (as the science of the patterns of social inheritance of cultural values from generation to generation), data from biological development are used for the scientific organization of the work of teachers and students; Theoretical models of teaching and upbringing are developed on the basis of the patterns of mental development of students, the content, ways and means of socialization of students are established - they appropriate the experience of behavior in society, cultural values and moral norms.
The biological development of the body, which partially influences the conditions for the development of the student’s personality, is usually called the special term “maturation,” during which anatomical structures and physiological processes (nervous, endocrine, respiratory, digestive and other systems) are transformed. According to modern research The biological maturation of the body is completed by the age of 25, but some physiological processes in the brain (associated with thinking, learning new things, creativity) develop throughout life.
The biological systems of the body develop unevenly, which affects the conditions for the development of a person’s personality; this imposes certain restrictions on physical education, regimen, hygiene and nutrition. Biological development and the state of the body have a significant impact on other areas of development and to a certain extent determine the organization of the educational process and the socialization of the individual. The most significant factors in this influence are two factors: the state of the central nervous system (CNS) and heredity.
The social qualities of an individual are not genetically inherited: speech, morality, hard work, discipline, abstract-symbolic theoretical knowledge, abilities, skills, etc. They are formed during life in the process of education in the family and school, work collective, and informal associations. To describe them, they use the concept of social inheritance, which has nothing to do with biological heredity and means the lifetime acquisition of spiritual values and norms of behavior. The conditions for personal development depend on many factors that are identified during a person’s life itself.
Features of personality development
Personal development is a process of qualitative psychological, personal changes and at the same time the result of these changes. Why is this process so important and necessary for the development of humanity? For what? For what? What are the sources and conditions of personality development? Personal development has an internal desire to develop oneself (including the need for self-actualization), external conditions (support and demandingness) and sources. But a lot depends on what the individual is striving for, what his orientation is, i.e. a set of motives that orient the activity of an individual.
The direction of a person is determined by his inclinations, interests, ideals, and priorities. There are different levels and different directions in personal development. You can develop in different directions: in the pursuit of humility and worship before the Lord; to harmonization, to success in business or to completing the necessary work; and finally, in the direction of the comprehensive and highest development of one’s abilities - towards self-actualization. Personal development is impossible without the development of thinking.
1. Your mind dictates what to do. First, the image is born, the motivation for the action, then the action itself. The subconscious sometimes corrects your actions, even if you have not had time to think about this behavior option. Your feelings and intuition help you choose the steps that are ideal only for you.
2. Your thinking sets the pinnacle of personal development. Who determines the limit of development, the pinnacle of your perfection? People who are more intellectually developed do not follow their own limitations - they know how to manage their feelings, faith, overcoming intellectual and spiritual “case”.
3. Your thinking determines what is the main thing that all personal development should be subordinated to. There is no single answer, one for everyone. Only the person himself determines his path depending on the priorities and values in his development. You just need to correctly assess the situation and your strengths.
4. Thinking helps you know your abilities, their limits, and possible ways to go beyond those limits. But only your non-standard thinking opens up new opportunities for you.
Personality develops and it is individual.
5. Your uniqueness and main value lies in your individuality, in the originality of your thinking, the uniqueness of the ideas and actions born of you. You are unique and unique, just like your thoughts.
6. The degree of freedom depends on the speed and depth of your thinking. When solving problems, everyone uses thinking, but with varying degrees of success: it is not always possible to achieve what you want as quickly and easily as someone else. The more you know, the faster and easier you will solve problems.
7. Thinking can be learned by acquiring new knowledge. Personality can both grow and fall apart and degrade. If you constantly work on your thinking, then your knowledge will be deeper and more diverse, and this is protection from degradation.
8. The quality of your life and your freedom depend on the degree of development of thinking, erudition, and education of the individual. The more effectively you can apply knowledge and skills, the freer and more successful you will be.
Theories and concepts of personality development
Psychodynamic theory. None of the areas of personality theory has become as well known outside of psychological science as Freudianism (classical psychoanalysis). Its founder was the Austrian scientist Sigmund Freud (1856-1939), who considered the main source of personality development to be innate biological factors (instincts) that generate libido energy (attraction, desire). This biological energy is aimed at both procreation (sexual desire) and destruction (aggression). According to Freud, there is a complex dynamic interaction between instincts and drives, on the one hand, and motives, consciousness, moral and ethical imperatives, on the other. This interaction regulates human behavior, and the dominant role belongs to the unconscious. This explanation served as the basis for designating a whole direction in personality theory - psychodynamic (psychoanalysis).Psychoanalytic theory. Swiss psychologist Carl Gustav Jung (1875 - 1961) collaborated with Sigmund Freud from 1906 to 1913, but later created his own version of psychoanalytic teaching - analytical psychology. The structure of personality, according to Carl Jung, consists of three parts: the individual unconscious, the collective unconscious and consciousness. The individual unconscious is a repository of suppressed thoughts, feelings, and memories that have been repressed from consciousness.
The collective unconscious is determined genetically and is a kind of memory of generations. The collective unconscious contains the historical experience of humanity, represented in the psyche of a newborn child in the form of archetypes that are inherited from ancestors.
The great merit of K. Jung is the development of a typology of personality according to two orientations: extraversion - introversion, as well as the identification of four mental processes: thinking, feeling, intuition, sensation.
Introverts pay attention to the inner state of their souls and base their behavior on the basis of their own ideas, norms, and beliefs. Introverts are characterized by increased, sometimes unfounded anxiety about even the slightest everyday problems and their health. They are characterized by high sensitivity and increased sensitivity to danger. Extroverts are focused on outside spiritual aspirations, they are well oriented in the outside world, and in their activities they proceed from its norms and rules of behavior. Extroverts are characterized by sociability, initiative, flexibility of behavior, the ability to find their place in society and adapt to its requirements.
Objects and phenomena, objects of the external world interest them more than their own inner world. The mental qualities of extroverts and introverts, according to Jung, coexist in every person, in his soul. The prevalence of some of them determines a specific psychological type of personality - extrovert or introvert. According to Jung, the “self” archetype is associated not only with personality typology (extrovert - introvert), but also with four basic mental processes - thinking, feeling, intuition and sensation. Each person is dominated by one or another process, which, in combination with introversion or extraversion, individualizes the path of human development.
Individual theory. The integrity and uniqueness of the individual, its unique individuality is the cornerstone and credo of individual psychology, the founder of which is considered to be the Austrian psychiatrist and psychologist of Jewish origin Alfred Adler (1870-1937). According to Adler, it is not innate instincts, but a sense of community with other people, an orientation towards them that determines all their actions and behavior. Adler considers the main components of individual psychology to be: feelings of inferiority and compensation; the desire for excellence; life style; creative "I"; public interest; fictitious finalism.
A psychological inferiority complex develops from childhood mainly for three reasons: due to a defect in one or another organ; excessive parental care; rejection by parents. As a reaction to a psychological inferiority complex, a person may develop a desire for superiority, expressed in a tendency to exaggerate his physical or intellectual abilities. However, the desire for superiority, according to Adler, is a fundamental law of human life. The great striving forward, according to Adler, is universal in nature; it is common to everyone, both normally and in pathology.
Lifestyle, from Adler’s point of view, is fixed at the age of 4-5 years and subsequently is almost not amenable to radical changes. Lifestyle is closely linked to a sense of community. With a developed sense of community, children who are unsure of themselves feel less of their inferiority, since they can be compensated with the help of their peers. The creative “I” acts as an active principle of an individual’s life and is the most important construct of Adler’s theory of personality. The meaning of the creative “I” is that each person is given the opportunity to freely create his own lifestyle, to be the master of his own destiny. Public interest is formed in the social environment, primarily in the family. It is possible to cultivate in a child a sense of cooperation and mutual assistance with his peers only on the basis of personal experience.
Normal relationships with the husband, with other children, with neighbors and loved ones serve as a role model for the child. This creates the best conditions for the formation of public, social interest in children. Fictitious finalism manifests itself in a person’s desire to achieve his life goals. If they are excessive, then human activity turns into fiction. A fictitious goal can neither be verified nor confirmed, but the principle itself is of great importance in a person’s life. By following it, a person strives to achieve high results in his activities, he solves some life problems more effectively.
Behavioral theory. In the behavioral theory of personality, two directions are developed - reflexive and social. Reflex was developed by one of the supporters of classical behaviorism, B. Skinner. The founders of the social are American researchers A. Bandura and J. Rotter. In both directions, it was taken as an axiom: the main source of personality development is the environment; there is nothing in personality from genetic or mental inheritance, i.e. personality is a product of learning, while psychological properties are generalized behavioral reflexes and social skills.
Humanistic theory. In the humanistic theory of personality, there are two main directions - client-centric and motivational. The founder of the first direction is the American psychologist and psychotherapist Carl Ransom Rogers (1902-1987). In foreign psychology, the client-centric (from the word “client”) direction is also called phenomenological. Secondly, the motivational direction is associated with the name of the outstanding representative of humanistic psychology, Abraham Harold Maslow (1908-1970). The main idea of Rogers and Maslow is that a person by nature is initially capable of self-improvement and personal growth.
Client-centric direction. Supporters of the client-centric direction believe that there are two innate tendencies in the human psyche: the desire for self-actualization and control over one’s development. Thus, man, by virtue of his own nature, is an active and self-realizing subject. As a result of his thirty years of clinical observations, K. Rogers came to the conclusion that man by nature is focused on moving forward towards constructive goals and realizing his natural potential. The main conditions under which self-actualization of an individual occurs are belonging to a group and self-esteem.
Motivational direction. Maslow described man as a “desiring creature” who rarely achieves a state of complete, final satisfaction. The complete absence of desires and needs is a fleeting phenomenon. If one need is satisfied, another rises to the surface and demands its satisfaction. Human life is characterized by the fact that people almost always want something. Maslow suggested that all human needs are innate and in the motivational sphere we form a hierarchical system of priorities.
Cognitive theory. Its founder was the American psychologist George Alexander Kelly (1905-1967). According to Kelly, the main source of personality development is the social environment, and behavior is determined by the cognitive processes of the individual. The main concept of the cognitive theory of personality is a construct that reflects the characteristics of an individual’s cognitive processes (perception, ideas, memory, speech, thinking). Thanks to constructs, a person establishes interpersonal relationships and discovers the world. Personal constructs are unique classifiers of our perception of other people and ourselves. The cognitive theory of personality comes from the position that cognitive processes and intellectual abilities have a decisive influence on human behavior. People perceive the world and interpret it with the help of their personality constructs.
Activity theory. It has become most widespread in Russian psychology. The origins of this theory are A.N. Leontyev, S.L. Rubinstein, K.K. Platonov, B.G. Ananyev, B.M. Teplov and other researchers. According to this theory, the main source of personality development is activity, i.e. a complex dynamic system of interactions between a subject and the world, under the influence of which personality properties are formed. According to S.L. Rubinstein and B.G. Ananyev, the initial characteristics of a person as a subject of activity are consciousness (reflection of objective reality) and activity (transformation of reality). It is activity, understood as a complex dynamic system of relationships with the world, that is the cornerstone in the formation of personality traits. S.L. Rubinstein noted: “In work, play and learning - in all of them together and in each of them in its own way the personality is manifested and formed.
Dispositional theory. The dispositional theory (from the English disposition - predisposition) is based on two ideas. The first is that people are predisposed to react in certain ways in different situations, i.e. demonstrate a certain constancy of actions, thoughts and emotions regardless of time, events and life experiences. The second idea is that there are individual differences between people, described in differential psychology.
These differences are generated by numerous complex interactions between an individual's heredity (the biological substructure of personality) and the external environment.
At the origins of differential psychology among Russian scientists were such famous physiologists as I.M. Sechenov, I.P. Pavlov, psychologists V.D. Nebylitsin and V.M. Teplov. Their works proved the existence of a close relationship between the physiological properties of the nervous system and psychological ones (temperament, abilities, etc.). Hans Jurgen Eysenck (1916-1997), using the method of factor analysis, derived only 3 factors independent of each other, which have a psychophysiological basis and are sufficient, in his opinion, for a complete description of personality: extraversion - introversion, neutroticism (emotional stability - emotional instability ) and psychoticism.
Introduction
The concept and problem of personality
1 Research on personality formation in domestic and foreign psychology
Personality in the process of activity
Socialization of personality
Personal self-awareness
Conclusion
Bibliography
Introduction
I chose the topic of personality formation as one of the most diverse and interesting in psychology. There is hardly a category in psychology or philosophy comparable to personality in terms of the number of contradictory definitions.
Personality formation is, as a rule, the initial stage in the formation of a person’s personal properties. Personal growth is determined by external and internal factors (social and biological). External growth factors include a person’s belonging to a particular culture, socioeconomic class, and unique family environment. On the other hand, intrinsic factors include the genetic, biological and physical characteristics of each individual.
Biological factors: heredity (transmission from parents of psychophysiological properties and inclinations: hair color, skin, temperament, speed of mental processes, as well as the ability to speak and think - universal human characteristics and national characteristics) largely determine the subjective conditions influencing the formation of personality. The structure of the mental life of the individual and the mechanisms of its functioning, the processes of formation of both individual and integral systems properties make up subjective world personality. At the same time, the formation of personality occurs in unity with the objective conditions that influence it (1).
There are three approaches to the concept of “personality”: the first emphasizes that personality as a social entity is formed only under the influence of society, social interaction (socialization). The second emphasis in understanding personality unites the individual’s mental processes, his self-awareness, his inner world and imparts to his behavior the necessary stability and consistency. The third emphasis is in understanding the individual as an active participant in activity, the creator of his life, who makes decisions and bears responsibility for them (16). That is, in psychology there are three areas in which the formation and formation of personality is carried out: activity (according to Leontiev), communication, self-awareness. In other words, we can say that personality is a combination of three main components: biogenetic foundations, the influence of various social factors (environment, conditions, norms) and its psychosocial core - I .
The subject of my research is the process of formation human personality influenced by these approaches and factors and theories of understanding.
The purpose of the work is to analyze the influence of these approaches on personality development. The following tasks follow from the topic, purpose and content of the work:
identify the very concept of personality and the problems associated with this concept;
explore the formation of personality in domestic and formulate the concept of personality in foreign psychology;
determine how a person’s personality develops in the process of his activity, socialization, self-awareness;
in the course of analyzing psychological literature on the topic of work, try to find out which factors have a more significant influence on the formation of personality.
1. The concept and problem of personality
The concept of “personality” is multifaceted; it is the object of study of many sciences: philosophy, sociology, psychology, aesthetics, ethics, etc.
Many scientists, analyzing the features of the development of modern science, record a sharp increase in interest in the problem of man. According to B.G. Ananyev, one of these features is that the problem of man turns into a general problem of all science as a whole (2). B.F. Lomov emphasized that the general trend in the development of science was the increasing role of the problem of man and his development. Since it is possible to understand the development of society only on the basis of understanding the individual, it becomes clear that Man has become the main and central problem of scientific knowledge, regardless of his gender. The differentiation of scientific disciplines studying man, which B.G. Ananyev also spoke about, is the response of scientific knowledge to the diversity of human connections with the world, i.e. society, nature, culture. In the system of these relations, a person is studied both as an individual with his own formation program, as a subject and object of historical development - a personality, as a productive force of society, but at the same time also as an individual (2).
From the point of view of some authors, personality is formed and develops in accordance with its innate qualities and abilities, and the social environment plays a very insignificant role. Representatives of another point of view reject the innate internal traits and abilities of the individual, believing that personality is a certain product, completely formed in the course of social experience (1). Despite the numerous differences that exist between them, almost all psychological approaches to understanding personality are united in one thing: a person is not born as a personality, but becomes in the process of his life. This actually means recognizing that a person’s personal qualities and properties are not acquired genetically, but as a result of learning, that is, they are formed and developed throughout a person’s life (15).
The experience of social isolation of the human individual proves that personality does not simply develop as it grows older. The word “personality” is used only in relation to a person, and, moreover, starting only from a certain stage of his development. We do not say about a newborn that he is a “person”. In fact, each of them is already an individual. But not yet a personality! A person becomes a person, and is not born one. We do not seriously talk about the personality of even a two-year-old child, although he has acquired a lot from his social environment.
Personality is understood as the socio-psychological essence of a person, which is formed as a result of his study of social consciousness and behavior, the historical experience of mankind (a person becomes a personality under the influence of life in society, education, communication, training, interaction). Personality develops throughout life to the extent that a person performs social roles, is included in various types of activities, as his consciousness develops. The main place in personality is occupied by consciousness, and its structures are not given to a person initially, but are formed in early childhood in the process of communication and activity with other people in society (15).
Thus, if we want to understand a person as something holistic and understand what actually shapes his personality, we must take into account all possible parameters for studying a person in various approaches to the study of his personality.
.1 Research on personality formation in domestic and foreign psychology
Cultural-historical concept of L.S. Vygotsky again emphasizes that personality development is holistic. This theory reveals the social essence of man and the mediated nature of his activity (instrumentality, symbolism). The development of a child occurs through the appropriation of historically developed forms and methods of activity, thus, the driving force of personal development is learning. Learning is first possible only in interaction with adults and cooperation with friends, and then it becomes the property of the child himself. According to L.S. Vygotsky, higher mental functions arise initially as a form of collective behavior of the child, and only then do they become the individual functions and abilities of the child himself. So, for example, at first speech is a means of communication, but in the course of development it becomes internal and begins to perform an intellectual function (6).
Personal development as a process of socialization of the individual is carried out in certain social conditions of the family, immediate environment, country, in certain socio-political, economic conditions, traditions of the people of which he is a representative. At the same time, at each phase of the life path, as L.S. Vygotsky emphasized, certain social situations of development develop as unique relationships between the child and the social reality surrounding him. Adaptation to the norms in force in society is replaced by the phase of individualization, the designation of one’s dissimilarity, and then the phase of unification of the individual in a community - all these are mechanisms of personal development (12).
Any influence of an adult cannot be carried out without the activity of the child himself. And the process of development itself depends on how this activity is carried out. This is how the idea of the leading type of activity as a criterion for a child’s mental development arose. According to A.N. Leontiev, “some types of activities are leading at this stage and are of great importance for the further development of the individual, others are of lesser importance” (9). Leading activity is characterized by the fact that it transforms the basic mental processes and changes the characteristics of the individual at a given stage of its development. In the process of a child’s development, first the motivational side of the activity is mastered (otherwise the subject aspects have no meaning for the child), and then the operational and technical side. When mastering socially developed ways of acting with objects, the child is formed as a member of society.
Personality formation is, first of all, the formation of new needs and motives, their transformation. They are impossible to learn: knowing what to do does not mean wanting it (10).
Any personality develops gradually, it goes through certain stages, each of which raises it to a qualitatively different level of development.
Let's consider the main stages of personality formation. Let us define the two most important ones, according to A.N. Leontyev. The first refers to preschool age and is marked by the establishment of the first relationships of motives, the first subordination of a person’s motives to social norms. A.N. Leontiev illustrates this event with an example known as the “bittersweet effect,” when a child, as an experiment, is given the task of getting something without getting up from his chair. When the experimenter leaves, the child gets up from the chair and takes the given object. The experimenter returns, praises the child and offers candy as a reward. The child refuses, cries, the candy has become “bitter” for him. In this situation, the struggle between two motives is reproduced: one of them is a future reward, and the other is a sociocultural prohibition. Analysis of the situation shows that the child is placed in a situation of conflict between two motives: to take the thing and to fulfill the adult’s condition. A child’s refusal of candy shows that the process of mastering social norms has already begun. It is in the presence of an adult that the child is more susceptible to social motives, which means that the formation of personality begins in relationships between people, and then they become elements of the internal structure of the personality (10).
The second stage begins in adolescence and is expressed in the emergence of the ability to be aware of one’s motives, as well as to work on subordinating them. By realizing his motives, a person can change their structure. This is the ability to self-awareness, self-direction.
L.I. Bozovic identifies two main criteria that define a person as an individual. Firstly, if there is a hierarchy in a person’s motives, i.e. he is able to overcome his own impulses for the sake of something socially significant. Secondly, if a person is capable of consciously directing his own behavior on the basis of conscious motives, he can be considered a person (5).
V.V. Petukhov identifies three criteria for a mature personality:
Personality exists only in development, while it develops freely, it cannot be determined by some action, since it can change in the next moment. Development occurs both within the space of the individual and in the space of a person’s connections with other people.
Personality is multiple while maintaining integrity. There are many contradictory sides in a person, i.e. in every action the individual is free to make further choices.
The personality is creative, this is necessary in an uncertain situation.
The views of foreign psychologists on human personality are characterized by even greater breadth. This is a psychodynamic direction (S. Freud), analytical (C. Jung), dispositional (G. Allport, R. Cattell), behaviorist (B. Skinner), cognitive (J. Kelly), humanistic (A. Maslow), etc. d.
But, in principle, in foreign psychology, a person’s personality is understood as a complex of stable characteristics, such as temperament, motivation, abilities, morality, attitudes, that determine the course of thoughts and behavior characteristic of this person when he adapts to various situations in life (16).
2. Personality in the process of activity
personality socialization self-awareness psychology
Recognition of the individual's ability to determine his own behavior establishes the individual as an active agent (17). Sometimes a situation requires certain actions and causes certain needs. The personality, reflecting the future situation, can resist it. This means not obeying your impulses. For example, the desire to rest and not make efforts.
Personal activity can be based on the refusal of momentary pleasant influences, independent determination and implementation of values. The personality is active in relation to the environment, connections with the environment and its own living space. Human activity differs from the activity of other living beings and plants and therefore it is usually called activity (17).
Activity can be defined as a specific type of human activity aimed at cognition and creative transformation of the surrounding world, including oneself and the conditions of one’s existence. In activity, a person creates objects of material and spiritual culture, transforms his abilities, preserves and improves nature, builds society, creates something that would not exist in nature without his activity.
Human activity is the basis on which and thanks to which the development of the individual occurs and the fulfillment of various social roles in society. Only in activity does the individual act and assert himself as a person, otherwise he remains thing in itself . A person himself can think whatever he wants about himself, but what he really is is revealed only in action.
Activity is the process of human interaction with the outside world, the process of solving vital problems. Not a single image in the psyche (abstract, sensory) can be obtained without corresponding action. The use of an image in the process of solving various problems also occurs by including it in one or another action.
Activity gives rise to all psychological phenomena, qualities, processes and states. Personality “in no sense is prior to his activity, just like his consciousness, it is generated by it” (9).
So, personality development appears to us as a process of interaction of many activities that enter into hierarchical relationships with each other. For the psychological interpretation of the “hierarchy of activities” A.N. Leontyev uses the concepts of “need,” “motive,” and “emotion.” Two series of determinants - biological and social - do not act here as two equal factors. On the contrary, the idea is held that the personality is given from the very beginning in the system of social connections, that at the beginning there is only a biologically determined personality, on which social connections are subsequently “superimposed” (3).
Every activity has a certain structure. It usually identifies actions and operations as the main components of activity.
Personality receives its structure from the structure of human activity, and is characterized by five potentials: cognitive, creative, value, artistic and communicative. Cognitive potential is determined by the volume and quality of information available to an individual. This information consists of knowledge about the outside world and self-knowledge. The value potential consists of a system of orientations in the moral, political, and religious spheres. Creative potential is determined by her acquired and independently developed skills and abilities. The communicative potential of an individual is determined by the extent and forms of his sociability, the nature and strength of contacts with other people. The artistic potential of a person is determined by the level, content, intensity of her artistic needs and how she satisfies them (13).
An action is a part of an activity that has a fully realized goal by a person. For example, an action included in the structure of cognitive activity can be called receiving a book or reading it. An operation is a method of carrying out an action. Different people, for example, remember information and write differently. This means that they carry out the action of writing text or memorizing material using various operations. A person’s preferred operations characterize his individual style of activity.
Thus, personality is determined not by one’s own character, temperament, physical qualities, etc., but by
what and how she knows
what and how does she value
what and how she creates
with whom and how does she communicate?
what are her artistic needs, and most importantly, what is the measure of responsibility for her actions, decisions, fate.
The main thing that distinguishes one activity from another is its subject. It is the subject of the activity that gives it a certain direction. According to the terminology proposed by A.N. Leontyev, the subject of activity is its actual motive. The motives of human activity can be very different: organic, functional, material, social, spiritual. Organic motives are aimed at satisfying the natural needs of the body. Functional motives are satisfied through various cultural forms of activity, such as sports. Material motives encourage a person to engage in activities aimed at creating household items, various things and tools, in the form of products that serve natural needs. Social motives give rise to various types of activities aimed at taking a certain place in society, gaining recognition and respect from those around them. Spiritual motives underlie those activities that are associated with human self-improvement. The motivation of activity during its development does not remain unchanged. So, for example, at labor or creative activity Over time, other motives may appear, and the previous ones may fade into the background.
But motives, as we know, can be different and are not always conscious to a person. To clarify this, A.N. Leontyev turns to the analysis of the category of emotions. Within the framework of the active approach, emotions do not subordinate activity, but are its result. Their peculiarity is that they reflect the relationship between motives and individual success. Emotion generates and determines the composition of a person’s experience of the situation of realization or non-realization of the motive of activity. This experience is followed by a rational assessment, which gives it a certain meaning and completes the process of awareness of the motive, comparing it with the purpose of the activity (10).
A.N. Leontyev divides motives into two types: motives - incentives (motivating) and meaning-forming motives (also motivating, but also giving a certain meaning to the activity).
In the concept of A.N. Leontiev’s categories “personality”, “consciousness”, “activity” appear in interaction, trinity. A.N. Leontyev believed that personality is the social essence of a person, and therefore a person’s temperament, character, abilities and knowledge are not part of the personality as its structure, they are only the conditions for the formation of this formation, social in its essence.
Communication is the first type of activity that arises in the process of individual development of a person, followed by play, learning and work. All these types of activities are formative in nature, i.e. When a child is included and actively participates in them, his intellectual and personal development occurs.
The process of personality formation is carried out through the combination of types of activities, when each of the listed types, being relatively independent, includes three others. Through such a set of activities, the mechanisms of personality formation and its improvement in the course of a person’s life operate.
Activity and socialization are inextricably linked. Throughout the entire process of socialization, a person expands the catalog of his activities, that is, he masters more and more new types of activities. In this case, three more important processes occur. This is an orientation in the system of connections present in each type of activity and between it various types. It is carried out through personal meanings, that is, it means identifying particularly significant aspects of activity for each individual, and not only understanding them, but also mastering them. As a consequence, the second process arises - centering around the main thing, focusing a person’s attention on it, subordinating all other activities to it. And thirdly, a person masters new roles in the course of his activities and comprehends their significance (14).
3. Socialization of the individual
Socialization in its content is the process of personality formation, which begins from the first minutes of a person’s life. In psychology, there are areas in which the formation and formation of personality takes place: activity, communication, self-awareness. A common characteristic of all these three spheres is the process of expansion, an increase in the individual’s social connections with the outside world.
Socialization is the process of personality formation in certain social conditions, during which a person selectively introduces into his system of behavior those norms and patterns of behavior that are accepted in that social group, to which the person belongs (4). That is, this is the process of transferring to a person social information, experience, culture accumulated by society. Sources of socialization are family, school, media, public organizations. First, an adaptation mechanism occurs, a person enters the social sphere and adapts to cultural, social, psychological factors. Then, through his active work, a person masters culture and social connections. First, the environment influences the person, and then the person, through his actions, influences the social environment.
G.M. Andreeva defines socialization as a two-way process, which includes, on the one hand, a person’s assimilation of social experience by entering the social environment, a system of social connections. On the other hand, it is the process of active reproduction by a person of a system of social connections due to his activities, “inclusion” in the environment (3). A person not only assimilates social experience, but also transforms it into his own values and attitudes.
Even in infancy, without close emotional contact, without love, attention, care, the child’s socialization is disrupted, mental retardation occurs, the child develops aggressiveness, and in the future various problems associated with relationships with other people. Emotional communication between the baby and mother is the leading activity at this stage.
The mechanisms of personality socialization are based on several psychological mechanisms: imitation and identification(7). Imitation is a child’s conscious desire to copy a certain model of behavior of parents, people with whom they have warm relationships. Also, the child tends to copy the behavior of people who punish them. Identification is a way for children to internalize parental behavior, attitudes and values as their own.
At the earliest stages of personality development, raising a child consists mainly of instilling in him norms of behavior. A child learns early, even before one year old, what he is “allowed” and what he “is not allowed” by the mother’s smile and approval, or by a stern expression on his face. Already from the first steps, what is called “mediated behavior” begins, that is, actions that are guided not by impulses, but by rules. As the child grows, the circle of norms and rules expands more and more, and the norms of behavior in relation to other people especially stand out. Sooner or later, the child masters these norms and begins to behave in accordance with them. But the results of education are not limited to external behavior. Changes also occur in the child’s motivational sphere. Otherwise, the child in the above example A.N. Leontyev would not cry, but calmly took the candy. That is, from a certain moment the child remains satisfied with himself when he does the “right” thing.
Children imitate their parents in everything: in manners, speech, intonation, activities, even clothes. But at the same time, they also internalize the internal traits of their parents - their relationships, taste, way of behavior. Feature The identification process is that it occurs independently of the child’s consciousness, and is not even entirely controlled by the adult.
So, conventionally, the process of socialization has three periods:
primary socialization, or socialization of the child;
intermediate socialization, or socialization of a teenager;
sustainable, holistic socialization, that is, the socialization of an adult, basically established person (4).
Being an important factor influencing the mechanisms of personality formation, socialization presupposes the development in a person of his socially determined properties (beliefs, worldview, ideals, interests, desires). In turn, socially determined personality properties, being components in determining the personality structure, have a great influence on the remaining elements of the personality structure:
biologically determined personality properties (temperament, instincts, inclinations);
individual characteristics of mental processes (sensations, perceptions, memory, thinking, emotions, feelings and will);
individually acquired experience (knowledge, abilities, skills and habits)
A person always acts as a member of society, as a performer of certain social functions - social roles. B.G. Ananyev believed that for a correct understanding of personality, an analysis of the social situation of the personality’s development, its status, and the social position it occupies is necessary.
Social position is a functional place that a person can occupy in relation to other people. It is characterized, first of all, by a set of rights and obligations. Having taken this position, a person fulfills his social role, that is, a set of actions that the social environment expects from him (2).
Recognizing above that personality is formed in activity, and this activity is realized in a certain social situation. And, acting in it, a person occupies a certain status, which is determined by the existing system of social relations. For example, in the social situation of a family, one person takes the place of the mother, another of the daughter, etc. It is obvious that each person is involved in several roles at once. Along with this status, any person also takes a certain position, characterizes the active side of the individual’s position in one or another social structure (7).
The position of an individual, as the active side of his status, is a system of relationships of the individual (towards the people around him, to himself), attitudes and motives that guide him in his activities, and the goals towards which these activities are directed. In turn, this entire complex system of properties is realized through the roles performed by the individual in given social situations.
By studying the personality, its needs, motives, ideals - its orientation (i.e., what the personality wants, what it strives for), one can understand the content of the social roles it performs, the status it occupies in society (13).
A person often merges with his role; it becomes part of his personality, part of his “I”. That is, the status of an individual and her social roles, motives, needs, attitudes and value orientations are transformed into a system of stable personality properties that express her attitude towards people, the environment, and herself. All psychological characteristics of a person - dynamic, character, capabilities - characterize her to us as she appears to other people, to those who surround her. However, a person lives, first of all, for himself, and recognizes himself as a subject with psychological and socio-psychological characteristics peculiar only to him. This property is called self-awareness. Thus, personality formation is a complex, long-term process determined by socialization, in which external influences and internal forces, constantly interacting, change their role depending on the stage of development.
4. Personal self-awareness
A newborn is already an individual: literally from the first days of life, from the first feedings, his own personality is formed, special style child’s behavior, so well recognized by the mother and loved ones. The child’s individuality increases by the age of two or three years, which is compared to a monkey in terms of interest in the world and mastering one’s own self. .
Great value for future fate have special critical moments during which vivid impressions of the external environment are captured, which then largely determines human behavior. They are called “impressions” and can be very different, for example, a piece of music, a story that shook the soul, a picture of some event, or appearance person.
A person is a person because he distinguishes himself from nature, and his relationship to nature and to other people is given to him as a relationship, because he has consciousness. The process of becoming a human personality includes the formation of his consciousness and self-awareness: this is the process of development of a conscious personality (8).
First of all, the unity of personality as a conscious subject with self-awareness does not represent an initial given. It is known that a child does not immediately recognize himself as “I”: during the first years he calls himself by name, as those around him call him; he exists at first even for himself, rather as an object for other people than as an independent subject in relation to them. Awareness of oneself as “I” is the result of development. At the same time, the development of a person’s self-awareness occurs in the very process of formation and development of the individual’s independence as a real subject of activity. Self-awareness is not externally built on top of the personality, but is included in it; self-awareness does not have an independent path of development, separate from the development of the individual; it is included in this process of development of the individual as a real subject as its component (8).
There are a number of stages in the development of personality and its self-awareness. In the series of external events in a person’s life, this includes everything that makes a person an independent subject of social and personal life: from the ability to self-service to the start of work, which makes him financially independent. Each of these external events has its own inner side; An objective, external change in a person’s relationship with others also changes the person’s internal mental state, rebuilds his consciousness, his internal attitude both towards other people and towards himself.
In the course of socialization, the connections between a person’s communication with people and society as a whole expand and deepen, and the image of his “I” is formed in a person.
Thus, the image of “I”, or self-awareness, does not arise in a person immediately, but develops gradually throughout his life and includes 4 components (11):
awareness of the difference between oneself and the rest of the world;
consciousness of “I” as the active principle of the subject of activity;
awareness of one’s mental properties, emotional self-esteem;
social and moral self-esteem, self-esteem, which is formed on the basis of accumulated experience of communication and activity.
In modern science there are different points of view on self-awareness. Traditional is the understanding as the original, genetically primary form of human consciousness, which is based on self-perceptions, self-perception of a person, when in early childhood the child’s idea of his own physical body, about the difference between yourself and the rest of the world.
There is also an opposite point of view, according to which self-consciousness is the highest type of consciousness. “Consciousness is not born from self-knowledge, from the “I”; self-consciousness arises in the course of the development of the individual’s consciousness” (15)
How does self-awareness develop over the course of a person’s life? The experience of having one’s own “I” appears as a result of a long process of personality development, which begins in infancy and is referred to as the “discovery of the Self.” At the age of the first year of life, the child begins to realize the differences between the sensations of his own body and those sensations that are caused by objects located outside. Subsequently, by the age of 2-3, the child begins to separate the process and result of his own actions with objects from the objective actions of adults, declaring to the latter his demands: “I myself!” For the first time he realizes himself as the subject of his own actions and deeds (a personal pronoun appears in the child’s speech), not only distinguishing himself from environment, but also opposing themselves to others (“This is mine, this is not yours!”).
On the edge kindergarten and school, in the lower grades it becomes possible, with the assistance of adults, to approach the assessment of one’s mental qualities (memory, thinking, etc.), while still at the level of awareness of the reasons for one’s successes and failures (“I have everything fives , and in mathematics - four , because I'm copying incorrectly from the board. Maria Ivanovna to me for inattention so many times deuces put"). Finally, in adolescence and young adulthood, as a result of active inclusion in social life And labor activity An expanded system of social and moral self-esteem begins to form, the development of self-awareness is completed and the image of “I” is basically formed.
It is known that in adolescence and adolescence, the desire for self-perception, to understand one’s place in life and oneself as a subject of relationships with others intensifies. Associated with this is the formation of self-awareness. Older schoolchildren develop an image of their own “I” (“I-image”, “I-concept”).
The image of “I” is a relatively stable, not always conscious, experienced as a unique system of an individual’s ideas about himself, on the basis of which he builds his interaction with others.
The attitude towards oneself is also built into the image of “I”: a person can treat himself in virtually the same way as he treats another, respecting or despising himself, loving and hating, and even understanding and not understanding himself - in himself the individual is through his actions and by actions is presented as in another. The image of “I” thereby fits into the structure of the personality. It acts as an attitude towards oneself. The degree of adequacy of the “I-image” is clarified by studying one of its most important aspects - the self-esteem of the individual.
Self-esteem is a person’s assessment of himself, his capabilities, qualities and place among other people. This is the most significant and most studied aspect of a person’s self-awareness in psychology. With the help of self-esteem, the behavior of an individual is regulated.
How does a person carry out self-esteem? A person, as shown above, becomes a person as a result of joint activity and communication. Everything that has developed and persisted in the individual arose through joint activities with other people and in communication with them and is intended for this. A person includes in his activities and communication important guidelines for his behavior, constantly compares what he does with what others expect from him, and copes with their opinions, feelings and demands.
Ultimately, everything a person does for himself (whether he learns, contributes to something or hinders something), he does at the same time for others, and may be more for others than for himself, even if it seems to him that everything is just the opposite.
A person’s sense of his uniqueness is supported by the continuity of his experiences over time. A person remembers the past and has hopes for the future. The continuity of such experiences gives a person the opportunity to integrate himself into a single whole (16).
There are several different approaches to the structure of the self. The most common scheme includes three components in the “I”: cognitive (knowledge of oneself), emotional (evaluation of oneself), behavioral (attitude towards oneself) (16).
For self-awareness, the most important thing is to become yourself (to form yourself as a person), to remain yourself (despite interfering influences) and to be able to support yourself in difficult conditions. The most important fact that is emphasized when studying self-awareness is that it cannot be presented as a simple list of characteristics, but as a person’s understanding of himself as a certain integrity, in determining his own identity. Only within this integrity can we talk about the presence of some of its structural elements.
A person, to an even greater extent than his body, refers to his “I” as his internal mental content. But he does not include all of it equally into his own personality. From the mental sphere, a person attributes to his “I” mainly his abilities and especially his character and temperament - those personality properties that determine his behavior, giving it originality. In a very broad sense, everything experienced by a person, the entire mental content of his life, is part of the personality. Another property of self-awareness is that its development during socialization is a controlled process, determined by the constant acquisition of social experience in conditions of expanding the range of activity and communication (3). Although self-awareness is one of the deepest, most intimate characteristics of the human personality, its development is unthinkable outside of activity: only in it is a certain “correction” of the idea of oneself constantly carried out in comparison with the idea that develops in the eyes of other people.
Conclusion
The problem of personality formation is a very significant and complex problem, covering a huge field of research in various fields of science.
During theoretical analysis psychological literature on the topic of this work, I realized that personality is something unique that is connected not only with its hereditary characteristics, but, for example, with the environmental conditions in which it grows and develops. Every small child has a brain and a vocal apparatus, but he can learn to think and speak only in society, in communication, in his own activities. Developing outside of human society, a creature with a human brain will never become even a semblance of a person.
Personality is a concept rich in content, including not only general characteristics, but also individual, unique properties of a person. What makes a person a person is his social individuality, i.e. a set of characteristics characteristic of a given person social qualities. But natural individuality also has an impact on the development of personality and its perception. The social individuality of a person does not arise out of nowhere or only on the basis of biological prerequisites. A person is formed in a specific historical time and social space, in the process of practical activity and education.
Therefore, a person as a social individual is always a concrete result, a synthesis and interaction of very diverse factors. And personality is the more important the more it collects a person’s socio-cultural experience and, in turn, makes an individual contribution to its formation.
The identification of physical, social and spiritual personality (as well as the corresponding needs) is rather conditional. All these aspects of personality form a system, each element of which can acquire dominant significance at different stages of a person’s life.
There are known, for example, periods of intense care for one’s body and its functions, stages of expansion and enrichment of social connections, peaks of powerful spiritual activity. One way or another, some trait takes on a system-forming character and largely determines the essence of the personality at a given stage of its development, at the same time, increasing, difficult trials, illnesses, etc. can largely change the structure of the personality, lead to a unique personality. splitting or degradation.
To summarize: first, in the course of interaction with the immediate environment, the child learns the norms that mediate his physical existence. Expanding the child’s contacts with social world leads to the formation of a social layer of personality. Finally, when at a certain stage of its development the personality comes into contact with more significant layers of human culture - spiritual values and ideals, the creation of the spiritual center of the personality, its moral self-awareness, occurs. With favorable development of the personality, this spiritual authority rises above the previous structures, subordinating them to itself (7).
Having realized oneself as an individual, having determined one’s place in society and life path(fate), a person becomes an individual, gains dignity and freedom, which make it possible to distinguish him from any other person and set him apart from others.
Bibliography
1. Averin V.A. Psychology of Personality. - St. Petersburg, 2001.
Ananyev B.G. Problems of modern human science. - M, 1976.
Andreeva G.M. Social Psychology. - M, 2002.
Belinskaya E.P., Tikhomandritskaya O.A. Social psychology: Reader - M, 1999.
Bozhovich L. I. Personality and its formation in childhood - M, 1968.
Vygotsky L.S. Development of higher mental functions. - M, 1960.
Gippenreiter Yu.B. Introduction to general psychology. Course of lectures. - M, 1999.
Leontyev A. N. Activity. Consciousness. Personality. - M, 1977.
Leontiev A. N. Personality formation. Texts - M, 1982.
Merlin V.S. Personality and society. - Perm, 1990.
Petrovsky A.V. Psychology in Russia. - M, 2000.
Platonov K.K. Structure and development of personality. M, 1986.
Raigorodsky D. D. Psychology of personality. - Samara, 1999.
15. Rubinstein. S. L. Fundamentals of general psychology - St. Petersburg, 1998.
Today in psychology there are about fifty theories of personality. Each of them examines and interprets in its own way how personality is formed. But they all agree that a person goes through the stages of personality development in a way that no one has lived before him, and no one will live after him.
Why is one person loved, respected, successful in all spheres of life, while another degrades and becomes unhappy? To answer this question, you need to know the personality formation factors that influenced the life of a particular person. It is important how the stages of personality formation went through, what new traits, qualities, properties and abilities appeared during life, and to take into account the role of the family in the formation of personality.
In psychology there are several definitions of this concept. The definition in a philosophical sense is a value for the sake of and thanks to which society develops.
Stages of development
An active and active person is capable of development. For each age period, one of the activities is leading.
The concept of leading activity was developed by the Soviet psychologist A.N. Leontyev, he also identified the main stages of personality formation. Later his ideas were developed by D.B. Elkonin and other scientists.
The leading type of activity is a development factor and activity that determines the formation of the individual’s basic psychological formations at the next stage of his development.
"According to D. B. Elkonin"
Stages of personality formation according to D. B. Elkonin and the leading type of activity in each of them:
- Infancy – direct communication with adults.
- Early childhood is an object-manipulative activity. The child learns to handle simple objects.
- Preschool age – role-playing game. child in game form tries on adult social roles.
- Primary school age - educational activities.
- Adolescence – intimate communication with peers.
"According to E. Erickson"
Psychological periodizations of individuality development were also developed by foreign psychologists. The most famous is the periodization proposed by E. Erikson. According to Erikson, personality formation occurs not only in youth, but also in old age.
Psychosocial stages of development are crisis stages in the formation of an individual’s personality. The formation of personality is the passage of one after another psychological stages of development. At each stage, a qualitative transformation of the individual’s inner world occurs. New formations at each stage are a consequence of the development of the individual at the previous stage.
Neoplasms can be either positive or negative. Their combination determines the individuality of each person. Erikson described two lines of development: normal and abnormal, in each of which he identified and contrasted psychological new formations.
Crisis stages of personality formation according to E. Erikson:
- The first year of a person’s life is a crisis of confidence
During this period, the role of the family in the formation of personality is especially important. Through the mother and father, the child learns whether the world is kind to him or not. In the best case, basic trust in the world appears; if the formation of personality is anomalous, distrust is formed.
- From one year to three years
Independence and self-confidence, if the process of personality formation occurs normally, or self-doubt and hypertrophied shame, if it is abnormal.
- Three to five years
Activity or passivity, initiative or guilt, curiosity or indifference to the world and people.
- From five to eleven years
The child learns to set and achieve goals, independently solve life problems, strives for success, develops cognitive and communication skills, as well as hard work. If the formation of personality during this period deviates from the normal line, the new formations will be an inferiority complex, conformity, a feeling of meaninglessness, futility of efforts when solving problems.
- From twelve to eighteen years old
Teenagers are going through a stage of life self-determination. Young people make plans, choose a profession, and decide on a worldview. If the process of personality formation is disrupted, the teenager is immersed in his inner world to the detriment of the outer world, but he is unable to understand himself. Confusion in thoughts and feelings leads to decreased activity, inability to plan for the future, and difficulties with self-determination. The teenager chooses the path “like everyone else”, becomes a conformist, and does not have his own personal worldview.
- From twenty to forty-five years
This is early adulthood. A person develops a desire to be a useful member of society. He works, starts a family, has children and at the same time feels satisfied with life. Early adulthood is a period when the role of the family in the formation of personality again comes to the fore, only this family is no longer parental, but created independently.
Positive new developments of the period: intimacy and sociability. Negative neoplasms: isolation, avoidance of close relationships and promiscuity. Character difficulties at this time can develop into mental disorders.
- Average maturity: forty-five to sixty years
A wonderful stage when the process of personality formation continues in conditions of a full, creative, varied life. A person raises and teaches children, reaches certain heights in the profession, is respected and loved by family, colleagues, and friends.
If the formation of a personality is successful, a person actively and productively works on himself; if not, “immersion into himself” occurs in order to escape from reality. Such “stagnation” threatens with loss of ability to work, early disability, and embitterment.
- After sixty years of age, late adulthood begins
The time when a person takes stock of life. Extreme lines of development in old age:
- wisdom and spiritual harmony, satisfaction with life lived, a feeling of its completeness and usefulness, lack of fear of death;
- tragic despair, the feeling that life has been lived in vain, and that it is no longer possible to live it again, fear of death.
When the stages of personality formation are experienced successfully, a person learns to accept himself and life in all its diversity, lives in harmony with himself and the world around him.
Formation theories
Each direction in psychology has its own answer to how personality is formed. There are psychodynamic, humanistic theories, trait theory, social learning theory and others.
Some theories emerged as a result of numerous experiments, others are non-experimental. Not all theories cover the age range from birth to death; some “allocate” only the first years of life (usually until adulthood) to the formation of personality.
- The most holistic theory, combining several points of view, is the theory of the American psychologist Erik Erikson. According to Erikson, personality formation occurs according to the epigenetic principle: from birth to death, a person lives through eight stages of development, genetically predetermined, but depending on social factors and the individual himself.
In psychoanalysis, the process of personality formation is the adaptation of the natural, biological essence of a person to the social environment.
- According to the founder of psychoanalysis, Z. Fred, a person is formed when he learns to satisfy needs in a socially acceptable form and develops protective mechanisms of the psyche.
- In contrast to psychoanalysis, the humanistic theories of A. Maslow and C. Rogers concentrate on a person’s ability to express themselves and improve themselves. The main idea of humanistic theories is self-actualization, which is also the basic human need. Human development is driven not by instincts, but by higher spiritual and social needs and values.
The formation of personality is the gradual discovery of one’s “I”, the disclosure of inner potential. A self-actualizing person is active, creative, spontaneous, honest, responsible, free from thought patterns, wise, able to accept himself and others as they are.
The components of personality are the following properties:
- abilities – individual properties that determine the success of a particular activity;
- temperament – innate characteristics of higher nervous activity that determine social reactions;
- character - a set of cultivated qualities that determine behavior in relation to other people and oneself;
- will – the ability to achieve a goal;
- emotions - emotional disturbances and experiences;
- motives – motivations for activity, incentives;
- attitudes – beliefs, views, orientation.