Regulation of emotional states. Control of emotional states. Emotional state and neurosis

To understand the mechanism of the mental development of the child, its significance in the course of the mental development of the child, we single out the main components.

1. The first basic concept of the mechanism of mental development is the so-called social situation of the child's development. This is the specific form of relationship in which the child is with adults at a particular period of his life. The social situation of development is the starting point for all dynamic changes that occur in the development of the child during a given age period. It completely determines the forms and ways of development of the child, the new mental properties and qualities he acquires. The child's lifestyle is conditioned by the nature of the social situation of development, i.e. the established system of relationships between the child and adults. "Each age is characterized by a specific, unique and unique social situation of development. Having clarified and understood it, we can thereby find out and understand how certain psychological neoplasms arise and develop from the life of a child, which are the result of age child development.

It is within the framework of the social situation of development that the leading type (type) of activity arises and develops. This is, perhaps, the central concept of the mechanism of the mental development of the child.

2. Leading activity is the activity of the child within the framework of the social situation of development, the fulfillment of which determines the emergence and formation of the main psychological neoplasms in him at a given stage of development.

Each stage of a child's mental development (each new social situation of development) is characterized by a corresponding type of leading activity. A sign of the transition from one stage to another is a change in the leading type of activity. Leading activity characterizes a certain stage of development, acts as a significant criterion for its diagnosis. It (leading activity) does not appear immediately, but goes through its development within the framework of a particular social situation. It is important to note that the emergence of a new leading activity in each period of development does not cancel the previous one. Leading activity causes major changes in mental development and, above all, the emergence of new mental formations. Modern data allow us to distinguish the following types of leading activities.

Direct emotional communication of a child with adults, inherent in an infant from the first weeks of life to a year. Thanks to him, the infant develops such mental neoplasms as the need to communicate with other people, grasping as the basis of manual and objective actions.

2. Object-manipulative activity of the child, characteristic of early childhood (from 1 to 3 years).

3. Game activity or role-playing game. inherent in children of preschool age (from 3 to 6 years).

4. Educational activities of younger students from 6 to 10-11 years old.

5. Communication of adolescents aged 10-11 to 15 years in various activities (labor, educational, sports, art, etc.).

Using the example of the leading activity of infants, we have shown its effects, which are expressed in the emergence of psychological neoplasms by the end of this period. Each type of leading activity generates its effects in the form of new mental structures, qualities and properties. We will talk about them in more detail in subsequent chapters devoted to a particular age period.

As part of the leading activity, training and development of all mental functions of the child take place, which ultimately leads to their qualitative changes. The growing mental capabilities of the child are naturally a source of contradictions in the system of relationships between the child and adults. These contradictions find their expression in the discrepancy between the new psychological possibilities of the child and the old form of his relationship with the people around him. It is at this moment that the so-called development crisis sets in.

3. A developmental crisis is the next main element in the child's development mechanism. L.S. Vygotsky understood the developmental crisis as the concentration of sharp and capital shifts and shifts, changes and fractures in the personality of the child. "A crisis is a chain of internal changes in a child with relatively minor external changes. The essence of each crisis, he noted, is the restructuring of internal experience, which determines the child's attitude to the environment, changes in the needs and motives that drive his behavior.The contradictions that make up the essence of the crisis can proceed in an acute form, giving rise to strong emotional experiences, disturbances in the behavior of children, in their relationships with adults.

The crisis of development means the beginning of the transition from one stage of mental development to another. It occurs at the junction of two ages and marks the end of the previous age period and the beginning of the next. The source of the crisis is the contradiction between the growing physical and mental capabilities of the child and the previously established forms of his relationship with other people and

Types (methods) of activity. Each of us has experienced manifestations of such crises.

Crisis was first described in scientific literature

Puberty. Later, the crisis of three years was opened. Still later, the crisis of seven years was studied. Along with them, the neonatal crisis and the crisis of one year are distinguished. Thus, from the moment of birth to the period of adolescence, a child experiences five periods of crisis.

In revealing the psychological content and significance of the crisis for the subsequent development of the child, two aspects of it should be pointed out.

The first of these is the destructive side of the crisis. Child development includes the processes of coagulation and death. The emergence of the new necessarily means the death of the old. The processes of the withering away of the old are concentrated mainly in crisis ages. But the negative side of the crisis is the reverse, shadow side of the positive, constructive side. We are talking about psychological neoplasms already known to us. In conclusion, a few words about the peculiarities of the course of the development crisis.

First, it is characterized by the vagueness of the boundaries separating the beginning and end of the crisis from adjacent ages. Therefore, it is important for parents, teachers, educators or pediatricians to know the psychological picture of the crisis, as well as the individual characteristics of the child that leave an imprint on its course.

Secondly, we are faced with the difficulty of raising children at this moment. In general, it should be borne in mind that the stage of crisis is always accompanied by a decrease in the rate of progress of the child in the course of education.

The presence of crisis periods in the development of the child implies the existence of stable periods. If they are characterized by the progressive development of the child, then the development of the crisis itself is negative, destructive. There is a fading of the progressive character of development. Perhaps that is why L.N. Tolstoy called this time "a desert of loneliness."

4. Psychological neoplasm. It is in the process of development, and not growth, that qualitatively new psychological formations arise, and it is they that constitute the essence of each age stage.

A psychological neoplasm is, firstly, mental and social changes that occur at a given stage of development and determine the child's consciousness, his attitude to the environment, inner and outer life, the course of development in a given period of time. Secondly, a neoplasm is a generalized result of these changes, the entire mental development of a child in the appropriate period of time, when it becomes the starting point for the formation of mental processes and the personality of a child of the next age.

Each age period is characterized by specific psychological neoplasms. Neoplasms should be understood as a wide range of mental phenomena from mental processes (for example, visual-effective thinking in early childhood) to individual personality traits (say, reflection in adolescence).

The significance of this concept lies in the fact that the appearance of fundamentally new mental characteristics significantly changes the psychological picture of age. By itself, this new picture can cause an inadequate reaction from parents, teachers or doctors. For parents and teachers, a new behavior in a child often seems like a manifestation of their stubbornness or some kind of whims. And for doctors, new properties or qualities that appear in the child's behavior can cause incorrect diagnostic decisions and erroneous therapeutic measures, especially if this "new" behavior unfolds against the background of a pathological process. The probability of diagnostic errors during such periods of age development increases, because. the doctor may not know either about the newly emerging psychological qualities, or about the features of the period of development that precedes their appearance (developmental crisis).

Let us sum up the results of the analysis of the basic concepts that describe the process of a child's mental development. These include the social situation of development, leading activities, periods of crisis and stable development of the child, psychological neoplasms.

The approximate nature of the interaction between them is shown in Fig.1. Let's briefly comment on it.

MENTAL NEW FORMATION

Earlier we noted that the development of the psyche is a natural change in mental processes over time, expressed in their quantitative, qualitative and structural transformations. We see that it is mental neoplasms that, as it were, complete each age stage of a child's development; it is they that result in the fruits of the leading activity that develops within the framework of a specific developmental situation unfolded in time. We talked about the fact that it is neoplasms that make up the essence of each age period in a child’s life and, indeed, with their appearance, one period of development ends and the next one opens.

Finally, we see that new psychological acquisitions appear during periods of crisis, with which the stable stage ends. It is at this moment that the very turning point in mental development occurs, which was mentioned above.

So, we have come to another important question - the question of the periodization of the mental development of the child. Let us turn to a brief history of this issue, from which it is always useful to draw some lessons.

LECTURE 2-3

GENERAL QUESTIONS OF CHILD PSYCHOLOGY

Plan

Indicators of mental development;

development factors;

Basic patterns of mental development;

Mental development as the assimilation of socio-historical experience;

Principles of studying the child's psyche.

Indicators of mental development

Psychology considers human consciousness in its inseparable connection with activity. Motivated by certain motives, aimed at achieving pre-set goals, human activity is reasonable. It reveals all aspects of the human personality. Important indicators of the child's mental development are the content, nature, method and direction of his activity.

In order to judge how developed a child is, one should single out those indicators that are basic for the formation of a comprehensively developed personality. These indicators are:

The development of knowledge and cognitive activity of the child.

Formation of a system of personal relationships to reality and to oneself.

Mastering a system of various practical and mental actions that provide the possibility of productive activity.

These three aspects are inseparable from each other, but they act differently in different manifestations of the human personality and at different stages of its development.

Since the psyche is a reflection of reality, its development is revealed in what the child reflects at different periods of his life and how the very process of cognition proceeds.

The development of cognitive activity is reflected not only in the fact that the child increases the amount of knowledge about the things around him, but also in a change in the depth of knowledge. Knowledge is becoming increasingly meaningful, systematic, fluid and justified. Even objects well known to the child from the first years of his life are reflected by him in different ways at different moments of his life.

The process of development is the child's transition from a superficial reflection of individual, fragmented phenomena perceived by him to the knowledge of their essence, to the disclosure of the laws that govern them, the transition to systematic and meaningful knowledge.

“The mental world of a child is populated by units rather than by groups, while in an adult the entire external and internal world is distributed in series of systems,” wrote I. M. Sechenov.

The development of cognitive activity is also expressed in the fact that the child gradually masters more and more perfect ways of reflecting reality. He learns to observe, remember selectively what is most significant, and then deliberately reproduce only the material that he needs. In the process of development, the child learns to compare and group similar things, reason, draw conclusions from observed phenomena, and then critically check them.

This means that the development of cognition is revealed not only in a change in the volume and depth of the content cognized by the child, but also in the mastery of the methods of cognitive activity by children.

Formation of a system of relations

Reflecting the world, a person in one way or another relates to cognizable phenomena, events of social life, to people and to himself. The more mature a person becomes, the more his own views, attitudes, and assessments are determined. The relationship of the infant to the outside world is expressed in the primary feelings of pleasure and displeasure. They are caused by the satisfaction and dissatisfaction of his simplest vital needs. Hunger, pain, fatigue cause negative experiences. They manifest themselves in feelings of displeasure. Caress, warmth, saturation cause a positive attitude.

The development of the sphere of emotional relations of the child is expressed in the following:

Gradually, indifferent, i.e., "emotionally neutral" things, for example, a new smart dress, colored pictures, people's actions, etc., which are not of vital importance for the child, begin to evoke some feelings in him.

A five-year-old child experiences not only feelings of pleasure - displeasure. His attitudes to his grandmother and mother, to the toy and to the familiar lullaby, to his own successes and to the praise of his beloved father are different. They acquire many shades and sometimes become complex contradictory experiences.

The attitude expressed in the feelings of a growing person becomes socially justified, and thus more stable. The feelings of the older child, the schoolchild, are strengthened by the system of knowledge and practical experience he has acquired, while the feelings of young children are still imitative to a large extent. The system of persistent worldview feelings is based on meaningful and reasonable knowledge. They become the true beliefs of a developed person.

Mastering the system of practical and mental actions

Man's consciousness is expressed in his activity. K-Marx said that "man not only reflects the world, but also creates it."

The development of the child appears in the change of his actions, his entire behavior, all types of his activities. The very process of activity, its content, level, structure, and direction are also changing. Thus, the play of a three-year-old child is more primitive, simple, monotonous than the play of six- and seven-year-old children. The educational activity of a student differs from the educational work of a first-grader not only in the content of the material being digested. The mental activity itself begins to play an increasingly important role. The child's attitude to his successes and failures, to his comrades and surrounding adults also changes.

Personality development does not proceed rhythmically and evenly: in certain periods of life, the most noticeable shifts occur in the child's cognitive activity; other periods are characterized by an intensive restructuring of views and the formation of beliefs (in a teenager, a young man). But there is no doubt that the child at every moment of his life is a single and integral personality in all its complex and often contradictory manifestations.

The integrity and originality of each personality appears most fully in the daily life of a person, in his behavior, in his actions, that is, in such actions of a person in which his attitude to the environment is expressed.

By changing the actions of the child, one can judge his development. The act itself changes, acquiring more and more clearly expressed social significance. In younger children, goals and motives express their subjective, accidental, and egoistic desires; in older people they are determined by social concepts and motives. Separate, random actions are transformed into a system of actions, i.e., into the mode of action of a growing person.

The connection between the goal, the motive becomes more permanent, organic. And way to achieve it. In young children, there is no connection between the goal And mode of action or between purpose and motive. This connection is formed in the process of development. Involuntary, impulsive, inconsistent behavior, which manifests itself in rash actions with consequences unexpected for the child himself, becomes a conscious action, that is, it is thought out at all levels. A three-year-old child usually knows only what he wants (and even then not always).

As the child develops, his actions become more and more conscious. A teenager not only knows what he wanted and what he achieved, but also evaluates his actions in terms of social requirements, social norms of morality.

It is said about a morally developed, conscious person that he acts “according to his conscience” or is guided by the “voice of conscience”. Idealists saw in the concept of "conscience" a manifestation of the divine spirit. But from a materialistic point of view, conscience is a reflection by a person of the totality of moral requirements and assessments accepted in society, which have become And for him, the measure and criterion for evaluating his own and other people's behavior. Such a “sense of conscience” is manifested in adherence to principles, in that highest level of human behavior that determines the mode of his actions, the style of his attitude to work, to people, to himself.

Thus, in the current mode of action, a mature, educated person appears in the unity of all his sides: as a thinker, a citizen-ideologist. These basic facets of the personality are usually not formed frontally and evenly in the child. However, the degree of their relationship and the success achieved in the formation of each side of the personality testify to the level of development that the child has reached at a particular moment in his life.

Despite the fact that among Soviet psychologists there are still different points of view on certain questions of the mental development of the child, and the question of indicators of development is the subject of heated debate, all progressive psychologists and teachers see the process of child development as a most complex phenomenon in social life. It is due to the action of certain factors and conditions.

3. The specifics of the mental development of the child.

What is development? How is it characterized? What is the fundamental difference between development and any other changes in an object? As you know, an object can change, but not develop. Growth, for example, is a quantitative change in a given object, including a mental process. There are processes that fluctuate within "less - more". These are processes of growth in the proper and true sense of the word. Growth occurs over time and is measured in terms of time. The main characteristic of growth is the process of quantitative changes in the internal structure and composition of the individual elements included in the object, without significant changes in the structure of individual processes. For example, when measuring the physical growth of a child, we see a quantitative increase. L. S. Vygotsky emphasized that there are phenomena of growth in mental processes as well. For example, the growth of vocabulary without changing the functions of speech.

But behind these processes of quantitative growth, other phenomena and processes can occur. Then the growth processes become only symptoms, behind which are hidden significant changes in the system and structure of processes. During such periods, jumps in the growth line are observed, which indicate significant changes in the body itself. For example, the endocrine glands mature, and profound changes occur in the physical development of the adolescent. In such cases, when there are significant changes in the structure and properties of the phenomenon, we are dealing with development.

Development, first of all, is characterized by qualitative changes, the emergence of neoplasms, new mechanisms, new processes, new structures. X. Werner, L. S. Vygotsky and other psychologists described the main signs of development. The most important among them are: differentiation, dismemberment of the previously single element; the emergence of new aspects, new elements in development itself; restructuring of links between the sides of the object. As psychological examples, one can mention the differentiation of the natural conditioned reflex to the position under the breast and the revival complex; the emergence of a sign function in infancy; change during childhood of the systemic and semantic structure of consciousness. Each of these processes corresponds to the listed development criteria.

As L. S. Vygotsky showed, there are many different types of development. Therefore, it is important to correctly find the place that the mental development of the child occupies among them, that is, to determine the specifics of mental development among other developmental processes. L. S. Vygotsky distinguished: reformed and unreformed types of development. A preformed type is a type when at the very beginning, both the stages that the phenomenon (organism) will pass through and the final result that the phenomenon will achieve are set, fixed, fixed. Here everything is given from the very beginning. An example is embryonic development. Despite the fact that embryogenesis has its own history (there is a tendency to reduce the underlying stages, the newest stage affects the previous stages), but this does not change the type of development. In psychology, there has been an attempt to represent mental development on the principle of embryonic development. This is the concept of St. Hall. It is based on Haeckel's biogenetic law: ontogeny is a brief repetition of phylogeny. Mental development was considered by Art. Hall as a brief repetition of the stages of mental development of animals and ancestors of modern man.

The unpreformed type of development is the most common on our planet. It also includes the development of the Galaxy, the development of the Earth, the process of biological evolution, the development of society. The process of mental development of the child also belongs to this type of processes. The unpreformed path of development is not predetermined. Children of different eras develop differently and reach different levels of development. From the very beginning, from the moment the child is born, neither the stages through which he must go, nor the end he must reach are given. Child development is an unpreformed type of development, but it is a very special process - a process that is determined not from below, but from above, by the form of practical and theoretical activity that exists at a given level of development of society (As the poet said: "Only born, already waiting for us Shakespeare"). This is the nature of child development. Its final forms are not given, but given. Not a single process of development, except ontogenetic, is carried out according to a ready-made model. Human development follows the pattern that exists in society. According to L. S. Vygotsky, the process of mental development is the process of interaction between real and ideal forms. The task of a child psychologist is to trace the logic of mastering ideal forms. The child does not immediately master the spiritual and material wealth of mankind. But outside the process of assimilation of ideal forms, development is generally impossible.

Lecture thesis 4. Driving forces, conditions and sources of child development.

Human ontogenesis unfolds in the cultural space and in a certain historical period of time. At the same time, there are influences both from the side of such a space on the individual, and the reverse ones. The very process of such interaction, i.e., certain relations between the individual and the environment, are the specific conditions in which the "unfolding" of the genotypic program is carried out. Conditions may be favorable or unfavorable for the process of individual development. L. S. Vygotsky showed the leading role of the system of relations between the individual and the environment for the mental development of a person.

The social situation of the development of the child - the first basic concept of the mechanism of mental development.

By the beginning of each age period, a completely unique, exclusive, unique and inimitable relationship develops between the child and the reality surrounding him, primarily social. This relation is called the social situation of development at a given age (the concept was introduced by L. S. Vygotsky). The social situation of development is the starting point for all dynamic changes that occur in the development of the child during the age period. It completely determines the forms and ways of the development of the child, the types of activity, the new mental properties and qualities he acquires. The social situation of development, specific for each age, strictly and naturally determines the whole way of life of the child, or his social being. Having found out and understood it, it is possible to find out and drop how certain psychological neoplasms arise and develop from the life of a child, which are the result of the age development of the child. From the point of view of development, the environment becomes completely different for the child from the moment when he passes from one age to another. For L. S. Vygotsky, the central point in considering the dynamics of mental development was the analysis of the social situation of development. The collapse of the old and the emergence of the foundations of a new social situation of development, according to Vygotsky, is the main content of critical ages.

The child is part of the social situation. The attitude of the child to the environment and the environment to the child is transmitted through his experiences and activities. It is not the situation itself that matters, but how the child experiences it. In the same family, in the same situation, we encounter different developmental changes in different children, since the same situation is experienced differently by different children (Vygotsky L. S.)

The position occupied by a child in a given society is determined, on the one hand, by existing ideas about what a child should be at each age stage, and on the other hand, by the level of development achieved by the child, his individual capabilities to satisfy social requirements for a particular stage of age development. .

At present, there is a tendency in our society to change the requirements for the child, to strengthen his independence and, at the same time, to realize the special rights of the child. The social situation of development can vary greatly in children of the same age due to social stratification in society.

Leading activity - this is the activity of the child within the framework of the social situation of development, the fulfillment of which determines the emergence and formation of the main psychological neoformations in him at a given stage of development.

Each stage of a child's mental development is characterized by a corresponding type of leading activity. A sign of the transition from one stage to another is a change in the leading type of activity. Leading activity characterizes a certain stage of development, acts as a significant criterion for its diagnosis. Leading activity does not appear immediately, but develops within the framework of a particular social situation. The appearance in each period of development of a new leading activity does not cancel the previous one. Leading activity, creating conditions for development, causes major changes in mental development.

Types of leading activities:

1. Direct emotional communication of the child with adults (up to 1 year).

2. Subject - manipulative activity of the child (from 1 year to 3 years).

3. Game activity or role-playing game (from 3 to 7 years).

4. Educational activities of younger students (from 7 to 11 years old).

5. Communication of adolescents with peers (from 11 to 15 years old).

6. Educational and professional activities in early youth (from 15 to 17 years).

Each type of leading activity generates its own effects in the form of new

mental structures, qualities and properties.

As part of the leading activity, training and development of all mental functions of the child take place, which leads to their qualitative changes. The growing mental capabilities of the child are naturally a source of contradictions in the system of relationships between the child and adults. These contradictions find their expression in the discrepancy between the new psychological capabilities of the child and the old form of his relationship with the people around him. It is at this moment that the so-called development crisis sets in.

Crisis of development - this is the next basic mechanism of child development. A crisis is a turning point in the normal course of mental development. L. S. Vygotsky under the crisis of development understood concentration of sharp and capital shifts and shifts, changes and fractures in the personality of the child. A crisis is a chain of internal changes in a child with relatively minor external changes. The essence of each crisis, he noted, is the restructuring of the inner experience that determines the child's attitude to the environment, the change in the needs and motives that drive his behavior. The contradictions that make up the essence of the crisis can proceed in an acute form, giving rise to strong emotional experiences, disturbances in the behavior of children, in their relationships with adults.

The crisis of development means the beginning of the transition from one stage of mental development to another. It occurs on junction two ages and marks the end of the previous age period and the beginning of the next. The source of its occurrence is the contradiction between the growing physical and mental capabilities of the child and the previously established forms of his relationship with other people and types (methods) of activity. This contradiction is the main driving force for development child.

L. S. Vygotsky singled out as critical periods of childhood:

neonatal crisis . Junior in (2 months - 1 year). Contradictions between the maximum sociality of the infant and the minimum opportunities for communication.

Crisis 1 year. Early childhood (1-3 years). Activity "serious game", object-gun. Gesture, walking, speech appear.

Crisis 3 years. Preschool age (3-7 years). The tendency to emancipation (separation from the adult) and the tendency not to an affective, but to a volitional form of behavior. The emergence of "I myself."

Crisis 7 years. School age (8-12 years). Loss of childish immediacy due to differentiation of inner and outer life. The emergence of generalizations, the logic of feelings, experiences acquire meaning, self-esteem appears.

Crisis 13 years. Pubertal age (14-18 years). A sense of adulthood is a sense of one's personality, the development of self-awareness.

In revealing the psychological content and significance of the crisis for the subsequent development of the child, two aspects of it should be pointed out.

The first of these is the destructive side of the crisis. Child development includes the processes of coagulation and death. The emergence of the new means the death of the old. The processes of the withering away of the old are concentrated mainly in crisis ages. But the negative side of the crisis is the reverse, shadow side of the positive, constructive side. We are talking about psychological innovations.

Features of the course of the development crisis. First, it is characterized by the vagueness of the boundaries separating the beginning and end of the crisis from adjacent ages. Therefore, it is important for parents, teachers, educators, pediatricians to know the psychological picture of the crisis, as well as the individual characteristics of the child that leave an imprint on its course.

Secondly, we are faced with the difficulty of raising children at this moment. The stage of crisis is always accompanied by a decrease in the rate of advancement of the child in the course of education.

The presence of crisis periods in the development of the child implies the existence stable periods. If they are characterized by the progressive development of the child, then the development of the crisis itself is negative, destructive. There is a fading of the progressive character of development. Perhaps that is why L. N. Tolstoy called this time "a desert of loneliness."

All age crises are characterized by some common features. During critical periods, children become naughty, capricious, irritable, often come into conflict with adults, they have a negative attitude towards previously fulfilled requirements, reaching stubbornness and negativism. Such a reaction at the junction of two ages is given by children in whom new needs that appear at the end of each stage of mental development are not satisfied or even actively suppressed. Adults can help the child to expand his capabilities, to master the means necessary to meet new needs, and the development of new areas of life. If the new need is suppressed by external social demands, then the crisis becomes more acute and protracted. In transitional periods, adults especially need patience, tact and knowledge of age periods. Hard pressure on a child in crisis does not bring the expected results.

Psychological change. It is in the process of development, and not growth, that qualitatively new psychological formations arise, and it is they that constitute the essence of each age stage.

Psychological change is

Mental and social changes that occur at this stage of development and determine the consciousness of the child, his attitude to the environment, inner and outer life:

The generalized result of these changes, the entire psychological development of the child in the corresponding period, which becomes the starting point for the formation of mental processes and the personality of the child of the next age.

Each age period is characterized by specific psychological neoplasms. Neoplasms should be understood as a wide range of mental phenomena from mental processes to individual personality traits.

The significance of this concept lies in the fact that the appearance of fundamentally new mental characteristics significantly changes the psychological picture of age. By itself, this new picture can cause an inadequate reaction from parents, teachers, and doctors. For them, a new behavior in a child often seems to be a manifestation of their stubbornness or some kind of whims. The probability of diagnostic errors of doctors during such periods of age development increases, because. the doctor may not know either about the newly emerging psychological qualities, or about the features of the period of development that precedes their appearance (developmental crisis).