Age-related characteristics of personality development and how they are formed

Throughout adolescence - 15 - 20 years - a person achieves a high level of intellectual development, mental experience is enriched, his individuality, his own inner world are significantly considered for the first time, a holistic self-image is formed, self-determination is carried out in professional and life plans, and his own view is consciously directed into the future, which indicates her transition to the stage of adulthood.

The diverse characteristics of youth as

During adolescence, a person reaches the threshold of relative maturity; during this period, his first socialization, unbridled development and growth of the body are completed.

Determining themselves and establishing themselves in their worldview, striving for individual uniqueness, girls and boys demonstrate a higher level of communication and educational activity compared to adolescence, and in their vision of the future they coordinate distant and near perspectives, often experiencing an identity crisis.

In adolescence, the characteristics of mental development in most cases are associated with the specificity of the social development situation, the basis of which is the setting by society of a vital, urgent task for young people - to accept, directly in this period, professional self-determination, and precisely in terms of real choice.

During this age, the hierarchy of needs is actively changing, the process of complication, and personality formation. Adolescence is of particular importance when solving problems of choosing a life path, self-realization and self-determination associated with choosing a profession.

Childhood and adolescence

Between the ages of birth and one year, a child goes through a huge developmental journey. He masters new movements, learns to sit and stand. The first year of life is the time when a child masters the ability to handle things and begins to understand the speech of adults.

At an early age (1-3 years), the baby develops most intensively physically and psychologically. Perception and behavior change. The brain is growing at a rapid pace. Three-year-old children are very sociable. When adults read or tell fairy tales, they enjoy listening to their speech, emotions, and intonation. The main activity of a child is to obtain information and understand the world around him. Personality development at an early age is most influenced by communication with the mother or the person who replaces her.
Preschool age (from 3 to 6-7 years) is also characterized by physical growth, the child becomes stronger. The leading activity at this stage is role-playing. The famous Russian educational psychologist A. Makarenko was convinced that for a child at this age, role-playing play is just as important as productive work for an adult. Children's play reflects adult life; the child learns to act out different situations.
The main activity for primary school age (from 6-7 to 11-12 years old) is learning. Age-related characteristics of personality development at this stage are associated with changes in the social situation of development - the child goes to school. The child now interacts with society. He is given responsibilities for which he receives public appreciation.
Adolescence (13-16 years for boys and 11-15 years for girls) is one of the most important and difficult stages for the formation of the psyche. Age-related development of personality is characterized by the search for “one’s own” social role - when communicating with peers, a teenager tries on different models of behavior and cuts off inappropriate ones. He especially needs friends. You can share with them experiences that cannot be told to adults.

Youth and early adulthood

Youth has conditional age boundaries. Most scientists are of the opinion that adolescence, preceding early adulthood, lasts until 22-25 years. At this time, the leading activity is intimate and personal communication. The body completes physical development, growth slows down. The main psychological task of this age is to find one’s place in the world. Foreign psychologists, for example, E. Erikson, call this process the search for identity. Domestic research calls it self-determination, self-knowledge. This process must be completed by the age of 21-25 so that a person can begin to solve other life problems.

Early adulthood, or youth , is the period from 21-23 to 30 years. The main features of this age are rapid cognitive development against the backdrop of an increasingly slower physical growth. A person learns to be independent and take responsibility. Another sign of adulthood is the appearance of new character traits - firmness, determination, reliability. Youth is the time to start a family. It is most optimal for choosing a life partner and having children.

Maturity

The period of maturity, or adulthood (from 30 to 60-70 years) is the time when a person has the opportunity to fully realize his potential. In Western psychology this process is called self-actualization. Personal development in adulthood presupposes greater social activity and maximum impact in the profession. Maturity is a period of personal flourishing. E. Erikson considered this stage the age of “committing deeds.”

The main feature of adulthood is generativity and restlessness. A person wants to be the best parent, achieve heights in his profession, and be a support for his family members. The American scientist G. Allport identifies the following traits characteristic of a self-actualizing personality:

Realistic attitude in oneself, activity and activity;
Feeling of emotional warmth;
Interest in the surrounding world;
A philosophy of life that summarizes the experience gained and determines human actions;
Compassion for other people, the ability to understand and empathize.

The influence of family on personality formation

The family circle plays the leading role. The influence of the family is quite great, since it is the origin of every personal essence. Parents invest all their strength and knowledge into our development from a very young age. They help us understand ourselves, teach us the rules of life and its patterns, and participate in the development of our abilities and skills.

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Age-related features of personality development in old age

Old age is associated with many negative life changes. Health deteriorates, physical capabilities are limited, and a person loses social status. The age-related characteristics of personality development of this period are studied by a science called gerontology. Scientists identify several features characteristic of the social situation of late age:

Contacts with work colleagues may remain for some time after retirement, but then are lost;
Pensioners make new friends - often also elderly, but there may also be younger people;
Other family members, confident that “he already has a lot of time,” like to leave their children with their grandparents, so communication with grandchildren is also an important element of this age;
Most social contacts occur within the family, so close people need to be especially tactful with those pensioners who “have not yet gained experience.”

In ancient times and even in the Middle Ages, very few people reached old age. Until the 17th century, only 1% lived to age 65. Nowadays, life expectancy varies across societies. This is clearly demonstrated by the so-called “Roseto effect”. It was as follows. Residents of the small American town of Roseto, immigrants from Italy, were half as likely as in other cities to die from cardiovascular diseases.

One day, a doctor from Roseto met with a friend and colleague who worked in a big city, and they shared their experiences. It turned out that such a low mortality rate is associated with the lifestyle of the immigrants. Three generations lived in the houses of this town. Families spent a lot of time together at the dinner table and actively included the elderly in social life.

Despite the hard work and traditional Italian food, which residents cooked with lard, due to everyday communication, morbidity and mortality rates in the older generation were low.

Age crises

Without turning points - crises - it is impossible to become an adult. Age-related characteristics of personality development are different for each of the crises: youth is characterized by a crisis of loneliness, at 30 years old - a feeling of the meaninglessness of life. At the age of 40, a person realizes his freedom, sums up the intermediate results of life, and returns to the true “I”. 60-70 years is “the time to collect stones.”

In adolescence, a person solves the problem of separation from his parents. He either takes a step into independent life and finds a mate, or remains alone and dependent. But society usually places emphasis not on psychological separation from the parental family, but on the choice of profession. A good solution to get out of the crisis is to start earning money on your own and go abroad to study. A metaphor for adolescence can be the image of a ripe apple falling from an apple tree.

The crisis of 30 years is characterized by the fact that a person ceases to bring joy to everything that was previously its source - work, family, hobbies. The person may suffer from severe depression. He has the last chance to separate from his parents, if this has not been done before. The main task is to understand whether the previously chosen path is suitable. A metaphor could be Sisyphus rolling a stone uphill. A person wonders: is there a difference in how to live life if everyone is equal before the gates of eternity. But after some time, he realizes that the meaning of life is to gain his own unique experience, to live an authentic life.

Crises of the second half of life

The Divine Comedy was written by Dante when he was 33 years old, a sacred age in many religions and myths. The autobiographical hero of the poem finds himself in a dark forest, metaphorically denoting the middle of life. Since life expectancy has increased, this crisis is now called the “40-year crisis.” This is the longest and most powerful psychological crisis. His energy is enough to destroy the life of someone who is afraid of a crisis. It is also enough for creation - but only for those who are not afraid of change and are ready to meet them face to face.

The age-related development of personality of this period is best reflected by the image of a jester, or a fool. He holds a rose in his hand - it denotes purity of thoughts. Behind his back he has a bundle of belongings - everything that could be taken from his past life. On tarot cards, the jester is often depicted with his leg raised over an abyss, with the sunset sun behind him. Below is the sea. The image of the jester symbolizes the opportunity to start over.

The most difficult crisis to comprehend is the crisis of post-retirement age, or 60-70 years. If earlier it was possible to hide from thoughts about the finitude of life, now death, figuratively speaking, “looks you in the eye.” If earlier it was possible to ask other people for help, now you will have to face the crisis on your own - no one alive has ever been “in the next world.”

It is easier for believers, since for them there is the Kingdom of Heaven, eternal life. It’s more difficult for materialists. The main idea of the crisis is “all people are mortal.” In the modern world, people try not to attach importance to this fear. They stay away from anything that is in any way connected with death - these are rituals, objects associated with funerals, the bodies of the deceased. Everything that brings the unknown is scary. The fear of death breaks into everyday life only in the form of phobias, fears, and nightmares. They either try to deny death or strive towards it. However, Freud's Thanatos alone cannot fully explain it.

Many people become more religious during this period of life. Some choose to believe in a new birth after death, reincarnation. The Tibetan Book of the Dead speaks about this.

Self-awareness is a process of development between the ages of 15 and 20.

One of the significant psychological processes during adolescence is the formation of a stable image of “I”, self-awareness.

Psychologists have long been concerned about why the development of self-awareness occurs directly at this age. Based on the results of numerous studies, they concluded that the following circumstances predispose this phenomenon.

Intelligence continues to develop. The emergence of abstract-logical thinking contributes to the manifestation of an acute desire for theorizing and abstraction. Young people talk and argue for hours on various topics, essentially knowing nothing about them. They are very keen on this, since abstract possibility is a phenomenon without restrictions, with the exception of logical possibilities.
At the early stage of adolescence, the discovery of the inner world takes place. Young people immerse themselves in themselves, enjoy their own experiences, their view of the world changes, they experience new feelings, the sounds of music, the beauty of nature, the sensations of their own body. Adolescence is sensitive to internal, psychological problems, therefore at this age young people are interested not only in the eventual moment of the work, the external, but to a greater extent in the psychological aspect.
The image of a perceived person changes over time. Its acceptance is carried out from the position of mental abilities, volitional qualities, outlook, attitude towards work and other people, emotions. The ability to accurately and convincingly present material, analyze and explain human behavior is strengthened.
Manifestation of dramatic experiences and anxiety in connection with the discovery of the inner world. Simultaneously with the awareness of one’s own uniqueness, dissimilarity with others, uniqueness, a feeling of loneliness or fear of loneliness arises. The “I” of young people is still unstable, indefinite, vague, and therefore there is a feeling of inner restlessness and emptiness, which, like the feeling of loneliness, needs to be gotten rid of. They fill this void through communication, which is selective at this age. However, despite the need for communication, there remains a need for solitude; moreover, it is vital.
Youth is characterized by an exaggeration of its own uniqueness, but this passes, with age a person becomes more developed, finds more differences between his peers and himself. In turn, this leads to the formation of the need for psychological intimacy, which allows a person to open up, penetrate into the inner world of other people, thanks to which he comes to realize his own dissimilarity from others, understand unity with the people around him, and comprehend his own inner world.
There is a feeling of stability over time. The development of time perspectives is due to mental development and changes in life perspective.

Of all the time dimensions, the most important for a child is “now” - he has no sense of the passage of time, all his significant experiences take place in the present, the past and future are vague for him. The perception of time in adolescence covers the past and present, the future is perceived as a continuation of the present. During adolescence, time perspective expands both in depth, including the past and future, and in breadth, covering social and personal perspectives. The most significant dimension of time for young people is the future.

Thanks to these temporary changes, the need to achieve goals increases, the orientation of consciousness towards external control is replaced by internal self-control. There is an awareness of the irreversibility, fluidity of time and one’s own existence. The thought of the inevitability of death in some causes a feeling of horror and fear, in others a desire for everyday activities and activities. There is an opinion that it is better for young people not to think about sad things. However, this is a mistaken opinion - it is the awareness of the inevitability of death that pushes a person to seriously think about the meaning of life.

Personal development includes the formation of a stable image of “I”—a universal idea of oneself. Young people begin to realize their own qualities and the totality of self-esteem, think about who they can become, what their prospects and opportunities are, what they have done and will be able to do in life.

Appearance is important for both girls and boys - height, skin condition - the appearance of acne and pimples is perceived acutely. Weight is a significant problem - often girls, and less often boys, resort to various diets that are strongly contraindicated in youth, because they cause significant harm to the developing body. By actively playing sports, boys build up muscles, and girls, striving to have an elegant figure, “adjust” it to the standard of beauty, which is strenuously imposed by the media and advertising.

The properties of a person as an individual are realized and formed earlier than personal ones, therefore the ratio of the moral and psychological components of the “I” and the “bodily” differs in youth. Young people compare the appearance and structure of their own bodies with the developmental characteristics of their peers, and worry about their own “inferiority” when they discover shortcomings in themselves. In most cases, in youth, the standard of beauty is unrealistic and overestimated, therefore these experiences are often groundless.

With age, concern about one's own appearance disappears, and a person gains greater self-confidence. Moral and volitional qualities, relationships with others, and mental abilities become important.

During adolescence, changes occur in the general perception of the image of “I”, which is reflected in the following circumstances.

Over time, cognitive complexity and the separation of elements of the “I” image change.
Integral tendentiousness is activated, which determines the integrity of the image of “I” and internal consistency.
Over time, the stability of the “I” image changes. When describing themselves, adults are more consistent than children, teenagers, and young men.
Changes are made in the clarity, specificity, and degree of significance of the image of “I”.

Mature personality

Age-related development of personality, despite its universality, does not always imply the achievement of psychological maturity. Personal maturity is the ability to solve problems that arise in front of him, and if this is not possible, to ask others for help. An adult sets and achieves specific goals. What are the signs that a person has truly reached the stage of maturity?

An adult has a clear understanding that his life directly depends on the mistakes he makes . At the same time, he does not hide from them, does not stop acting. Having made a mistake, he draws appropriate conclusions;
He understands that his life is a unique path . He makes a career and achieves his goals. He commits those actions that he himself considers true, and not those that are imposed by others. Sometimes the desires of an adult may coincide with the desires of others, sometimes not. But he acts in accordance with his own value system;
A mature person has patience. He understands that his desires cannot be fulfilled instantly . He also does not require others to meet his needs for him;
An adult understands that mutual understanding always depends on two people . He is able to clearly express his thoughts in order to achieve a dialogue with the interlocutor. This is often difficult for married couples. Many of them naively believe that their spouse can magically “read” their thoughts. When for some reason this does not happen, they are disappointed and go in search of a new partner. Instead of paying attention to their own immaturity, they are sure that they simply made a mistake in choosing a partner.

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

The role of parents in the development of a child’s personality and value system is very high. There are some rules that should be followed so that over time the baby does not face the problem of perceiving his own personality:

Formation of an adequate assessment of oneself.

You should not compare your baby with others, in any way. This is very important when comparing personality traits. It is important for a child to understand that he is good on his own, and not in comparison with someone else. If you want to praise your baby, do not use the comparative degree.

Encouraging communication.

It is important to ensure that your child interacts with adults and peers. This way he will be able to socialize faster and see the norms of behavior from his own experience.

The gender aspect in education should not be ignored.

From 2.5 years to 6 years, the baby experiences the oedipal phase. During this process, the child must develop an adequate gender self-identification, as well as a first understanding of gender relations. At this stage, you need to be attentive to the baby, give him care and love. But do not pay attention to provocations, show by your example how the relationship between spouses is formed. Incorrect parental behavior will cause the child to develop an Electra or Oedipus complex and other disorders.

Teaching morals and ethical standards.

Explain to your child in detail what principles of ethics are the basis for communication between people. Explain the concepts of honesty, positivity and negativity. The child’s inability to balance his own behavior and social norms leads to conflicts and unsuccessful communication with other people.

Psychological infantilism

But it also happens that, according to a passport, a person turns 30 (40, 50) years old, but he remains psychologically underdeveloped. This category includes those who constantly hear addressed to them: “When will you finally grow up?” Some of them are even proud of the fact that they do not want to accept the responsibilities of adulthood. It is very difficult for an infantile adult in a world full of problems.

In order to grow up, it is necessary to go through all age-related stages of development, which psychologists call “crises.” At the same time, a crisis is not only circumstances. It is a platform on which the human soul has the opportunity to learn to solve certain problems, receiving its “bonuses” for this. At three years old, a child learns to be independent. This time is called the “3-year crisis,” when the little person increasingly says “I myself.” But if he finds support from adults in his actions, he has a feeling of “I can.” Infantile adults often grow up from overprotective families.

Age-related personality development also represents a major crisis for adolescents. At the same time, the age of 12-18 years is quite fertile soil for a person to develop infantility. It is during adolescence that he decides whether to remain a child or grow up.

What are the characteristics of an infantile personality , or a child wearing the shell of an adult?

He doesn't know how to control his emotions. Often expresses anger, whims, blames others;
Does not have a well-developed value system. Focuses on “how it is needed, how it is accepted.” Always tries to copy those around him in what to think, say, how to dress;
Applies to the world as a consumer. He takes a lot and gives little. The parasitic lifestyle that the infantile personality leads in the family continues in marriage. He simply passes from one guardian to another;
Fears responsibility and making one's own decisions;
He lives in “waiting for a miracle”, that someone stronger will come to him and solve his problems.

Cognitive changes

In high school, learning is associated with significant complication and changes in the content and structure of educational material, an increase in its volume, and as a result, the level of demands placed on students increases. They are expected to have clarity, versatility, independence in solving cognitive problems, flexibility, and productivity of cognitive activity.

Orientation towards the future, setting goals for personal and professional self-determination is reflected in the entire process of mental development, including the development of cognitive processes. Educational and professional activity becomes the main one.

In high school students, in comparison with teenagers, interest in learning and school increases significantly, since learning accumulates immediate life meaning associated with the future. In turn, there is significant interest in various information sources - books, television, cinema. There is an increased need for individual acquisition of knowledge, a conscious attitude towards learning and work is growing, cognitive interests are becoming broad, effective and sustainable. Personal selectivity and direction of interests are associated with life plans.

During this period, there is an increase in the quality of memory of schoolchildren - the volume of memory increases, the methods of memorization change. Simultaneously with involuntary memorization, there is an extensive use of expedient techniques for voluntary memorization of material. High school students acquire metacognitive skills - self-regulation and self-control, which influence the effectiveness of their cognitive strategies.

Cognitive development in youth is characterized by formal-operational and formal-logical thinking. This is theoretical, hypothetico-deductive, abstract thinking, which has a connection with certain environmental conditions, existing at the moment.

During adolescence, a significant new formation in the intellectual sphere is theoretical thinking and the process of its development. High school and junior students are often concerned with the question “why?” Mental activity is more independent and active; there is a critical attitude towards the content of acquired knowledge and teachers. The idea of interest in the subject has changed - teenagers value passion for the subject, its descriptive and factual aspects, high school students are interested in the unstudied, ambiguous, and anything that requires reasoning. The value lies in the non-standard form of presentation of the material and the erudition of the teacher.

Another characteristic of the intellectual sphere of this age is a pronounced zeal for the search for common principles and patterns that stand behind certain truths, a craving for generalizations. So, like high school students, no one gravitates towards “cosmic”, global generalizations, or likes “big” theories. At the same time, in adolescence there is a combination of a breadth of interests with the absence of a method and system in acquiring skills and knowledge - intellectual amateurism.

The third feature is a well-known youthful predisposition to exaggerate one’s own mental abilities and the strength of one’s intellect, independence and level of knowledge, a craving for fictitious, ostentatious intellectuality. In almost every senior class there is a certain number of bored, indifferent schoolchildren - learning for them is primitive and ordinary, the material presented by the teacher is axiomatic, boring, has long been known to everyone, unnecessary and has nothing to do with intelligence or real science. High school students love to ask their teachers tricky questions, and when they receive an answer, they shrug their shoulders and shrug.

During adolescence, there is also an increase in the rate of individualization in abilities and interests, and the difference is often supplemented and compensated for by negative behavioral reactions. Therefore, a high school teacher can easily identify a group of careless but capable students, a group of chronic C students, and excellent intellectuals.

Intellectual development in this period is the accumulation of skills and knowledge, a change in the structure and properties of the intellect, the formation of a special line of intellectual activity - a unique individual system of psychological means used by a person, spontaneously or consciously, with the aim of better balancing his own individuality with external, objective conditions activities.

Improves mastery of complex mental operations of synthesis and analysis, theoretical abstraction and generalization, presentation and argumentation. Girls and boys are characterized by systematicity, independent creative activity, establishment of cause-and-effect relationships, criticality and stability of thinking. There is a tendency towards an absolute and holistic assessment of various phenomena of reality, towards a generalized understanding of the world. J. Piaget believed that the logic of adolescence is a profound, correlated system that differs from children’s logic; it represents the essence of adult logic and the source of elementary forms of scientific thinking.

There is an active development of special abilities, in most cases related to the chosen professional field - pedagogical, technical, mathematical. Ultimately, in adolescence, cognitive structures acquire a complex structure and individual identity.

Variation in cognitive structures serves as a condition for the formation of the ability to reflect and introspect. The actions, feelings, thoughts of boys and girls are the subject of their mental analysis and consideration. Another significant aspect of introspection is associated with the ability to distinguish inconsistency between words, actions and thoughts, and to use ideal circumstances and situations. There is an opportunity to create ideals - human or morality, family, society, to try to realize them, to compare them with reality.

Often, without knowledge of the premises, on limited factual material, boys and girls have a tendency to theorize put forward hypotheses, to formulate broad philosophical generalizations.

In the future, in youth, the intellectual sphere presupposes higher and qualitative development associated with the formation of creative abilities, as well as the assimilation of information, the manifestation of mental initiative, the creation of something new - the ability to detect a problem, reformulate and pose a question, and find original solutions.

We draw a conclusion

Many people are interested in whether it is possible to prevent age-related crises and somehow circumvent them? Each period has its own age-related characteristics of personality development, and, fortunately, no one can avoid these stages. The presence of a crisis indicates a transition to a new stage - the development of personality at different age stages pushes a person to a new level. Everyone experiences stages of development in their own way and at their own time - science does not tie them to a specific age, all dates are arbitrary.

Topics: Personal growth, Self-realization, Child psychology, Child development, For schoolchildren

Development criteria

From the above, we can highlight the criteria for personality development, or personal growth:

strengthening subjectivity;
integrity and integration into the world;
productivity growth;
development of mental (spiritual) qualities and abilities.

A characteristic feature of a mature personality is overcoming egocentrism and acquiring a broad identity (the ability to identify oneself with the world, society, situations, nature; a sense of community and understanding).

In children and adolescents, personality development is assessed according to the characteristics of socialization and reflection.
In adults - by the ability to self-actualize, the ability to accept responsibility and stand out from society, maintaining a connection with it.