Qualitative and quantitative changes in the human psyche. Psychology. Each group comes to the test at its own time.

During adolescence, the relationship between boys and girls changes: they begin to show interest in each other as a representative of the other sex.

In this regard, it becomes especially important for a teenager how others treat him. First of all, one’s own appearance is associated with this: to what extent the face, hairstyle, figure, demeanor, etc. correspond to gender identification: “I am like a man,” “I am like a woman.”

At first, interest in the other sex manifests itself in inappropriate forms: bullying, pestering, ignoring. Later the relationship becomes more complicated. Spontaneity in communication disappears: a demonstration of indifference or shyness appears. There comes a stage when interest in the other sex intensifies even more, however

Outwardly, even greater isolation arises.

With older teenagers, communication between boys and girls becomes more open: teenagers of both sexes are included in the social circle. Romantic relationships can arise when spending time together. They inspire dreams, fantasies, where the most incredible plans come true and hopes come true. The boy learns to act in his fantasies,

but he practices his actions and actions for real, experiencing them and reflecting on all possible situations.

In adolescence they begin to form sexual desires, which are characterized by a certain lack of differentiation and increased excitability.

Naturally, this arises internal conflict between the desire of a teenager to master new forms of behavior, for example physical contacts, and prohibitions, both external - on the part of parents and

own internal taboos. Dancing is considered a socially acceptable form of such contacts.

Teenagers are very curious about sexual relationships. Where internal inhibitions are weak, where the sense of responsibility for oneself and others is poorly developed, readiness for sexual contacts with representatives of the opposite and sometimes the same sex breaks through. A high degree of tension before and after sexual intercourse places a severe test on the psyche. First sexual impressions can have an impact on the sexual life of an adult. Therefore, it is important that these impressions reflect decent forms of interaction between young sexual partners.

37. Features of communication between a teenager and adults.

Adolescence is a period when a teenager begins to reevaluate his relationship with his family. The desire to find oneself as a person gives rise to the need for alienation from all those who habitually influenced him from year to year, and first of all this applies

to the parental family.

Alienation towards the family is outwardly expressed in negativism - the desire to resist any proposals, judgments, feelings of those at whom it is directed.

alienation. Negativism - primary form mechanism of alienation, and it is also the beginning active search a teenager of his own unique essence, his own “I”.

The desire to realize and develop one’s uniqueness, the awakening sense of personality requires the adolescent to separate from the family “We”, which still maintains in him a sense of protection by traditions and emotional focus on him. However, the teenager still cannot really be alone with his “I”. He is not yet able to deeply and objectively evaluate himself; is not able to stand alone before the world of people as the unique person he strives to become. His lost “I” strives for “We”. But this one

since this “We” is made up of peers.

Adolescence is the period when a teenager begins to value his relationships with peers. Communication with those who have the same life experience as him gives the teenager the opportunity to look at himself in a new way. The desire to identify with others like oneself gives rise to the need for a friend, which is so valued in universal human culture. A friend takes on special value here. In a friend, like in a mirror, a teenager reflects his own “I”. Friendship itself and service to it become one of the significant values ​​in adolescence. It is through friendship that a child learns the features of high interaction between people: cooperation, mutual assistance, mutual assistance, risk for the sake of another, etc. Friendship also provides an opportunity through a trusting relationship to better understand another and oneself. Friendship in adolescence, as well as communication in a group, due to the desire of adolescents for mutual identification, increases conformity in relationships. If adolescents are negativists in the family, then among their peers they are often conformists (subject to the opinion of the group). Success among peers in adolescence is valued most of all.

Regional state educational institution

“Boarding school for children with disabilities No. 3”, Kursk

Report at the methodological association of educators

on the topic: “Education of the fundamentals of intimate-personal behavior among high school students”

Prepared by:

teacher L.V. Budylina

2017-

Every age is good in its own way. And at the same time, each age has its own characteristics and its own difficulties. Adolescence is no exception. At this time, intensive development of personality occurs, its rebirth. One of the significant areas of individual activity at the stage of early adolescence is the education of intimate-interpersonal communication. At this age, its content and general orientation change, it becomes selective and serves as the main, social testing ground for self-affirmation and self-expression of boys and girls.

The period of study in the senior classes of correctional schools - adolescence - is a special time. It is at this time that the boundaries between soul and body are very blurred. It is not for nothing that such great attention has always been paid physical education young, young people. Mastering the space of one’s own body as a psychological problem appeared in science thanks to the work of Stanley Hall, who drew attention to the fact that adolescents’ strength does not increase as their body weight increases. Gender differences are very clearly manifested in the development of movement speed. In boys, strength and its increase come to the fore; in girls, speed of movement develops more. Coordination also improves, which makes movements more dexterous.

Due to the peculiarities of the development of the muscular system and its coordination by the nervous system, a teenager with disabilities gets tired very quickly, which is caused by tension in the entire nervous system, including the central one. Educators of teenagers face the difficult problem of creating for them necessary conditions life in order to prevent overwork and early exhaustion of the nervous system.

Adolescence researchers believe that a teenage girl and a teenage boy are two different biological quantities. During this period of life, they experience the need to solve such a life task as establishing close relationships with people of the opposite sex. The biological basis of this form of behavior is an innate instinct of exceptional strength, the importance of which in human life cannot be underestimated.

In adolescence, such a still little studied phenomenon as adolescents’ own language flourishes. A phenomenon that is observed in many countries. Teenagers move towards verbal maximalism, directly or indirectly reflecting those experiences of an unusual cosmic order in which they touch the existential. Verbal maximalism of the usual order turns into the formation of jargon. Original, from their point of view, verbal expressions become the common property of adolescents.

For teenagers with disabilities, it is completely natural in their mental education to strive to deepen and expand their psychological space, their self. The secret is that this desire is carried out among adults who solve their problems in relation to teaching the young. Teenagers endlessly need the help and support of their elders in solving a vital task - developing their intellectual capabilities, since during this period of life the reality of their own thinking is the same as the reality of the body.

This exacerbates the importance of the content of communication between a teenager and adults. On the surface of the everyday behavior of adolescents with mental retardation, it is clear that they devote a lot of effort and time to communicating with peers. It would seem that the importance of adults is changing significantly in the direction of decreasing its importance. But the miracle of life is that I ignite it in full force in a young person only a mature person can.

In adolescence, a person is faced with the secret of his changeable self, which constantly eludes him. To preserve the Self, a huge amount of work is needed to build it, to build it. This cannot be done without the necessary psychological material. A teenager with disabilities needs psychological information for the further implementation of the life of his Self, as a manifestation in a specific, individualized, personified form of the essential properties of a person. The main condition for receiving such psychological information it may be his meeting with an adult who embodies the generalized, but personified, essence of a person in his relationship with a teenager. It is, in pedagogical language, a moral ideal, a life ideal, but not abstract, but concrete, perhaps its daily embodiment in relation to a teenager. The word “incarnation” could be replaced without loss of meaning by the words “work” or “love” as synonyms. In other words, a teenager, with his needs, the main need - to live - poses to the people around him, in the most acute form, the problem of love for life, for himself as a living person, for him - a teenager, and therefore for him as another person. His problems are the “fire” that is addressed to the “substance” of relationships with other people - to those norms and rules for constructing and implementing the manifestations of life that he had already encountered in his childhood.

Teenagers with mental retardation feel driven into a difficult period of their lives, because adults do not find a place for them - elementary space - in life, since they do not know that both external and internal space are necessary for the realization of the child’s self. Such a space where you can feel protected, experience the boundaries of your Self, your psychological space as reliable.

During this period, the teenager puts main question: “Why do people live?” He sees the key word in this question as “live”; mastering the space of life in all its fullness and integrity is the main problem of adolescence. It is not without reason that it is at this age that children awaken an interest in music; one can even talk about the musical wanderings of modern teenagers. Parents know that music often accompanies a teenager in all his daily activities, performing many different functions.

Intense physical growth and the experiences associated with it, the tangibility of the problems of adult life, the growing burden of responsibility, and the like, introduce powerful dissonance into the self-concept of a teenager with disabilities. The tension caused by this requires overcoming by increasing the power of the Self, which comes through mastering the living space, building one’s place in it. Teenagers abruptly and often change interests and hobbies, they experience a restructuring of systems of evaluation of other people and themselves, specific life plans arise and efforts are made to implement them.

Growth has its own laws, the growing soul, the growing I have their own, each pore must mature, and growth must be gradual. The inconsistency of experiences in adolescence is a test of the depth of one’s psychological space, closeness to its existential characteristics. Contradiction is naturally associated with the life of the body of young people, because it is often this that provides food for the construction of new experiences.

At this time, young people have cosmic dreams - they see, as if from the outside, their own body, which correlates in size or position with the planets or with the luminaries - the Sun, the Moon. The commonality of the plots is noteworthy: in all of them there is the experience of conflicting feelings in relation to a planet or star, mainly feelings of attraction and repulsion. In these dreams, young people are faced with the problem of concretizing (embodiing) their essence, their purpose.

In everyday life, the body suggests the forms of such concretization in the form of a feasible gender role. The female role in this sense is more obvious - it has long been noted that girls experience less fluctuations in experiences associated with the embodiment of their own self, they achieve stability relatively quickly. It is not for nothing that a 16-17-year-old girl gives the impression of an adult, which cannot always be said about a young man of her own age. It is known that girls at this age feel more mature than their peers and tend to look after and educate them, even re-educate them.

For young men, the range of fluctuations in experiences is much wider and they take longer to acquire a stable attitude towards themselves, that is, to a sense of the boundaries of their Self and its dynamic strength. In order to feel this, you need to do a lot of work to build your world psychological space, to feel the strength of the Self in yourself regarding the possible structure of life on precisely this scale.

The ideal is like a dream about the creativity of life, about the creation of life. He seems to capture the very possibility of a full life, based on one’s own efforts to build it. This is one of the reasons for the emergence of a sense of adulthood and its strengthening as the physical and spiritual strength of young people grows. The ideal has a huge influence on the choice and implementation of professional activity, the choice of the sphere of application of one’s strengths that will bring the experience of the fullness of life, as if reflecting the feasibility, the vocation of a person - one of the most important experiences that reflect the realism of efforts to organize and implement life.

It turns out that in the relationships of growing young people with the adult world, the most important existential problem turns out to be constantly relevant - the problem of freedom and responsibility of the Self for its own embodiment in specific, everyday, daily manifestations of life, where the sense of the reality of one’s own Self gives a person the dignity that others people can read his confidence that he has his place among people. Otherwise, this is also called a sense of social belonging, maybe this is his formula: “I am not a stranger in this world.” When problems arise in the development of this experience, boys and girls are faced with an unbearable density of being that defies their attempts to find their place in it. It has long been noted that youth commit suicide relatively easily. Even the very thought of this possibility is often sweet and comforting, as if reducing the degree of risk in the face of possible life difficulties. Yes, young people live with greater exaltation, unexpressed and vague worries and thoughts, which they cannot realize in a form appropriate to themselves. Such a form cannot be found in one day or in one hour; it can take years to find it; for an observer, it may generally look like something abnormal, for example, joining a sect, becoming a vegetarian, becoming interested in some kind of collecting, and the like.

The need to communicate with adults is determined primarily by problems of long-term life self-determination. The content of communication with adults becomes issues of relationships between people, relations between the sexes, and choice of profession. The vast majority of high school students experience an urgent need for unregulated communication with the adults who make up their immediate environment.

Another feature of adolescents’ communication with adults is noteworthy. If guys in most cases are not satisfied with relationships with their elders, then adults consider the same relationships to be quite acceptable, that is, they do not understand relationships with teenagers - they overestimate or underestimate them. The reality is that adults are more likely to misunderstand than to understand the needs of children.

Young people, satisfied with their confidential communication with adults, are characterized by a developed ability to independently, without the help of others, and not according to a ready-made template, analyze and evaluate the qualities of their peers and adults who make up their social circle. The behavior of these teenagers is perceived and assessed by adults and peers as “adult”.

A completely different picture is typical for high school students with low satisfaction with communication with adults. They find it difficult to independently analyze and evaluate peers and adults; they do not know how and do not want to do this. The behavior of these teenagers is characterized by aggressiveness, distrust, conflict, indifference to everything, and so on.

A teenager with disabilities is potentially ready to master morality, as he already experiences the need for integrative mechanisms that allow him to preserve his Self from the influence of other people. He already has a readiness to organize his life in accordance with the idea-concept of life.

During adolescence, a teenager discovers his inner world. He gains the ability to immerse himself and enjoy his experiences. The teenager begins to feel his body and discovers the world of love. Almost any event stimulates him to think about himself and his problems. The discovery of the inner world is an important, exciting event, but it brings with it a lot of anxieties and experiences. There is a feeling of uniqueness and loneliness. It appears as a vague restlessness and can feel like an inner emptiness that needs to be filled. Hence the inexplicable impulses towards communication and solitude.

The teenager begins to think that no one has experienced such a feeling. As a result, his behavior changes. Then he goes to his room, closes himself and listens to music. Then he disappears on the street until nightfall. The pronoun “I” often appears in his speech. And all the events that happen to a boy or girl seem significant and decisive to them. But no one, in their opinion, understands everything that is happening.

Almost all children with disabilities go through periods of terrible loneliness that are simply unbearable. Then they feel defenseless, insecure in this big and problematic world.

If a teenager spends a lot of time with peers, this frightens parents, since a daughter or son may end up in a so-called antisocial group, where children become involved in drunkenness, drug addiction, and crime. To protect the child from the influence of an antisocial group, parents prohibit communication with teenagers they do not like. Parental prohibitions mean isolation of the child. An isolated child is a lonely child. Firstly, communication with peers is a very important specific channel of information. From it, teenagers learn many necessary things that, for one reason or another, adults do not tell them. Secondly, this is a specific type of interpersonal relationship. Group play and other types joint activities and develop the necessary skills social interaction, the ability to submit to collective discipline and at the same time defend one’s rights, to correlate personal interests with public ones. Outside a society of peers, where relationships are built fundamentally on an equal basis and status must be earned and be able to be maintained, a child cannot develop the communicative qualities necessary for an adult. The competitiveness of group relationships, which does not exist in relationships with parents, also serves as a valuable life school. Thirdly, this is a specific type of emotional contact. Creating group affiliation, solidarity, and comradely mutual assistance not only makes it easier for a teenager to become autonomous from adults, but also gives him an extremely important sense of emotional well-being and stability. Whether he managed to earn the respect and love of equals and comrades is of decisive importance for a teenager’s self-esteem.

There is an increasing need not only for social, but also for spatial, territorial autonomy, the inviolability of one’s personal space

The period of adolescence is a period of self-determination. Self-determination - social, personal, professional, spiritual and practical - is the main task adolescence. The process of self-determination is based on the choice of a future field of activity. However professional self-determination is associated with the tasks of social and personal self-determination, with the search for answers to the questions: “who to be?” and “what to be?”, with determining life prospects, with designing the future.

Human development during adolescence can take several paths.

Youth can be turbulent: the search for the meaning of life, your place in this world can become especially intense. Some high school students move smoothly and continuously towards a turning point in life, and then join in with relative ease. new system relationships. They are more interested in generally accepted values, and are more oriented towards the assessment of others and the authority of adults. Sharp, abrupt changes are also possible, which, thanks to well-developed self-regulation, do not cause difficulties in development. During the transition from adolescence to adolescence, a change occurs in the attitude towards the future: if a teenager looks at the future from the position of the present, then a young man looks at the present from the position of the future. The choice of profession and type of educational institution inevitably differentiates the life paths of boys and girls and lays the foundation for their socio-psychological and individual psychological differences. Educational activities becomes educational and professional, realizing the professional and personal aspirations of boys and girls. The leading place among high school students is occupied by motives related to self-determination and preparation for independent life, with further education and self-education. These motives acquire personal meaning and become significant.

Communication with peers remains significant; communication with adults and parents becomes more significant. Communication is intimate and personal, i.e. chamber character. What is important is not inclusion in a peer group, but the establishment of a personal, deep relationship with a person whom the teenager likes and needs.

A characteristic acquisition of early youth is the formation of life plans. A life plan as a set of intentions gradually becomes a life program, when the subject of reflection is not only the end result, but also the ways to achieve it. A life plan is a plan of potentially possible actions. In the content of the plans, as noted by I.S. Con, there are a number of contradictions. In their expectations related to future professional activities and family, boys and girls are quite realistic. But in the field of education, social promotion and material well-being their claims are often exaggerated. At the same time, the high level of aspirations is not supported by an equally high level of professional aspirations. For many young people, the desire to earn more is not combined with psychological readiness for more intensive and skilled work. The professional plans of boys and girls are sometimes not correct enough. While realistically assessing the sequence of their future life achievements, they are overly optimistic in determining the possible timing of their implementation. The main contradiction in the life prospects of boys and girls is their lack of independence and readiness for dedication for the sake of the future realization of their life goals

Readiness for self-determination is the main new formation of early adolescence. One of the achievements of this stage is a new level of development of self-awareness. It manifests itself in the discovery of one’s inner world in all its individual integrity and uniqueness; the desire for self-knowledge; formation of personal identity, a sense of individual continuity and unity; self-esteem; the formation of a personal way of being, taking personal responsibility.

Based on the above, the following conclusions can be drawn:

1) adolescence is a particularly important period in the development of personality; 2) youth has some developmental features: fast development muscular system; the desire to deepen and expand one’s psychological space, one’s Self; the need to communicate with the opposite sex; intense physical growth and experiences associated with it; the tangibility of the problems of adult life; growing burden of responsibility; readiness to organize your life in accordance with the idea-concept of life, etc.; 3) the period of adolescence is a period of self-determination. Self-determination - social, personal, professional, spiritual and practical - is the main task of adolescence.

Developmental psychology notes those relatively slow but fundamental quantitative and qualitative changes that occur in the psyche and behavior of children during their transition from one age group to another.

Typically, these changes span significant periods of life, from several months for infants to several years for older children. These changes depend on the so-called “constantly operating” factors: biological maturation and the psychophysiological state of the child’s body. its place in the system of human social relations. achieved level of intellectual and personal development. Age-related changes in psychology and behavior of this type are called evolutionary, since they are associated with relatively slow quantitative and qualitative transformations.

Important aspects in the study of the development of the psyche were the relationship between the qualitative and quantitative parameters of this process, the analysis of the possibilities of revolutionary and evolutionary paths to the formation of the psyche.

Speaking about the development of the human psyche, first of all we should point out the continuity of this process. Some signs of a human being (physical, physiological, mental, etc.) are constantly increasing and other signs are decreasing.

In addition, “breaks in continuity” constantly occur, that is, qualitative changes, the appearance of some and the disappearance of other qualities (signs, properties), caused by quantitative changes. Let's say, the human body physically grows, the size of individual organs, body weight, muscle strength, speed of movements (quantitative changes) change, but the transformation of an embryonic cell into a human being or the process of maturation of the body already refers to qualitative changes.

Qualitative changes also occur in the functioning of the nervous system, expressed, in particular, in the transition from the unconditional reflex implementation of its regulatory functions to regulation based on conditioned reflexes, language, in changing the relationships between the first and second signaling systems in the higher nervous activity person and the like.

Quantitative changes in mental development occur continuously. This, in particular, is an increase (decrease) with age in created associations, developed skills, ideas about the world, passive and active vocabulary, attention span, perception, memory, reaction speed and the like.

It should be borne in mind that the development of mental functions is uneven: psychomotor skills, speech, and intellectual skills develop in “waves” (A. Gesell); the acceleration of the development of some functions is accompanied by a slowdown in the development of others and vice versa (B.G. Ananyev).

At the same time, at all stages of development of the human psyche, qualitative changes occur. Let us consider the following in this regard. Due to the interaction of the infant with the surrounding social and natural environment diffuse activity turns into actions that are regulated by images of objects, which, in turn, leads to enrichment sensory knowledge peace. Later the child's actions consist different types its objective activity (game, teaching, etc.), and determine the further development of mental processes.

The development of arbitrariness of memorization and reproduction gradually turns these processes into special actions (mnemonic, reproductive), causing the emergence of the ability not only to reproduce images of previously perceived objects, but also to transform them, to form an idea of ​​the situation that was not in direct experience. Subsequently, this process acquires relative independence, contributing to the design of goals and the course of activities.

Emerging (through perception and manipulation of objects) at the end of the early childhood stage, visual-effective thinking with the help of speech becomes visual-figurative. turns into a mental action, carried out first out loud and then “to oneself.” Next, transitions occur to concrete conceptual thinking and to its abstract forms, etc.

Innate elementary unconditional reflex emotions (pleasure, displeasure, anger, etc.) associated with organic human needs are supplemented by conditioned reflex emotions that arose as a result of the formation of secondary, specifically human needs.

Developmental psychology notes those relatively slow but fundamental quantitative and qualitative changes that occur in the psyche and behavior of children during their transition from one age group to another. Typically these changes span significant periods of life, from several months for infants to years for older children. These changes depend on the so-called “constantly operating” factors: biological maturation and psychophysiological state of the child’s body, its place in the system of human social relations, and the achieved level of intellectual and personal development.

Age-related changes in psychology and behavior of this type are called evolutionary , since they are associated with relatively slow quantitative and qualitative transformations. They should be distinguished from revolutionary, which, being deeper, occur quickly and for relatively short term . Such changes are usually timed to crises of age-related development that occur at the turn of age between relatively calm periods of evolutionary changes in the psyche and behavior. The presence of crises of age-related development and associated revolutionary transformations in the child’s psyche and behavior was one of the grounds for dividing childhood into periods of age-related development.

Important aspects in the study of mental development were the correlation of qualitative and quantitative parameters of this process, analysis of the possibilities of revolutionary and evolutionary paths to the formation of the mental. Partly related to this was the question of the pace of development and the possibility of changing it.

Initially, based on Darwin's theory, psychologists, as mentioned above, believed that the development of the psyche occurs gradually, evolutionarily. At the same time, there is continuity in the transition from stage to stage, and the pace of development is strictly fixed, although it may partially accelerate or slow down depending on conditions. Stern's work, in particular his idea that the pace of mental development is individual and characterizes the characteristics of a given person, somewhat shook this view, fixed by Hall and Claparède. However, natural scientific postulates that proved the connection between the psyche and the nervous system did not allow one to question the progressive nature of the development of the psyche, associated with the gradual maturation of the nervous system and its improvement. So, P. P. Blonsky, who connected the development of the psyche with growth and maturation, proved the impossibility of accelerating it, since the rate of mental development, in his opinion, is proportional to the rate of somatic development, which cannot be accelerated.

However, the work of geneticists, reflexologists, psychiatrists, and psychoanalysts have shown that the human nervous system is a product of its social development. This was also proven by the experiments of behaviorists, who demonstrated the flexibility and plasticity of the psyche in the formation and reshaping of behavioral acts, as well as work I. P. Pavlova, V. M. Bekhtereva and other scientists who established the presence of quite complex conditioned reflexes in small children and animals. Thus, it has been proven that with a purposeful and clear organization of the environment, it is possible to achieve rapid changes in the child’s psyche and significantly accelerate his mental development (for example, when teaching certain knowledge and skills). This led some scientists, in particular Russian leaders of the sociogenetic movement, to the idea that not only evolutionary, but also revolutionary, spasmodic periods in the development of the psyche are possible, during which there is a sharp transition from accumulated quantitative changes to qualitative ones. For example, studies of adolescence have found A. B. Zalkinda to the idea of ​​its crisis nature, ensuring a sharp transition to a new stage. He emphasized that such a qualitative leap is determined by three processes - stabilization, which consolidate the previous gains of children, crisis ones, which are associated with sudden changes in the child’s psyche, and the new elements that appear during this period, characteristic of adults.

However, in general, the development of the psyche was still characterized by most psychologists as predominantly evolutionary, and the possibility of completely changing the direction and individual characteristics of the process was gradually rejected. The idea of ​​a combination of lytic and critical periods in the development of the psyche was later embodied in Vygotsky’s periodization.

Another type of change that can be considered a sign of development is associated with the influence of a specific social situation. They can be called situational . Such changes include what happens in the psyche and behavior of the child under the influence of organized or unorganized learning and upbringing.

Age-related evolutionary and revolutionary changes in the psyche and behavior are usually stable, irreversible and do not require systematic reinforcement, while situational changes in the psychology and behavior of an individual are unstable, reversible and require their consolidation in subsequent exercises. Evolutionary and revolutionary changes transform the psychology of a person as an individual, while situational ones leave it without visible changes, affecting only particular forms of behavior, knowledge, skills and abilities.

Question 12

Age is one of the fundamental and complex categories psychology. There are two levels of analysis of this concept:

Absolute(or calendar, chronological) age is expressed by the number of time units (minutes, days, years, millennia, etc.) separating the moment of the appearance of an object from the moment of measuring its age. This is a purely quantitative, abstract concept that denotes the duration of the existence of an object, its localization in time. Determining absolute age is called dating.

Conditional age (or age of development) is determined by establishing the location of an object in a certain evolutionary-genetic series, in a certain development process, on the basis of some qualitative and quantitative characteristics. Establishing a conditional age – element periodization, which involves the choice of not only chronological units of measurement, but also the system of reference itself and the principles of its division.

Analysis individual development person shows that the age category from the point of view life path a specific person can be viewed from several perspectives.

Biological age is determined by the state of metabolism and body functions in comparison with the average statistical level of development characteristic of the entire population of a given chronological age - the genetic, morphological, physiological and neurophysiological changes that occur in the body of each person are taken as a basis. Thanks to the statistical data obtained about at what chronological age what changes should occur, certain age standards were established. Accordingly, if at a given age a person has not yet experienced the expected changes, it means that he is lagging behind in his biological development, that is, his biological age is less than his chronological age. If, on the contrary, changes have occurred that should occur at an older age, then they say that the biological age of a person exceeds his chronological age.

Psychological age is established by correlating the level of mental (mental, emotional, etc.) development of an individual with the corresponding normative level.

Social age measured by correlating the level of social development of a person (for example, measures of mastery of a certain set social roles) with what is statistically normal for his peers.

There is also subjective age personality, having an internal frame of reference. This concept means a person’s own assessment of his age, age-related self-awareness, which depends on the tension and eventful fullness of life. The basis of subjective age is self-awareness. Therefore, subjective age is relatively free from chronological age. A person may feel older than his age, younger, or corresponding to his age.

The problem of criteria for periodization of development in psychological science was raised more than once, while the classification of age periods was based on biological, social and psychological parameters, which were often mixed with each other.

The first calendar periodization was proposed by Pythagoras. They were allocated four periods in a person’s life.
I. Spring, up to 20 years - a period of formation, characterized as “time not to work.”
II. Summer, up to 40 years old - youth, an age considered as “time to work.”
III. Autumn, up to 60 years of age, is the prime of life, the period when “the time to work with the greatest efficiency” comes.
IV. Winter, 60-80 years - old age and decline, a time of decline in performance.

Thus, this periodization was based on a social criterion - the ability to benefit society.

In developmental and child psychology, there is a group of periodizations based on a biological principle, for example, the periodization of Art. Hall, A. Gesell, 3. Freud, P. P. Blonsky, etc.

The analysis and systematization of available approaches to resolving the issue of periodization of mental development were carried out by L. S. Vygotsky. In accordance with the theoretical foundations of the periodization schemes proposed in science child development he divided them into three main groups.

The first group includes periodizations that do not provide for the division of the very course of child development, but the identification of periods based on the step-like construction of other processes, one way or another related to child development. To this group L. S. Vygotsky included periodizations based on the biogenetic principle, where the stages of phylogenetic development are taken as a basis. Such are, for example, the concepts of K. Buhler and Hutchinson, in which there is a desire to consider periods of childhood development by analogy with the development of the animal world or the stages of human culture.

K. Bühler never considered himself a biogeneticist, but his views indicate his adherence to the theory of recapitulation: he identified the stages of child development with the stages of animal development. In the development of a child, as well as in the development of an animal, K. Bühler identified three stages of development: instinct, training and intelligence.

Hutchinson, student of St. Hall, based on the theory of recapitulation, created a periodization of mental development, the criterion of which was the method of obtaining food. At the same time, the actual facts observed in the development of the child were explained by a change in the method of obtaining food, which, according to Hutchinson, is leading not only for biological, but also for mental development. He identified five phases, the boundaries of which were not rigid, so the end of one stage did not coincide with the beginning of another:
from birth to 5 years - the stage of digging and digging: at this stage, children love to play in the sand, make Easter cakes and manipulate with a bucket and scoop;
from 5 to 1 years - the stage of hunting and capture: this stage of development is characterized by the fact that 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 secretly;
from 8 to 12 years - the shepherd stage: during this period, children strive to have their own corner, usually building it in the yard, in the forest, but not in the house; they love animals and strive to have them, so that they have someone to take care of and protect; children, especially girls, develop a desire for affection and tenderness;
from 11 to 15 years - agricultural stage: associated with an interest in the weather, natural phenomena, and a love of gardening; at this time, children become observant and cautious;
from 14 to 20 years - the stage of industry and trade, or the stage modern man: at this time children begin to understand the role of money, the importance of arithmetic and other exact sciences, there is a desire to exchange various objects.

Hutchinson believed that the era of civilized man begins with the shepherd stage, that is, from the age of 8, and it is from this age that a person can be systematically educated, which was impossible in the previous stages.

As L. S. Vygotsky noted, not all attempts to periodize this group are equally untenable, since it contains classifications in accordance with the stages of upbringing and education of the child, with the structure of the education system adopted in a given country. This group includes the periodization of the French psychologist R. Zazzo, in which child development, in accordance with the accepted stages of education, is divided into following periods: from O to 3 years, 3-6 years, 6-9 years, 9-12 years, 12-15 years, 15-19 years. And although the approach to identifying periods based on stages of education was considered by L. S. Vygotsky as erroneous, he is significantly closer to the true definition of the stages of childhood, since the very division of education into stages is based on extensive pedagogical experience.

L. S. Vygotsky included in the second group numerous attempts aimed at isolating any one feature as a conditional criterion for dividing childhood into periods. A typical example is the periodizations of P. P. Blonsky and Z. Freud.

P.P. Blonsky saw in childhood a successive change of three eras, determined by dentition, that is, the appearance of teeth: toothless childhood (from 8 months to 2-2.5 years), childhood of milk teeth (up to approximately 6.5 years) and childhood permanent teeth (ends with the appearance of the third posterior molars - “wisdom teeth”). In the eruption of baby teeth, in turn, P. P. Blonsky distinguished three stages: absolutely toothless childhood (first half of the year), the stage of teething (second half of the year), the stage of eruption of promolars and canines (third year of life).

In other periodizations, built on the same principle, psychological criteria are put forward. This is V. Stern’s periodization. He distinguished early childhood, which is characterized only by play activity (up to 6 years), the next period is a period of conscious learning with the division of play and work; The period of adolescence (14-18 years) is characterized by the development of individual independence and the determination of plans for future life. At the same time, it should be noted that V. Stern, like his other contemporaries, was a supporter of the theory of recapitulation, therefore he associated the development of a child with the stages of evolution of the animal world and humanity.

In accordance with the views of V. Stern, a child in the first months of infancy, with still unreflective reflexive and impulsive behavior, is at the stage of a mammal; in the second half of the year, he masters the grasping of objects and is distinguished by imitation, which indicates that he has reached the stage of a higher mammal - a monkey. Subsequently, Having mastered vertical gait and speech, the child reaches the initial stages of the human condition; in the first five years of play and fairy tales, he stands at the level of primitive peoples; admission to school is associated with mastering broader social responsibilities, speaks of the child’s entry into culture with its state and economic organizations and so on.

3. Freud, in accordance with his sexual theory of the psyche, reduced the stages of development of the psyche to the stages of transformation and movement through different erogenous zones of sexual energy. Each stage, according to Freud, has its own sexual zone, the stimulation of which creates libidinal pleasure.
Oral stage (0-1 year). The source of pleasure is concentrated in the area of ​​activity associated with feeding. The leading erogenous zone is the mouth - an instrument of feeding, sucking and primary examination of objects. This stage is divided into two phases: early (first half of the year), when the child does not yet separate his sensations from the object that caused them, and late (second half of the year), when the idea of ​​another object (mother), a being independent of him.

Anal stage (1-3 years). At this stage, libidinal energy is concentrated around the anus, which becomes the object of attention of the child, who is accustomed to control the natural functions of the body. It is noted that by this moment the “I” instance has already been fully formed and is able to control the impulses of the “It”.
Phallic stage (3-5 years). The genital organs become the leading erogenous zone. Children begin to realize gender differences and experience attachment to adults, primarily to their parents. At this stage, the “I” instance is differentiated. Thus, by the end of the phallic stage, all three mental authorities have already been formed and are in constant conflict with each other.
The latent stage (5 - 12 years) is characterized by a decrease in sexual interest. The “I” instance completely controls the needs of the “It”. The energy of libido is transferred to the development of universal human experience and the establishment of friendly relationships with peers and adults outside the family environment.
Genital stage (12 - 18 years). This stage is characterized by an increase in children's sexual aspirations: all former erogenous zones unite and the teenager, from Freud's point of view, strives for one goal - normal sexual communication. However, this kind of communication can be difficult, and then one can observe phenomena of fixation or regression to one or another of the previous stages of development with all their features.

According to L. S. Vygotsky, the periodization of this group is also characterized by a certain inconsistency due to the following circumstances. Firstly, the authors take as a basis a subjectively chosen criterion, depending on which side the researcher focuses on. Secondly, the disadvantage is the identification of a single criterion for all ages, while during development the value and significance of the selected attribute changes. For example, the sign of puberty is important for adolescence, but is not significant in previous ages. The third drawback of these schemes, emphasized L. S. Vygotsky, is that they are focused on the study of external signs, and not the internal essence of child development, the internal laws of this process.

The third group of attempts to divide child development into stages is characterized by the desire to move from “a purely symptomatic and descriptive principle to highlighting the essential features of child development itself.” At the same time, attention is also drawn to the half-heartedness in resolving the task of identifying periods of development. As an example, L S. Vygotsky proposed to consider here A. Gesell’s periodization, built in accordance with the internal tempo and rhythm of child development.

Gesell drew attention to the decrease in the rate of development with age, on the basis of which he concluded that the younger the child, the faster changes occur in his psyche. L. S. Vygotsky, agreeing with the position about the maximum rate of development of elementary functions in early ages, emphasized, however, that development cannot be limited to the “more-less” scheme: if we consider the formation of higher mental functions, then the result will be the opposite - their pace and rhythm are minimal in the first years of life and maximum in its finale.

The problem of periodizing child development and searching for its criteria has not become less relevant in subsequent years. And although scientists relied on psychological criteria (for example, in the concept of J. Piaget, the stages of mental development are identified with the stages of intellectual development), a significant part of periodizations could not correctly resolve the issue of identifying periods of child development.
Of the foreign concepts of mental development, the concept of the French psychologist A. Wallon deserves attention, in which the outlined stages reflect the formation of the child’s personality.
A. Vallon believed that mental development is a successive change of stages. The transition from one stage to another is not simply the result of the accumulation of quantitative changes, but a qualitative reorganization of the psyche. According to his ideas, child development is divided into the following stages.
1. Stage of intrauterine development.
2. Stage of motor impulsivity - up to 6 months. This is the period of the beginning of the formation of conditioned reflexes, the emergence of a revitalization complex.
3. Emotional stage - up to 1 year. During this period, the child is completely immersed in his emotions, thanks to this he merges with the corresponding situations that cause these emotional reactions. The child is not able to perceive himself as a being different from other people, as a separate person.

4. Sensorimotor stage - 1-3 years. At this stage, interest in to the outside world, walking and speaking skills are formed. The child’s behavior shows that during this period he is constantly busy with something: exploring objects, playing, communicating with adults and children, constantly changing roles with partners. But at the same time, he still cannot separate his actions from the actions of his partner - they remain part of the whole for him. TO three years old the fusion of adult and child suddenly disappears, and the individual enters a period of asserting and defending his own independence, which leads him to many conflicts.
5. Stage of personalism - from 3 to 12-13 years: includes two periods, the change of which occurs at the age of about 7 years. This is the stage of positive development of personality, its self-awareness and increasing independence. In the first period, the upbringing of a child, as A. Vallon points out, should be full of sympathy and affection for people. Depriving a child of this attachment can lead to fears and anxiety.
6. Stage of puberty and adolescence - 12-18 years.

So, in the history of child psychology, attempts have been made repeatedly to divide child development into periods. However, it should be recognized that the criteria identified by most scientists do not reflect the objective internal laws of child development.

Activities

There are three types of activity that genetically replace each other and coexist throughout the entire life course: play, learning and work. They differ in final results (product of activity), in organization, and in characteristics of motivation.

The main type of human activity is labor. The end result of labor is the creation of a socially significant product. It could be a crop grown by a collective farmer, steel smelted by a steelmaker, a scientific discovery by a scientist, a lesson taught by a teacher.

The game does not create a socially significant product. The formation of a person as a subject of activity begins in the game, and this is its enormous, enduring significance. Training is the direct preparation of an individual for work, develops it mentally, physically, aesthetically, and only at the final stage of mastering a profession is it associated with the creation of material and cultural values. Labor is the process of human creation of material and spiritual values ​​of society.

In the mental development of a child, play acts primarily as a means of mastering the world of adults. In it, at the level of mental development achieved by the child, the objective world of adults is mastered. The game situation includes substitutions (instead of people - dolls), simplifications (for example, the external side of receiving guests is played out). In the game, therefore, reality is crudely imitated, which allows the child for the first time to become a subject of activity.

The game is organized freely and unregulated. No one can oblige a child to play board games from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., and then play mother and daughter games after 2 p.m. A child’s play can be organized, but he must accept what is proposed. This does not mean that the child should not have a strict daily routine. Sleep, food, walks, play and activity times must be strictly defined. But the content of the game, the child’s involvement in it, and the termination of the game are difficult to regulate. The child himself moves from one game to another.

Study and work proceed in obligatory for a person organizational forms. Exactly set time work begins, and during it, labor products are produced in accordance with the plan and given productivity. The same picture is observed in teaching. Classes begin according to the schedule, and throughout the lesson the student is engaged in this particular subject.

Various shapes The organization of activities is also associated with their different motivations. The motive of the game is the pleasure that the child experiences from the very process of the game.

The main motive for study and work is a sense of duty, a sense of responsibility. These higher feelings are no less a powerful stimulus for activity than interest. However, both in learning and in work, a person should be interested in the process of activity itself or in its results. It is equally important to create the habit of working.

Various types of activities complement each other, interexist, and interpenetrate. In kindergarten, a preschooler not only plays, but also learns to count and draw. The schoolboy plays with pleasure after finishing classes.

Game moments are successfully introduced into the organization of the lesson: A lesson with elements of game situations captivates schoolchildren. The game is an imaginary journey along a map of our country or globe in geography lessons, during which students, based on their imagination, tell what. they see". Schoolchildren willingly take on playing roles in foreign language lessons: teacher, guide, seller - and based on the role they actively master the language. The worker not only works, but also studies (at evening school, at a technical school, at a higher educational institution or is engaged in self-education). He can play chess and participate in other sports and recreational games.

Although activities do not exist in isolation, in different periods in a person's life they have different meanings. For one period of life, the leading activity is play, for another - learning, and for the third - work. Thus, we can talk about the types of activities that are leading in a particular period of personality development. Before the child enters school, the leading activity is play. The leading activity of a schoolchild is learning, and that of an adult is work.

A game. When analyzing a game as a type of activity, one should first find out its nature. In bourgeois psychological literature, biologizing theories of play are widespread, according to which a child’s play liberates the innate biological need in activity, equally inherent in both animals and humans. They try to connect the development of a child’s play with the corresponding stages of development of human society. Interest in playing in the sand, digging holes - stages of arable farming, playing with animals - cattle breeding, etc.

Scientific analysis play activity shows that play is a child’s reflection of the world of adults, a way of understanding the world around him. A convincing fact that demolishes the inconsistency of the biologization theory of the game is given by K. K. Platonov. An ethnographer discovered a tribe on one of the Pacific islands that lived isolated from others. The children of this tribe did not know how to play with dolls. When the scientist introduced them to this game, at first both boys and girls became interested in it. Then the girls lost interest in the game, and the boys continued to invent new games with dolls. Everything was explained simply. The women of this tribe took care of obtaining and preparing food. Men took care of the children.

In the child's first games, the leading role of adults is clearly evident. Adults “play with” the toy. By imitating them, the child begins to play independently. Then the initiative to organize the game passes to the child. But even at this stage, the leadership role of adults remains.

As the child develops, the game changes. In the first two years of life, the child masters movements and actions with surrounding objects, which leads to the emergence of functional games. In functional play, unknown properties of objects and ways of operating with them are revealed to the child. So, having opened and closed the door with a key for the first time, the child begins to repeat this action many times, trying to turn the key at every opportunity. This real action is transferred to the game situation. While playing, children make a movement in the air that resembles turning a key, and accompany it with a characteristic sound: “backgammon.”

Constructive games are more challenging. In them, the child creates something: builds a house, bakes pies. In constructive games, children understand the purpose of objects and their interaction.

Functional and constructive games belong to the category of manipulative games, in which the child masters the surrounding objective world and recreates it in forms accessible to him. Relationships between people are conceptualized in story games. The child plays “mother-daughter”, “shop”, taking on a certain role. Role-playing games begin at 3-4 years of age. Until this age, children play nearby, but not together. Role-playing games involve collective relationships. Of course, the inclusion of a child in group games depends on the conditions of upbringing. Children raised at home have more difficulty participating in group games than children attending kindergarten. In collective story games, which become longer by the age of 6-7 years, children follow the intent of the game and the behavior of their comrades. Role-playing games teach children to live in a group. Gradually, rules are introduced into the games that impose restrictions on the behavior of partners.

Collective role-playing games expand the child’s social circle. He gets used to obeying the rules, the requirements that are placed on him in the game: he is the captain spaceship, now his passenger, now an enthusiastic spectator watching the flight. These games foster a sense of teamwork and responsibility, respect for fellow players, teach them to follow the rules and develop the ability to obey them.

Games by rules are widely represented in the lives of schoolchildren and adults. In sports competitions, solving crossword puzzles and other games that require mental effort, a person switches to another type of activity, improves his mental and physical strength, and receives emotional release.

Being the main activity of the child preschool age, the game does not exclude other types of activities. From the age of 3-4 years, the child becomes familiar with the work of self-care. He must wash himself, get dressed, put away his toys. At the age of 5, the child’s work responsibilities become caring for indoor plants, helping elders in cleaning the room, etc. In kindergarten, children are willing to be on duty in the dining room, in the living corner, in the playroom.

Possible tasks around the house form and strengthen labor skills and instill in the child positive features character: responsible attitude to business, caring for comrades.

Elements of learning are also included in the life of a preschooler. They are related to educational games, developing cognitive abilities children. For example, lotto “Animals” is a game that teaches a child to classify objects shown on a card. In kindergartens classes are held on native speech(enrichment of vocabulary), by count. Currently, classes are organized in older groups to prepare children for school. There is positive experience in teaching music, drawing, and a foreign language to preschoolers in kindergartens.

All of the listed activities: play, elements of work and learning - prepare the child for school.

Learning takes place where a person’s actions are controlled by the conscious goal of acquiring certain knowledge, skills, abilities, forms of behavior and activity. Teaching is specific human activity, and it is possible only at that stage of development of the human psyche when he is able to regulate his actions with a conscious goal. This ability appears only by about four to five years of age, being formed on the basis of the child’s previous types of behavior and activities - play, verbal communication, practical actions.

Any activity is a combination of some physical actions, practical or verbal. Consequently, learning is accomplished by a person performing various actions: movements, writing, speech, etc. But life observations and special experiences indicate that physical activity is not at all a necessary condition for learning. In some cases, it apparently plays an important role (for example, for the acquisition of motor skills of writing, speaking, swimming, drawing, driving a car), in others it does not. special significance(for example, for memorizing words or text, solving mathematical problems, recognizing and distinguishing objects).

Research has shown that, in addition to practical activities, a person is also capable of carrying out special gnostic activities. Its goal is to understand the world around us. Gnostic activity, like practical activity, can be objective and external. It can also be a perceptual activity (for example, looking, listening, observing) or a symbolic activity (for example, drawing, labeling, saying). During the learning process, these types of activities are usually closely intertwined. IN different cases the ratio of these types of activities is different.

The work of many psychologists has shown that internal activities arises from the external in the process of interiorization, thanks to which objective actions are reflected in the consciousness and thinking of a person. For example, the objective action of dividing, disassembling, separating a thing when solving corresponding problems is replaced by an action “in the mind” (dismembering a thing based on its image or concept of it).

Subject action turned, in the process of internalization, into an action of mental analysis. Systems of such mental (mental) actions, unfolding on an ideal plane, are internal activity. It has been established that the main means of interiorization is the word. It allows a person to, as it were, “tear off” the action from the object itself and turn it into action with images and the concept of the object.