Critical and stable periods of development. The problem of age-related crises.

Periodization of Elkonin.

Eras/Ages

Early childhood

Childhood

Boyhood

Periodization

Infant (0-12 months)

2-6 7-12

Early age

1-3 years

Preschool

3-7 years

Junior school

7-12 years

Junior teen

12-15 years

Senior teenager

15-18 years old

Development line

Motivational-need sphere

Situational-personal

Situational business communication

Operational and technical

Object and weapon

Motivational-need

Operational and technical

Motivational-need

Operational and technical

Social development situation

Contradiction: helplessness-dependence

An adult is a model, practical cooperation with an adult, an adult as a bearer of cultural and historical experience

Adult as a bearer of social and personal relationships

An adult as a bearer of generalized methods of activity in the system of scientific concepts

Peer as an object and subject of relations

Adult as a senior ally

Leading activity

Direct emotional communication with a close adult

Object-tool activity

Play activity

Educational activities (cognitive, thinking, intellectual-cognitive sphere)

Intimate and personal communication with peers

The problem of age, solved through the SSR

Solve the problem of how to communicate with an adult, develop communication methods

Disclosure of the social functions of objects; awareness of what can be done with objects

Subordination of motives and manifestation of the child’s personal characteristics

Mastering the system of scientific concepts

Self-determination in the system of relationships with peers

Professional choice; autonomy

Mental neoplasm

Individual mental life

Revitalization Complex

Speech

Perception

Self-awareness

Formation of internal positions

Arbitrariness of thinking (logical type of generalization)

Internal action plan

Reflection

Internal mediation of all mental processes

Self-esteem

Feeling of adulthood

Reflection

System of values

Formation of logical intelligence

Hypotheco-deductive thinking

Thinking style

Result

Breaking the symbiotic situation

I myself

Self-awareness

AC Proud

Independence

Own position towards the system of social relations (the beginnings of ideological social relations)

Own cognitive activity

Cooperation with peers

Self-control

Formation of the “I” system, development of self-awareness

Development of worldview and philosophical thinking

Formation of a system of theoretical knowledge

Crises of age-related development.

Age-related crises are certain temporary periods in human development during which sharp mental changes are observed. They do not last long, from several months to a year, and are a normal phenomenon in a person’s personal development.

The duration of these crises and their manifestations depend on individual characteristics and the conditions in which a person finds himself at a given period of time. Conditions mean both family and social environment (at work, in a company, interest clubs...).

Psychologists have different opinions about age-related crises. Some believe that the crisis is the result of improper upbringing, that development should proceed smoothly and harmoniously. Others believe that the crisis is a normal process of transition to a more difficult age stage. Some psychologists believe that a person who has not survived a crisis will not develop further.

Domestic psychologists distinguish stable and crisis periods of development. They alternate with each other and are a natural process of child development. There are obvious changes in development, the child changes greatly in behavior (may be extremely emotional), conflicts with adults (not only with loved ones). Lost interest in classes. This is observed not only at school, but also in circles. Some children have unconscious experiences and internal conflicts.

Famous Russian psychologist D.B. Elkonin said: “R-K approaches each point of his development with a certain discrepancy between what he has learned from the system of man-man relations and what he has learned from the system of man-object relations. It is precisely the moments when this discrepancy takes on the greatest magnitude that are called crises, after the cat. there is development of that side, cat. lagged behind in the previous period. But each side prepares the development of the other.”

Now let’s look at crises according to age parameters:

- newborn crisis

Associated with changes in living conditions. A child from his usual environment finds himself in completely different conditions. He was in the womb for all nine months. Firstly, it is an aquatic environment. It 'warm over there. He ate and breathed through the umbilical cord without any effort. At birth, everything changed dramatically. From the aquatic environment the child enters the air. You need to breathe and eat on your own. Adaptation to new conditions is underway.

- one year crisis

During this period, the child develops new needs.

This is the age of manifestation of independence, and various emotional and affective manifestations are the result or, if you want, the child’s response to the misunderstanding of adults. It is during this period that children's speech appears. She is quite unique, different from an adult, but at the same time she corresponds to the situation and is emotionally charged.

- crisis of three years

The three-year crisis precedes the seven-year crisis and is one of the most difficult periods in a child’s life. The child distinguishes his “I”, moves away from adults and tries to build other “more adult” relationships with them. The famous Russian psychologist L.S. Vygotsky identifies 7 characteristics of the three-year-old crisis.

Negativism. A child’s negative reaction to an adult’s request or demand. This reaction is not directed against the very action that is required of the child. It is directed at the request itself. The main thing that motivates the child at this moment is to do the opposite.

Showing stubbornness. A child insists on something not because he really wants it, but because he demands that his opinion be taken into account.

The line of manifestation of independence is very clearly visible. The child wants to do everything himself.

In general, this is good. But everything is good in moderation. Exaggerated manifestations of independence often do not correspond to the child’s capabilities. Which can lead to internal conflict with oneself and conflict with adults.

It happens that conflicts between children and adults become, as it were, a system of relationships. One gets the impression that they are constantly at war. In such cases we can talk about a protest-revolt. In families where there is only one child, despotism may appear. In families with many children, instead of despotism, jealousy towards other children may appear. Jealousy in this case will be regarded as a tendency towards power and an intolerant attitude towards juniors.

Devaluation of old rules and norms of behavior, attachments to certain things and toys. Psychologically, the child moves away from close adults and recognizes himself as an independent subject.

- crisis of seven years

The seven-year crisis can manifest itself between approximately 6 and 8 years of age. Since at this age almost all children go to school, this period is associated with the discovery of a new social position for themselves - the position of a schoolchild. At this age, the child’s self-awareness changes, and accordingly, a reassessment of values ​​occurs.

According to L.S. Vygotsky, at this age stage a generalization of experiences appears. Whether a child has proven himself successfully or failed in any of the areas of his activity (be it studying or communicating with peers, participating in clubs or sports...) - either a sense of self-worth, exclusivity or a feeling of inferiority is formed. These experiences lead to the formation of the child's inner life. A distinction arises between the external and internal life of the child, which leads to a change in his behavior. Here the semantic basis of the action appears. The child thinks before doing anything - an attempt to evaluate a future action from the point of view of possible consequences or unfolding actions. Due to the fact that a semantic basis for actions appears, impulsiveness disappears from behavior and childish spontaneity is lost. The child tries to think through his steps and begins to hide his experiences.

One of the manifestations of the crisis of seven years is antics, tension in behavior due to the distinction between internal and external life. All these manifestations disappear when the child enters the next age stage.

- (puberty - 11-15 years)

This crisis is associated with the child's puberty. Activation of sex hormones and growth hormones is typical at this age stage. Rapid growth of the body, the appearance of secondary sexual characteristics. Due to rapid growth, problems with cardiovascular activity, lung function, etc. may arise. The emotionally unstable background at this age increases the sexual arousal that accompanies puberty.

Teenagers are guided in behavior by models of masculinity or femininity. Consequently, interest in one’s appearance increases and a new vision of oneself is formed. This age is characterized by strong feelings about one’s imperfect appearance.

One of the most important new formations is the feeling of adulthood. In adolescence, a strong desire arises to be, or at least appear to be, adult and independent. Teenagers do not share any information about their personal lives with their parents, and quarrels and conflicts with adults often arise. The main social circle during this period is peers. Intimate and personal communication occupies a central place in the life of a teenager. It is also common for this age group to form informal groups.

Age-related crises are special, relatively short-term periods of ontogenesis (up to a year), characterized by sharp mental changes. Refer to the normative processes necessary for the normal progressive course of personal development (Erikson).

The shape and duration of these periods, as well as the severity of their occurrence, depend on individual characteristics, social and microsocial conditions. In developmental psychology, there is no consensus on crises, their place and role in mental development. Some psychologists believe that development should be harmonious and crisis-free. Crises are an abnormal, “painful” phenomenon, the result of improper upbringing. Another part of psychologists argues that the presence of crises in development is natural. Moreover, according to some ideas in developmental psychology, a child who has not truly experienced a crisis will not fully develop further. This topic was addressed by Bozovic, Polivanova, and Gail Sheehy.

L.S. Vygotsky examines the dynamics of transitions from one age to another. At different stages, changes in the child’s psyche can occur slowly and gradually, or they can occur quickly and abruptly. Stable and crisis stages of development are distinguished, their alternation is the law of child development. A stable period is characterized by a smooth course of the development process, without sudden shifts and changes in the personality of the region. Long in duration. Minor, minimal changes accumulate and at the end of the period give a qualitative leap in development: age-related new formations appear, stable, fixed in the structure of the Personality.

Crises do not last long, a few months, and under unfavorable circumstances they can last up to a year or even two years. These are brief but turbulent stages. Significant developmental shifts; the child changes dramatically in many of his features. Development can take on a catastrophic character at this time. The crisis begins and ends imperceptibly, its boundaries are blurred and unclear. Exacerbation occurs in the middle of the period. For the people around the child, it is associated with a change in behavior, the appearance of “difficulty in education.” The child is out of the control of adults. Affective outbursts, whims, conflicts with loved ones. Schoolchildren's performance decreases, interest in classes weakens, academic performance decreases, and sometimes painful experiences and internal conflicts arise.

In a crisis, development takes on a negative character: what was formed at the previous stage disintegrates and disappears. But something new is also being created. New formations turn out to be unstable and in the next stable period they are transformed, absorbed by other new formations, dissolved in them, and thus die off.

D.B. Elkonin developed the ideas of L.S. Vygotsky about child development. “The child approaches each point in his development with a certain discrepancy between what he has learned from the system of person-person relations and what he has learned from the system of person-object relations. It is precisely the moments when this discrepancy takes on the greatest magnitude that are called crises, after which the development of the side that lagged behind in the previous period occurs. But each side prepares the development of the other.”

Newborn crisis. Associated with a sharp change in living conditions. The child goes from comfortable, familiar living conditions to difficult ones (new nutrition, breathing). Adaptation of the child to new living conditions.

Year 1 crisis. Associated with an increase in the child’s capabilities and the emergence of new needs. A surge of independence, the emergence of affective reactions. Affective outbursts as a reaction to misunderstanding on the part of adults. The main acquisition of the transition period is a kind of children's speech called L.S. Vygotsky autonomous. It differs significantly from adult speech in its sound form. Words become polysemantic and situational.

Crisis 3 years. The border between early and preschool age is one of the most difficult moments in a child’s life. This is destruction, a revision of the old system of social relations, a crisis of identifying one’s “I,” according to D.B. Elkonin. The child, separating from adults, tries to establish new, deeper relationships with them. The emergence of the phenomenon “I myself,” according to Vygotsky, is a new formation of “external I myself.” “The child is trying to establish new forms of relationships with others - a crisis of social relations.”

L.S. Vygotsky describes 7 characteristics of a 3-year crisis. Negativism is a negative reaction not to the action itself, which he refuses to perform, but to the demand or request of an adult. The main motive for action is to do the opposite.

The motivation for the child's behavior changes. At the age of 3, he first becomes able to act contrary to his immediate desire. The child’s behavior is determined not by this desire, but by the relationship with another, adult person. The motive for behavior is already outside the situation given to the child. Stubbornness. This is the reaction of a child who insists on something not because he really wants it, but because he himself told adults about it and demands that his opinion be taken into account. Obstinacy. It is directed not against a specific adult, but against the entire system of relationships that developed in early childhood, against the norms of upbringing accepted in the family.

The tendency towards independence is clearly manifested: the child wants to do everything and decide for himself. In principle, this is a positive phenomenon, but during a crisis, an exaggerated tendency towards independence leads to self-will; it is often inadequate to the child’s capabilities and causes additional conflicts with adults.

For some children, conflicts with their parents become regular; they seem to be constantly at war with adults. In these cases they talk about protest-rebellion. In a family with an only child, despotism may appear. If there are several children in a family, jealousy usually arises instead of despotism: the same tendency towards power here acts as a source of a jealous, intolerant attitude towards other children who have almost no rights in the family, from the point of view of the young despot.

Depreciation. A 3-year-old child may begin to swear (old rules of behavior are devalued), throw away or even break a favorite toy offered at the wrong time (old attachments to things are devalued), etc. The child's attitude towards other people and towards himself changes. He is psychologically separated from close adults.

The crisis of 3 years is associated with the awareness of oneself as an active subject in the world of objects; for the first time the child can act contrary to his desires.

Crisis 7 years. It may begin at age 7, or may progress to age 6 or 8. Discovering the meaning of a new social position - the position of a schoolchild associated with the performance of academic work highly valued by adults. The formation of an appropriate internal position radically changes his self-awareness. According to L.I. Bozovic is the period of the birth of socialism. "I" of the child. A change in self-awareness leads to a reassessment of values. Profound changes occur in terms of experiences—stable affective complexes. It appears that L.S. Vygotsky calls it generalization of experiences. A chain of failures or successes (in school, in general communication), each time experienced approximately equally by the child, leads to the formation of a stable affective complex - feelings of inferiority, humiliation, wounded pride or a sense of self-worth, competence, exclusivity. Thanks to the generalization of experiences, a logic of feelings appears. Experiences acquire a new meaning, connections are established between them, and a struggle between experiences becomes possible.

This leads to the emergence of the child's inner life. The beginning of differentiation of the child's external and internal life is associated with a change in the structure of his behavior. A semantic orienting basis for the action appears - a link between the desire to do something and the unfolding actions. This is an intellectual moment that allows a more or less adequate assessment of a future action from the point of view of its results and more distant consequences. Meaningful orientation in one’s own actions becomes an important aspect of inner life. At the same time, it eliminates the impulsiveness and spontaneity of the child’s behavior. Thanks to this mechanism, children's spontaneity is lost; the child thinks before acting, begins to hide his experiences and hesitations, and tries not to show others that he feels bad.

A pure crisis manifestation of the differentiation between the external and internal life of children usually becomes antics, mannerisms, and artificial tension in behavior. These external characteristics, as well as the tendency to whims, affective reactions, and conflicts, begin to disappear when the child emerges from the crisis and enters a new age.

New formation – arbitrariness and awareness of mental processes and their intellectualization.

Puberty crisis (from 11 to 15 years) associated with the restructuring of the child’s body – puberty. The activation and complex interaction of growth hormones and sex hormones causes intensive physical and physiological development. Secondary sexual characteristics appear. Adolescence is sometimes called a protracted crisis. Due to rapid development, difficulties arise in the functioning of the heart, lungs, and blood supply to the brain. In adolescence, the emotional background becomes uneven and unstable.

Emotional instability increases the sexual arousal that accompanies the process of puberty.

Gender identification reaches a new, higher level. An orientation towards models of masculinity and femininity is clearly manifested in behavior and the manifestation of personal qualities.

Thanks to the rapid growth and restructuring of the body in adolescence, interest in one's appearance sharply increases. A new image of the physical “I” is formed. Because of its hypertrophied importance, the child acutely experiences all the flaws in appearance, real and imaginary.

The image of the physical “I” and self-awareness in general is influenced by the pace of puberty. Children with late maturation are at the least advantageous position; acceleration creates more favorable opportunities for personal development.

A feeling of adulthood appears - a feeling of being an adult, a central neoplasm of early adolescence. A passionate desire arises, if not to be, then at least to appear and be considered an adult. Defending his new rights, the teenager protects many areas of his life from the control of his parents and often comes into conflict with them. In addition to the desire for emancipation, the teenager has a strong need to communicate with peers. Intimate and personal communication becomes the leading activity during this period. Teenage friendships and association in informal groups appear. Bright, but usually alternating hobbies also arise.

Crisis of 17 years (from 15 to 17 years old). It appears exactly at the turn of the usual school and new adult life. May shift by 15 years. At this time, the child finds himself on the threshold of real adult life.

Most 17-year-old schoolchildren are focused on continuing their education, a few are focused on finding a job. The value of education is a great benefit, but at the same time, achieving the set goal is difficult, and at the end of 11th grade, emotional stress can increase sharply.

Those who have been going through a crisis for 17 years are characterized by various fears. Responsibility to yourself and your family for your choice and real achievements at this time is already a big burden. Added to this is the fear of a new life, of the possibility of making a mistake, of failure when entering a university, and, for young men, of the army. High anxiety and, against this background, pronounced fear can lead to neurotic reactions, such as fever before final or entrance exams, headaches, etc. An exacerbation of gastritis, neurodermatitis or other chronic disease may begin.

A sharp change in lifestyle, inclusion in new types of activities, communication with new people cause significant tension. A new life situation requires adaptation to it. Mainly two factors help to adapt: ​​family support and self-confidence and a sense of competence.

Focus on the future. Period of personality stabilization. At this time, a system of stable views on the world and one’s place in it—a worldview—is formed. The associated youthful maximalism in assessments and passion in defending one’s point of view are known. The central new formation of the period is self-determination, professional and personal.

Crisis 30 years. Around the age of 30, sometimes a little later, most people experience a crisis. It is expressed in a change in ideas about one’s life, sometimes in a complete loss of interest in what was previously the main thing in it, in some cases even in the destruction of the previous way of life.

The crisis of 30 years arises due to the unrealization of life plans. If at the same time there is a “reassessment of values” and a “revision of one’s own Personality,” then we are talking about the fact that the life plan turned out to be wrong in general. If the life path is chosen correctly, then attachment “to a certain Activity, a certain way of life, certain values ​​and orientations” does not limit, but, on the contrary, develops his Personality.

The crisis of 30 years is often called a crisis of the meaning of life. It is with this period that the search for the meaning of existence is usually associated. This search, like the entire crisis as a whole, marks the transition from youth to maturity.

The problem of meaning in all its variants, from particular to global - the meaning of life - arises when the goal does not correspond to the motive, when its achievement does not lead to the achievement of the object of need, i.e. when the goal was set incorrectly. If we are talking about the meaning of life, then the general life goal turned out to be erroneous, i.e. life plan.

Some people in adulthood experience another, “unplanned” crisis, not confined to the border of two stable periods of life, but arising within a given period. This is the so-calledcrisis 40 years . It's like a repeat of the crisis of 30 years. It occurs when the crisis of 30 years has not led to a proper solution to existential problems.

A person acutely experiences dissatisfaction with his life, a discrepancy between life plans and their implementation. A.V. Tolstykh notes that added to this is a change in attitude on the part of work colleagues: the time when one could be considered “promising”, “promising” is passing, and the person feels the need to “pay bills”.

In addition to problems associated with professional activity, the crisis of 40 years is often caused by the aggravation of family relationships. The loss of some close people, the loss of a very important common aspect of the life of the spouses - direct participation in the lives of children, daily care for them - contributes to the final understanding of the nature of the marital relationship. And if, apart from the children of the spouses, nothing significant binds them both, the family may fall apart.

In the event of a crisis at the age of 40, a person has to once again rebuild his life plan and develop a largely new “I-concept”. Serious changes in life may be associated with this crisis, including changing professions and starting a new family.

Retirement crisis. First of all, the disruption of the usual regime and way of life has a negative impact, often combined with an acute sense of contradiction between the remaining ability to work, the opportunity to be useful and their lack of demand. A person finds himself, as it were, “thrown to the sidelines” of a current life without his active participation. A decrease in one’s social status and loss of the rhythm of life that has been preserved for decades sometimes lead to a sharp deterioration in the general physical and mental condition, and in some cases even to a relatively quick death.

The retirement crisis is often aggravated by the fact that around this time the second generation—the grandchildren—grows up and begins to live an independent life, which is especially painful for women who devote themselves mainly to their families.

Retirement, which often coincides with the acceleration of biological aging, is often associated with a worsening financial situation and sometimes a more secluded lifestyle. In addition, the crisis may be complicated by the death of a spouse or the loss of some close friends.

Age period

Signs of the age stage

Social development situation

Characteristics of leading activities

Crisis manifestations

Main neoplasms

Characteristics of cognitive, motivational-need, emotional spheres of development

Features of behavior

Leading directions

vital activity

1. Newborn (1-2 months)

Inability to differentiate oneself and others

respiratory, sucking, protective and indicative, atavistic (“clinging”) reflexes.

Complete biological dependence on mother

Emotional communication with an adult (mother)

The process of birth, physical separation from the mother,

adaptation to new conditions using unconditioned reflexes

Sensory processes (the first types of sensations), the emergence of auditory and visual concentration. revitalization complex.

Personal, need-motivational:

receiving pleasures.

Inactivity, sleep, facial expressions of displeasure, crying and well-fed well-being.

Formation of the need for communication

2.Infancy (up to 1 year.)

Stage of “trust in the world”: the appearance of upright walking, the formation of individual mental life, the emergence of the ability to more expressively express one’s feelings and

relationships with others,

autonomous

speech - hooting, humming, babbling first words.

The common life of a child with his mother (situation “We”)

Directly – emotional communication with mother, objective activity

Year 1 crisis:

The growing contradiction between the needs for knowledge of the surrounding world and the capabilities that the child has (walking, speech, affect and will), a need arises for new impressions, for communication, but the possibilities are limited - there are no skills in walking, he cannot speak yet

Elementary forms of perception and thinking, first independent steps, words, active need to understand the world around us, need to communicate with adults, trust in the world, autonomous speech.

Cognitive processes: Emergence of the act of grasping, Development of movements and postures

the initial form of visually effective thinking (based on perception and action with objects), involuntary attention, perception of objects, differentiated sensations and emotional states, the formation of prerequisites for the acquisition of speech, development of motor skills

Affective outbursts, emotional reactions,

expressive actions, active motor reactions, stubbornness.

The need for communication, as the most important factor in the development of the psyche, the formation of basic trust in the world,
overcoming the feeling of separation and alienation, knowledge of objects.

3.Early childhood (1-3 years)

The stage of “independence”, he himself can understand the purpose of the object, autonomous speech is replaced by words of “adult” speech (phrasal speech), psychological separation from loved ones, the development of negative character traits, underdevelopment of stable motivational relationships. What was familiar, interesting, and expensive before is devalued.

Joint activities with adults, knowledge of the world of surrounding things

situational business communication in collaboration with an adult, situation (“I am myself”)

Object-manipulative, object-tool activity

Crisis 3 years:

obstinacy, self-will, devaluation of adults, protest-rebellion, desire for despotism and independence, for the first time says “I myself!”, the first birth of personality. two lines of independence: negativism, stubbornness, aggressiveness, or a crisis of dependence - tearfulness, timidity, desire for close emotional attachment.

Consciousness "I myself"
Active speech, vocabulary accumulation.

Practical thinking.

"affective"

perception of objects and situations, emotional reactions, recognition and reproduction, formation of an internal plan of action, visual-effective thinking, self-awareness is emerging (recognizes oneself), primary self-esteem (“I”, “I am good”, “I myself”), attention and memory involuntary. The emergence of a desire for independence and the need to achieve success.

Impulsive behavior, emotional reactions associated with the child’s immediate desires and negative reactions to the demands of adults (crying, throwing himself on the sofa, covering his face with his hands, or moving chaotically, shouting incoherent words, his breathing is often uneven, his pulse is rapid; he blushes in anger, screams , clenches fists, can break something that comes to hand, hit) affective reactions to difficulties, curiosity

The emergence of a desire for independence and the need to achieve success, the struggle against feelings of shame and strong doubt about one’s actions for
own independence and autonomy.

4. Preschool childhood (3-7 years)

The “choice of initiative” stage: the emergence of personal consciousness,

imitate objective activities and relationships between people. The period of birth of the social “I”, a meaningful orientation in one’s experiences arises. The transition from external actions to internal “mental” ones.

Understanding the world of human relations and their imitation

Plot-role-playing game (combination of gaming activities with communication), didactic and game with rules.

Crisis 7 years of “crisis of immediacy”:

experiences are associated with awareness of a new position, the desire to become a schoolchild, but for now the attitude remains as to a preschooler.

Revaluation of values, generalization of experiences, the emergence of the child’s inner life, changes in the structure of behavior: the emergence of a semantic orienting basis for an action (the link between the desire to do something and the unfolding actions, loss of childish spontaneity.

Subordination of motives, self-awareness (awareness of one’s experiences) and

arbitrariness.

Personal (consumer - motivational): the need for socially significant and evaluative activities,
the first moral feelings (what is bad and what is good), new motives and needs (competitive, playful, the need for independence) are formed. The sound side of speech develops,
correct speech, creative imagination, developed involuntary memory, voluntary memory is formed, purposeful analyzing perception, visual-figurative thinking, subordination of motives, assimilation of ethical norms, sexual identification, awareness of oneself in time.

It is regulated by the semantic orienting basis of the action (the link between the desire to do something and the unfolding actions), the loss of childish spontaneity.

the appearance of one’s own activity, instability of will and mood.

deliberateness appears, the child begins to behave and be capricious

Development of active initiative and
moral responsibility for one’s desires, knowledge of systems of relationships.
Psychological readiness for school is the formation of the main psychological spheres of a child’s life (motivational, moral, volitional, mental, personal). Intellectual readiness (mental development of the child, stock of basic knowledge, speech development, etc.). Personal readiness (formation of readiness to accept the social position of a schoolchild who has a range of rights and responsibilities; the child’s attitude towards school, educational activities, towards teachers, towards himself). Volitional readiness (development of moral and volitional qualities of the individual, qualitative changes in the degree of arbitrariness of mental processes, the ability to obey rules).

5. Junior school age (7-11 years old))

Mastery stage

social status of the student (learning situation),

the main motive is to achieve high grades

Social status of a schoolchild: mastery of knowledge, development of intellectual and cognitive activity

Educational and cognitive activity.

Experiences and school maladjustment, high self-esteem, feelings of incompetence.

The problem of assessment.

Voluntary attention, sense of competence, self-awareness, self-esteem, internal plan of action, self-control, reflection.

Intellectually - cognitive:
verbal-logical thinking, theoretical thinking, synthesizing perception appears, voluntary semantic memory, voluntary attention (become conscious and voluntary), educational motives, adequate self-esteem, generalization of experiences, logic of feelings and the emergence of inner life.
The child gradually masters his mental processes.

In the organization of activities and the emotional sphere: younger schoolchildren are easily distracted, are not capable of long-term concentration, are excitable, and emotional.

Formation of hard work and ability to handle tools

labor, which is opposed by the awareness of one’s own ineptitude and uselessness,

knowledge the beginning of life

6.Adolescence (11-15 years)

Stage of communication with peers: intensive physical and physiological development.

Emancipation from adults and grouping.

Conformity, formation of national and international self-awareness.

The transition from dependent childhood to independent and responsible adulthood.

Mastering norms and relationships between people.

Intimate and personal communication, hypertrophied need to communicate with peers.

Professional-personal communication is a combination of communication on personal topics and joint group activities based on interests.

A crisis of character and relationships, claims to adulthood, independence, but there are no opportunities for their implementation. positions – “no longer a child, not yet an adult”, mental and social changes against the background of rapid physiological changes, difficulties in learning

Feeling of adulthood - a teenager’s attitude towards himself as an adult (younger adolescence),

“I-concept” (senior adolescence), desire for adulthood, self-esteem, submission to the norms of collective life. Formation of interests and motivation for learning.

Formation of strong-willed behavior, the ability to control one’s emotional state.

Personal (consumer-motivational)
theoretical reflective thinking, intellectualization of perception and memory, personal reflection, a male and female view of the world appears. Development of creative abilities,
the ability to perform all types of mental work of an adult. The ability to operate with hypotheses, solving intellectual problems. Intellectualization of perception and memory. The convergence of imagination with theoretical thinking (the emergence of creative impulses).

Teenagers become awkward, fussy, make a lot of unnecessary movements,

increased fatigue, excitability, mood swings; hormonal storm, frequent mood swings, imbalance, accentuation of character.

The task of the first integral awareness of oneself and one’s place in the world;

the negative pole in solving this problem is uncertainty in understanding

own “I” (“diffusion of identity”, cognition of systems of relationships in various situations.

7.Senior school age (16-17 years old)

stage of self-determination “the world and I”: the leading place among high school students is occupied by motives associated with self-determination and preparation for independent life, with further education and self-education.

The beginning of true socio-psychological independence in all areas, including: material and financial self-sufficiency, self-service, independence in moral judgments, political views and actions. Awareness of contradictions in life (between moral norms affirmed by people and their actions, between ideals and reality, between abilities and possibilities, etc.).

Initial choice of life path Mastering professional knowledge and skills.

Educational and professional activities.

Moral and personal communication.

For the first time, questions of self-determination in the profession arise, questions arise about the meaning and purpose of life, planning a future professional and life path, disappointment in the plans, and in oneself.

Crisis of 17 years: fear of choice, of adulthood.

Focus on the future, building life plans and prospects (professional and personal self-determination).

Formation of life plans, worldview, readiness for personal and life self-determination, acquisition of identity (feelings of adequacy and personal ownership of one’s own “I”, regardless of changes in the situation).

Cognitive: improvement of mental processes, mental activity becomes more stable and effective, approaching in this respect the activity of adults,

rapid development of special abilities, often directly related to the chosen professional field, development of self-awareness. Questions addressed to oneself in the process of self-analysis and reflection are of an ideological nature, becoming an element of personal self-determination.

They are not characterized by romantic impulses, they are happy with a calm, orderly way of life, they are guided by the assessment of others, they rely on authority, in the absence of self-knowledge, they are impulsive, inconsistent in actions and relationships, and there is an interest in communicating with adults.

Self-determination – social, personal, professional, creation of a life plan. Knowledge of the professional field of activity.

8.Youth (from 17 to 20-23 years)

stage of “Human intimacy”:

The beginning of the establishment of true socio-psychological independence in all areas, including material and financial self-sufficiency, self-service, independence in moral judgments, political views and actions. Awareness of contradictions in life (between moral norms affirmed by people and their actions, between ideals and reality, between abilities and possibilities, etc.)

Professional studies, development of professional

labor skills,

work activity, mastering the norms of relationships between people, the situation of choosing a life path.

Labor activity, professional study. Educational and professional activities

A new life situation, a feeling of incompetence, entering a university.

youthful maximalism, material independence.

Final self-determination.

Understanding the need to study. The importance of unregulated conditions for acquiring knowledge. Readiness and actual ability for various types of learning.

Positive trends in development: the desire for knowledge and professionalism, expanding interests in the field of art, a responsible attitude towards one’s future when choosing a profession, the formation of motives (prestigious motivation, the motive of power, the motive of material wealth and well-being, the motive of creating a prosperous family).

Originality of thinking. Increased intellectual activity.

Student life style; parties, dates, drinking or sports, determination in studies.

Self-determination - social, personal, professional, spiritual and practical. Training, job search, military service.

The task of the end of youth and the beginning

maturity - searching for a life partner and establishing close friendships,

overcoming feelings of loneliness.

9.Youth (from 20 to 30 years old)

The stage of human maturity, a period of active professional, social and personal development. Marriage, birth and raising children, development. Building prospects for later life.

Choosing a life partner, starting a family, establishing oneself in a profession, choosing a life path.

Joining the workforce and mastering the chosen profession, starting a family.

The problem of the meaning of life is a crisis 30, revaluation of values, unrealized life plan. Difficulties in professional development, self-absorption and avoidance of interpersonal relationships,

Family relationships and a sense of professional competence, mastery, fatherhood.

Intensive cognitive development, the needs of self-respect and self-actualization dominate, concern for the future well-being of humanity is also characteristic (otherwise, indifference and apathy arise, reluctance to care about others, self-absorption in one’s own problems), characterized as “stable conceptual socialization, when stable personality traits are developed,” All mental processes are stabilized, the person acquires a stable character. Choice of motive: professional, motives of creative achievement, broad social motives - motive of personal prestige, motive of maintaining and increasing status, motive of self-realization, motive of self-affirmation, material motives.

Characterized by optimism and maximum performance. Creative activity.

Minutes of despair, doubt, and uncertainty are short-lived and pass in the turbulent flow of life, in the process of mastering more and more new opportunities.

Choosing a life partner, establishing close friendships,

overcoming the feeling of loneliness, creating a family, establishing oneself in the profession, gaining mastery.

Maturity (30 to 60-70 years)

The peak of professional, intellectual achievements, “akme” is sometimes the pinnacle of the full blossoming of personality, when a person can realize his full potential and achieve the greatest success in all areas of life. This is the time of fulfilling one’s human destiny - both in professional or social activities, and in terms of the continuity of generations. Age values: love, family, children.. The source of satisfaction at this age is family life, mutual understanding, success of children, grandchildren.

Full disclosure of your potential in professional activities and family relationships.

Preservation of social status and retirement.

Professional activities and family relationships.

Doubt about the correctness of the life lived and its significance for loved ones.

Searching for a new meaning in life. Loneliness in adulthood, retirement, Productivity - stagnation. Crisis of the 40-meaning of life, aggravation of family relationships.

Rethinking life goals

awareness of responsibility for the content of one’s life to oneself and to other people, productivity. Adjustments to the life plan and related changes in the “I - concept”.

Creative, professional productivity, caring for people), inertia (self-absorption).

Having reached his prime and the peak of professional productivity in maturity, a person stops his development, stops improving his professional skills, creative potential, etc. Then comes a decline, a gradual decrease in professional productivity: all the best that a person could do in his life is left behind, on the already traveled part of the path.

Emotional costs increase with age and overload leads to stressful situations and conditions. The transition from a state of maximum activity, vigorous activity (inherent in the “Akme” period) to its gradual curtailment and limitation due to the fact that health is eroding, strength is becoming less, an objective need arises to give way to new generations with a subjective internal reluctance (does not feel feeling old).

Struggle

creative forces of man against inertia and stagnation, raising children. Unleash your potential and realize yourself.

Late maturity (after 60-70 years)

Life wisdom based on experience, the emergence of a feeling of old age, accelerated biological aging, cessation of work activity.

Reorientation of social activity and adaptation to the new life of a pensioner.

Change of leading activity: satisfaction of one significant or essential motive, provision of pleasure and entertainment

Retirement, disruption of the usual regime and way of life, deterioration of financial situation, death of a spouse and loved ones.

Attitude towards death, despair.

Attitude to death, rethinking of life, awareness of the value of the content of life.

Physical, biological and mental aging, decreased memory function, narrowing of interests, focus of attention from the future moves to the past, emotional instability, egocentrism, distrust of people, demandingness, resentment, the need to transfer accumulated experience, the need for life involvement, belief in the immortality of the soul .

Physical strength decreases

The frequency of depression and neuroses increases. Tendency to remember, tranquility.

Characterized by the formation of a final, integral idea of ​​oneself,
your life path as opposed to possible disappointment in life and
growing despair.

2. Characteristics of age-related crises of various periods of development

2.1. Age-related crises of childhood

The child develops unevenly. There are periods that are relatively calm or stable, and there are so-called critical ones. Crises are discovered empirically, and not in sequence, but in a random order: 7, 3, 13, 1, 0. During critical periods, the child changes in a very short time as a whole, in the main personality traits. This is a revolutionary, stormy, rapid flow of events, both in pace and in the meaning of the changes taking place. The following features are characteristic of critical periods:

boundaries separating the beginning and end of the crisis from adjacent periods,
extremely unclear. The crisis occurs unnoticed, very difficult to determine
the moment of its onset and end. A sharp escalation (climax) is observed in the middle of the crisis. At this time the crisis reaches its climax;


the difficulty of raising children during critical periods at one time
served as the starting point for their empirical study. Observed
obstinacy, decline in academic performance and performance, increase
number of conflicts with others. The inner life of a child in this
time is associated with painful experiences;


negative nature of development. It is noted that during crises, in
Unlike stable periods, it is rather destructive,
rather than creative work. The child does not acquire so much as
loses what was previously acquired. However, the emergence of something new in development certainly means the death of the old. At the same time during critical
periods, constructive development processes are also observed.
L. S. Vygotsky called these acquisitions new formations.

Neoplasms of critical periods are transitional in nature, that is, they are not preserved in the form in which, for example, autonomous speech appears in one-year-old children.

During stable periods, the child accumulates quantitative changes, and not qualitative ones, as during critical periods. These changes accumulate slowly and imperceptibly. The sequence of development is determined by the alternation of stable and critical periods.

Let us consider childhood crises in more detail and consistently.

The first one is newborn crisis (0-2 months). The neonatal crisis was not discovered, but was the last to be calculated and identified as a special, crisis period in the mental development of the child. A sign of crisis is weight loss in the first days after birth.

The social situation of a newborn is specific and unique and is determined by two factors. On the one hand, this is the child’s complete biological helplessness; he is unable to satisfy a single vital need without an adult. Thus, the baby is the most social creature. On the other hand, with maximum dependence on adults, the child is still deprived of the basic means of communication in the form of human speech. The contradiction between maximum sociality and minimal means of communication lies the basis for the entire development of a child in infancy.

The main new formation is the emergence of the child’s individual mental life. What is new in this period is that, firstly, life becomes an individual existence, separate from the maternal organism. The second point is that it becomes mental life, because, according to L. S. Vygotsky, only mental life can be part of the social life of the people around the child.

Crisis of one year characterized by the development of speech action. Before this, the baby’s body was regulated by a biological system associated with biorhythms. Now she came into conflict with a verbal situation based on self-order or orders from adults. Thus, a child aged about one year finds himself without a system at all that allows him to reliably navigate the world around him: biological rhythms are greatly deformed, and speech rhythms are not so formed that the child can freely control his behavior.

The crisis is characterized by a general regression of the child’s activity, a kind of reverse development. Emotionally manifests itself in affectivity. Emotions are primitive. In this case, various violations are observed:

Disturbance of all biorhythmic processes (sleep-wakefulness);
violation of the satisfaction of all vital needs (for example,
measures, feelings of hunger);

Emotional abnormalities (sullenness, tearfulness, touchiness).
The crisis is not an acute one.

acute interest in one's image in the mirror;


the child is puzzled by his appearance, interested in how he
looks in the eyes of others. Girls show interest in dressing up; boys show concerns about their effectiveness, e.g.
design. They react sharply to failure.

The crisis of 3 years is considered to be acute. The child is uncontrollable and becomes angry. The behavior is almost impossible to correct. The period is difficult for both the adult and the child himself. The symptoms of a crisis, based on their number, are called the seven-star crisis of 3 years:

negativism is a reaction not to the content of an adult’s proposal, but to
that it comes from adults. The desire to do the opposite, even in spite of
at will;


stubbornness - the child insists on something not because he wants, but because he demanded it, he is bound by his initial decision;


obstinacy - it is impersonal, directed against the norms of upbringing, the way of life that developed before the age of three;


self-will - strives to do everything himself;


protest-rebellion - a child in a state of war and conflict with others;


a symptom of devaluation is that the child begins to
swear, tease and call parents names;


despotism - the child forces his parents to do everything he demands.
In relation to younger sisters and brothers, despotism manifests itself as jealousy.
Seven Years Crisis reminds me of the crisis of one year - it is a crisis of self-regulation. The child begins to regulate his behavior with rules. Previously flexible, he suddenly begins to make demands for attention to himself, his behavior becomes pretentious. On the one hand, a demonstrative naivety appears in his behavior, which is annoying because it is intuitively perceived by others as insincerity. On the other hand, he seems too mature: he imposes standards on others.

For a 7-year-old child, the unity of affect and intellect disintegrates, and this period is characterized by exaggerated forms of behavior. The child does not control his feelings (he cannot restrain, but also does not know how to manage them). The fact is that, having lost some forms of behavior, he did not acquire others.

Following the crisis of seven years follows teenage crisis . This is a crisis of social development, reminiscent of the crisis of three years (“I myself”), only now it is “I myself” in the social sense. In the literature it is described as “the age of the second cutting of the umbilical cord”, “the negative phase of puberty”. It is characterized by a drop in academic performance, decreased performance, and disharmony in the internal structure of the personality. The human self and the world are more separated than in other periods. The crisis is an acute one. The symptoms of the crisis are:

decreased productivity in educational activities;


negativism.

There is a decrease in productivity and ability to learn, even in the area in which the child is gifted. Regression manifests itself when given a creative task (for example, an essay). Children are able to perform the same as before, only mechanical tasks.

The opening of the mental world occurs, the teenager’s attention is drawn to other people for the first time. With the development of thinking comes intense self-perception, introspection, and knowledge of the world of one’s own experiences. The world of internal experiences and objective reality are separated. At this age, many teenagers keep diaries.

The second symptom of crisis is negativism. Sometimes this phase is called the phase of the second negativism by analogy with the crisis of three years. The child seems to be repulsed by the environment, is hostile, prone to quarrels and violations of discipline. At the same time, he experiences internal anxiety, dissatisfaction, a desire for loneliness, and self-isolation. In boys, negativity manifests itself brighter and more often than in girls, and begins later - at 14-16 years old.

A teenager's behavior during a crisis is not necessarily negative. L. S. Vygotsky writes about three types of behavior:

Negativism is clearly expressed in all areas of a teenager’s life. Moreover
this lasts either several weeks, or the teenager falls out of work for a long time
family, inaccessible to the persuasion of elders, excitable or, conversely, stupid. This
difficult and acute course is observed in 20% of adolescents;


the child is a potential negativist. This manifests itself only in some life situations, mainly as a reaction to the negative influence of the environment (family conflicts, the oppressive effect of the school environment). The majority of such children are approximately 60%;


20% of children have no negative phenomena at all.

Adolescence crisis resembles crises of one year (speech regulation of behavior) and 7 years (normative regulation). At the age of 17, value-semantic self-regulation of behavior occurs. If a person learns to explain, and therefore regulate, his actions, then the need to explain his behavior willy-nilly leads to the subordination of these actions to new legislative schemes. 1

The young man experiences a philosophical intoxication of consciousness; he finds himself plunged into doubts and thoughts that interfere with his active position. Sometimes the state turns into value relativism (the relativity of all values).

In his youth, a young man faces the problem of choosing life values. Youth strives to form an internal position in relation to itself (“Who am I?”, “What should I be?”), in relation to other people, as well as to moral values. It is in his youth that a young man consciously works out his place among the categories of good and evil. “Honour”, “dignity”, “right”, “duty” and other categories characterizing personality are of acute concern to a person in his youth. In his youth, a young man expands the range of good and evil to its utmost limits and tests his mind and his soul in the range from the beautiful, sublime, good to the terrible, base, evil. Youth strives to experience itself in temptations and ascent, in struggle and overcoming, fall and rebirth- in all the diversity of spiritual life that is characteristic of the state of the human mind and heart. It is significant for the young man himself and for all of humanity if a young man chose for himself the path of spiritual growth and prosperity, and was not seduced by vice and opposition to social virtues. Choosing an internal position is a very difficult spiritual work. A young man who turns to the analysis and comparison of universal human values ​​and his own inclinations and value orientations will have to consciously destroy or accept the historically determined norms and values ​​that determined his behavior in childhood and adolescence. In addition, he is being attacked by modern ideas of the state, new ideologists and false prophets. He chooses for himself a non-adaptive or adaptive position in life, while believing that it is the position he has chosen that is the only acceptable one for him and, therefore, the only correct one. 1

It is in youth that the need for isolation intensifies, the desire to protect one’s unique world from the invasion of outsiders and close people in order to strengthen the sense of personality through reflection, to preserve one’s individuality, to realize one’s claims to recognition. Isolation as a means of maintaining distance when interacting with others allows a young person to “save face” on the emotional and rational level of communication. Identification - isolation in youth has its own specifics: a young man is both “hotter” and “colder” than a person in other age periods. This manifests itself in direct communication with other people, with animals, with nature. At both poles of good and evil, identification and alienation, youth dominates. This is the time of possible reckless love and possible uncontrollable hatred. Love- always identification to the highest degree. Hatred- always alienation to the extreme. It is in adolescence that a person plunges into these ambivalent states. It is in youth that a person ascends to the highest potential of humanity and spirituality, but it is at this age that a person can descend to the darkest depths of inhumanity. Youth- a period when a young man continues to reflect on his relationship with his family in search of his place among his blood relatives. He passes, growing out of childhood and tremblingly entering the period of adolescence, acquiring the possibility of a second birth of personality. Youth develop their reflective abilities in a self-absorbing way. Developed reflection makes it possible for a subtle understanding of one’s own experiences, motivations, interacting motives and at the same time- cold analysis and correlation of the intimate with the normative. Reflections take a young man beyond his inner world and allow him to take a position in this world.

2.2 Age-related crises of an adult
In adults, most researchers identify three main crises: the 30-year-old crisis, the “mid-life” crisis and the old age crisis. The biggest difficulty in organizing psychological support for adults is to direct a person to work with himself. Quite often there is a projection of the crisis onto the environment, and in this case a person comes to a consultation with a request that is completely inadequate to the real situation. 1

Crisis 30 years lies in the fact that a person discovers that he can no longer change much in his life, in himself: family, profession, usual way of life. Having realized himself at this stage of life, during his youth, a person suddenly realizes that, in essence, he faces the same task - search, self-determination in new circumstances of life, taking into account real opportunities (including limitations that he had not noticed before). This crisis manifests itself in a feeling of the need to “do something” and indicates that a person is moving to a new age level - the age of adulthood. “The Crisis of Thirty” is a conditional name. This state can occur earlier or later; the feeling of a crisis state can occur repeatedly throughout life (as in childhood, adolescence, adolescence), since the development process proceeds in a spiral without stopping.

For men at this time, it is typical to change jobs or change their lifestyle, but their focus on work and career does not change. The most common motive for voluntary leaving work is dissatisfaction with the job: the production environment, work intensity, wages, etc. If dissatisfaction with work arises from the desire to achieve a better result, then this only contributes to the improvement of the employee himself.

Experiencing a crisis of thirty years, a person is looking for an opportunity to strengthen his niche in adult life, to confirm his status as an adult: he wants to have a good job, he strives for security and stability. The person is still confident that the full realization of the hopes and aspirations that make up the “dream” is possible, and he works hard for this.

Midlife crisis - this is the time when people critically analyze and evaluate their lives. Some may be satisfied with themselves, believing that they have reached the peak of their capabilities. For others, reviewing their years can be a painful process. Although normative age-related factors such as gray hair, increasing waist size, or menopause, when combined with non-normative events such as divorce or job loss, can cause stress, the likelihood of a midlife crisis is markedly reduced if any of the predictable influences of age are anticipated or are considered as normal moments of life.

At the beginning of the fifth decade of life (maybe a little earlier or later), a person goes through a period of critical self-assessment and reassessment of what has been achieved in life up to this time, analysis of the authenticity of the lifestyle: moral problems are solved; a person goes through dissatisfaction with marital relationships, worries about children leaving home, and dissatisfaction with the level of career advancement. The first signs of deteriorating health, loss of beauty and physical shape, alienation in the family and in relationships with older children appear, and there is a fear that nothing better will happen in life, in career, in love. This psychological phenomenon is called a midlife crisis (a term coined by Levinson). People critically reevaluate their lives and analyze them. Very often this revaluation leads to the understanding that “life has passed meaninglessly and time has already been lost.” 1

A midlife crisis is associated with the fear of aging and the realization that what has been achieved is sometimes much less than expected, and is a short-lived peak period followed by a gradual decrease in physical strength and mental acuity. A person is characterized by an exaggerated concern for his own existence and relationships with others. The physical signs of aging become more and more obvious and are experienced by the individual as a loss of beauty, attractiveness, physical strength and sexual energy. All this is assessed negatively both on a personal and social level. In addition, a person has a growing concern that he may be one step behind a new generation who have received professional training in accordance with new standards, are energetic, have new ideas and are willing to accept, at least initially, a significantly lower salary .

At the same time, a person begins to realize that inevitable physiological changes are happening to his body against his will. A person admits that he is mortal and will definitely come to an end, while he will not be able to complete everything that he so passionately desired and strived for. There is a collapse of hopes associated with infantile ideas about one’s future life (power, wealth, relationships with others). This is why marriages often break up in middle age.

Some differences were found in the course of the midlife crisis between men and women. It has been shown that in women, the stages of the life cycle are structured to a greater extent not by chronological age, but by the stages of the family cycle - marriage, the appearance of children, and the leaving of the parental family by grown children.

Thus, during the midlife crisis, the need to find one's own path arises and then increases, but serious obstacles arise on this path. Symptoms characteristic of a crisis include boredom, job and/or partner changes, noticeable violence, self-destructive thoughts and behaviors, relationship instability, depression, anxiety, and increasing compulsivity. Such symptoms indicate a person’s need to significantly change his life. One of the ways out of the crisis is individuation. This is a need for development, allowing one to achieve the maximum possible completeness of personality. “A conscious process of separation, or individuation, is necessary to bring a person to awareness, that is, to raise him above the state of identification with the object.”

While the initial identification with the external, objective world is preserved, a person feels detached from subjective reality. Of course, a person always remains a social being, but while maintaining a commitment to external relationships with people, he should develop his personality more. The more highly organized a person becomes, the more he enriches his relationships with others. “Since a person is not just a separate, isolated being, but by virtue of his very existence is predisposed to social relations, the process of individuation should not lead him to isolation, but, on the contrary, to an expansion of the range of social relations” (ibid.). This is the paradox of individuation. A person best serves the interests of society if he becomes an integral person and brings into it his own dialectics, which is necessary for the psychological health of any social group. Thus, the desire for individuation is not narcissistic; this is the best way to benefit society and support the individuation of other people.

The last crisis under consideration iscrisis of aging and death . The solution to the universal human problem of “living or experiencing old age”, choosing an aging strategy is not considered narrowly, as a kind of one-time action, it is a drawn-out process, perhaps for years, associated with overcoming several crises. 1

In old age (old age), a person has to overcome three sub-crises. The first of them is to re-evaluate one’s own “I” in addition to its professional role, which for many people remains the main one until retirement. The second sub-crisis is associated with the awareness of the fact of deteriorating health and aging of the body, which gives a person the opportunity to develop the necessary indifference in this regard. As a result of the third sub-crisis, a person’s self-concern disappears, and now he can accept the thought of death without horror (Appendix B).

Now our social structure, as well as philosophy, religion and medicine, have almost nothing to offer to alleviate the mental anguish of the dying. Elderly and elderly people, as a rule, fear not death itself, but the possibility of a purely plant existence devoid of any meaning, as well as suffering and torment caused by disease. It can be stated that there are two leading attitudes in their attitude towards death: firstly, the reluctance to burden their loved ones, and secondly, the desire to avoid painful suffering. Therefore, many, being in a similar position, experience a deep and all-encompassing crisis, affecting simultaneously the biological, emotional, philosophical and spiritual aspects of life.

During this period, it is important to understand the socio-psychological mechanisms of human adaptation to the phenomenon of death. We are talking about a system of psychological protection, certain models of symbolic immortality, and about the social approbation of death - the cult of ancestors, memorial rites, funeral and memorial services, and educational programs of a propaedeutic nature, in which the phenomenon of death becomes a topic of reflection and spiritual quest.

The culture of empathy for the death of another person is an integral component of the general culture of both the individual and society as a whole. At the same time, it is quite rightly emphasized that the attitude towards death serves as a standard, an indicator of the moral state of society, its civilization. It is important to create not only conditions for maintaining normal physiological vitality, but also the prerequisites for optimal life activity, to satisfy the needs of elderly and elderly people for knowledge, culture, art, literature, which are often beyond the reach of older generations.

Reasons for the emergence and development of crises at different age stages

The neonatal crisis is an intermediate period between intrauterine and extrauterine lifestyles. If there had not been an adult next to the newborn, then within a few hours this creature would have died. The transition to a new type of functioning is ensured only by adults. An adult protects the child from bright light, protects him from cold, protects him from noise, etc.

From the reaction of concentration on the mother's face at the age of approximately two and a half months (0; 2.15), an important new formation of the newborn period arises - the revitalization complex. The revitalization complex is an emotionally positive reaction that is accompanied by movements and sounds. Before this, the child’s movements were chaotic and uncoordinated. The complex develops coordination of movements. The revival complex is the first act of behavior, the act of distinguishing an adult. This is also the first act of communication. The revival complex is not just a reaction, it is an attempt to influence an adult (N.M. Shchelovanov, M.I. Lisina, S.Yu. Meshcheryakova). Craig G. Developmental Psychology. - St. Petersburg. Peter, 2007. - p. 153

The revitalization complex is the main neoplasm of the critical period. It marks the end of the newborn and the beginning of a new stage of development - the stage of infancy. Therefore, the appearance of the revival complex represents a psychological criterion for the end of the neonatal crisis.

Crisis of the first year of life. By 9 months - the beginning of the crisis of the first year - the child stands on his feet and begins to walk. As emphasized by D.B. Elkonin Obukhova L.F. Age-related psychology. - M.: Higher education; MGPPU, 2007. - p. 268, the main thing in the act of walking is not only that the child’s space expands, but also that the child separates himself from the adult. For the first time, there is a fragmentation of the single social situation “we”: now it is not the mother who leads the child, but the child who leads the mother wherever he wants. Walking is the first major new development of infancy, marking a break in the old developmental situation.

The second main new development of this age is the appearance of the first word. The peculiarity of the first words is that they are in the nature of pointing gestures. Walking and enriching object actions require speech that would satisfy communication about objects. Speech, like all new developments of age, is transitional in nature. This is an autonomous, situational, emotionally charged speech, understandable only to those close to you. This is speech, specific in its structure, consisting of fragments of words.

The third main neoplasm of infancy is the emergence of manipulative actions with objects. When manipulating with them, the child is still guided by their physical properties. He has yet to master human ways of acting with human objects that surround him everywhere. In the meantime, leaving the old social situation of development is accompanied by negative emotional manifestations of the child that arise in response to the constraint of his physical independence, when the child is fed without regard to his wishes, dressed against his will. This behavior of L.S. Vygotsky, following E. Kretschmer, called hypobulic reactions - reactions of protest in which will and affect are not yet differentiated Rubinshtein S.L. Fundamentals of general psychology. - St. Petersburg: Peter, 2007. - p. 318.

To sum up the first stage of child development, we can say that from the very beginning there are two interconnected lines of mental development: the line of development of orientation in the senses of human activity and the line of development of orientation in the methods of human activity. Mastering one line opens up new opportunities for the development of another. There is a clear, main line of development for each age. However, the main new formations leading to the destruction of the old social situation of development are formed along a different line, which is not a guide in a given period; they arise, as it were, latently.

Crisis of three years. Elsa Koehler Obukhova L.F. Age-related psychology. - M.: Higher education; MGPPU, 2007. - p.283-285highlighted several important symptoms of this crisis.

Negativism. This is a negative reaction associated with the attitude of one person towards another person. The child refuses to obey certain adult demands at all. Negativism should not be confused with disobedience. Disobedience also occurs at an earlier age.

Stubbornness. This is a reaction to your own decision. Stubbornness should not be confused with persistence. Stubbornness consists in the fact that the child insists on his demand, his decision. Here a personality is highlighted, and a demand is made that other people take this personality into account.

Obstinacy. Close to negativism and stubbornness, but has specific characteristics. Obstinacy is more generalized and more impersonal. This is a protest against the order that exists at home.

Self-will. The desire for emancipation from an adult. The child himself wants to do something. In part, this is reminiscent of the crisis of the first year, but there the child strived for physical independence. Here we are talking about deeper things - about the independence of intention, design.

Devaluation of adults. Sh. Buhler described the horror of the family when the mother heard from the child: “stupid” Stolyarenko L.D. Basics of psychology. - Rostov n/d: Phoenix, 2007. - p. 635.

Protest-rebellion, which manifests itself in frequent quarrels with parents. “The child’s entire behavior takes on the features of protest, as if the child is at war with those around him, in constant conflict with them,” wrote L.S. Vygotsky Vygodsky L.S. Questions of child psychology. - St. Petersburg: Union, 2007. - p. 60.

Despotism. Occurs in families with an only child. The child shows despotic power in relation to everything around him and finds many ways to do this.

Western European authors highlight negative aspects in crisis phenomena: the child leaves, distances himself from adults, breaks the social ties that previously united him with the adult. L.S. Vygotsky Vygodsky L.S. Questions of child psychology. - St. Petersburg: Union, 2007. - p. 85emphasized that such an interpretation is incorrect. The child tries to establish new, higher forms of relationships with others. As D.B. believed Elkonin Elkonin D.B. Selected psychological works. - M.: ART-PRESS, 2005. - p. 268, the crisis of three years is a crisis of social relations, and every crisis of relations is a crisis of highlighting one’s “I”.

The three-year crisis represents a breakdown in the relationship that hitherto existed between the child and the adult. Towards the end of early childhood, a tendency towards independent activity arises, which marks the fact that adults are no longer closed to the child by an object and the way of acting with it, but, as it were, open up to him for the first time, acting as bearers of patterns of actions and relationships in the world around him. The phenomenon “I myself” means not only the emergence of outwardly noticeable independence, but also at the same time the separation of the child from the adult. As a result of this separation, adults appear, as it were, for the first time in the world of children's lives. The world of children's life from a world limited by objects turns into the world of adults.

A restructuring of relationships is possible only if the child is separated from the adult. There are clear signs of such a separation, which manifest themselves in the symptoms of the three-year crisis (negativism, stubbornness, obstinacy, self-will, devaluation of adults).

From the new formations of the three-year-old crisis, a tendency arises towards independent activity, at the same time similar to the activity of an adult, because adults act as models for the child, and the child wants to act like them. The tendency to live a common life with an adult runs through all childhood; a child, separating from an adult, establishes a deeper relationship with him, emphasized D.B. Elkonin Ibid. P. 269..

Crisis of seven years. Based on the emergence of personal consciousness, the crisis of seven years arises. The main symptoms of the crisis: loss of spontaneity: between desire and action, the experience of what significance this action will have for the child himself is wedged; mannerisms: the child pretends to be something, hides something (the soul is already closed); “bittersweet” symptom: the child feels bad, but he tries not to show it; difficulties in parenting: the child begins to withdraw and becomes uncontrollable.

These symptoms are based on a generalization of experiences. The child has a new inner life, a life of experiences that does not directly and directly overlap with his outer life. But this inner life is not indifferent to the outer life, it influences it. The emergence of this phenomenon is an extremely important fact: now the orientation of behavior will be refracted through the child’s personal experiences.

A symptom that divides the preschool and primary school ages is the “symptom of loss of spontaneity”: between the desire to do something and the activity itself, a new moment arises - orientation in what the implementation of a particular activity will bring to the child. The symptom of loss of spontaneity is an internal orientation in what meaning the implementation of an activity may have for a child: satisfaction or dissatisfaction with the place that the child will occupy in relationships with adults or other people. Here, for the first time, the emotional and semantic orienting basis of the action appears. According to the views of D.B. Elkonin, there and then, where and when orientation towards the meaning of an action appears - there and then the child moves to a new psychological age Elkonin D.B. Selected psychological works. - M.: ART-PRESS, 2005. - p. 273.

The crisis requires a transition to a new social situation and requires a new content of relationships. The child must enter into a relationship with society as a collection of people carrying out obligatory, socially necessary and socially useful activities. In our conditions, the tendency towards it is expressed in the desire to go to school as soon as possible. Often the higher level of development that a child reaches by the age of seven is confused with the problem of the child’s readiness for school. Observations during the first days of a child’s stay at school show that many children are not yet ready to learn at school.

Adolescence crisis. The process of formation of neoplasms that distinguish a teenager from an adult is extended over time and can occur unevenly, which is why both “childish” and “adult” exist in a teenager at the same time. According to L.S. Vygotsky, Sapogov E.E. Psychology of human development. - M.: Art-Press, 2006. - p. 235-236in his social development situation there are 2 trends: 1) inhibiting the development of adulthood (preoccupation with school studies, lack of other permanent and socially significant responsibilities, financial dependence and parental care, etc.); 2) maturing (acceleration, some independence, subjective feeling of adulthood, etc.). This creates a huge variety of individual development options in adolescence - from schoolchildren, with a childish appearance and interests, to almost adult teenagers who have already joined some aspects of adult life.

Pubertal development (covers the time period from 9-11 to 18 years). Over a relatively short period of 4 years on average, a child's body undergoes significant changes. This entails two main tasks: 1) the need to reconstruct the bodily image of the “I” and build a male or female “tribal” identity; 2) a gradual transition to adult genital sexuality, characterized by joint eroticism with a partner and the combination of two complementary drives.

Formation of identity (goes beyond the boundaries of adolescence and covers the time from 13-14 to 20-21 years). Throughout adolescence, a new subjective reality is gradually formed, transforming the individual’s ideas about himself and others. The formation of psychosocial identity, which underlies the phenomenon of adolescent self-awareness, includes three main developmental tasks: 1) awareness of the temporal extent of one’s own “I,” which includes the childhood past and determines the projection of oneself into the future; 2) awareness of oneself as different from internalized parental images; 3) implementation of a system of elections that ensure the integrity of the individual (mainly we are talking about the choice of profession, gender polarization and ideological attitudes).

Adolescence opens with a crisis, for which the entire period is often called “critical,” “turning point.”

Neither personality crises, nor the collapse of the “I” concept, nor a tendency to abandon previously acquired values ​​and attachments are typical for adolescents. They are characterized by a desire to consolidate their identity, characterized by a focus on their “I”, the absence of contradictory attitudes and, in general, a rejection of any forms of psychological risk. They also maintain a strong attachment to their parents and do not strive for excessive independence in their worldview, social and political attitudes.

S.E. Spranger described 3 types of development in adolescence. The first type is characterized by a sharp, stormy, crisis course, when adolescence is experienced as a second birth, as a result of which a new “I” emerges. The second type of development is smooth, slow, gradual growth, when a teenager joins adult life without deep and serious changes in his own personality. The third type is a development process when a teenager actively and consciously shapes and educates himself, overcoming internal anxieties and crises through willpower. It is typical for people with a high level of self-control and self-discipline.

The main new formations of age, according to E. Spranger, are the discovery of the “I”, the emergence of reflection, awareness of one’s individuality, as well as a feeling of love Galperin P.Ya. Introduction to Psychology. M. - Education, 2006. - p. 82-83.

S. Buhler distinguishes mental puberty from physical (physical), which occurs on average in boys between 14-16 years, in girls - between 13-15 years. With the growth of culture, the period of mental puberty lengthens compared to the period of physical puberty, which is the cause of many difficulties in these years Stolyarenko L.D. Basics of psychology. - Rostov n/d: Phoenix, 2007. - p. 292.

The transformation of a teenager into a young man is manifested in a change in the basic attitude towards the world around him: the negative phase of life denial, inherent in the puberty stage, is followed by a phase of life affirmation, characteristic of adolescence.

The main features of the negative phase: increased sensitivity and irritability, anxiety, slight excitability, as well as “physical and mental malaise,” which are expressed in pugnacity and capriciousness. Teenagers are dissatisfied with themselves, and this dissatisfaction is transferred to the world around them, sometimes leading them to thoughts of suicide.

Added to this is a number of new internal attractions to the secret, forbidden, unusual, to what goes beyond the boundaries of familiar and orderly everyday life. Disobedience and engaging in forbidden activities have a particularly attractive force at this time. The teenager feels lonely, alien and misunderstood in the lives of adults and peers around him. This comes with disappointment. Common modes of behavior are “passive melancholy” and “aggressive self-defense.” The consequence of all these phenomena is a general decrease in performance, isolation from others or an actively hostile attitude towards them and various kinds of antisocial behavior.

The end of the phase is associated with the completion of bodily maturation. The positive period begins with the fact that new sources of joy open up before the teenager, to which he was not receptive until that time: “the experience of nature,” the conscious experience of beauty, love.

Crisis of adolescence. Adolescence is characterized by greater differentiation, compared to adolescence, of emotional reactions and ways of expressing emotional states, as well as increased self-control and self-regulation. Youthful moods and emotional relationships are more stable and conscious than those of adolescents, and correlate with a wider range of social conditions.

Youth is also characterized by an expansion of the range of personally significant relationships, which are always emotionally charged (moral feelings, empathy, the need for friendship, cooperation and love, political, religious feelings, etc.). This is also associated with the establishment of internal norms of behavior, and violation of one’s own norms is always associated with the actualization of feelings of guilt. In youth, the sphere of aesthetic feelings, humor, irony, sarcasm, and strange associations significantly expands. One of the most important places begins to be occupied by the emotional experience of the process of thinking, inner life - the pleasure of “thinking”, creativity.

The development of emotionality in youth is closely related to a person’s individual and personal properties, his self-awareness, self-esteem, etc.

The central psychological new formation of adolescence is the formation of stable self-awareness and a stable image of “I”. This is due to increased personal control, self-government, and a new stage in the development of intelligence. The main acquisition of early youth is the discovery of one’s inner world, its emancipation from adults

Age-related shifts in the perception of others equally apply to self-perception and self-awareness. At this time, there is a tendency to emphasize one’s own individuality and difference from others. Young men develop their own personality model, with the help of which they determine their attitude towards themselves and others.

The discovery of the “I”, one’s unique inner world, is often associated with a number of psychodramatic experiences.

Adolescence is the most important period of development, during which the main identity crisis occurs. This is followed by either the acquisition of an “adult identity” or a delay in development—“diffusion of identity.”

The interval between adolescence and adulthood, when a young person strives (through trial and error) to find his place in society,

The severity of this crisis depends both on the degree of resolution of earlier crises (trust, independence, activity, etc.), and on the entire spiritual atmosphere of society.

An unresolved crisis leads to a state of acute diffusion of identity and forms the basis of a special pathology of adolescence. Identity pathology syndrome, according to E. Erikson, is associated with the following points: regression to the infantile level and the desire to delay the acquisition of adult status as long as possible; a vague but persistent state of anxiety; feeling isolated and empty; constantly being in a state of expectation of something that can change life; fear of personal communication and inability to emotionally influence people of the other sex; hostility and contempt for all recognized social roles, including male and female (“unisex”); contempt for everything domestic and irrational preference for everything foreign (according to the principle “it’s good where we are not”). In extreme cases, the search for a negative identity begins, the desire to “become nothing” as the only way of self-affirmation, sometimes taking on the character of suicidal tendencies Sapogova E.E. Psychology of human development. - M.: Art-Press, 2006. - p. 287-288.

Adolescence is traditionally considered the age of development of the problem of fathers and children.

Young men strive to be equal with adults and would like to see them as friends and advisers, not mentors. Since there is an intensive development of “adult” roles and forms of social life, they often need adults, so at this time one can observe how often boys and girls seek advice and friendship from their elders. Parents can remain an example and a model of behavior for a long time.

At the same time, in youth there is a growing desire to emancipate, separate from the influence of the family, and free themselves from dependence. Therefore, the inability or unwillingness of parents to accept the autonomy of their children often leads to conflicts.

In addition, young men often incorrectly reflect the attitude of adults towards them.

In addition, young men often incorrectly reflect the attitude of adults towards them. In general, we can say the following: in adolescence, autonomy from adults and the importance of socializing with peers grow. The general pattern here is this: the worse and more complex the relationships with adults are, the more intense the communication with peers will be. But the influence of parents and peers is not always mutually exclusive. The “importance” of parents and peers is fundamentally different in different areas of youth activity. They require maximum autonomy in the spheres of leisure, entertainment, free communication, internal life, and consumer orientation. Therefore, psychologists prefer to talk not about a decrease in the influence of parents, but about qualitative changes in youth communication.

Crisis of youth. In youth, life strategies can be varied. One person can immediately determine his life line and professional prospects and stubbornly realize himself in it, another will prefer to try himself in different qualities, outlining different prospects for self-realization, and only after that will he determine the most important positions for himself

Youth in general is characterized by a desire for the spiritual, sublime, high, extraordinary, but conceptualized not in a sentimental-romantic way, as in youth, but realistically - as an opportunity to achieve, change, become, “make yourself.”

In cases where objective living conditions do not make it possible to reach the necessary “cultural heights,” often conceptualized as “another (interesting, clean, new) life” (material insecurity, low social and cultural level of parents, everyday drunkenness, family psychopathization and etc.), a young man is looking for any, even brutal, way to break out of the “inorganic” environment, since age itself presupposes the awareness of the presence of a variety of opportunities for life affirmation - “to make life yourself,” according to your own scenario. Often the desire to change, to become different, to acquire a new quality is expressed in a sharp change in lifestyle, moving, changing jobs, etc., usually conceptualized as a crisis of youth.

The crisis of youth is often correlated with a crisis of family relationships. After the first years of marriage, many young people’s illusions and romantic mood disappear, dissimilarity of views, conflicting positions and values ​​are revealed, negative emotions are demonstrated more, partners more often resort to speculation on mutual feelings and manipulation of each other.

The basis of a crisis in family relationships may be aggression in family relationships, a rigidly structured perception of a partner and a reluctance to take into account many other aspects of his personality (especially those that contradict the prevailing opinion about him). In strong marriages, research shows that husbands dominate. But where their power is too great, the stability of the marriage is disrupted. In strong marriages, compatibility is important in terms of secondary, and not the main personal characteristics of the spouses. Marital compatibility increases with age.

The period of youth with the birth of children introduces new social roles into a person’s life and directly confronts him with historical time. These are not only already mastered professional roles, the roles of husband and wife, sexual partners, etc., but also the roles of mother and father. Mastering precisely these roles is largely the specificity of the process of growing up.

Very often in youth there are role-related intrapersonal conflicts.

Middle age crisis. The midlife crisis is the strangest and most terrible time in a person’s mental development. Many people (especially creative ones), not finding strength in themselves and not finding a new meaning in life, simply leave it. This period (after adolescence) accounts for the largest number of suicides.

An adult begins to form questions that he is not able to answer, but which sit inside and destroy him. “What is the meaning of my existence!?”, “Is this what I wanted!? If yes, then what next!?” etc. The ideas about life that developed between twenty and thirty years old do not satisfy him. Analyzing the path traveled, his achievements and failures, a person discovers that despite an already established and apparently prosperous life, his personality is imperfect, that a lot of time and effort was wasted, that he did little compared to what he could have done, etc. In other words, there is a reassessment of values, a critical revision of one’s “I”. A person discovers that he can no longer change many things in his life, in himself: family, profession, usual way of life. Having realized himself during his youth, a person suddenly realizes that, in essence, he is faced with the same task - search, self-determination in new circumstances of life, taking into account real opportunities (including limitations that he had not noticed before). This crisis manifests itself in a feeling of the need to “do something” and indicates that a person is moving to a new age level - the age of adulthood. “The Crisis of Thirty” is the conventional name for this crisis. This state can occur earlier or later; the feeling of a crisis state can occur repeatedly throughout life (as in childhood, adolescence, adolescence), since the development process proceeds in a spiral without stopping.

Men at this time are characterized by divorce, changing jobs or changing their lifestyle, purchasing expensive things, and frequently changing sexual partners, and there is a clear focus on the latter’s young age. He, as it were, begins to get what he could not get at an earlier age, and realizes his childhood and youth needs.

During the crisis of the 30th birthday, women usually change the priorities established at the beginning of early adulthood. Women focused on marriage and raising children are now increasingly attracted to professional goals. At the same time, those who devoted their energies to work now, as a rule, direct them into the bosom of family and marriage.

Experiencing this crisis moment in his life, a person is looking for an opportunity to strengthen his niche in adult life, to confirm his status as an adult: he wants to have a good job, he strives for security and stability. The person is still confident that the full realization of the hopes and aspirations that make up the “dream” is possible, and he works hard for this.

Midlife. At the beginning of the fifth decade of life (maybe a little earlier or later), a person goes through a period of critical self-assessment and reassessment of what has been achieved in life up to this time, analysis of the authenticity of the lifestyle: moral problems are solved; a person goes through dissatisfaction with marital relationships, worries about children leaving home, and dissatisfaction with the level of career advancement. The first signs of deteriorating health, loss of beauty and physical shape, alienation in the family and in relationships with older children appear, and there is a fear that nothing better will happen in life, in career, in love.

This psychological phenomenon is called a midlife crisis. People critically reevaluate their lives and analyze them. Very often this revaluation leads to the understanding that “life has passed meaninglessly and time has already been lost.”

A midlife crisis is associated with the fear of aging and the realization that what has been achieved is sometimes much less than expected, and is a short-lived peak period followed by a gradual decrease in physical strength and mental acuity. A person is characterized by an exaggerated concern for his own existence and relationships with others. The physical signs of aging become more and more obvious and are experienced by the individual as a loss of beauty, attractiveness, physical strength and sexual energy. All this is assessed negatively both on a personal and social level. In addition, a person has a growing concern that he may be one step behind the new generation, who have received professional training in accordance with new standards, are energetic, have new ideas and are willing to accept, at first, a significantly lower salary.

As a result, depressive states and a feeling of fatigue from a boring reality become dominant in the general background of moods, from which a person either hides in dreams or in real attempts to “prove his youth” through love affairs or a career boost. During this period, a person reconsiders his life and asks himself a question that is sometimes very scary, but always brings relief: “Who am I, apart from my biography and the roles that I play?” If he discovers that he has lived to form and strengthen a false self, then he discovers the possibility of a second adulthood. This crisis is an opportunity to redefine and reorient the personality, a transitional ritual between the continuation of adolescence at the stage of “first adulthood” and the inevitable onset of old age and the proximity of death. Those who consciously go through this crisis feel that their lives have become more meaningful. This period opens up the prospect of gaining a new perspective on one’s “I”, which, however, is often associated with very painful sensations.

The crisis begins with pressure from the unconscious. The sense of “I” acquired by a person as a result of socialization, together with the perceptions and complexes he has formed, together with his defenses of his inner child, begins to creak and grind in the struggle with the self, which is looking for opportunities for expression. Before realizing the onset of a crisis, a person directs his efforts to overcome, ignore or avoid the influence of deep pressure (for example, with the help of alcohol).

When approaching a midlife crisis, a person has a realistic mindset and has experienced so much disappointment and heartache that he even avoids expressing bits of his teenage psychology.

At the same time, a person begins to realize that inevitable physiological changes are happening to his body against his will. A person admits that he is mortal and will definitely come to an end, while he will not be able to complete everything that he so passionately desired and strived for. There is a collapse of hopes associated with infantile ideas about one’s future life (power, wealth, relationships with others).

The stress in marriage life is clearly felt. Spouses who have put up with each other for the sake of their children or have ignored serious problems in their relationship are often no longer willing to ease their differences. It should also be taken into account that sexual intimacy at this time is dulled by habit, a noticeable decrease in physical fitness, the first symptoms of diseases that weaken the body, the onset of menopause, deep-seated anger at the partner and a vague feeling of something missed in life. The number of divorces among those married for 15 years or more is gradually increasing. This is why the so-called “third wave” of divorce occurs in middle age.

The social and psychological difficulties faced by divorced people are great. These include overcoming the feeling of failure that follows a long period of personal spending on another; loss of a familiar way of life and the likely loss of friends and relatives who remained loyal to the partner who has become a stranger.

Men find it easier to remarry than women and sometimes marry women much younger than themselves. Because of the social stigma attached to marriages in which the wife is older than the husband, women find that the pool of age-appropriate and available men is relatively small. In addition, communication and courtship are especially difficult if there are children in the house. Newly formed families face problems of mixing children from two or more previous marriages, the distribution of the roles of stepparents, and the continued influence of the former spouse. If divorce is avoided and married life is maintained, then the problem of aging remains. The prospect of long-term dependence continues to weigh heavily, while the “empty family nest” promises newfound freedom.

Stress on this basis, taken together, leads to psychological and emotional tension.

Attitudes towards money and wealth are also changing. For many women, economic freedom means financial support that they did not receive. For many men, their financial situation means endless restrictions. During the “mid-life” crisis, a review is taking place in this area.

Some differences were found in the course of the midlife crisis between men and women. It has been shown that in women, the stages of the life cycle are structured to a greater extent not by chronological age, but by the stages of the family cycle - marriage, the appearance of children, and the leaving of the parental family by grown children.

Thus, during the midlife crisis, the need to find one's own path arises and then increases, but serious obstacles arise on this path. Symptoms characteristic of a crisis include boredom, job and/or partner changes, noticeable violence, self-destructive thoughts and behaviors, relationship instability, depression, anxiety, and increasing compulsivity. Behind these symptoms are two facts: the existence of a huge internal force that exerts very strong pressure from within, and the repetition of previous patterns of behavior that restrain these internal impulses, but the anxiety that accompanies them increases. When previous strategies become less and less effective in containing the growing internal pressure, a sharp crisis in self-awareness and self-awareness appears.

Crisis of old age. In old age (old age), a person has to overcome three sub-crises. The first of them is to re-evaluate one’s own “I” in addition to its professional role, which for many people remains the main one until retirement. The second sub-crisis is associated with the awareness of the fact of deteriorating health and aging of the body, which gives a person the opportunity to develop the necessary indifference in this regard. As a result of the third sub-crisis, a person’s self-concern disappears, and now he can accept the thought of death without horror.

Undoubtedly, the problem of death is of all ages. However, it is for the elderly and elderly that it does not seem far-fetched, premature, transforming into the problem of natural death. For them, the question of attitude towards death is transferred from subtext to the context of life itself. The time comes when the tense dialogue between life and death begins to clearly sound in the space of individual existence, and the tragedy of temporality is realized.

However, aging, terminal illnesses and dying are not perceived as part of the process of life, but as complete failure and a painful misunderstanding of the limitations of the ability to control nature. From the point of view of the philosophy of pragmatism, which emphasizes the importance of achievement and success, a dying person is a failure.

Elderly and elderly people, as a rule, fear not death itself, but the possibility of a purely plant existence devoid of any meaning, as well as suffering and torment caused by disease. It can be stated that there are two leading attitudes in their attitude towards death: firstly, the reluctance to burden their loved ones, and secondly, the desire to avoid painful suffering. This period is also called the “nodular” period, because, not wanting to be burdened with old age and death, many older people begin to prepare for death, collect things associated with the ritual, and save money for the funeral. Therefore, many, being in a similar position, experience a deep and all-encompassing crisis, affecting simultaneously the biological, emotional, philosophical and spiritual aspects of life. In this regard, it is important to understand the socio-psychological mechanisms of human adaptation to the phenomenon of death. We are talking about a system of psychological defense, certain models of symbolic immortality, and about the social approbation of death - the cult of ancestors, memorial rites, funeral and memorial services, and educational programs of a propaedeutic nature, in which the phenomenon of death becomes a topic of reflection and spiritual quest.

The culture of empathy for the death of another person is an integral component of the general culture of both the individual and society as a whole. At the same time, it is quite rightly emphasized that the attitude towards death serves as a standard, an indicator of the moral state of society, its civilization. It is important to create not only conditions for maintaining normal physiological vitality, but also the prerequisites for optimal life activity, to satisfy the needs of elderly and elderly people for knowledge, culture, art, literature, which are often beyond the reach of older generations.

Death crisis. From a psychological point of view, death is a crisis of individual life, the last critical event in a person’s life. Being at the physiological level an irreversible cessation of all life functions, having an inevitable personal significance for a person, death is at the same time an element of the psychological culture of mankind.

A person’s attitudes towards death at a certain stage of historical development are directly related to self-awareness and humanity’s understanding of itself. He identifies five stages in changing these attitudes.

The first stage is fixed by the attitude “we will all die.” This is the state of “tamed death”, i.e. treating it as a natural inevitability, an everyday phenomenon that should be treated without fear and not perceived as a personal drama. F. Ariès designates the second stage with the term “one’s own death”: it is associated with the idea of ​​an individual judgment over the soul of a person who has lived and died. The third stage, which he calls “death far and near,” is characterized by the collapse of defense mechanisms against inevitability - their wild, untamed natural essence returns to death, as to sex. The fourth stage is “your death,” which gives rise to a complex of tragic emotions in connection with the death of a loved one. As the bonds between people become closer, the death of a loved one is perceived as more tragic than one’s own death. The fifth stage is associated with the fear of death and the very mention of it (repression).

Attitudes towards death changed in several directions: 1) the development of individual self-awareness; 2) development of defense mechanisms against the forces of nature; 3) transformation of faith in an afterlife; 4) transformation of faith into the connection between death and sin, the suffering of Sapogova E.E. Psychology of human development. - M.: Art-Press, 2006. - p. 392-394..

There are five stages of changing a person's attitude towards his own death. These are the stages of denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance.

The first reaction to a fatal disease is usually: “No, not me, that’s not true.” This initial denial of death is very similar to the first desperate attempts of a climber to stop his fall, and this is a natural human reaction to stress. As soon as the patient realizes the reality of what is happening, his denial gives way to anger or frustration: “Why me, because I still have so much to do?” Sometimes this stage is replaced by a stage of trying to make a deal with oneself and with others and gain additional time to live.

When the meaning of the disease is fully realized, a period of fear or depression begins. This stage has no analogues among experiences associated with sudden death, and, apparently, occurs only in those situations when the person faced with death has time to comprehend what is happening. The final stages of the cycle preceding the onset of clinical death are the same for both instant and slow death. If dying patients have enough time to cope with their fears and come to terms with the inevitability of death, or receive appropriate help from others, they often begin to experience a state of peace and tranquility.

People who are not facing immediate death have more time to come to terms with the prospect of death. In the last years of life, many people review their lives in retrospect. Such a review performs the most important functions: a person resolves old conflicts within himself, rethinks his actions, forgives himself for mistakes and even discovers something new in himself. Death provides the aging person with a necessary perspective, and, paradoxically, dying can be a process of reaffirming a person's commitment to life.

So, in this work the features and characteristics of age-related crises were presented: their symptoms, psychological content, dynamics of their course. To overcome age crises at different age stages, it is necessary to carry out psychocorrectional work among children and adults.

INTRODUCTION

The problem of age-related crises is relevant and interesting, but not sufficiently developed theoretically and experimentally.

The essence of age-related crises is a change in the system of relationships between a person and the surrounding reality. Unlike crises of a neurotic or traumatic type, they are normative changes necessary for normal mental development.

During these periods, the emotional background changes, elements of depressive symptoms, anxiety, tension, and decreased performance appear. During critical periods, children become irritable, capricious, and disobedient, entering into conflicts with adults. It becomes necessary for teachers and parents to develop new strategies for upbringing and teaching in connection with fundamental changes in the child’s psyche. Age crises are characteristic not only of childhood. There are also so-called crises of adulthood, a characteristic feature of which is an analysis of a person’s life and oneself.

The study of age-related crises is an important point in the practical work of a psychologist, as it helps him find a way out of a person’s crisis conditions with the least losses and the greatest gains.

This work examines the basics of the concept of “age crisis”, shows the difference between critical periods and stable ones, and also provides a detailed description of all age-related crises.

The purpose of the work is to form ideas about the essence, structure and content of age-related crises.

Objectives: theoretical study of critical ages; analysis of the structure and content of age-related crises.

The subject of the study is the impact of age-related crises on human life.

This work is based on the works of L.S. Vygotsky, E. Erikson, D.B. Elkonina, L.I. Bozovic et al.

THE ESSENCE OF THE AGE CRISIS

The concept of age crisis

Age crises are short-term (up to a year) age periods during which dramatic psychological changes occur. Age-related crises arise during the transition from one age stage to another and relate to normative processes necessary for normal personality development (L.S. Vygotsky, E. Erikson).

In modern psychology, the following age-related crises are distinguished:

birth crisis

newborn crisis

one year crisis

· crisis of three years

· crisis of seven years

· crisis of adolescence (14-15 years)

crisis of adolescence (18-20 years old)

crisis of youth (about 30 years old)

· crisis of adulthood (40-45 years)

old age crisis (about 60 years old)

In developmental psychology, there is no consensus on crises, their place and role in mental development. Some authors (S.L. Rubinstein, A.V. Zaporozhets) believe that crises are a negative, deviant manifestation, the result of improper upbringing, and that normal human development is quite possible without going through crises. Other authors (L. S. Vygotsky, L. I. Bozhovich, D. B. Elkonin) consider crises a necessary and obligatory condition for further human development. Moreover, a person who has not truly experienced a crisis will not fully develop further.

The age crisis is also caused by biological factors (physiological changes in the body, morphofunctional changes, etc.), and social factors (changes in the social development situation, changes in status, adoption of new social roles, etc.). Age-related crisis changes can be short-lived, remaining practically unnoticeable to a person and the people around him and expressed in abnormal behavior, or they can be quite long-term and protracted.

The course of age-related crises largely depends on temperament, character, individual biological characteristics, social relationships, emotional and motivational sphere, etc. The beginning of a crisis period is marked by a conflict between what is available and what is desired, that is, a conflict between reflexive models and a person’s readiness to fulfill the intended life trajectory .

The age crisis is characterized by a desire to change the leading activity, since in new age conditions the implementation of the previous one is difficult or impossible. When personal contradictions aggravate, external conditions can provoke an age crisis. At the same time, the person becomes more unstable and responds to weak stimuli with inadequate reactions, which leads to significant changes in behavior.

The term “age crisis” was introduced by the Russian psychologist L. S. Vygotsky and defined it as a change in a person’s personality that occurs when stable periods change.

According to Vygotsky, an age crisis is a qualitative positive change, as a result of which the personality moves to a new, higher stage of development. The duration, form and severity of these changes depend on individual characteristics, social and microsocial conditions.

According to L.S. Vygotsky’s definition, during periods of crisis, a child changes entirely in a short period of time, becomes difficult to educate, but the point is not in upbringing, but in change - the child becomes different in relation to his former self.

The external behavioral features of crises according to Vygotsky include the following:

· unclear boundaries separating the beginning and end of crises. A crisis occurs unnoticed; it is difficult to diagnose its beginning and end;

· in the middle of the crisis, its culmination is observed, the presence of which distinguishes the critical period from others;

· sharp changes occur in the child’s behavior, he becomes difficult to educate, interest in classes and school performance decrease. Conflicts with others are possible.

A more thorough analysis can reveal deeper features in the behavior of children during a crisis:

· in contrast to stable stages, development occurs more destructively than creatively;

· the progressive development of the child’s personality is suspended at this time, the processes of decay and decomposition of what was formed at the previous stage come to the fore;

· the child not so much gains as loses what he previously acquired; previously established interests disintegrate.

Thus, according to Vygotsky, a crisis is a stage of development that requires mandatory destruction and overcoming of the old system (relations, connections, actions).

The main provisions of L.S. Vygotsky were developed in the works of his followers (D.B. Elkonin, L.I. Bozhovich, etc.).

D.B. Elkonin defines crises as transitions from one system to another. D.B. Elkonin believed that each period consists of two stages: at the first stage, the motivational-need sphere of the individual changes, and at the second, the operational and technical sphere is mastered. He discovered the law of periodicity of different types of activity at each stage: activity that orients the subject in the system of relations between people and interactions in society is necessarily followed by activity that orients in the ways of using objects. Between these two types of orientation, contradictions arise every time.

According to D.B. Elkonin, the crises of the newborn, 3 and 11 years are crises of relationships, when new orientations arise in human relationships; and the crises of the 1st year, 7 and 15 years are crises of worldview that change the orientation in the world of things.

L.I. Bozovic meant by crises transitional stages from one period of child development to another. She believed that in response to the needs of the child, a systemic new formation arises, which carries a motivating force. This new formation is a generalized result of the child’s psychological development in the previous period and becomes the basis for the further formation and development of personality. Therefore L.I. Bozhovich considers crises as turning points in the ontogenetic development of the individual, by analyzing which one can find the psychological essence of this process.

Critical periods are especially pronounced in children whose new needs, which appear at the end of each stage of mental development, are not satisfied or are actively suppressed. L.I. Bozovic emphasized that one should distinguish between the dissatisfaction of needs as a result of their suppression by social demands (both those of others and the subject himself), and cases of unsatisfaction of needs due to the lack of suitable ways to satisfy them. Thus, in the second option, the contradiction between the subject and his capabilities is the main driving force of mental development.

Thus, the age crisis is considered a transitional stage that a person experiences when changing age periods, when certain stages of development are completed.

Every person goes through certain age-related crises in his life. In psychology, there are several age-related crises that occur at a certain period and are marked by a person’s transition from one life stage to another. Each age crisis has its own characteristics and characteristics, which will be discussed in the online magazine website.

An age crisis is natural for any person. Its main goal is to transform a person’s life and encourage him to move to a new stage of his development. There are several age-related crises, and they all occur throughout a person’s life. At each age stage, a person has new tasks and goals that he must go through and overcome before a new round in his life begins.

Age crises are programmed by nature itself, so all people go through them. The main thing remains - how will a person get through the crisis? Some people go through certain crises easily, others difficult. Some crises may seem easy for a person, while others may seem difficult.

It should be understood that a crisis is not only a change in a person’s mental activity, but also his life circumstances that arise during a given period. Often a person’s lifestyle changes under the influence of an age crisis.

A crisis can be understood as any situation and environment when you are experiencing major changes in your life. A crisis situation is not only a martial law in the country, a change of government, terror, but also dismissal from work, non-payment of wages, divorce from a loved one, etc. Even the birth of a child is in some sense a crisis, since both parents have to change their habitual way of life and adapt it to the needs of the third person. Although such crises cannot be called age-related.

If you remember all your moments of crisis in life, you will understand that each time you experienced them very hard, bitterly, with fear and anxiety. It was as if you were confused, unsettled, and didn’t know what to do or where to go. A crisis is a period when serious changes occur in a person’s life. And how he will experience his crisis depends only on him.

In a crisis, people more often experience negative emotions than positive ones. It is during such periods of disappointment, fear and worry about an unknown future that a person is in dire need of happiness. A person cannot find a “thread” that he would grab and hold on to, so as not to fall even further into the abyss. This “thread” is a piece of at least some happiness. This is why many people make decisions at critical moments in their lives that they would never have made if they were in a stable situation. For example, women begin to date men who are far from their ideals. And men can work for pennies.

The crisis of life is dangerous because a person reduces the level of his claims and conditions, because he is ready to enjoy little, if only there is at least some happiness. But let's not take things to extremes. The crisis is not so bad. You just need to figure out how to make yourself happy during this period?

Where to find your happiness in times of crisis? While you suffer, worry, and are forced to change your lifestyle, it is very useful to be happy. It gives you energy and... Where can you get this very happiness? You just need to think about what you can do usefully during your crisis. For example, you once loved to read - take out your books and re-read them again. If you ever wanted to play sports, do it. You once liked the idea of ​​learning to understand economics - go to special courses. In other words, remember what once fascinated you, interested you, but was abandoned for one reason or another (most often due to lack of time). Renew your hobbies while you're in .

A small piece of happiness can be obtained from simply comparing yourself with other people. But there is also a danger here that you will begin to compare yourself with those who, in your opinion, are more successful than you. Look at those people who live worse than you. Of course, it sounds a little selfish, but it can also bring pleasure - the understanding that your life is not so bad.

A crisis is dangerous because a person can lower his requirements for the quality of his life. Bad people will begin to appear around him, he will begin to get into unpleasant situations. Therefore, you need to remember your hobbies and interests, which will give at least some joy at the moment while you are emerging from the crisis. If you have such an opportunity, then set goals for the future and begin to slowly implement them. Do something useful for yourself. Only this will bring you joy during this period.

What are age crises?

An age crisis should be called features of mental activity that are observed in absolutely all individuals during a certain period. Of course, the age crisis does not occur exactly on the birthday when it should begin. For some people, the age crisis begins a little earlier, for others - a little later. In children, age-related crises are usually most noticeable and occur within plus or minus 6 months of a given age. In adults, age-related crises can last a very long time (7-10 years) and begin plus or minus 5 years from a given age. At the same time, the symptoms of an age-related crisis in an adult will increase gradually and even have vague characteristics.

An age crisis should be called a new round, an outcome, the beginning of a new movement. In other words, with the onset of an age crisis, a person has new tasks, often based on a feeling of personal dissatisfaction that arose in the previous period.

The midlife crisis is best known for the fact that it is during this period that a person looks back, understands missed opportunities, realizes the meaninglessness of his desire to make other people's desires come true and his readiness to part with everything just to start living the way he wants.

An age crisis is the beginning of a new movement, when a person sets new goals and tries to achieve them before another crisis occurs.

Psychology examines age-related crises in detail, since with their onset many things begin to change in a person’s life. Not only the desires and aspirations of the individual change, but also his mental activity. Crises that occur in childhood are associated with mental and physical development, while crises in adulthood are more associated with achieved desires, satisfaction with life and relationships with other people.

Age crises provoke a person to move. As soon as everything in the life of an individual has calmed down, it has worked out, he has become accustomed to his image, and again he has internal experiences, restructuring, transformation. Every crisis is marked by the fact that a person is forced to change something in his life. This leads to instability of his position, the need to overcome difficulties and solve emerging problems.

That’s why psychologists look at age-related crises in more detail to understand how a person can easily get through them. The following advice is given:

1. Each crisis forces a person to solve certain problems. If a person cannot find a solution, then he often gets stuck in a crisis period. A new round begins, which becomes even more difficult to overcome due to unsolved problems in the previous period.
2. Every crisis is marked by changes in a person. And the individual does not always progress (develop). There are frequent cases when an individual, on the contrary, regresses, that is, degrades due to his inability to adapt to the new conditions of his existence.
3. Parents should help overcome crises in childhood. Otherwise, if the child does not go through a certain crisis, he will be stuck in it for a long time, continuing to worry him in subsequent years, even throughout his life, until the problem of the crisis is solved and eliminated. So, if:

• The child will not receive basic trust, then he will not be able to establish close relationships with people.
• The child will not gain independence, then he will not be able to make his own decisions and understand his own desires.
• If a child does not learn to work hard or does not acquire certain skills, then it will be difficult for him to achieve success in life.

Many people get stuck in adolescence - a period when a person must take responsibility for his own life. If a child runs away from responsibility, then he is deprived of the opportunity to be successful.

Thus, an age crisis is a specific task that a person must solve in the time allotted to him in order to safely move to a new stage of his development when the time comes.

Age crises and their characteristics

So, let's move on to the characteristics of age-related crises:

1. The first crisis occurs from birth to one year - the period of development of basic trust in the world. Here the child screams loudly and demands attention and care from loved ones. That is why parents should run to him at the first call, which is not pampering or a whim, but becomes a need of this age. Otherwise, if the child does not receive all the care and love at the first cry, he will develop distrust of the world.
2. The second age crisis occurs between the ages of 1 and 3 years - when the child gradually tries to do everything himself. He tries his hand, repeats after adults, gradually gains autonomy and independence from them. Here the child needs help and encouragement. It is at this age that he becomes capricious, stubborn, hysterical, which is associated with his desire to be independent. The child also needs to set boundaries (what can and cannot be done), otherwise he will grow up to be a tyrant. Do not protect him from experiments and knowledge of his own body, because it is at this stage that the child begins to study his genitals and understand the difference between the sexes.
3. The third age crisis occurs between the ages of 3 and 6 years - when the child learns to work hard and begins to do all the housework. It is during this period that the child needs to be taught everything, starting with the basics. You need to allow him to do everything on his own, under the supervision of his parents, making mistakes and correcting them without being punished. Also at this age, the child is interested in role-playing games, which he should be encouraged to do, since in this way he learns social life in all its aspects.
4. The fourth age crisis occurs from 6 to 12 years - when the child easily and quickly acquires knowledge and skills that he will use throughout his life. That is why during this period he should be trained, educated and allowed to attend all the circles that he wants to engage in. During this period, he will gain the experience and skills that he will use throughout his life.
5. The fifth stage is called “adolescence” and is marked by difficulties in communication between parents and children. This is due to the fact that children’s attitudes towards themselves and adults change, which parents should take into account. At this stage, the child is engaged in self-identification: who is he, what should he do, what role does he play in this life? Often a teenager here joins various informal groups, changes his image and tries new models of behavior. Parents are no longer authorities for children, which is normal. What can parents do?

• Start respecting the child’s wishes and talking to him as an equal. If you don’t like something, then hint or say it gently so that the child will think and decide for himself whether to obey you.
• Become an example for him. If he does not see you as an authority, then offer him the option of a worthy person from whom he will take an example (preferably of his gender). Otherwise, the child himself will find someone to look up to.
• Help your child find himself and his meaning in life. Not to edify, but to allow you to get carried away not only with your studies, but also with your interests.

1. The sixth crisis occurs at the age of 20-25 - when a person completely moves away (splits off) from his parents. An independent life begins, which parents should not interfere with. At this stage, a person learns to communicate with the opposite sex and build relationships with them. If this does not happen, it means that the previous stage has not been completed. A person also makes new friends, joins work life, where he encounters new people and teams. It is very important that a person knows how to take responsibility and overcome all difficulties. If, under the onslaught of problems, a person runs to his parents, it means that he has not yet gone through some previous stage. Here a person must overcome the barrier when he must meet other people's expectations and be himself. You need to stop pleasing others and start living your own life, being yourself, going your own way. If a person cannot protect himself from public opinion, then he continues to be infantile (a child).
2. The seventh stage begins at age 25 and lasts until age 35-45. Here a person begins to arrange his family, develop a career, find friends who will respect him, develop, strengthen and make all this stable in his life.
3. The eighth crisis is called the “midlife crisis,” which begins at the age of 40 (plus or minus 5 years) - when a person has everything stable, well-established, organized, but he begins to understand that all this is pointless and does not make him happy. Here a person begins to look back to understand why he is unhappy. He did everything as his relatives, friends and society in general told him, but he is still unhappy. If a person understands that before he did not live the way he would like, then he destroys it all. If a person is more or less satisfied with his life, then he only sets new goals to which he will strive, having everything that he already has.
4. The next crisis also becomes a turning point, it begins at 50-55 years old - when a person chooses whether he will continue to live or grow old. Society tells a person that he is already losing his importance. A person is aging, so he is no longer needed, since there are younger and more promising people. And here a person decides whether he will continue to fight, live, develop, or begin to grow old, think about death, and prepare for retirement.
5. The last crisis occurs at the age of 65 - when a person has extensive experience, knowledge, and skills. What will he do next? Depending on the decision made, a person either begins to share his knowledge, teach young people, or begins to get sick, become a burden to loved ones, and demand their attention, like a small child.

Features of age-related crises

Depending on how a person reacts to his periods of crisis, he goes through them hard or soft. You don’t have to show that something is starting to change. However, age-related crises occur for everyone, which is inevitable. If you try to run away from a crisis period, not notice it, try not to change anything in your life, then this will not help matters.

However, there are people who are more open to any changes in their lives. They go through periods of crisis more gently because they quickly adapt and learn to everything.

Bottom line

An age crisis is an obligatory phenomenon in the life of any person, which is associated with mental changes in the individual. How a person will go through this or that crisis period depends on him personally. However, in a crisis period you can get stuck, degrade or progress (become more perfect), which depends on the person himself and which will affect his entire future life.

Crises of age-related development are phenomena that every person faces in life. They manifest themselves in the transformation of people’s attitudes towards the surrounding reality, psychological changes in connection with development and improvement at a certain age stage.

Most often, age crises are characterized by negative changes manifested in stress and depression.

Most people successfully cope with these stages in life, reaching a new, more productive level of development. However, in some cases, you may need the help of a specialist to help you cope with the causes and consequences of stressful situations.

Specifics of the definition

The opinions of psychologists on the nature of age-related crises are diametrically divided.

Some believe that periods of crisis are a necessary component of physiological and psychological changes. Without them, personal development cannot occur, because throughout a person’s life’s journey, a person’s system of values, view of society and himself changes.

Other psychologists say that the emergence of crises in a person’s life is associated with mental disorders. That is, the manifestations of these stages are classified as psychological diseases that must be treated.

In any case, you need to understand that the time of onset of the age crisis and the severity of its manifestation are individual for each person, although psychologists distinguish conditional age limits.

The famous psychologist and pedagogical figure L. S. Vygotsky argued that crisis periods are not only a normal and natural state of a person, caused by changes in physical and psychological factors, but also a very useful phenomenon, with the help of which a person can move to a new stage of his development. With their help, a person develops strong-willed character traits and expands his personal and social horizons. However, the teacher emphasizes that such an impact on the individual will occur if the behavior of others has a competent pedagogical and psychological approach.

If a person is ready for change, then problems with the psychological state will not arise. However, people often feel sorry for themselves, not wanting to change anything in their lives. In this case, we can say that they themselves provoke the onset of such depressive states, from which only a specialist can help.

Manifestation Traits

It is necessary to clearly understand that periods of crisis are stages in a person’s life when not only character traits are formed, but also important, often life-changing decisions are made. After all, the word “crisis” is translated from Greek as “fork in the road.” A person chooses his life path, environment, interests.

Changes in people's consciousness take place against the background of their usual way of life. What begins to happen to a person is incomprehensible and frightening at first. A constant feeling of discomfort haunts and deprives you of the opportunity to feel confident in the future. The feeling that you need to change something in life and change yourself does not go away.

At this time, constant conflict situations occur with family, friends and colleagues. A person expresses dissatisfaction with everything that surrounds him. This happens due to internal tossing, unwillingness to accept reality, and the search for ideal solutions.

During a crisis, it is important for a person to find the only correct solution that will help him change for the better. Otherwise, he cannot do without the help of a specialist.

All development crises are characterized by the following provisions:

• A crisis period causes complex psychological changes to which every person is subject. This must be accepted, using all available potential to get out of the current situation;
• The changes in consciousness that appear are not the end, but the beginning of a new path. All accumulated contradictions over a certain period of time come to the surface and require resolution;
• There is a way out of any situation, you just need to make an effort to realize your hidden potential;
• Having correctly “survived” a turning point, a person becomes stronger, more confident and more interesting. He gains confidence in his own abilities and develops a comfortable lifestyle.

Various crises in humans are based not only on physiological changes associated with age. Critical stages can occur for various reasons related to personal life, professional activity or health status. These are personal crises. Their appearance is influenced by several factors:

• Physical or psychological trauma;
• Formation of personal qualities and character;
• The influence of others: peers, adults, any significant people for a person;
• Desire to achieve excellence in all areas of activity;
• Sudden changes in a person’s usual course of life.

During a turning point, a person always faces a certain choice that he must realize and accept. The success of a person’s future life will depend on the correctness of this choice.

Characteristics

Psychologists identify “natural” turning points that occur after reaching a certain age in all people.

Crises and age-related changes have a close relationship. Turning points are of particular importance in childhood and adolescence. At this time, there is an intensive formation of personal qualities, character traits and attitudes towards the surrounding reality. This is why most age-related turning points occur in childhood.

Basically, any transitional stage in children does not last long; with a competent approach from adults, it takes only a few months. The time frame cannot be clearly defined either, since the physical and psychological capabilities of children are different.

Children are characterized by drastic changes in their attitude towards others and themselves.

External changes manifest themselves in disobedience, aggressive behavior, and whims.

In adolescence, a protest against an established way of life can be expressed by an addiction to bad habits, a decrease in interest in educational activities, and a focus on one problem that does not carry anything important.

An important feature of turning points is the emergence of new character traits that indicate the attitude towards society and the surrounding reality. It is worth noting that such neoplasms are temporary in nature and after a short time they change to others, deeper and more stable.

Distinctive features

A person who is at a turning point in life always stands out from his environment. There are several signs that can be used to characterize the onset of a crisis.

• An absent look. People are constantly immersed in themselves, they may not notice those around them, they may not hear the questions asked;
• Sudden change in mood. Moreover, this symptom is especially pronounced in adolescence, when boys and girls have not yet learned to control their emotions. In adulthood, it is easier for people to control mood swings, but here, too, everything is very individual.
• Consciously or unconsciously, a person skips meals, sleeps poorly, and has nightmares that prevent them from getting enough sleep.
• Excess of emotionality. When experiencing a turning point, people go to two extremes: they either see everything in negative terms, or they put on rose-colored glasses, developing vigorous activity in all directions.

Regardless of what age a certain turning point in life occurs, those around you should not suppress its manifestations. A person must survive this period in order to learn certain lessons from it, otherwise psychological disorders cannot be avoided.

In order to help your loved ones survive developmental crises, you need to know their approximate age range and specific manifestations.

Let us consider the main turning points associated with the maturation of the individual.

Birth

When taking its first breath, a newborn, unlike its parents, does not experience joy from its birth. The first feeling that visits him is fear of a new unknown world, where everything is so different from what he experienced before in the womb.

Bright light, loud sounds, cold - all this causes severe psychological discomfort in the baby. The umbilical cord, which provided a reliable connection with the mother, is cut. The fight for life begins.

The beginning of the way

The first attempts to move independently, sounds that begin to form words, the desire to touch and taste everything. The child develops conscious desires, which stand out more and more clearly against the background of reflexive needs. The slow and painful, often unconscious, first separation from the mother begins.

This condition is painful because the baby still really needs her help and support, both physically and psychologically. However, the desire to explore the world is becoming stronger. This first internal contradiction causes personality conflict.

Third year

One of the most emotionally difficult turning points in the development of a little person. Physical development is progressing at a rapid pace, the baby wants to do everything himself. However, he does not always succeed in this.

A personality begins to form, separating oneself from parents and peers. The desire to show independence and express one’s position is expressed in violent protests against the established way of life. Protests manifest themselves in whims, disobedience, and aggression.

Adults must be patient, because their behavior largely determines what kind of personality their child will grow up to be, how he will relate to others, and what kind of relationships he will develop in society. After all, the baby’s demands are determined by his unconscious needs and desires, which he is still unable to understand.

It is important for parents to develop a specific behavior strategy with the help of which they can show all the diversity of the surrounding reality and teach their child to correctly use all life’s opportunities in a positive way.

School realities

This transition period is not as emotionally pronounced as in three-year-olds. However, children experience severe discomfort when entering school, because their usual way of life changes and the demands placed on them by adults increase.

It is important for parents to support their children during this period, because this is the time of development of children’s self-esteem. Not only the academic performance of schoolchildren, but also their relationships with peers, self-confidence and their actions depend on the competent approach of teachers.

The formation of personality during this period occurs very intensively. Teachers and peers become people who influence the development of children’s character, because children spend most of their time at school.

If for some reason the child does not have a good relationship in the school community, parents must fill this vacuum, show ways out of dead-end situations, and teach how to resolve controversial and conflict situations.

Almost adults

At this time, the formation of personality occurs under the influence of the opinion of society: for a teenager it is very important what people significant to him say about his actions.

The manifestation of negativism, aggression, the desire for independence at any cost are signs of a crisis of adolescence.

The influence of parents' authority depends on their competent position. If adults become friends for older children, capable of understanding, helping and guiding, and not judging, this will help avoid conflict situations at home.

It largely depends on the parents how quickly this difficult, but very important period for the formation of personality will pass.

Life definition

After graduating from school, when hormonal passions have already subsided, young people face a number of new important problems. You need to decide on the choice of your future profession, your future life path, and setting goals.

Young people are already consciously planning their future adult lives. Modern realities provide a huge choice of different paths, and they are desperately trying to find their own, only necessary and important for them. At the same time, they often make the mistake of accepting the one that their parents imposed on them as the only correct option. The price for this mistake will be a prolonged midlife crisis.

Crisis of thirty

It would seem that this time should become reliable and stable for a determined personality. However, it is at this time that a person begins to think about the correctness of the choice made in his youth, clearly sees and can analyze the mistakes made.

For some, these years will be the best time in their lives, since, having managed to analyze everything that does not suit them, people will be able to achieve great heights in their careers and personal development. Others will begin ineffective self-analysis, which will lead to depression and a complete refusal to further self-improvement.

Closer to forty

Perhaps the most difficult period for an already formed personality.

A person comes to the realization that half of his life has already been lived, and much of what he wanted could not be realized.

Family, career, familiar surroundings seem to be unnecessary ballast that interferes with “free swimming.”

It is during this period that most families are destroyed, people change their profession, social circle and passions.

Men most often try to fulfill themselves in love pleasures, women - in self-analysis. People are trying to change their usual way of life in some way, being careful not to have time to do what they think are important things.

Retirement

The age of analysis, comprehension of the years lived. As soon as a person approaches the retirement age, there is a clear awareness of the immutable truth: life is coming to an end, and one cannot return to one’s former youth.

Many people, especially those who have no relatives or for some reason have bad relationships with them, fall into a depressed state, acutely feeling their loneliness.

This is the moment in life when the support of family is vital. It is important for older people to know that they are needed and useful.

It is very gratifying that recently in our country there has been a trend of increasing numbers of people who have learned to enjoy their old age. After all, now they have a lot of free time, there are no responsibilities to adult children, and they can live for their own pleasure, doing what they love, for which they never had time during working days.

To spite all crises

If in childhood parents help overcome turning points in personality development, then in adulthood a person has to cope with problems himself.

Psychologists have developed tips that will help you learn a lesson from any crisis situation, become better, and not get bogged down in depression.

• Learn to find joy in simple things. Happiness consists of little things.
• Learn to relax and enjoy being alone with yourself.
• Physical activity can kill any depression. Take up dancing, yoga, or just jogging in the morning. A charge of vivacity and good mood is guaranteed to you.
• Do only things that bring you pleasure in your free time.
• Love yourself. Make it a rule to praise yourself for any little things, raise your self-esteem by any means.
• Don't suppress your emotions. If you want to cry, don't hold yourself back. This way, you can get rid of the burden of accumulated negative emotions.
• Communicate as much as possible, do not isolate yourself. If you feel that any communication makes you uncomfortable, seek help from a specialist.

From all that has been said above, it is obvious that age-related crises are characteristic of every person, without exception. But how these turning points will pass depends on the adult generation, which was able to provide the necessary support in time, guiding them on the right path.

The more correct the parents’ approach to crises in childhood, the easier it will be for a person to pass through turning points in life in adulthood.