Concepts of mental development of the child. Basic concepts of mental and personal development

In Western psychology, the mental development of a person is traditionally considered in line with the established schools of psychoanalysis, behaviorism, Gestalt psychology, genetic and humanistic psychology.

Psychoanalytic theory of personality development

founded by Sigmund Freud, and called the school of psychoanalysis. Initially, psychoanalysis arose as a method of treating mental and nervous diseases. The discovery of the unconscious allowed Z. Freud to assert that mental processes are unconscious in themselves, only separate acts and aspects of the soul are conscious.

the sexual principle of the human psyche (libido) is the root cause that explains both the processes of creating cultural values ​​by a person and the occurrence of nervous and mental diseases.

The discovery of the protective mechanisms of the human psyche (such as repression, projection, sublimation, rationalization, regression) made it possible to explain how biological and social factors interact in the process of human development and the assimilation of culture.

Freud considered the development of the personality in the childhood periods of life in the context of psychosexual development, practically identifying them. Each of the five stages outlined by Freud corresponds to the zones of the physical area of ​​satisfaction of the bodily instinct characteristic of this stage.

oral stage lasts from birth to a year and is associated with the infant's physical pleasure from feeding. Insufficient satisfaction of needs and desires at this stage can lead to the formation of such personality traits as gluttony, greed, dissatisfaction with everything offered.

anal stage lasts from one to three years and is associated with obtaining satisfaction from mastering the excretory functions of the body, accustoming to neatness. Positive satisfaction leads to the formation of such personality traits as accuracy, punctuality, a negative development option forms stubbornness, secrecy, aggressiveness, and a thirst for hoarding.

phallic stage lasts from three to five years and is associated with obtaining satisfaction through attachment to adults, primarily to parents of the opposite sex. The positive course of this stage of childhood, according to Freud, contributes to the emergence of such personality traits as self-observation, prudence, the negative one increases the aggressiveness and neuroticism of the child.

Latent (5-12 years): decreased sexual interest. The energy of the floor is realized by the child in the development of science and culture, and is also spent on establishing friendly relations with peers and adults outside the family circle.

Genital (12-18 years old) completes the formation of mature sexuality. This stage is characterized by the formation of a maturing person ways of life that are specific to their gender and personality type. The author of psychoanalysis paid little attention to the last two stages, arguing that the main personal characteristics of a person are laid down at the age of five or six years.

At the same time, L.S. Vygotsky about the theory of psychosexual development by Z. Freud. So he wrote: “The solution found by Freud ... I would not declare a great path in science or a road for everyone, but an alpine path over abysses for those free from dizziness.”

Biogenetic concepts of mental development. The booming developmental psychology is acquiring three lines of research:

1. proper area of ​​child psychology;
2. comparative psychology, focused on identifying differences in the development of animals and humans;
3. psychology of peoples as a prototype of modern cultural-anthropological psychology.

At first, all three directions were aimed at revealing patterns of phylogeny. However, the opposite effect was also observed, according to which phylogenesis allowed us to take a fresh look at ontogeny. This relationship between ontogeny and phylogeny was called by E. Haeckel the biogenetic law, which implies the repetition in ontogenesis in an abbreviated and condensed form of the history of phylogeny (the theory of recapitulation). Thus, the emergence of scientific developmental psychology turned out to be closely connected with the biology of the 19th century.

The new directions of psychological research that have opened up attracted research forces. So, in America, S. Hall (1846-1924) begins work, with whose name the foundation of pedology, a complex science about children, including pedagogy, psychology, physiology, etc., will subsequently be associated. child.

A student of W. Wundt, S. Hall, directly responding to the needs of the American school, began to read a course of lectures on the psychology of childhood. But lecturing teachers required a description of the actual content of the child's psyche. To do this, S. Hall did not use the experimental methods he learned in the Wundtian laboratory, but questionnaires that were distributed to teachers in order to collect information about how children represent the world. These questionnaires were soon expanded and standardized. They included questions, in response to which schoolchildren had to report their feelings (in particular, moral and religious), about their attitude towards other people, about early memories, etc. Then, thousands of responses were statistically processed in order to present a complete picture of the psychological characteristics of children of different ages.

Using the materials collected in this way, S. Hall wrote a number of works, of which "Youth" (1904) gained the greatest popularity. But for the history of child psychology, it is important that S. Hall put forward the idea of ​​creating a special complex science about Children, which he called pedology.

Now we can already say that this project in its original form was built on insufficiently reliable methodological and methodological foundations. Thus, for example, the study of the psyche of children with the help of questionnaires introduced the techniques of introspective psychology into the psychology of childhood. S. Hall also owned the idea of ​​constructing childhood ages based on the theory of recapitulation, according to which the child in his individual development briefly repeats the main stages in the history of the entire human race. This theory was modeled on the biogenetic law put forward by E. Haeckel and which stated that the history of the development of an individual organism succinctly repeats the main stages of development of a whole series of previous forms.

But what is true for biology, as it turned out, is not true for the psychology of human development: S. Hall actually spoke about the biological determination of the child's psyche, the formation of which was presented as a transition from one phase to another, taking place in accordance with the main direction of the evolutionary process. The nature of children's games, for example, was explained by the elimination of the hunting instincts of primitive people, and the games of adolescents were considered a reproduction of the way of life of Indian tribes.

At the beginning of our century, the biogenetic law in various versions became a generally accepted concept in child psychology, and along with the pedological ideas of S. Hall, new explanatory principles and generalizations appeared.

A critical attitude to the position of S. Hall was expressed by many American and European psychologists. The method of asking children about their own mental states was negatively assessed, for example, by T. Ribot, who opposed the emerging test method to it as an objective one that allows one to make judgments about the mental development of children not on the basis of what they say about themselves, but on the basis of reality. their specially selected tasks.

The earliest of the actual psychological theories of development is the concept of recapitulation, within which E. Haeckel formulated the biogenetic law in relation to embryogenesis (ontogeny is a short and quick repetition of phylogenesis), and the American psychologist S. Hall transferred it to ontogenesis: the child briefly repeats in his development development of the human race.

The theoretical inconsistency of the concept of recapitulation in psychology was revealed quite early, and this required the development of new ideas. S. Hall was the first to try to show that there is a connection between historical and individual development, which has not been sufficiently traced in modern psychology either.

The theory of recapitulation did not play the role of an explanatory principle for long, but the ideas of S. Hall had a significant impact on child psychology through the studies of two of his famous students - A.L. Gesell and L. Termen. Modern psychology relates their work to the development of a normative approach to development.

A. Gesell's theory of maturation. A. Gesell owes psychology the introduction of the longitudinal (longitudinal) method, i.e. a longitudinal study of the mental development of the same children from birth to adolescence, which he proposed to call "biographical-laboratory". In addition, while studying monozygotic twins, he was one of the first to introduce the twin method into psychology to analyze the relationship between maturation and learning. And already in the last years of his life, A. Gesell studied the mental development of a blind child in order to more deeply understand the features of normal development.

In the practical diagnostic system he developed, photo and film recording of age-related changes in motor activity, speech, adaptive reactions and social contacts of the child was used.

Summarizing the data of his observations of 165 (!) children, A. Gesell developed a theory of child development, according to which, starting from the moment of development, at strictly defined intervals, at a certain age, children develop specific forms of behavior that successively replace each other.

However, recognizing the important role of social factors, in his studies A. Gesell limited himself to a purely quantitative study of comparative sections of child development (at 3, 6, 9, 12, 18, 24, 36 months, etc. up to 18 years), reducing development to a simple increase, biological growth, maturation - “increase in behavior”, without analyzing qualitative transformations during the transition from one stage of development to another, emphasizing the dependence of development only on the maturation of the organism. Trying to articulate common law child development, A. Gesell drew attention to the decrease in the rate of development with age (or the decrease in the "density" of development): the younger the child, the faster the changes in his behavior occur.

A. Gesell focused on the biological model of development, in which cycles of renewal, integration, balance alternate, and within the framework of this approach to understanding development, he could not answer the question of what is hidden behind the change in the pace of development. This is understandable, because the result of the cross-sectional (transverse and longitudinal) methods of research used by him was the identification of development and growth.

L. Theremin's normative approach. Like A. Gesell, L. Theremin carried out one of the longest longitudinal studies in psychology - it lasted for 50 (!) years. In 1921, L. Theremin selected 1,500 gifted children whose IQ was 140 and above, and carefully monitored their development. The study continued until the mid-1970s. and ended after the death of L. Termen. Unfortunately, such a large-scale work, contrary to expectations, did not give grounds for broad generalizations and serious conclusions: according to L. Termen, "genius" is associated with better health, higher mental endowments and higher educational achievements than other members of the population. .

The contribution of A. Gesell and L. Theremin to child psychology, although their concepts were based on the role of the hereditary factor in explaining age-related changes, lies in the fact that they laid the foundation for its formation as a normative discipline that describes the achievements of the child in the process of growth and development.

The normative approach to the study of child development is, in essence, the classic American trend in the study of childhood. This is where the study of the problems of “acceptance of roles”, “personal growth” originates, since it was within its framework that studies of such important developmental conditions as the sex of the child and birth order were first conducted. In the 40-50s. 20th century normative studies of emotional responses in children were initiated (A. Jerseyld et al.). In the 70s. 20th century on the same basis, E. Maccoby and K. Jacqueline studied the features of the mental development of children of different sexes. The studies of J. Piaget, J. Bruner, J. Flavell and others were partially oriented towards the normative approach.

But already in the 60s. 20th century qualitative changes began to emerge in normative studies. If earlier psychology focused on describing how a child behaves, now the emphasis has been shifted to why he behaves this way, under what conditions, what are the consequences of one or another type of development. The posing of new problems led psychologists to develop new empirical research, which in turn made it possible to reveal new phenomena in child development. So, at that time, individual variations in the sequence of appearance of behavioral acts, the phenomena of visual attention in newborns and infants, the role of stimulation in increasing and slowing down cognitive activity were described, the deep relationship between mother and infant was studied, etc.

The theory of three stages of development of K. Buhler. Researchers in European countries were more interested in analyzing the qualitative features of the development process. They were interested in the stages or stages in the development of behavior in phylo and ontogeny. So the Austrian psychologist K. Buhler proposed the theory of three stages of development: instinct, training, intelligence. K. Buhler associated these stages, their emergence not only with the maturation of the brain and the complication of relations with the environment, but also with the development of affective processes, with the development of the experience of pleasure associated with action. In the course of the evolution of behavior, a transition of pleasure "from the end to the beginning" is noted. In his opinion, the first stage - instincts - is characterized by the fact that pleasure comes as a result of satisfying an instinctive need, that is, after performing an action. At the level of skills, pleasure is transferred to the act itself. There was a concept: "functional pleasure". But there is also an anticipatory pleasure that appears at the stage of intellectual problem solving. Thus, the transition of pleasure "from the end to the beginning", according to K. Buhler, is the main driving force behind the development of behavior. K. Buhler transferred this scheme to ontogeny. Carrying out experiments on children, K. Buhler noticed the similarity between the primitive use of tools in anthropoid apes and a child, and therefore he called the very period of manifestation of primary forms of thinking in a child a chimpanzee-like age. The study of the child with the help of a zoopsychological experiment was an important step towards the creation of child psychology as a science. Note that not long before this, W. Wundt wrote that child psychology is generally impossible, since self-observation is not available to the child.

K. Buhler never considered himself a biogeneticist. In his works one can even find criticism of the biogenetic concept. However, his views are an even deeper manifestation of the concept of recapitulation, since the stages of child development are identified with the stages of animal development. As emphasized by L.S. Vygotsky, K. Buhler tried to bring the facts of biological and sociocultural development to the same denominator and ignored the fundamental originality of the development of the child. K. Buhler shared with almost all contemporary child psychology a one-sided and erroneous view of mental development as a single and, moreover, biological process in nature.

Much later, a critical analysis of the concept of K. Buhler was given by K. Lorenz. He pointed out that K. Buhler's idea of ​​the superstructure in the process of phylogenesis of the higher levels of behavior over the lower ones is contrary to the truth. According to K. Lorenz, these are three lines of development, independent of each other, arising at a certain stage of the animal kingdom. Instinct does not prepare training, training does not precede the intellect. Developing the thoughts of K. Lorenz, D.B. Elkonin emphasized that there is no impassable line between the stage of intellect and the stage of training. A skill is a form of existence of an intellectually acquired behavior, so there may be a different sequence of behavior development: first the intellect, and then the skill. If this is true for animals, then it is even more true for a child. In the development of a child, conditioned reflexes occur in the second or third week of life. You can not call a child an instinctive animal - a child must even be taught to suck!

K. Buhler is deeper than St. Hall, stands on the positions of the biogenetic approach, as it extends it to the entire animal world. And although the theory of K. Buhler today no longer has supporters, its significance lies in the fact that, as D.B. Elkonin, poses the problem of childhood history, the history of postnatal development.

The origins of mankind are lost, and the history of childhood is also lost. Monuments of culture in relation to children are poor. True, the fact that peoples develop unevenly can serve as material for research. Currently, there are tribes and peoples that are at a low level of development. This opens up the possibility of conducting comparative studies to study the patterns of a child's mental development.

Theory of learning I.P. Pavlov and J. Watson.

Another approach to the analysis of the problem of development, which has a rather long history, is associated with the general principles of behaviorism. This trend has deep roots in empirical philosophy and is most consistent with American ideas about a person: a person is what his environment, his environment, makes of him. This is a direction in American psychology, for which the concept of development is identified with the concept of learning, the acquisition of new experience. The ideas of I.P. Pavlova. American psychologists perceived in the teachings of I.P. Pavlov's idea that adaptive activity is characteristic of all living things. It is usually emphasized that in American psychology the Pavlovian principle of the conditioned reflex was assimilated, which served as an impetus for J. Watson to develop a new concept of psychology. That's too much general idea. The very idea of ​​conducting a rigorous scientific experiment, created by I.P. Pavlov to study the digestive system. The first description of I.P. Pavlov of such an experiment was in 1897, and the first publication of J. Watson was in 1913.

Already in the first experiments, I.P. Pavlov with the salivary gland brought out, the idea of ​​a relationship between dependent and independent variables was realized, which runs through all American studies of behavior and its genesis, not only in animals, but also in humans. Such an experiment has all the advantages of a real natural scientific research which is still so highly valued in American psychology: objectivity, accuracy (control of all conditions), availability for measurement. It is known that I.P. Pavlov persistently rejected any attempts to explain the results of experiments with conditioned reflexes by referring to the subjective state of the animal. J. Watson began his scientific revolution by putting forward the slogan “Stop studying what a person thinks; let's study what man does!"

American scientists perceived the phenomenon of a conditioned reflex as a kind of elementary phenomenon, accessible to analysis, something like a building block, from the multitude of which a complex system of our behavior can be built. The genius of I.P. Pavlov, according to American colleagues, was that he was able to show how simple elements can be isolated, analyzed and controlled in laboratory conditions. Development of ideas by I.P. Pavlova in American psychology took several decades, and each time one of the aspects of this simple, but at the same time not yet exhausted phenomenon in American psychology - the phenomenon of a conditioned reflex - appeared before the researchers.

In the earliest studies of learning, the idea of ​​a combination of stimulus and response, conditioned and unconditioned stimuli, came to the fore: the time parameter of this connection was singled out. This is how the associationist concept of learning arose (J. Watson, E. Gasri). When the attention of researchers was attracted by the functions of the unconditioned stimulus in establishing a new associative stimulus-reactive connection, the concept of learning arose, in which the main emphasis was placed on the value of reinforcement. These were the concepts of E. Thorndike and B. Skinner. The search for answers to the question of whether learning, that is, the establishment of a connection between a stimulus and a reaction, depends on such states of the subject as hunger, thirst, pain, which have received the name drive in American psychology, led to more complex theoretical concepts of learning - the concepts of N. Miller and K. Hull. The last two concepts raised American learning theory to such a degree of maturity that it was ready to assimilate new European ideas from the fields of Gestalt psychology, field theory, and psychoanalysis. It was here that there was a turn from a strict behavioral experiment of the Pavlovian type to the study of the motivation and cognitive development of the child.

Later, American scientists turned to the analysis of the orienting reflex as a necessary condition for the development of a new neural connection, new behavioral acts. In the 50s - 60s, these studies were significantly influenced by the work of Soviet psychologists, and especially the studies of E.N. Sokolov and A.V. Zaporozhets. Of great interest was the study of such properties of the stimulus as intensity, complexity, novelty, color, uncertainty, etc., carried out by the Canadian psychologist D. Berline. However, D. Berlein, like many other scientists, considered the orienting reflex precisely as a reflex - in connection with the problems of the neurophysiology of the brain, and not from the standpoint of the organization and functioning of mental activity, from the standpoint of orienting research activity.

Another idea of ​​the Pavlovian experiment was refracted in the minds of American psychologists in a special way - the idea of ​​constructing a new behavioral act in the laboratory, in front of the experimenter. It resulted in the idea of ​​"technology of behavior", its construction on the basis of positive reinforcement of any behavioral act chosen at the request of the experimenter (B. Skinner). Such a mechanistic approach to behavior completely ignored the need for the subject to orient himself in the conditions of his own action.

Theories of E. Thorndike and B. Skinner. When the attention of researchers was attracted by the functions of the unconditioned stimulus in establishing a new associative stimulus-reactive connection, the concept of learning arose, in which the main emphasis was placed on the value of reinforcement. These were the concepts of E. Thorndike and B. Skinner. The Pavlovian idea of ​​constructing a new behavioral act in an animal directly in the laboratory resulted in B. Skinner's idea of ​​"behavior technology", according to which any type of behavior can be formed with the help of reinforcement.

B. Skinner identifies development with learning, pointing out only their only difference: if learning covers short periods of time, then development covers relatively long periods. In other words, development is the sum of learning, stretched over long time distances. According to B. Skinner, behavior is entirely determined by the influence of the external environment and, just like the behavior of animals, can be “made” and controlled.

The main concept of B. Skinner is reinforcement, i.e. an increase or decrease in the likelihood that the corresponding act of behavior will be repeated again. Reinforcement can be positive or negative. Positive reinforcement in the case of children's behavior is the approval of adults, expressed in any form, negative - the dissatisfaction of the parents, the fear of their aggression.

B. Skinner distinguishes between positive reinforcement and reward, encouragement, as well as negative reinforcement and punishment, using the division of reinforcement into primary and conditional. The primary reinforcement is food, water, extreme cold or heat, and so on. Conditioned reinforcement - originally neutral stimuli that acquired a reinforcing function due to the combination with the primary forms of reinforcement (the type of drill in the dentist's office, sweets, etc.). Punishment can remove positive reinforcement or provide negative reinforcement. Reward does not always reinforce behavior. In principle, B. Skinner is against punishment, preferring positive reinforcement. Punishment has a quick but short-lived effect, while children are more likely to behave correctly if their behavior is noticed and approved by their Parents.

Such a mechanistic approach to human behavior completely ignored the need for the subject to orient himself in the conditions of his own actions. That is why B. Skinner's theory can be considered only a particular explanatory principle in teaching. In the experiments of E. Thorndike (study of acquired forms of behavior), in the studies of I.P. Pavlova (the study of the physiological mechanisms of learning) emphasized the possibility of the emergence of new forms of behavior on an instinctive basis. It was shown that under the influence of the environment, hereditary forms of behavior are overgrown with acquired skills and abilities. As a result of these studies, there was confidence that everything in human behavior can be created, if only there were appropriate conditions for this. However, here the old problem arises again: what in behavior is from biology, from instinct, from heredity, and what from the environment, from the conditions of life? The philosophical dispute between nativists (“there are innate ideas”) and empiricists (“man is a blank slate”) is connected with the solution of this problem.

The mechanistic interpretation of human behavior, brought to its logical end in the concept of B. Skinner, could not but cause violent indignation of many humanistically minded scientists.

A well-known representative of humanistic psychology, C. Rogers, opposed his position to B. Skinner, emphasizing that freedom is the realization that a person can live on his own, "here and now", according to his own choice. It is the courage that makes a person able to enter into the uncertainty of the unknown, which he chooses for himself. It is the understanding of meaning within oneself. According to Rogers, a person who expresses his thoughts deeply and boldly acquires his own uniqueness, responsibly "chooses himself." He may have the happiness of choosing among a hundred external alternatives, or the misfortune of having none. But in all cases, his freedom nonetheless exists.

The attack on behaviorism, and especially on those aspects of it that are closest to developmental psychology, which began in American science in the 1960s, proceeded along several lines. One of them concerned the question of how the experimental material should be collected. The fact is that B. Skinner's experiments were often performed on one or more subjects. In modern psychology, many researchers believed that patterns of behavior could only be obtained by sifting through individual differences and random deviations. This can be achieved only by averaging the behavior of many subjects. This attitude has led to an even greater expansion of the scope of research, the development of special techniques for quantitative data analysis, the search for new ways of studying learning, and with it development research.

The theory of development by S. Bijou and D. Baer. The traditions of B. Skinner were continued by S. Bijou and D. Baer, ​​who also use the concepts of behavior and reinforcement. Behavior can be reactive (responsive) or operant. Stimuli can be physical, chemical, organismal or social. They can evoke reciprocal behavior or enhance operant behavior. Instead of individual stimuli, whole complexes often act. Special attention is given to differentiation stimuli, which are attitudinal and perform the function of intermediate variables that change the influence of the main stimulus.

The distinction between reciprocal and operant behavior is of particular importance for developmental psychology. Operant behavior creates stimuli, which, in turn, significantly influence the response behavior. In this case, 3 groups of influences are possible:

1. environment (incentives);
2. an individual (organism) with its formed habits;
3. changing influences of the individual on the influencing environment.

Trying to explain what is the cause of the changes that occur to a person throughout his life, S. Bijou and D. Baer essentially introduce the concept of interaction. Despite the wide range of variables that determine the learning process, they note the homogeneity of the course of development for different individuals. It is, in their opinion, the result of:

1. identical biological boundary conditions;
2. the relative homogeneity of the social environment;
3. difficulties in mastering different forms of behavior;
4. prerequisite relationships (for example, walking precedes running).

According to S. Bijou and D. Baer, individual development includes the following steps:

1. basic stage (also called universal or infantile): satisfaction of biological needs through primary conditioning; the predominance of response, as well as exploratory behavior; ends with the emergence of speech behavior;
2. main stage: increasing liberation from organismal restrictions (the need for sleep decreases, muscle strength and dexterity increase); the emergence of speech as a second signal system; expanding the range of relationships from biologically significant persons of the immediate environment to the whole family. This stage is divided into:
   • early childhood, family socialization, first independence;
   • for middle childhood: socialization in elementary school, development of social, intellectual and motor skills;
   • on youth: heterosexual socialization.
3. social stage (more commonly referred to as cultural): adulthood divided by:
   • for maturity: stability of behavior; professional, marital and social socialization (continues until the beginning of involutionary processes);
   • for old age: the involution of social, intellectual and motor capabilities and the construction of compensatory behavior.

Thus, in classical behaviorism, the problem of development was not specifically emphasized - in it there is only the problem of learning based on the presence or absence of reinforcement under the influence of the environment. But it is not easy to transfer the model of relations between the organism and the environment to the social behavior of a person. American psychologists tried to overcome the difficulties of transferring learning theory to social behavior on the basis of a synthesis of behaviorism and psychoanalysis.

The search for answers to the question of whether learning (i.e., the establishment of a connection between a stimulus and a response) depends on such states of the subject as hunger, thirst, pain, which have received the name drive in American psychology, has led to more complex theoretical concepts of learning developed by N. Miller and K. Hull. Their ideas raised American learning theory to such a degree of maturity that it was ready to assimilate new European ideas from the fields of Gestalt psychology, field theory, and psychoanalysis. It was here that there was a turn from a strict behavioral experiment of the Pavlovian type to the study of the motivation and cognitive development of the child.

At the end of the 30s. N. Miller, J. Dollard, R. Sears, J. Whiting and other young scientists at Yale University made an attempt to translate the most important concepts of psychoanalytic theory into the language of C. Hull's learning theory. They outlined the main lines of research: social learning in the process of raising a child, cross-cultural analysis - the study of the upbringing and development of a child in different cultures, personality development. In 1941, N. Miller and J. Dollard introduced the term "social learning" into scientific use.

On this basis, for more than half a century, the concepts of social learning have been developed, the central problem of which has become the problem of socialization.

Sociogenetic concepts of mental development. In the late 1930s, N. Miller, J. Dollard, R. Sears, A. Bandura, and other young scientists at Yale University made an attempt to translate the most important concepts of the psychoanalytic theory of personality into the language of C. Hull's learning theory. They outlined the main lines of research: social learning in the process of raising a child, cross-cultural analysis - the study of the upbringing and development of a child in different cultures, personality development. In 1941, N. Miller and J. Dollard introduced the term "social learning" into scientific use.

On this basis, for more than half a century, the concepts of social learning have been developed, the central problem of which has become the problem of socialization. Socialization is a process that allows the child to take his place in society, it is the promotion of a newborn from an asocial "humanoid" state to life as a full-fledged member of society. How does socialization take place? All newborns are similar to each other, and after two or three years they are different children. So, social learning theorists say, these differences are the result of learning, they are not innate.

There are different concepts of learning. In classical Pavlovian conditioning, subjects begin to give the same response to different stimuli. In Skinner's operant learning, a behavioral act is formed due to the presence or absence of reinforcement of one of the many possible responses. Both of these concepts do not explain how new behavior occurs. A. Bandura believed that reward and punishment are not enough to teach new behavior. Children acquire new behavior by imitating the model. Learning through observation, imitation and identification is the third form of learning. One of the manifestations of imitation is identification - a process in which a person borrows thoughts, feelings or actions from another person acting as a model. Imitation leads to the fact that the child can imagine himself in the place of the model, experience sympathy, complicity, empathy for this person.

Let us briefly consider the contribution made to the concept of social learning by representatives of different generations of American scientists.

N. Miller and J. Dollard were the first to build a bridge between behaviorism and psychoanalytic theory. Following 3. Freud, they considered clinical material as richest source data; in their opinion, the psychopathological personality differs only quantitatively, and not qualitatively, from a normal person. Therefore, the study of neurotic behavior sheds light on universal principles of behavior that are more difficult to identify in normal people. In addition, neurotics are usually observed by psychologists for a long time, and this provides valuable material for a long and dynamic change in behavior under the influence of social correction.

On the other hand, Miller and Dollard are experimental psychologists who use precise laboratory methods, also addressing the behavioral mechanisms of animals studied through experiments.

Miller and Dollard share Freud's point of view on the role of motivation in behavior, believing that the behavior of both animals and humans is the result of such primary (innate) urges as hunger, thirst, pain, etc. All of them can be satisfied, but by no means extinguished. In keeping with the behavioral tradition, Miller and Dollard quantify drive strength by measuring, for example, the duration of deprivation. In addition to the primary ones, there are secondary drives, including anger, guilt, sexual preferences, the need for money and power, and many others. The most important among them are fear and anxiety caused by a previous, previously neutral stimulus. The conflict between fear and other important impulses is the cause of neuroses.

In transforming Freud's ideas, Miller and Dollard replace the pleasure principle with the reward principle. They define reinforcement as something that reinforces the tendency to repeat a previously occurring response. From their point of view, reinforcement is a reduction, a withdrawal of urge, or, to use Freud's term, a drive. Learning, according to Miller and Dollard, is the strengthening of the connection between a key stimulus and the response that it elicits through reinforcement. If there is no corresponding reaction in the repertoire of human or animal behavior, then it can be acquired by observing the behavior of the model. Emphasizing the mechanism of learning by trial and error, Miller and Dollard pay attention to the possibility of using imitation to reduce the amount of trial and error and get closer to the correct answer through observation of the behavior of another.

In the experiments of Miller and Dollard, the conditions for imitation of the leader (with or without reinforcement) were clarified. Experiments were carried out on rats and children, and in both cases similar results were obtained. The stronger the urge, the more the reinforcement strengthens the stimulus-response connection. If there is no motivation, learning is impossible. Miller and Dollard believe that self-satisfied self-satisfied people are bad learners.

Miller and Dollard draw on Freud's theory of childhood trauma. They regard childhood as a period of transient neurosis, and the young child as disoriented, deceived, disinhibited, incapable of higher mental processes. From their point of view, a happy child is a myth. Hence the task of parents is to socialize children, to prepare them for life in society. Miller and Dollard share the idea of ​​A. Adler that a mother who gives her child the first example human relations plays a crucial role in socialization. In this process, in their opinion, the four most important life situations can serve as a source of conflict. These are feeding, toilet training, sexual identification, the manifestation of aggressiveness in a child. Early conflicts are non-verbalized and therefore unconscious. To understand them, according to Miller and Dollar, it is necessary to use therapeutic technique Freud. “Without understanding the past, it is impossible to change the future,” wrote Miller and Dollard.

The concept of social learning. A. Bandura. And Bandura - the most famous representative of the second generation of theorists of the concept of social learning - developed the ideas of Miller and Dollard about social learning. He criticized Freud's psychoanalysis and Skinner's behaviorism. Having accepted the ideas of the dyadic approach to the analysis of human behavior, Bandura focused on the phenomenon of learning through imitation. In his opinion, much in human behavior arises on the basis of observation of the behavior of another.

Unlike his predecessors, Bandura believes that in order to acquire new responses based on imitation, it is not necessary to reinforce the actions of the observer or the actions of the model; but reinforcement is necessary in order to reinforce and maintain the behavior formed by imitation. A. Bandura and R. Walters found that the visual learning procedure (that is, training in the absence of reinforcement or the presence of indirect reinforcement of only one model) is especially effective for learning new social experience. Thanks to this procedure, the subject develops a "behavioral predisposition" to reactions that were previously unlikely for him.

Learning by observation is important, according to Bandura, because it can be used to regulate and direct the child's behavior, giving him the opportunity to imitate authoritative models.

Bandura has done a lot of laboratory and field research on child and youth aggressiveness. For example, children were shown films in which different patterns of adult behavior (aggressive and non-aggressive) were presented, which had various consequences(reward or punishment). As a result, aggressive behavior in children who watched the film was greater and more frequent than in children who did not watch the film.

While a number of American scientists consider Bandura's theory of social learning as a concept consisting of "smart hypotheses about the process of socialization", other researchers note that the mechanism of imitation is insufficient to explain the emergence of many behavioral acts. Just by watching a bike ride, it's hard to learn how to ride yourself - it takes practice.

Considering these objections, A. Bandura includes four intermediate processes in the “stimulus-response” scheme to explain how the imitation of the model leads to the formation of a new behavioral act in the subject.

1. The attention of the child to the action of the model. Requirements for the model - clarity, visibility, affective richness, functional significance. The observer must have an appropriate level of sensory capabilities.
2. A memory that stores information about the effects of the model.
3. Motor skills that allow you to reproduce what the observer perceives.
4. Motivation that determines the desire of the child to fulfill what he sees.

Thus, Bandura recognizes the role of cognitive processes in the formation and regulation of behavior based on imitation. This is a marked departure from Miller and Dollard's original position, which conceived of imitation as modeling based on perceptions of the model's actions and expected reinforcement.

Bandura emphasizes the role of cognitive regulation of behavior. As a result of observing the behavior of the model, the child builds “internal models of the external world”. The subject observes or learns about a pattern of behavior, but does not reproduce it until the appropriate conditions arise. On the basis of these internal models of the external world, under certain circumstances, real behavior is built, in which the previously observed properties of the model are manifested and find their expression. Cognitive regulation of behavior, however, is subject to the control of stimulus and reinforcement - the main variables of the behavioral theory of learning.

Social learning theory recognizes that the impact of a model is determined by the information it contains. Whether this information will be fruitful depends on the cognitive development of the observer.

Thanks to the introduction of cognitive variables into the theory of social learning, according to American psychologists, it became possible to explain the following facts:

• replacement of a visually perceived demonstration with a verbal instruction (here, first of all, information is important, not external properties models);

• the impossibility of forming most skills through imitation (hence, the child does not have the necessary components of behavior);

• less opportunities for imitation in infants compared to preschoolers (the reason is weaker memory, fewer skills, unstable attention, etc.);

• the extreme limitation in animals of the ability to imitate new physical actions with the help of visual observations.

Nevertheless, there are still unresolved questions.

Theory of R. Sears. The famous American psychologist R. Sears studied the relationship between parents and children under the influence of psychoanalysis. As a student of K. Hull, he developed his own version of the combination of psychoanalytic theory with behaviorism. He focused on the study of external behavior that can be measured. In active behavior, he singled out action and social interactions.

Action is motivated. Like Miller and Dollard, Sears assumes that initially all actions are associated with primary or innate urges. The satisfaction or frustration that results from the behavior motivated by these primary drives leads the individual to a new experience. The constant reinforcement of specific actions leads to new, secondary impulses that arise as a result of social influences.

Sears introduced the dyadic principle of studying child development: since it takes place within a dyadic unit of behavior, adaptive behavior and its reinforcement in an individual should be studied taking into account the behavior of another, partner.

Considering psychoanalytic concepts (suppression, regression, projection, sublimation, etc.) in the context of learning theory, Sears focuses on the influence of parents on the development of the child.

Sears identifies three phases of child development:

1. phase of rudimentary behavior - based on innate needs and learning in early infancy, in the first months of life;
2. phase of secondary motivational systems - based on learning within the family (the main phase of socialization);
3. phase of secondary motivational systems - based on learning outside the family (goes beyond early age and is associated with school entry).

According to Sears, the newborn is in a state of autism, his bringing does not correlate with social world. But already the first innate needs of the child, his inner impulses serve as a source of learning. The first attempts to extinguish the inner tension constitute the first experience of learning. This period of rudimentary antisocial behavior precedes socialization.

Gradually, the infant begins to understand that extinction internal stress, for example, a decrease in pain is associated with its actions, and the connection "crying - chest" leads to satisfying hunger. His actions become part of a sequence of purposeful behavior. Each new action that leads to the fading of tension will be repeated again and built into the chain of goal-directed behavior when the tension rises. Need satisfaction is positive experience baby.

Each child has a repertoire of actions that are necessarily replaced in the course of development. Successful development is characterized by a decrease in autism and actions aimed only at satisfying innate needs, and an increase in dyadic social behavior.

According to Sears, the central component of learning is addiction. Reinforcement in dyadic systems always depends on contact with others, it is already present in the earliest contacts between the child and the mother, when the child learns through trial and error to satisfy his organic needs with the help of the mother. The dyadic relationship fosters and reinforces the child's dependence on the mother.

Psychological dependence manifests itself in search of attention: the child asks an adult to pay attention to him, to look at what he is doing, he wants to be near an adult, sit on his lap, etc. Dependence is manifested in the fact that the child is afraid to be alone. He learns to behave in such a way as to attract the attention of his parents. Here Sears is talking like a behaviorist: by paying attention to a child, we reinforce him, and this can be used to teach him something.

Lack of reinforcement for addiction can lead to aggressive behavior. Sears considers addiction as the most complex motivational system, which is not innate, but is formed during life.

The social environment in which a child is born has an impact on its development. The concept of "social environment" includes: the gender of the child, his position in the family, the happiness of his mother, the social position of the family, the level of education, etc. The mother sees her child through the prism of her ideas about raising children. She treats the child differently depending on his gender. AT early development the child manifests the personality of the mother, her ability to love, to regulate everything “possible” and “impossible”. A mother's abilities are related to her own self-esteem, her assessment of her father, her attitude towards her own life. High scores on each of these factors correlate with high enthusiasm and warmth towards the child. Finally, the mother's social status, her upbringing, belonging to a certain culture predetermine the practice of upbringing. The probability of healthy development of the child is higher if the mother is satisfied with her position in life.

Thus, the first phase of the development of the child links the biological heredity of the newborn with his social heritage. This phase introduces the infant to the environment and forms the basis for expanding his interaction with the outside world.

The second phase of a child's development lasts from the second half of the second year of life until entering school. As before, primary needs remain the motive of the child's behavior, however, they are gradually rebuilt and turn into secondary motives.

Summarizing the results of his research, Sears identified five forms of addictive behavior. All of them are the product of different childhood experiences.

Sears made an attempt to identify a correlation between the forms of addictive behavior and the practice of caring for a child by his parents - mother and father.

Studies have shown that neither the number of reinforcements, nor the duration of breastfeeding, nor feeding by the hour, nor the difficulty of weaning, nor other characteristics of feeding practices, have a significant effect on the manifestations of addictive behavior in preschool age. It is not oral reinforcement that is most significant for the formation of addictive behavior, but participation in the care of the child of each of the parents.

1. "Negative Negative Attention Seeking": Attracting attention through fights, breakups, defiance, or so-called oppositional behavior (resistance to direction, rules, order, and demands by ignoring, refusing, or contrary behavior). This form of dependency is a direct consequence of low demands and insufficient restrictions in relation to the child, that is, a weak upbringing on the part of the mother and - especially in relation to the girl - a strong participation in the upbringing of the father.

2. "Seeking constant confirmation": apologizing, asking for unnecessary promises, or seeking protection, comfort, comfort, help, or guidance. This form of addictive behavior is directly related to the high demands of achievement on the part of both parents.

3. "Search for positive attention": the search for praise, the desire to join the group, due to the attractiveness of cooperative activity, or, conversely, the desire to leave the group, interrupt this activity. This is a more "mature" form of addictive behavior that involves efforts to gain approval from those around you.

This is one of the forms of "immature", passive manifestation in the behavior of dependence, positive in its direction.

5. "Touch and hold." Sears mentions here behaviors such as non-aggressive touching, holding, and hugging others. This is a form of "immature" addictive behavior. Here, as in the case of staying nearby, there is an atmosphere of infantilization.

The success of any method of parenting, Sears emphasizes, depends on the ability of parents to find a middle path. The rule should be: neither too strong nor too weak dependence; neither too strong nor too weak identification.

The theory of convergence of two factors. The dispute of psychologists about what determines the process of child development - hereditary giftedness or the environment - has led to the theory of convergence of these two factors. Its founder is V. Stern. He believed that mental development is not a simple manifestation of innate properties and not a simple perception external influences. This is the result of the convergence of internal inclinations with the external conditions of life. V. Stern wrote that it is impossible to ask about any function, any property: does it occur from the outside or from the inside? The only legitimate question is: what exactly is happening in it from the outside and what is happening inside? Because in its manifestation both are always active, only each time in different proportions.

Behind the problem of the correlation of two factors that influence the process of a child's mental development, most often lies a preference for the factor of hereditary predetermination of development. But even when researchers emphasize the primacy of the environment over the hereditary factor, they fail to overcome the biologist approach to development if the environment and the entire process of development are interpreted as a process of adaptation, adaptation to living conditions.

V. Stern, like his other contemporaries, was a supporter of the concept of recapitulation. His words are often mentioned that a child in the first months of the infantile period with still unreasoned reflex and impulsive behavior is at the stage of a mammal; in the second half of the year, thanks to the development of grasping objects and imitation, he reaches the stage of the highest mammal - the monkey; in the future, having mastered the upright gait and speech, the child reaches the initial stages of the human condition; for the first five years of play and fairy tales, he stands at the level of primitive peoples; this is followed by admission to school, which is associated with the mastery of higher social responsibilities, which, according to V. Stern, corresponds to the entry of a person into culture with its state and economic organizations. The simple content of the ancient and Old Testament world is most adequate in the first school years to the childish spirit, the middle years bear the features of the fanaticism of Christian culture, and only in the period of maturity is spiritual differentiation achieved, corresponding to the state of culture of the New Age. It is appropriate to recall that quite often puberty is called the age of enlightenment.

The desire to consider the periods of child development by analogy with the stages of development of the animal world and human culture shows how persistently researchers were looking for general patterns of evolution.

psychoanalytic theory. Having arisen as a method of treatment, psychoanalysis was almost immediately perceived as a means of obtaining psychological facts that made it possible to clarify the origins of the personality characteristics and problems of the individual. 3. Freud introduced into psychology the idea that the psychological problems of the adult personality can be inferred from early childhood experiences and that childhood experience has an unconscious influence on the adult's subsequent behavior.

Based on the general theses of psychoanalysis, 3. Freud formulated the ideas of the genesis of the child's psyche and child's personality: the stages of child development correspond to the stages of moving zones in which the primary sexual need finds its satisfaction. These stages reflect the development and relationship between Id, Ego and Super-Ego.

The infant, completely dependent on the mother for pleasure, is in the oral phase (0-12 months) and in the biological stage, characterized by rapid growth. The oral phase of development is characterized by the fact that the main source of pleasure and potential frustration is associated with feeding. In the psychology of the child, one desire dominates - to absorb food. The leading erogenous area of ​​this stage is the mouth as a tool for feeding, sucking and primary examination of objects.

The oral stage consists of two phases - early and late, occupying the first and second six months of life and corresponding to two successive libidinal actions - sucking and biting.

Initially, sucking is associated with food pleasure, but gradually it becomes a libidinal action, on the basis of which the Id instincts are fixed: the child sometimes sucks his thumb even in the absence of food. This type of pleasure in Freud's interpretation 3. coincides with sexual pleasure and finds the objects of its satisfaction in the stimulation of one's own body. Therefore, he calls this stage autoerotic.

In the first six months of life, according to 3. Freud, the child does not yet separate his sensations from the object by which they were caused: the world of the child is in fact a world without objects. The child lives in a state of primary narcissism (his basic state is sleep), in which he is not aware of the existence of other objects in the world.

In the second phase of infancy, the child begins to form an idea of ​​​​another object (mother) as a being independent of him - he experiences anxiety when the mother leaves or a stranger appears instead of her. The influence of the real external world is increasing, the differentiation of Ego and Id is developing, the danger from the outside world is increasing, and the importance of the mother as an object that can protect against dangers and, as it were, compensate for the lost intrauterine life, grows excessively.

The biological connection with the mother causes the need to be loved, which, having arisen, will remain in the psyche forever. But the mother cannot, at the first request, satisfy all the desires of the baby; in education, limitations are inevitable, which become a source of differentiation, the allocation of an object. Thus, at the beginning of life, the distinction between the external and the internal, according to the views of Z. Freud, is achieved not on the basis of the perception of objective reality, but on the basis of the experience of pleasure and displeasure associated with the actions of another person.

In the second half of the oral stage, with the appearance of teeth, a bite is added to the sucking, which gives the action an aggressive character, satisfying the libidinal need of the child. But the mother does not allow the child to bite her breast, even if he is displeased or upset, and his desire for pleasure begins to conflict with reality.

According to 3. Freud, the newborn does not yet have an Ego, but it is gradually differentiated from Id, being modified under the influence of the outside world. Its functioning is connected with the principle of "satisfaction-lack of satisfaction". Since the world is known to the child through the mother, in her absence he experiences a state of dissatisfaction and due to this he begins to single out the mother, since the absence of a mother for him is the absence of pleasure. At this stage the Super-Ego instance does not yet exist, and the child's Ego is in constant conflict with the Id.

The lack of satisfaction of desires, needs of the child at this stage of development, as it were, “freezes” a certain amount of mental energy, libido is fixed, which constitutes an obstacle to further normal development. A child who does not receive sufficient satisfaction of his oral needs is forced to continue to seek replacement for their satisfaction and therefore cannot move on to the next stage of genetic development.

The oral period is followed by the anal period (from 12-18 months to 3 years), during which the child first learns to control his bodily functions. Libido is concentrated around the anus, which becomes the object of attention of the child, accustomed to neatness, cleanliness. Now children's sexuality finds the object of its satisfaction in mastering the functions of defecation, excretion. And here, for the first time, the child encounters many prohibitions, so the outside world appears to him as a barrier that he must overcome, and development takes on a conflict character.

According to Freud, at this stage the Ego instance is fully formed, and now it is able to control the Id impulses. Training in toilet habits prevents the child from enjoying the pleasure that he experiences from holding or excreting excrement, and aggression, envy, stubbornness, and possessive feelings appear in his behavior during this period. He also develops defensive reactions against coprophilic tendencies (desire to touch feces) - disgust and cleanliness. Children's Ego learns to resolve conflicts, finding compromises between the desire for pleasure and reality. Social coercion, the punishment of parents, the fear of losing their love make the child mentally imagine, internalize certain prohibitions. Thus, the Super-Ego of the child begins to form as part of his Ego, where the authorities, the influence of parents and other adults, who play a very important role as educators, socializers of the child, are mainly laid down.

The next phase begins at about three years and is called phallic (3-5 years). It characterizes the highest level of childish sexuality: if until now it was autoerotic, now it is becoming objective, i.e. children begin to experience sexual attachment to adults. The genitals become the leading erogenous zone.

Motivational-affective libidinal attachment to parents of the opposite sex 3. Freud proposed to call the oedipal complex for boys and the Electra complex for girls. In the Greek myth of King Oedipus, who killed his father and married his mother, according to 3. Freud, the key to the sexual complex is hidden: experiencing an unconscious attraction to his mother and a jealous desire to get rid of his rival father, the boy experiences hatred and fear towards his father . Fear of punishment by the father underlies the castration complex, reinforced by the discovery that girls do not have a penis and the conclusion that he may lose his penis if he misbehaves. The castration complex represses Oedipal experiences (they remain unconscious) and promotes identification with the father.

Through the repression of the Oedipus complex, the Super-Ego instance is completely differentiated. Getting stuck at this stage, the difficulties of overcoming the Oedipus complex create the basis for the formation of a timid, shy, passive personality. Girls who have difficulty in overcoming the Electra complex often form a neurotic desire to have a son.

With the development of the child, the "principle of pleasure" is replaced by the "principle of reality", since he is forced to adapt the instincts of Id to those opportunities for satisfying drives that real situations provide. In the process of development, the child must learn to appreciate the relative importance of various and often conflicting instinctual desires, so that, by refusing or postponing the satisfaction of some, to achieve the fulfillment of others, more important.

According to 3. Freud, the most important periods in a child's life are completed before 5-6 years; it was by this time that all three main structures of the personality were formed. After five years, a long period of latent childhood sexuality begins (5-12 years), when the former curiosity about sexual manifestations gives way to curiosity about the whole world around. Libido at this time is not fixed, sexual potencies are dormant, and the child has the opportunity to identify and build I-identity.

He goes to school and most of his energy goes into teaching. The stage is characterized by a general decrease in sexual interests: the psychic instance of the Ego completely controls the needs of the Id; Being divorced from the sexual goal, the energy of the libido is transferred to the development of universal human experience, enshrined in science and culture, as well as to the establishment of friendly relations with adults and peers outside the family environment.

And only from about 12 years old, with the onset of adolescence, when the reproductive system matures, sexual interests flare up again. The genital phase (12-18 years) is characterized by the formation of self-awareness, a sense of self-confidence and the ability to mature love. Now all the former erogenous zones are united, and the teenager is striving for one goal - normal sexual intercourse.

In the mainstream of psychoanalysis, a huge number of interesting observations have been made on different aspects development of the child, nevertheless, there are few holistic pictures of development in psychoanalysis. Perhaps, only the works of Anna Freud and Erik Erikson can be considered as such.

epigenetic theory life path The personality of E. Erickson in many respects continued the ideas of classical psychoanalysis.

E. Erickson accepted the ideas of 3. Freud about the three-membered structure of personality, identifying Id with desires and dreams, and Super-Ego with feelings of duty, between which a person constantly fluctuates in thoughts and feelings. Between them there is a "dead point" - Ego, in which, according to E. Erickson, we are most of all ourselves, although we are least aware of ourselves.

Analyzing the biographies of M. Luther, M. Gandhi, B. Shaw, T. Jefferson with the help of the psychohistorical method and conducting field ethnographic research, E. Erickson tried to understand and evaluate the influence of the environment on the personality, constructing it exactly this way and not another. These studies gave rise to two concepts of his concept - "group identity" and "ego-identity".

Group identity is formed due to the fact that from the first day of life, the upbringing of a child is focused on including him in a given social group, on developing a worldview inherent in this group. Ego-identity is formed in parallel with group identity and creates in the subject a sense of stability and continuity of his Self, despite age-related and other changes.

The formation of ego identity (or personal integrity) continues throughout a person's life and goes through eight age stages (see table).

Stages of periodization according to E. Erickson

At each stage, society sets a specific task for the individual and sets the content of development at different stages life cycle. But the solution of these problems depends both on the already achieved level of psychomotor development of the individual, and on the general spiritual atmosphere of society.

Thus, the task of infancy is the formation of basic trust in the world, overcoming the feeling of disunity with it and alienation. The task of early childhood is the struggle against feelings of shame and strong doubts in one's actions for one's own independence and independence. The task of the playing age is the development of an active initiative and at the same time experiencing a sense of guilt and moral responsibility for one's desires. During the period of study at school, the task arises of developing industriousness and the ability to handle tools, which is opposed by the consciousness of one's own ineptness and uselessness. In adolescence and early adolescence, the task of the first integral awareness of oneself and one's place in the world appears; the negative pole in solving this problem is the lack of confidence in understanding one's own self ("diffusion of identity"). The task of the end of youth and youth is the search for a life partner and the establishment of close friendships that overcome the feeling of loneliness. The task of the mature period is the struggle of the creative forces of man against inertia and stagnation. The period of old age is characterized by the formation of a final integral idea of ​​oneself, one's life path, as opposed to possible disappointment in life and growing despair.

The solution of each of these problems, according to E. Erickson, is reduced to the establishment of a certain dynamic relationship between the two extreme poles. The balance achieved at each stage marks the acquisition of a new form of ego-identity and opens up the possibility of inclusion of the subject in a wider social environment. The transition from one form of ego-identity to another causes identity crises. Crises are not personality diseases, not manifestations of neurotic disorders, but "turning points" of development.

Psychoanalytic practice convinced E. Erickson that the development of life experience is carried out on the basis of the child's primary bodily impressions. That is why he introduced the concepts of "organ mode" and "modality of behavior." The “organ mode” is a zone of concentration of sexual energy. The organ with which sexual energy is connected at a particular stage of development creates a certain mode of development, i.e. formation of the dominant personality trait. According to the erogenous zones, there are modes of retraction, retention, invasion and inclusion.

Zones and their modes, according to E. Erickson, are in the center of attention of any cultural system of raising children. The modus of an organ is only the primary soil, the impetus for mental development. When society through various institutions of socialization (family, school, etc.) gives special meaning given mode, then there is an “alienation” of its meaning, separation from the organ and transformation into a modality of behavior. Thus, through modes, a link is made between psychosexual and psychosocial development.

Let us briefly describe the stages.

A. Infancy. Stage one: fundamental faith and hope versus fundamental hopelessness. The peculiarity of modes is that another object or person is necessary for their functioning. In the first days of life, the child “lives and loves through the mouth”, and the mother “lives and loves through the breast”. In the act of feeding, the child receives the first experience of reciprocity: his ability to "receive through the mouth" meets with a response from the mother. Unlike 3. Freud, for E. Erickson, it is not the oral zone itself that is important, but the oral mode of interaction, which consists in the ability to “receive” not only through the mouth, but also through all sensory zones. The modus of an organ - "receive" - ​​breaks away from the zone of its origin and spreads to other sensory sensations (tactile, visual, auditory, etc.), and as a result, a mental modality of behavior is formed - "take in".

Like 3. Freud, E. Erikson associates the second phase of infancy with teething. From this moment the ability to take in becomes more active and directed and is characterized by the "biting" mode. Being alienated, the modus manifests itself in all types of the child's activity, displacing passive receiving (“absorbing”).

The eyes, initially ready to receive impressions as they come naturally, learn to focus, isolate and pick out objects from the background, follow them. The ears are trained to recognize significant sounds, locate them, and control the search turn towards them. Hands are taught to stretch purposefully, and hands to grasp. As a result of the distribution of the modus to all sensory zones, a social modality of behavior is formed - "taking and holding things." It manifests itself when the child learns to sit. All these achievements lead to the child singling out himself as a separate individual.

The formation of the first form of ego-identity, like all subsequent ones, is accompanied by a developmental crisis. His indicators at the end of the 1st year of life: general tension due to teething, increased awareness of himself as a separate individual, weakening of the mother-child dyad as a result of the mother's return to professional pursuits and personal interests. This crisis is overcome more easily if, by the end of the first year of life, the ratio between basic trust and basic distrust is in favor of the former.

Signs of social trust in an infant are light feeding, deep sleep, normal bowel movements.

The dynamics of the relationship between trust and distrust of the world is determined not by the characteristics of feeding, but by the quality of child care, the presence of maternal love and tenderness, manifested in caring for the baby. An important condition for this is the mother's confidence in her actions.

B. Early childhood. Second stage: autonomy versus shame and doubt. It starts from the moment when the child begins to walk.

At this stage, the pleasure zone is associated with the anus. The ballroom creates two opposite modes - the mode of retention and the mode of relaxation (letting go). Society, attaching special importance to accustoming a child to neatness, creates conditions for the dominance of these modes, their separation from their body and transformation into such modalities of behavior as "preservation" and "destruction". The struggle for "sphincter control" as a result of the importance given to it by society is transformed into a struggle for mastery of one's motor capabilities, for the establishment of a new, autonomous self.

Parental control allows you to keep this feeling through the restriction of the growing desires of the child to demand, appropriate, destroy, when he, as it were, tests the strength of his new capabilities. But external control at this stage should be strictly soothing. The child must feel that his basic belief in existence is not threatened.

Parental restrictions create the basis for negative feelings of shame and doubt. The appearance of a sense of shame, according to E. Erickson, is associated with the emergence of self-consciousness. In our civilization, according to E. Erickson, shame is easily absorbed by guilt. Punishing and shaming a child for bad deeds leads to the feeling that "the eyes of the world are looking at him."

The struggle of a sense of independence against shame and doubt leads to the establishment of a relationship between the ability to cooperate with other people and insist on one's own, between freedom of expression and its restriction. At the end of the stage, a mobile balance develops between these opposites. It will be positive if parents and close adults do not excessively control the child and suppress his desire for autonomy.

C. Preschool age. Third stage: initiative versus guilt. Being firmly convinced that he is his own person, the child must now find out what kind of person he can become.

Three lines of development form the core of this stage, preparing at the same time its future crisis:

1) the child becomes freer and more persistent in his movements and, as a result, establishes a wider and essentially unlimited radius of targets;

2) his sense of language becomes so perfect that he begins to ask endless questions about countless things, often without receiving a proper and intelligible answer, which contributes to a completely misinterpretation of many concepts;

3) both speech and developing motor skills allow the child to extend his imagination to such a large number of roles that it sometimes frightens him. He can profitably discover the outside world by combining permitted actions with his own abilities. He is ready to see himself as a big being, like adults. He begins to make comparisons about differences in size and other properties of the people around him, shows unlimited curiosity, in particular about gender and age differences. He tries to imagine possible future roles and understand which ones are worth imagining.

The matured child looks more "himself" - more loving, more calm in judgments, more active and proactive. Now he forgets mistakes faster and achieves what he wants in a non-humiliating and more accurate way. Initiative adds to autonomy the qualities of enterprise, planning and the ability to “attack” a task only for the sake of experiencing a feeling of one’s own activity and “motor joy”, and not, as before, because of an involuntary desire to annoy or, according to at least to emphasize their independence.

The modes of intrusion and inclusion create new modalities of behavior at this stage of personality development.

The intrusion mode, which dominates behavior at this stage, determines the variety of activities and fantasies that are “similar” in form. Intrusion into space through energetic movements; attacking other bodies by means of a physical assault "crawling" into the ears and souls of other people by means of aggressive sounds; entry into the unknown through consuming curiosity - such, according to the description of E. Erickson, is a preschooler at one pole of his behavioral reactions. At the other extreme, he is receptive to the environment, ready to establish tender and caring relationships with peers and kids. Under the guidance of adults and older children, he gradually enters into the intricacies of the children's policy of the garden, street, yard. His desire for learning at this time is surprisingly strong; it moves relentlessly forward from limitations to future possibilities.

The stage of play and child genitality adds to the list of basic modalities for both sexes the modality of "making", in particular, "making a career". Moreover, for boys, the emphasis remains on “doing” through brainstorming, while for girls it can turn into “catching” through either aggressive capture or turning oneself into an attractive and irresistible person - prey. Thus, the prerequisites for male or female initiative are formed, as well as some psychosexual images of oneself, become ingredients of the positive and negative aspects of the future identity.

The child eagerly and actively learns the world around him; in the game, modeling and imagining, he, together with his peers, masters the "economic ethos of culture", i.e. system of relations between people in the process of production. As a result of this, a desire is formed to get involved in real joint activities with adults, to get out of the role of a baby. But adults remain omnipotent and incomprehensible for the child, they can shame and punish aggressive behavior and claims. And the result is guilt.

D. School age. Fourth stage: industriousness versus inferiority. The fourth stage of personality development is characterized by a certain drowsiness of infantile sexuality and a delay in genital maturity, which is necessary for the future adult to learn the technical and social foundations of labor activity.

With the onset of a period of latency, a normally developing child forgets, or rather sublimates, the former desire to "make" people through direct aggressive action and immediately become a "dad" or "mother"; now he is learning to win recognition by producing things. He develops a sense of diligence, industriousness, he adapts to the inorganic laws of the tool world. Tools and labor skills are gradually included in the boundaries of his ego: the principle of work teaches him the pleasure of expedient completion of labor activity, achieved through steady attention and persistent diligence. He is overwhelmed by the desire to design and plan.

At this stage, a wide social environment is very important for him, allowing him to play roles before he meets the relevance of technology and economics, and a good teacher who knows how to combine play and study, how to involve the child in business is especially important. What is at stake here is nothing less than developing and maintaining in the child a positive identification with those who know things and know how to do things.

The school in a systematic way introduces the child to knowledge, conveys the "technological ethos" of culture, forms diligence. At this stage, the child learns to love learning, obeys discipline, fulfills the requirements of adults and learns most selflessly, actively appropriating the experience of his culture. At this time, children become attached to teachers and parents of their friends, they want to observe and imitate such activities of people that they understand - a fireman and a policeman, a gardener, a plumber and a scavenger. In all cultures, the child at this stage receives systematic instruction, although not always only within the walls of the school.

Now the child sometimes needs to be alone - to read, watch TV, dream. Often, when left alone, the child begins to make something, and gets very angry if he does not succeed. E. Erickson calls the feeling of being able to do things a sense of creation - and this is the first step in turning oneself from a “rudimentary” parent into a biological one. The danger that awaits the child at this stage is the feeling of inadequacy and inferiority. The child in this case experiences despair from his ineptitude in the world of tools and sees himself doomed to mediocrity or inadequacy. If, in favorable cases, the figures of the father or mother (their significance for the child) fade into the background, then when a feeling of inadequacy arises for the requirements of the school, the family again becomes a refuge for the child.

Much in child development is damaged when family life fails to prepare the child for school life or when school life fails to rekindle the hopes of the earlier stages. Feeling yourself unworthy, of little value, inept, can fatally aggravate the development of character.

E. Erikson emphasizes that at each stage of development the child must come to a sense of his own worth, which is vital for him, and he must not be satisfied with irresponsible praise or condescending approval. His ego-identity reaches real strength only when he understands that achievements are manifested in those areas of life that are significant for a given culture. The sense of competence maintained in each child (i.e., the free exercise of one's skills, intellect in the performance of serious tasks, not affected by infantile feelings of inferiority) creates the basis for cooperative participation in a productive adult life.

E. Adolescence and youth. Fifth stage: personal identity versus role confusion (identity confusion). The fifth stage is characterized by the deepest life crisis. Three lines of development lead to it:

1. rapid physical growth and puberty ("physiological revolution");
2. concern about how a teenager looks in the eyes of others, what he represents;
3. the need to find one's professional vocation that meets the acquired skills, individual abilities and the requirements of society.

AT teenage crisis identity, all past critical moments of development rise up again. The teenager must now solve all the old problems consciously and with an inner conviction that it is this choice that is significant for him and for society. Then social trust in the world, independence, initiative, mastered skills will create a new integrity of the individual.

The integration which here takes the form of ego-identity is more than just the sum of childhood identifications. It is the conscious experience of one's own ability to integrate all identifications with the drives of the libido, with the mental faculties acquired through activity, with the opportunities offered by social roles. Further, the sense of ego-identity lies in the ever-increasing conviction that the inner individuality and wholeness that matters to oneself is equally meaningful to others. The latter becomes apparent in the quite tangible perspective of a "career".

The danger of this stage is role confusion, diffusion (confusion) of ego-identity. This may be due to the initial lack of confidence in sexual identity (and then it gives psychotic and criminal episodes - clarification of the image of the Self can be achieved by destructive measures), but more often - with the inability to resolve issues of professional identity, which causes anxiety. To put themselves in order, adolescents temporarily develop (to the point of losing their own identity) an over-identification with the heroes of the streets or elite groups. This marks the onset of a period of "falling in love", which in general is by no means and even initially of a sexual nature - unless mores require it. To a large extent, youthful love is an attempt to come to the definition of one's own identity by projecting one's own initially indistinct image onto someone else and contemplating it in an already reflected and clarified form. That is why the manifestation of youthful love in many ways comes down to talking.

The selectivity in communication and cruelty towards “strangers” inherent in adolescent groups is a defense of a sense of one's own identity from depersonalization and confusion. That is why the details of the costume, jargon or gestures become signs that distinguish “us” from “them”. By creating closed groups and clichéd their own behavior, ideals, and "enemies," adolescents not only help each other cope with identification, but also test each other's ability to remain faithful. The readiness for such a test, by the way, also explains the response that totalitarian sects and concepts find in the minds of the youth of those countries and classes that have lost or are losing their group identity (feudal, agrarian, tribal, national).

The mind of a teenager, according to E. Erickson, is in a state of moratorium (which corresponds to a psychological stage intermediate between childhood and adulthood) between the morality learned by the child and the ethics that must be formed by an adult. The mind of a teenager, as E. Erickson writes, is an ideological mind: it assumes the ideological worldview of a society that speaks to him “on an equal footing”. The teenager is ready for his position as an equal to be confirmed by the adoption of rituals, "creeds" and programs that simultaneously define what is evil. In search of the social values ​​that govern identity, the teenager is faced with the problems of ideology and aristocracy in the most common sense associated with the idea that within a certain image of the world and in the course of a predetermined historical process, the best people will come to leadership and leadership will develop the best in people. In order not to become cynical and apathetic, young people must somehow convince themselves that those who succeed in the adult world are also shouldering the responsibility of being the best of the best.

At first glance, it seems that teenagers, caught in the ring of their physiological revolution and the uncertainty of future adult social roles, are completely busy trying to create their own teenage subculture. But in fact, the teenager is passionately looking for people and ideas that he can believe in (this is the legacy of the early stage - the need for trust). These people must prove that they are trustworthy, because at the same time the teenager is afraid of being deceived, innocently trusting the promises of others. From this fear, he closes himself with demonstrative and cynical disbelief, hiding his need for faith.

The teenage period is characterized by the search for a free choice of ways to fulfill one's duties, but at the same time, the teenager is afraid of being a "weakling", forcibly involved in such activities, where he will feel like an object of ridicule or feel insecure in his abilities (the legacy of the second stage is desire). It can also lead to paradoxical behavior: out of free choice, a teenager can behave defiantly in the eyes of elders, which allows him to be forced into activities that are shameful in his own eyes or in the eyes of his peers.

As a result of the imagination acquired during the play stage, the adolescent is ready to trust peers and other guides, guides or misleading elders who are able to set figurative (if not illusory) limits to his aspirations. The evidence is that he violently protests against the limitations of his ideas of himself and can loudly insist on his guilt even against his own interests.

And finally, the desire to do something well, acquired at the stage of primary school age, is embodied here in the following: the choice of occupation becomes more important for a teenager than the question of salary or status. For this reason, adolescents prefer not to work at all temporarily than to take the path of activities that promise success, but do not give satisfaction from the work itself.

Adolescence and youth are the least "stormy" period for that part of the youth that is well prepared in in terms of identification with new roles that involve competence and creativity. Where this is not the case, the adolescent's consciousness obviously becomes ideological, following the unified trend or ideas (ideals) suggested to him. Thirsty for the support of peers and adults, a teenager seeks to perceive “worthwhile, valuable” ways of life. On the other hand, as soon as he feels that society limits him, he begins to resist it with such force.

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. Erickson, 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; feelings of isolation and emptiness; constantly being in a state of expectation of something that can change life; fear of personal communication and inability to emotionally influence persons of the opposite sex;

• hostility and contempt for all recognized social roles, even male and female ("unisex"); contempt for everything domestic and an irrational preference for everything foreign (on the principle of "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.

F. Youth. Sixth stage: intimacy versus loneliness. Overcoming the crisis and the formation of ego-identity allows young people to move on to the sixth stage, the content of which is the search for a life partner, the desire for close friendships with members of their social group. Now the young man is not afraid of the loss of the Self and depersonalization, he is able to "with readiness and desire to mix his identity with others."

The basis of the desire for rapprochement with others is the complete mastery of the main modalities of behavior. It is no longer the mode of some organ that dictates the content of development, but all the considered modes are subordinate to the new, integral formation of ego-identity that appeared at the previous stage. The body and personality (Ego), being the full masters of the erogenous zones, are already able to overcome the fear of losing one's Self in situations requiring self-denial. These are situations of complete group solidarity or intimacy, close fellowship or direct physical combat, experiences of inspiration caused by mentors, or intuitions from self-deepening into one's Self.

The young man is ready for intimacy, he is able to give himself to cooperation with others in specific social groups and has enough ethical strength to firmly adhere to such group affiliation, even if this requires significant sacrifice and compromise.

Avoiding such experiences and contacts that require closeness for fear of losing one's self can lead to feelings of deep loneliness and a subsequent state of complete self-absorption and distancing. Such a violation, according to E. Erickson, can lead to acute "character problems", to psychopathology. If the psychic moratorium continues at this stage, then instead of a feeling of closeness, there arises a desire to keep a distance, not to let one into one's "territory", into one's inner world. There is a danger that these strivings and the prejudice that arises from them can turn into personal qualities - into an experience of isolation and loneliness.

Love helps to overcome these negative aspects of identity. E. Erikson believes that it is in relation to a young man, and not to a young man, and even more so to a teenager, that one can speak of "true genitality", since most of the sexual episodes that preceded this readiness for closeness with others, despite the risk of losing one's own individuality, was only a manifestation of the search for one's Self or the result of phallic (vaginal) striving to win in rivalry, which turned youthful sex life in a genital battle. Before the level of sexual maturity is reached, much of sexual love will come from self-interest, a hunger for identity: each partner is really only trying to come to himself.

The emergence of a mature feeling of love and the establishment of a creative atmosphere of cooperation in work activities prepare the transition to the next stage of development.

G. Maturity. Seventh stage: productivity (generativity) vs. stagnation. This stage can be called central at the adult stage of a person's life path. Personal development continues due to the influence of children, the younger generation, which confirms the subjective feeling of being needed by others. Productivity (generativity) and generation (procreation), as the main positive characteristics personalities at this stage are realized in caring for the upbringing of a new generation, in productive labor activity and in creativity. In everything that a person does, he puts a particle of his I, and this leads to personal enrichment. A mature person needs to be needed.

Generativity is, first of all, an interest in arranging life and instructing a new generation. And quite often, in case of failure in life or special talent in other areas, a number of people direct this drive to other than their offspring, so the concept of generativity also includes productivity and creativity, which makes this stage even more important.

If the developmental situation is unfavorable, there is a regression to an obsessive need for pseudo-closeness: an excessive focus on oneself appears, leading to inertia and stagnation, personal devastation. In this case, a person considers himself as his own and only child (and if there is physical or psychological distress, then they contribute to this). If the conditions favor such a tendency, then the physical and psychological disability of the personality occurs, prepared by all the previous stages, if the balance of forces in their course was in favor of an unsuccessful choice. The desire to care for others, creativity, the desire to create (create) things in which a particle of unique individuality is invested help to overcome possible self-absorption and personal impoverishment.

N. Old age. Eighth stage: integrity of the personality against despair. Having gained life experience enriched by caring for the people around him, and primarily about children, creative ups and downs, a person can gain integrativity - the conquest of all seven previous stages of development. E. Erickson highlights several of its characteristics:

1. ever-increasing personal confidence in their tendency to order and meaningfulness;
2. post-narcissistic love of a human person (and not an individual) as an experience that expresses some kind of world order and spiritual meaning, no matter what price they get;
3. acceptance of one's only life path as the only one due and not in need of replacement;
4. new, different from the former, love for their parents;
5. comradely, participatory, connected attitude to the principles of remote times and various activities in the form in which they were expressed in the words and results of these activities.

The bearer of such personal integrity, although he understands the relativity of all possible life paths that give meaning to human efforts, is nevertheless ready to defend the dignity of his own path from all physical and economic threats. Because he knows that life individual person there is only an accidental coincidence of only one life cycle with only one segment of history, and that for him the whole human integrity is embodied (or not embodied) in only one of its types - in the one that he realizes. Therefore, for a person, the type of integrity developed by his culture or civilization becomes the “spiritual heritage of the fathers”, the seal of origin. At this stage of development, wisdom comes to a person, which E. Erickson defines as a detached interest in life in the face of death.

Wisdom E. Erickson proposes to understand as a form of such an independent and at the same time active relationship of a person with his life limited by death, which is characterized by the maturity of the mind, careful deliberation of judgments, and deep comprehensive understanding. Not every person creates their own wisdom; for most, its essence is tradition.

The loss or absence of this integration leads to a disorder of the nervous system, a feeling of hopelessness, despair, and fear of death. Here, the life path actually passed by a person is not accepted by him as the limit of life. Despair expresses the feeling that there is too little time left to try to start life over, to arrange it differently, to try to achieve personal integrity in a different way. Despair is masked by disgust, misanthropy, or chronic contemptuous dissatisfaction with certain social institutions and individuals. Be that as it may, all this testifies to a person’s contempt for himself, but quite often “a million torments” do not add up to one big repentance.

The end of the life cycle also gives rise to "final questions" that no great philosophical or religious system passes by. Therefore, any civilization, according to E. Erickson, can be assessed by the importance it attaches to the full life cycle of an individual, since this value (or its absence) affects the beginnings life cycles the next generation and influences the formation of a child's basic trust (distrust) in the world.

No matter what abyss these “last questions” lead individuals to, a person as a psychosocial creature by the end of his life inevitably faces a new version of the identity crisis, which can be fixed by the formula “I am that which will outlive me”. Then all the criteria of vital individual strength (faith, willpower, purposefulness, competence, fidelity, love, care, wisdom) pass from the stages of life into the life of social institutions. Without them, the institutions of socialization fade away; but even without the spirit of these institutions, permeating the patterns of care and love, instruction and training, no power can emerge from a mere succession of generations.

Cognitive theories in developmental psychology. Theory of J. Piaget. J. Piaget proceeded from several basic provisions. First of all, it is a question of the relationship between the whole and the part. Since there are no isolated elements in the world and all of them are either parts of a larger whole or are themselves broken up into small components, the interactions between parts and the whole depend on the structure in which they are included. In the general structure, their relations are balanced, but the state of equilibrium is constantly changing.

Development is considered by J. Piaget as evolution driven by the need for balance. Equilibrium he defines as a stable state of an open system. Equilibrium in a static, already implemented form is an adaptation, adaptation, a state in which each impact is equal to the counteraction. From a dynamic point of view, balance is the mechanism that provides the main function of mental activity - the construction of an idea of ​​reality, provides a connection between the subject and the object, and regulates their interaction.

J. Piaget believed that, like any development, intellectual development tends to a stable balance, i.e. to the establishment of logical structures. Logic is not innate from the beginning, but develops gradually. What allows the subject to master this logic?

In order to cognize objects, the subject must act with them, transform them - move, combine, remove, bring together, etc. The meaning of the idea of ​​transformation is as follows: the boundary between subject and object is not established from the very beginning and it is not stable, therefore, in any action, the subject and object are mixed.

To understand their own actions, the subject needs objective information. According to J. Piaget, without the construction of intellectual tools of analysis, the subject does not distinguish what belongs to him in cognition, what belongs to the object, and what belongs to the action of transforming the object. The source of knowledge lies not in objects in themselves and not in subjects, but in interactions that are originally inseparable between subject and objects.

That is why the problem of cognition cannot be considered separately from the problem of the development of the intellect. It boils down to how the subject is able to adequately cognize objects, how he becomes capable of objectivity.

Objectivity is not given to the subject from the very beginning. To master it, a series of successive constructions is needed, bringing the child closer and closer to it. Objective knowledge is always subject to certain structures of action. These structures are the result of construction: they are not given either in objects, because they depend on actions, or in the subject, since the subject must learn to coordinate its actions.

The subject, according to J. Piaget, is hereditarily endowed with adaptive activity, with the help of which he carries out the structuring of reality. Intelligence is a special case of such structuring. Describing the subject of activity, J. Piaget highlights its structural and functional properties.

Functions are biologically inherent ways of interacting with the environment. The subject has two main functions: organization and adaptation. Each act of his behavior is organized, i.e. represents a certain structure, the dynamic aspect of which (adaptation) consists of the balance of two processes - assimilation and accommodation.

According to J. Piaget, all acquired sensorimotor experience is formed into schemes of action. Schema is the sensorimotor equivalent of a concept. It allows the child to act economically and adequately with different objects of the same class or with different states of the same object. From the very beginning, the child acquires his experience on the basis of action: he follows his eyes, turns his head, explores with his hands, drags, feels, grasps, pulls in his mouth, moves his legs, etc. All this experience is formed into schemes - the most general that is preserved in action during its repeated implementation in different circumstances.

In a broad sense, a scheme of action is a structure at a certain level of mental development. A structure is a mental system or whole whose principles of activity are different from those of the parts that make up the structure. Structure is a self-regulating system, and new mental structures are formed on the basis of action.

As a result of interactions with the environment, new objects are involved in the schemes and thus assimilated by them. If existing schemes do not cover new types of interaction, then they are restructured, adapted to the new action, i.e. accommodation takes place. In other words, accommodation is a passive adaptation to the environment, and assimilation is an active one. At the stage of accommodation, the subject displays the internal connections of the environment, at the stage of assimilation, he begins to influence these connections for his own purposes.

Adaptation, assimilation, and accommodation are hereditarily fixed and unchanging, while structures (unlike functions) are formed in ontogenesis and depend on the child's experience and, therefore, are different at different age stages. Such a relationship between function and structure ensures the continuity, succession of development and its qualitative originality at each age level.

Mental development in the understanding of J. Piaget is a change in mental structures. And since these structures are formed on the basis of the actions of the subject, J. Piaget came to the conclusion that thought is a compressed form of action, the internal arises from the external, and learning should outstrip development.

In accordance with this understanding, J. Piaget built the logic of mental development. The most important initial thesis for him is to consider the child as a being who assimilates things, selects and assimilates them according to his own mental structure.

In studies of children's ideas about the world and physical causality, J. Piaget showed that a child at a certain stage of development usually considers objects as they are given by direct perception, i.e. he doesn't see things in them internal relations. For example, a child thinks that the moon follows him when he walks, stops when he is standing, and runs after him when he runs away. J. Piaget called this phenomenon "realism", which makes it difficult to consider things independently of the subject, in their internal interconnection. The child considers his instantaneous perception to be absolutely true, since he does not separate his "I" from the surrounding things.

Until a certain age, children do not know how to distinguish between the subjective and the external world. The child begins by identifying his ideas with things and phenomena of the objective world and only gradually comes to distinguishing them from each other. This regularity, according to J. Piaget, can be applied both to the content of concepts and to the simplest perceptions.

At the early stages of development, every idea of ​​the world is experienced by the child as true; the thought of a thing and the things themselves are almost indistinguishable. But as the intellect develops, children's ideas move from realism to objectivity, passing through a series of stages: participation (participation), animism (universal animation), artificalism (understanding of natural phenomena by analogy with human activity), in which the egocentric relationship between the "I" and the world are gradually reduced. Step by step, the child begins to take a position that allows him to distinguish what comes from the subject, and to see the reflection of external reality in objective representations.

Another important direction in the development of children's thought is from realism to relativism: at first, children believe in the existence of absolute qualities and substances, later they discover that phenomena are interconnected and that our assessments are relative. The world of independent and spontaneous substances gives way to the world of relations. For example, at first the child believes that there is a motor in every moving object; in the future, he considers the displacement of an individual body as a function of the actions of external bodies. So, the child begins to explain the movement of clouds in a different way, for example, by the action of the wind. The words "light" and "heavy" also lose their absolute meaning and acquire meaning depending on the chosen units of measurement (an object is light for a child, but heavy for water).

Thus, the child's thought, which at first does not separate the subject from the object and is therefore "realistic", develops in three directions: towards objectivity, reciprocity and relativity.

The inability to perform logical addition and multiplication leads to contradictions with which children's definitions of concepts are saturated. J. Piaget characterized the contradiction as the result of a lack of balance: the concept gets rid of the contradiction when the balance is reached. He considered the criterion of stable equilibrium to be the emergence of thought reversibility - such a mental action when, starting from the results of the first action, the child performs a mental action that is symmetrical with respect to it, and when this symmetrical operation leads to the initial state of the object without modifying it. For every mental action there is a corresponding symmetrical action that allows you to return to the starting point.

It is important to keep in mind that, according to J. Piaget, there is no reversibility in the real world. Only intellectual operations make the world reversible. Therefore, the reversibility of thought cannot arise in a child from observation of natural phenomena. It arises from the awareness of the mental operations themselves, which make logical experiments not on things, but on themselves, in order to establish which system of definitions gives "the greatest logical satisfaction."

According to J. Piaget, for the formation of a truly scientific thinking in a child, and not a simple set of empirical knowledge, a special kind of experience is needed - logical and mathematical, aimed at the actions and operations performed by the child with real objects.

According to J. Piaget's hypothesis, intellectual development can be described in the form of groupings that successively follow one from the other, and he began to study how the logical operations of classification, seriation, etc. are formed in the child.

Based on the theory of development, where the main thing is the desire of the structures of the subject to balance with reality, J. Piaget put forward a hypothesis about the existence of stages intellectual development.

Stages are steps or levels of development that consistently change each other, and at each level a relatively stable balance is achieved. J. Piaget repeatedly tried to present the development of the intellect as a sequence of stages, but only in later review works did the picture of development acquire certainty and stability.

The process of the intellectual development of the child, according to J. Piaget, consists of 3 large periods, during which the emergence and formation of 3 main structures occurs:

1. sensorimotor structures, i.e. systems of reversible actions performed materially and consistently;
2. structures of specific operations - systems of actions performed in the mind, but based on external, visual data;
3. structures of formal operations associated with formal logic, hypothetical-deductive reasoning.

Development takes place as a transition from a lower stage to a higher one, with each previous stage preparing the next. At each new stage, the integration of previously formed structures is achieved; the previous stage is rebuilt at a higher level.

The order of the stages is unchanged, although, according to J. Piaget, it does not contain any hereditary program. Maturation in the case of stages of intellect is reduced only to the discovery of development opportunities, and these opportunities still need to be realized. It would be wrong, J. Piaget believed, to see in the sequence of stages the product of innate predetermination, because in the process of development there is a continuous construction of the new.

The age at which equilibrium structures appear may vary depending on the physical or social environment. In free relationships and discussions, prelogical beliefs are quickly replaced by rational beliefs, but they last longer in relationships based on authority. According to J. Piaget, one can observe a decrease or increase in the average chronological age of the appearance of a particular stage, depending on the activity of the child himself, his spontaneous experience, school or cultural environment.

The stages of intellectual development, according to J. Piaget, can be considered as stages of mental development in general, since the development of all mental functions subordinated to the intellect and determined by it.

J. Piaget's system is one of the most developed and widespread, and researchers from different countries offer their own options for correcting and supplementing it.

Theory of moral development L. Kohlberg. L. Kohlberg criticized J. Piaget for his exaggerated attention to the intellect, as a result of which all other aspects of development (emotional-volitional sphere, personality) seem to be left out. He raised the question - what cognitive schemes, structures, rules describe such phenomena as lies (which appear in children at a certain age and have their own stages of development), fear (which is also an age-related phenomenon), theft (inherent in everyone in childhood). Trying to answer these questions, L. Kohlberg discovered a number of interesting facts in child development, which allowed him to build a theory of the child's moral development.

As criteria for dividing development into stages, L. Kolberg takes 3 types of orientation that form a hierarchy:

1. authority orientation,
2. custom orientation,
3. principles orientation.

Developing the idea put forward by J. Piaget and supported by L. S. Vygotsky that the development of a child’s moral consciousness goes parallel to his mental development, L. Kohlberg singles out several phases in it, each of which corresponds to a certain level of moral consciousness.

The "pre-moral (pre-conventional) level" corresponds to stage 1 - the child obeys to avoid punishment, and stage 2 - the child is guided by selfish considerations of mutual benefit - obedience in exchange for some specific benefits and rewards.

"Conventional morality" corresponds to stage 3 - the model of the "good child", driven by the desire for approval from significant others and the shame of their condemnation, and 4 - setting to maintain the established order of social justice and fixed rules (good is what corresponds to the rules).

"Autonomous morality" transfers the moral decision inside the personality. It opens with stage 5A - a person realizes the relativity and conventionality of moral rules and requires their logical justification, seeing such in the idea of ​​utility. Then comes stage 5B - relativism is replaced by the recognition of the existence of some higher law that corresponds to the interests of the majority.

Only after this - stage 6 - stable moral principles are formed, the observance of which is ensured by one's own conscience, regardless of external circumstances and rational considerations.

In recent works, L. Kolberg raises the question of the existence of another 7th, highest stage, when moral values ​​are derived from more general philosophical postulates; however, according to him, only a few reach this stage.

Empirical testing of L. Kohlberg's theory in the USA, England, Canada, Mexico, Turkey, Honduras, India, Kenya, New Zealand, Taiwan confirmed its cross-cultural validity regarding the universality of the first three stages of moral development and the invariance of their sequence. With the higher stages, the situation is much more complicated. They depend not so much on the level of individual development of a person, but on the degree of social complexity of the society in which he lives.

The complication and differentiation of social relations is a prerequisite for the autonomization of moral judgments. In addition, the style of an individual's moral judgments inevitably depends on what a given society sees as a source of moral prescriptions - whether it be God's will, a communal institution, or simply a logical rule. The center of gravity of the problem is transferred, therefore, from the mental development of the individual to the socio-structural characteristics of society, the macro and micro social environment, on which the degree of his personal autonomy directly depends.

L. Kolberg does not single out ages and adult levels. He believes that the development of morality in both a child and an adult is spontaneous, and therefore no metric is possible here.

Cultural - historical concept of L.S. Vygotsky. In developmental psychology, the direction of socialization arose as an attempt to determine the relationship in the subject-environment system through the category of the social context in which the child develops.

Let's start the analysis of the concepts of this direction with the ideas of L.S. Vygotsky, according to which the mental development of a person should be considered in the cultural and historical context of his life.

From the point of view of today's understanding, the expression "cultural-historical" evokes associations with ethnography and cultural anthropology, taken from a historical perspective. But in the days of L.S. Vygotsky, the word “historical” carried the idea of ​​introducing the principle of development into psychology, and the word “cultural” implied the inclusion of the child in the social environment, which is the bearer of culture as an experience gained by mankind.

In the works of L.S. Vygotsky, we will not find a description of the socio-cultural context of that time, but we will see a specific analysis of the structures of interaction of the social environment surrounding him. Therefore, translated into modern language, perhaps, the theory of L.S. Vygotsky should be called "interactive-genetic". "Interactive" - ​​because he considers the real interaction of the child with the social environment in which the psyche and consciousness develop, and "genetic" - because the principle of development is realized.

One of the fundamental ideas of L.S. Vygotsky - that in the development of a child's behavior it is necessary to distinguish between two intertwined lines. One is natural "ripening". The other is cultural improvement, mastery of cultural ways of behaving and thinking.

Cultural development consists in mastering such auxiliary means of behavior that mankind has created in the process of its historical development and such as language, writing, number system, etc.; cultural development is associated with the assimilation of such methods of behavior, which are based on the use of signs as means for the implementation of one or another psychological operation. Culture modifies nature in accordance with the goals of man: the mode of action, the structure of the method, the whole system of psychological operations changes, just as the inclusion of a tool rebuilds the entire structure of a labor operation. The external activity of the child can turn into internal activity, the external method, as it were, is ingrained and becomes internal (internalized).

L.S. Vygotsky owns two important concepts that define each stage age development- the concept of the social situation of development and the concept of neoplasm.

Under the social situation of development L.S. Vygotsky had in mind the peculiar, age-specific, exclusive, unique and unrepeatable relationship that develops at the beginning of each new stage between a person and the reality surrounding him, primarily social. The social situation of development is the starting point for all changes that are possible in a given period, and determines the path, following which a person acquires high-quality developmental formations.

Neoplasm L.S. Vygotsky defined it as a qualitatively new type of personality and interaction of a person with reality, which was absent as a whole at the previous stages of its development.

L.S. Vygotsky established that the child in mastering himself (his behavior) follows the same path as in mastering external nature, i.e. from the outside. He masters himself as one of the forces of nature, with the help of a special cultural technique of signs. A child who has changed the structure of his personality is already another child, whose social being cannot but differ in a significant way from that of a child of an earlier age.

A leap in development (a change in the social situation of development) and the emergence of neoplasms are caused by fundamental contradictions of development that take shape at the end of each segment of life and “push” development forward (for example, between maximum openness to communication and the lack of a means of communication - speech in infancy; between an increase in subject skills and the inability to implement them in "adult" activities at preschool age, etc.).

Accordingly, the age of L.S. Vygotsky defined three things as an objective category:

1. the chronological framework of a particular stage of development,
2. specific social situation of development, emerging at a particular stage of development,
3. qualitative neoplasms arising under its influence.

In his periodization of development, he proposes to alternate stable and critical ages. In stable periods (infancy, early childhood, preschool age, primary school age, adolescence, etc.) there is a slow and steady accumulation of the smallest quantitative changes in development, and in critical periods (newborn crisis, crisis of the first year of life, crisis of three years , crisis of seven years, pubertal crisis, crisis of 17 years, etc.) these changes are found in the form of irreversible neoplasms that have arisen abruptly.

At each stage of development there is always a central neoformation, as if leading the entire process of development and characterizing the restructuring of the entire personality of the child as a whole on a new basis. Around the main (central) neoplasm of a given age, all other partial neoplasms related to certain aspects of the child's personality, and development processes associated with neoplasms of previous ages are located and grouped.

Those developmental processes that are more or less directly related to the main neoplasm, L.S. Vygotsky calls the central lines of development at a given age, and calls all other partial processes, changes occurring at a given age, side lines of development. It goes without saying that the processes that were the central lines of development at a given age become secondary lines at the next, and vice versa - the secondary lines of the previous age come to the fore and become central lines in the new one, as their significance and share in the overall structure change. development, their attitude to the central neoplasm changes. Consequently, during the transition from one stage to another, the entire structure of age is reconstructed. Each age has its own specific, unique and inimitable structure.

Understanding development as a continuous process of self-movement, the incessant emergence and formation of a new one, he believed that neoplasms of “critical” periods in the future are not preserved in the form in which they arise in critical period, and are not included as a necessary component in the integral structure of the future personality. They die, being absorbed by neoplasms of the next (stable) age, being included in their composition, dissolving and transforming into them.

A huge multilateral work led L.S. Vygotsky to the construction of the concept of the connection between learning and development, one of the fundamental concepts of which is the zone of proximal development.

We determine by tests or other methods the level of mental development of the child. But at the same time, it is absolutely not enough to take into account what the child can and can do today and now, it is important that he can and will be able tomorrow, what processes, even if not completed today, are already “ripening”. Sometimes a child needs a leading question, an indication of a solution, etc. to solve a problem. Then imitation arises, like everything that the child cannot do on his own, but what he can learn or what he can do under the guidance or in cooperation with another, older or more knowledgeable person. But what a child can do today in cooperation and under guidance, tomorrow he becomes able to do independently. By examining what the child is capable of accomplishing on his own, we examine the development of yesterday. By examining what the child is able to accomplish in cooperation, we determine the development tomorrow- zone of proximal development.

L.S. Vygotsky criticizes the position of researchers who believe that a child must reach a certain level of development, his functions must mature before learning can begin. It turns out, he believed, that learning “lags behind” development, development always goes ahead of learning, learning simply builds on development without changing anything in essence.

L.S. Vygotsky proposed a completely opposite position: only that training is good, which is ahead of development, creating a zone of proximal development. Education is not development, but an internally necessary and universal moment in the process of development in a child of not natural, but cultural and historical features of a person. In training, the prerequisites for future neoplasms are created, and in order to create a zone of proximal development, i.e. to generate a number of internal development processes, properly constructed learning processes are needed.

An early death prevented L.S. Vygotsky to explicate his ideas. The first step in the realization of his theory was taken in the late 1930s. psychologists of the Kharkov school (A.N. Leontiev, A.V. Zaporozhets, P.I. Zinchenko, P.Ya. Galperin, L.I. Bozhovich and others) in a comprehensive program of research on the development of the child’s psyche mental development of the child, the content and structure of children's play, the consciousness of learning, etc.) Its conceptual core was the action, which acted both as a subject of research and as a subject of formation. The "Vygotchans" developed the concept of objective activity, which became the foundation of the psychological theory of activity.

Humanistic psychology emerged in the mid-twentieth century as a more optimistic third force in the study of personality (Maslow, 1968). It was a reaction against the external determinism advocated by learning theory and the internal determinism of sexual and aggressive instinctual drives assumed by Freud's theory. Humanistic psychology offers a holistic theory of personality and is closely related to the philosophy of existentialism. Existentialism is a direction of modern philosophy, the focus of which is the desire of a person to find the meaning of his personal existence and live freely and responsibly in accordance with ethical principles. Therefore, humanistic psychologists reject the determinism of drives, instincts, or environmental programming. They believe that people themselves choose how they live. Humanistic psychologists place human potential above all else.

As a biological species, man differs from other animals in his more developed ability to use symbols and think abstractly. For this reason, humanistic psychologists believe that numerous animal experiments provide little information about people. A rat in a maze cannot theoretically comprehend the task before it, as a person would.

Humanistic psychologists attach equal importance to consciousness and the unconscious, considering them to be the main processes of a person's mental life. People treat themselves and others as beings acting on their own and striving creatively to achieve their goals (May, 1986). The optimism of humanistic psychologists distinguishes it markedly from most other theoretical approaches. Let us consider in more detail the humanistic views of A. Maslow and K. Rogers.

An influential psychologist of the humanistic school is Abraham Maslow (1908-1970). In his theory of "I", proposed in 1954, special importance is attached to the innate need for self-actualization inherent in each person - the full development of one's potential. According to Maslow's theory, self-actualization needs can only be expressed or satisfied after "lower" needs, such as the needs for security, love, food, and shelter, have been satisfied. For example, a hungry child will not be able to concentrate on reading or drawing at school until they are fed.

Maslow built human needs in the form of a pyramid.

At the base of the pyramid are the main physiological needs survival; Humans, like other animals, need food, warmth, and rest to survive. A level higher is the need for security; people need to avoid danger and feel secure in their daily lives. They cannot reach higher levels if they live in constant fear and anxiety. When reasonable needs for safety and survival are satisfied, the next pressing need is the need for belonging. People need to love and feel loved, to be in physical contact with each other, to communicate with other people, to be part of groups or organizations. After the needs of this level are satisfied, the need for respect for oneself is actualized; people need positive reactions from others, from simple confirmation of their basic abilities to applause and fame. All this gives a person a feeling of well-being and self-satisfaction.

When people are fed, clothed, sheltered, belong to a group, and are reasonably confident in their abilities, they are ready to try to develop their full potential, that is, ready for self-actualization. Maslow (Maslow, 1954, 1979) believed that the need for self-actualization plays no less important role for a person than the listed basic needs. "Man must become what he can become," says Maslow. In a sense, the need for self-actualization can never be fully satisfied. It includes "the search for truth and understanding, the attempt to achieve equality and justice, the creation of beauty and the pursuit of it" (Shaffer, 1977).

Another humanistic psychologist, Carl Rogers (1902-1987), had a great influence on pedagogy and psychotherapy. In contrast to the Freudians, who believed that human character is due to internal drives, many of which are harmful to a person, Rogers (Rogers, 1980) was of the opinion that the core of a person’s character is made up of positive, healthy, constructive impulses that begin to act from birth. Like Maslow, Rogers was primarily interested in helping people realize their inner potential. Unlike Maslow, Rogers did not first develop a theory of the stage of personality development in order to then put it into practice. He was more interested in ideas that arose in the course of his clinical practice. He found that the maximum personal growth of his patients (whom Rogers called clients) occurred when he truly and completely empathized with them and when they knew that he accepted them for who they are. He called this "warm, positive, accepting" attitude positive. Rogers believed that the psychotherapist's positive attitude contributes to the client's greater self-acceptance and greater tolerance for other people.

Assessment of humanistic psychology. Humanistic psychology has proved effective in several respects. The emphasis on accounting for the richness of real life possibilities acts as a stimulus for other developmental psychology approaches. In addition, she had a significant impact on adult counseling and the birth of self-help programs. She also promoted child-rearing practices that respect the uniqueness of each child and pedagogical practices that humanize interpersonal relationships within schools.

However, as a scientific or genetic psychology, the humanistic perspective has its limitations. Concepts such as self-actualization are not clearly defined and are not easily used in typical research projects. Moreover, the development of these concepts in relation to various segments of a person's life path has not been completed. Humanistic psychologists can identify the developmental changes that occur during the course of psychotherapy, but they have difficulty explaining normal human development throughout life. However, there is no doubt that humanistic psychology continues to influence counseling and psychotherapy by offering an alternative holistic approach that is critical of simplistic explanations of human thought and behavior.

Theories of "I". The developing self is a central theme in several theories of adult and child development. These theories of "I" focus on the self-concept of the individual, that is, his perception of personal identity. The authors of these theories use the self-concept as an integrator, filter and mediator of human behavior. They believe that people tend to behave in ways that are consistent with their understanding of themselves. With a self-concept, adults in moments of crisis or the death of a loved one can critically review their life history and try to understand their position in changing circumstances. As you will see in the Help for Young Mothers in Hardships app, young mothers have little chance of climbing out of poverty if they don't value themselves.

One theory that focuses on the self-concept is the theory of the developing self, which belongs to Robert Kegan.

Kegan's sense systems. Robert Kegan (1982), drawing on a number of developmental theories, has proposed a unifying approach to the evolution of the self, which continues to develop throughout adulthood. Emphasizing the importance of meaning in human behavior, Kegan argues that the developing individual is in a continuous process of differentiation from total mass and at the same time understanding their integration with the wider world.

Kegan believes that people continue to develop meaning systems even as adults. Based on the ideas of Piaget and on the theories of cognitive development, he defines several "levels of formation of meaning systems", analogous to the stages of development. These meaning systems then shape our experience, organize our thinking and feelings, and serve as sources of our behavior.

As we grow older, our individual meaning systems become unique, while retaining a commonality with the meaning systems of other people who are at the same stage of age development. At each stage, the old becomes part of the new, just as in children a concrete understanding of the world becomes part of the input for thinking at the stage of formal operations. According to Kegan's theory, most people continue to structure and restructure their understanding of the world, even well past the age of thirty. This view is quite optimistic.

1. 
   Biogenetic and sociogenetic concepts.
2. 
   Psychoanalytic theories of development.
3. 
   Cognitive and humanistic theories of mental development.
4. 
   Domestic theories of development.

1. Biogenetic and sociogenetic concepts
According to biogenetic concept development, the basic mental properties of the individual are inherent in the very nature of man, in his biological beginning. Thus, the intellect, personality traits, character traits, etc., are genetically programmed.

German naturalist E. Haeckel (1834–1919) and German physiologist

Stanley Hall's theory of recapitulation. The American psychologist S. Hall (1844-1924) believed that the child in his development briefly repeats the development of the human race. The basis for the emergence of such a theory was the observation of children, as a result of which the following stages of development were distinguished: cave, when the child digs in the sand, the stage of hunting, exchange, etc. Hall also assumed that the development of children's drawing reflects the stages that the fine arts went through in the history of mankind.

Investigating the mental development of the child, Hall came to the conclusion that it is based on the biogenetic law formulated by Darwin's student E. Haeckel.

In his theory of recapitulation, Hall argued that the sequence and content of these stages are genetically predetermined, and therefore the child cannot avoid or bypass any stage of his development.

Hall's student Getchinson, on the basis of the theory of recapitulation, created a periodization of mental development, the criterion in which was the method of obtaining food. He singled out 5 main phases in the mental development of children, the boundaries of which were not rigid, so that the end of one stage did not coincide with the beginning of the next:

from birth to 5 years – digging and digging stage. At this stage, children love to play in the sand, make cakes and manipulate the bucket and scoop;

from 5 to 11 years - the stage of hunting and capturing. At this stage, children begin to be afraid of strangers, they develop aggressiveness, cruelty, a desire to isolate themselves from adults, especially strangers, and the desire to do many things in secret;

8 to 12 years old - shepherd stage. During this period, children strive to have their own corner, and they usually build their shelters in yards or in a field, in a forest, but not in a house. They also love pets and try to get them so that they have someone to take care of and patronize. In children, especially girls, at this time there is a desire for affection and tenderness;

from 11 to 15 years - agricultural stage, which is associated with an interest in the weather, natural phenomena, as well as a love for gardening, and for girls, for floriculture. At this time, children develop observation and discretion;

from 14 to 20 years - the stage of industry and trade, or stage of modern man. At this time, children begin to realize the role of money, as well as the importance of arithmetic and other exact sciences. In addition, the guys have a desire to change various objects.

Getchinson believed that from the age of 8, i.e. from the pastoral stage, the era of civilized man begins, and it is from this age that children can be systematically taught, which is impossible in the previous stages. At the same time, he proceeded from Hall's idea that learning should be built on top of a certain stage of mental development, since the maturation of the body prepares the basis for learning.

Both Hall and Hutchinson were convinced that the passage of each stage is necessary for normal development, and fixation on one of them leads to the appearance of deviations and anomalies in the psyche. Since in reality the child cannot be transferred to the same situations that humanity has experienced, the transition from one stage to another is carried out in the game. For this, there are children's games in the war, in the Cossack robbers, etc. Hall stressed that it is important not to constrain the child in the manifestation of his instincts, which are thus outlived, including children's fears.

Although Hall brought together a large amount of factual material, which contributed to the further development of developmental psychology, his theory was immediately criticized by psychologists, who pointed out that the external similarity of children's play with the behavior of animals or primitive people does not mean the psychological identity of their behavior.

Austrian psychologist K. Buhler (1879-1973) represented the entire developmental path from ape to adult cultured person like climbing a single biological ladder, in his opinion, a child, a passive, helpless creature, devoid of any spiritual movements, gradually “turns” into a person. For Buhler, the task was to find the eternal, basic laws of development independent of external influences in their purest form. He borrowed the form of the experiment for the study of child development in the first years of life from the field of zoopsychology, in fact, children solved problems of the type that were offered to monkeys in studies of zoopsychology.

Based on experimental data, Buhler created theory of three stages in child development . A child in his development naturally passes through stages that correspond to the stages of evolution of animal behavior forms: instinct, training, intelligence. The biological factor (self-development of the psyche, self-deployment) was considered by him as the main one.

Instinct is the lowest stage of development; hereditary fund of behaviors, ready for use and needing only certain incentives. Man's instincts are vague, weakened, split, with great individual differences. The set of ready-made instincts in a child (newborn) is narrow - screaming, sucking, swallowing, protective reflex.

Training (formation of conditioned reflexes, developing skills in life) makes it possible to adapt to various life circumstances, relies on rewards and punishments, or on successes and failures. Children's play, according to Buhler, a natural continuation of the game in animals, arises at this stage.

Intelligence is the highest stage of development; adaptation to the situation by inventing, discovering, thinking about and understanding the problem situation. Buhler in every possible way emphasizes the "chimpanzee-like" behavior of children in the first years of life.

In the transition from one stage of development of the psyche to another, emotions develop, and there is a shift in pleasure from the end of activity to the beginning. The evolutionary early correlation of action and emotion is as follows: first action, and then pleasure from its result. Further, the action is accompanied by functional pleasure, i.e. pleasure from the process itself. And finally, the representation (anticipation) of pleasure precedes the actual action.

Representatives of the biogenetic direction drew the attention of scientists to the study of the interdependence of physical and mental development. This is of great importance for psychophysiology. However, attempts to understand the patterns of development of the psyche based only on biological laws, of course, were not crowned with success. They underestimate the role of social development factors and overestimate its uniformity.

A diametrically opposite approach to the development of the child's psyche is held by supporters of sociogenetic concept. They believe that there is nothing innate in human behavior and each of his actions is only a product of external influence.

Behavioral concepts . Behaviorism is a direction in American psychology of the 20th century that denies consciousness as a subject of scientific research and reduces the psyche to various forms of behavior, understood as a set of reactions of the body to environmental stimuli. Man, according to J. Watson (1878 - 1958), is a biological being that can be studied like any other animal. Thus, in classical behaviorism, the emphasis is on the process of learning based on the presence or absence of reinforcement from the environment.

Representatives of neobehaviorism, American psychologists E. Thorndike (1874-1949) and B. Skinner (1904-1990) created the concept of learning, which was called "operant learning". This kind of learning is characterized by the fact that an unconditioned stimulus, i.e. reinforcement, plays an important role in establishing a new associative connection between a stimulus and a response.

On the basis of existing theories, it can be concluded that in sociogenetic theories, the environment is considered as the main factor in the development of the psyche, and the activity of the child is not taken into account.

Convergence theory (theory of two factors) . Developed by a German psychologist
V. Stern (1875–1938), who was a specialist in the field of differential psychology, which considers the relationship between biological and social factors. The essence of this theory lies in the fact that the mental development of the child is considered as a process that develops under the influence of both heredity and the environment. The main question of the theory of convergence is to establish how acquired forms of behavior arise and what influence heredity and environment have on them.

According to Stern's theory:

The child in the first months of the infantile period is at the stage mammal: this is confirmed by thoughtless reflex and impulsive behavior;

In the second half of life, it reaches the stage of a higher mammal ( monkey) due to the development of grasping objects and imitation;

Later, having mastered upright posture and speech, he reaches the initial stages human condition;

In the first five years of play and fairy tales, he stands on the step primitive peoples;

A new stage - admission to school - is associated with the mastery of social responsibilities of a higher level. The first school years are associated with simple content ancient and Old Testament worlds, the middle classes - from the Christian culture, and years of maturity - with culture new time.
2. Psychoanalytic theories of development
Psychoanalysis- one of the first psychological directions that appeared as a result of the division of psychology into different schools. The subject of study in this school was the deep structures of the psyche, and the method of their study was psychoanalysis developed by this school.

On the one hand, psychoanalysis is a theory that explains the mental development of a person (personality theory), on the other hand, it is a method of studying personality, and on the third, a method of psychological assistance.

The foundations of the psychoanalytic concept were laid by the Austrian psychologist and psychiatrist Sigmund Freud (1856-1939). Under the influence of Goethe and Darwin, Freud chose the medical faculty of the University of Vienna, which he entered in 1873. Having received his doctorate at the age of 26, Freud, due to financial difficulties, was forced to go into private practice. Initially, he worked as a surgeon, but after taking a course in psychiatry, he became interested in this area, especially the relationship between mental symptoms and physical illness.

Freud trained in Paris at the Charcot clinic, where he investigated the role of hypnosis in the treatment of hysteria, his work here for the first time opened the curtain on the unconscious, demonstrating the role of unconscious motives in human actions in hypnosis sessions. Upon his return to Vienna, together with the famous psychiatrist I. Breuer, he began to investigate the dynamics of hysteria. However, he gradually moved away from Breuer, who was wary of Freud's assumptions about the connection of neuroses with sexual deviations. Breuer was also wary of the new method of treating hysteria proposed by Freud instead of hypnosis - psychoanalysis, although he agreed that hypnosis was ineffective.

For the first time, Freud spoke about psychoanalysis in 1896. According to Freud, the development of the child's psyche is an adaptation, its adaptation to the surrounding, mostly hostile environment. The driving forces of mental development are innate and unconscious instincts (or feelings, as in later psychoanalysts). From the point of view of psychoanalysis, the basis of mental development is not the intellectual sphere, but the emotions and motives of children.

In the scientific work of Z. Freud, three stages can be distinguished:

The first stage (1886-1897) is associated with the development of a model of affective trauma. During this period, he considers the causes of neurotic disorders: 1) real external traumatic events that occurred in childhood (for example, sexual abuse) and 2) affects caused by unbearable ideas and traumas. In the first model, the psychic apparatus is endowed with such functions as adaptation to events occurring in external reality, intensification and withdrawal of excitation, perception, attention, transfer of psychic energy from one state to another. It was during this period that psychic trauma was considered as a consequence of sexual seduction, which actually took place, in reality. Later, he comes to the conclusion that this is not about real sexual acts that were committed against the child, but about his own fantasies, ideas, desires.

Second stage (1897-1923). During this period, a new topical model is being developed. The energy of attraction is considered as the most important motivational factor in the behavior of children and adults. Sexuality is understood as something that consists of taking into account the opposite of the sexes, getting pleasure, enjoying the functioning of organs, procreation.

During this period, Freud distinguishes such drives as sexual desire (Libido) and the drive to self-preservation. The last drive is defined as the needs associated with bodily functions necessary to maintain the life of the individual. The topical (spatial) model of the mental apparatus is presented at three levels - the unconscious, the preconscious and the conscious. The unconscious consists of psychic contents that function according to their own laws and rules, is the receptacle of psychic energy, innate drives. At the level of the unconscious, primary processes operate, which are characterized by illogicality, timeless and spatial dynamics.

At the preconscious and conscious level, secondary processes operate - attention, judgment, reasoning, controlled action. The preconscious is located between the unconscious and the conscious, it is separated from the first by censorship, which does not allow unconscious contents to enter the preconscious. The transition from preconsciousness to consciousness is due to the second censorship, which not only distorts, but selects the content that disturbs the individual. The preconscious includes thoughts that are not directly realized, but can easily be realized. Conscious includes conscious thoughts and feelings, acts on the basis of secondary processes on the principle of reality.

The third stage (1923-1939) is the time of creating a structural model of the psyche. Freud distinguished between the life drive (Eros) and the death drive (Thanatos). The first included sexual attraction and the desire for self-preservation, the second - the desire for destruction, the complete elimination of tension, for peace. The idea that in addition to the drive to life, there is a drive to death, occurred to Freud after the First World War. Defining this concept, he has in mind the desire of the organism, firstly, to destruction and, secondly, to a regular transition to an inorganic state.

The structural model of the mental apparatus comes to replace the topical one. Instead of three levels - the unconscious, preconscious and conscious, Id (It), Ego (I), Super-Ego (Super-I) stand out.

It is an innate unconscious instance, a receptacle for innate desires and repressed ideas. The basic principle of work of the id is the principle of pleasure i.e. the desire for an immediate discharge of mental stress.

Ego - is formed from It, appearing with the emergence of knowledge about the external world. This instance operates on the principle of reality, applying perceptual and cognitive strategies, i.e. attention, logical thinking, reasoning and evaluation. The purpose of the ego instance is to delay the satisfaction of instincts in order to preserve the integrity of the body and psyche.

The super-ego is formed by the end of the third, phallic stage of psychosexual development and is a system of values, standards, and norms of behavior learned by the child through communication with adults. The super-ego consists of conscience and the ego-ideal. Conscience is formed as a result of punishments, and the ego-ideal is formed as a result of parents' encouragement.

Internal conflicts, according to Freud, are conflicts between different personality structures. On the one hand, there is the It, which contains powerful biological needs and which functions according to the principle of pleasure, that is, it requires an immediate discharge of tension; on the other hand, there is the Super-Ego, which consists of moral norms and rules, most often forbidding the immediate satisfaction of the needs of the id. Between these two conflicting structures, I am located, which, despite the tension experienced in connection with the conflict, must preserve the integrity of the body and psyche.

Ability to support your mental health depends on psychological defense mechanisms that help a person, if not to prevent (since this is actually not possible), then at least to mitigate the conflict between the Id and the Super-Ego.

Psychological defense mechanisms- techniques that reduce the level of anxiety caused by an internal conflict between different structures of the psyche.

Freud identified several defense mechanisms, the main of which are repression, regression, rationalization, projection and sublimation.

crowding out- the most inefficient mechanism, since in this case the energy of the repressed and unfulfilled motive (desire) is not realized in activity, but remains in the person, causing an increase in tension. Since desire is forced out into the unconscious, a person completely forgets about it, but the remaining tension, penetrating through the unconscious, makes itself felt in the form of symbols that fill dreams, in the form of errors, slips of the tongue, reservations.

Regression and rationalization are more mature types of defenses, since they allow at least a partial discharge of the energy contained in human desires. Wherein regression- a more primitive way to realize aspirations, this is a return to ontogenetically earlier forms of response. A person may start to bite nails, ruin things, believe in evil or good spirits, seek risky situations, an adult woman in tense situations can act like a girl, etc., and many of these regressions are so generally accepted that they are not even perceived as such. . Rationalization associated with the desire of the Super-Ego to somehow control the situation, giving it a respectable appearance, this is an attempt to give at least some "reasonable" explanation for their feelings and actions. Therefore, a person, not realizing the real motives of his behavior, covers them up and explains them with invented, but morally acceptable motives.

At projections a person ascribes to others those desires and feelings that he himself experiences, but often does not realize them. The projection can be accurate, that is, the person on whom the feeling is projected really experiences it, confirms the projection made by his behavior. Then the defense mechanism worked successfully, since the projector can recognize these feelings as real, valid, but alien and not be afraid of them.

The projection may be erroneous, not accurate. It should be emphasized that the introduction of such a protective mechanism made it possible to develop the so-called "projective methods" of personality research in the future. These methods, consisting of asking them to complete unfinished phrases or draw something, have become an essential contribution to the experimental study of the child's personality. They encourage the subject to project the content of his own psyche and allow drawing conclusions about the mental properties and qualities of the subject, "bypassing" his consciousness.

Most effective mechanism protection is sublimation, as it helps to direct the energy that is associated with sexual or aggressive aspirations in a different direction, to realize it in activities. In principle, Freud considered culture a product of sublimation, and from this point of view he considered works of art, scientific discoveries. According to Freud, in creative activity there is a complete realization of the accumulated energy.

Stages of psychosexual development. Freud distinguished four stages of psychosexual development - oral, anal, phallic and genital and a certain intermediate period between the phallic and genital stages, called latent due to the fact that at this time sexual energy is practically in a neutral state.

When describing these stages, Z. Freud proceeds from the fact that desire is psychological phenomenon, and below it lies bodily excitation (somatic source) called need. At different stages of psychosexual development, psychic energy is concentrated around a certain bodily (erogenous) zone.

Thus, the libidinal energy, which is associated with the life instinct, also serves as the basis for the development of the personality, the character of a person. The stages of development differ from each other in the way in which the libido is fixed, in the way in which the life instinct is satisfied. At the same time, Freud gave great attention how fixation takes place and whether a person needs foreign objects at the same time. Based on this, he singled out three large stages, which are divided into several stages.

The first stage - the libido-object - is characterized by the fact that the child needs an external object for the realization of libido. This stage lasts up to a year and is called oral stage, since satisfaction occurs with irritation of the mouth. Fixation at this stage occurs if the child cannot realize his libidinal desires, for example, he was weaned early. This type of personality is characterized, from Freud's point of view, by a certain infantilism, dependence on adults, parents, even in adulthood. Moreover, such dependence can be expressed both in conformal and negative behavior.

The second stage, which lasts until the onset of puberty, is called the libido-subject and is characterized by the fact that the child does not require any external object to satisfy his instincts. Sometimes Freud also called this stage narcissism, believing that all people who have fixed at this stage are characterized by self-orientation, the desire to use others to satisfy their own needs and desires, and emotional isolation from them. The stage of narcissism consists of several stages. The first, which lasts up to three years, is anal, in which the child learns certain toilet skills (this is the first social norm that the child must learn) and a sense of ownership begins to form in him. Fixation at this stage leads to the appearance of an anal character, which manifests itself in stubbornness, often harshness, neatness and thrift.

From the age of three, the child moves on to the next, phallic the stage at which children begin to realize sexual differences, to be interested in their genitals. Freud considered this stage critical for girls, who for the first time begin to realize their inferiority due to their lack of a penis. This discovery, he believed, could lead to later neuroticism or aggressiveness, which is generally characteristic of people who are fixed at this stage. This is largely due to the fact that during this period there is growing tension in relations with parents, primarily with the parent of the same sex, whom the child is afraid of and jealous of the parent of the opposite sex. Tension weakens by the age of six, when the latent stage in the development of the sexual instinct begins. During this period, which lasts until the onset of puberty, children pay great attention to study, sports, and games.

AT adolescence children move on to the last stage, which is also called the libido-object, since a person again needs a partner to satisfy the sexual instinct. This stage is also called genital, since in order to discharge libidinal energy, a person is looking for ways of sexual life that are characteristic of his gender and his type of personality.

Emphasizing the importance of parents in the development of a child's personality, Freud wrote that it is on them that the way of passing through these periods of mental development largely depends, and the injuries received when communicating with an adult in the first years of life become the cause of mental and social deviations in behavior that may appear much later.

Modern psychoanalysis has modernized Freud's ideas in many ways, but the main approaches to mental development embodied in his theory have remained unchanged. These include primarily the following:

Understanding mental development as motivational, personal;

Approach to development as adaptation to the environment. Although the environment is subsequently not understood by other psychoanalysts as completely hostile, it is always opposed to a particular individual;

Attitude to the driving forces of mental development as innate and unconscious;

An approach to the main mechanisms of development as innate, laying the foundations of the personality and its motives already in early childhood. The structure of the personality does not undergo significant changes in the future, hence the interest of psychoanalysis in memories of early childhood and traumas received at this age.

The further development of psychoanalysis is associated with the names of Freud's closest students, primarily with the theoretical searches of C. Jung and A. Adler. Although Jung was not directly involved in research into child development, his concept had a great influence on the emergence of new methods for interpreting children's creative products, as well as on the formation of a new approach to understanding the role of fairy tales, myths and culture in general in the development of children's personality.

Swiss psychologist Carl Gustav Jung graduated from the University of Zurich. After an internship with the famous psychiatrist P. Janet, he opened his own psychological and psychiatric laboratory. At the same time, he became acquainted with the first works of Freud, discovering his theory. Rapprochement with Freud had a decisive influence on his scientific views. However, it soon became clear that, despite the closeness of their positions and aspirations, there were also significant differences between them, which they failed to reconcile. These differences were primarily related to different approach to the analysis of the unconscious, since Jung, unlike Freud, argued that "not only the lowest, but also the highest in a person can be unconscious."

Certain differences also existed on the issue of psychocorrection, since Freud believed that the patient's dependence on the psychotherapist is permanent and cannot be reduced, i.e. he adhered to the concept of directive therapy. At the same time, Jung maintained directive relations only at the beginning of the course of psychotherapy, and believed that the patient's dependence on the doctor should decrease over time, especially in the last phase of therapy.

The final break between them occurred in 1912, after Jung published his book Symbols of Transformation. The break was painful for both, especially for Jung, who felt his loneliness, but could not deviate from those provisions that he considered important for his theory. Gradually, he came to the idea that his interpretation of the symbol gives him the key to the analysis of not only dreams, but also myths, fairy tales, religion, art. He studied not only European, but also Indian, Chinese, Tibetan cultures, paying attention to their symbolism. This largely led him to one of his most important discoveries - the discovery of the collective unconscious. Jung's theory, called "analytical psychology".

Jung believed that the structure of the personality consists of three parts - the collective unconscious, the individual unconscious and consciousness. If the individual unconscious and consciousness are purely personal, lifetime acquisitions, then the collective unconscious is a kind of “memory of generations,” a psychological inheritance with which a child is born.

He considered the main archetypes of the individual psyche to be the Ego, the Person, the Shadow, the Anima (or Animus) and the Self. The ego is the central element of personal consciousness, as it collects scattered data. personal experience into a single whole, forming from them a holistic and conscious perception of one's own personality. At the same time, the Ego seeks to resist everything that threatens the fragile integrity of our consciousness, tries to convince us of the need to ignore the unconscious part of the soul.

Persona is that part of our personality that we show the world what we want to be in the eyes of other people. The dominant Person can suppress the individuality of a person, develop conformism in him, the desire to merge with the role that the environment imposes on a person. At the same time, Persona protects us from the influence of the environment, from curious glances that seek to penetrate into the soul of a person, helps in communication, especially with strangers.

The shadow is the center of the personal unconscious. As the Ego collects data about our external experience, so the Shadow focuses, systematizes those impressions that have been repressed from consciousness. Thus, the content of the Shadow is those aspirations that are denied by a person as incompatible with his Person, with the norms of society. At the same time, the more the Person dominates in the personality structure, the more the Shadow increases, since the individual needs to displace everything into the unconscious. large quantity desires. A person without a Shadow is just as incomplete as without other parts of the soul.

Anima (in a man) and Animus (in a woman) are those parts of the soul that reflect intersex relationships, ideas about the opposite sex. Unconscious ideas that appear in the images of the feminine in a man and the masculine in a woman. Their development is greatly influenced by parents (the mother of the boy and the father of the girl).

The self, from Jung's point of view, is the central archetype of the entire personality, and not just its conscious or unconscious part, it is "the archetype of the order and integrity of the personality." Its main meaning is that it does not oppose different parts of the soul (conscious and unconscious), but connects them so that they complement each other. In the process of development, the personality acquires an ever greater integrity, the Self.

Jung also made a distinction between two types of personality - extroverts and introverts. Introverts in the process of individualization pay more attention to inner part of their soul, build their behavior based on their own ideas, their own norms and beliefs. Extroverts, on the contrary, are more focused on the Person, on the outer part of their soul. They are perfectly oriented in the outside world, unlike introverts, and in their activities they proceed mainly from its norms and rules of conduct. If for an introvert the danger is a complete rupture of contacts with the outside world, then for extroverts the loss of oneself is no less dangerous.

However, the Self, the desire for the integrity of the personality, as a rule, does not allow one of its sides to completely subjugate the other, these two parts of the soul, two types, as it were, divide their spheres of influence.

A great influence on the development of child psychology within the framework of the psychoanalytic concept had Alfred Adler, who in childhood was often and seriously ill, hoped that choosing the profession of a doctor would help him and his family in the fight against ailments. After graduating from the medical faculty of the University of Vienna, he practiced as an ophthalmologist. However, due to the growing interest in the activities of the nervous system, his field of study moved towards psychiatry and neurology.

In 1902, Adler was one of the first four members of the circle that formed around the creator of a new psychological trend, Freud. Later, however, Adler began to develop ideas that contradicted some of Freud's basic tenets. After some time, he organized his own group, which was called the Association of Individual Psychology.

Adler became the founder of a new, socio-psychological approach to the study of the psyche of children. It was in the development of these new ideas of his conception that he parted company with Freud. main idea Adler was that he denied the provisions of Freud and Jung about the dominance of individual unconscious instincts in the personality and behavior of a person, instincts that oppose a person to society. Not innate inclinations, not innate archetypes, but a sense of community with other people, stimulating social contacts and orientation towards other people - this is the main force that determines human behavior and life, Adler believed.

Adler believed that his family, the people who surround him in the first years of life, are of great importance in shaping the structure of the child's personality. The importance of the social environment was especially emphasized by Adler (one of the first in psychoanalysis), since he proceeded from the idea that a child is not born with ready-made personality structures, but only with their prototypes, which are formed in the process of life. He considered the style of life to be the most important structure.

Developing the idea of ​​a lifestyle that determines human behavior, Adler proceeded from the fact that this is the determinant that defines and systematizes human experience. The sense of community, or public interest, serves as a kind of core that holds the entire structure of lifestyle, determines its content and direction. The sense of community, although innate, may remain undeveloped. This underdevelopment of a sense of community becomes the basis of an asocial lifestyle, the cause of neuroses and human conflicts.

If a sense of community determines the direction of life, its style, then two other innate and unconscious feelings - inferiority and striving for superiority - serve as sources of energy necessary for the development of personality. Both of these feelings are positive, they are incentives for personal growth, for self-improvement. If the feeling of inferiority affects a person, causing him to desire to overcome his shortcoming, then the desire for superiority causes a desire to be the best. These feelings, from Adler's point of view, stimulate not only individual development, but also the development of society as a whole, thanks to self-improvement and discoveries made by individuals. There is also a special mechanism that helps the development of these feelings - compensation.

If Adler showed the influence of the social environment on the development of the child's psyche, and also showed the way to correct deviations that appear in the process of forming his personality (compensation, play), then Karen Horney reconsidered the role of defense mechanisms, linking them with the formation of an adequate “image of the “I” that arises already in early childhood.

Speaking about the fact that a child is born with an unconscious sense of anxiety, Horney wrote that it is associated with "the child's feeling of loneliness and helplessness in a potentially hostile world."

Horney believed that the reasons for the development of this anxiety could be the alienation of parents from the child, and their excessive guardianship, which suppresses the personality of the child, a hostile atmosphere, discrimination, or, conversely, too “suffocating” care. Horney identified primarily two types of anxiety - physiological and psychological. Physiological anxiety is associated with the desire of the child to satisfy their basic needs - food, drink, comfort. If the mother takes care of him and meets his needs, this anxiety goes away. In the same case, if his needs are not satisfied, anxiety grows and becomes the background for the general neuroticism of a person.

However, if getting rid of physiological anxiety is achieved by simple care and satisfaction of the basic needs of children, then overcoming psychological anxiety is a more complex process, since it is associated with the development of the adequacy of the “I-image”. Horney believed that this image consists of two parts - knowledge about oneself and attitude towards oneself. There are several "images" of "I" - "I" is real, "I" is ideal and "I" in the eyes of other people. Ideally, these three images of the "I" should coincide with each other, only in this case we can talk about the normal development of the personality and its resistance to neuroses. If this coincidence does not occur, then anxiety arises. In order to get rid of anxiety, a person resorts to psychological protection, which is aimed at overcoming the conflict between society and a person, since its task is to bring a person’s opinion of himself and the opinion of others about him into line, i.e. bring the two "I" images into line. Horney identified three main types of protection, which are based on the satisfaction of certain neurotic needs. If normally all these needs and, accordingly, all these types of protection are harmoniously combined with each other, then in case of deviations one of them begins to dominate, leading to the development of one or another neurotic complex in a person.

A person finds protection either in striving for people (compliant type), or in striving against people (aggressive type), or in striving away from people (eliminated type).

With the development of a desire for people, a person hopes to overcome his anxiety by agreeing with others in the hope that in response to his conforming position they will not notice (or pretend not to notice) the inadequacy of his "image" of "I". The development of protection in the form of leaving, striving "from people" makes it possible for a person to ignore the opinions of others, left alone with his "image" of "I". An attempt to overcome anxiety by imposing one’s “I-image” on other people by force also does not end in success, since in this case a person develops such neurotic needs as the need to exploit others, the desire for personal achievements, for power. Therefore, children who develop an inadequate “I-image” need the help of a psychotherapist to help the child understand himself and form a more adequate idea of ​​himself.

Psychoanalytic diagnostics N. McWilliams (levels of personality development and types of personality development).

According to N. McWilliams, character structure has 2 dimensions:

The level of personality development (psychotic, borderline, neurotic);

Type of personality organization (character) (for example, paranoid, depressive, schizoid, hysterical, etc.).

Neurotics have an integrated sense of identity, that is, they can describe themselves, their character traits, successfully describe other people, and these descriptions are multifaceted.

They are in touch with reality, they do not have hallucinations. They consider their psychological difficulties as ego-dystonic, that is, from a meta-position, detached, i.e. the neurotic has developed an observing ego.

The neurotic level is formed on the condition of successfully passing the stages of "basic trust" and "basic autonomy". The nature of the difficulties lies not in the problem of security or attachment, but in the formation of identity and initiative. Thus, these are problems of the oedipal stage of development, typical of neurotics are triadic object relations.

border level. Occupies an intermediate position between neurotics and psychotics. They are distinguished by some stability in comparison with the latter and a violation of stability - in comparison with the former.

Use primitive defense mechanisms(denial, projective identification, splitting, etc.), so they are sometimes difficult to distinguish from psychotics. The difference is that the borderline is able to adequately respond to the diagnostician's interpretations, while the psychotic, in this case, will become even more restless.

There are gaps in the sense of "I", contradictions in the sphere of identity integration. When describing themselves, they experience difficulties, are prone to hostile defense, aggression. However, self-exploration is not accompanied by a sense of existential horror and fear, as is the case with psychotics.

People of the borderline level of personality development are able to understand their "pathology", demonstrate an understanding of reality, thereby differing from psychotics. The main problem is the ambivalence of the feelings they experience towards their environment. This is, on the one hand, the desire for intimacy and trusting relationships, and on the other hand, the fear of merging, the fear of being absorbed by another.

The main conflict is associated with the passage of the second stage of personality development (according to E. Erickson) - the stage of autonomy (separation). The main feature of the borderline type is a demonstration of a request for help and, at the same time, a rejection, a rejection of it. According to N. McWilliams, children with this character structure have mothers who prevent separation or refuse to come to the rescue when the child needs it.

psychotic level. They resort to primitive (preverbal) defenses, such as retreat into fantasies, denial, devaluation, introjection, etc. They demonstrate hallucinations, delusions, illogical thinking. These manifestations can be hidden, i.e. compensated.

Identity is broken, not integrated, i.e. people of the psychotic level of personality development have difficulty in answering the question “Who am I?” Describing themselves superficially, distortedly, primitively, too specifically.

Bad reality testing. At the same time, they can well feel the causes of events, the feelings of other people, but they interpret it irrationally.

Their fears are archaic, existential (life or death). The nature of the main conflict lies in the lack of formation of basic trust in the world due to violations at the first stage of development according to E. Erickson (stages of trust / distrust).

The psychotic finds it difficult to distance himself from his psychological problems, they are ego syntonic, i.e. the observing ego is not developed. Such a person spends a lot of energy fighting existential horror, but there is no energy left for reality.

Dreams and fantasies are full of images of death and violence, destruction.

Psychopathic (sociopathic). The main feature of the psychopathic character is the desire to manipulate others. Characterized by an increased level of aggression, a higher threshold, leading to excitement, in connection with which "thrill" is constantly needed. The deficit of the "Super-Ego" is expressed, therefore, the difficulties in forming attachment to others, the value of the other is determined by the degree of its usefulness, which, in turn, is determined by the consent to endure the psychopath's manipulations.

Typical defenses: omnipotent control, projection, dissociation. A high level of alexithymia (i.e., the inability to describe their feelings in words). experiencing some strong feelings, as a rule, immediately go to action. Characterized by the desire to destroy everything that attracts.

It is believed that the formation of such a character is facilitated by a situation in which the mother is weak, depressive, masochistic, the father is quick-tempered, inconsistent, sadistic. Frequent moves and losses at an early age also increase the likelihood of this character being formed. In the family, words are used to control and manipulate; no one teaches you to use words to express yourself, your feelings. At the same time, children can be spoiled financially, but emotionally deprived.

Narcissistic. The main feature is the support of self-esteem by obtaining confirmation from the outside. It develops in children who are sensitive to unexpressed messages, emotions, expectations of other people. An internal feeling of “insufficiency” formed. The main emotions of a narcissist are shame and envy, fear of feeling shame. There is a tendency to criticize others (destroy what I don't have).

Defenses are idealization and devaluation. Idealize themselves and therefore devalue others or vice versa. They tend to set unattainable goals, there is a feeling of a grandiose “I”, if the goal is achieved and a feeling of an irreparably defective “I”, if the goal is not achieved, there is no middle (either the very first or the very last). "Narcissistic swings" - cycles of idealization and depreciation, can idealize another, identifying with him to feel his own greatness, and then depreciation follows, overthrow from the pedestal.

The ability to establish close, trusting relationships is not developed, close people are considered as “self-objects” that feed a sense of their own self-esteem, i.e. viewed as a function, not as a person.

This character is formed if the child is a "narcissistic extension" for parents, through which they maintain their own self-esteem. A child does not receive attention and love if it does not contribute to the goals of the parents. Such a family is characterized by constant evaluation, even if the evaluation is positive, the child is still in a constant situation of evaluation.

People with a narcissistic nature deny repentance and gratitude, fear dependence on others (“don’t believe, don’t be afraid, don’t ask”), run from their mistakes and from those who can find out their mistakes.

Schizoid. The main feature is the avoidance of close relationships with others, fear of being absorbed, the search for salvation in the inner world of fantasies (autism). They have the ability to be creative, sensitive to the states of the other. There were patterns of deprivation or invasion in the family of origin. A certain bifurcation between one’s own “I” and the world around is characteristic, double messages (“come to me, I am very lonely - stand there, I am afraid that you will swallow me up”).

In choosing a partner, they gravitate toward inaccessible objects and are indifferent to accessible ones. Schizoids are attracted by opposite characters - warm, expressive, sociable people (hysteroids). As a rule, the schizoid is indifferent to how others perceive him, they tend to violate customs and norms, since they are indifferent to them. A person with such a character strives to confirm his originality and exclusivity, but such confirmation (unlike narcissists) should be internal, not external.

It is believed that during the formation of such a character in the parental family, there were either patterns of invasion from the mother, or, conversely, rejection, neglect.

paranoid. The main feature of the paranoid is the tendency to see the source of suffering outside oneself, in the world around. The main emotions are fear and shame, and shame is not realized, but projected.

The main defenses are projection and denial. Such a character is formed in a child who in the family suffered from an infringement of the feeling own strength, was suppressed when the punishment depends on the whims of adults and cannot be predicted. As a rule, in such families the child is used as a "scapegoat"

Depressive. Usually these are people who have suffered a loss early (not necessarily a loved one, the loss can be early weaning). They are often full, love everything that is connected with oral pleasure (drink, eat, smoke). The main feature is that aggression is directed not at the outside world, but at oneself. Rarely feel anger, the main feeling is sadness and guilt ("when I am accused of a crime that I did not commit, I wonder how I forgot about it").

Protection - introjection, idealization. Such a character is formed if the mother experiences the growth and separation of the child very hard, clings to him, causing him to feel guilty for leaving his mother; if grief is denied in the family or crying is suppressed; if the parents are depressed (not necessarily by nature, it may even be situational, especially postpartum depression of the mother).

Hypomanic. Cheerful, sociable, tend to flirt with everyone, often dependent on work, a lot of unexpressed anger, sadness, anxiety. A person with such a character does not have a sense of calm serenity. Either mania or depression.

Protection - denial, reaction. An example of denial would be their tendency to cynically humorously refer to certain events or feelings that actually cause a lot of anxiety, but it is denied. Reacting is a withdrawal from a situation in which they may be threatened with loss. Love and affection are especially devalued, since in this case the risk of losing a partner is alarming, therefore they often choose people who are not afraid to lose as partners, and leave significant partners themselves.

They love everything that distracts from inner experiences - any entertainment. It is believed that such a character is formed in the case of repeated traumatic losses in childhood, in violation of the stage of separation / separation.

Obsessive and compulsive. Obsession - "thinking", compulsion - "doing". The main feature of this type of character is the disproportion of thinking and doing with feelings, sensations, intuition, etc. Characterized by cleanliness, stubbornness, punctuality, restraint (fixation at the anal stage of psychosexual development according to Z. Freud). Basic conflict: desire to keep anger under control, uses words to hide feelings, not to express. The main defenses of the obsessive are isolation, the compulsive ones are rationalization, the destruction of what has been done (drunkenness, overeating, drug addiction - atonement for guilt).

Such a character is formed if parents set high behavioral standards and require submission from an early age, blaming not only for actions, but also for feelings.

For the obsessive-compulsive type, the situation of choice is traumatic, a mania of doubt is characteristic.

Hysterical. A high level of anxiety is characteristic, they are emotional, they love professions that involve the public: an actor, a dancer, a politician, a teacher. The basic need is the need for intimacy. Thinking is imaginative, creative. It is believed that for people with this character, a double fixation on oral and oedipal problems is typical. The hysterical character is more characteristic of women. As a child, the girl sees men as smart and strong, and women as weak and stupid, therefore she experiences unconscious fear and hatred of men. The only available way to "defuse" a man is to seduce him, which is why sexualization is so typical.

The main defenses are suppression, repression, regression. Easily get into dependent relationships.

This character is formed if one or both parents are more disposed towards the brother (sister) when the adult (father) is removed. A man can develop a hysterical character if there is a matriarchy in the family.
3. Cognitive and humanistic theories of mental development
The most famous cognitive theory is the theory Jean Piaget.

Piaget used the term schema to refer to personality structures. Schemas are ways of processing information that change as a person grows and gains more knowledge. There are two types of schemas: sensorimotor schemas - actions and cognitive schemas - concepts.

Main foreign concepts(theories) of mental development of the XIX-XX centuries. (Z. Freud, E. Erickson, J. Piaget, etc.)

Psychoanalytic theory of Z. Freud

He considered human behavior as a manifestation of biological drives, instincts and subconscious motives, which are influenced by the conditions of his upbringing in childhood.

Z. Freud believed that children in their development go through 5 stages of mental (psychosexual) development, which influence the formation personal qualities.

Psychoanalytic periodization of psychosexual development

E. Erikson's theory of social development of personality

E. Erickson often uses the concept of "social", emphasizing the influence of social, historical and cultural factors on human development. He identified 8 stages, each of which a person experiences a specific crisis, the essence of which is a conflict between opposite states of consciousness, the psyche.

He believed that if these conflicts are resolved successfully, then the crisis does not take acute forms and ends with the formation of certain personal qualities, which in the aggregate constituted one or another type of personality. People go through all stages at different speeds and with varying degrees of success. Unsuccessful resolution of the crisis leads to the fact that when moving to a new stage, people carry with them the need to resolve the contradictions of this and the previous stage.

Conflicts at different stages of personality development:

between trust and distrust in the world around (at the age of 0 to 1 year);

between feelings of independence and feelings of shame and doubt (ages 1 to 3 years);

between initiative and guilt (at the age of 4 to 5 years);

between industriousness and feelings of inferiority (ages 6 to 11);

between understanding belonging to a certain sex and not understanding the forms of behavior corresponding to this sex (at the age of 12 to 18 years);

between the desire for intimate relationships and the feeling of isolation from others (early adulthood: 19-30 years);

between vital activity and focus on oneself, one's age-related problems (normal growing up: 31-50 years old);

between a sense of fullness of life and despair (late maturation: 51-60 years).

Theory of mental development (cognitive theory) J. Piaget

The most complete problems of mental development were considered by the Swiss scientist Jean Piaget. In his works, he showed that the thinking of children is significantly different from the thinking of adults, and that children are active subjects of their own mental development. According to his theory, the ability for logical thinking is laid down in infancy and improves from year to year, obeying certain patterns.

According to the concept, the skills of mental activity are acquired naturally - as the overall development takes place. child's body and the general awareness of the child about the world around them expands

According to J. Piaget, a person in his mental development goes through 4 large periods and several stages:

• 1. Sensory-motor (sensory-motor) period (from 0 to 2 years). The predominant form of behavior is reflexes - the first stage. Then there is an adaptation to the environment due to the coordination of movements - the second stage. At stages 3-4, children voluntarily repeat those forms of behavior that give them pleasure. The ability to perceive the constancy of objects develops.
• 2. Preoperative period (from 2 to 7 years). There is a formation of figurative thinking, which allows you to think about objects, compare them in your mind, even if there are no objects. Memory is being formed, the ability is developing to select objects according to the proposed model, to distribute them in series, i.e. classify and organize.
• 3. The period of concrete thinking (from 7 to 11 years). This is the period when the child's thinking is limited to problems relating to specific real objects. A new form of thinking is being formed that allows one to seek a solution to one's problems in a purely logical way, keeping in memory various patterns (objects, actions) and performing mental operations with them.
• 4. The period of formal-logical (abstract) thinking (from
• 11-12 to 18 years and beyond). At this age, new complex mental schemes are formed that allow performing formal logical operations without relying on the sensory perception of specific objects. The ability to operate with abstract concepts appears, the skills of scientific thinking develop, thanks to which people talk about the past, future, present, put forward hypotheses, make assumptions.

Theory of the moral development of the personality of L. Kohlberg

L. Kohlberg in his theory distinguishes three levels of moral development: pre-moral, conventional and post-conventional, each of which includes 2 stages:

• 1. Pre-moral level (4-10 years). At this level, actions are determined by external circumstances and the point of view of other people is not taken into account.
• - At the first stage, the judgment is made depending on the reward or punishment that this act may entail.
• - In the second stage, the act is judged according to the benefit that can be derived from it.
• 2. Conventional level (10-13 years). A person at this level of moral development adheres to a conditional role, while focusing on the principles of other people.
• - In the third stage, the judgment is based on whether the act will receive the approval of other people or not.
• - At the fourth stage, the judgment is issued in accordance with the established order, respect for authority and the laws prescribed by it.
• 3. Post-conventional level (from the age of 13). According to Kohlberg, true morality is achieved only at this level of development. It is here that a person judges behavior on the basis of his own criteria, which implies a high level of rational activity.
• - At the fifth stage, the justification of an act is based on respect for a democratically adopted decision or, in general, on respect for human rights.
• - At the sixth stage, an act qualifies as right if it is dictated by conscience - regardless of its legality or the opinions of other people.

L. Kohlberg was reproached for having developed a "male" system of moral values ​​based on self-affirmation and justice, leaving women who are focused on caring for others, self-denial and self-sacrifice without attention.

The female model of moral development was proposed by Gilligan, which identified three levels, between which there are transitional stages:

• 1. Self-concern - at this level, a woman is only interested in those who are able to satisfy her own needs and ensure her existence. In the transitional stage, selfishness begins to give way to a tendency toward self-denial. A woman is still focused on her own well-being, but in the case of making decisions, she increasingly takes into account the interests of other people.
• 2. Self-sacrifice - social norms followed by most women force her to move on to satisfy her own desires only after satisfying the needs of others. This is the role of a good mother, when a woman is forced to behave in accordance with the expectations of other people, to feel responsible for their actions, constantly putting her in a situation of choice. In the second transitional stage, a woman rises from the level of self-sacrifice to the level of self-respect, starting to take into account her own needs more and more. She tries to balance the satisfaction of her personal needs with the needs of others, for whom she continues to feel responsible.
• 3. Self-respect - at this level, she understands that only she herself is able to make choices regarding her own life, if it does not harm others, especially people related to her by family and social ties. The level of moral consciousness develops into morality.

As a result of scientific disputes, in the 20th century, the difference in approaches to the mental development of a person gave rise to various theories that explain both his behavior and the formation of certain traits.

Basic theories of mental development

1. Psychoanalytic. Its founder is Z. Freud. All mental processes have their origin in the unconscious part of each of us. In addition, it is generally accepted that the development of the psyche is influenced by the formation of the sexual instinct, which has its origin in infancy.
2. genetic. This theory of human mental development provides for the study of the psyche purely from the point of view of the interaction of the individual and his environment. The foundation of the psyche is the intellect, thanks to which memory and emotional states are improved.
3. behavioral. The behavior of each of us, starting from the moment of birth and ending with the last day of life, is what is most important in this scientific assumption. Behaviorists do not consider it reasonable to consider the imagination of a person, his consciousness, feelings, separately from the development of his behavior.
4. Gestalt. Representatives of this theory believe that the level of mental development determines perception. Moreover, such formation is divided into learning and growth.
5. humanistic. Man is an open system capable of self-development. We are all individual, because within each there is a unique combination of qualities. The essence of each personality lies in conscious motives, and not in instincts.
6. Cultural and historical. Its representative L. Vygotsky, who also developed the theory of the development of higher mental functions, saw the meaning of the psyche in the ability of a person to control his own consciousness and mental state. Main principle teachings - an analysis of development from the point of view of a specific historical period.