What does personality development mean? Formation of a person's personality. · Understanding yourself. This is an accurate, complete and deep idea of ​​oneself and one’s current state, the ability to see and hear one’s true self, an adequate and flexible “I” concept, feels

Today in psychology there are more than 50 theories that describe the concept of “personality”. Each of them tells in its own way how the formation of personality takes place. But they are all united in the fact that each person lives through the stages of personality formation in a way that no one has lived before and no one will live after.

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A fairly common question that worries modern society is why one person gets everything: he is successful in all spheres of life, respected and loved, while the other is so unhappy and only degenerates? To get the gist and answer this question, one should operate with knowledge of the factors of personality development that have a direct impact on the life of a particular person. It is extremely important to know how the stages of personality formation went through, what new abilities, properties and qualities appeared in the process of life, always taking into account the role of family and friends.

Today in our article we will look at personality development process, as well as what obstacles a person faces along this path.

Formation of human personality

The process of personality formation is the formation in each individual of certain human qualities that were acquired in the process of life. But what determines the manifestation of certain qualities in a person?

Factors that influence the development of personality

To summarize this section, I would like to note that if one of these stages has not been completed, then a phase of disintegration begins, accompanied by the rejection of a person by society. During disintegration the process formation stops and can be reversed, which entails degradation.

Stages of development

An active and active person is more predisposed to development. It is worth noting that for each age interval one of the activities is advanced and leading.

The concept of leading activity was developed by the outstanding Soviet psychologist A. N. Leontev, who also identified the main stages of development. Somewhat later his ideas were developed and slightly transformed by D. B. Elkonin and other scientists.

But what is the leading activity? This is a factor of activity and development that determines the formation of the basic psychological diversity of the individual at the next stage of his development.

"According to Elkonin D.B."

Stages of personality formation according to Elkonin D. B.. and advanced activities in each of them:

• Infancy - communication with adults.
• Early childhood is an active object-manipulative type of activity. Every child learns to use simple objects.
• The preschool period can be described as a role-playing game. In a playful way, the child tries on the social roles of adults.
• Junior school age is accompanied by fruitful educational activities.
• Adolescence includes the beginning of intimate relationships with their peers.

"According to Erickson E."

Erickson E. foreign psychologist, the periodization of the development of individuality of which has become the most famous. According to the scientist, the process of personality formation occurs not only in youth, but also in periods of extreme old age.

Psychosocial stages of development represent crisis time intervals of formation by an individual. Becoming is overcoming conditional barriers (psychological stages) one after another. At each stage it is carried out qualitative modification of a person’s inner world. The new formation of each stage is the result of human development at each stage passed.

It is worth paying attention that neoplasms can be not only positive, but also negative. As a matter of fact, their combination determines a person’s individuality. Erikson identified and described two advanced lines of development: abnormal and normal, in each of which he identified and compared psychological new formations.

Crisis stages of personality forging according to Erickson E

Extreme lines of development of old age

• No fear of death, a feeling of usefulness and fullness of life, satisfaction, spiritual harmony and wisdom.
• Fear of death, tragic despair.

Socialization is a process quite complex to study. Nevertheless, social psychology is actively developing in this direction. The issues of socialization and what stages a person goes through in the process of becoming are the main ones for this science, along with a number of other phenomena under consideration relating to the social life of a person. And it is so diverse that it is hard to imagine what our life would be like if we could figure it all out. But is this possible? Hardly. One thing is known for sure: if society were simple, then how boring it would be for us to live, don't you think?

A little about socialization

So, what stages does a personality go through in the process of its formation? There are several theories that try to provide an answer. Each of them, for the most part, does not contradict the others. At the same time, each psychological school looks at the socialization of a person from its own angle. Some people view it from the perspective of social groups. This is the name of an association of people who have common goals and values. Society can also be called a social group. Only in this case can it be considered a large association. There is no particular difference what stages a person goes through in the process of formation. The important thing is that the end point is almost always known. Naturally, the socialization process may not work out. In this case, the person may be considered marginal or a desocialized person.

The difference between mariganals and maladaptives

What is the difference between the marginalized and those people who have dropped out of society? The marginalized are, as it were, between society and isolation from it. However, they may not live in society. More often than not, they are not received very happily. In order to somehow survive, such people create their own groups, which unite similar individuals. They may behave deviantly (deviating from the norm) and even delinquently (violating legal laws). In this case, we can say that people were desocialized.

But not everyone comes to such a life. Some people continue to integrate into society quite calmly. The process of socialization through adaptation is very often considered. There are several theories about what stages a personality goes through in the process of formation. We will consider the so-called

Stages of personality socialization

There are three personalities: pre-labor, labor and post-labor. The first stage is characterized in most cases by childhood, and it continues until the person begins to provide for himself. If he succeeds, he does not need parents for survival, then we can talk about the end of the pre-labor stage of socialization.

Pre-labor socialization

This stage is characterized by active assimilation of social norms, as well as gradual integration into a number of societies that are currently relevant to a person. In the case of pre-labor socialization, this is school, various sections, clubs.

Labor socialization

After a person has got a job or finished school, the stage of labor socialization begins, which characterizes the total flowering of life. So, at this time, a person can find and realize his calling and become successful. This is ideal if the processes of socialization are combined with self-actualization (according to Maslow and other representatives of But it may be that a person continues to socialize, continues to gain life experience, adheres to the norms accepted in society. But at the same time, he does not develop.

This is the path of false socialization, when a person seems to be integrated into society, but his social position and status are so small that there is a big risk of flying out of there. complex enough to take into account all factors. But it is directly related to human socialization. Some people say that the process of becoming a person is socialization.

But it is not so. We just talk so much about the adaptation of a person in society, not because it is synonymous with the development of the individual, but because of the great influence of society on the formation of a person. Therefore, we consider what is happening through the prism of adaptation to different groups. So it cannot be said that the process of becoming a person is called socialization. This is fundamentally wrong.

Post-work socialization

The last stage of socialization is post-work, which is usually associated with the onset of retirement age. But since there are a huge number of working pensioners, we can say that this stage begins after a person has stopped actively working. Retirement age is characterized by a gradual weakening of social skills. From a socio-psychological point of view, old age is given to a person so that norms and foundations are passed on to other people, so that their life base becomes much better at a young age. That's why grandmothers love to teach so much. True, this is not always accepted, but there are also opposite cases.

Stages of professional personality development

It is also worth touching on such a topic as the stages of development of an individual as a professional. There are quite a lot of them, so we can only consider the issue briefly.

1. Newbie. This is the stage when a person is just getting acquainted with his professional activity.
2. Student. A person begins to master practical skills and slowly gains experience in this matter and self-confidence.
3. Specialist. Standard operations have been worked out, but a person cannot come up with anything new.
4. Professional. A specialist with a creative approach. Very flexible and unconventionally approaches the most difficult situations.
5. Master. A man for whom his work is everything. That is why his approaches are so original, and the results of his work appear so quickly that it seems that the person did not even work. The same seems to be true for the master himself.

These are the five stages. They're quite interesting, aren't they? We figured out what stages a personality goes through in the process of formation. They are quite clear and easy to understand. The process of developing a person’s personality is still very complex, but at the same time, this information will help the reader somewhat increase his knowledge base and fill it with useful information.

Each process, especially such as human development (the formation of his personality) has its own patterns and stages. And any person after birth, going through life and developing, goes through these stages of formation.

Each stage of human development has its own Purpose and its own significance for the future person and for his fate as a whole.

Let's consider the main stages of life and development of any person, and I hope everyone will be able to determine for themselves what stage you are at now, what your next steps are and what you need to do for this.

Stages of Human Development - stages of formation and development of personality

Stage 1. Formation. For the vast majority of people, it is this stage that determines their development and fate. This stage is characterized by active programming of the consciousness of a person (child, teenager) from the outside - primarily his parents, loved ones and social environment (kindergarten, school, street, university, etc.).

It is the stage of formation that largely determines whether a person will be strong and successful in life (if he was lucky with mentors and authorities in childhood) or will be a weakling and a loser (if he copied only negativity, weakness and inability from his parents and environment). Who studied what!

Parent programming personalities– automatic (subconscious and conscious) copying by the child’s consciousness of the worldview, beliefs, habits, reactions and lifestyle of the parents. Copying can be either direct (if the child accepts the parent as an authority) or mirror copying, in opposition (when the child does not accept the parent, sees a negative example and decides for himself “I don’t want to do this, I’ll do the opposite”).

Social programming personalities– influence of the environment on a person’s consciousness: school (friends, teachers), university, street, etc. It would be quite fair to quote here the saying: “Whoever you hang out with is the one you’ll gain from”. The social environment (the people around) either suppress and block a person (the personality of a child with a not yet strong psyche), while forming many complexes, bad habits, drawing him into vices and discouraging any desire to achieve something significant in life, or they reveal and strengthen it , supporting a person’s aspirations (dreams), strengthening self-confidence and encouraging active action.

For a person who has been programmed since childhood by his parents and environment for negativity and failure, for insignificance, suffering and pain, it is very difficult to reprogram and change himself. But anything is possible! This is why development is necessary!

Stage 2. . It should be noted that not everyone reaches this stage in life in their awareness and spiritual maturity.

The “Self-Knowledge” stage is characterized by the fact that a person begins to ask himself some of the most important questions in life: Who am I? What am I living for? What do I want to achieve in life and what are my goals?What is my purpose? and etc.

From this moment in a person’s life, the search for answers begins - this is a search for appropriate sources of Knowledge, a search for one’s own path, a search for mentors. This stage may involve studying a large amount of literature in order to understand what paths there are in this world (schools, teachers and teachings, organizations, etc.). So that in the end you can decide on the choice of path.

This stage ends when a person finds that system of Knowledge, those answers to which his soul most responds. Then he can say - “That’s it, my search is over - I have chosen my path”. Then his movement along the path of development begins.

To be fair, it should be noted that many people live their entire lives in the second stage and never make their choice. They never take any path. The reasons for this can be different - lack of discrimination (then a person cannot make a choice), constant doubts (also a problem with certainty), omnivorousness (a person is only interested in knowledge, and not the results that can be achieved with its help). And there are a lot of such “smart people” who know a lot, but achieve nothing in life because they never took the path (didn’t make a choice). As a rule, such people are always on their own in life (loners).

If the second stage of self-knowledge is completed correctly, a person chooses a development path that ideally gives him the maximum (leading to the very pinnacle of success and perfection).

Stage 3. Purposeful Human Development – conscious formation of oneself as an individual, as a strong, worthy, successful and happy person in all respects.

The stage of targeted development involves working with a mentor or Teacher (regular classes and trainings, gaining knowledge, an outside perspective, help, etc.), mastering personality development techniques and constantly working on oneself: the consistent elimination of all one’s weaknesses and shortcomings, and the formation of the necessary knowledge (beliefs), strengths and talents to achieve the Goals.

On the topic of human development, read:

The development stage ideally never ends, because development must be continuous. All successful people work on themselves every day and all their lives, until their death.

Stage 4 Self-realization. When a person has decided what he wants to achieve in life and he has all the necessary tools for this (knowledge, techniques for working on himself, those who will help and advise, etc.) - then he can set Goals in all areas of life and begin to achieve them.

This is the stage of achieving success in life - in work (choosing a profession and professional path), in relationships (creating a family, forming an environment), in service (creative activity necessary for this world and people), in creativity and in lifestyle.

This stage has many stages, when a person becomes an expert in something, then grows to professional, then becomes a master (mentor to others) and a teacher (helps many people in their personal and professional growth).

And here everyone determines for himself what height he wants to conquer in his life.

Read on this topic:

Good luck to you, first of all, in choosing a worthy Path!

Most often, the age of any object is defined as the duration of its existence. In relation to a person, age is associated not only with the duration of existence (calculated from the moment of birth), but also with a number of successive phases of the formation and development of the individual.
The famous Russian psychologist L. S. Vygotsky (1832-1920) defined age as a relatively closed period of development, having its own content and dynamics. From his point of view, chronological age and psychological age are two different, non-coinciding concepts.
A person lives his life in time. However, this time is a rather complex formation. On the one hand, personal life time consists of the interconnection of events of the past, present and future. The course of life events reflects the objective manifestation of temporary relationships (biological and social). This passage of time is recorded by hours, months, years. This age is recorded in the person’s official documents. In addition, for each person an important role is played by the subjective reflection of time on the scale of significant events in a person’s life. This time is called the psychological time of the individual. This is a complex formation that has its own structure. It includes situational time, biographical time and historical time.
What is each element of psychological time? Situational time reflects the perception and experience of short time intervals. Who hasn’t noticed that when a person feels good, time flies, but in other cases it drags on?
Biographical time covers the life of an individual as a whole. It includes both significant and equally insignificant events. This time records everything that happens to a person throughout life. Usually, answering the question: “How old are you?” - people indicate exactly the biographical, or passport, time.
In addition, the sphere of a person's ideas about time also includes events that took place before his life, and those that will be after his death. This time scale is called the historical time of the individual. Sometimes they also single out the social time of the individual, which is associated with the development by an individual of practical activities, social experience. It is this time that records significant stages of socialization.

PERIODIZATION OF PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT

How are the mental development of the individual and its main activity interrelated? For the first time, L. S. Vygotsky introduced the historical principle into the study of various periods of age development in psychology. He proved that the unit of analysis in the development of the child's psyche is action. Later, A. N. Leontiev (1903-1979) showed that the criterion for the periodization of mental development is not any, but the leading activity, the content and form of which depend on the specific historical conditions of the development of the child. This term is commonly used to call the activity, which at this stage of development is associated with the emergence of the most important mental neoplasms.

In the early 70s. of the last century, the concept of periodization of age development was developed, based on the idea of ​​a consistent change in the forms of leading activity. Based on the analysis of all types of the child's leading activity from birth to adolescence, inclusive, two large groups were distinguished. The first group consists of those types of activities within which, in the system “child - social adult” (conventionally, the adult who helps the child master this or that type of activity), methods, motives and norms of relations between people are learned. This group includes direct emotional communication of an infant, role-playing play and intimate-personal communication of adolescents. The second group consisted of those types of activities that are mastered in the “child is a social object” system (in this case, we mean those objects that surround a person in his life). These types of activities are aimed at mastering socially developed ways of acting with objects and standards that highlight various significant aspects of objects. The activities of this group differ significantly from each other. For example, playing with various objects of a young child differs from the educational activities of a junior schoolchild, and the educational activities of a first-grader differ from the independent educational and cognitive activities of older adolescents. But at the same time, these types of activities are elements of human culture. The child gradually masters more and more complex ways of operating with a wide variety of cultural objects, as a result of which a more complete orientation of the child in the objective world and his intellect are formed. Thus, not only does the development of methods of action with different objects and in different social situations occur, but also the individual style of activity, experience and character of a person is formed.
If all types of leading activities of children are arranged in the sequence in which they become leading in different periods of age development from birth to adulthood, then the following series will be obtained:

The diagram shows that in childhood development there are successive periods during which the primary development of tasks, motives and norms occurs relationships between people(on their basis the sphere of motives and needs of the individual develops), and periods during which the primary development of socially developed methods occurs actions with objects(on their basis, the intellectual and cognitive potential of children is formed). Successively more complex activities from one group are necessarily replaced by activities belonging to another group. Following the periods when the primary development of the motivational-need sphere occurs, periods naturally follow when the operational and technical capabilities of children are predominantly formed, and vice versa.
Thus, the process of personality development occurs as a gradual complication of the motivational-need sphere and a gradual complication of various types of objective activities that a person must master in the process of his formation.
Another periodization of personality development is based on the assumption that the individual’s activity is focused on finding ways and means to satisfy the need to be an individual. The source of human development is the contradiction between the need to be an individual, to assert oneself and activity aimed at solving group problems and accepting group norms and rules. The development of a person’s personality according to this theory can be represented as the process of its entry into a new social environment and full inclusion in it. If a person enters a new but relatively stable social community, he goes through three phases of his formation as an individual in it. First phase - adaptation presupposes the assimilation of the norms in force in the community and mastery of the corresponding forms and means of activity. An individual objectively finds himself in conditions where he must “be like everyone else” in order to be accepted by a given community. Second phase - individualization is generated by the contradiction between the fact that the individual has become like everyone else in the group, and the fact that his needs for individual uniqueness are not satisfied. In this case, the individual’s behavior is aimed at searching for means and ways to indicate his individuality. Third phase - integration personality in society is generated by the contradictions between the desire to be an individual and the approval of only those individual characteristics of a person that correspond to the values ​​of a particular community and contribute to the success of joint activities. If the contradiction between the individual and the group is not eliminated, disintegration occurs, accompanied by either the “pushing out” of the individual from a given community or its isolation.
The above understanding of the process of personal development can be supplemented by periodization based on the level of development of the group in which it is included. On this basis, age stages of personality formation are distinguished: early childhood (pre-school) age (0-3 years), kindergarten childhood (3-7 years), primary school age (7-11 years), middle school age (11-15 years) , senior school age (15-18 years).

AGE AND FORMATION OF THE INNER WORLD

A number of specialists, when considering the issue of periodization of age-related development, associate it with the stages of formation of the inner world of the individual. They highlight that specific “space” within which a born child can only become a human being. Researchers call this space the “living community” of a child with his mother, their joint coexistence. Within joint existence (co-existence), the development of the child’s individual abilities occurs, including a purely human, higher ability - the ability to reflect. It manifests itself in the fact that a person analyzes and evaluates his feelings, thoughts, and actions. Without this property, the formation of a mature personality is impossible. In contrast to the periodizations presented above, the formation of personality is not limited to childhood and adolescence.
Based on these provisions, the following stages of development of the inner world of the individual are identified.
The stage of “revival” (from birth to one year), at which a specific form of existence of the individual arises in its unity with the life of the mother, which is co-existence itself. A sign of the implementation of “revival” is the “revitalization complex”, from which, in fact, personal communication and attitude begin. At this level, the child begins to distinguish between the perceived world around him and his own feelings of self. When the baby sees his mother, he changes his behavior and shows clear signs of pleasure.
The stage of “animation” (from one year to 6 years), at the beginning of which there are two most important events - the development of upright walking and speech. Thanks to upright walking, the child for the first time finds himself in the same spatial coordinate system as the adult. He sees and perceives the world from the same perspective. Speech allows the child to realize himself in the well-known formula “I myself.” At this age, the child is freed for the first time from “togetherness” with an adult; his independence begins.
The stage of “personalization” (from 7 to 18 years), characterized by the formation of meaningful ideas about oneself (self-esteem, “self-image”, etc.). It corresponds to the formation of the actual personality. You already know about the paths and stages of self-knowledge.
The stage of “individualization” (from 20 to 40 years), at which the process of spiritual self-development begins. A person becomes the true author of his life, bearing personal responsibility for his own actions and views.
Stage of “universalization” (from 45 to 65 years and more). This is the stage of maturity. During these years, a person is as free as possible in his manifestations, has a developed inner world, and utmost responsibility for his actions and for this world itself.
According to many foreign authors, the mental development of an individual is closely related to moral development. This opinion is reflected in a number of concepts in which attention is focused on the periodization of the development of the moral consciousness of the individual. Thus, in one of the most well-known concepts, moral development is considered as an evolution from selfish motives of behavior to motives of behavior dictated by conscience and ideas of justice.
A number of researchers have considered the question of what can be considered the highest level of personality development. Of course, there is a connection between age and personal development, but this connection is not direct and not unambiguous. One of the leaders of American humanistic psychology, K. Rogers, associated the formation of the “I-concept” with the development of the need for self-esteem. The realization of this need often comes into conflict with the demands that others place on the individual, as a result of which the person begins to feel a discord between the ideal idea of ​​himself and his real “I,” which leads to the emergence of a person’s alienation from his true essence. According to K. Rogers, a person will develop harmoniously only if his real “I” is proportionate and in accordance with his own thoughts, feelings, experiences and behavior, which do not need to be hidden from others.
Humanistically oriented theories of personality development include the theory of personality development, widely known in the West, called the theory of intentionality. It is based on the idea of ​​developing intentions (intentions, goals) inherent in the individual. Intentionality is manifested in the individual’s ability to set vital goals and make independent choices. Based on these provisions, a periodization of personality development has been developed, in which five phases of the life cycle are identified.
The first phase lasts up to 15 years and is characterized by the absence of independent goals. During this period, mental and physical abilities develop. Goals, as a rule, are set from the outside and are accepted by the individual as unconditional and obvious.
The second phase lasts up to 25 years. During this period, a person becomes aware of his needs and abilities, as well as chooses a profession and a life partner.
The third phase - from 25 to 45 years - is considered the maturity phase. During this period, intentional capabilities flourish, professional activity and family relationships stabilize.
In the fourth phase (45-65 years), a person takes stock of his life and rethinks successes and failures.
And finally, in the last, fifth phase (65-70-75 years), the pursuit of the goals that have been set ceases, and the person strives for a holistic understanding of his life.
Another description of the stages of personality development is presented as a personal choice that is made when experiencing a crisis of age-related development. As a result of this crisis, a new formation appears. This new formation is associated with the solution of some potential contradiction and is formed as a choice from two possibilities, one of which will lead to the progress of the individual, and the other to his regression (see table).

Stages of personality development according to E. Erikson

And in contrast to the already familiar understanding of the age crisis as an integral characteristic of the transitional age from childhood to adolescence, the presented table shows that an age crisis is also possible in other periods of life. Overcoming a crisis and coming out of it is an important aspect of personality development.
Thus, summing up the considered theories of age periodization, we note that a person’s passport and psychological ages may not coincide. Thus, responsible and independent people are usually ahead of their infantile peers in their psychological age. Each age period is unique, unique and important in the development of personality. Success in life and the degree of satisfaction with life depend on how fully a person of a certain age realizes himself.