Crises of ages psychology. Age crises - what is it
Age crises- these are natural for each person transitional stages, knowledge of which is extremely in demand. If a person, living a specific period, does not achieve the goals set by age, a number of problems of a general and psychological kind appear. Everyone wants to live happily and for a long time, moreover, to stay in the mind to the last, to remain active. Only desire, however, is not enough here, psychologists are sure that it is the success of passing age crises that affects the fullness of life.
At what age do crises begin, do they have age restrictions, how do crises unfold in different sexes? In a crisis, you usually do not want to act, how to regain the desire to move?
The concept of age crisis
How is the concept of a crisis revealed, what are its symptoms, time frames? How to distinguish a crisis from other psychological problems, ordinary fatigue? The word crisis from its ancient Greek root means a decision, a turning point, an outcome. Indeed, a crisis is always associated with the adoption of some decision, the need for change. A person realizes the onset of a crisis period, when he sums up the achievement of goals set earlier in life, and is dissatisfied with the result - he looks into the past and analyzes what he did not receive.
Throughout our lives, we go through several crisis periods, and each of them does not come suddenly, but through the accumulation of dissatisfaction due to discrepancies between what was expected and what actually happened. That is why it is known more than others, because a person has lived most life and began to think about the past and achievements, and often compare himself with others.
It happens that in a word, a person covers up his other mental ailments that are not related to the passage of age stages. If age crises in children are easily observed, then in an adult, the time frame can shift, usually each stage is given 7-10 years, moreover, one can pass almost without a trace, while the other will be obvious even to others. However, the content of the crisis at each age is universal, taking into account time shifts, for example, people aged 30 and 35 can be in the same crisis, solving approximately the same problems.
Crises of age development should be distinguished from personal biographical crises associated with such objective conditions as, for example, graduation from school, loss of relatives or property. Crises of age development are characterized by the fact that outwardly everything is normal, bad, but inside. A person begins to provoke changes, sometimes destructive, in order to change life and the internal situation, while others may not understand him, consider the person’s problems far-fetched.
Age crises in psychology
Vygotsky also said that an ideally adapted child does not develop further. An adult is literally insured against such stagnation - as soon as he somehow got used to life, a crisis arises that requires change. Then comes a period of quite a long lull, followed by another crisis. If a crisis forces a person to develop, then what is development? More often it is understood as a kind of progress, improvement. However, there is a phenomenon of pathological development - regression. We are talking about development, which brings changes of a higher order. Almost everyone goes through some crises safely, while a crisis, for example, the middle of life, often puts a person in a dead end and unfolds in his development. Well, the essence of the crisis is conveyed by the Chinese character, which contains two meanings at once: danger and opportunity.
Psychologists have identified the general age patterns of crises, which allows us not only to prepare for them in advance, but also to successfully go through each stage, fully mastering the tasks of each wonderful age. In literally every age stage, without fail, there is a need to make a decision, which is given by the advantage of society. By solving problems, a person lives his life more safely. If a person does not find a solution, then he has a certain number of problems, of an already more acute nature, that need to be dealt with, otherwise it threatens not only with neurotic states, but also with unsettling life. Each stage has so-called normative crises, some of which, such as the crises of 20 and 25, are rather poorly described, while others, the crises of 30 and 40, are known to almost everyone. These crises owe such fame to their often obscure destructive power, when a person who is in apparent prosperity suddenly begins to dramatically change his life, to commit reckless acts associated with the collapse of earlier meanings that he relied on.
Age crises in children are well observed and require the attention of parents, since the failure to pass each crisis is superimposed on the next. Childhood crises are especially strongly imprinted on a person's character and often set the direction of a whole life. For example, a child without basic trust may become adult incapable of deep personal relationships. A person who did not feel independence in childhood does not have the opportunity to rely on personal strength, remains infantile and all his life is looking for a replacement for the parent in his wife, superiors, or else he strives to limply dissolve in a social group. A child who has not been taught industriousness, in adulthood, experiences problems with internal, external discipline. If you miss the time and do not develop the skills of the child, then he will have a number of complexes and experience difficulties because of this, he will need many times more efforts. A huge number of adults did not go through the teenage age crisis, did not take full responsibility for their lives, their natural rebellion was muted, but now unresolved runs like a red thread through their whole lives. Even in a mid-life crisis, childhood reminds of itself, because the largest number shadow contexts formed in childhood.
In each crisis, a person needs to spend the time allotted to him, not trying to get around sharp corners, to live the topics of the crisis to the fullest. There are, however, gender differences in the passage of crises. This is especially noticeable in the mid-life crisis, when men evaluate themselves by career achievements, financial security and other objective indicators, and women - by family well-being.
Age crises are also directly related to the acute topic of age, since it is widely believed that all good things can only be present in youth, this belief is fueled in every possible way by means mass media and often thanks to opposite sex. Significant external changes, when it is no longer possible to convince others and oneself of one's own youth, raise a lot of psychological problems, some people just at this stage, through their appearance, realize the need for internal personal changes. If a person tries to look younger inappropriately for his age, this speaks of unsurmounted crises, rejection of his age, body and life in general.
Age crises and their characteristics
The first crisis stage, corresponding to the age from birth to one year, correlates with trust in the world around. If a child does not have the opportunity from birth to be in the arms of loved ones, at the right time for him to receive attention, care - even as an adult, he will hardly trust the people around him. The reasons for being morbidly wary of others often lie precisely in those unmet needs of children, which we tried to tell our parents about with our loud cry. Perhaps the parents were not around at all, which becomes a prerequisite for a basic distrust in the world. That is why it is important that close people are nearby for up to a year, who can satisfy the child's need at the first cry. This is not a whim, not pampering, but a necessity inherent in this age.
The second stage, which is usually distinguished by psychologists, is the age from 1 to 3 years. Then the formation of autonomy takes place, the child often wants to do everything himself - it is important for him to make sure that he is capable of this. At the same time, we often meet with stubbornness, which was not there before, rejection and rejection of an adult, attempts by a child to establish himself above an adult. These are natural moments for this period, it must be passed. Adults must definitely set boundaries for the child, tell what to do, what not to do, why. If there are no boundaries, a little tyrant grows up, who subsequently torments the whole family with his problems. It is also important to support the child, to allow him to do something on his own. Also, the concept is now being laid, children are often interested in their genitals, an awareness of the difference from the opposite sex comes. It is important not to pull the child, not to shame for the natural interest.
In the next period, from 3 to 6 years, the basics of diligence, love for household chores are assigned. The child can already do almost all household work under the supervision of an adult himself, if at the same time the child is not given the opportunity to show his initiative - later he will not get used to achieving them by setting goals. If the child wanted to wash the floor, water the flowers, try vacuuming - teach him. But this should be done not with prodding and orders, but with a game. Role-playing games are gaining great importance, you can play with dolls, with book characters, even make figures yourself, for example, from paper, play a scene that will be interesting to your child. Take your child to the puppet theater to watch the characters interact. The child receives information precisely through the parents, the development of the child in a correct and harmonious way depends on them.
The next period is the period of circles, from 6 to 12 years. The child now needs to be loaded to the maximum with what he wants to do. You need to know that now his body remembers the experience well, all the skills mastered in a given period of time, the child will retain for the rest of his life. If he dances, he will dance beautifully all his life. With singing, sports as well. Perhaps he will not become a champion, but he will be able to further develop his abilities in any period of his life in the future. When it is possible to take your child to circles - do it, take as much time as possible with classes. Intellectual development is useful, because now the child receives basic information that will be useful to him further, will help form thinking.
The period of adolescence, the next one, is probably the most difficult, since most parents resort to psychologists precisely in connection with the difficulties of communicating with a teenage child. This is a period of self-identification, if a person does not pass it, then in the future he may remain limited in his potentials. A growing person begins to wonder who he is and what he brings to the world, what is his image. It is in adolescence that different subcultures are born, children begin to pierce their ears, change their appearance, sometimes even to the point of self-destruction, unusual hobbies may appear. Teenagers resort to interesting forms of clothing that attract attention, emphasize or, conversely, reveal all the shortcomings. Experiments with appearance can be endless, they are all tied to the child's acceptance of his body, which changes significantly at this age. A teenager likes or dislikes this, each problem is strictly individual, so it makes sense for parents to carefully talk about the complexes associated with changing his appearance.
Parents should carefully monitor the behavior of a teenager when they are sure that the form of clothing he has chosen does not suit the child - it is worth gently prompting him to do this, and also look at who the teenager is surrounded by, who is in the company, because what he will take from the outside world, will play a dominant role in the future. It is also important that before the eyes of a teenager there are examples of worthy adults that he would like, because later he will be able to adopt their behavior, manners, habits. If there is no such example, for example, the family consists only of a mother and a son, then you need to give him the opportunity to communicate with relatives of the same sex so that he knows how a man should behave. It is important that a teenager finds his style, his image, how he wants to express himself to this world, what are his goals, plans. Right now, adults should discuss this with the child. Even if the child does not seem to want to listen to you, he still listens to you for sure, your opinion is significant for him.
In the next period of 20 to 25 years, a person completely separates from his parents, begins an independent life, therefore this crisis is often noticeable more than others. This is a crisis of secession, but there is also an opposing desire for merger. At this stage, it is important to start a close personal relationship with a person of the opposite sex. If there are no such relationships, then the person did not go through the previous teenage period as it should, did not understand who he is, who he wants to see next to him. At this age, relationship issues are super relevant, it is important to learn to communicate with the opposite sex. Friendship and professional contacts are also important, the search for a new social circle, which a person already enters as an adult. Will he take responsibility for personal steps? There will certainly be mistakes, it is important how a person will act - whether he will return under the parental wing or find a replacement for his parents in a partner, thereby regressing back to childhood, or will he become responsible for decisions made with their consequences. The new growth of this crisis is responsibility. The difficulty of this age is the still prevailing image of social acceptability, when it is expected from a very young person that he will certainly be successful in school, work, have deep relationships, look good, have many hobbies, be active, active. The conflict here is that to begin to please social desirability means to lose oneself, not to allow personal, individual potentials to be revealed, separation will not occur, a person will follow the road trodden, trodden by the expectations of those around him, will not take maximum responsibility for his life.
Social unacceptability at the described stage often indicates that the person is in contact with himself. Guys do it better because society gives them more opportunities to do it. The resistance to authorities, left over from adolescence, here goes beyond the family, instead of mom and dad, a person begins to resist, for example, bosses. One of the scenarios for the passage of this crisis is a predetermined fate, when the family outlined in advance, painted the path of a person. Often this is a professional direction, but family life can also turn out to be in conservative traditions. In this scenario, a person does not use the possibility of separation from parents, as if the crisis of 20 years has passed, deceiving him, however, the topic of personal self-determination and separation remains, returning to a person sometimes even after 10-20 years, already being sore. An unresolved crisis is superimposed on the next one, and you will often have to choose a direction already having a family, children, which is more difficult. Prolonged professional self-determination, when you have to change the scope of work by the age of 30, starting with a new one, also turns out to be a difficult task.
A very fruitful period begins at the age of 25, when the opportunity comes to receive the blessings of life that he counted on as a teenager. Usually in this period you really want to quickly get a job, start a family, have children, make a career. Will and aspiration are laid from childhood, if this did not happen, life can turn out to be boring and unpromising. The crisis echoes the theme when a person wonders what he can respect himself for. The theme of achievements and collecting them is at its peak here. By the age of 30, there is an assessment of the previous life, the ability to respect oneself. Interestingly, at this stage, it is more common to equip the outer part of life, forming a tree of social connections, while introverts rely on their own personal resources and deep relationships in a limited circle. If there is a significant imbalance, when, for example, a person has been engaged in social contacts for a long time, succeeded at work, made a career, created a social circle and image in society - now he begins to think more about home comfort, children, family relationships.
On the contrary, if the first 10 years of mature life were devoted to the family, which is often a female scenario, when a girl got married, became a mother and a housewife, then this crisis requires leaving the nest for the outside world. To get through this crisis, a person needs to have a collection of achievements. Everyone has it, but not everyone is able to respect themselves, which often happens when focusing on shortcomings. Also at this stage there is an opportunity to work on yourself personally, to change your life for the one you like it. See what you are missing. Perhaps this is a close person, think about how he should be, what kind of person you wanted to see next to you, and how much you yourself correspond to the image of the loved one that you conceived for yourself. If you are not completely satisfied with the work, you want to change the field of activity, but you have no idea how to do this - try starting with a hobby, a hobby that you can convert into a permanent job. Also think about how you relax, what brings your vacation to you - good or bad. After all, rest takes up most of your personal time, and its lack negatively affects the quality of life, there are various distressful situations that would not exist if you had a good and complete rest. During this period, often a person already becomes a parent and wants to help children live a better life. Think about what foundations you will lay in them, going through your own life, what you received in your childhood, what was not enough, is there trust in the world, if not, what prevented it from forming.
The next mid-life crisis is favored by the attention of not only psychologists, but also the townsfolk. For the majority, everything is stabilized in the middle of life, but when a person suddenly begins to suffer for reasons that are incomprehensible to others, and sometimes even to himself, he finds himself in a confusing situation. The beginning of the crisis is accompanied by a state of boredom, loss of interest in life, a person begins to make some external changes that do not lead to the desired relief, nothing changes inside. The primary must be precisely the internal change, which, if it has taken place, may not entail external changes. A lot of films have been made about the midlife crisis, when men more often have mistresses, and women go to have children, which does not change the situation. The successful passage of the crisis is not associated with external attempts to change, but with an internal absolute acceptance of life, which gives a wonderful, harmonious state of mind. At this stage, there is no longer a question of achievement and self-esteem, but only acceptance of oneself, life as it is. Acceptance does not mean that everything will stop - on the contrary, development will only become more intense, since a person stops the war within himself. A truce with oneself releases a lot of strength for a more productive life, more and more new opportunities open up. A person asks questions about the mission of his life, moreover, he can do a lot, discovering his true meanings.
The crisis of 40 years initiates a spiritual search, poses global questions for a person, to which there are no unambiguous answers. This conflict is connected with the psychological structure of the Shadow - those unacceptable contexts that a person endlessly displaces, trying to lie even to himself. Growing children do not allow a person to be younger than he is, demanding wisdom from the parent. The existential nature of this crisis is reinforced by the experience of the transience of time, when it is no longer possible to write drafts, you have to live clean, and it is gratifying that there is still an opportunity for this.
The crisis of 50-55 years again puts a person at a fork in the road, on one road he can go to wisdom, on the other - to insanity. A person makes an internal choice, will he live or live out, what's next? The society informs a person that often he is no longer in trend, in different positions he has to give way to the younger youth, including in the profession. Often here a person strives to be needed by others, leaves to take care of his grandchildren completely, or clings to work, afraid to retreat to the backyard. However, the harmonious outcome of the crisis will be to let go of everything, to inform yourself before that you have paid off all possible social debts, you owe nothing to anyone, now you are free to do what you want. For such an acceptance of life and desires, it is necessary to go through all the previous crises, because material resources, resources of relationships and self-perception will be required.
Features of age crises
What if a person does not note the passage of crises in his life, does it mean that they were not? Psychologists are convinced that a psychological crisis is as natural as changes in a person's body with age. People with a low level, inattention to themselves, when they push their troubles away, can not be aware that they are now living through a psychological crisis. Or a person in every possible way restrains experiences within himself, being afraid to destroy his positive image in front of others, to show himself as a person with problems. Such non-living, ignoring the crisis subsequently leads to the unification of all the stages that have not been passed, like an avalanche. Needless to say, this is a difficult outcome, a huge psychological burden, with which a person is sometimes unable to cope.
Another variant of the atypical course of crises is often observed in hypersensitive individuals who are open to changes, personality transformations. They are prone to prevention, and when the first symptoms of an impending crisis appear, they try to immediately draw conclusions and adapt. Crises are milder. However, such an anticipatory approach does not allow one to fully immerse oneself in the lesson that a crisis brings to a person.
Each crisis contains something that will help a person in the future period of life, gives support for the passage of the following crises. A person does not develop linearly, he develops in steps, and a crisis is precisely that moment of a breakthrough in development, after which a period of stabilization, a plateau, begins. Crises help the personality grow, we do not grow of our own free will, we don’t want to get out of the state of balance on our own, and it seems there is no need. Because the psyche involves our internal conflicts. Thanks to crises, a person, although unevenly, grows throughout his life.
Critical and stable periods of development. The problem of age crises.
Periodization of Elkonin.
Epoch / Age
Early childhood
Childhood
adolescence
periodization
Infant (0-12 months)
2-6 7-12
Early age
1-3 years
Preschool
3-7 years
Junior school
7-12 years old
junior teenage
12-15 years old
Senior teen
15-18 years old
development line
Motivational-need sphere
Situational-personal
Situational business communication
Operational and technical
Subject-gun
Motivational-need
Operational and technical
Motivational-need
Operational and technical
Social development situation
Controversy: helplessness-dependence
An adult is a model, practical cooperation with an adult, an adult as a bearer of cultural and historical experience
Adult as a bearer of social and personal relationships
An adult as a carrier of generalized modes of activity in the system of scientific concepts
Peer as object and subject of relations
Adult as Senior Companion
Leading activity
Direct emotional communication with a close adult
Subject-weapon activity
Game activity
Educational activity (cognitive, thinking, intellectual-cognitive sphere)
Intimate and personal communication with peers
The problem of age, solved through the SSR
Solve the problem of how to communicate with an adult, develop ways of communication
Disclosure of the social functions of objects; awareness of what can be done with objects
The subordination of motives and the manifestation of the personality characteristics of the child
Mastering the system of scientific concepts
Self-determination of oneself in the system of relations with peers
professional choice; autonomy
Individual mental life
Revitalization Complex
Speech
Perception
self-awareness
Formation of internal positions
Arbitrariness of thinking (logical type of generalization)
Internal Action Plan
Reflection
Internal mediation of all mental processes
Self-esteem
Feeling mature
Reflection
System of values
Formation of logical intelligence
Hypotheco-deductive thinking
Thinking style
Result
Destruction of the symbiotic situation
I myself
self-awareness
Variable Pride.
Independence
Own position to the system of social relations (rudiments of ideological social relations)
Own cognitive activity
Cooperation with peers
self control
Formation of the system "I" development of self-consciousness
Development of worldview and philosophical thinking
Formation of a system of theoretical knowledge
Crises of age development.
Age crises are some time periods in human development, during which there are sharp mental changes. They do not last long, from several months to a year and are a normal phenomenon in the personal development of a person.
The duration of these crises and their manifestations depend on individual characteristics and the conditions in which a person is in a given period of time. Conditions are understood as both the family and the social environment (at work, in the company, clubs of interest ...).
The opinions of psychologists about age-related crises differ. Some believe that the crisis is the result of improper upbringing, that development should take place smoothly and harmoniously. Others believe that the crisis is a normal process of transition to a more difficult age stage. Some psychologists believe that a person who has not survived the crisis will not develop further.
Domestic psychologists distinguish between stable and crisis periods of development. They alternate with each other and are a natural process of child development. Obvious shifts in development appear, the child changes greatly in behavior (it can be extremely emotional), conflicts with adults (not only with loved ones). Losing interest in activities. This is observed not only at school, but also in circles. Some children have unconscious experiences, internal conflicts.
Well-known domestic psychologist D.B. Elkonin said: “R-k approaches each point of his development with a known discrepancy between what he learned from the system of relations man - man, and what he learned from the system of relations man - object. Just the moments when this discrepancy takes on the greatest value, and are called crises, after the cat. there is a development of that party, a cat. lagged behind in the previous period. But each of the parties is preparing the development of the other.
Now consider crises by age parameters:
- neonatal crisis
Associated with changing living conditions. A child from a familiar environment finds himself in completely different conditions. All nine months he was in the womb. First, it is the aquatic environment. It 'warm over there. He fed and breathed through the umbilical cord without any effort. At birth, everything changed dramatically. From the aquatic environment, the child enters the air. Breathe and eat on your own. There is an adaptation to new conditions.
- one year crisis
During this period, the child has new needs.
This is the age of manifestation of independence, and various emotional and affective manifestations are the result or, if you like, the child's response to a misunderstanding of adults. It is during this period that children's speech appears. She is rather peculiar, different from an adult, but at the same time she corresponds to the situation and is emotionally colored.
- crisis of three years
The crisis of three years precedes the crisis of seven years of age and is one of the most difficult life periods child. The child singles out his "I", moves away from adults and tries to build other "more adult" relationships with them. The well-known Russian psychologist L.S. Vygotsky singles out 7 characteristics of the crisis of the age of three.
Negativism. Negative reaction of the child to the request or demand of an adult. This reaction is not directed against the very action that is required of the child. It is directed towards the request itself. The main thing that drives the child at this moment is to do the opposite.
Manifestation of stubbornness. The child insists on something, not because he really wants it, but because he demands that his opinion be taken into account.
The line of manifestation of independence is very clearly traced. The child wants to do everything himself.
In general, this is good. But everything is good in moderation. Hypertrophied manifestation of independence often does not correspond to the capabilities of the child. Which can lead to internal conflict with oneself, and conflict with adults.
It happens that conflicts between children and adults become, as it were, a system of relationships. It seems that they are constantly at war. In such cases, one can speak of a protest-revolt. In families where the child is alone, despotism may appear. In families with many children, instead of despotism, jealousy towards other children may appear. Jealousy in this case will be regarded as a tendency to power and an intolerant attitude towards the younger ones.
Devaluation of old rules and norms of behavior, attachments to certain things and toys. Psychologically, the child moves away from close adults and realizes himself as an independent subject.
- seven year crisis
The crisis of seven years can manifest itself in the interval of approximately 6 to 8 years. Since at this age almost all children go to school, this period is associated with the discovery of a new social position for themselves - the position of a schoolchild. At this age, the child's self-awareness changes, respectively, there is a reassessment of values.
According to L.S. Vygotsky, at this age stage, a generalization of experiences appears. Whether the child proved to be successful or failed in any of the areas of his activity (whether it be studying or communicating with peers, doing clubs or sports ...) - either a sense of self-importance, exclusivity or a sense of inferiority is formed. These experiences lead to the formation of the inner life of the child. There is a distinction between the external and internal life of the child, which leads to a change in his behavior. Here the semantic basis of the act appears. The child thinks before doing something - an attempt to evaluate the future act from the point of view possible consequences or unfolding actions. Due to the fact that the semantic basis of actions appears, impulsiveness disappears from behavior and childish spontaneity is lost. The child tries to think over his steps, begins to hide his experiences.
One of the manifestations of the crisis of seven years is antics, stiffness of behavior due to the distinction between inner and outer life. All these manifestations disappear when the child enters the next age stage.
- (puberty - 11-15 years old)
This crisis is associated with the puberty of the child. Activation of sex hormones and growth hormones is typical at this age stage. Rapid growth of the body, the appearance of secondary sexual characteristics. Due to rapid growth, problems with cardiovascular activity, lung function, etc. can occur. An emotionally unstable background at this age enhances the sexual arousal that accompanies puberty.
Adolescents are guided in behavior by patterns of masculinity or femininity. Consequently, interest in one's appearance increases and a certain new vision of oneself is formed. This age is characterized by strong feelings about their imperfect appearance.
One of the most important neoplasms is the feeling of adulthood. In adolescence, there is a strong desire - to be or at least seem to be an adult and independent. Adolescents do not share any information about their personal lives with their parents; quarrels and conflicts with adults often arise. The main circle of communication in this period is peers. Intimate-personal communication occupies a central place in the life of a teenager. Also, this age tends to unite in informal groups.
Age crises are special, relatively short in time (up to a year) periods of ontogeny, characterized by sharp mental changes. They refer to the normative processes necessary for the normal progressive course of personal development (Erickson).
The form and duration of these periods, as well as the severity of the flow, depend on individual characteristics, social and microsocial conditions. In developmental psychology, there is no consensus about crises, their place and role in mental development. Some psychologists believe that development should be harmonious, crisis-free. Crises are an abnormal, “painful” phenomenon, the result of improper upbringing. Another part of psychologists argues that the presence of crises in development is natural. Moreover, according to some ideas in developmental psychology, a child who has not truly experienced a crisis will not fully develop further. Bozhovich, Polivanova, Gail Sheehy addressed this topic.
L.S. Vygotsky considers the dynamics of transitions from one age to another. At different stages, changes in the child's psyche can occur slowly and gradually, or they can happen quickly and abruptly. Stable and crisis stages of development are distinguished, their alternation is the law of child development. A stable period is characterized by a smooth course of the development process, without sharp shifts and changes in the Personality of the r-ka. Long in duration. Insignificant, minimal changes accumulate and at the end of the period give a qualitative leap in development: age-related neoplasms appear, stable, fixed in the structure of the Personality.
Crises do not last long, a few months, under unfavorable circumstances stretching up to a year or even two years. These are brief but turbulent stages. Significant shifts in development, the child changes dramatically in many of its features. Development can take on a catastrophic character at this time. The crisis begins and ends imperceptibly, its boundaries are blurred, indistinct. The aggravation occurs in the middle of the period. For the people around the child, it is associated with a change in behavior, the appearance of "difficulty in education". The child is out of control of adults. Affective outbursts, whims, conflicts with loved ones. Schoolchildren's working capacity decreases, interest in classes weakens, academic performance decreases, sometimes painful experiences and internal conflicts arise.
In a crisis, development acquires a negative character: what was formed at the previous stage disintegrates, disappears. But something new is also being created. Neoplasms turn out to be unstable and in the next stable period they transform, are absorbed by other neoplasms, dissolve in them, and thus die off.
D.B. Elkonin developed the ideas of L.S. Vygotsky on child development. “A child approaches each point in his development with a certain discrepancy between what he has learned from the system of relations man-man and what he has learned from the system of relations man-object. It is precisely the moments when this discrepancy takes on the greatest magnitude that are called crises, after which the development of the side that lagged behind in the previous period takes place. But each of the parties is preparing the development of the other.
neonatal crisis. Associated with a sharp change in living conditions. A child from comfortable habitual conditions of life gets into difficult ones (new nutrition, breathing). Adaptation of the child to new conditions of life.
Crisis 1 year. It is associated with an increase in the child's capabilities and the emergence of new needs. A surge of independence, the emergence of affective reactions. Affective outbursts as a reaction to misunderstanding on the part of adults. The main acquisition of the transitional period is a kind of children's speech, called L.S. Vygotsky autonomous. It is significantly different from adult speech and in sound form. Words become ambiguous and situational.
Crisis 3 years. The boundary between early and preschool years is one of the most difficult moments in a child's life. This is destruction, a revision of the old system of social relations, a crisis in the allocation of one's "I", according to D.B. Elkonin. The child, separating from adults, tries to establish new, deeper relationships with them. The appearance of the phenomenon “I myself”, according to Vygotsky, is a new formation “the external I myself”. "The child is trying to establish new forms of relationship with others - a crisis of social relations."
L.S. Vygotsky describes 7 characteristics of a 3-year crisis. Negativism is a negative reaction not to the action itself, which he refuses to perform, but to the demand or request of an adult. The main motive for action is to do the opposite.
The motivation of the child's behavior changes. At 3 years old, for the first time, he becomes able to act contrary to his immediate desire. The behavior of the child is determined not by this desire, but by relationships with another, adult person. The motive for behavior is already outside the situation given to the child. Stubbornness. This is the reaction of a child who insists on something not because he really wants it, but because he himself told adults about it and demands that his opinion be taken into account. Obstinacy. It is directed not against a specific adult, but against the entire early childhood systems of relations against the norms of upbringing accepted in the family.
The tendency towards independence is clearly manifested: the child wants to do everything and decide for himself. In principle, this is a positive phenomenon, but during a crisis, a hypertrophied tendency towards independence leads to self-will, it is often inadequate to the child's capabilities and causes additional conflicts with adults.
For some children, conflicts with their parents become regular, they seem to be constantly at war with adults. In these cases, one speaks of a protest-revolt. In a family with an only child, despotism may appear. If there are several children in the family, instead of despotism, jealousy usually arises: the same tendency to power here acts as a source of jealous, intolerant attitude towards other children, who have almost no rights in the family, from the point of view of the young despot.
Depreciation. A 3-year-old child may begin to swear (old rules of behavior are depreciated), discard or even break a favorite toy offered at the wrong time (old attachments to things are depreciated), etc. The child's attitude to other people and to himself changes. He is psychologically separated from close adults.
The crisis of 3 years is associated with the awareness of oneself as an active subject in the world of objects, the child for the first time can act contrary to his desires.
Crisis 7 years. It may start at age 7, or it may shift to 6 or 8 years. The discovery of the meaning of a new social position - the position of a schoolchild associated with the implementation of highly valued by adults educational work. The formation of an appropriate internal position radically changes his self-awareness. According to L.I. Bozovic is the period of the birth of social. "I" of the child. A change in self-consciousness leads to a reassessment of values. There are profound changes in terms of experiences - stable affective complexes. It appears that L.S. Vygotsky calls the generalization of experiences. A chain of failures or successes (in studies, in wide communication), each time experienced by the child in approximately the same way, leads to the formation of a stable affective complex - a feeling of inferiority, humiliation, hurt pride or a sense of self-worth, competence, exclusivity. Thanks to the generalization of experiences, the logic of feelings appears. Experiences acquire a new meaning, connections are established between them, the struggle of experiences becomes possible.
This gives rise to the inner life of the child. The beginning of the differentiation of the external and internal life of the child is associated with a change in the structure of his behavior. A semantic orienting basis of an act appears - a link between the desire to do something and the unfolding actions. This is an intellectual moment that makes it possible to more or less adequately assess the future act in terms of its results and more distant consequences. Semantic orientation in one's own actions becomes an important aspect of inner life. At the same time, it excludes the impulsiveness and immediacy of the child's behavior. Thanks to this mechanism, the childish spontaneity is lost; the child thinks before acting, begins to hide his feelings and hesitations, tries not to show others that he is ill.
A purely crisis manifestation of the differentiation of the external and internal life of children usually becomes antics, mannerisms, artificial stiffness of behavior. These external features as well as the tendency to whims, affective reactions, conflicts, begin to disappear when the child emerges from the crisis and enters a new age.
Neoplasm - arbitrariness and awareness of mental processes and their intellectualization.
Pubertal crisis (11 to 15 years old) associated with the restructuring of the child's body - puberty. The activation and complex interaction of growth hormones and sex hormones cause intense physical and physiological development. Secondary sexual characteristics appear. Adolescence is sometimes referred to as a protracted crisis. In connection with the rapid development, difficulties arise in the functioning of the heart, lungs, blood supply to the brain. In adolescence, the emotional background becomes uneven, unstable.
Emotional instability enhances the sexual arousal that accompanies puberty.
Gender identity reaches a new, higher level. Orientation to models of masculinity and femininity in behavior and manifestation of personal properties is clearly manifested.
Due to the rapid growth and restructuring of the body in adolescence, interest in one's appearance sharply increases. A new image of the physical "I" is being formed. Because of its hypertrophied significance, the child is acutely experiencing all the flaws in appearance, real and imaginary.
The image of the physical "I" and self-consciousness in general is influenced by the pace of puberty. Children with late maturation are in the least advantageous position; acceleration creates more favorable opportunities for personal development.
A sense of adulthood appears - a feeling of being an adult, the central neoplasm of younger adolescence. There is a passionate desire, if not to be, then at least to appear and be considered an adult. Defending his new rights, a teenager protects many areas of his life from the control of his parents and often comes into conflict with them. In addition to the desire for emancipation, a teenager has a strong need for communication with peers. Intimate-personal communication becomes the leading activity during this period. Adolescent friendships and association in informal groups appear. There are also bright, but usually successive hobbies.
Crisis 17 years (from 15 to 17 years). It arises exactly at the turn of the usual school and new adult life. It can move up to 15 years. At this time, the child is on the threshold of real adult life.
The majority of 17-year-old schoolchildren are oriented towards continuing their education, a few are looking for work. The value of education is a great blessing, but at the same time, achieving the goal is difficult, and at the end of grade 11 emotional stress may rise sharply.
For those who have been going through a crisis for 17 years, various fears are characteristic. Responsibility to yourself and your family for the choice, real achievements at this time is already a big burden. To this is added the fear of a new life, of the possibility of error, of failure when entering a university, and for young men, of the army. High anxiety and, against this background, pronounced fear can lead to neurotic reactions, such as fever before graduation or entrance exams, headaches, etc. An exacerbation of gastritis, neurodermatitis, or another chronic disease may begin.
A sharp change in lifestyle, inclusion in new activities, communication with new people cause significant tension. A new life situation requires adaptation to it. Two factors mainly help to adapt: family support and self-confidence, a sense of competence.
Aspiration to the future. The period of stabilization of the Personality. At this time, a system of stable views on the world and one's place in it is formed - a worldview. Known associated with this youthful maximalism in assessments, passion in defending their point of view. Self-determination, professional and personal, becomes the central new formation of the period.
Crisis 30 years. Around the age of 30, sometimes a little later, most people experience a crisis. It is expressed in a change in ideas about one's life, sometimes in a complete loss of interest in what used to be the main thing in it, in some cases even in the destruction of the former way of life.
The crisis of 30 years arises due to the unrealized life plan. If at the same time there is a “reassessment of values” and a “revision of one's own Personality”, then we are talking about the fact that the life plan turned out to be wrong in general. If the life path is chosen correctly, then attachment “to a certain Activity, a certain way of life, certain values and orientations” does not limit, but, on the contrary, develops his Personality.
The crisis of 30 years is often called the crisis of the meaning of life. It is with this period that the search for the meaning of existence is usually associated. This quest, like the whole crisis, marks the transition from youth to maturity.
The problem of meaning in all its variants, from private to global - the meaning of life - arises when the goal does not correspond to the motive, when its achievement does not lead to the achievement of the object of need, i.e. when the goal was set incorrectly. If we are talking about the meaning of life, then the general life goal turned out to be erroneous, i.e. life intention.
Some people in adulthood have another, “unscheduled” crisis, which does not coincide with the border of two stable periods of life, but arises within this period. This so-calledcrisis 40 years . It's like a repetition of the crisis of 30 years. It occurs when the crisis of 30 years has not led to a proper solution of existential problems.
A person is acutely experiencing dissatisfaction with his life, the discrepancy between life plans and their implementation. A.V. Tolstykh notes that a change in attitude on the part of colleagues at work is added to this: the time when one could be considered “promising”, “promising” is passing, and a person feels the need to “pay bills”.
In addition to the problems associated with professional activity, the crisis of 40 years is often caused by the aggravation of family relations. The loss of some close people, the loss of a very important common side of the life of spouses - direct participation in the lives of children, everyday care for them - contributes to the final understanding of the nature of marital relations. And if, apart from the children of the spouses, nothing significant connects both of them, the family may break up.
In the event of a crisis of 40 years, a person has to once again rebuild his life plan, develop a largely new “I-concept”. Serious changes in life can be associated with this crisis, up to a change in profession and the creation of a new family.
Retirement Crisis. First of all, the violation of the habitual regime and way of life has a negative effect, often combined with a sharp sense of contradiction between the remaining ability to work, the opportunity to be useful and their lack of demand. A person turns out to be, as it were, “thrown to the sidelines” of the current life without his active participation in the common life. The decline in one's social status, the loss of the life rhythm that has been preserved for decades, sometimes leads to a sharp deterioration in the general physical and mental state, and in some cases even to relatively quick death.
The crisis of retirement is often aggravated by the fact that around this time the second generation grows up and begins to live an independent life - grandchildren, which is especially painful for women who have devoted themselves mainly to the family.
Retirement, which often coincides with the acceleration of biological aging, is often associated with a worsening financial situation, sometimes a more secluded lifestyle. In addition, the crisis may be complicated by the death of a spouse, the loss of some close friends.
Age period
Signs of the age stage
Social situation of development
Characteristics of the leading activity
Crisis manifestations
Major neoplasms
Characteristics of the cognitive, motivational-need, emotional spheres of development
Behavioral features
Leading directions
vital activity
1. Newborn (1-2 months)
Inability to distinguish oneself and others
respiratory, sucking, protective and indicative, atavistic ("catchy") reflexes.
Complete biological dependence on the mother
Emotional communication with an adult (mother)
The birth process, the physical separation from the mother,
adaptation to new conditions with the help of unconditioned reflexes
Sensory processes (the first types of sensations), the emergence of auditory and visual concentration. recovery complex.
Personal, need-motivational:
getting pleasure.
Inactivity, sleep, facial expressions of displeasure, crying and well-fed well-being.
Formation of the need for communication
2.Infancy (up to 1 year.)
The stage of "confidence in the world": the appearance of upright walking, the formation of an individual mental life, the emergence of the ability to more expressively express one's feelings and
relationship with others,
autonomous
speech - cooing, cooing, babbling first words.
The common life of the child with the mother, (situation "We")
Directly - emotional communication with the mother, objective activity
Crisis 1 year:
The growing contradiction between the needs for knowledge of the world around and the opportunities that the child has (walking, speech, affect and will), there is a need for new impressions, communication, and the possibilities are limited - there are no walking skills, he still cannot speak
Elementary forms of perception and thinking, the first independent steps, words, an active need to know the world around, the need to communicate with adults, trust in the world, autonomous speech.
Cognitive processes: The occurrence of the act of grasping, the development of movements and postures
the initial form of visual-effective thinking (based on perception and action with objects), involuntary attention, perception of objects, differentiated sensations and emotional states, the formation of prerequisites for the assimilation of speech, the development of motor skills
affective outbursts, emotional reactions,
expressive actions, active motor reactions, stubbornness.
The need for communication, as the main factor in the development of the psyche, the formation of basic trust in the world,
overcoming feelings of disunity and alienation, knowledge of objects.
3.Early childhood (1-3 years)
The stage of “independence”, he himself can understand the purpose of the subject, autonomous speech is replaced by the words of “adult” speech (phrasal speech), psychological separation from loved ones, development negative traits character, underdevelopment of sustainable motivational relationships. What was familiar, interesting, expensive before is depreciated.
Joint activities with adults, knowledge of the world of surrounding things
situational business communication in cooperation with an adult, situation (“I am myself”)
Object-manipulative, object-tool activity
Crisis 3 years:
obstinacy, self-will, depreciation of adults, protest rebellion, striving for despotism and independence, for the first time says “I myself!”, the first birth of a personality. two lines of independence: negativism, stubbornness, aggressiveness, or a crisis of dependence, tearfulness, timidity, the desire for close emotional attachment.
Consciousness "I myself"
Active speech, vocabulary accumulation.
Practical thinking.
"affective"
perception of objects and situations, emotional reactions, recognition and reproduction, formation of an internal plan of action, visual-effective thinking, self-awareness arises (recognizes oneself), primary self-esteem ("I", "I am good", "I myself"), attention and memory involuntary. The emergence of a desire for independence and the need to achieve success.
Impulsive behavior, emotional reactions associated with the immediate desires of the child and negative reactions to the demand of adults (crying, throwing himself on the sofa, covering his face with his hands, or moving chaotically, shouting incoherent words, his breathing is often uneven, his pulse is frequent; he turns red in anger, screams , clenches fists, can break a thing that comes to hand, hit) affective reactions to difficulties, curiosity
The emergence of a desire for independence and the need to achieve success, the struggle against feelings of shame and strong doubts about one's actions for
own independence and autonomy.
4. Preschool childhood (3-7 years old)
The stage of "choosing the initiative": the emergence of personal consciousness,
imitate subject activity and relationships between people. The period of the birth of the social "I", there is a meaningful orientation in their experiences. The transition from external actions to internal "mental".
Knowledge of the world of human relations and their imitation
Plot - role-playing game (combination of game activity with communication), didactic and game with rules.
Crisis of 7 years "crisis of immediacy":
experiences are associated with the realization of a new position, the desire to become a schoolchild, but so far the attitude is preserved as to a preschooler.
Reassessment of values, generalization of experiences, the emergence of the inner life of the child, a change in the structure of behavior: the emergence of a semantic orienting basis of an act (the link between the desire to do something and the unfolding actions, the loss of childish immediacy.
Subordination of motives, self-consciousness (awareness of one's experiences) and
arbitrariness.
Personal (consumer - motivational): the need for socially significant and evaluative activities,
the first moral feelings are formed (what is bad and what is good), new motives and needs (competitive, game, the need for independence). The sound side of speech develops,
correct speech, creative imagination, developed involuntary memory, arbitrary memory is formed, purposeful analyzing perception, visual-figurative thinking, subordination of motives, assimilation of ethical norms, gender indification, self-awareness in time.
It is regulated by the semantic orienting basis of the act (the link between the desire to do something and the unfolding actions), the loss of childlike spontaneity.
the appearance of one's own activity, instability of will and mood.
deliberateness appears, the child begins to behave, act up
Development of active initiative and
moral responsibility for their desires, knowledge of systems of relations.
Psychological readiness for school - the formation of the main psychological spheres of a child's life (motivational, moral, strong-willed, mental, personal). Intellectual readiness (mental development of the child, the stock of elementary knowledge, speech development, etc.). Personal readiness (formation of readiness to accept the social position of a student who has a range of rights and obligations; the child's attitude to school, learning activities, to teachers, to himself). Volitional readiness (development of moral and volitional qualities of a person, qualitative changes in the degree of arbitrariness of mental processes, the ability to obey the rules).
5. Junior school age (7-11 years old))
Stage of "mastery"
the social status of the student (learning situation),
the main motive is to get high marks
The social status of the student: the development of knowledge, the development of intellectual and cognitive activity
Educational and cognitive activity.
Experiences and school maladaptation, high self-esteem, a sense of incompetence.
The problem of evaluation.
Arbitrariness of attention, sense of competence, self-awareness, self-esteem, internal plan of action, self-control, reflection.
Intellectual-cognitive:
verbal-logical thinking, theoretical thinking, synthesizing perception appears, arbitrary semantic memory, arbitrary attention (become conscious and arbitrary), learning motives, adequate self-esteem, generalization of experiences, the logic of feelings and the emergence of inner life.
The child gradually masters his mental processes.
In the organization of activities and the emotional sphere: younger students are easily distracted, incapable of prolonged concentration, excitable, emotional.
Formation of industriousness and ability to handle tools
labor, which is opposed by the realization of one's own ineptitude and uselessness,
knowledge is the beginning of life
6. Adolescence (11-15 years old)
Stage of communication with peers: intensive physical and physiological development.
Emancipation from adults and grouping.
Conformity, the formation of national and international identity.
The transition from dependent childhood to independent and responsible adulthood.
The development of norms and relationships between people.
Intimate-personal communication, hypertrophied need for communication with peers.
Professional-personal communication - a combination of communication on personal topics and joint group activities of interest.
Crisis of character and relationships, claims to adulthood, independence, but there are no opportunities for their implementation. provisions - "no longer a child, not yet an adult", mental and social changes against the background of rapid physiological restructuring, learning difficulties
The feeling of adulthood is the attitude of a teenager towards himself as an adult (younger adolescence),
"I-concept" (older adolescence), the desire for adulthood, self-esteem, submission to the norms of collective life. Formation of interests and motivation for learning.
Formation of volitional behavior, the ability to control one's emotional state.
Personal (consumer-motivational)
theoretical reflective thinking, intellectualization of perception and memory, personal reflection, a male and female view of the world appears. Development of creative abilities,
the ability to perform all types of mental work of an adult. The ability to operate with hypotheses, solving intellectual problems. Intellectualization of perception and memory. Rapprochement of imagination with theoretical thinking (emergence of creative impulses).
Adolescents become awkward, fussy, make a lot of unnecessary movements,
fatigue, irritability, mood swings; hormonal storm, frequent mood swings, imbalance, accentuation of character.
The task of the first integral awareness of oneself and one's place in the world;
the negative pole in solving this problem is the uncertainty in understanding
own "I" ("diffusion of identity", knowledge of systems of relations in various situations.
7. Senior school age (16-17 years old)
stage of self-determination “the world and me”: the leading place among high school students is occupied by motives related to self-determination and preparation for independent life, with further education and self-education.
The beginning of true socio-psychological independence in all areas, including: material and financial self-sufficiency, self-service, independence in moral judgments, political views and actions. Awareness of contradictions in life (between moral norms approved by people and their actions, between ideals and reality, between abilities and opportunities, etc.).
Initial Choice life path Mastering professional knowledge and skills.
Educational and professional activities.
Moral and personal communication.
For the first time, questions of self-determination in the profession arise, questions arise about the meaning and purpose of life, planning for the future professional and life path, disappointment in the plans, and in oneself.
Crisis of 17 years: fear of choice, of adulthood.
Looking to the future, building life plans and prospects (professional and personal self-determination).
Formation of life plans, worldview, readiness for personal and life self-determination, acquisition of identity (feelings of adequacy and possession of a person's own "I", regardless of the change in the situation).
Cognitive: improvement of mental processes, mental activity becomes more stable and efficient, approaching in this respect the activities of adults,
the rapid development of special abilities, often directly related to the chosen professional field, the development of self-awareness. Addressed to oneself in the process of introspection, reflection, questions are of a worldview nature, becoming an element of personal self-determination.
Romantic impulses are not characteristic, a calm, orderly way of life pleases, they are guided by the assessment of others, rely on authority, in the absence of self-knowledge, they are impulsive and inconsistent in actions and relationships, there is an interest in communicating with adults.
Self-determination - social, personal, professional, creation of a life plan. Knowledge of the professional field of activity.
8. Youth (from 17 to 20-23 years old)
stage of "Human intimacy":
The beginning of the establishment of genuine socio-psychological independence in all areas, including material and financial self-sufficiency, self-service, independence in moral judgments, political views and actions. Awareness of contradictions in life (between moral standards approved by people and their actions, between ideals and reality, between abilities and opportunities, etc.)
Vocational training, development of vocational
work skills,
labor activity, mastering the norms of relations between people, the situation of choosing a life path.
Labor activity, vocational training.
Educational and professional activities
A new life situation, a sense of incompetence, admission to a university.
youthful maximalism, material independence.
Ultimate self-determination.
Understanding the need for learning. The value of unregulated conditions for the acquisition of knowledge. Readiness and actual ability for various types of learning.
Positive trends in development: the desire for knowledge and professionalism, the expansion of interests in the field of art, a responsible attitude towards one's future when choosing a profession, the formation of motives (prestigious motivation, the motive of power, the motive of material prosperity and well-being, the motive of creating a prosperous family).
Originality of thought. Increased intellectual activity.
Student life style; partying, dating, drinking or sports, academic dedication.
Self-determination - social, personal, professional, spiritual and practical. Education, job search, military service.
The task of the end of youth and the beginning
maturity - search for a life partner and the establishment of close friendships,
overcoming feelings of loneliness.
9. Youth (from 20 to 30 years old)
Stage of human maturity, a period of active professional, social and personal development. Marriage, birth and upbringing of children, development. Building prospects for later life.
The choice of a life partner, the creation of a family, the assertion of oneself in the profession, the choice of a life path.
Entering the workforce and mastering the chosen profession, creating a family.
The problem of the meaning of life is the crisis of 30, the reassessment of values, the unrealized life plan. Difficulties in becoming professional self-absorption and avoidance of interpersonal relationships,
Family relationships and a sense of professional competence, skill, fatherhood.
Intensive cognitive development, the needs of self-respect and self-actualization dominate, concern for the future well-being of mankind is also characteristic (otherwise, indifference and apathy arise, unwillingness to take care of others, self-absorption in one’s own problems), is characterized as “sustainably conceptual socialization, when stable personality traits are developed”, all mental processes are stabilized, the person acquires a stable character. The choice of motive: professional, motives of creative achievement, broad social motives - the motive of personal prestige, the motive of maintaining and raising the status, the motive of self-realization, the motive of self-affirmation, material motives.
Characterized by optimism, maximum efficiency. Creative activity.
Minutes of despair, doubt, uncertainty are short-lived and pass in the turbulent flow of life, in the process of mastering more and more new opportunities.
Choosing a life partner, establishing close friendships,
overcoming the feeling of loneliness, creating a family, affirmation in the profession, gaining mastery.
Maturity (30 to 60-70 years old)
The peak of professional, intellectual achievements, "akme" is the peak of the sometimes full flowering of the personality, when a person can realize his full potential, achieve the greatest success in all spheres of life. This is the time of fulfillment of one's human destiny - both in professional or social activities, and in terms of the continuity of generations. Age values: love, family, children.. The source of satisfaction at this age is family life, mutual understanding, success of children, grandchildren.
Full disclosure of their potential in professional activities and family relationships.
Maintaining social status and taking a well-deserved rest.
Professional activity and family relations.
Doubt about the correctness of the life lived and significance for loved ones.
Search for a new meaning in life. Loneliness in adulthood, retirement, Productivity - stagnation. The crisis of the 40s is the meaning of life, the aggravation of family relations.
Rethinking life goals
awareness of responsibility for the content of one's life to oneself and to other people, productivity. Adjustments of the life plan and related changes in the "I - concept".
Productivity creative, professional, caring for people), inertia (self-absorption).
Having reached the peak of his professional productivity in maturity, a person stops his development, stops in improving his professional skills, creative potential, etc. Then comes a decline, a gradual decrease in professional productivity: all the best that a person could do in his life is left behind, on the already traveled segment of the path.
Emotional costs increase with age and overload leads to stressful situations and conditions. The transition from the state of maximum activity, violent activity (inherent to the “akme” period) is painful, to its gradual curtailment, limitation due to the fact that health is undermined, there is less strength, there is an objective need to give way to new generations with subjective internal unwillingness (does not feel yourself old).
Struggle
the creative forces of man against inertia and stagnation, the upbringing of children. Unleash your potential and realize yourself.
Late maturity (after 60-70 years)
Life wisdom based on experience, the appearance of a feeling of old age, accelerated biological aging, termination of employment.
Reorientation of social activity and adaptation to the new life of a pensioner.
Change of leading activity: satisfaction of one significant or essential motive, providing pleasure and entertainment
Retirement, violation of the usual regime and way of life, deterioration of financial situation, death of a spouse and loved ones.
Attitude towards death, despair.
Attitude to death, rethinking of life, awareness of the value of the content of life.
Physical, biological and mental aging, decreased memory function, narrowing of interests, the focus of attention from the future moves to the past, emotional instability, egocentrism, distrust of people, exactingness, resentment, the need to transfer accumulated experience, the need for life involvement, belief in the immortality of the soul .
Decreased physical strength
the frequency of depressions, neurosises increases. The tendency to remember, tranquility.
It is characterized by the formation of the final integral idea of oneself,
your life path, as opposed to possible disappointment in life and
growing despair.
2. Characteristics of age crises of various periods of development
2.1. Age crises of childhood
The child develops unevenly. There are relatively calm or stable periods, and there are so-called critical ones. Crises are discovered empirically, and not in turn, but in random order: 7, 3, 13, 1, 0. During critical periods, the child changes in a very short time as a whole, in the main personality traits. This is a revolutionary, stormy, impetuous course of events, both in terms of the pace and meaning of the changes taking place. Critical periods are characterized by the following features:
boundaries separating the beginning and end of the crisis from adjacent periods,
extremely indistinct. The crisis occurs imperceptibly, it is very difficult to determine
the moment of its onset and end. A sharp aggravation (culmination) is observed in the middle of the crisis. At this time, the crisis reaches its climax;
the difficulty of educating children in critical periods at one time
served as the starting point for their empirical study. Observed
obstinacy, drop in academic performance and working capacity, increase
the number of conflicts with others. The inner life of a child in this
time is associated with painful experiences;
negative development. It has been noted that during crises, in
unlike stable periods, rather destructive,
than creative work. The child does not acquire so much as
loses from what was previously acquired. However, the emergence of the new in development necessarily means the death of the old. Simultaneously in critical
periods are observed and constructive processes of development.
L. S. Vygotsky called these acquisitions neoplasms.
Neoplasms of critical periods are of a transitional nature, that is, they do not persist in the form in which, for example, autonomous speech occurs in one-year-old children.
During stable periods, the child accumulates quantitative changes, and not qualitative ones, as during critical ones. These changes accumulate slowly and imperceptibly. The sequence of development is determined by the alternation of stable and critical periods.
Let us consider the crises of childhood in more detail and consistently.
The first one is neonatal crisis (0-2 months). The neonatal crisis was not discovered, but calculated by the latter and singled out as a special, crisis period in the mental development of the child. A sign of a crisis is weight loss in the first days after birth.
The social situation of the newborn is specific and unique and is determined by two factors. On the one hand, this is the complete biological helplessness of the child, he is not able to satisfy a single vital need without an adult. Thus, the infant is the most social being. On the other hand, with maximum dependence on adults, the child is still deprived of the main means of communication in the form of human speech. The contradiction between maximum sociality and minimum means of communication lays the foundation for the entire development of the child in infancy.
The main neoplasm is the emergence of the child's individual mental life. What is new in this period is that, first, life becomes an individual existence, separate from the mother organism. The second point is that it becomes mental life, because, according to L. S. Vygotsky, only mental life can be part of the social life of the people around the child.
One year crisis characterized by the development of speech action. Prior to this, the baby's body was regulated by a biological system associated with biorhythms. Now, however, it has come into conflict with the verbal situation based on self-command or order from adults. Thus, a child at the age of about a year finds himself without a system at all that allows him to reliably navigate in the world around him: biological rhythms are severely deformed, and the speech ones are not so formed that the child can freely control his behavior.
The crisis is characterized by a general regression of the child's activity, as if by reverse development. Emotionally manifested in affectivity. Emotions are primitive. In this case, various violations are observed:
Violation of all biorhythmic processes (sleep-wakefulness);
violation of the satisfaction of all vital needs (for example,
measures, feelings of hunger);
Emotional anomalies (sullenness, tearfulness, resentment).
The crisis is not among the acute ones.
acute interest in his image in the mirror;
the child is puzzled by his appearance, interested in how he
looks in the eyes of others. Girls show interest in clothes; boys show concern for their performance, for example, in
construction. They react strongly to failure.
The crisis of 3 years is among the acute ones. The child is uncontrollable, falls into a rage. Behavior is almost impossible to correct. The period is difficult for both the adult and the child himself. The symptoms of a crisis, according to their number, are called the seven-star crisis of 3 years:
negativism - a reaction not to the content of the adult sentence, but to
that it comes from adults. The desire to do the opposite, even in spite of
own will;
stubbornness - the child insists on something not because he wants to, but because he demanded it, he is bound by his original decision;
obstinacy - it is impersonal, directed against the norms of upbringing, the way of life that has developed up to three years;
self-will - seeks to do everything himself;
protest riot - a child in a state of war and conflict with others;
symptom of devaluation is manifested in the fact that the child begins to
swear, tease and call parents names;
despotism - the child forces the parents to do whatever he requires.
In relation to younger sisters and brothers, despotism manifests itself as jealousy.
Crisis of seven years reminiscent of the crisis of one year - a crisis of self-regulation. The child begins to regulate his behavior by rules. Previously complaisant, he suddenly begins to make claims for attention to himself, the behavior becomes pretentious. On the one hand, a demonstrative naivete appears in his behavior, which is annoying, since it is intuitively perceived by others as insincerity. On the other hand, it seems overly adult: it imposes norms on others.
For a 7-year-old child, the unity of affect and intellect disintegrates, and this period is characterized by exaggerated forms of behavior. The child does not control his feelings (cannot restrain, but also does not know how to control them). The fact is that, having lost some forms of behavior, he has not yet acquired others.
The crisis of seven years is followed by adolescence crisis
. This is a crisis of social development, reminiscent of a crisis of three years (“I myself”), only now it is “I myself” in the social sense. It is described in the literature as "the age of the second cord cutting", "the negative phase of puberty". It is characterized by a drop in academic performance, a decrease in working capacity, disharmony in internal structure personality. The human Self and the world are separated more than in other periods. The crisis is among the acute ones. The symptoms of a crisis are:
decrease in productivity in educational activities;
negativism.
There is a decrease in productivity and ability to learn, even in the area in which the child is gifted. Regression appears when a creative task is given (for example, an essay). Children are able to perform the same as before, only mechanical tasks.
There is an opening of the mental world, the attention of a teenager for the first time is drawn to other people. With the development of thinking comes intense self-perception, self-observation, knowledge of the world of one's own experiences. The world of inner experiences and objective reality are divided. At this age, many teenagers keep diaries.
The second symptom of the crisis is negativism. Sometimes this phase is called the phase of the second negativism by analogy with the crisis of three years. The child, as it were, is repelled by the environment, hostile, prone to quarrels, violations of discipline. At the same time, he experiences internal anxiety, discontent, a desire for loneliness, for self-isolation. In boys, negativism manifests itself brighter and more often than in girls, and begins later - at the age of 14-16.
The behavior of a teenager during a crisis is not necessarily negative. L. S. Vygotsky writes about three types of behavior:
negativism is clearly expressed in all areas of a teenager's life. And
this lasts either for several weeks, or the teenager falls out of
family, inaccessible to the persuasion of elders, excitable or, conversely, stupid. it
difficult and acute course is observed in 20% of adolescents;
the child is a potential negativist. This manifests itself only in certain life situations, mainly as a reaction to the negative influence of the environment (family conflicts, the oppressive effect of the school environment). Such children are the majority, approximately 60%;
20% of children have no negative phenomena at all.
Crisis of adolescence
resembles crises of one year (speech regulation of behavior) and 7 years (normative regulation). At the age of 17, value-sense self-regulation of behavior occurs. If a person learns to explain and, consequently, regulate his actions, then the need to explain his behavior willy-nilly leads to the subordination of these actions to new legislative schemes. 1
The young man has a philosophical intoxication of consciousness, he is thrown into doubts, thoughts that interfere with his active active position. Sometimes the state turns into value relativism (the relativity of all values).
In youth, a young person has the problem of choosing life values. Youth strives to form an internal position in relation to itself (“Who am I?”, “What should I be?”), in relation to other people, as well as to moral values. It is in youth that a young man consciously works out his place among the categories of good and evil. "Honor", "dignity", "right", "duty" and other categories that characterize a person are acutely worried about a person in his youth. In youth, a young man expands the range of good and evil to the utmost limits and tests his mind and his soul in the range from beautiful, sublime, good to terrible, base, evil. Youth strives to feel itself in temptations and ascent, in struggle and overcoming, falling and rebirth.- in all that diversity of spiritual life, which is characteristic of the state of mind and heart of a person. It is significant for the young man himself and for all mankind if a young man chooses for himself the path of spiritual growth and prosperity, and is not seduced by vice and opposition to social virtues. Choosing an inner position is a very difficult spiritual work. A young person who has turned to the analysis and comparison of universal values and his own inclinations and value orientations will have to consciously destroy or accept the historically determined norms and values that determined his behavior in childhood and adolescence. In addition, modern ideas of the state, new ideologists and false prophets are attacking him. He chooses for himself a non-adaptive or adaptive position in life, while he believes that it is the position he has chosen that is the only one acceptable to him and, therefore, the only correct one. 1
It is in youth that the need for isolation, the desire to protect one's own unique world from the intrusion of third-party and close people in order to strengthen the sense of personality through reflection, in order to preserve one's individuality, to realize one's claims to recognition. Separation as a means of keeping a distance when interacting with others allows a young person to "save his face" at the emotional and rational level of communication. Identification - isolation in youth has its own specifics: a young man is both "hot" and "cold" than a person in other age periods. This is manifested in direct communication with other people, with animals, with nature. On both poles of good and evil, identification and alienation, youth dominates. This is the time of possible reckless love and possible irrepressible hatred. Love- always identification in the highest degree. Hatred- always alienation in the extreme. It is in youth that a person plunges into these ambivalent states. It is in youth that a person ascends to the highest potential of humanity and spirituality, but it is at this age that a person can descend to the darkest depths of inhumanity. Youth- a period when a young man continues to reflect on his relationship with his family in search of his place among those close by blood. It passes, growing out of childhood and reverently entering the period of youth, gaining the possibility of a second birth of the personality. Youth self-deeply develops in itself reflective abilities. Developed reflection makes it possible for a subtle empathy with one's own experiences, motives, interacting motives and at the same time- cold analysis and correlation of the intimate with the normative. Reflections take a young person out of his inner world and allow him to take a position in this world.
2.2 Age crises of an adult
In adults, most researchers identify three main crises: the crisis of 30 years, the crisis of "midlife" and the crisis of old age. The biggest difficulty in organizing psychological support for adults is to direct a person to work with himself. Quite often there is a projection of the crisis on the environment, and in this case a person comes for a consultation with a request that is completely inadequate to the real situation. 1
Crisis 30 years lies in the fact that a person discovers that he can no longer change a lot in his life, in himself: family, profession, habitual way of life. Having realized himself at this stage of life, in the period of youth, a person suddenly realizes that, in essence, he is faced with the same task - search, self-determination in new circumstances of life, taking into account real possibilities (including limitations that he did not notice before). This crisis manifests itself in the feeling of the need to "do something" and indicates that a person is moving to a new age stage - the age of adulthood. "Crisis of 30" is a code name. This state can come earlier or later, the feeling of a crisis state can occur repeatedly throughout the life path (as in childhood, adolescence, adolescence), since the development process goes in a spiral without stopping.
Men at this time are characterized by a change of job or a change in lifestyle, but their focus on work and career does not change. The most frequent motive for voluntary leaving work is dissatisfaction with the work itself: the working environment, labor intensity, wages, etc. If job dissatisfaction arises as a result of the desire to achieve a better result, then this only contributes to the improvement of the employee himself.
Experiencing the crisis of thirty years, a person is looking for an opportunity to strengthen his niche in adult life, confirm his status as an adult: he wants to have a good job, he strives for security and stability. The person is still confident that the full realization of the hopes and aspirations that form the “dream” is possible, and works hard for this.
mid life crisis This is the time when people critically analyze and evaluate their lives. Some may be satisfied with themselves, believing that they have reached the peak of their capabilities. For others, the analysis of past years can be a painful process. Although normative age factors such as graying hair, increased waist size, or menopause, combined with non-normative events such as divorce or job loss, can cause stress, the likelihood of a midlife crisis is markedly reduced if any of the predictable influences of age are anticipated or regarded as normal moments of life.
At the beginning of the fifth decade of life (maybe a little earlier or later), a person goes through a period of critical self-assessment and reassessment of what has been achieved in life by this time, an analysis of the authenticity of a lifestyle: moral problems are solved; a person goes through dissatisfaction with marital relations, anxiety about children leaving home and dissatisfaction with the level of promotion. The first signs of deterioration in health, loss of beauty and physical fitness, alienation in the family and in relations with grown-up children appear, the fear comes that nothing better will come of life, career, love. This psychological phenomenon is called the mid-life crisis (a term coined by Levinson). People critically reevaluate their lives, analyze it. Very often, this reassessment leads to the understanding that "life has passed meaninglessly and time has already been lost." 1
The midlife crisis is associated with the fear of aging and the realization that what has been achieved is sometimes much less than expected, and is a short peak period, followed by a gradual decrease in physical strength and mental sharpness. Man is characterized by an exaggerated preoccupation with his own existence and relationships with others. The physical signs of aging become more and more obvious and are experienced by the individual as a loss of beauty, attractiveness, physical strength and sexual energy. All this, both on a personal and social level, is assessed negatively. In addition, there is growing anxiety that one may be one step behind a new generation trained to new standards, energetic, with new ideas and willing to accept, at least initially, a much lower salary. .
At the same time, a person begins to realize that inevitable physiological changes are taking place with his body against his will. A person recognizes that he is mortal and that the end will surely come to him, while he will not be able to complete everything that he so passionately desired and strived for. There is a collapse of hopes associated with infantile ideas about one's own future life(power, wealth, relationships with others). That is why marriages often break up in middle age.
Some differences were found in the course of the mid-life crisis in men and women. It has been shown that in women the stages life cycle to a greater extent, they are structured not by chronological age, but by the stages of the family cycle - marriage, the appearance of children, leaving the grown-up children of the parental family.
Thus, during the mid-life crisis, the need to find one's own path arises and then increases, but there are serious obstacles along the way. Crisis symptoms include boredom, job and/or partner changes, marked violence, self-destructive thoughts and actions, relationship inconsistency, depression, anxiety, and increased obsession. Such symptoms indicate a person's need to significantly change his life. One of the ways out of the crisis is individuation. This is the need for development, allowing you to achieve the maximum possible completeness of the individual. "The conscious process of isolation, or individuation, is necessary to bring a person to awareness, that is, to raise him above the state of identification with the object."
As long as the original identification with the external, objective world is preserved, a person feels himself detached from subjective reality. Of course, a person always remains a social being, but while maintaining a commitment to external relations with people, he should develop his personality more. The more highly organized a person becomes, the more it enriches relationships with others. “Since man is not just a separate, isolated being, but by virtue of his very existence is predisposed to social relations, the process of individuation should lead him not to isolation at all, but, on the contrary, to an expansion of the spectrum of social relations” (ibid.). This is the paradox of individuation. A person most of all meets the interests of society if he becomes an integral personality and brings into it his own dialectics, which is necessary for the psychological health of any social group. Thus, the desire for individuation is not narcissistic; it is the best way to contribute to society and to support the individuation of others.
The last crisis under consideration iscrisis of aging and death . The solution of the universal problem of “living or experiencing old age”, the choice of an aging strategy is not considered narrowly, as some kind of one-time action, it is a protracted, maybe for years, process associated with overcoming several crises. 1
In old age (old age), a person has to overcome three sub-crises. The first of these is the reassessment of one's own "I" in addition to its professional role, which for many people remains the main one until retirement. The second sub-crisis is associated with the realization of the fact of deteriorating health and aging of the body, which gives a person the opportunity to develop the necessary indifference in this regard. As a result of the third sub-crisis, self-concern disappears in a person, and now he can accept the thought of death without horror (Appendix B).
Now our social structure, as well as philosophy, religion and medicine, have almost nothing to offer to alleviate the mental anguish of the dying. Elderly and elderly people, as a rule, are not afraid of death itself, but of the possibility of a purely vegetative existence devoid of any meaning, as well as the suffering and anguish caused by diseases. We can state the presence of two leading attitudes in their attitude towards death: firstly, unwillingness to burden their loved ones, and secondly, the desire to avoid excruciating suffering. Therefore, many, being in a similar position, are experiencing a deep and all-encompassing crisis, affecting simultaneously the biological, emotional, philosophical and spiritual aspects of life.
During this period, it is important to understand the socio-psychological mechanisms of human adaptation to the phenomenon of death. We are talking about the system of psychological protection, certain models of symbolic immortality, and the social approbation of death - the cult of ancestors, funeral rites, funeral and memorial services, and educational programs of a propaedeutic nature, in which the phenomenon of death becomes a topic of reflection and spiritual search.
The culture of empathy for the death of another person is an integral part of the general culture of both the individual and society as a whole. At the same time, it is quite rightly emphasized that the attitude towards death serves as a standard, an indicator of the moral state of society, its civilization. It is important to create not only the conditions for maintaining normal physiological vitality, but also the prerequisites for optimal life activity, to satisfy the need of the elderly and the elderly for knowledge, culture, art, literature, often beyond the reach of older generations.
Causes of the emergence and development of crises at different age stages
The neonatal crisis is an intermediate period between intrauterine and extrauterine lifestyles. If there were no adult next to the newborn, then in a few hours this creature would have to die. The transition to a new type of functioning is provided only by adults. An adult protects the child from bright light, protects him from cold, protects him from noise, etc.
From the reaction of concentration on the face of the mother at the age of about two and a half months (0; 2.15), an important neoplasm of the neonatal period arises - the revival complex. The revival complex is an emotionally positive reaction, which is accompanied by movements and sounds. Prior to this, the movements of the child were chaotic, uncoordinated. In the complex, coordination of movements is born. The animation complex is the first act of behavior, the act of singling out an adult. This is the first act of communication. The revitalization complex is not just a reaction, it is an attempt to influence an adult (N.M. Shchelovanov, M.I. Lisina, S.Yu. Meshcheryakova). Craig G. Psychology of development. - St. Petersburg. Peter, 2007. - p. 153
The revitalization complex is the main neoplasm of the critical period. It marks the end of the newborn and the beginning of a new stage of development - the stage of infancy. Therefore, the appearance of the revitalization complex is a psychological criterion for the end of the neonatal crisis.
Crisis of the first year of life. By 9 months - the beginning of the crisis of the first year - the child gets on his feet, begins to walk. As emphasized by D.B. Elkonin Obukhova L.F. Age-related psychology. - M.: Higher education; MGPPU, 2007. - p. 268, the main thing in the act of walking is not only that the space of the child expands, but also that the child separates himself from the adult. For the first time there is a fragmentation of a single social situation "we": now it is not the mother who leads the child, but he leads the mother wherever he wants. Walking is the first basic neoformation of infancy, which marks a break in the old situation of development.
The second main neoplasm of this age is the appearance of the first word. The peculiarity of the first words is that they are in the nature of pointing gestures. Walking and enrichment of objective actions require speech that would satisfy communication about objects. Speech, like all neoplasms of age, is of a transitional nature. This is an autonomous, situational, emotionally colored speech, understandable only to relatives. This speech is specific in its structure, consisting of fragments of words.
The third main neoplasm of infancy is the emergence of manipulative actions with objects. Manipulating with them, the child is still guided by their physical properties. He has yet to master human modes of action with human objects that surround him everywhere. In the meantime, the exit from the old social situation of development is accompanied by negative emotional manifestations of the child, arising in response to the constraint of his physical independence, when the child is fed, regardless of his desire, dressed against his will. This behavior of L.S. Vygotsky, following E. Kretschmer, called hypobulic reactions - reactions of protest in which will and affect are not yet differentiated Rubinshtein S.L. Fundamentals of General Psychology. - St. Petersburg: Peter, 2007. - p. 318.
Summing up the first stage of a child's development, we can say that from the very beginning there are two interconnected lines of mental development: the line of development of orientation in the meanings of human activity and the line of development of orientation in the ways of human activity. The development of one line opens up new opportunities for the development of another. There is a clear, main line of development for each age. However, the main new formations, leading to the breakdown of the old social situation of development, are formed along a different line, which is not a guide in a given period; they appear subtly.
Crisis of three years. Elsa Koehler Obukhova L.F. Age-related psychology. - M.: Higher education; MGPPU, 2007. - p.283-285identified several important symptoms of this crisis.
Negativism. This is a negative reaction associated with the attitude of one person to another person. The child refuses to obey certain demands of adults at all. Negativism should not be confused with disobedience. Disobedience occurs even at an earlier age.
Stubbornness. It's a reaction to your own decision. Stubbornness should not be confused with perseverance. Stubbornness consists in the fact that the child insists on his demand, his decision. Here the personality is singled out, and the demand is put forward that other people should consider this personality.
Obstinacy. Close to negativism and stubbornness, but has specific features. Obstinacy is more generalized and more impersonal. This is a protest against the rules that exist at home.
Willfulness. The desire for emancipation from an adult. The child himself wants to do something. In part, this resembles the crisis of the first year, but there the child strove for physical independence. Here we are talking about deeper things - about the independence of intention, design.
Adult devaluation. S. Buhler described the horror of the family when the mother heard from the child: "fool" Stolyarenko L.D. Fundamentals of psychology. - Rostov n / a: Phoenix, 2007. - p. 635.
Protest rebellion, which manifests itself in frequent quarrels with parents. “The whole behavior of the child takes on the features of protest, as if the child is at war with those around him, in constant conflict with them,” wrote L.S. Vygotsky Vygodsky L.S. Questions of child psychology. - St. Petersburg: Soyuz, 2007. - p. 60.
Despotism. Occurs in a family with an only child. The child shows despotic power in relation to everything around him and seeks many ways for this.
Western European authors identify negative aspects in crisis phenomena: the child leaves, moves away from adults, breaks the social ties that previously united him with the adult. L.S. Vygotsky Vygodsky L.S. Questions of child psychology. - St. Petersburg: Soyuz, 2007. - p. 85emphasized that such an interpretation is incorrect. The child tries to establish new, higher forms of relationships with others. According to D.B. Elkonin Elkonin D.B. Selected psychological works. - M.: ART-PRESS, 2005. - p. 268, the crisis of three years is a crisis of social relations, and every crisis of relations is a crisis of singling out one's "I".
The crisis of three years is a break in the relationship that has existed until now between a child and an adult. By the end of the early age, there is a tendency to independent activity, which marks the fact that adults are no longer closed to the child by the object and the way of acting with it, but, as it were, for the first time open up to him, act as carriers of patterns of actions and relationships in the world around. The phenomenon of "I myself" means not only the emergence of outwardly noticeable independence, but also the separation of the child from the adult. As a result of this separation, adults appear for the first time in the world of children's life. The world of children's life from a world limited by objects turns into a world of adults.
The restructuring of relations is possible only if there is a separation of the child from the adult. There are clear signs of such a separation, which are manifested in the symptoms of a crisis of three years (negativism, stubbornness, obstinacy, self-will, depreciation of adults).
Out of the neoplasms of the three-year crisis, a tendency arises for independent activity, at the same time similar to the activity of an adult, because adults act as models for the child, and the child wants to act like them. The tendency to live a common life with an adult runs throughout childhood; the child, separating from the adult, establishes a deeper relationship with him, emphasized D.B. Elkonin Ibid. S. 269..
Crisis of seven years. On the basis of the emergence of personal consciousness, a crisis of seven years arises. The main symptoms of the crisis: loss of immediacy: between desire and action, the experience of what significance this action will have for the child himself is wedged; mannerisms: the child builds something out of himself, hides something (the soul is already closed); a symptom of "bitter candy": the child feels bad, but he tries not to show it; educational difficulties: the child begins to withdraw and becomes uncontrollable.
These symptoms are based on the generalization of experiences. A new inner life has arisen in the child, a life of experiences that is not directly and immediately superimposed on the outer life. But this inner life is not indifferent to the outer, it influences it. The emergence of this phenomenon is an extremely important fact: now the orientation of behavior will be refracted through the personal experiences of the child.
The “symptom of the loss of immediacy” becomes a symptom that cuts through the preschool and primary school ages: between the desire to do something and the activity itself, a new moment arises - orientation in what the implementation of this or that activity will bring to the child. The symptom of the loss of immediacy is an internal orientation in what meaning the implementation of activities can have for the child: satisfaction or dissatisfaction with the place that the child will take in relations with adults or other people. Here, for the first time, the emotional-semantic orienting basis of the act appears. According to D.B. Elkonin there and then, where and when there is an orientation to the meaning of the act - there and then the child passes into a new psychological age Elkonin D.B. Selected psychological works. - M.: ART-PRESS, 2005. - p. 273.
The crisis requires a transition to a new social situation, requires a new content of relations. The child must enter into relations with society as a set of people who carry out compulsory, socially necessary and socially useful activities. In our conditions, the tendency towards it is expressed in the desire to go to school as soon as possible. Often the higher stage of development that a child reaches by the age of seven is confused with the problem of the child's readiness for schooling. Observations in the first days of a child's stay at school show that many children are not yet ready to study at school.
Adolescence crisis. The process of formation of neoplasms that distinguish a teenager from an adult is extended in time and can occur unevenly, which is why both "childish" and "adult" exist in a teenager at the same time. According to L.S. Vygotsky, Sapogova E.E. Psychology of human development. - M.: Art-Press, 2006. - p. 235-236in his social situation of development, there are 2 trends: 1) inhibiting the development of adulthood (employment in school studies, the absence of other permanent and socially significant responsibilities, material dependence and parental care, etc.); 2) maturing (acceleration, some independence, subjective feeling of adulthood, etc.). This creates a huge variety of individual options for development in adolescence - from schoolchildren, with a childlike appearance and interests, to almost adult adolescents who have already joined some aspects of adult life.
Pubertal development (covers the time period from 9-11 to 18 years). Within a relatively short period, taking an average of 4 years, the child's body undergoes significant changes. This entails two main tasks: 1) the need for the reconstruction of the bodily image of the "I" and the construction of a male or female "generic" identity; 2) a gradual transition to adult genital sexuality, characterized by joint eroticism with a partner and the combination of two complementary drives.
The formation of identity (goes beyond the boundaries of adolescence and covers the time from 13-14 to 20-21 years). Throughout adolescence, a new subjective reality is gradually formed, transforming the individual's ideas about himself and others. The formation of psychosocial identity, which underlies the phenomenon of adolescent self-awareness, includes three main developmental tasks: 1) awareness of the temporal extent of one's own "I", including the childhood past and determining the projection of oneself into the future; 2) awareness of oneself as different from internalized parental images; 3) the implementation of a system of elections that ensure the integrity of the individual (mainly it is about choosing a profession, sexual polarization and ideological attitudes).
Adolescence opens with a crisis, according to which the entire period is often referred to as "critical", "turning point".
For adolescents, neither personality crises, nor the collapse of the "I" concept, nor the tendency to abandon previously acquired values and attachments are atypical. They tend to strive to consolidate their identity, which is characterized by a focus on their "I", the absence of conflicting attitudes and, in general, the rejection of any form of psychological risk. They also retain a strong attachment to their parents and do not strive for excessive independence in their worldview, social and political attitudes.
S.E. Spranger described 3 types of development in adolescence. The first type is characterized by a sharp, stormy, crisis course, when adolescence is experienced as a second birth, as a result of which a new "I" arises. The second type of development is smooth, slow, gradual growth, when a teenager joins adulthood without deep and serious changes in his own personality. The third type is a process of development when a teenager actively and consciously forms and educates himself, overcoming internal anxieties and crises by an effort of will. It is typical for people with a high level of self-control and self-discipline.
The main neoplasms of age, according to E. Spranger, are the discovery of the "I", the emergence of reflection, the awareness of one's individuality, as well as the feeling of love. Galperin P.Ya. Introduction to psychology. M. - Enlightenment, 2006. - p. 82-83.
S. Buhler distinguishes mental puberty from bodily (physical), which occurs on average in boys for the period between 14-16 years, in girls - between 13-15 years. With the growth of culture, the period of mental puberty lengthens compared to the period of physical puberty, which is the reason for many difficulties in these years Stolyarenko L.D. Fundamentals of psychology. - Rostov n / a: Phoenix, 2007. - p. 292.
The transformation of a teenager into a young man is manifested in a change in the basic attitude towards the outside world: the negative phase of life-denial inherent in the puberty stage is followed by the phase of life-affirmation characteristic of youth.
The main features of the negative phase are: hypersensitivity and irritability, anxiety, slight excitability, as well as "physical and mental illness", which find their expression in pugnacity and capriciousness. Adolescents are dissatisfied with themselves, and this dissatisfaction is transferred to the world sometimes leading them to contemplate suicide.
To this is added a number of new inner inclinations towards the secret, the forbidden, the unusual, towards that which goes beyond the bounds of the habitual and orderly. Everyday life. Disobedience, engaging in forbidden deeds have a particularly attractive force at this time. A teenager feels lonely, alien and misunderstood in the surrounding life of adults and peers. Added to this are disappointments. The usual modes of behavior are "passive melancholy" and "aggressive self-defense". The consequence of all these phenomena is a general decrease in efficiency, isolation from others or an actively hostile attitude towards them, and various kinds of antisocial acts.
The end of the phase is associated with the completion of bodily maturation. The positive period begins with the fact that new sources of joy open up before the teenager, to which he had not been receptive until that time: “experiencing nature”, conscious experience of beauty, love.
Adolescence crisis. Adolescence is characterized by a greater, compared with adolescence, differentiation of emotional reactions and ways of expressing emotional states, as well as an increase in self-control and self-regulation. Adolescent moods and emotional relationships are more stable and conscious than adolescents, and correlate with a wider range of social conditions.
Youth is also characterized by the expansion of the circle of personally significant relationships, which are always emotionally colored (moral feelings, empathy, the need for friendship, cooperation and love, political, religious feelings, etc.). This is also connected with the establishment of internal norms of behavior, and violation of one's own norms is always associated with the actualization of guilt. In youth, the sphere of aesthetic feelings, humor, irony, sarcasm, and strange associations expands noticeably. One of the most important places begins to occupy the emotional experience of the process of thinking, inner life - the pleasure of "thinking", creativity.
The development of emotionality in adolescence is closely related to the individual-personal properties of a person, his self-awareness, self-esteem, etc.
The central psychological neoformation of adolescence is the formation of a stable self-awareness and a stable image of the "I". This is due to the strengthening of personal control, self-government, a new stage in the development of the intellect. The main acquisition of early youth is the discovery of one's inner world, its emancipation from adults.
Age shifts in the perception of others equally apply to self-perception, self-consciousness. At this time, there is a tendency to emphasize one's own individuality, dissimilarity to others. Young men form their own model of personality, with the help of which they determine their attitude towards themselves and others.
The discovery of the "I", one's unique inner world is more often associated with a number of psychodramatic experiences.
Adolescence is the most important period of development, which accounts for the main identity crisis. It is followed by either the acquisition of "adult identity" or developmental delay - "diffusion of identity".
The interval between youth and adulthood, when a young person seeks (through trial and error) to find his place in society,
The severity of this crisis depends both on the degree of resolution of earlier crises (trust, independence, activity, etc.), and on the entire spiritual atmosphere of society.
An unresolved crisis leads to a state of acute diffusion of identity and forms the basis of a special pathology of adolescence. Identity pathology syndrome, according to E. Erickson, is associated with the following points: regression to the infantile level and the desire to delay the acquisition of adult status as long as possible; a vague but persistent state of anxiety; feelings of isolation and emptiness; constantly being in a state of expectation of something that can change life; fear of personal communication and inability to emotionally influence persons of the opposite sex; hostility and contempt for all recognized social roles, including male and female ("unisex"); contempt for everything domestic and an irrational preference for everything foreign (on the principle of "it's good where we are not"). In extreme cases, the search for a negative identity begins, the desire to "become nothing" as the only way of self-affirmation, sometimes taking on the character of suicidal tendencies Sapogova E.E. Psychology of human development. - M.: Art-Press, 2006. - p. 287-288.
Adolescence is traditionally considered the age of unfolding the problem of fathers and children.
Young men strive to be equal with adults and would like to see them as friends and advisers, not mentors. Since there is an intensive development of "adult" roles and forms of social life, they often need adults, so at this time one can observe how often young men and women seek advice and friendship from their elders. At the same time, parents can remain an example, a model of behavior for a long time.
At the same time, in youth there is a growing desire to emancipate, to isolate oneself from the influence of the family, to free oneself from dependence. Therefore, the inability or unwillingness of parents to accept the autonomy of their children often leads to conflicts.
In addition, young men often incorrectly reflect on the attitude of adults towards them.
In addition, young men often incorrectly reflect on the attitude of adults towards them. In general, we can say the following: in adolescence, autonomy from adults and the importance of social drinking with peers grow. The general pattern here is this: the worse, the more difficult the relationship with adults, the more intense communication with peers will be. But the influence of parents and peers is not always mutually exclusive. The "significance" of parents and peers is fundamentally different in different areas of youthful activity. They demand maximum autonomy in the sphere of leisure, entertainment, free communication, inner life, consumer orientation. Therefore, psychologists prefer not to talk about a decrease in the influence of parents, but about qualitative changes in youthful communication.
Youth crisis. In youth, life strategies can be varied. One person can immediately determine his life line and professional perspective and stubbornly realize himself in it, another will prefer to try himself in different qualities, outlining different prospects for self-realization, and only after that he will determine the main positions for himself.
Youth as a whole is characterized by the desire for the spiritual, sublime, lofty, extraordinary, but comprehended not sentimentally and romantically, as in youth, but realistically - as an opportunity to achieve, change, become, "make oneself."
In those cases when the objective conditions of life do not make it possible to reach the necessary "cultural heights", often perceived as "another (interesting, clean, new) life" (material insecurity, low social and cultural level of parents, everyday drunkenness, family psychopathization and etc.), a young person is looking for any, even brutal, way to escape from the "inorganic" environment, since age itself implies the realization of the presence of various life-affirming possibilities - "to make life yourself", according to one's own scenario. Often the desire to change, to become different, to acquire a new quality is expressed in a sharp change in lifestyle, moving, changing jobs, etc., usually perceived as a crisis of youth.
The crisis of youth is often correlated with the crisis of family relationships as well. After the first years of marriage, many young people lose their illusions, their romantic mood, dissimilarity of views, conflict of positions and values are revealed, negative emotions are demonstrated more, partners more often resort to speculating on mutual feelings and manipulating each other.
The crisis of family relations may be based on aggression in family relations, a rigidly structured perception of a partner and an unwillingness to take into account many other aspects of his personality (especially those that contradict the prevailing opinion about him). Lasting marriages, studies show, are dominated by husbands. But where their power is too great, the stability of the marriage is broken. In strong marriages, compatibility is important for secondary, and not for the main personal characteristics of the spouses. Marriage compatibility increases with age.
The period of youth with the birth of children brings new social roles into a person’s life, and directly confronts him with historical time. These are not only already mastered professional roles, the roles of husband and wife, sexual partners, etc., but also the roles of mother and father. Mastering these roles is largely the specifics of the process of growing up.
Very often in youth, role-playing intrapersonal conflicts are noted.
Middle age crisis. The midlife crisis is the strangest and most terrible time in the mental development of a person. Many people (especially creative ones), not finding strength in themselves, and not finding a new meaning in life, simply leave it. This period (after adolescence) accounts for the largest number of suicides.
An adult begins to form questions that he is not able to answer, but which sit inside and destroy him. “What is the meaning of my existence!?”, “Is this what I wanted!? If so, what's next!? etc. Ideas about life, formed between twenty and thirty years, do not satisfy him. Analyzing the path traveled, his achievements and failures, a person discovers that with an already established and outwardly prosperous life, his personality is imperfect, that a lot of time and effort have been wasted, that he has done little compared to what he could have done, etc. In other words, there is a reassessment of values, a critical revision of one's "I". A person discovers that he can no longer change a lot in his life, in himself: family, profession, habitual way of life. Having self-actualized in the period of youth, a person suddenly realizes that, in essence, he is faced with the same task - search, self-determination in new circumstances of life, taking into account real possibilities (including limitations that he had not noticed before). This crisis manifests itself in the feeling of the need to "do something" and indicates that a person is moving to a new age stage - the age of adulthood. "Crisis of thirty" - the conditional name of this crisis. This state can come earlier or later, the feeling of a crisis state can occur repeatedly throughout the life path (as in childhood, adolescence, adolescence), since the development process goes in a spiral without stopping.
For men at this time, divorces, a change of work or a change in lifestyle, the acquisition of expensive things, frequent changes in sexual partners are typical, and there is a clear orientation towards the young age of the latter. He, as it were, begins to get what he could not get at an earlier age, he realizes his childhood and youthful needs.
Women in their mid-30s typically experience a reversal of the priorities set at the onset of early adulthood. Marriage- and child-rearing women are now increasingly attracted to professional goals. At the same time, those who gave their energies to work now tend to channel them into the fold of family and marriage.
Experiencing this crisis moment of his life, a person is looking for an opportunity to strengthen his niche in adulthood, confirm his status as an adult: he wants to have a good job, he strives for security and stability. The person is still confident that the full realization of the hopes and aspirations that form the “dream” is possible, and works hard for this.
Mid life. At the beginning of the fifth decade of life (maybe a little earlier or later), a person goes through a period of critical self-assessment and reassessment of what has been achieved in life by this time, an analysis of the authenticity of a lifestyle: moral problems are solved; a person goes through dissatisfaction with marital relations, anxiety about children leaving home and dissatisfaction with the level of promotion. The first signs of deterioration in health, loss of beauty and physical fitness, alienation in the family and in relations with grown-up children appear, the fear comes that nothing better will come of life, career, love.
This psychological phenomenon is called a mid-life crisis. People critically reevaluate their lives, analyze it. Very often, this reassessment leads to the understanding that "life has passed meaninglessly and time has already been lost."
The midlife crisis is associated with the fear of aging and the realization that what has been achieved is sometimes much less than expected, and is a short peak period, followed by a gradual decrease in physical strength and mental sharpness. Man is characterized by an exaggerated preoccupation with his own existence and relationships with others. The physical signs of aging become more and more obvious and are experienced by the individual as a loss of beauty, attractiveness, physical strength and sexual energy. All this, both on a personal and social level, is assessed negatively. In addition, the individual is becoming and growing worried that he may be one step behind the new generation, trained to new standards, energetic, with new ideas, and willing to accept, at first, much lower wages.
As a result, depressive states become dominant in the general background of moods, a feeling of fatigue from boring reality, from which a person either hides in dreams or in real attempts to “prove his youth” through love affairs or career take-off. During this period, a person reconsiders his life and asks himself a question that is sometimes very scary, but always brings relief: “Who am I, apart from my biography and the roles that I play?” If he discovers that he lived, forming and strengthening the false "I" - then he opens for himself the possibility of a second growing up. This crisis is an opportunity for redefining and reorienting the personality, a transitional ritual between the continuation of adolescence at the stage of "first adulthood" and the inevitable onset of old age and the proximity of death. Those who consciously go through this crisis feel that their lives have become more meaningful. This period opens up the prospect of gaining a new look at one's "I", which, however, is often associated with very painful sensations.
The crisis begins with pressure from the unconscious. The sense of "I" acquired by a person as a result of socialization, together with the perception and set of complexes formed in him, together with his defenses of his inner child, begins to creak and gnash in the struggle with the self, which is looking for opportunities for expression. Before realizing the onset of the crisis, a person directs his efforts to overcome, ignore or avoid the effects of deep pressure (for example, with the help of alcohol).
Once on the approach to a midlife crisis, a person has realistic thinking, he has experienced so much disappointment and heartache that he even avoids showing grains of his teenage psychology.
At the same time, a person begins to realize that inevitable physiological changes are taking place with his body against his will. A person recognizes that he is mortal and that the end will surely come to him, while he will not be able to complete everything that he so passionately desired and strived for. There is a collapse of hopes associated with infantile ideas about their future life (power, wealth, relationships with others).
The stress in marriage is clearly felt. Spouses who have put up with each other for the sake of their children or have ignored serious relationship problems are often no longer willing to soften their differences. It should also be taken into account that sexual intimacy by this time is dulled by habit, a noticeable decrease in physical fitness, the first symptoms of diseases that weaken the body, the onset of menopause, deep-seated anger at a partner and a vague feeling of something missing in life. The number of divorces among those married for 15 years or more is gradually increasing. That is why in middle age there is a so-called "third wave" of dissolution of marriages.
Great are the social and psychological difficulties faced by the divorced. These include overcoming the sense of failure that follows a long period of personal spending on another; loss of a habitual way of life and the probable loss of friends and relatives who have retained loyalty to a partner who has become a stranger.
It is easier for men to remarry than for women, and sometimes they marry women much younger than themselves. Because of the social stigmatization of marriages in which the wife is older than the husband, women find that the group of age-appropriate and free men is relatively small. In addition, communication and courtship are especially difficult if there are children in the house. Newly formed families face problems of mixing children from two or more previous marriages, the distribution of roles of adoptive parents and the continued influence of the former spouse. If divorce is avoided and marital life is maintained, then the problem of aging remains. The prospect of long-term addiction continues to be a burden, while the "empty family nest" promises newfound freedom.
Stresses on this ground in their totality lead to psychological and emotional tension.
The attitude towards money and wealth is also changing. For many women, economic freedom means material support they did not receive. For many men, financial position means endless restrictions. During the mid-life crisis, there is a revision in this area.
Some differences were found in the course of the mid-life crisis in men and women. It is shown that in women the stages of the life cycle are to a greater extent structured not by chronological age, but by the stages of the family cycle - marriage, the appearance of children, leaving the grown-up children of the parental family.
Thus, during the mid-life crisis, the need to find one's own path arises and then increases, but there are serious obstacles along the way. Symptoms characteristic of a crisis are boredom, job and/or partner changes, marked violence, self-destructive thoughts and actions, inconsistent relationships, depression, anxiety, and increasing obsession. Behind these symptoms are two facts: the existence of a huge inner strength, which exerts very strong pressure from within, and the repetition of previous patterns of behavior that inhibit these internal impulses, but at the same time, the anxiety that accompanies them increases. When the old strategies worse and worse help to contain the growing internal pressure, there is a sharp crisis in self-awareness and self-awareness.
Crisis of old age. In old age (old age), a person has to overcome three sub-crises. The first of these is the reassessment of one's own "I" in addition to its professional role, which for many people remains the main one until retirement. The second sub-crisis is associated with the realization of the fact of deteriorating health and aging of the body, which gives a person the opportunity to develop the necessary indifference in this regard. As a result of the third sub-crisis, self-concern disappears in a person, and now he can accept the thought of death without horror.
Undoubtedly, the problem of death is all-age. However, it is for the elderly and the elderly that it does not seem far-fetched, premature, transforming into the problem of natural death. For them, the question of attitudes towards death is translated from subtext into the context of life itself. There comes a time when a tense dialogue between life and death begins to sound clearly in the space of individual existence, the tragedy of temporality is realized.
Nevertheless, aging, fatal diseases and dying are not perceived as integral parts of the life process, but as a complete defeat and painful misunderstanding of the limited ability to control nature. From the point of view of the philosophy of pragmatism, which emphasizes the importance of achievement and success, the dying is the defeated.
Elderly and elderly people, as a rule, are not afraid of death itself, but of the possibility of a purely vegetative existence devoid of any meaning, as well as the suffering and anguish caused by diseases. We can state the presence of two leading attitudes in their attitude towards death: firstly, unwillingness to burden their loved ones, and secondly, the desire to avoid excruciating suffering. This period is also called “nodular”, because, not wanting to be burdened by their old age and death, many older people begin to prepare for death, collect things related to the ceremony, save money for a funeral. Therefore, many, being in a similar position, are experiencing a deep and all-encompassing crisis, affecting simultaneously the biological, emotional, philosophical and spiritual aspects of life. In this regard, it is important to understand the socio-psychological mechanisms of human adaptation to the phenomenon of death. We are talking about the system of psychological protection, certain models of symbolic immortality, and the social approbation of death - the cult of ancestors, funeral rites, funeral and memorial services, and educational programs of a propaedeutic nature, in which the phenomenon of death becomes a topic of reflection and spiritual search.
The culture of empathy for the death of another person is an integral part of the general culture of both the individual and society as a whole. At the same time, it is quite rightly emphasized that the attitude towards death serves as a standard, an indicator of morale society, its civilization. It is important to create not only the conditions for maintaining normal physiological vitality, but also the prerequisites for optimal life activity, to satisfy the need of the elderly and the elderly for knowledge, culture, art, literature, often beyond the reach of older generations.
Crisis of death. Death from the point of view of psychology is a crisis of individual life, the last critical event in a person's life. Being at the physiological level an irreversible cessation of all life functions, having an inevitable personal significance for a person, death is at the same time an element of the psychological culture of mankind.
A person's attitudes towards death at a certain stage historical development are directly related to self-awareness and comprehension by mankind of itself. He identifies five stages in changing these attitudes.
The first stage is fixed by the statement "we will all die." This is the state of "tamed death", ie. attitude towards it as a natural inevitability, an everyday occurrence, which must be treated without fear and not perceived as a personal drama. F. Aries designates the second stage with the term "one's own death": it is associated with the idea of an individual judgment on the soul of a person who has lived and died. The third stage, which he calls "death distant and near", is characterized by the collapse of the mechanisms of protection from inevitability - to death, as well as to sex, their wild, untamed natural essence returns. The fourth stage is "your death", which gives rise to a complex of tragic emotions in connection with the death of a loved one. As the bonds between people become closer, the death of a loved one is perceived as more tragic than one's own death. The fifth stage is associated with the fear of death and the very mention of it (repression).
Attitudes towards death changed in several directions: 1) the development of individual self-consciousness; 2) the development of defense mechanisms against the forces of nature; 3) transformation of faith in the afterlife; 4) transformation of faith into a connection between death and sin, suffering Sapogova E.E. Psychology of human development. - M.: Art-Press, 2006. - p. 392-394..
There are five stages in changing a person's attitude towards their own death. These are the stages of denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance.
The first reaction to a terminal illness is usually: "No, not me, that's not true." This initial denial of death is very much like a climber's first desperate attempts to stop his fall, and is a natural human response to stress. As soon as the patient realizes the reality of what is happening, his denial is replaced by anger or frustration: "Why me, because I still have so much to do?" Sometimes this stage is replaced by the stage of trying to make a deal with yourself and others and buy extra time to live.
When the meaning of the disease is fully understood, a period of fear or depression sets in. This stage has no analogues among the experiences associated with sudden death, and, apparently, occurs only in those situations when a person faced with death has time to comprehend what is happening. The final stages of the cycle, preceding the onset of clinical death, are the same for both instant and slow death. If dying patients have enough time to cope with their fears and come to terms with the inevitability of death, or receive appropriate help from others, they often begin to experience a state of peace and tranquility.
People who are not in danger of immediate death have more time to get used to the prospect of death. In the last years of life, many look at their lives in retrospect. Such a review performs the most important functions: a person resolves old conflicts in himself, rethinks his actions, forgives himself for mistakes, and even discovers something new in himself. Death provides the aging person with the necessary perspective, and, paradoxically, dying can be a process of confirming a person's obligations to life.
So, in this paper, the features and characteristics of age-related crises were presented: their symptoms, psychological content, dynamics of the course. To overcome age-related crises at different age stages, it is necessary to carry out psycho-correctional work among children and adults.
Chapter 2
We enter different ages of our lives like newborns, with no experience behind us, no matter how old we are.
F. La Rochefoucauld
The problem of prevention and treatment of crisis conditions is one of the most relevant for modern psychiatry. Traditionally, this issue is considered from the standpoint of G. Selye's theory of stress. Much less attention is paid to the issues of age-related crises of the personality and the existential problems of a person are practically not touched upon. Meanwhile, speaking of crisis states and their prevention, one cannot but touch upon the relationship between “I”, “ME” and “DEATH”, because without considering these relationships it is impossible to understand the genesis of post-traumatic stress disorder, suicidal behavior and other neurotic, stress-related and somatoform disorders.
Describing the psychological characteristics of a person in different periods of his life is an extremely complex and multifaceted task. In this chapter, the emphasis will be placed on the problems characteristic of certain periods of a person's life, which often underlie anxiety, fears, and other disorders that potentiate the development of crisis conditions, as well as on the age dynamics of the formation of fear of death.
The problem of understanding the origins of the emergence of a personality crisis and its age-related dynamics have been studied by many authors. Eric Erickson, the creator of the ego - personality theory, identified 8 stages of psychosocial development of the personality. He believed that each of them is accompanied by " crisis - a turning point in the life of an individual, which occurs as a result of reaching a certain level of psychological maturity and social requirements for an individual at this stage". Every psychosocial crisis comes with both positive and negative consequences. If the conflict is resolved, then the personality is enriched with new, positive qualities, if not resolved, symptoms and problems arise that may lead to the development of mental and behavioral disorders (E.N. Erikson, 1968).
Table 2. Stages of psychosocial development (according to Erickson)
At the first stage of psychosocial development(birth - 1 year) the first important psychological crisis is already possible, due to insufficient maternal care and rejection of the child. Maternal deprivation underlies "basal mistrust", which further potentiates the development of fear, suspicion, and affective disorders.
At the second stage of psychosocial development(1-3 years) psychological crisis is accompanied by the appearance of a sense of shame and doubt, which further potentiates the formation of self-doubt, anxious suspiciousness, fears, obsessive-compulsive symptom complex.
At the third stage of psychosocial development(3-6 years) psychological crisis is accompanied by the formation of feelings of guilt, abandonment and worthlessness, which can subsequently cause addictive behavior, impotence or frigidity, personality disorders.
The creator of the concept of birth trauma O. Rank (1952) said that anxiety accompanies a person from the moment of his birth and is due to the fear of death associated with the experience of separation of the fetus from the mother during birth. R. J. Kastenbaum (1981) noted that even very young children experience mental discomfort associated with death and often parents are not even aware of it. R. Furman (1964) held a different opinion, who insisted that only at the age of 2–3 years can the concept of death arise, since during this period elements of symbolic thinking and a primitive level of reality assessments appear.
M. H. Nagy (1948), having studied the writings and drawings of almost 4 thousand children in Budapest, as well as having individual psychotherapeutic and diagnostic conversations with each of them, revealed that children under 5 years of age do not consider death as a final, but as a dream or departure. Life and death for these children were not mutually exclusive. In subsequent research, she revealed a feature that struck her: the children spoke of death as a separation, a kind of boundary. Research by M.C. McIntire (1972), carried out a quarter of a century later, confirmed the revealed feature: only 20% of 5–6 year old children think that their dead animals will come to life and only 30% of children of this age assume that dead animals have consciousness. Similar results were obtained by other researchers (J.E. Alexander, 1965; T.B. Hagglund, 1967; J. Hinton, 1967; S. Wolff, 1973).
B.M. Miller (1971) notes that for a preschool child, the concept of "death" is identified with the loss of a mother, and this is often the cause of their unconscious fears and anxiety. Fear of parental death in mentally healthy preschool children was observed in 53% of boys and 61% of girls. Fear of one's death was noted in 47% of boys and 70% of girls (A.I. Zakharov, 1988). Suicides in children under 5 years of age are rare, but in the last decade there has been a trend towards their growth.
As a rule, memories of a serious illness that threatens to die at this age remain with the child for life and play a significant role in his future fate. So, one of the “great apostates” of the Viennese psychoanalytic school, psychiatrist, psychologist and psychotherapist Alfred Adler (1870–1937), the creator of individual psychology, wrote that at the age of 5 he almost died and in the future his decision to become a doctor, t i.e., a person struggling with death, was conditioned precisely by these memories. In addition, the experienced event was reflected in his scientific outlook. In the inability to control the timing of death or prevent it, he saw the deepest basis of an inferiority complex.
Children with excessive fears and anxiety associated with separation from significant loved ones, accompanied by inadequate fears of loneliness and separation, nightmares, social autism and recurrent somato-vegetative dysfunctions, need psychiatric consultation and treatment. In the ICD-10, this condition is classified as Separation Anxiety Disorder in Childhood (F 93.0).
school-age children, or 4 stages according to E. Erickson(6–12 years old) acquire at school the knowledge and skills of interpersonal communication that determine their personal significance and dignity. The crisis of this age period is accompanied by the appearance of a feeling of inferiority or incompetence, most often correlated with the child's academic performance. In the future, these children may lose self-confidence, the ability to work effectively and maintain human contacts.
Psychological studies have shown that children of this age are interested in the problem of death and are already sufficiently prepared to talk about it. The word "dead" was included in the dictionary text, and this word was adequately perceived by the overwhelming majority of children. Only 2 out of 91 children deliberately bypassed it. However, if children of 5.5–7.5 years old considered death unlikely for themselves, then at the age of 7.5–8.5 years they recognize its possibility for themselves personally, although the age of its supposed onset varied from “through several years up to 300 years.
G.P. Koocher (1971) examined the representations of unbelieving children aged 6–15 regarding their supposed state after death. The spread of answers to the question “what will happen when you die?” was distributed as follows: 52% answered that they would be “buried”, 21% that they would “go to heaven”, “I will live after death”, “I will be subjected to God's punishment", 19% "arrange a funeral", 7% thought that they would "fall asleep", 4% - "reincarnate", 3% - "cremated". Belief in the personal or universal immortality of the soul after death was found in 65% of believing children aged 8-12 (M.C.McIntire, 1972).
In children of primary school age, the prevalence of the fear of death of parents sharply increases (in 98% of boys and 97% of mentally healthy girls of 9 years old), which is already observed in almost all 15-year-old boys and 12-year-old girls. As for the fear of one's own death, at school age it occurs quite often (up to 50%), although less often in girls (D.N. Isaev, 1992).
In younger schoolchildren (mostly after 9 years) suicidal activity is already observed, which is most often caused not by serious mental illnesses, but by situational reactions, the source of which is, as a rule, intra-family conflicts.
Teenage years(12-18 years old), or fifth stage of psychosocial development, is traditionally considered the most vulnerable to stressful situations and to the occurrence of crises. E. Erickson singles out this age period as very important in psychosocial development and considers the development of an identity crisis or role shift, which manifests itself in three main areas of behavior, to be pathognomonic for it:
the problem of choosing a career;
choice of a reference group and membership in it (the reaction of grouping with peers according to A.E. Lichko);
the use of alcohol and drugs, which can temporarily relieve emotional stress and allow you to experience a sense of temporary overcoming of a lack of identity (E.N. Erikson, 1963).
The dominant questions of this age are: “Who am I?”, “How will I fit into the adult world?”, “Where am I going?” Teenagers are trying to build their own value system, often coming into conflict with the older generation, subverting their values. The classic example is the hippie movement.
The idea of death in adolescents as a universal and inevitable end of human life approaches that of adults. J. Piaget wrote that it is from the moment of comprehending the idea of death that the child becomes an agnostic, that is, he acquires a way of perceiving the world inherent in an adult. Although, while acknowledging "death for others" intellectually, they actually deny it to themselves on an emotional level. Adolescents are dominated by a romantic attitude towards death. Often they interpret it as a different way of being.
It is during adolescence that the peak of suicides, the peak of experiments with disturbing substances and other life-threatening activities occur. Moreover, adolescents, in the anamnesis of which thoughts of suicide were repeatedly noted, rejected thoughts of his death. Among 13–16 year olds, 20% believed in the preservation of consciousness after death, 60% believed in the existence of the soul, and only 20% believed in death as the cessation of physical and spiritual life.
This age is characterized by thoughts of suicide, as revenge for an insult, quarrels, lectures from teachers and parents. Thoughts like: “Here I will die in spite of you and see how you will suffer and regret that you were unfair to me” predominate.
Investigating the mechanisms of psychological defense during anxiety potentiated by thoughts of death, E.M. Pattison (1978) found that they are usually identical to those in adults from their immediate environment: intellectual, mature defense mechanisms are more often noted, although neurotic ones were also noted in a number of cases. forms of protection.
A. Maurer (1966) conducted a survey of 700 high school students and the question "What comes to mind when you think about death?" revealed the following responses: awareness, rejection, curiosity, contempt and despair. As noted earlier, the vast majority of adolescents have a fear of their own death and the death of their parents.
In young age(or early maturity according to E. Erickson - 20-25 years old) young people are focused on getting a profession and creating a family. The main problem that may arise during this age period is self-absorption and avoidance of interpersonal relationships, which is the psychological basis for the emergence of feelings of loneliness, existential vacuum and social isolation. If the crisis is successfully overcome, then young people develop the ability to love, altruism, and a moral sense.
After adolescence, thoughts about death are less and less visited by young people, and they very rarely think about it. 90% of the students said that they rarely think about their own death, in personal terms, it is of little significance to them (J. Hinton, 1972).
The thoughts of modern domestic youth about death turned out to be unexpected. According to S.B. Borisov (1995), who studied female students Pedagogical Institute Moscow region, 70% of respondents in one form or another recognize the existence of the soul after physical death, of which 40% believe in reincarnation, i.e., the relocation of the soul to another body. Only 9% of interviewees unequivocally reject the existence of the soul after death.
A few decades ago, it was believed that in adulthood a person does not have significant problems associated with personal development, and maturity was considered a time of achievement. However, the works of Levinson “The Seasons of Human Life”, Neugarten “Awareness of Mature Age”, Osherson “Sorrow for the Lost Self in the Middle of Life”, as well as changes in the structure of morbidity and mortality in this age period, forced researchers to take a different look at the psychology of maturity and call this period the "crisis of maturity".
In this age period, the needs of self-respect and self-actualization dominate (according to A. Maslow). The time has come to sum up the first results of what has been done in life. E. Erickson believes that this stage of personality development is also characterized by concern for the future well-being of mankind (otherwise, indifference and apathy, unwillingness to take care of others, self-absorption with one's own problems arise).
At this time of life, the frequency of depression, suicide, neuroses, and dependent forms of behavior increases. Death of peers prompts reflections on finitude own life. According to various psychological and sociological studies, the topic of death is relevant for 30%–70% of people of this age. Unbelieving forty-year-olds understand death as the end of life, its finale, but even they consider themselves "a little more immortal than others." This period is also characterized by a feeling of disappointment in professional career and family life. This is due to the fact that, as a rule, if the set goals are not realized by the time of maturity, then they are already hardly achievable.
What if they are implemented?
A person enters the second half of life and his previous life experience is not always suitable for solving the problems of this time.
The problem of 40-year-old K.G. Jung devoted his report "Life Frontier" (1984), in which he advocated the creation of "higher schools for forty-year-olds that would prepare them for the future life," because a person cannot live the second half of life according to the same program as the first. As a comparison of the psychological changes that occur in different periods of life in the human soul, he compares it with the movement of the sun, referring to the sun “animated by human feeling and endowed with momentary human consciousness. In the morning it emerges from the night sea of the unconscious, illuminating the wide, colorful world, and the higher it rises in the firmament, the farther it spreads its rays. In this expansion of its sphere of influence, connected with the rising, the sun will see its destiny and see its highest goal in rising as high as possible.
With this conviction, the sun reaches an unforeseen midday height - unforeseen because, because of its one-time individual existence, it could not know in advance its own climax. Sunset begins at twelve o'clock. It represents the inversion of all the values and ideals of the morning. The sun becomes inconsistent. It seems to remove its rays. Light and heat decrease until complete extinction.
Elderly people (late maturity stage according to E. Erickson). Studies of gerontologists have established that physical and mental aging depends on personality traits man and how he lived his life. G. Ruffin (1967) conditionally distinguishes three types of old age: "happy", "unhappy" and "psychopathological". Yu.I. Polishchuk (1994) randomly examined 75 people aged 73 to 92 years. According to the results of the studies, this group was dominated by persons whose condition was qualified as "unhappy old age" - 71%; 21% were persons with the so-called "psychopathological old age" and 8% experienced a "happy old age".
"Happy" old age occurs in harmonious personalities with a strong balanced type of higher nervous activity engaged in intellectual work for a long time and did not leave this occupation even after retirement. The psychological state of these people is characterized by vital asthenia, contemplation, a tendency to remember, peace, wise enlightenment and a philosophical attitude towards death. E. Erickson (1968, 1982) believed that “only one who somehow took care of affairs and people, who experienced triumphs and defeats in life, who was an inspiration to others and put forward ideas - only in that one can gradually mature fruits of previous stages. He believed that only in old age does true maturity come and called this period "late maturity." “The wisdom of old age is aware of the relativity of all knowledge acquired by a person throughout his life in one historical period. Wisdom is the awareness of the unconditional significance of life itself in the face of death itself. Many outstanding personalities created their best works in old age.
Titian wrote The Battle of Leranto when he was 98 years old and created his best works after 80 years. Michelangelo completed his sculptural composition in the church of St. Peter in Rome in his ninth decade of life. The great naturalist Humboldt worked on his work Cosmos until the age of 90, Goethe created the immortal Faust at the age of 80, at the same age Verdi wrote Falstaff. At 71, Galileo Galilei discovered the rotation of the Earth around the Sun. The Descent of Man and Sexual Selection was written by Darwin when he was in his 60s.
Creative personalities who lived to a ripe old age.
Gorgias (c. 483–375 BC), others - Greek. orator, sophist - 108
Chevy Michel Eugene (1786–1889), French chemist - 102
Abbot Charles Greeley (1871–1973), Amer. astrophysicist - 101
Garcia Manuel Patricio (1805–1906), Spanish singer and teacher - 101
Lyudkevich Stanislav Filippovich (1879–1979), Ukrainian composer - 100
Druzhinin Nikolai Mikhailovich (1886–1986), owl. historian - 100
Fontenelle Bernard Le Bovier de (1657–1757), French philosopher - 99
Menendez Pidal Ramon (1869–1968), Spanish philologist and historian - 99
Halle Johann Gottfried (1812–1910), German. astronomer - 98
Rockefeller John Davidson (1839-1937), American. industrialist - 98
Chagall Marc (1887-1985), French painter - 97
Yablochkina Alexandra Alexandrovna (1866–1964), Russian Soviet actress - 97
Konenkov Sergei Timofeevich (1874–1971), Russian. owls. sculptor - 97
Russell Bertrand (1872–1970), English philosopher - 97
Rubinstein Artur (1886–1982), Polish - Amer. pianist - 96
Fleming John Ambrose (1849–1945) physicist - 95
Speransky Georgy Nesterovich (1673–1969), Russian. owls. pediatrician - 95
Antonio Stradivari (1643–1737), Italian. violin maker - 94
Shaw George Bernard (1856–1950) writer - 94
Petipa Marius (1818–1910), French, choreographer and teacher - 92
Pablo Picasso (1881-1973), Spanish artist - 92
Benois Alexander Nikolaevich (1870–1960), Russian painter - 90
"Unhappy old age" often occurs in individuals with traits of anxious suspiciousness, sensitivity, and the presence of somatic diseases. These individuals are characterized by a loss of the meaning of life, a feeling of loneliness, helplessness and constant thoughts about death, as about "getting rid of suffering." They have frequent suicidal thoughts, suicidal acts and recourse to euthanasia methods are possible.
The old age of the world-famous psychotherapist Z. Freud, who lived for 83 years, can serve as an illustration.
In the last decades of his life, Z. Freud revised many of the postulates of the theory of psychoanalysis he created and put forward the hypothesis that became fundamental in his later works that the basis of mental processes is the dichotomy of two powerful forces: the instinct of love (Eros) and the instinct of death (Thanatos). The majority of followers and students did not support his new views on the fundamental role of Thanatos in human life and explained the turn in the Teacher's worldview with intellectual fading and sharpened personality traits. Z. Freud experienced an acute feeling of loneliness and misunderstanding.
The situation was aggravated by the changed political situation: in 1933, fascism came to power in Germany, the ideologists of which did not recognize the teachings of Freud. His books were burned in Germany, and a few years later 4 of his sisters were killed in the ovens of a concentration camp. Shortly before Freud's death, in 1938, the Nazis occupied Austria, confiscating his publishing house and library, property and passport. Freud became a prisoner of the ghetto. And only thanks to a ransom of 100 thousand shillings, which was paid for him by his patient and follower Princess Marie Bonaparte, his family was able to emigrate to England.
Mortally ill with cancer, having lost his relatives and students, Freud also lost his homeland. In England, despite an enthusiastic reception, his condition worsened. On September 23, 1939, at his request, the attending physician gave him 2 injections, which ended his life.
"Psychopathological old age" is manifested by age-organic disorders, depression, hypochondria, psychopathic, neurosis-like, psychoorganic disorders, senile dementia. Very often, such patients have a fear of being in a nursing home.
Studies of 1,000 Chicagoans revealed the relevance of the topic of death for almost all elderly people, although the issues of finance, politics, etc. were no less significant for them. People of this age are philosophical about death and tend to perceive it on an emotional level more as a long sleep than as a source of suffering. Sociological studies have revealed that in 70% of the elderly, thoughts about death related to preparation for it (28% - made a will; 25% - have already prepared some funeral accessories and half have already discussed their death with the closest heirs (J. Hinton, 1972).
These data obtained from a sociological survey of older people in the United States contrast with the results of similar studies of residents of the UK, where the majority of the respondents avoided this topic and answered the questions as follows: “I try to think as little as possible about death and dying”, “I try to switch to other topics”, etc.
In the experiences associated with death, not only age, but also gender differentiation is quite clearly manifested.
K.W.Back (1974), investigating the age and gender dynamics of the experience of time using R. Knapp's method, presented the researched along with "metaphors of time" and "metaphors of death". As a result of the study, he came to the conclusion that men relate to death with greater rejection than women: this topic evokes in them associations imbued with fear and disgust. In women, the “Harlequin complex” is described, in which death seems mysterious and even attractive in some ways.
A different picture of the psychological attitude towards death was obtained 20 years later.
The National Agency for the Development of Science and Space Research of France studied the problem of thanatology based on the materials of a sociological study of more than 20 thousand French people. The data obtained were published in one of the issues of "Regards sur I'actualite" (1993) - the official publication of the French State Documentation Center, which publishes statistical materials and reports on the most important problems for the country.
The results obtained showed that thoughts about death are especially relevant for people aged 35–44, and in all age groups, women more often think about the end of life, which is clearly reflected in Table 3.
Table3. Distribution of the frequency of occurrence of thoughts about death by age and gender (in %).
In women, thoughts about death are most often accompanied by fear and anxiety, men treat this problem more balanced and rationally, and in a third of cases they are completely indifferent. Attitudes towards death in men and women are shown in Table 4.
Table 4. Distribution of thoughts about attitudes towards death by gender (in%).
The subjects, who reacted to the problem of death with indifference or calmness, explained this by the fact that, in their opinion, there are more terrible conditions than death (Table 5)
Table 5
Of course, thoughts of death gave rise to conscious and unconscious fear. Therefore, the most universal desire for all the tested was a quick departure from life. 90% of the respondents answered that they would like to die in their sleep, avoiding suffering.
In conclusion, it should be noted that when developing preventive and rehabilitation programs for people with neurotic, stress-related and somatoform disorders, along with the clinical and psychopathological characteristics of patients, it should be taken into account that in each age period of a person’s life, crisis states are possible, which are based on specific for psychological problems and frustrated needs of this age group.
In addition, the development of a personality crisis is determined by cultural, socio-economic, religious factors, and is also associated with the gender of the individual, his family traditions and personal experience. It should be especially noted that for productive psycho-corrective work with these patients (especially with suicides, people with post-traumatic stress disorder), specific knowledge in the field of thanatology (its psychological and psychiatric aspect) is required. Very often, acute and/or chronic stress potentiate and exacerbate the development of an age-related personality crisis and lead to dramatic consequences, the prevention of which is one of the main tasks of psychiatry.
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Describing the psychological characteristics of a person in different periods of his life is an extremely complex and multifaceted task. In this article, the emphasis will be placed on the problems characteristic of certain periods of a person's life, which often underlie anxiety, fears, and other disorders that potentiate the development of crisis conditions, as well as on the age dynamics of the formation of fear of death.
The problem of understanding the origins of the emergence of a personality crisis and its age-related dynamics have been studied by many authors. Eric Erickson, the creator of the ego-theory of personality, identified 8 stages of psychosocial development of the personality. He believed that each of them is accompanied by a "crisis - a turning point in the life of the individual, which occurs as a result of reaching a certain level of psychological maturity and social requirements for the individual at this stage." Every psychosocial crisis comes with both positive and negative consequences. If the conflict is resolved, then the personality is enriched with new, positive qualities, if not resolved, symptoms and problems arise that may lead to the development of mental and behavioral disorders (E.N. Erikson, 1968).
At the first stage of psychosocial development (birth - 1 year), the first important psychological crisis is already possible, due to insufficient maternal care and rejection of the child. Maternal deprivation underlies “basal distrust”, which further potentiates the development of fear, suspicion, and affective disorders.
At the second stage of psychosocial development (1-3 years), the psychological crisis is accompanied by the appearance of a sense of shame and doubt, which further potentiates the formation of self-doubt, anxious suspiciousness, fears, and an obsessive-compulsive symptom complex.
At the third stage of psychosocial development (3-6 years), the psychological crisis is accompanied by the formation of feelings of guilt, abandonment and worthlessness, which subsequently can cause dependent behavior, impotence or frigidity, personality disorders.
The creator of the concept of birth trauma O. Rank (1952) said that anxiety accompanies a person from the moment of his birth and is due to the fear of death associated with the experience of separation of the fetus from the mother during birth. R. J. Kastenbaum (1981) noted that even very young children experience mental discomfort associated with death and often parents are not even aware of it. A different opinion was held by R. Furman (1964), who insisted that only at the age of 2–3 years can the concept of death arise, since during this period elements of symbolic thinking and primitive
level of assessments of reality.
M. H. Nagy (1948), having studied the writings and drawings of almost 4 thousand children in Budapest, as well as having individual psychotherapeutic and diagnostic conversations with each of them, revealed that children under 5 years of age do not consider death as a final, but as a dream or departure. Life and death for these children were not mutually exclusive. In subsequent research, she revealed a feature that struck her: the children spoke of death as a separation, a kind of boundary. Research by M.C. McIntire (1972), carried out a quarter of a century later, confirmed the revealed feature: only 20% of 5–6 year old children think that their dead animals will come to life and only 30% of children of this age assume that dead animals have consciousness. Similar results were obtained by other researchers (J.E. Alexander, 1965; T.B. Hagglund,
1967; J. Hinton, 1967; S.Wolff, 1973).
B.M. Miller (1971) notes that for a preschool child, the concept of “death” is identified with the loss of a mother, and this is often the cause of their unconscious fears and anxiety. Fear of death of parents in mentally healthy preschoolers was observed in 53% of boys and 61% of girls. Fear of one's death was noted in 47% of boys and 70% of girls (A.I. Zakharov, 1988). Suicides in children under 5 years of age are rare, but in the last decade there has been a trend towards their growth.
As a rule, memories of a serious illness that threatens to be fatal at this age remain with the child for life and play a significant role in his future fate. Thus, one of the “great apostates” of the Viennese psychoanalytic school, psychiatrist, psychologist and psychotherapist Alfred Adler (1870 – 1937), the creator of individual psychology, wrote that at the age of 5 he almost died and in the future his decision to become a doctor , i.e. a person struggling with death was conditioned precisely by these memories. In addition, the experienced event was reflected in his scientific outlook. In the inability to control the timing of death or prevent it, he saw the deepest basis of an inferiority complex.
Children with excessive fears and anxiety associated with separation from significant loved ones, accompanied by inadequate fears of loneliness and separation, nightmares, social autism and recurrent somato-vegetative dysfunctions, need psychiatric consultation and treatment. The ICD-10 classifies this condition as “Separation Anxiety Disorder in Childhood” (F 93.0).
Children of school age, or stages 4 according to E. Erickson (6-12 years old) acquire knowledge and skills of interpersonal communication at school, which determine their personal significance and dignity. The crisis of this age period is accompanied by the appearance of a feeling of inferiority or incompetence, most often correlated with the child's academic performance. In the future, these children may lose self-confidence, the ability to work effectively and maintain human contacts.
Psychological studies have shown that children of this age are interested in the problem of death and are already sufficiently prepared to talk about it. The word “dead” was included in the dictionary text, and this word was adequately perceived by the overwhelming majority of children. Only 2 out of 91 children deliberately bypassed it. However, if children of 5.5–7.5 years old considered death unlikely for themselves, then at the age of 7.5–8.5 years they recognize its possibility for themselves personally, although the age of its supposed onset varied from “through several years up to 300 years”.
G.P. Koocher (1971) examined the representations of unbelieving children aged 6–15 regarding their supposed state after death. The spread of answers to the question “what will happen when you die?” was distributed as follows: 52% answered that they would be “buried”, 21% that they would “go to heaven”, “I will live even after death”, “I will be subjected to God's punishment”, 19% “organize a funeral”, 7% thought that they would “fall asleep”, 4% - “reincarnate”, 3% - “cremate”. Belief in the personal or universal immortality of the soul after death was found in 65% of believing children aged 8-12 (M.C.McIntire, 1972).
Adolescence (12-18 years), or the fifth stage of psychosocial development, is traditionally considered the most vulnerable to stressful situations and to the emergence of crises. E. Erickson singles out this age period as very important in psychosocial development and considers the development of an identity crisis or role shift, which manifests itself in three main areas of behavior, to be pathognomonic for it:
the problem of choosing a career;
choice of a reference group and membership in it (the reaction of grouping with peers according to A.E. Lichko);
the use of alcohol and drugs, which can temporarily relieve emotional stress and allow you to experience a sense of temporary overcoming of a lack of identity (E.N. Erikson, 1963).
The dominant questions of this age are: “Who am I?”, “How will I fit into the adult world?”, “Where am I going?” Teenagers are trying to build their own value system, often coming into conflict with the older generation, subverting their values. The classic example is the hippie movement.
It is during adolescence that the peak of suicides, the peak of experiments with mind-disturbing substances and other life-threatening activities occur. Moreover, adolescents, in the anamnesis of which thoughts of suicide were repeatedly noted, rejected thoughts of his death. Among 13–16 year olds, 20% believed in the preservation of consciousness after death, 60% believed in the existence of the soul, and only 20% believed in death as the cessation of physical and spiritual life.
This age is characterized by thoughts of suicide, as revenge for an insult, quarrels, lectures from teachers and parents. Thoughts like: “Here I will die in spite of you and see how you will suffer and regret that you were unfair to me” predominate.
In youth (or early maturity according to E. Erickson - 20–25 years old), young people are oriented towards obtaining a profession and creating a family. The main problem that may arise during this age period is self-absorption and avoidance of interpersonal relationships, which is the psychological basis for the emergence of feelings of loneliness, existential vacuum and social isolation. If the crisis is successfully overcome, then young people develop the ability to love, altruism, and a moral sense.
After adolescence, thoughts about death are less and less visited by young people, and they very rarely think about it. 90% of the students said that they rarely think about their own death, in personal terms, it is of little significance to them (J. Hinton, 1972).
In this age period, the needs of self-respect and self-actualization dominate (according to A. Maslow). The time has come to sum up the first results of what has been done in life. E. Erickson believes that this stage of personality development is also characterized by concern for the future well-being of mankind (otherwise, indifference and apathy, unwillingness to take care of others, self-absorption with one's own problems arise).
At this time of life, the frequency of depression, suicide, neuroses, and dependent forms of behavior increases. The death of peers prompts reflection on the finiteness of one's own life. According to various psychological and sociological studies, the topic of death is relevant for 30%–70% of people of this age. Unbelieving forty-year-olds understand death as the end of life, its finale, but even they consider themselves
"a little more immortal than others." This period is also characterized by a sense of disappointment in professional career and family life. This is due to the fact that, as a rule, if the set goals are not realized by the time of maturity, then they are already hardly achievable.
What if they are implemented?
A person enters the second half of life and his previous life experience is not always suitable for solving the problems of this time.
The problem of 40-year-old K.G. Jung dedicated his report "Life Frontier" (1984), in which he advocated the creation of "higher schools for forty-year-olds that would prepare them for the future life," because a person cannot live the second half of life according to the same program as the first. As a comparison of the psychological changes that occur in different periods of life in the human soul, he compares it with the movement of the sun, referring to the sun “animated by human feeling and endowed with momentary human consciousness. In the morning it emerges from the night sea of the unconscious, illuminating the wide, colorful world, and the higher it rises in the firmament, the farther it spreads its rays. In this expansion of its sphere of influence, connected with the rising, the sun will see its destiny and see its highest goal in rising as high as possible.
Elderly people (stage of late maturity according to E. Erickson). Studies of gerontologists have established that physical and mental aging depends on the personality characteristics of a person and how he lived his life. G. Ruffin (1967) conditionally distinguishes three types of old age: “happy”, “unhappy” and “psychopathological”. Yu.I. Polishchuk (1994) randomly examined 75 people aged 73 to 92 years. According to the research results, this group was dominated by persons whose condition was qualified as “unhappy old age” - 71%; 21% were persons with so-called “psychopathological old age” and 8% experienced “happy old age”.
“Happy” old age occurs in harmonious individuals with a strong balanced type of higher nervous activity, who have been engaged in intellectual work for a long time and have not left this occupation even after retirement. The psychological state of these people is characterized by vital asthenia, contemplation, a tendency to remember, peace, wise enlightenment and a philosophical attitude towards death. E. Erickson (1968, 1982) believed that “only for someone who somehow took care of affairs and people, who experienced triumphs and defeats in life, who was an inspiration to others and put forward ideas - only he can gradually mature fruits of previous stages. He believed that only in old age does true maturity come and called this period "late maturity." “The wisdom of old age is aware of the relativity of all knowledge acquired by a person throughout his life in one historical period. Wisdom is the awareness of the unconditional significance of life itself in the face of death itself.” Many outstanding personalities created their best works in old age.
In the last decades of his life, Z. Freud revised many of the postulates of the theory of psychoanalysis he created and put forward the hypothesis that became fundamental in his later works that the basis of mental processes is the dichotomy of two powerful forces: the instinct of love (Eros) and the instinct of death (Thanatos). The majority of followers and students did not support his new views on the fundamental role of Thanatos in human life and explained the turn in the Teacher's worldview with intellectual fading and sharpened personality traits. Z. Freud experienced an acute feeling of loneliness and misunderstanding.
The situation was aggravated by the changed political situation: in 1933, fascism came to power in Germany, the ideologists of which did not recognize the teachings of Freud. His books were burned in Germany, and a few years later 4 of his sisters were killed in the ovens of a concentration camp. Shortly before Freud's death, in 1938, the Nazis occupied Austria, confiscating his publishing house and library, property and passport. Freud became a prisoner of the ghetto. And only thanks to a ransom of 100 thousand shillings, which was paid for him by his patient and follower Princess Marie Bonaparte, his family was able to emigrate to England.
“Psychopathological old age” is manifested by age-related organic disorders, depression, hypochondria, psychopathic, neurosis-like, psychoorganic disorders, senile dementia. Very often, such patients have a fear of being in a nursing home.
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