The process of personality formation: how a person develops throughout life

A person as an individual is an important concept that defines an adult individual who is able to behave adequately in society, bear responsibility for his actions, and also have a healthy desire to be socially useful. Personality formation begins in infancy and continues throughout life. The most active development occurs in childhood and adolescence, when many factors influence the child’s worldview and attitude towards the world.

Personality development is a lifelong process

The concept of personality development

The process of personality formation, which begins in the first months of birth, continues almost continuously throughout life. An individual gains experience in communication, learns to adapt to the situation, realizes his uniqueness and tries to show it to others. Over time, there is a need to stand out from the crowd.

Note! Often the need to stand out in society and be useful to it occurs at the level of contradiction.

Later, the individual wants to be useful to others, to contribute to the development of society. All this is the formation of personality, which is characterized by different stages and phases. When describing how personality is formed, modern sources of information adhere to long-established definitions of these stages and phases of personality formation. They include information about how an individual behaves almost from birth, and what impact various factors have on his personal development.

Conclusion

So, we examined the stages of personality development according to various criteria and touched upon the origins of personality formation. It is important to understand: regardless of our current situation, there is always the opportunity to move forward and not waste time, which can easily be used for good deeds. Whether it’s self-knowledge or developing your own business, building a career or creativity, use all the necessary tools and achieve success with the Self-Development and Self-Knowledge project.

Topic: Personal growth

Personality development throughout life

Being very young, the child unwittingly copies the behavior of his parents. Moreover, the family member who has greater influence on the others, the authoritative one. Soon children develop a need for independence; psychology sometimes identifies this period as a crisis of childhood. An example is the whims of a baby, although in reality he simply has not yet learned to cope with emotions; his nature requires changes and development.

Volitional personality traits - what is it in psychology, their formation

Children, as they say, are like sponges, eagerly absorbing everything new. In the process of developing a personality, they even copy advertisements they see on television. As they grow, they are able to adapt to change. For example, when a child starts going to school, he (often reluctantly) gets used to the discipline of sitting still for 45 minutes. School educational methods, through assessments and minor punishments, direct the development of the personality of a growing organism in one direction or another, depending on its perception.

Note! For a child to successfully socialize, there is no need to put pressure on him or force him. Every person needs to feel empathy and understanding, otherwise, instead of adapting, he will resist and move away from social groups.

The development of a child’s personality largely depends on the behavior of the parents.

Gradually, the child moves on to socialization when an interest in closer communication with peers appears. This period of personality formation is due to the fact that previously the individual did not need to understand society. Now he observes the group, tries on the roles of leaders and followers, and often wants to take the place of authority.

The borderline state between childhood and adulthood still requires pedagogy and instructions from the individual. In adolescence, experiencing ups and downs, an individual searches for himself. Only then does he delve into social studies, where he trains his abilities to direct the accumulated experience to benefit the world around him.

Stages of personality development

The formation of each person as an individual has a number of stages, positive and negative. To describe them as briefly as possible, they look like this:

Adaptation. The ability of an individual to psychologically adapt to a social group and its activities;
Personalization. The need to stand out from the group, to show oneself as an independent subject;
Integration. Merging with society, its activities, searching and strengthening connections that will contribute to the positive result of this aspiration;
Disintegration. Non-acceptance by society or self-isolation, an attempt to minimize contact with the environment, which leads to a stop in personality formation;
Degradation. Reverse development, during which the individual loses his ability to work, his activity and adequacy suffer.

Factors in personality development

A person’s personality is formed throughout life under the influence of a number of factors. It is known that they do not exist separately, i.e. without one there cannot be another. Among the factors of personality development are:

Internal – characterized by the individual’s temperament, his aspirations, willpower and motivation.
External – natural and psychological environment, pedagogical and social education.
Social – acquired abilities, knowledge, methods of behavior of the individual;
Biological - heredity, innate abilities.

Biological factors can predetermine the development of personality

Development of a child's personality

Personality formation takes place with the help of so-called agents of socialization. These are individuals or groups or an entire organization that have a compelling influence on an individual’s alternation of social roles.

These include:

Agents of primary socialization are parents, close relatives and friends, possibly mentors;
Agents of secondary socialization are educational or labor administration, church, army, etc.

It is noteworthy that at different stages of development, “agents” can change in importance.

Necessary criteria for personality development

To begin with, it is worth identifying two criteria for the formation of a human personality, which were highlighted by L. I. Bozhovich:

The first criterion highlights the role of the presence of hierarchy in one specific sense in a person’s motives. Literally, this means a person's ability to abandon his own immediate motives in favor of something else. In this case, considering this criterion, we can say that the individual has indirect behavior. It is worth noting that the motives by which immediate impulses are overcome are socially significant. Also, these motives are social in origin, which implies the following: the motives appeared and were formed in the conditions of existence that influence the development of human society;
The second criterion refers to the ability to consciously manage one’s behavior. The foundation of consciously made decisions is an understanding of one’s own principles, motives and goals.

We can say that the second criterion differs from the first in that it presupposes direct conscious subordination of certain motives . The first criterion notes the indirect behavior of a person, which has the peculiarity that it is likely to be based on decisions made, and a spontaneously formed motivational hierarchy . Spontaneous morality can also be considered - a phenomenon that means the implementation of an action or the adoption of this or that decision without having a justification for the reason for committing the act in this particular way. But at the same time, human behavior is not immoral or inappropriate.

The second feature is also a unique definition of mediated behavior, but at the same time, it emphasizes the presence of self-awareness as a special personal authority.

The role of parents in the development of a child’s personality

Types of stress in psychology - their characteristics and solutions

Parents play an important role in the process of personality development. Within the family circle, the personal basis of behavior, ideas about the outside world, actions and justice are laid. It is the image of parents that influences the choice of social circle (more or less close) in the future. Despite the methods of upbringing, over the course of life, the perception of parents will change and still have a strong place in the subconscious of the individual.

Positive images of parents are the key to a healthy psyche and the ability to adequately overcome life’s difficulties. Negative images based on demands, strictness and control cause inexplicable nervous tension even in an independent adult, which naturally negatively affects his quality of life.

The main stages of personality development according to A. N. Leontiev

Methods for resolving conflicts - what options exist, ways to prevent them

The development of a person’s personality occurs throughout his life, starting from infancy. In this process, the individual develops comprehensively, he develops a certain attitude towards the outside world. A. N. Leontyev formulated the concept of “leading activity,” which determines the development of the child’s psyche, based on what satisfies his needs:

In the initial period from 2 months to 1 year, the baby needs direct emotional communication with a parent or other adult;
From 1 year to 3 years, a young child is characterized by objective activity, with the help of which he learns about the world;
From 3 years old to 6-7 years old, a preschooler is characterized by role-playing games, during which he imitates an adult and tries to be independent.
A schoolchild from 6-7 years old to 10-11 years old undergoes educational activities where he learns more deeply about the world, and also approaches the desire to be an adult.

Personality formation occurs most actively in children

A teenager aged 10-11 – 14-15 years old satisfies the need for the company of peers, which is called intimate-personal communication.
Boys and girls aged 15-17 years begin educational and professional activities, which plays a big role in self-determination.

Stages and conflicts

American psychologist Erik Erikson (1902-1994) formulated the most complete concept of the psychosocial development of the individual. He identified eight stages, of which the first six are important for the theme of personality formation. At each of them, a person resolves the contradictions that arise before him, which can be formulated in the form of simple questions.

Does the world around you inspire trust?

Two needs - safety and care - are the most important for the development of personality. They are the basis of the pyramid of the American psychologist Abraham Maslow (1908-1970). They are also postulated by E. Erikson as the basic needs of the infant stage of development:

If a mother takes care of the baby, feeds him on time and creates a comfortable environment for him, then the individual develops the rudiments of a positive attitude towards the world around him.
If the baby often screams, feels bad and lacks attention, then this creates internal tension in him, and the conflict of infancy is resolved with a negative result.

In the first case, the formation of personality will occur under the banner of optimism and joy. In the second option, the constant stress experienced by the infant leads to the fact that in adulthood such a person will most likely not trust the world around him and be afraid of it.

Can I?

In the second year of life, the child begins to actively interact with the world. The new possibility of independent movement opens up amazing prospects: now you can act on your own or by yourself. “Can I climb on this chair?”, “can I touch the cat?”, “can I run?” and thousands more similar questions are solved by the personality in the process of its formation at this stage.

If the child responds positively to the questions that arise, then he comes to the next stage of development with the beginnings of such important qualities as independence and the ability to exert volition.
If parents limit a child in his desire to expand the limits of his independent activities and hinder his initiatives, then this leads to the formation of low self-esteem.

With a negative resolution of the conflict of this age, the individual becomes characterized by a feeling of shame, doubt in himself and in his capabilities.

Will I do something?

If at the previous stage of development a person realized that she could act independently, then during preschool age (from 3 to 6 years old) she will need to answer the question: will she do something. The child’s activities become more complex; this is the “age of play”, when he tries various forms of complex activity. The nature and outcomes of the age conflict are similar to the previous one:

If games are not interrupted and are supported by adults, then such important qualities as initiative and determination are strengthened in the individual.
With a negative outcome, a feeling of guilt is formed (“I’m doing everything wrong”) and passivity (“I’d rather not do anything”), which is a defense mechanism - a way to avoid the overwhelming feeling of guilt.

Am I capable?

The further you go, the more difficult it becomes. At school age you will need to master complex knowledge and skills. For the success of this process, it is vital to be independent, proactive and purposeful - that is, to have qualities that were formed as a result of the positive resolution of two previous age-related conflicts. Conversely, passive children with low self-esteem experience difficulties in further personality development, including mastering new knowledge.

Poor academic performance, lack of will, low social status in the group - all this leads to the fact that the child does not feel capable to the same extent as his peers. There is a possibility of developing an inferiority complex. There is a hormonal “explosion” and high turbulence on the horizon.

Who am I and who will I be?

A person whose development took place in a positive way is likely to continue his development in adolescence in the same way. All difficulties will be overcome, and the result of the local age crisis will be the discovery of oneself as a holistic and consistent personality. In adolescence, a person self-determines his future path, forming the basis of his future adult life.

If a teenager cannot answer the questions “who is he” and “who will he be” or the answers to them do not suit him (that is, his image of the ideal does not correspond to real opportunities and circumstances), then such a person develops a feeling of meaninglessness and purposelessness of life. This leads to the emergence of various forms of deviant behavior: hooliganism, drinking and drug use, engaging in promiscuous relationships, suicide attempts, etc.

The teenage stage is the last opportunity to correct the negative trend of personality development to a more positive one. The task of adults is to try to normalize the teenager: to offer him an alternative goal, to fill his life with meaning, to help him perceive reality as it is.

Will there be someone next to me?

By the age of 20, a person is determined with the basic existential questions, and he has the time and need to realize himself in a less vital, but nevertheless necessary area - in an intimate relationship with another person. The young man practices building them - and this is normal: searching for his “half”.

The contradiction of the situation lies in the fact that close relationships imply a limitation of one’s own independence and will - properties that are dominant from the time of positive resolution of the conflict in early childhood, that is, almost all life.

As in other stages that a personality goes through in the process of formation, the result of this period can be expressed in two polar options:

With a positive resolution, a person acquires the habit of having a partner.
If none of the attempts at close relationships could develop in a way satisfactory for the person, then independence will win.

A strong need for independence makes it difficult to establish close, harmonious relationships.

Phases of personality development according to L. I. Bozhovich

L. I. Bozhovich identified three main phases of personality development:

Adaptation. During the first phase, the individual first becomes acquainted with and assimilates the established norms of behavior, then begins to master them and further use them. An individual can consider himself an accomplished person with a certain set of qualities and characteristics. However, when he joins a new group, he will have to learn its corresponding norms in order to adapt, so that he can then adopt them and become part of the healthy relationships of that society.
Personalization. This phase acts as a feeling of contradiction in oneself. An individual who has adapted to a group suffers from the fact that the need for personalization is replaced by the behavior of “being like everyone else.” An individual purposefully looks for different ways to stand out. He can brag about his life achievements, experience, and wisdom.
Community integration. The third phase is characterized by another feeling of contradiction. An individual wants not only to stand out from the group, but to be as useful and recognized as possible. He selects and trains such traits of his character and behavior that would serve good purposes.

Note! An individual does not always work to make a certain impression and occupy a certain position in a group. Often the group itself forms an opinion about the individual.

Each subsequent phase cannot exist without the previous one. If an individual fails to adapt, he will feel awkward, which can negatively affect the development of his personality, resulting in personal deformation (self-doubt, timidity, lack of initiative). On the other hand, successful completion of all stages will open the way to successful socialization; the individual will be able to find ways of self-realization; self-determination and collectivism are inherent in him.

Contributing to society is an important aspiration in personal development.

The formation of personality can be compared with the saying “live and learn.” The individual regularly finds himself in new social groups associated with school, work, family and friends. It is important to learn to adapt to the activities of the group in order to feel comfortable and in demand.

Youth (23-30 years old)

The best period for finding a loved one, starting a family and having children. If the stage of separation from parents has not occurred, then this may be the last opportunity.

Either a person finds a soul mate and begins to live with her, or begins to earn enough to live separately. This is an important aspect, since a sense of independence and responsibility at this age will have a beneficial effect on the formation of self-esteem and personality as a whole.

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