Erikson's book Childhood and Society (Erikson, 1963) presents his model of the "eight ages of man." According to Erikson, all people in their development go through eight crises, or conflicts. The psychosocial adaptation achieved by a person at each stage of development can change its character at a later age, sometimes radically. For example, children who were deprived of love and warmth in infancy can become normal adults if they are given extra attention in later stages. However, the nature of psychosocial adaptation to conflict plays an important role in the development specific person. The resolution of these conflicts is cumulative, and the way in which a person adapts to life at each stage of development influences how he copes with life. next conflict.
According to Erikson's theory, specific developmental conflicts become critical only at certain points life cycle. At each of the eight stages of personality development, one of the developmental tasks, or one of these conflicts, acquires more important compared to others. However, despite the fact that each of the conflicts is critical only at one of the stages, it is present throughout life. For example, the need for autonomy is especially important for children aged 1 to 3 years, but throughout life people must constantly test the degree of autonomy they can exercise each time they enter into new relationships with other people. The stages of development given below are represented by their poles. In fact, no one becomes completely trusting or distrustful: in fact, people vary in their degree of trusting or distrusting throughout their lives.
| Psychosocial stage | Subject of development conflict | Social conditions | Psychosocial outcome | |
| Stage 1 (birth to 1 year) | Oral-sensory | Can I trust the world? | Confidence Mistrust |
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| Stage 2 (2 to 3 years) | Muscular-anal | Can I drive own behavior? | Autonomy Doubt |
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| Stage 3 (4 to 5 years) | Locomotor-genital | Can I become independent from my parents and explore my limits? | Initiative | |
| Stage 4 (6 to 1 1 years) | Latent | Can I become skilled enough to survive and adapt to the world? | Hard work Feelings of inferiority |
|
| Stage 5 (12 to 18 years) | Adolescence and youth | Who am I? What are my beliefs, views and positions? | Identity Mixing roles |
|
| Stage 6 (early adulthood) | Youth | Can I give myself completely to another person? | Proximity Insulation |
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| Stage 7 (adulthood) | Adulthood | What can I offer to future generations? | Generativeness Stagnation |
|
| Stage 8 (maturity) | Maturity | Am I satisfied with the life I've lived? | Ego Integrity Despair |
1. Trust or distrust.
By the way they are cared for in infancy, children learn whether the world around them is trustworthy. If their needs are met, if they are treated with attention and care, and treated fairly consistently, babies will develop general impression about the world as a safe and trustworthy place. On the other hand, if their world is contradictory, painful, stressful, and threatening to their safety, then children learn to expect this from life and view it as unpredictable and untrustworthy.
2.Autonomy or shame and doubt.
As children begin to walk, they discover the capabilities of their body and how to control it. They learn to eat and dress themselves, use the toilet, and learn new ways of getting around. When a child manages to do something on his own, he gains a sense of self-control and self-confidence. But if a child constantly fails and is punished for it or called sloppy, dirty, incapable, bad, he gets used to feeling shame and doubt. own strength.
3. Initiative or guilt.
Children aged 4-5 years transfer their research activity beyond own body. They learn how the world works and how they can influence it. The world for them consists of both real and imaginary people and things. If they research activities generally effective, they learn to deal with people and things in a constructive way and gain strong feeling initiatives. However, if they are severely criticized or punished, they become accustomed to feeling guilty for many of their actions.
4. Hard work or feelings of inferiority.
Between the ages of 6 and 11, children develop numerous skills and abilities at school, at home and among their peers. According to Erikson's theory, the sense of "I" is significantly enriched with realistic growth in the child's competence in various areas. Comparing oneself with one's peers is becoming increasingly important. During this period, negative assessment of oneself in comparison with others causes especially great harm.
5.Identity or role confusion.
Before adolescence, children learn whole line different roles- student or friend, older brother or sister, student of sports or music school etc. In adolescence and youth, it is important to understand these different roles and integrate them into one coherent identity. Boys and girls are looking for basic values and attitudes that cover all these roles. If they fail to integrate a core identity or resolve a major conflict between two important roles with opposing value systems, the result is what Erikson calls identity diffusion.
6. Intimacy or isolation.
In late adolescence and early adulthood, a central developmental tension is the conflict between intimacy and isolation. In Erickson's description, intimacy includes more than sexual intimacy. This is the ability to give a part of yourself to another person of any gender, without fear of losing your own identity. Success in establishing this type of close relationship depends on how the five previous conflicts were resolved.
7. Generative or stagnant.
In adulthood, after previous conflicts have been partially resolved, men and women can pay more attention and help other people. Parents sometimes find themselves helping their children. Some people can direct their energy to solving social problems without conflict. But failure to resolve previous conflicts often leads to excessive preoccupation with oneself: with one’s health, the desire to certainly satisfy one’s psychological needs, protect your peace, etc.
8. Ego integrity or despair.
In the last stages of life, people usually reconsider the life they have lived and evaluate it in a new way. If a person, looking back at his life, feels satisfaction because it was filled with meaning and active participation in events, then he comes to the conclusion that he did not live in vain and fully realized what fate had given him. Then he accepts his life entirely, as it is. But if life seems to him a waste of energy and a series of missed opportunities, he begins to feel despair. It is obvious that one or another resolution of this last conflict in a person’s life depends on the cumulative experience accumulated in the course of resolving all previous conflicts.
The stages of development identified by Erikson extend to the internal drives of the individual and to the attitudes of parents and other members of society to these forces. In addition, Erikson views these stages as periods of life during which the individual's life experiences dictate the need for the most important adaptations to the social environment and changes self. Although the way an individual resolves these conflicts is influenced by the attitudes of his parents, the social environment also has an extremely large influence.
A child at each stage of his age development requires a special approach to himself. The task of the education system and all adults raising a child is to promote its full development at each age stage of ontogenesis. If a failure occurs at one of the age levels, the normal conditions for the child’s development are disrupted, V In subsequent periods, the main attention and efforts of adults will be forced to focus on correcting this development, which is difficult not only for adults, but especially for the child. Therefore, do not spare effort and resources to create timely and favorable for mental and spiritual development children's conditions are economically beneficial and morally justified. To do this, you need to know the characteristics of each age.
Generally speaking The problem of age periodization of mental development is one of the most difficult problems in human psychology.. Changes in the processes of the mental life of a child (and a person in general) do not occur independently of one another, but are internally connected with each other. Individual processes (perception, memory, thinking, etc.) are not independent lines in mental development. Each of the mental processes in its actual course and development depends on the personality as a whole, on general development personality: orientation, character, abilities, emotional experiences. Hence the selective nature of perception, memorization and forgetting, etc.
Any periodization of the life cycle always correlates with cultural norms and has a value-normative characteristic.
Age categories are always ambiguous, because they reflect the conventions of age boundaries. This is reflected in the terminology developmental psychology: children age, adolescence, youth, adulthood, maturity, old age - age boundaries These periods of a person’s life are variable and largely depend on the level of cultural, economic, and social development of society.
The higher this level, the more diversified in various fields of science and practice, the more creatively developed people should be when entering independent work, and this requires longer training and increases the age limits of childhood and adolescence; secondly, the longer the period of personality maturity lasts, pushing old age to later years of life, etc.
The identification of stages of mental development is based on the internal laws of this development itself and constitutes psychological age periodization. First of all, it is necessary to define the basic concepts - these are age and development.
individual development.
There are 2 concepts of age: Chronological and psychological.
Chronological characterizes an individual from the moment of birth, psychological characterizes the patterns of development of the body, living conditions, training and upbringing.
Development May be biological, mental and personal. Biological is the maturation of anatomical and physiological structures. Mental is a natural change in mental processes, which is expressed in quantitative and qualitative transformations. Personal – the formation of personality as a result of socialization and upbringing.
There are many attempts to periodize the life path of an individual. They are based on different theoretical positions of the authors.
L.S. Vygotsky divided all attempts to periodize childhood into three groups: according to external criteria, according to any one characteristic child development, according to the system of essential features of child development itself.
Vygotsky Lev Semenovich (1896–1934) – Russian psychologist. Developed a cultural-historical theory of mental development in the process of an individual’s acquisition of values human culture and civilization. He distinguished between “natural” (given by nature) mental functions and “cultural” functions (acquired as a result of interiorization, that is, the process of an individual’s assimilation of cultural values).
1. Newborn crisis– the most striking and undoubted crisis in the development of a child, because there is a change of environment, a transition from the uterine environment to the external environment.
2. Infancy(2 months - 1 year).
3. Crisis of one year- has positive content: here negative symptoms obviously and directly related to the positive gains that the child makes when he gets on his feet and masters speech.
4. Early childhood(1 year–3 years).
5. Crisis of 3 years– is also called the phase of obstinacy or stubbornness. During this period, limited to a short period of time, the child's personality undergoes drastic and sudden changes. The child exhibits obstinacy, stubbornness, negativism, capriciousness, and self-will. Positive meaning: new ones arise character traits child's personality.
6. Preschool age(3-7 years).
7. Crisis 7 years– was discovered and described earlier than other crises. Negative sides: disturbance of mental balance, instability of will, mood, etc. Positive aspects: the child’s independence increases, his attitude towards other children changes.
8. School age(7-10 years old).
9. Crisis 13 years– the negative phase of the age of puberty: a drop in academic performance, a decrease in performance, disharmony in the internal structure of the personality, the collapse and withering away of a previously established system of interests, the productivity of mental work of students. This is due to the fact that there is a change in attitude from clarity to understanding. Transition to highest form intellectual activity is accompanied by a temporary decrease in performance.
10. Puberty(10(12)-14(16) years).
11. Crisis 17 years.
Lev Semenovich Vygotsky
(1896 – 1934)
| Age periodization L.S. Vygotsky | ||||
| Period | Years | Leading activity | Neoplasm | Social development situation |
| Newborn crisis | 0-2 months | |||
| Infancy | 2 months-1 | walking, first word | Mastering the norms of relationships between people | |
| Year 1 crisis | ||||
| Early childhood | 1-3 | subject activity | "external self" | Mastering ways of working with objects |
| Crisis 3 years | ||||
| Preschool age | 3-6(7) | role-playing game | arbitrariness of behavior | Mastering social norms and relationships between people |
| Crisis 7 years | ||||
| Junior school age | 7-12 | educational activities | arbitrariness of all mental processes except intellect | Acquisition of knowledge, development of intellectual and cognitive activity. |
| Crisis 13 years | ||||
| Middle school age, teenager | 10(11) - 14(15) | intimate and personal communication in educational and other activities | a feeling of “adulthood”, the emergence of an idea of oneself “not like a child” | Mastering norms and relationships between people |
| Crisis 17 years | ||||
| Senior schoolboy (early youth) | 14(15) - 16(17) | professional and personal self-determination | Mastering professional knowledge and skills |
Elkonin Daniil Borisovich - Soviet psychologist, creator of the concept of periodization of mental development in ontogenesis, based on the concept of “leading activity”. Developed psychological problems games, formation of the child’s personality.
Periodization:
1st period - infancy(from birth to 1 year). The leading activity is direct emotional communication, personal communication with an adult within which the child learns objective actions.
2nd period – early childhood(from 1 year to 3 years).
The leading activity is object-manipulative, within which the child cooperates with an adult in mastering new types of activities.
3rd period – preschool childhood(from 3 to 6 years).
The leading activity is a role-playing game, within which the child navigates the most general meanings human activity, for example, family and professional.
4th period – junior school age(from 7 to 10 years).
The leading activity is study. Children master the rules and methods of educational actions. In the process of assimilation, the motives of cognitive activity also develop.
5th period – adolescence(from 10 to 15 years).
The leading activity is communication with peers. Reproducing interpersonal relationships that exist in the world of adults, teenagers accept or reject them.
6th period – early adolescence(from 15 to 17 years old).
The leading activity is educational and professional. During this period, professional skills and abilities are mastered.
| Age periodization of Elkonon D.B. | |||
| Period | Years | Leading activity | Neoplasm and social development |
| infancy | 0-1 | emotional communication between a child and an adult | personal communication with an adult within which the child learns objective actions |
| early childhood | 1-3 | object-manipulative | the child cooperates with the adult in mastering new activities |
| preschool childhood | 3-6 | role-playing game | is oriented in the most general senses of human activity, for example, family and professional |
| junior school age | 7-10 | studies | Children master the rules and methods of educational actions. In the process of assimilation, the motives of cognitive activity also develop. |
| adolescence | 10-15 | communication with peers | By reproducing interpersonal relationships that exist in the world of adults, adolescents accept or reject them. |
| early youth | 15-17 | educational and professional activities | mastering professional skills and abilities |
Daniil Borisovich
Elkonin
(1904 - 1984)
Age periodization by E. Erikson
Erickson, Eric Homburger - American psychologist and psychotherapist, one of the founders of ego psychology, author of one of the first psychological theories of the life cycle, creator of the psychohistorical model of social cognition.
All life path, according to Erikson, includes eight stages, each of which has its own specific tasks and can be resolved favorably or unfavorably for future development. During his life, a person goes through several stages that are universal for all humanity. A fully functioning personality is formed only by passing through successively all stages of development. Each psychosocial stage is accompanied by a crisis - a turning point in the life of an individual, which arises as a consequence of achieving a certain level psychological maturity and social requirements. Every crisis contains both positive and negative components. If the conflict is resolved satisfactorily (that is, at the previous stage the ego was enriched with new positive qualities), then now the ego absorbs a new positive component - this guarantees the healthy development of the personality in the future. If the conflict remains unresolved, then harm is caused and a negative component is built in. The challenge is for a person to adequately resolve each crisis, and then he will be able to approach the next stage more adaptively and mature personality. All 8 stages in psychological theory Erickson are presented in the following table:
Periods:
1. Birth - 1 year Trust – distrust of the world.
2. 1-3 years Autonomy – shame and doubt.
3. 3-6 years Initiative – feeling of guilt.
4. 6-12 years Hard work is inferiority.
5. 12-19 years old Formation of individuality (identity) – role confusion.
6. 20-25 years old Intimacy - loneliness.
7. 26-64 years Productivity – stagnation.
8. 65 years - death Peace - despair.
1. Trust – distrust of the world. The degree to which a child develops a sense of trust in other people and the world depends on the quality of maternal care he receives.
The feeling of trust is associated with the mother's ability to convey to the child a sense of recognition, constancy and identity of experiences. The cause of the crisis is insecurity, failure and her rejection of the child. This contributes to the appearance in the child of a psychosocial attitude of fear, suspiciousness and fears for his well-being. Also, the feeling of mistrust, according to Erikson, can intensify when the child ceases to be the main center of attention for the mother, when she returns to those activities that she left during pregnancy (for example, resuming an interrupted career, giving birth to another child). As a result of positive conflict resolution, hope is gained.
2. Autonomy – shame and doubt. Acquiring a sense of basic trust sets the stage for achieving a certain autonomy and self-control, avoiding feelings of shame, doubt and humiliation. Satisfactory resolution of psychosocial conflict at this stage depends on the willingness of parents to gradually give children the freedom to exercise control over their own actions. At the same time, parents, according to Erikson, should unobtrusively but clearly limit the child in those areas of life that are potentially dangerous both for the children themselves and for others. Shame can arise if parents are impatient, irritated and persistent in doing something for their children that they can do themselves; or, conversely, when parents expect their children to do something that they themselves are not yet able to do. As a result, such traits as self-doubt, humiliation and weakness of will are formed.
3. Initiative – feeling of guilt. At that time social world requires the child to be active, solve new problems and acquire new skills; praise is the reward for success. Children also have additional responsibility for themselves and for the things that make up their world (toys, pets, and perhaps siblings). This is the age when children begin to feel that they are accepted and counted as people and that their lives have a purpose for them. Children whose independent actions are encouraged feel supported for their initiative. Further manifestation of initiative is facilitated by parents’ recognition of the child’s right to curiosity and creativity, when they do not inhibit the child’s imagination. Erikson points out that children at this stage begin to identify themselves with people whose work and character they are able to understand and appreciate, and become increasingly goal-oriented. They study energetically and begin to make plans. Children feel guilty because their parents do not allow them to act independently. Guilt is also promoted by parents who excessively punish their children in response to their need to love and receive love from parents of the opposite sex. Such children are afraid to stand up for themselves, they are usually followers in the peer group and are overly dependent on adults. They lack the determination to set realistic goals and achieve them.
4. Hard work is inferiority. Children develop a sense of hard work as they learn the technology of their culture through school. The danger of this stage lies in the possibility of feelings of inferiority, or incompetence. For example, if children doubt their abilities or status among their peers, this may discourage them from learning further (i.e., they acquire attitudes towards teachers and learning). For Erikson, work ethic includes a sense of interpersonal competence—the belief that, in the pursuit of important individual and social goals, an individual can have a positive impact on society. Thus, the psychosocial power of competence is the basis for effective participation in social, economic and political life.
5. Formation of individuality (identity) – role confusion. The challenge that teenagers face is to gather together all the knowledge they have up to this time about themselves (what kind of son or daughter they are, musicians, students, athletes) and collect these many images of themselves into a personal identity that represents awareness as past and
the future that logically follows from it. Erikson's definition of identity has three elements. First: the individual must form an image of himself, formed in the past and connecting with the future. Second: people need confidence that the internal integrity they have previously developed will be accepted by other people who are significant to them. Third: people must achieve “increased confidence” that the internal and external plans of this integrity are consistent with each other. Their perceptions must be confirmed by experience interpersonal communication through feedback. Role confusion is characterized by the inability to choose a career or continue education.
Many teenagers experience feelings of worthlessness, mental discord and aimlessness.
Erikson emphasized that life is constant changes. Successful resolution of problems at one stage of life does not guarantee that they will not appear again at another stage of life. next stages or that new solutions to old problems will not be found. A positive quality associated with successfully overcoming the crisis of adolescence is fidelity. It represents the ability of young people to accept and adhere to the morals, ethics and ideology of society.
6. Intimacy - loneliness. This stage marks the formal beginning of adulthood. In general, this is a period of courtship, early marriage started family life. During this time, young people usually focus on obtaining a profession and “settling down.” By “intimacy,” Erikson means, first of all, the intimate feeling that we experience towards spouses, friends, parents and other close people. But in order to be truly intimate relationships with another person, it is necessary that by this time he has a certain awareness of who he is and what he represents. The main danger at this stage is excessive self-absorption or avoidance of interpersonal relationships. The inability to establish calm and trusting personal relationships leads to a feeling of loneliness and social vacuum. Self-absorbed people can engage in very formal personal interactions (employer-employee) and establish superficial contacts (health clubs). Erikson views love as the ability to commit oneself to another person and remain faithful to that relationship, even if it requires concessions or self-denial. This type of love is manifested in a relationship of mutual care, respect and responsibility for the other person.
7. Productivity – stagnation. Each adult, according to Erikson, must either reject or accept the idea of his responsibility for the renewal and improvement of everything that could contribute to the preservation and improvement of our culture. Thus, productivity acts as a concern of the older generation for those who will replace them. The main theme of psychosocial development of the individual is concern for the future well-being of humanity. Those adults who fail to become productive gradually fall into a state of self-absorption. These people do not care about anyone or anything, they only indulge their desires.
8. Peace - despair. The last stage ends a person's life. This is the time when people look back and reconsider their life decisions, remember their achievements and failures. According to Erikson, this last phase of maturity is characterized not so much by a new psychosocial crisis as by the summation, integration and evaluation of all past stages of its development. Peace comes from a person's ability to look back at his entire past life (marriage, children, grandchildren, career, social relations) and humbly but firmly say “I am satisfied.” The inevitability of death is no longer frightening, since such people see the continuation of themselves either in descendants or in creative achievements. At the opposite pole are people who view their lives as a series of unrealized opportunities and mistakes. At the end of their lives, they realize that it is too late to start all over again and look for some new paths. Erickson identifies two prevailing types of mood in indignant and irritated older people: regret that life cannot be lived again and denial of one's own shortcomings and defects by projecting them onto the outside world.
Erickson, Eric Homburger
(1902 – 1994)
Age periodization
The problem of age-related periodization of mental development is extremely difficult and important both for science and for teaching practice. IN modern psychology Popular periodizations of mental development reveal the patterns of development of intelligence, and another - the personality of the child. At each age level, changes occur, both physiological, mental and personal. The most striking age stages are ml. school age, teenager and youth.
Junior school age– 6-10 years. Change of activity - from play to study. Change of leader: the teacher becomes an authority for the child, the role of parents decreases. They fulfill the teacher’s requirements, do not enter into arguments with him, and trust the teacher’s assessments and teachings. Uneven adaptation to school life. Based on the experience already gained in educational, gaming and labor activity the prerequisites for creating motivation to achieve success are formed. Increased sensitivity. Imitation lies in the fact that students repeat the reasoning of the teacher and comrades.
Psychological development and personality formation adolescence – 10-12 years – 14-16 years. In girls it occurs earlier. Reasons for persistent and complete absence interests often lie in the lack of bright interests among the adults around the teenager.
Needs: communication with peers, the need for self-affirmation, the need to be and be considered an adult. Conflicts and difficulties of a teenager in communicating with adults. A shift in the development of self-awareness: the teenager begins to form an attitude adult,
During this period, behavioral stereotypes associated with awareness of one’s gender are intensively acquired. Low self-esteem.
An unstable self-concept is a developing system of a person’s ideas about himself, including awareness of his physical, intellectual, characterological, social and other properties; self-esteem.
The theory of E. Erikson (1902-1994) - arose as a result of generalization of experience in the clinic, based on his comparative studies features of the development and upbringing of children in different periods. Erikson's theory is narrower, because it considers only the development of personality, like James, the development of the human ego. Erikson's theory covers the entire life of a person, and not just the time interval before adolescence. I was interested in the problem of normal and abnormal personality development. The theory tries to solve this problem too.
Like Elkonin's theory, Erikson's theory is very practical. It contains direct instructions on how a person should develop normally in ontogenesis.
Erikson identifies 8 stages of personality development, or, what is the same, 8 developments of the human self. The main specificity of these stages is that at each of them a person has opportunities to acquire as a person certain qualities that a person needs for his normal development. And if at each of these stages, a person manages to realize these possibilities (acquire all these qualities) and if in the future the person does not lose these qualities, but develops them, then we can say that the personality is developing normally. If these possibilities are not realized either at the appropriate stages or in the future, then with t.z. Erikson's personality will develop abnormally. Whether these qualities will be acquired depends on many factors. That. a person at each of these 8 stages of development faces objective existing problem, namely with the problem of his personality acquiring certain qualities. And the solution to this problem determines in which direction the development of personality will go - normal or abnormal.
Erikson's stages:
1. Period from birth to 1 year ( infancy) – basic trust vs basic mistrust. In this period normal development the child’s personality presupposes the formation of basic trust. Basic trust – general attitude a child’s attitude towards life, which is characterized by the fact that he accepts his life, has a positive attitude towards his life, is interested in living, etc. The most important factor this is the attitude of the parents. If they satisfy the child’s immediate needs and treat him normally, then this contributes to the formation of basic trust. This feeling depends not only on the attitude of others, but also on internal features baby too. If he is often sick, is often in a depressed state - all this, of course, does not contribute to the formation of trust.
Stage 2: 1-3 years (early childhood) autonomy versus shame and doubt. It is normal for it to begin to develop independence. Gaining confidence in your actions without adult support. Parents should encourage their child's independence in every possible way. If you limit, then dependence on adults begins to form. The main manifestations of this dependence are increased shyness and indecisiveness. Shyness– one of the manifestations of dependence on the opinions and assessments of others. If it is necessary to take independent actions, the child does not rely on himself, but on how his behavior will look in the eyes of others. Indecisiveness – back side confidence in what he can do without help.
Stage 3 3-6 years ( preschool age) – initiative against guilt. Initiative– manifestation of activity in setting goals and achieving them. Children have many initiatives; they themselves strive to learn something, strive to communicate, make new acquaintances, and come up with activities and games for themselves. Parents should encourage initiative in their children. The very facts of its manifestation. The results of children’s initiative activities cannot be particularly successful, and if adults are overly critical of this, then children develop a delay in initiative and develop guilt as a reaction of a negative assessment of adults to an unsuccessful manifestation of initiative.
Stage 4 6-12 years (ml school age) – hard work versus feelings of inferiority. Forming a child’s desire to work. The child realizes that hard work, perseverance, diligence, accuracy - these qualities are valuable and desirable for himself and society. If this is not the case, then the child experiences failures in his work life and those around him begin to treat him as a loser, incapable, which leads to a decrease in the child’s self-esteem. This contributes to the formation of a stable feelings of inferiority
Stage 5 12-19 years (adolescence, adolescence) - identity versus role confusion. Transitional age, during which a person’s lifestyle must change from child to adult. The child must become a full-fledged member of society and begin to perform some functions in it. This transition rebuilds the entire personality of the teenager; a new personality must be formed that meets the requirements of society. What is important in this personal restructuring is a new understanding of oneself and one’s social roles. These ideas should contain answers to questions about myself - what kind of person I am, my values, ideals, interests, who I want to be, what kind of person I am, how to behave. If as a result of the formation new personality the teenager develops new ideas about himself that coincide with other people’s ideas about him - the teenager’s self acquires a new identity, instead of the one that was before. Identity- (1) - the individual’s direct perception of his ongoing self-identity (oh, fuck! Leontiefism has begun again!) i.e. I am me, and the qualities of my personality remain with me regardless of the situation. (2) Other people also see this ongoing self-identity. If this period drags on and a new identity has not been formed, then a feeling of confusion arises - role mixing, delay in identity formation.
Stage 6 20-25 years – intimacy vs isolation. Normal personality development of an adult presupposes the establishment of close relationships with other people (after a radical restructuring). A person’s desire and readiness to devote himself or part of himself to someone else, to empathize, care, bear responsibility, sacrifice interests, and remain faithful to him. A condition for the formation of close relationships, among other things, is the formation of a family. If it is not possible to establish these relationships, the comfort of loneliness arises, insulation.
Stage 7 (middle maturity) 26-64 years – generativity versus stagnation. During this period, a person needs to decide on the general direction of his life. Main focus – generativity– productive activity, work aimed at the benefit of other people and society as a whole. For example, a person seeks to pass on his experience and knowledge to the younger generation. The anomaly here is manifested in the focus only on oneself and one’s well-being - this stagnation(stagnation)
Stage 8 65-to death – integrity I am against despair. The final stage at which it is impossible for a person to change his life. All that remains is to pay for the path he has already taken. If at each of the previous stages there was normal development of personality, then the human self acquires the quality integrity. Integrity– feeling of self, satisfaction with life lived, life was successful and had meaning. Such people have no fear of death. They don't want to live their lives differently. With abnormal development, a person experiences despair because of a poorly lived life. Such people have an expressed fear of death.
American psychologist E. Erikson (1902-1994) is known as a representative of the direction ego - psychology.
He identified 8 psychosocial stages of personality development:
1. Infancy: basal trust / basal distrust . The first psychosocial stage - from birth to the end of the first year - corresponds to oral stage, according to Freud. During this period, the foundations of a healthy personality are laid in the form of a general sense of trust, “confidence,” and “internal certainty.” Erikson believes that the main condition for developing a sense of trust in people is quality of maternal care- the ability of a mother to organize the life of her little child in such a way that he has a sense of consistency, continuity, and recognition of experiences.
An infant with an established sense of basic trust perceives his environment as reliable and predictable; he can bear his mother's absence without undue distress and anxiety about being "separation" from her. A feeling of mistrust, fear, suspicion appears if the mother is unreliable, insolvent, rejects the child; it can intensify when the child ceases to be the center of her life for the mother, when she returns to those activities that she left for a while (resumes an interrupted career or gives birth to another child). Ways to teach trust or suspicion in different cultures do not coincide, but the principle itself is universal: a person trusts society based on the degree of trust in his mother.
Erikson shows the enormous importance of the mechanism of ritualization already in infancy. The main ritual is mutual recognition, which persists throughout subsequent life and permeates all relationships with other people.
2. Early childhood: autonomy/shame and doubt . This period lasts from one to three years and corresponds to the anal stage, according to Freud. Biological maturation creates the basis for the emergence of new opportunities for independent action of the child in a number of areas (for example, standing, walking, climbing, washing, dressing, eating). From Erikson’s point of view, the child’s collision with the demands and norms of society occurs not only when the child is potty trained; parents must gradually expand the possibilities of independent action and self-control in children. The child’s identity at this stage can be indicated by the formula: “I myself” and “I am what I can.”
Reasonable permission contributes to the development of child autonomy. In the case of constant excessive care or, on the contrary, when parents expect too much from a child, something that lies beyond his capabilities, he experiences shame, doubt and self-doubt, humiliation, and weakness of will.
Thus, with a successful resolution of the conflict, the Ego includes will, self-control, and with a negative outcome, weakness of will. An important mechanism at this stage is critical ritualization, based on specific examples good and evil, good and bad, permitted and prohibited, beautiful and ugly.
3. Game age: initiative / guilt . IN preschool period In what Erikson called the “age of play,” from 3 to 6 years, a conflict unfolds between initiative and guilt. Children begin to become interested in various work activities, try new things, and communicate with peers. At this time, the social world requires the child to be active, solve new problems and acquire new skills; he has additional responsibility for himself, for younger children and pets. This is the age when the main sense of identity becomes “I am what I will be.”
A dramatic (game) component of the ritual develops, with the help of which the child recreates, corrects and learns to anticipate events. Initiative is associated with the qualities of activity, enterprise and the desire to “attack” a task, experiencing the joy of independent movement and action. At this stage, the child easily identifies himself with significant people(not only with parents), readily amenable to training and education, focusing on specific goal. At this stage, as a result of the adoption of social prohibitions, the Super-Ego is formed, new form self-restraint.
Parents, encouraging the child’s energetic and independent endeavors, recognizing his rights to curiosity and imagination, contribute to the formation of initiative, expanding the boundaries of independence, and development creativity. Close adults who severely limit freedom of choice, overly control and punish children cause them to feel too much guilt. Children overcome by feelings of guilt are passive, constrained and have little capacity for productive work in the future.
4. School age: industriousness/inferiority . The fourth psychosocial period corresponds to the latent period in Freud's theory. Rivalry with the parent of the same sex has already been overcome. At the age of 6 to 12 years, the child leaves the family and begins systematic learning, including familiarization with the technological side of culture. What is universal in Erikson’s concept is precisely the desire and receptivity to learning something that is significant within a given culture (the ability to handle tools, weapons, crafts, literacy and scientific knowledge).
The term “hard work”, “taste for work” reflects the main theme of this period, children at this time are absorbed in the fact that they strive to find out what comes out of what and how it works. The child's ego identity is now expressed as: “I am what I have learned.”
While studying at school, children are introduced to the rules of conscious discipline and active participation. The ritual associated with school routines is perfection of execution. The danger of this period is the emergence of feelings of inferiority, or incompetence, doubts about one’s abilities or status among peers.
5. Youth: ego - identity/role confusion. Adolescence, the fifth stage in Erikson's life cycle diagram, is considered the most important period in psychosocial development person: “Youth is the age of final establishment of the dominant positive identity of the Ego. It is then that the future, within the foreseeable limits, becomes part of the conscious plan of life.” Erickson paid a lot of attention great attention adolescence and youth, considering it central in the formation of a person’s psychological and social well-being. No longer a child, but not yet an adult (from 12-13 years old to about 19-20 in American society), the teenager faces new social roles and related requirements. Teenagers evaluate the world and their attitude towards it. They think, they can invent ideal family, religion, philosophical system, social structure.
There is a spontaneous search for new answers to important questions: “Who am I? ", "Where am I going? ", "Whom I want to become? " The teenager’s task is to put together all the knowledge about themselves available by this time (what kind of sons or daughters they are, students, athletes, musicians, etc.) and create a single image of themselves (ego identity), including awareness of how the past and the expected future. The perception of oneself as a young person must be confirmed by the experience of interpersonal communication.
Adolescents experience a piercing sense of their uselessness, mental discord and aimlessness, sometimes rushing towards a “negative” identity and delinquent (deviant) behavior. In the case of a negative resolution of the crisis, “role confusion” occurs, a vagueness of the individual’s identity. An identity crisis, or role confusion, leads to an inability to choose a career or continue education, sometimes to doubts about one's own gender identity.
The reason for this may also be excessive identification with popular heroes (movie stars, super athletes, rock musicians) or representatives of the counterculture ( revolutionary leaders, “skinhead”, delinquent individuals), snatching the “flourishing identity” from her social environment, thereby suppressing and limiting it.
A positive quality associated with a successful recovery from the crisis of adolescence is fidelity, i.e. the ability to make your choice, find your path in life and remain faithful to your obligations, accept social principles and adhere to them.
6. Youth: achieving intimacy/isolation .
The sixth psychosocial stage extends from late adolescence to early adulthood (20 to 25 years), marking the formal beginning of adulthood. In general, this is the period of obtaining a profession (“establishment”), courtship, early marriage, and the beginning of an independent family life.
Erikson uses the term intimacy (achieving closeness) as multifaceted, but the main thing is maintaining reciprocity in relationships, merging with the identity of another person without fear of losing oneself. It is this aspect of intimacy that Erikson views as necessary condition lasting marriage.
The main danger at this psychosocial stage is excessive self-absorption or avoidance of interpersonal relationships. The inability to establish calm and trusting personal relationships leads to feelings of loneliness, social vacuum and isolation.
The positive quality that is associated with a normal way out of the intimacy/isolation crisis is love. Erickson emphasizes the importance of romantic, erotic, sexual components, but considers true love and intimacy is broader - as the ability to entrust oneself to another person and remain faithful to this relationship, even if they require concessions or self-denial, the willingness to share all difficulties with him. This type of love is manifested in a relationship of mutual care, respect and responsibility for the other person.
7. Maturity: productivity / inertia . The seventh stage occurs in the middle years of life (from 26 to 64 years); its main problem is the choice between productivity and inertia. Productivity appears as the concern of the older generation about those who will replace them - about how to help them gain a foothold in life and choose the right direction. Good example V in this case- a person’s sense of self-realization associated with the achievements of his descendants.
If in adults the ability for productive activity is so pronounced that it prevails over inertia, then the positive quality of this stage manifests itself - care.
Those adults who fail to become productive gradually move into a state of self-absorption, where the main concern is their own personal needs and comforts. These people do not care about anyone or anything, they only indulge their desires. With the loss of productivity, the functioning of the individual as an active member of society ceases, life turns into satisfying one’s own needs, and interpersonal relationships become impoverished. This phenomenon—the “senior age crisis”—is expressed in a feeling of hopelessness and meaninglessness of life.
13. Old age: ego integrity/despair .
The last psychosocial stage (from 65 years to death) ends a person's life. In almost all cultures, this period marks the beginning of old age, when a person is overcome by numerous needs: having to adapt to the fact that physical strength and health are deteriorating, getting used to a more modest financial situation and a solitary lifestyle, adapting to the death of a spouse and close friends, as well as to establish relationships with people of your own age. At this time, the focus of a person’s attention shifts from worries about the future to past experiences, people look back and reconsider their life decisions, remember their achievements and failures. Erickson was interested in this internal struggle, this internal process of rethinking your own life.
According to Erikson, this last phase of life is characterized not so much by a new psychosocial crisis as by the summation, integration and evaluation of all past stages of ego development: “Only for those who in some way cared about affairs and people, who experienced triumphs and defeats in life, who inspired others and put forward ideas - only he can gradually ripen the fruits of the seven previous stages. I don't know a better word for this than ego integration.
The sense of ego integration is based on a person's ability to look back at his entire past life (including marriage, children and grandchildren, career, achievements, social relationships) and humbly but firmly say to himself, “I am content.” The inevitability of death is no longer frightening, since such people see the continuation of themselves either in descendants or in creative achievements. Erikson believes that only in old age does true maturity come and useful feeling“wisdom of past years.” But at the same time, he notes: “The wisdom of old age is aware of the relativity of all knowledge acquired by a person throughout life in one historical period. Wisdom is awareness unconditional value life itself in the face of death itself"
At the opposite pole are people who view their lives as a series of unrealized opportunities and mistakes. Now, at the end of their lives, they realize that it is too late to start over or look for some new ways to feel the integrity of their Self. The lack or absence of integration manifests itself in these people in a hidden fear of death, a feeling of constant failure and concern about what can happen". Erickson identifies two predominant types of mood in irritable and indignant older people: regret that life cannot be lived again, and denial of one's own shortcomings and defects by projecting them onto the outside world.