Development of a person as an individual. Personality development: levels, stages and mechanisms of this process. Stages of Personality Development

Today in psychology there are about fifty theories of personality. Each of them examines and interprets in its own way how personality is formed. But they all agree that a person goes through the stages of personality development in a way that no one has lived before him, and no one will live after him.

Why is one person loved, respected, successful in all spheres of life, while another degrades and becomes unhappy? To answer this question, you need to know the personality formation factors that influenced the life of a particular person. It is important how the stages of personality formation went through, what new traits, qualities, properties and abilities appeared during life, and to take into account the role of the family in the formation of personality.

In psychology there are several definitions of this concept. The definition in a philosophical sense is a value for the sake of and thanks to which society develops.

Stages of development

An active and active person is capable of development. For each age period, one of the activities is leading.

The concept of leading activity was developed by the Soviet psychologist A.N. Leontyev, he also identified the main stages of personality formation. Later his ideas were developed by D.B. Elkonin and other scientists.

The leading type of activity is a development factor and activity that determines the formation of the individual’s basic psychological formations at the next stage of his development.

"According to D. B. Elkonin"

Stages of personality formation according to D. B. Elkonin and the leading type of activity in each of them:

• Infancy – direct communication with adults.
• Early childhood is an object-manipulative activity. The child learns to handle simple objects.
• Preschool age – role-playing game. The child tries on adult social roles in a playful way.
• Primary school age - educational activities.
• Adolescence – intimate communication with peers.

"According to E. Erickson"

Psychological periodizations of individuality development were also developed by foreign psychologists. The most famous is the periodization proposed by E. Erikson. According to Erikson, personality formation occurs not only in youth, but also in old age.

Psychosocial stages of development are crisis stages in the formation of an individual’s personality. The formation of personality is the passage of one after another psychological stages of development. At each stage, a qualitative transformation of the individual’s inner world occurs. New formations at each stage are a consequence of the development of the individual at the previous stage.

Neoplasms can be either positive or negative. Their combination determines the individuality of each person. Erikson described two lines of development: normal and abnormal, in each of which he identified and contrasted psychological new formations.

Crisis stages of personality formation according to E. Erikson:

• The first year of a person’s life is a crisis of confidence

During this period, the role of the family in the formation of personality is especially important. Through the mother and father, the child learns whether the world is kind to him or not. In the best case, basic trust in the world appears; if the formation of personality is anomalous, distrust is formed.

• From one year to three years

Independence and self-confidence, if the process of personality formation occurs normally, or self-doubt and hypertrophied shame, if it is abnormal.

• Three to five years

Activity or passivity, initiative or guilt, curiosity or indifference to the world and people.

• From five to eleven years

The child learns to set and achieve goals, independently solve life problems, strives for success, develops cognitive and communication skills, as well as hard work. If the formation of personality during this period deviates from the normal line, the new formations will be an inferiority complex, conformity, a feeling of meaninglessness, futility of efforts when solving problems.

• From twelve to eighteen years old

Teenagers are going through a stage of life self-determination. Young people make plans, choose a profession, and decide on a worldview. If the process of personality formation is disrupted, the teenager is immersed in his inner world to the detriment of the outer world, but he is unable to understand himself. Confusion in thoughts and feelings leads to decreased activity, inability to plan for the future, and difficulties with self-determination. The teenager chooses the path “like everyone else”, becomes a conformist, and does not have his own personal worldview.

• From twenty to forty-five years

This is early adulthood. A person develops a desire to be a useful member of society. He works, starts a family, has children and at the same time feels satisfied with life. Early adulthood is a period when the role of the family in the formation of personality again comes to the fore, only this family is no longer parental, but created independently.

Positive new developments of the period: intimacy and sociability. Negative neoplasms: isolation, avoidance of close relationships and promiscuity. Character difficulties at this time can develop into mental disorders.

• Average maturity: forty-five to sixty years

A wonderful stage when the process of personality formation continues in conditions of a full, creative, varied life. A person raises and teaches children, reaches certain heights in the profession, is respected and loved by family, colleagues, and friends.

If the formation of a personality is successful, a person actively and productively works on himself; if not, “immersion into himself” occurs in order to escape from reality. Such “stagnation” threatens with loss of ability to work, early disability, and embitterment.

• After sixty years of age, late adulthood begins

The time when a person takes stock of life. Extreme lines of development in old age:

1. wisdom and spiritual harmony, satisfaction with life lived, a feeling of its completeness and usefulness, lack of fear of death;
2. tragic despair, the feeling that life has been lived in vain, and that it is no longer possible to live it again, fear of death.

When the stages of personality formation are experienced successfully, a person learns to accept himself and life in all its diversity, lives in harmony with himself and the world around him.

Formation theories

Each direction in psychology has its own answer to how personality is formed. There are psychodynamic, humanistic theories, trait theory, social learning theory and others.

Some theories emerged as a result of numerous experiments, others are non-experimental. Not all theories cover the age range from birth to death; some “allocate” only the first years of life (usually until adulthood) to the formation of personality.

• The most holistic theory, combining several points of view, is the theory of the American psychologist Erik Erikson. According to Erikson, personality formation occurs according to the epigenetic principle: from birth to death, a person lives through eight stages of development, genetically predetermined, but depending on social factors and the individual himself.

In psychoanalysis, the process of personality formation is the adaptation of the natural, biological essence of a person to the social environment.

• According to the founder of psychoanalysis, Z. Fred, a person is formed when he learns to satisfy needs in a socially acceptable form and develops protective mechanisms of the psyche.
• In contrast to psychoanalysis, the humanistic theories of A. Maslow and C. Rogers concentrate on a person’s ability to express themselves and improve themselves. The main idea of ​​humanistic theories is self-actualization, which is also the basic human need. Human development is driven not by instincts, but by higher spiritual and social needs and values.

The formation of personality is the gradual discovery of one’s “I”, the disclosure of inner potential. A self-actualizing person is active, creative, spontaneous, honest, responsible, free from thought patterns, wise, able to accept himself and others as they are.

The components of personality are the following properties:

1. abilities – individual properties that determine the success of a particular activity;
2. temperament – ​​innate characteristics of higher nervous activity that determine social reactions;
3. character - a set of cultivated qualities that determine behavior in relation to other people and oneself;
4. will – the ability to achieve a goal;
5. emotions - emotional disturbances and experiences;
6. motives – motivations for activity, incentives;
7. attitudes – beliefs, views, orientation.

Personality- this is not an innate and genetically determined characteristic of a person. A child is born a biological individual who is yet to become an individual. However, this can only happen under certain conditions.

The initial and natural condition for the formation of personality is normal (without pathological deviations) biological nature (individual organization) child. The presence of corresponding deviations either complicates or makes personality development completely impossible. This is especially true for the brain and sense organs. For example, with a congenital or previously acquired brain abnormality, a child may develop a mental illness such as mental retardation. It is expressed in underdevelopment of the intellect (mental retardation) and the personality as a whole. With deep oligophrenia (in the stage of idiocy), a child cannot become a person at all, even under the most favorable conditions of upbringing. He is doomed to an individual (animal) existence.

Congenital anomalies of vision (blindness) or hearing (deafness) also significantly complicate the process of personal development.

To overcome and compensate for such deviations, it is necessary to use special correctional training, development and education. Generally, individual properties and characteristics of a person act as factors that facilitate or hinder development certain personal formations: interests, character traits, abilities, self-esteem, etc. Therefore, they need to be well known and taken into account when developing strategies and tactics of education. It must be said that they have not been studied well enough. These questions are the subject of such a branch of psychology as psychogenetics.

Personality development is an active process of a child’s assimilation of social norms and behavior patterns that correspond to them. It requires from him enormous efforts aimed at mastering his own biological essence, overcoming immediate natural desires and capabilities (to behave as I want and as I can) and subordinating them to social necessity (as I should). For example, a child does not want to collect his toys, but he must master the ability to overcome this immediate urge and follow the appropriate social norm. Therefore, another main condition for the formation of personality is the presence of a social environment, that is, specific people - carriers and transmitters of social norms. These are people with whom the child has significant relationships: parents, family members, relatives, educators, teachers, peers, neighbors, heroes of works of art and films, historical figures, clergy, etc. The lack of a social environment makes personal development impossible. This is evidenced by numerous cases of “raising” children among animals.

In their psychological essence they were similar to their " educators” and had nothing personal. All possible anomalies and defects in the social environment lead to corresponding personality defects in children raised in such conditions. An example of these are children who grew up in dysfunctional families, orphanages, correctional colonies, etc.

The process of transmitting social norms to a child is called education. It can be purposeful or spontaneous. Purposeful education is a specially organized and orderly pedagogical process, consisting of such pedagogical acts as familiarization with social norms, demonstration of standard methods of behavior, organization of exercises, control, encouragement and punishment, etc. Spontaneous education is, as it were, built into the real everyday life of the teacher and student . It consists of the same pedagogical acts, although it does not pursue special pedagogical goals. Therefore, obtaining some educational results is most likely a by-product of other actions.

Education should not be understood as a process of one-sided activity of teachers. Social norms and the corresponding modes of behavior are not “invested” in the child, but are acquired (appropriated) by him on the basis of his own active activity and communication. Other people (parents, educators, etc.) only contribute to this with varying degrees of success. For example, in order to instill a responsible attitude towards learning in a first-grader, parents and teachers can take many methods of pedagogical influence: explanation, demonstration of positive examples, organization of activities, encouragement, punishment, etc. However, they cannot carry out that system of specific educational actions for him , which make up and on the basis of which a responsible attitude towards learning is formed. This includes doing homework every day, writing in a diary, putting away the necessary textbooks and things, etc. Each of them requires certain skills from the child, and most importantly, the ability to overcome one’s own individual essence, which can be expressed in a natural lack of desire to do this.

Thus, the next extremely important condition for personality development is the active activity of the child, aimed at assimilating social norms and ways of behavior. It can be considered as a kind of tool for assimilating social experience. In order for an activity (existential activity) to have a developmental effect, it must meet certain requirements. First of all, this concerns its substantive compliance with assimilated social norms. For example, it is impossible to cultivate courage (bold behavior) outside of situations of overcoming danger. There are also many other psychological conditions for the organization of life (communication and activity), under which it becomes possible to effectively assimilate social norms and form stable personal formations. This includes the factor of appropriateness of upbringing to age, the amount of exercise, the nature of motivation, etc.

Patterns of development

Personal development is not random or chaotic, but in many ways a natural process. It obeys certain rules, which are called psychological laws of development. They record the most general and essential properties of personal development, knowledge of which allows us to better understand this phenomenon.

The first of the laws we are considering answers the question about the causes, sources and driving forces of personality development. In other words, what makes a child develop and where is the source of development. Psychological research shows that the child initially has the ability to develop. The source of development is his needs, the need to satisfy which stimulates the development of corresponding psychological capabilities and means: abilities, character traits, volitional qualities, etc. The development of psychological capabilities, in turn, leads to the emergence of new needs and motives, etc. These developmental cycles continuously follow each other, raising the child to ever higher levels of personal development. Thus, the source of personal development lies in the child himself. The people around him or life circumstances can only speed up or slow down this process, but they are not able to stop it. It does not at all follow from this that the mental development of the individual is carried out on the basis of biological maturation. Developability (ability to develop) represents only the potential opportunity to become an individual. This can happen only under certain conditions.

The development of a person’s personality is not smooth, but spasmodic. Relatively long (up to several years) periods of fairly calm and uniform development are replaced by fairly short (up to several months) periods of sharp and significant personal changes. They are very important in their psychological consequences and significance for the individual. It is no coincidence that they are called critical moments of development, or age-related crises. They are experienced quite hard on a subjective level, which is also reflected in the child’s behavior and in his relationships with people around him. Age-related crises form unique psychological boundaries between age periods. Throughout personal development, several age-related crises are distinguished. They occur most clearly in the following periods: 1 year, 3 years, 6-7 years and 11-14 years.

The development of a person’s personality is carried out in stages and consistently. Each age period naturally follows from the previous one and creates the prerequisites and conditions for the subsequent one. Each of them is absolutely necessary and mandatory for the full development of a person’s personality, since it provides particularly favorable conditions for the formation of certain mental functions and personal properties. This feature of age periods is called sensitivity. In Russian psychology, it is customary to distinguish six periods of age-related development:
1) infancy (from birth to one year);
2) early preschool age (from 1 to 3 years);
3) junior and middle preschool age (from 4-5 to 6-7 years);
4) junior school age (from 6-7 to 10-11 years);
5) adolescence (from 10-11 to 13-14 years);
6) early adolescence (from 13-14 to 16-17 years).

By this time, the person reaches a fairly high level of personal maturity, which does not mean the cessation of mental development.

The next very important property of development is its irreversibility. This eliminates any possibility of repeating a certain age period again. Each period of life is unique and inimitable in its own way. Formed personal substructures and qualities are either impossible or almost impossible to change, just as it is impossible to fully compensate for what was not formed in a timely manner. This places a huge responsibility on people involved in education and upbringing.

Everyone knows that human development in all areas can be influenced by many factors. All people grow up in individual conditions, the totality of which determines the characteristic personality traits of each of us.

Man and personality

Concepts such as personality and man have a number of differences. A person is called a person from birth; this is more of a material characteristic. But personality, at its core, is a more complex concept. As a result of human development, his formation as an individual in society occurs.

Personality- this is the moral side of a person, which implies all the diversity of qualities and values ​​of the individual.

The formation of personal qualities is influenced by family, kindergartens and schools, social circle, interests, financial capabilities and many other factors, which will be discussed in more detail later.

The process of human personality formation

Naturally, the beginning of the formation of a person’s personality begins, first of all, with the family. The upbringing and influence of parents are largely reflected in the actions and thoughts of the child. Therefore, young mothers and fathers should approach parenting responsibly and purposefully.

Unlike other living beings, man has a dual nature. On the one hand, his behavior is influenced by features of anatomy, physiology, and psyche. On the other hand, he obeys the laws of society. If in the first case we are talking about the formation of a person as an individual, then in the second there is the development of personality. What is the difference between these processes? What is personality? Why is it formed in society? What stages does it go through in its improvement? Are there many levels of personality development? What mechanisms trigger this process? Let's consider this topic.

What is personality development?

Personality development is an element of the general formation of a person, associated with his consciousness and self-awareness. It concerns the sphere of socialization, since outside of society a person lives according to the laws of the animal world. Personality is formed through interaction with other people. In private, without cultural contact and exchange of information, this process is not possible. To avoid confusion, we present the following related concepts:

• Human- representative of a biological species Homo sapiens;
• Individual(individual) – a separate organism capable of independent existence;
• Personality– a subject of sociocultural life, endowed with reason, morality, and spiritual qualities.

Accordingly, personal development determines those aspects of life that alienate us from animal nature and endow us with socially significant qualities. This concept should not be confused with personal development, which covers all possible areas, including physical fitness, level of intelligence or emotionality. Personal development is related to self-identity. It is not opposed to other types of improvement, justifying the saying “a healthy mind in a healthy body.”

By the way, the levels of personality development partly repeat the needs shown in Maslow’s Pyramid. The initial stage is the satisfaction of functions necessary for life, gradually rising to the level of spirituality and self-awareness.

Levels of personality development

Many classifications of the structure of personal development have been invented. On average, there are seven main levels, which were proposed by Russian sociologists Dmitry Nevirko and Valentin Nemirovsky. According to their theory, people combine the following successive levels of development:

• Survival– maintaining physical integrity;
• Reproduction– reproduction and material consumption;
• Control– the ability to be responsible for oneself and others;
• Feelings– knowledge of love, mercy, benevolence;
• Perfection– desire for expertise and creation;
• Wisdom– improvement of intellect and spirituality;
• Enlightenment– connection with the spiritual principle, a feeling of happiness and harmony.

Anyone should ideally pass each of these levels. At the same time, the process of personality development is associated with life lessons. If someone jumps over a “step”, then he will have to catch up. A person who is “stuck” at one of the levels simply has not yet learned his lesson, or perhaps simply has not received it yet. Either he is taking another lesson, or he is not yet ready for a new one. One of the first motives of personal development is self-affirmation, which is later replaced by concern for one’s neighbor. It is this transition from egocentrism to empathy (sympathy) that is one of the most difficult and responsible stages of improvement. We'll talk more about this process in the next section.

Stages of Personality Development

Most go through the same natural stages of development. They are determined by physiological and mental characteristics. Each age has its own challenges and life lessons.

A full description of these processes includes the theory of personality development formulated by the American psychologist Erik Erikson, which includes a description of normal and undesirable options for events. According to this doctrine, the following can be distinguished: fundamental postulates:

• The stages of personality development are identical for everyone;
• Improvement does not stop from birth to death;
• Personality development is closely related to life stages;
• Transitions between different stages are associated with personality crises;
• During a crisis, a person’s self-identification weakens;
• There is no guarantee of successful completion of each stage;
• Society is not an antagonist for man in his improvement;
• The formation of individuality involves going through eight stages.

The psychology of personality development is closely related to the course of physiological processes in the body, which differ at each specific age. In psychotherapeutic practice it is customary to distinguish such stages of personality development:

• Oral phase– the first period of a baby’s life, building a system of trust and mistrust;
• Creative phase– the preschool period of life, when the child begins to invent activities for himself, not just imitating others;
• Latent phase– covers ages from 6 to 11 years, manifested in a growing interest in new things;
• Teenage phase– the period from 12 to 18 years, when a radical revaluation of values ​​occurs;
• Beginning of maturity– time of intimacy or loneliness, searching for a partner to form a family;
• Mature age– a period of reflection on the future of new generations, the final stage of socialization of the individual;
• Old age– a balance between wisdom, understanding of life, and a sense of satisfaction from the path traveled.

Each stage of personality development brings something new to its self-identification, even if physical or mental improvement is stopped due to the physiological characteristics of a particular age. This is the phenomenon of personality development, which does not depend on the state of the organism as a whole. Strength or intelligence can be enhanced to certain levels until aging occurs. Personal development does not stop even in old age. In order for this process to continue, there must be factors that stimulate improvement.

Driving forces of personality development

Any improvement involves leaving your comfort zone. Accordingly, the conditions for personal development also “push” a person out of his usual environment, forcing him to think differently. The main mechanisms of personal growth include:

• Isolation – acceptance of one’s individuality;
• Identification– human self-identification, search for analogues;
• Self-esteem– choosing your own “ecological niche” in society.

It is these mechanisms of personality development that force you to reconsider your attitude towards life, leave your comfort zone, and improve spiritually.

After the question of self-esteem and satisfaction of his “ego,” a person thinks about helping other people, his mark in history. Further, individuals move to the stage of spiritual enlightenment, trying to realize the universal truth and feel the harmony of the universe.

The main mechanism of “vertical” transitions is the “horizontal” accumulation of experience and knowledge, which allows one to rise to a qualitatively high level of personal development.

Since man is a biosocial phenomenon, his formation is subject to a number of factors, including animal and spiritual components. Personal development begins when the lower levels of existence are satisfied. You should not think that other aspects of life are less important, because emotions, strength and intelligence also shape a person’s personality and help him fully develop spiritually.

Introduction

The concept and problem of personality

1 Research on personality formation in domestic and foreign psychology

Personality in the process of activity

Socialization of personality

Personal self-awareness

Conclusion

Bibliography

Introduction

I chose the topic of personality formation as one of the most diverse and interesting in psychology. There is hardly a category in psychology or philosophy comparable to personality in terms of the number of contradictory definitions.

Personality formation is, as a rule, the initial stage in the formation of a person’s personal properties. Personal growth is determined by external and internal factors (social and biological). External growth factors include a person’s belonging to a particular culture, socioeconomic class, and unique family environment. On the other hand, intrinsic factors include the genetic, biological and physical characteristics of each individual.

Biological factors: heredity (transmission from parents of psychophysiological properties and inclinations: hair color, skin, temperament, speed of mental processes, as well as the ability to speak and think - universal human characteristics and national characteristics) largely determine the subjective conditions influencing the formation of personality. The structure of the mental life of the individual and the mechanisms of its functioning, the processes of formation of both individual and integral systems of properties constitute the subjective world of the individual. At the same time, the formation of personality occurs in unity with the objective conditions that influence it (1).

There are three approaches to the concept of “personality”: the first emphasizes that personality as a social entity is formed only under the influence of society, social interaction (socialization). The second emphasis in understanding personality unites the individual’s mental processes, his self-awareness, his inner world and imparts to his behavior the necessary stability and consistency. The third emphasis is in understanding the individual as an active participant in activity, the creator of his life, who makes decisions and bears responsibility for them (16). That is, in psychology there are three areas in which the formation and formation of personality is carried out: activity (according to Leontiev), communication, self-awareness. In other words, we can say that personality is a combination of three main components: biogenetic foundations, the influence of various social factors (environment, conditions, norms) and its psychosocial core - I .

The subject of my research is the process of formation of human personality under the influence of these approaches and factors and theories of understanding.

The purpose of the work is to analyze the influence of these approaches on personality development. The following tasks follow from the topic, purpose and content of the work:

identify the very concept of personality and the problems associated with this concept;

explore the formation of personality in domestic and formulate the concept of personality in foreign psychology;

determine how a person’s personality develops in the process of his activity, socialization, self-awareness;

in the course of analyzing psychological literature on the topic of work, try to find out which factors have a more significant influence on the formation of personality.

1. The concept and problem of personality

The concept of “personality” is multifaceted; it is the object of study of many sciences: philosophy, sociology, psychology, aesthetics, ethics, etc.

Many scientists, analyzing the features of the development of modern science, record a sharp increase in interest in the problem of man. According to B.G. Ananyev, one of these features is that the problem of man turns into a general problem of all science as a whole (2). B.F. Lomov emphasized that the general trend in the development of science was the increasing role of the problem of man and his development. Since it is possible to understand the development of society only on the basis of understanding the individual, it becomes clear that Man has become the main and central problem of scientific knowledge, regardless of his gender. The differentiation of scientific disciplines studying man, which B.G. Ananyev also spoke about, is the response of scientific knowledge to the diversity of human connections with the world, i.e. society, nature, culture. In the system of these relations, a person is studied both as an individual with his own formation program, as a subject and object of historical development - a personality, as a productive force of society, but at the same time also as an individual (2).

From the point of view of some authors, personality is formed and develops in accordance with its innate qualities and abilities, and the social environment plays a very insignificant role. Representatives of another point of view reject the innate internal traits and abilities of the individual, believing that personality is a certain product, completely formed in the course of social experience (1). Despite the numerous differences that exist between them, almost all psychological approaches to understanding personality are united in one thing: a person is not born as a personality, but becomes in the process of his life. This actually means recognizing that a person’s personal qualities and properties are not acquired genetically, but as a result of learning, that is, they are formed and developed throughout a person’s life (15).

The experience of social isolation of the human individual proves that personality does not simply develop as it grows older. The word “personality” is used only in relation to a person, and, moreover, starting only from a certain stage of his development. We do not say about a newborn that he is a “person”. In fact, each of them is already an individual. But not yet a personality! A person becomes a person, and is not born one. We do not seriously talk about the personality of even a two-year-old child, although he has acquired a lot from his social environment.

Personality is understood as the socio-psychological essence of a person, which is formed as a result of his study of social consciousness and behavior, the historical experience of mankind (a person becomes a personality under the influence of life in society, education, communication, training, interaction). Personality develops throughout life to the extent that a person performs social roles, is included in various types of activities, as his consciousness develops. The main place in personality is occupied by consciousness, and its structures are not given to a person initially, but are formed in early childhood in the process of communication and activity with other people in society (15).

Thus, if we want to understand a person as something holistic and understand what actually shapes his personality, we must take into account all possible parameters for studying a person in various approaches to the study of his personality.

.1 Research on personality formation in domestic and foreign psychology

Cultural-historical concept of L.S. Vygotsky again emphasizes that personality development is holistic. This theory reveals the social essence of man and the mediated nature of his activity (instrumentality, symbolism). The development of a child occurs through the appropriation of historically developed forms and methods of activity, thus, the driving force of personal development is learning. Learning is first possible only in interaction with adults and cooperation with friends, and then it becomes the property of the child himself. According to L.S. Vygotsky, higher mental functions arise initially as a form of collective behavior of the child, and only then do they become the individual functions and abilities of the child himself. So, for example, at first speech is a means of communication, but in the course of development it becomes internal and begins to perform an intellectual function (6).

Personal development as a process of socialization of the individual is carried out in certain social conditions of the family, immediate environment, country, in certain socio-political, economic conditions, traditions of the people of which he is a representative. At the same time, at each phase of the life path, as L.S. Vygotsky emphasized, certain social situations of development develop as unique relationships between the child and the social reality surrounding him. Adaptation to the norms in force in society is replaced by the phase of individualization, the designation of one’s dissimilarity, and then the phase of unification of the individual in a community - all these are mechanisms of personal development (12).

Any influence of an adult cannot be carried out without the activity of the child himself. And the process of development itself depends on how this activity is carried out. This is how the idea of ​​the leading type of activity as a criterion for a child’s mental development arose. According to A.N. Leontiev, “some types of activities are leading at this stage and are of great importance for the further development of the individual, others are of lesser importance” (9). Leading activity is characterized by the fact that it transforms the basic mental processes and changes the characteristics of the individual at a given stage of its development. In the process of a child’s development, first the motivational side of the activity is mastered (otherwise the subject aspects have no meaning for the child), and then the operational and technical side. When mastering socially developed ways of acting with objects, the child is formed as a member of society.

Personality formation is, first of all, the formation of new needs and motives, their transformation. They are impossible to learn: knowing what to do does not mean wanting it (10).

Any personality develops gradually, it goes through certain stages, each of which raises it to a qualitatively different level of development.

Let's consider the main stages of personality formation. Let us define the two most important ones, according to A.N. Leontyev. The first refers to preschool age and is marked by the establishment of the first relationships of motives, the first subordination of a person’s motives to social norms. A.N. Leontiev illustrates this event with an example known as the “bittersweet effect,” when a child, as an experiment, is given the task of getting something without getting up from his chair. When the experimenter leaves, the child gets up from the chair and takes the given object. The experimenter returns, praises the child and offers candy as a reward. The child refuses, cries, the candy has become “bitter” for him. In this situation, the struggle between two motives is reproduced: one of them is a future reward, and the other is a sociocultural prohibition. Analysis of the situation shows that the child is placed in a situation of conflict between two motives: to take the thing and to fulfill the adult’s condition. A child’s refusal of candy shows that the process of mastering social norms has already begun. It is in the presence of an adult that the child is more susceptible to social motives, which means that the formation of personality begins in relationships between people, and then they become elements of the internal structure of the personality (10).

The second stage begins in adolescence and is expressed in the emergence of the ability to be aware of one’s motives, as well as to work on subordinating them. By realizing his motives, a person can change their structure. This is the ability to self-awareness, self-direction.

L.I. Bozovic identifies two main criteria that define a person as an individual. Firstly, if there is a hierarchy in a person’s motives, i.e. he is able to overcome his own impulses for the sake of something socially significant. Secondly, if a person is capable of consciously directing his own behavior on the basis of conscious motives, he can be considered a person (5).

V.V. Petukhov identifies three criteria for a mature personality:

Personality exists only in development, while it develops freely, it cannot be determined by some action, since it can change in the next moment. Development occurs both within the space of the individual and in the space of a person’s connections with other people.

Personality is multiple while maintaining integrity. There are many contradictory sides in a person, i.e. in every action the individual is free to make further choices.

The personality is creative, this is necessary in an uncertain situation.

The views of foreign psychologists on human personality are characterized by even greater breadth. This is a psychodynamic direction (S. Freud), analytical (C. Jung), dispositional (G. Allport, R. Cattell), behaviorist (B. Skinner), cognitive (J. Kelly), humanistic (A. Maslow), etc. d.

But, in principle, in foreign psychology, a person’s personality is understood as a complex of stable characteristics, such as temperament, motivation, abilities, morality, attitudes, that determine the course of thoughts and behavior characteristic of this person when he adapts to various situations in life (16).

2. Personality in the process of activity

personality socialization self-awareness psychology

Recognition of the individual's ability to determine his own behavior establishes the individual as an active agent (17). Sometimes a situation requires certain actions and causes certain needs. The personality, reflecting the future situation, can resist it. This means not obeying your impulses. For example, the desire to rest and not make efforts.

Personal activity can be based on the refusal of momentary pleasant influences, independent determination and implementation of values. The personality is active in relation to the environment, connections with the environment and its own living space. Human activity differs from the activity of other living beings and plants and therefore it is usually called activity (17).

Activity can be defined as a specific type of human activity aimed at cognition and creative transformation of the surrounding world, including oneself and the conditions of one’s existence. In activity, a person creates objects of material and spiritual culture, transforms his abilities, preserves and improves nature, builds society, creates something that would not exist in nature without his activity.

Human activity is the basis on which and thanks to which the development of the individual occurs and the fulfillment of various social roles in society. Only in activity does the individual act and assert himself as a person, otherwise he remains thing in itself . A person himself can think whatever he wants about himself, but what he really is is revealed only in action.

Activity is the process of human interaction with the outside world, the process of solving vital problems. Not a single image in the psyche (abstract, sensory) can be obtained without corresponding action. The use of an image in the process of solving various problems also occurs by including it in one or another action.

Activity gives rise to all psychological phenomena, qualities, processes and states. Personality “in no sense is prior to his activity, just like his consciousness, it is generated by it” (9).

So, personality development appears to us as a process of interaction of many activities that enter into hierarchical relationships with each other. For the psychological interpretation of the “hierarchy of activities” A.N. Leontyev uses the concepts of “need,” “motive,” and “emotion.” Two series of determinants - biological and social - do not act here as two equal factors. On the contrary, the idea is held that the personality is given from the very beginning in the system of social connections, that at the beginning there is only a biologically determined personality, on which social connections are subsequently “superimposed” (3).

Every activity has a certain structure. It usually identifies actions and operations as the main components of activity.

Personality receives its structure from the structure of human activity, and is characterized by five potentials: cognitive, creative, value, artistic and communicative. Cognitive potential is determined by the volume and quality of information available to an individual. This information consists of knowledge about the outside world and self-knowledge. The value potential consists of a system of orientations in the moral, political, and religious spheres. Creative potential is determined by her acquired and independently developed skills and abilities. The communicative potential of an individual is determined by the extent and forms of his sociability, the nature and strength of contacts with other people. The artistic potential of a person is determined by the level, content, intensity of her artistic needs and how she satisfies them (13).

An action is a part of an activity that has a fully realized goal by a person. For example, an action included in the structure of cognitive activity can be called receiving a book or reading it. An operation is a method of carrying out an action. Different people, for example, remember information and write differently. This means that they carry out the action of writing text or memorizing material using various operations. A person’s preferred operations characterize his individual style of activity.

Thus, personality is determined not by one’s own character, temperament, physical qualities, etc., but by

what and how she knows

what and how does she value

what and how she creates

with whom and how does she communicate?

what are her artistic needs, and most importantly, what is the measure of responsibility for her actions, decisions, fate.

The main thing that distinguishes one activity from another is its subject. It is the subject of the activity that gives it a certain direction. According to the terminology proposed by A.N. Leontiev, the subject of activity is its actual motive. The motives of human activity can be very different: organic, functional, material, social, spiritual. Organic motives are aimed at satisfying the natural needs of the body. Functional motives are satisfied through various cultural forms of activity, such as sports. Material motives encourage a person to engage in activities aimed at creating household items, various things and tools, in the form of products that serve natural needs. Social motives give rise to various types of activities aimed at taking a certain place in society, gaining recognition and respect from those around them. Spiritual motives underlie those activities that are associated with human self-improvement. The motivation of activity during its development does not remain unchanged. So, for example, over time, other motives for work or creative activity may appear, and the previous ones fade into the background.

But motives, as we know, can be different and are not always conscious to a person. To clarify this, A.N. Leontyev turns to the analysis of the category of emotions. Within the framework of the active approach, emotions do not subordinate activity, but are its result. Their peculiarity is that they reflect the relationship between motives and individual success. Emotion generates and determines the composition of a person’s experience of the situation of realization or non-realization of the motive of activity. This experience is followed by a rational assessment, which gives it a certain meaning and completes the process of awareness of the motive, comparing it with the purpose of the activity (10).

A.N. Leontyev divides motives into two types: motives - incentives (motivating) and meaning-forming motives (also motivating, but also giving a certain meaning to the activity).

In the concept of A.N. Leontiev’s categories “personality”, “consciousness”, “activity” appear in interaction, trinity. A.N. Leontyev believed that personality is the social essence of a person, and therefore a person’s temperament, character, abilities and knowledge are not part of the personality as its structure, they are only the conditions for the formation of this formation, social in its essence.

Communication is the first type of activity that arises in the process of individual development of a person, followed by play, learning and work. All these types of activities are formative in nature, i.e. When a child is included and actively participates in them, his intellectual and personal development occurs.

The process of personality formation is carried out through the combination of types of activities, when each of the listed types, being relatively independent, includes three others. Through such a set of activities, the mechanisms of personality formation and its improvement in the course of a person’s life operate.

Activity and socialization are inextricably linked. Throughout the entire process of socialization, a person expands the catalog of his activities, that is, he masters more and more new types of activities. In this case, three more important processes occur. This is an orientation in the system of connections present in each type of activity and between its different types. It is carried out through personal meanings, that is, it means identifying particularly significant aspects of activity for each individual, and not only understanding them, but also mastering them. As a consequence, the second process arises - centering around the main thing, focusing a person’s attention on it, subordinating all other activities to it. And thirdly, a person masters new roles in the course of his activities and comprehends their significance (14).

3. Socialization of the individual

Socialization in its content is the process of personality formation, which begins from the first minutes of a person’s life. In psychology, there are areas in which the formation and formation of personality takes place: activity, communication, self-awareness. A common characteristic of all these three spheres is the process of expansion, an increase in the individual’s social connections with the outside world.

Socialization is the process of personality formation in certain social conditions, during which a person selectively introduces into his system of behavior those norms and patterns of behavior that are accepted in the social group to which the person belongs (4). That is, this is the process of transferring to a person social information, experience, culture accumulated by society. Sources of socialization are family, school, media, public organizations. First, an adaptation mechanism occurs, a person enters the social sphere and adapts to cultural, social, and psychological factors. Then, through his active work, a person masters culture and social connections. First, the environment influences the person, and then the person, through his actions, influences the social environment.

G.M. Andreeva defines socialization as a two-way process, which includes, on the one hand, a person’s assimilation of social experience by entering the social environment, a system of social connections. On the other hand, it is the process of active reproduction by a person of a system of social connections due to his activities, “inclusion” in the environment (3). A person not only assimilates social experience, but also transforms it into his own values ​​and attitudes.

Even in infancy, without close emotional contact, without love, attention, care, the child’s socialization is disrupted, mental retardation occurs, the child develops aggressiveness, and in the future various problems associated with relationships with other people. Emotional communication between the baby and mother is the leading activity at this stage.

The mechanisms of personality socialization are based on several psychological mechanisms: imitation and identification (7). Imitation is a child’s conscious desire to copy a certain model of behavior of parents, people with whom they have warm relationships. Also, the child tends to copy the behavior of people who punish them. Identification is a way for children to internalize parental behavior, attitudes and values ​​as their own.

At the earliest stages of personality development, raising a child consists mainly of instilling in him norms of behavior. A child learns early, even before one year old, what he is “allowed” and what he “is not allowed” by the mother’s smile and approval, or by a stern expression on his face. Already from the first steps, what is called “mediated behavior” begins, that is, actions that are guided not by impulses, but by rules. As the child grows, the circle of norms and rules expands more and more, and the norms of behavior in relation to other people especially stand out. Sooner or later, the child masters these norms and begins to behave in accordance with them. But the results of education are not limited to external behavior. Changes also occur in the child’s motivational sphere. Otherwise, the child in the above example A.N. Leontyev would not cry, but calmly took the candy. That is, from a certain moment the child remains satisfied with himself when he does the “right” thing.

Children imitate their parents in everything: in manners, speech, intonation, activities, even clothing. But at the same time, they also internalize the internal traits of their parents - their relationships, taste, way of behavior. A characteristic feature of the identification process is that it occurs independently of the child’s consciousness, and is not even completely controlled by the adult.

So, conventionally, the process of socialization has three periods:

primary socialization, or socialization of the child;

intermediate socialization, or socialization of a teenager;

sustainable, holistic socialization, that is, the socialization of an adult, basically established person (4).

Being an important factor influencing the mechanisms of personality formation, socialization presupposes the development in a person of his socially determined properties (beliefs, worldview, ideals, interests, desires). In turn, socially determined personality properties, being components in determining the personality structure, have a great influence on the remaining elements of the personality structure:

biologically determined personality properties (temperament, instincts, inclinations);

individual characteristics of mental processes (sensations, perceptions, memory, thinking, emotions, feelings and will);

individually acquired experience (knowledge, abilities, skills and habits)

A person always acts as a member of society, as a performer of certain social functions - social roles. B.G. Ananyev believed that for a correct understanding of personality, an analysis of the social situation of the personality’s development, its status, and the social position it occupies is necessary.

Social position is a functional place that a person can occupy in relation to other people. It is characterized, first of all, by a set of rights and obligations. Having taken this position, a person fulfills his social role, that is, a set of actions that the social environment expects from him (2).

Recognizing above that personality is formed in activity, and this activity is realized in a certain social situation. And, acting in it, a person occupies a certain status, which is determined by the existing system of social relations. For example, in the social situation of a family, one person takes the place of the mother, another of the daughter, etc. It is obvious that each person is involved in several roles at once. Along with this status, any person also occupies a certain position, characterizing the active side of the individual’s position in a particular social structure (7).

The position of an individual, as the active side of his status, is a system of relationships of the individual (towards the people around him, to himself), attitudes and motives that guide him in his activities, and the goals towards which these activities are directed. In turn, this entire complex system of properties is realized through the roles performed by the individual in given social situations.

By studying the personality, its needs, motives, ideals - its orientation (i.e., what the personality wants, what it strives for), one can understand the content of the social roles it performs, the status it occupies in society (13).

A person often merges with his role; it becomes part of his personality, part of his “I”. That is, the status of an individual and her social roles, motives, needs, attitudes and value orientations are transformed into a system of stable personality properties that express her attitude towards people, the environment, and herself. All psychological characteristics of a person - dynamic, character, capabilities - characterize her to us as she appears to other people, to those who surround her. However, a person lives, first of all, for himself, and recognizes himself as a subject with psychological and socio-psychological characteristics peculiar only to him. This property is called self-awareness. Thus, personality formation is a complex, long-term process determined by socialization, in which external influences and internal forces, constantly interacting, change their role depending on the stage of development.

4. Personal self-awareness

A newborn is, one might say, an individual: literally from the first days of life, from the first feedings, the child’s own special style of behavior is formed, so well recognized by the mother and loved ones. The child’s individuality increases by the age of two or three years, which is compared to a monkey in terms of interest in the world and mastering one’s own self. .

Of great importance for future fate are special critical moments during which vivid impressions of the external environment are captured, which then largely determines human behavior. They are called “impressions” and can be very different, for example, a piece of music, a story that shook the soul, a picture of some event, or the appearance of a person.

A person is a person because he distinguishes himself from nature, and his relationship to nature and to other people is given to him as a relationship, because he has consciousness. The process of becoming a human personality includes the formation of his consciousness and self-awareness: this is the process of development of a conscious personality (8).

First of all, the unity of personality as a conscious subject with self-awareness does not represent an initial given. It is known that a child does not immediately recognize himself as “I”: during the first years he calls himself by name, as those around him call him; he exists at first even for himself, rather as an object for other people than as an independent subject in relation to them. Awareness of oneself as “I” is the result of development. At the same time, the development of a person’s self-awareness occurs in the very process of formation and development of the individual’s independence as a real subject of activity. Self-awareness is not externally built on top of the personality, but is included in it; self-awareness does not have an independent path of development, separate from the development of the individual; it is included in this process of development of the individual as a real subject as its component (8).

There are a number of stages in the development of personality and its self-awareness. In the series of external events in a person’s life, this includes everything that makes a person an independent subject of social and personal life: from the ability to self-service to the start of work, which makes him financially independent. Each of these external events also has its internal side; An objective, external change in a person’s relationship with others also changes the person’s internal mental state, rebuilds his consciousness, his internal attitude both towards other people and towards himself.

In the course of socialization, the connections between a person’s communication with people and society as a whole expand and deepen, and the image of his “I” is formed in a person.

Thus, the image of “I”, or self-awareness, does not arise in a person immediately, but develops gradually throughout his life and includes 4 components (11):

awareness of the difference between oneself and the rest of the world;

consciousness of “I” as the active principle of the subject of activity;

awareness of one’s mental properties, emotional self-esteem;

social and moral self-esteem, self-esteem, which is formed on the basis of accumulated experience of communication and activity.

In modern science there are different points of view on self-awareness. It is traditionally understood as the original, genetically primary form of human consciousness, which is based on self-perceptions, self-perception of a person, when in early childhood the child develops an idea of ​​his physical body, of the difference between himself and the rest of the world.

There is also an opposite point of view, according to which self-consciousness is the highest type of consciousness. “Consciousness is not born from self-knowledge, from the “I”; self-consciousness arises in the course of the development of the individual’s consciousness” (15)

How does self-awareness develop over the course of a person’s life? The experience of having one’s own “I” appears as a result of a long process of personality development, which begins in infancy and is referred to as the “discovery of the Self.” At the age of the first year of life, the child begins to realize the differences between the sensations of his own body and those sensations that are caused by objects located outside. Subsequently, by the age of 2-3, the child begins to separate the process and result of his own actions with objects from the objective actions of adults, declaring to the latter his demands: “I myself!” For the first time, he realizes himself as the subject of his own actions and deeds (a personal pronoun appears in the child’s speech), not only distinguishing himself from the environment, but also contrasting himself with others (“This is mine, this is not yours!”).

At the turn of kindergarten and school, in the lower grades, the opportunity arises, with the assistance of adults, to approach the assessment of one’s mental qualities (memory, thinking, etc.), while still at the level of awareness of the reasons for one’s successes and failures (“I have everything fives , and in mathematics - four , because I'm copying incorrectly from the board. Maria Ivanovna to me for inattention so many times deuces put"). Finally, in adolescence and youth, as a result of active inclusion in social life and work activity, a detailed system of social and moral self-esteem begins to form, the development of self-awareness is completed and the image of “I” is basically formed.

It is known that in adolescence and adolescence, the desire for self-perception, to understand one’s place in life and oneself as a subject of relationships with others intensifies. Associated with this is the formation of self-awareness. Older schoolchildren develop an image of their own “I” (“I-image”, “I-concept”).

The image of “I” is a relatively stable, not always conscious, experienced as a unique system of an individual’s ideas about himself, on the basis of which he builds his interaction with others.

The attitude towards oneself is also built into the image of “I”: a person can treat himself in virtually the same way as he treats another, respecting or despising himself, loving and hating, and even understanding and not understanding himself - in himself the individual is through his actions and by actions is presented as in another. The image of “I” thereby fits into the structure of the personality. It acts as an attitude towards oneself. The degree of adequacy of the “I-image” is clarified by studying one of its most important aspects - the self-esteem of the individual.

Self-esteem is a person’s assessment of himself, his capabilities, qualities and place among other people. This is the most significant and most studied aspect of a person’s self-awareness in psychology. With the help of self-esteem, the behavior of an individual is regulated.

How does a person carry out self-esteem? A person, as shown above, becomes a person as a result of joint activity and communication. Everything that has developed and persisted in the individual arose through joint activities with other people and in communication with them and is intended for this. A person includes in his activities and communication important guidelines for his behavior, constantly compares what he does with what others expect from him, copes with their opinions, feelings and demands.

Ultimately, everything a person does for himself (whether he learns, contributes to something or hinders something), he does at the same time for others, and may be more for others than for himself, even if it seems to him that everything is just the opposite.

A person’s sense of his uniqueness is supported by the continuity of his experiences over time. A person remembers the past and has hopes for the future. The continuity of such experiences gives a person the opportunity to integrate himself into a single whole (16).

There are several different approaches to the structure of the self. The most common scheme includes three components in the “I”: cognitive (knowledge of oneself), emotional (evaluation of oneself), behavioral (attitude towards oneself) (16).

For self-awareness, the most important thing is to become yourself (to form yourself as a person), to remain yourself (despite interfering influences) and to be able to support yourself in difficult conditions. The most important fact that is emphasized when studying self-awareness is that it cannot be presented as a simple list of characteristics, but as a person’s understanding of himself as a certain integrity, in determining his own identity. Only within this integrity can we talk about the presence of some of its structural elements.

A person, to an even greater extent than his body, refers to his “I” as his internal mental content. But he does not include all of it equally into his own personality. From the mental sphere, a person attributes to his “I” mainly his abilities and especially his character and temperament - those personality properties that determine his behavior, giving it originality. In a very broad sense, everything experienced by a person, the entire mental content of his life, is part of the personality. Another property of self-awareness is that its development during socialization is a controlled process, determined by the constant acquisition of social experience in conditions of expanding the range of activity and communication (3). Although self-awareness is one of the deepest, most intimate characteristics of the human personality, its development is unthinkable outside of activity: only in it is a certain “correction” of the idea of ​​oneself constantly carried out in comparison with the idea that develops in the eyes of other people.

Conclusion

The problem of personality formation is a very significant and complex problem, covering a huge field of research in various fields of science.

During the theoretical analysis of psychological literature on the topic of this work, I realized that personality is something unique that is connected not only with its hereditary characteristics, but, for example, with the environmental conditions in which it grows and develops. Every small child has a brain and a vocal apparatus, but he can learn to think and speak only in society, in communication, in his own activities. Developing outside of human society, a creature with a human brain will never become even a semblance of a person.

Personality is a concept rich in content, including not only general characteristics, but also individual, unique properties of a person. What makes a person a person is his social individuality, i.e. a set of social qualities characteristic of a given person. But natural individuality also has an impact on the development of personality and its perception. The social individuality of a person does not arise out of nowhere or only on the basis of biological prerequisites. A person is formed in a specific historical time and social space, in the process of practical activity and education.

Therefore, a person as a social individual is always a concrete result, a synthesis and interaction of very diverse factors. And personality is the more important the more it collects a person’s socio-cultural experience and, in turn, makes an individual contribution to its formation.

The identification of physical, social and spiritual personality (as well as the corresponding needs) is rather conditional. All these aspects of personality form a system, each element of which can acquire dominant significance at different stages of a person’s life.

There are known, for example, periods of intense care for one’s body and its functions, stages of expansion and enrichment of social connections, peaks of powerful spiritual activity. One way or another, some trait takes on a system-forming character and largely determines the essence of the personality at a given stage of its development, at the same time, increasing, difficult trials, illnesses, etc. can largely change the structure of the personality, lead to a unique personality. splitting or degradation.

To summarize: first, in the course of interaction with the immediate environment, the child learns the norms that mediate his physical existence. Expanding the child’s contacts with the social world leads to the formation of a social layer of personality. Finally, when at a certain stage of its development the personality comes into contact with more significant layers of human culture - spiritual values ​​and ideals, the creation of the spiritual center of the personality, its moral self-awareness, occurs. With favorable development of the personality, this spiritual authority rises above the previous structures, subordinating them to itself (7).

Having realized himself as an individual, having determined his place in society and life path (destiny), a person becomes an individual, gains dignity and freedom, which allow him to be distinguished from any other person and set him apart from others.

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