Types of age-related crises. Crises of age periods

No! Don't want! I won't! I'm not giving it! Go away! You are bad (bad)! I do not love you! I don't need you (don't need you)! Have you already heard similar phrases from your children? Congratulations!!! Your child has reached an age crisis of 1, 3, 7, 14 or 18 years.

You may ask why congratulations? But because this means the correct and normal development of your child. According to psychologists, a child who has not gone through a real crisis in due time is not able to develop fully further.

However, many parents are afraid of these periods and often resort to drastic measures to pacify the little “revolutionary”. Sometimes the intensity of emotions reaches such a degree that adults can shout at him and even spank him. But such influences, at a minimum, will not bring any benefit, or at most will worsen the situation (this depends on the mental properties of the child himself and the internal microclimate in the family). And most parents will later regret and suffer because of their unexpected reaction, reproaching themselves for what bad teachers they are.

It is important to remember here that the irritation and anger that parents experience is a normal reaction in this case, since in fact these crises are not only children's, but at the same time family crises, too. AND negative emotions can be experienced by both children and adults. This is fine! You just need to understand it, accept it and react correctly to the current situation.

Developmental crises accompany a person throughout his life: the crisis of the newborn, 14, 17, 30 years old, etc. A crisis is a temporary phenomenon. With a correct understanding of it, we can either completely rid ourselves of the manifestations of the crisis or reduce them to a minimum. However, if this period is not passed through by the child fully and profitably, then all unresolved problems that arose in the last critical period will manifest themselves with renewed vigor in the next age crisis and, coupled with new problems of the next age, will give an even greater emotional and psychological explosion than it did. could be.

Why does it happen that your beloved, sweet and obedient baby today suddenly turned into a capricious and nervous pest? Let's take a closer look at the main crises in children by year.

Newborn crisis

At birth, a child moves from an environment completely adapted for him to a world to which he must adapt himself. This becomes a lot of stress for the baby. At this time, his attitude and trust in the outside world are formed. To successfully pass this critical period, only a constant person should be with the child. Mom doesn’t have to be here, but someone should be there all the time. Feed, bathe, change clothes, approach when crying, pick up. If there is no such adult nearby and the need for contact and intimacy with him is not satisfied, then this may later affect the behavior of the child, and then the adult. For example, in the future, very rapid sensory and emotional overload and fatigue are possible.

During this period, there is a so-called symbiosis, when mother and child feel and understand each other at deep non-verbal levels. Accordingly, any feelings and emotions of the mother are projected onto the child. So, for example, if the mother is calm, then the child is calm, and if the mother is worried and nervous, then the child reacts to this with very restless behavior. The child at this time is very “comfortable” and understandable. Fed - he's full, rocked - he's asleep. Of course, mothers get used to the fact that the child is completely dependent on her and, out of habit, continue to think and do everything for the child. But as the child grows and matures, such a connection ceases to satisfy him, and when he finally learns to sit and then walk, a new crisis of 1 year begins.

Year 1 crisis

At this time, the child becomes aware, understands and perceives the world in a new way. If earlier he perceived himself and his mother as a single whole, now their emotional and psychological separation from each other begins. In many situations, the child encounters a different mother’s reaction to events than his. So his happiness from the amazing marks left by a felt-tip pen on the wallpaper or the joy from the exciting process of smearing porridge on his hands and the table may not always coincide with his mother’s emotions.

At approximately the age of 1 year, the baby begins to walk. He has more freedom and an urgent need for research arises. Parents were accustomed to the fact that the child urgently needed them and was in their arms all the time. Children protest against restrictions on freedom (don’t touch, sit down, don’t walk, etc.), and therefore cognitive activity.

During this period, such personal values ​​as self-esteem, self-respect, trust in oneself and one’s body, and practicing the accuracy of movement are established and practiced. The child must be given as much freedom of action as possible, while ensuring maximum safety for the baby in advance. Children of this period react sharply to prohibitions and restrictions, but are very easily distracted. Therefore, at this age, it would be better to distract the child with something bright and interesting than to limit his actions with a ban and end up with another whim and rebellion.

Read more about the 1-year-old crisis in a child.

Crisis of 3 years (occurs from 1.5 to 3 years)

Now your baby is beginning to separate himself and the world around him. This is the so-called “I myself” period, when the child searches and tries to understand his “I” and forms his internal positions. This is a period of realizing who I am to others. A child who previously felt like the center of the entire universe suddenly discovers that he is only one of many universes surrounding him.

During this period, such personal values ​​as a sense of internal order, the ability to make decisions in one’s life, self-confidence, and self-sufficiency are being developed. It is now very important for a little person to understand any independent action as his own choice without the use of adults’ persuasion, the carrot and stick method. The best solution is to give the child the opportunity to do what he sees fit, giving him a choice without choice. Those. we offer him a choice of 2-3 options for actions that are beneficial and correct for us in advance, but at the same time he feels his independence.

At this age, we definitely set boundaries for children’s behavior. If this is not done, then they will not know where to stop, and this is already fraught with big problems in adolescence. Such teenagers will have difficulty setting boundaries when communicating with other people and will become dependent on the opinions of more authoritative friends.

Read more about the crisis of a 3-year-old child.

Crisis of 7 years (occurs from 6 to 8 years)

At this time, the child receives a new social status - a schoolboy. And with this, new responsibilities and rights appear. The question arises of what to do with the new freedom and responsibility. Also, the child has his own opinion on everything. And here the parents’ respect for him is very important! Now the child really needs support in everything. Returning home, the student must be sure that here he can always find support in all the difficulties of life, new communication with peers and adults, and learning problems.

Your baby from yesterday has already grown up. And, despite the fact that sometimes he is still childishly impulsive and impatient, his reasoning and actions become more logical and acquire a semantic basis. He begins to distinguish and separate his own feelings and emotions, and learns self-control.

During this period, not only new academic and household responsibilities should appear, which only he and no one else can do. He can be offered a choice of washing the dishes, preparing everything for cleaning, caring for a pet, etc. At the same time, the child must decide for himself when and what he will do, but know that there are consequences for failure to fulfill his duties. These responsibilities are different for each child depending on their desires and preferences. Under no circumstances should you force him to do anything without his consent and desire. It is absolutely necessary to agree with him about this. The child becomes equal with us. Now he is one of the full members of the family, and not a subordinate.

Read more about the 7-year crisis

Puberty crisis (occurs from 11 to 15 years)

Problems at this age occur due to physiological changes. During this period we observe the so-called “growing pains”. The body grows and changes quickly. A teenager must get used to his new self, accept himself and learn to live with a changed body. Our adult child feels great stress nervous system. This is where psychological instability arises; it is easy to get angry. On the one hand, he is very stormy, restless, active, but at the same time he is subject to great physical fatigue and lethargy. A hormonal explosion occurs. The teenager experiences new feelings that he is not yet able to cope with. As a result, we see emotional instability and rapid mood changes. A teenager is overwhelmed by a storm of feelings and emotions. It seems to him that no one understands him, everyone demands something from him and is negatively disposed towards him. The child observes and feels the world in new, rich colors and manifestations, but he does not yet understand what to do with all this and how to behave correctly in this new world.

What should we do during this period? Since this is a “growing pain”, you don’t need to do anything about it. We calmly wait for our dear little one to “get over the disease.” We treat it during this period with care, caution, precision, and great attention.

This period is also associated for the child with the transition from childhood to adulthood. He is no longer a child, but not yet an adult. He rushes between these poles and cannot accept one of these roles completely. On the one hand, he is still a child, his interest in games and entertainment has not faded, and he does not want to part with the world of childhood. On the other hand, he already considers himself an adult, he is attracted by this apparent freedom of the adult world, but at the same time he understands that there are many responsibilities here that he does not yet want to take on.

What to do about it? Same thing - nothing. We are waiting for this period of uncertainty to end and our adult man to achieve full understanding and acceptance of his adulthood. We accept him as he is, give maximum support and participation if he asks for it.

Crisis of 17 years (occurs from 15 to 18 years)

This time is associated with the period of the beginning of social maturity, the period of stabilization of the processes of previous development. Our former child is finally reaching adulthood. The crisis of 17 years coincides with the time of graduation, when a boy (girl) faces the question of his future life path, choice of profession, subsequent education, work, and for boys - military service. All psychological problems during this period are associated with adapting to new living conditions and finding one’s place in it.

The support of family and people close to him can now provide a great role and help to a person. More than ever, your child now needs a sense of self-confidence, a sense of competence.

If your child does not receive the help and support he needs, then his fear and uncertainty can give rise to neurotic reactions, which in turn will lead to somatic problems, and then to illnesses on the physical level. Be attentive to your adult!

An age crisis is a period in which the amount of previously acquired knowledge and experience transforms into the quality of future life. And, if an adult is often left alone with his own problems of adolescence, then the child who is raising him can and should be helped to overcome this difficult period by his closest and dearest person.

There is no need to be afraid of such periods. A little patience and proper attention to the child, and you will pass this critical age point without much shock.

Crisis is something that many people have to face. Almost every person, to be more precise. The concept comes from Greek word krisis, which literally means “turning point” or “decision.” Accordingly, a crisis is a period of life during which a person moves to a new level of age-related development, which is characterized by psychological changes. And this process is accompanied by the destruction of the usual social structure.

First stage

First, it is worth noting the neonatal crisis. A period in which there is no mental component, since it implies a transition from intrauterine life to real life. Birth is the first trauma that each of us experiences. And she is very strong. So much so that the entire life following birth passes under the sign of this trauma.

It is very important that the neonatal period proceeds under adult supervision. In principle, this is how it happens in a normal society - there are always parents next to the baby who provide him with a transition to a new type of functioning. The baby is helpless. He doesn't even have a pre-formed behavioral principle. Because all this is yet to arise. And most importantly, a child during the newborn period is not considered separately from an adult. Because it has no way of interacting with the environment.

When does the “exit” from the neonatal crisis occur? Scientists say that when a child begins to interact with his parents, they notice the development of his emotional sphere. As a rule, this is the second month of a baby’s life.

Crisis of three years

This is the next stage. The period during which the transition from early childhood to preschool occurs. At this moment, the existing personal mechanisms are radically restructured, and the child develops new personality traits and consciousness. Plus, he moves to a new level of interaction with the outside world and people. It is important to note that this period does not have clear time boundaries.

Symptoms

The Soviet psychologist Lev Semyonovich Vygotsky presents an interesting presentation of the crisis of three years. He identifies the seven most striking “symptoms” in a child’s behavior that indicate that he is going through the above-mentioned period.

The first is negativism. A child refuses to do something only because it was suggested to him by a specific adult. And he, as a rule, acts exactly the opposite.

The next symptom is stubbornness. A child insists on something only because he cannot refuse his decision out of principle. Even if circumstances have changed.

The third thing that is noted is obstinacy. That is, the tendency to do everything contrary. The fourth symptom is self-will. Or, speaking in simple language, the familiar, proactive “I myself!”, aimed at self-affirmation and stimulating self-esteem.

Another symptom is a riot-protest. Manifested in regular conflicts with adults. As a rule, due to the fact that the child does not feel respect for him and his wishes.

There is also depreciation. The child ceases to be interested in everything that was interesting to him before. But the last symptom is the most unpleasant. This is despotism. The child gets out of control and demands from adults the instant fulfillment of all his desires and demands. Looking at all this, the question arises: for whom is the three-year crisis more difficult - for the child or for the parents?

Third stage

After all of the above comes the crisis of seven years. We all went through it. The causes of the crisis lie in psychological changes in personality. The child develops an internal position, some kind of “core” and his own “I” begin to emerge. During the same period, he enters school, finding himself in a completely different environment. Until then he played. Now he will have to study. For many children, this is the first manifestation of labor.

There are other accompanying causes of the crisis. Some children, upon entering school, begin to be afraid of doing the work assigned to them, feeling responsible for the result for the first time. They now recognize themselves as a schoolchild, a comrade. It is important for them to become full-fledged members of the new society - and this is stressful. The period of crisis of seven years is important, because it is during this time that children form their attitude towards people, towards themselves and towards society. As a rule, the acquired core, the so-called “trunk,” remains for life. Yes, later, throughout life, it acquires “twigs” and “leaves,” but the foundation is laid in childhood.

Teenage crisis

This is the very period that most of us clearly remember. Since it occurs already at a fully conscious age. After 12-13 years, to be more precise. It is believed that this is the period during which a child transitions from childhood to adulthood. It can last a long time. At this moment, adolescents develop very dynamically - both physically and mentally. They develop needs that cannot be satisfied immediately, since they themselves have not yet reached social maturity.

The teenage crisis is a period accompanied by excessive care and control on the part of parents. And also prohibitions, quarrels arising from attempts to circumvent them, and much more. All this prevents a teenager from getting to know himself and identifying the characteristics that are unique to him - as an individual.

About the specifics and characteristics of adolescence

This stage is one of the most difficult in a person’s life. In addition to new needs, a teenager has special thoughts, reflections, important questions, and problems. And for most, as a rule, it is difficult to survive this period, since all of the above seems unimportant to parents. “What problems might a child have? He’s too young, he hasn’t lived yet!” - Most adults shrug it off. And in vain.

Then adults wonder why the relationship with their child deteriorated? But because they were indifferent. They didn’t take his opinion into account and continued to treat him like a child. And the consequences of the crisis, by the way, can be very dire. In this case, the notorious obstinacy may also appear. If parents forbade going to a party, what will a teenager do? He'll escape through the window! And it is unknown what the consequences of the party will be - maybe you will have to pay for them for the rest of your life. Therefore, it is very important to consider a teenager and build relationships with him as with an adult. And be able to make compromises. This is what normal adults do.

Youth

This period also needs to be noted with attention when talking about age-related crises. In psychology, adolescence is also considered as such. Why? Because this is the time when a person begins to make really important decisions. He must decide future profession, social position, worldview, build life plans. Previously, it was believed that youth was 22-23 years old. But now it’s 17-18, or even earlier, since many parents believe that the sooner their child finishes school, the better.

But, nevertheless, in youth it is very important to make the right choice. And if we talk about which age-related crises in psychology are the most dynamic, then youth will be on the same level as adolescence. During this period, a lot happens, in addition to choosing a profession. Military service, for example, or even a first marriage, often accompanied by the spontaneous birth of a child. In their youth, many make mistakes due to social immaturity. And in our time, as practice shows, this period is not accompanied by what was previously considered characteristic feature youth. And this is a person’s overcoming dependence on adults (parents). In particular, financial.

The "middle" period

Now we can talk about the so-called “thirty-year” crisis. In psychology this is called the period of early adulthood. People understand that the peak of their youth is already behind them. Many sum up some results and begin to look soberly into the future. Most people begin to feel the need for peace and stability. There is a desire to find the meaning of life.

Some people feel like they have wasted their time. The realization comes - I have been living in this world for 30 years! And what have I achieved? Looking back, many understand - not so much. Comparing oneself with successful peers or even younger people gets the job done. It’s even worse if they are close or acquaintances. So it's not far from depression. And for many women, moreover, all of the above is accompanied by the realization that they are no longer so young, fresh and beautiful. Here it is - a typical thirty-year crisis. This is one of the most “sad” periods in psychology.

Middle age crisis

This is perhaps the period that everyone has heard about. It is a long-term emotional stage that is directly related to the revaluation of life experience. During this period, a person realizes that the onset of old age is just around the corner. She is close, and not like in her youth - “someday in the distant future.” The moment at which a person realizes that he will never be young is a midlife crisis.

The symptoms are numerous. The notorious depression, self-pity, a feeling of emptiness, a feeling that life is unfair. A person refuses to acknowledge the successes he has achieved, despite the fact that they are assessed positively by other people. He loses interest in many aspects of life - even those that were previously significant to him. The circle of reference persons is changing - opinion random people is valued more than what relatives/colleagues/friends say. There may even be a change in values. And behavior and style also become different. A person tries to create the appearance of transforming life by changing some external manifestations.

Consequences

So, the features of the manifestation of a midlife crisis are clear. Now - a few words about the consequences. In the case of this period, they can be severe. Because the severity of the mistakes made is directly proportional to the age of the person.

A deep “search for oneself” is possible, sudden dismissal from a good job in which a person has worked for many years, a desire to move somewhere or radically change his occupation. But the most serious consequence is a broken family. Some people leave their “soul mate,” with whom they have lived for decades, because of extinguished feelings. Others do not leave their family, but simply look for “entertainment” on the side, which is no better. Women look for lovers to make sure they are still attractive. Men find lovers for the same reason.

Final stage

The pension crisis is the last one in our lifetime. It usually occurs at 60-70 years of age. This is also not an easy period. Most retirees have worked all their lives, and when they retire, they simply don’t know what to do with themselves. My health did not improve with age; my friends were either far away or had left this world altogether. The children have grown up, left their native nest and have long lived their own lives. The man understands that his time is coming to an end. He feels unwanted and lost. And in this case, it is very important to find the strength to continue enjoying life, to find new meaning, passion and like-minded people. In the century modern technologies this seems more than possible.

There is only one problem with age-related crises. And it lies in the fact that they accompany us throughout our lives. Only for some people these are just periods, but for others they are truly crises in the traditional sense that poison existence. Well, the most important thing is to accept that life is impossible without changes. This awareness will help not only to prepare for them, but also to learn benefits and lessons from them.

Age-related crises are characteristic not only of childhood; normative crises of adulthood are also highlighted. These crises are distinguished by their particular uniqueness in the course of the period, in the nature of a person’s personal new formations, etc. This paper provides general characteristics of changes during the period of crises of adulthood.

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Introduction

1.1 The concept of age in psychology

2 Age crises: essence, structure and content

2.1 The essence of the age crisis

Conclusion

Glossary

Appendix A

Appendix B...

Appendix B

Introduction

Sometimes they ask, what is the meaning of the work of a developmental psychologist? In clarifying the age characteristics of human life, their psychological “filling”? Yes. In determining age capabilities and reserves mental activity at one age or another? Undoubtedly. In providing assistance and practical assistance to people of different ages in solving their specific problems? And that's true. But the main thing is still different. The work of a developmental psychologist can be legitimately and best compared to the work of an architect. Just as an architect works to organize the space of human existence, so a developmental psychologist works to organize the time of human life.

The course of personality development, as the Soviet psychologist L.S. Vygotsky argued, in no way resembles a uniform and gradual clockwise movement around the dial, and not a single year of development is ever equal in significance to another year.

One can agree with the statement found in the literature that age is, first of all, an ensemble of phenomena provided for observation, and not the number of years lived. But this will be true only in part, since phenomenology itself cannot explain either the meanings and meanings of the different ages of human life, or the age-related self-awareness of the individual. Phenomenology can be a good help in scientific research, but it is not its subject. The subject of developmental psychology is the development, movement and formation of the human personality.

Developmental psychology examines the mental development of a person from birth to death. At the same time, she studies the development of personality in its formation. Since the life path is divided into a number of stages, the concept of ages of life is applicable to it, qualitatively filled with various psychological contents, replacing one another in the process of formation and movement of the personality. Current state ages of life is the result of the long historical and cultural evolution of humanity. And today the nature of childhood and adolescence continues to change, profound changes are taking place in youth, maturity and old age.

For quite a long time, an idea has been formed about the development of personality in ontogenesis. The desire to form an idea of ​​the ontogenesis of personality development intensified the scientific thought of researchers and, in turn, pushed them to pose and solve questions about the dynamics of age-related changes in personality, the real stages and trends of its formation, conditions for optimization and methods of pedagogical influence.

What determines the mental development of a person, what are the main age stages of his development, what does a person acquire at each stage and what are the main aspects of mental development that stand out in each age period. The answers to these questions are not only scientific, but also practical significance. The organization of the system of training and education, the organization of various public institutions, such as kindergarten, school, vocational training, and attitude towards older people depend on knowledge and understanding of the causes, patterns, and age-related characteristics of a person.

The problem of age-related crises in ontogenesis is relevant, extremely interesting and at the same time insufficiently developed in theoretical and experimental terms. The very concept of “age crisis” is one of the least clearly defined and often does not have a complete form. Nevertheless, the term is widely used among psychologists and teachers. From a substantive point of view, periods of age-related crises are of interest because they are distinguished by specific features of the process of mental development: the presence of sharp changes in the psyche, aggravation of contradictions, negative nature of development, etc. The crisis period turns out to be difficult for the child, as well as for the adults around him - teachers and parents, who need to develop strategies for upbringing and learning based on the fundamental changes in the child’s psyche. The behavior of children during these periods is characterized by difficulty in educating and is particularly difficult for adults. In order to select adequate educational measures, it is necessary to analyze the prerequisites for the emergence of a crisis, the characteristics of the social development situation, the essence of the changes occurring in the child, and the new formations of the crisis period.

Age-related crises are characteristic not only of childhood; normative crises of adulthood are also highlighted. These crises are distinguished by their particular uniqueness in the course of the period, in the nature of a person’s personal new formations, etc. This paper provides general characteristics of changes during the period of crises of adulthood.

Future specialists need to analyze the complex and multifaceted concept of “age crisis”, study the content and directions of correctional work. The purpose of this work is to form ideas about the age crisis as a subject of psychological research. The objectives were: to reveal studies of critical ages, both general theoretical and describing specific age transitions; analyze the content and structure of age-related crises.

1 Periodization and patterns of mental development of a child

1. The concept of age in psychology

One of the main issues considered in the study of developmental psychology is the concept of age. The relevance of the topic is high, because Many researchers today pay attention to the importance of psychological age, the dependence of the level of morbidity on the state of the psyche, how a person feels.

L.S. Vygotsky calls age a holistic dynamic formation, structure, determining role and specific gravity each partial line of development.

Age (in psychology) is a category that serves the purpose of designating the temporary characteristics of individual development. In contrast to chronological age, which expresses the duration of an individual’s existence from the moment of his birth, the concept of psychological age denotes a certain, qualitatively unique stage of ontogenetic development, determined by the laws of the formation of the organism, living conditions, training and upbringing and having a specific historical origin. Psychological age is the physical age to which a person corresponds according to the level of his psychological development.

A variety of indicators can be a measure of psychological age. Many describe the stages of their lives, focusing on social ideas existing in society about what stages life should be divided into (childhood, adolescence, adolescence). With this division, they also rely on socially given external guidelines, mainly of an active nature (childhood before school, school, army, admission to a technical school or university is youth, work after university is adulthood). But at the same time, some highlight the stages of their life, focusing on events in social and emotional life (meeting with a significant friend, separation, friendship, marriage, birth of children). Others divide their lives into stages, focusing on their personal growth (“at age 5 I learned to read, and at 12 I wrote my first poem”), on moving from city to city (“we lived in one city until we were 10, then we moved to another ") or not divided at all.

Psychological age is fundamentally reversible, that is, a person not only ages in psychological time, but can also become younger in it due to an increase in the psychological future or a decrease in the past. It is worth noting that A.V. Tolstykh proposed a different mechanism of “rejuvenation”. 1

Psychological age is multidimensional. It may not coincide in different areas of life. For example, a person may feel almost completely fulfilled in the family sphere and at the same time feel unfulfilled professionally. First try system analysis age as a category belongs to L.S. Vygotsky. Subsequently, this problem was dealt with by B.G. Ananyev, D.B. Elkonin.

The following components of age are distinguished.

1. Social situation of development completely original, specific for a given age, exclusively one and only relationship between the child and the reality around him. 2

2. Neoplasms mental and social changes that first appear at a given age stage and which determine the course of further mental development.

“Age-related neoplasms should be understood as that new type of personality structure and its activity, those mental and social changes that first appear at a given age stage and which in the most important and fundamental way determine the consciousness of the child, his relationship to the environment, his internal and external life, the entire course of its development in a given age period.” 3 For example, the emergence of speech at an early age, a sense of adulthood in adolescence.

3. Leading activity is the activity that most contributes to the mental and behavioral development of the child in a given period of his life and leads the development behind itself. 4

The principle of leading activity was deeply developed in the works of A.N. Leontiev. The essence of this principle is that, first of all, it is in the process of the child’s leading activity in each period of his development that new relationships, a new type of knowledge and methods of obtaining it are formed, which significantly changes the cognitive sphere and psychological structure of the individual. Thus, each leading activity contributes to the emergence of qualitative features characteristic only of this age, or, as they are called, age-related new formations. 5

But within the same activity, characteristic of one age, different stages can be distinguished, and the child’s development at each of them is not the same.

The first reasonable division of ontogenesis into separate ages was given by P.P. Blonsky, noting the presence of special, so-called “transitional ages,” which present significant difficulties in pedagogical terms (for example, adolescence).

1.2 Periodization and patterns of mental development of the child

Periodization of mental development identification of a sequence of stages (periods) of mental development in the entire life cycle of a person. Scientifically based periodization must reflect the internal laws of the development process itself and meet the following requirements:

Describe the qualitative uniqueness of each period of development and its differences from other periods;

Determine the structural relationship between mental processes and functions within one period;

Establish an invariant sequence of development stages;

Periodization should have a structure where each subsequent period is based on the previous one, includes and develops its achievements.

Distinctive features of many periods are their one-sided nature (separation of personality development from the development of intelligence) and a naturalistic approach to mental development in ontogenesis, which is expressed in ignoring the historically variable nature of periods of development. Examples of such periodizations are the periodization of the development of intelligence by J. Piaget, psychosexual development by Z. Freud, personality development by E. Erikson, sensorimotor development by A. Gesell, and moral development by L. Kohlberg. Periods of development according to the pedagogical principle have also become widespread, where the criteria for periodization are the stages of training and education in the socio-educational system. Modern periodizations of child development, as a rule, do not include the period of prenatal development.

The International Symposium on Developmental Psychology in Moscow in 1965 adopted an age-based periodization of human development from birth to old age, which to this day remains the standard for the age-related periodization of an individual’s life. (See Appendix A)

IN domestic psychology the principles of periodization were developed by L.S. Vygotsky, based on the idea of ​​the dialectical socially determined nature of mental development in ontogenesis. The unit of analysis of ontogenetic development and the basis for identifying periods of development, according to L.S. Vygotsky, is psychological age. Accordingly, two criteria for constructing periodization are established:

Structural age-related neoplasms, that “new type of personality structure and its activity that arises at a given age stage for the first time and which determine the child’s consciousness and his attitude to the environment... and the entire course of his development in a given period”;

Dynamic natural alternation of stable and critical periods. 6

Ideas L.S. Vygotsky was developed in the concept of D.B. Elkonin, who based the periodization on the following criteria: social situation of development, leading activity, age-related neoplasms.

Contradictions give rise to crises as necessary turning points of development. Mental development has a spiral nature with a naturally repeating change of periods of development, in which the leading activity alternates between activities in the “child social adult” system and in the “child social object” system. According to D.B. Elkonin, periodization of mental development in childhood includes three eras, each of which consists of two interconnected periods, and in the first there is a predominant development of the motivational-need sphere, and in the second - the intellectual-cognitive one. Epochs are separated from each other by crises of restructuring of the individual-society relationship, and periods by crises of self-awareness. The era of early childhood begins with the newborn crisis (02 months) and includes infancy, the leading activity of which is situational and personal communication, the crisis of the first year and early age, where the leading activity is objective activity. The era of childhood, separated from the era of early childhood by the crisis of three years, includes preschool age (leading activity role-playing game), the crisis of seven years and junior school age (leading activity is educational activity). The crisis of 11-12 years separates the eras of childhood and adolescence, in which younger adolescence, with intimate-personal communication as the leading activity, is replaced by older adolescence, where educational and professional activity becomes the leading one. According to D.B. Elkonin, the indicated periodization scheme corresponds to childhood and adolescence, and for the periodization of mature ages it is necessary to develop a different scheme while maintaining the general principles of periodization. 7

The periodization of mature ages of the life cycle requires defining the very concept of “adulthood” as a special social status associated with a certain level of biological maturity, the level of development of mental functions and structures. The success of solving development problems, as a system of social requirements and expectations specific to each age, imposed by society on an individual, determines his transition to each new age level of maturity. The periodization of adulthood includes early maturity (17 x 40 years), middle maturity (40-60 years), late maturity (over 60 years) with transition periods that are in the nature of crises.

In S.I. Ozhegov’s dictionary, elderly means beginning to grow old, old age is the period of life after maturity, during which the body weakens, and, finally, old means reaching old age. 8 Such definitions suggest that somewhere in our subconscious there is a clearly fixed norm; we roughly know what a person should look like in old age.

Development is characterized by unevenness and heterochrony. Uneven development is manifested in the fact that various mental functions, properties and formations develop unevenly: each of them has its own stages of rise, stabilization and decline, i.e. development is characterized by an oscillatory nature. The uneven development of mental function is judged by the pace, direction and duration of the changes that occur. It has been established that the greatest intensity of fluctuations (unevenness) in the development of functions occurs during the period of their highest achievements. The higher the level of productivity in development, the more pronounced the oscillatory nature of its age dynamics.

Unevenness and heterochrony are closely related to development instability. Development always goes through unstable periods. This pattern is most clearly manifested in crises of child development. In turn, the highest level of stability and dynamism of the system is possible on the basis of frequent, small-amplitude oscillations, on the one hand, and the discrepancy in time of different mental processes, properties and functions, on the other. Thus, stability is possible through instability.

Developmental sensitivity. B. G. Ananyev understood sensitivity “as temporary complex characteristics of correlated functions, sensitized at a certain moment of learning” and as a consequence of “the action of maturation of functions and the relative formation of complex actions that ensure a higher level of brain functioning.” 9 Periods of sensitive development are limited in time. Therefore, if a sensitive period of development of a particular function is missed, much more effort and time will be required for its development in the future.

Cumulative mental development means that the result of the development of each previous stage is included in the next, while being transformed in a certain way. This accumulation of changes prepares for qualitative transformations in mental development. A typical example is the consistent formation and development of visual-effective, visual-figurative and verbal-logical thinking, when each subsequent form of thinking arises on the basis of the previous one and includes it.

Mental development includes two contradictory and interrelated trends - divergence and convergence. In this case, divergence is an increase in diversity in the process of mental development, and convergence is its curtailment, increased selectivity.

2. Age crises: essence, structure and content

2.1 Psychological essence of the age crisis

Each age in human life has certain standards with the help of which one can assess the adequacy of an individual’s development and which relate to psychophysical, intellectual, emotional and personal development. These standards are also designated as age-related development goals. The transition to the next stage occurs in the form of crises of age-related development periods of life transformations and turning points, which are accompanied by psychological stress and difficulties. The form, duration and severity of the crisis can vary significantly depending on the individual typological characteristics of a person, social and microsocial conditions.

Developmental crises can be marked by significant mental discomfort, sometimes even threatening the survival of the organism. Such transitions can occur spontaneously, as in the case of a midlife crisis. They can be caused by integrative psychotechnologies and participation in spiritual practice. Psychological transition to more high level Well-being, clarity and maturity rarely proceed smoothly and painlessly. Rather, growth is usually characterized by transitional periods of confusion and agonizing questions or, in extreme cases, periods of disorganization and utter despair. If these crises are successfully overcome, then a certain amount of disorganization and chaos can be a means of getting rid of limiting, outdated life patterns. There is an opportunity to reevaluate, “release” old beliefs, goals, identifications, lifestyles and adopt new, more promising life strategies. Therefore, a psychological crisis is physical and mental suffering, on the one hand, and transformation, development and personal growth, on the other.

In relation to developmental crises, the decisive importance (as evidenced by their very name) is the task of “developing” oneself, freeing oneself from everything that actually no longer corresponds to a person, so that authenticity, truth and reality, the true “I” become more and more obvious and effective.

A number of researchers consider age-related crises to be a normative process, a necessary element of socialization, conditioned by the logic of personal development and the need to resolve the main age-related contradiction; other authors see age-related crises as a deviant, malignant manifestation of individual development. 10

There is also a different understanding of the content of the crisis. According to E. Erikson, a crisis is a potential choice that is carried out in the process of ontogenesis between a favorable and unfavorable direction of development. The term “crisis” in Erikson’s epigenetic concept is close in meaning to that which this term has in biological science, in particular in embryology. 11

G. Craig considers critical periods as periods during which specific types of development must occur. 12

D. Levinson considers the crisis as a transitional phase in which methods of self-realization become the subject of analysis for the individual, and new opportunities become the subject of search.

In Russian psychology, the term “age-related crises” was introduced by L.S. Vygotsky and defined as a holistic change in a person’s personality that regularly occurs when stable periods change. According to Vygotsky, the age crisis is caused by the emergence of the main new formations of the previous stable period, which lead to the destruction of one social situation of development and the emergence of another, adequate to the new psychological appearance of a person. The mechanism of changing social situations constitutes the psychological content of the age crisis. The emergence of the new in development is at the same time the disintegration of the old. L.S. Vygotsky believed such destruction to be necessary.

According to Vygotsky, the external behavioral features of a crisis are as follows: the boundaries separating the beginning and end of crises from adjacent ages are extremely unclear. A crisis occurs unnoticed and is extremely difficult to diagnose; as a rule, in the middle of a crisis period its culmination is observed, the presence of this culmination point distinguishes the critical period from others; pronounced behavioral characteristics are noted; the possibility of acute conflicts with others; from the side of inner life painful and painful conflicts and experiences. Thus, according to Vygotsky, a crisis seems to be the culmination of micro-changes accumulated during a previous stable period.

L.S. Vygotsky, explaining the essence of age-related crises, pointed out that age-related changes can occur abruptly, critically, and can occur gradually, lytically. At some ages, development is characterized by a slow, evolutionary, or lytic course. These are the ages of predominantly smooth, often imperceptible internal changes in the child’s personality, changes that occur through minor “molecular” achievements. Here, over a more or less long period, usually covering several years, no fundamental, sharp shifts and changes occur that restructure the child’s entire personality. More or less noticeable changes in the child’s personality occur only as a result of a long course of a hidden “molecular” process. They emerge and become accessible to direct observation only as the conclusion of long processes of latent development.

2.2 Structure and content of age-related crises

The idea of ​​the critical stage as homogeneous, in which there are only processes of excitation, fermentation, explosions, in a word, such phenomena that are incredibly difficult to cope with, is incorrect. Development processes in general, and during the critical period in particular, are distinguished by an immeasurably more complex structure, an immeasurably finer structure. The development process during the critical period is heterogeneous; three types of processes occur simultaneously in it, and each of them requires timely and holistic consideration in connection with all others when developing educational methods. The three types of processes that make up the critical period in development are as follows:

Increasing stabilization processes, consolidating the previous acquisitions of the organism, making them more and more fundamental, more and more stable;

The processes are truly critical, completely new; very fast, rapidly growing changes;

Processes leading to the formation of emerging elements, which are the basis for further creative activity of a growing person.

Vygotsky introduced the division of the crisis period into pre-critical, actually critical and post-critical phases. In the pre-critical phase, a contradiction arises between the objective and subjective components of the social situation of development (the environment and the person’s relationship to the environment). In the critical phase itself, this contradiction intensifies and manifests itself, revealing itself, and reaches its apogee. Then, in the post-critical phase, the contradiction is resolved through the formation of a new social situation of development, through the establishment of a new harmony between its components. (See Appendix B)

The precritical phase consists in the fact that a person discovers the incompleteness of the real form in which he lives. Such a discovery is possible only on the basis of the emergence of the idea of ​​a different, new ideal form. The person discovered something different awaiting him in the future, an image of new behavior. Until such a discovery, a person is content with today's problems and their solutions. At turning points in life, this is not enough. The other, the future, the future turns out to be attractive, attracting. This discovery of the future can only be discovered indirectly, since it is unreflective. Next comes the critical phase itself, consisting of three stages.

At the first stage, there is an attempt to directly implement the most general ideas about the ideal form in real life situations. Having discovered something new, different, that is absent from him, a person immediately tries to “get” into this other dimension. The specificity of this stage is associated with the characteristics of the ideal form itself, with the fact that the ideal form exists in culture not separately, not by itself, but in various incarnations.

Next comes the stage of conflict - a necessary condition for normal development in a crisis, allowing a person and the people around him to fully expose their own positions. The positive meaning of this stage is that the impossibility of directly translating the ideal form into real life is revealed to a person. Before the conflict, the only obstacle to the materialization of the ideal form remains external limiters - old forms of life and relationships. Conflict creates conditions for the differentiation of these limiters. Through the conflict, it is discovered that some of them were indeed associated with taboos that are losing their relevance (and they are then removed), but some of them were also associated with their own insufficiency (inability, lack of abilities). In conflict, obstacles to the realization of the ideal form are exposed and emotionally experienced. External barriers are then removed, but internal ones remain, associated with the insufficiency of one’s own abilities. It is at this moment that motivation for new activities arises and conditions are created to overcome the crisis. It is in the conflict phase that a person discovers a new “life meaning”.

Before the critical phase ends, the third stage must occur reflection of one’s own abilities, a new crisis must arise. Here reflection is seen as a stage of crisis, which represents the internalization of the conflict between the desired and the real. Intellectual reflection can be only one of the forms of a reflexive attitude towards one’s own capabilities.

The crisis ends with a post-critical phase, which represents the creation of a new social situation of development. In this phase, the transition “real-ideal” and “self-other” is completed, new forms of cultural translation of the ideal form are accepted. A new form is being realized - ideal, not idealized, full-fledged, not formal.

The main idea of ​​​​working with personal crisis states is as follows: if a crisis has begun, it needs to be allowed to pass through. logical steps, since temporary inhibition of crisis processes, as well as the use of medications, only prolongs the crisis over time, and does not lead to a speedy resolution of the client’s problems and the individual reaching a new level of integrity. You can manage the process of experiencing a crisis stimulate it, organize, direct, provide favorable conditions for it, striving to ensure that this process leads to growth and improvement of the individual or, at least, does not follow a pathological or socially unacceptable path, such as alcoholism, drug addiction, substance abuse, formation of drug dependence, neurotization, psychopathization, suicidal behavior. 13

The psychological content of developmental crises consists in the restructuring of the semantic structures of consciousness and reorientation towards new life tasks, leading to a change in the nature of activity and relationships, and the further formation of personality.

The most essential content of development at critical ages lies in the emergence of new formations that are highly original and specific. Their main difference from neoplasms of stable ages is that they are transitional in nature. This means that subsequently they are not preserved in the form in which they arose during the critical period, and are not included as a necessary component in the integral structure of the future personality. They die off, as if absorbed by new formations of the next, stable age, being included in their composition as a subordinate entity that does not have an independent existence, dissolving and transforming in them so much that without a special and in-depth analysis it is often impossible to discover the presence of this transformed formation of a critical period in acquisitions subsequent stable age. As such, neoplasms of crises die off with the onset of the next age, but continue to exist in a latent form within it, only participating in that underground development, which at stable ages leads to the abrupt appearance of new formations. Thus, L.S. Vygotsky argued that the main criterion for dividing child development into separate ages should be neoplasms. 14

The sequence of age periods should be determined by the alternation of stable and critical periods. The dates of stable ages, which have more or less distinct boundaries of beginning and end, are most correctly determined precisely by these boundaries. Critical ages, due to the different nature of their course, are most correctly determined by noting the culminating points, or peaks, of the crisis and taking the previous half-year closest to this period as its beginning, and the nearest half-year of the subsequent age as its end.

According to E. Erikson, a person experiences eight crises throughout his life, specific to each age, the favorable or unfavorable outcome of which determines the possibility of subsequent personal flourishing. 15 The sources of life crises can be contradictions between the increased physical and spiritual capabilities of a person, previously established forms of relationships with others and types of activity. The course of a crisis is also influenced by a person’s individual characteristics.

A person experiences the first crisis in the first year of life. It is associated, firstly, with a deep sense of trust in the world around him, and secondly, on the contrary, with distrust of it.

The second crisis is associated with the first learning experience and, depending on the behavior of the parents, leads to the development in the child of shame or doubt associated with the fear of losing control over his body.

The third crisis corresponds to the second childhood. It is characterized by the child's feeling of initiative or guilt, depending on the circumstances.

The fourth crisis occurs at school age. The child is under the influence external environment either a taste for work or a feeling of inferiority appears, both in terms of the use of means and opportunities, and in terms of one’s own status among comrades.

The fifth crisis is experienced by adolescents of both sexes in search of identification. A teenager’s inability to identify can lead to its “dispersion” or also to role confusion.

The sixth crisis is characteristic of young adults. It is associated with the search for intimacy with a loved one. The lack of such experience leads to isolation of a person and his isolation on himself.

The seventh crisis is experienced by a person at the age of forty. It is characterized by the development of a sense of preservation of the species (generativity).

The eighth crisis is experienced during aging. It marks the completion of the previous life path, and the decision depends on how this path was passed. The consequence of this is the integrity of the individual or despair from the inability to start life anew.

Life crises and personality development are deeply connected processes. Crises entail various transformations in the value system, in the meaning-forming category, and in models for describing reality. These may be painful transformations, but the painful sensations are not meaningless, they resemble the pain that accompanied the birth of something new.

2.3 Differences between critical periods of development and stable ones

The concept of the social situation of development makes it possible for L.S. Vygotsky distinguished between two types of ages: stable and critical. In a stable period, development occurs within the social developmental situation characteristic of a given age. Critical age is the moment of change from the old social situation of development and the formation of a new one. 16

At relatively stable, or stable, ages, development occurs mainly due to microscopic changes in the child’s personality, which, accumulating to a certain limit, are then abruptly revealed in the form of some age-related neoplasm. Judging purely chronologically, most of childhood is occupied by such stable periods. Since development within them proceeds, as it were, underground, when comparing a child at the beginning and at the end of a stable age, enormous changes in his personality clearly appear.

Stable ages have been studied much more fully than those characterized by another type of development - crises. The latter are distinguished by features opposite to stable or stable ages. In these periods, over a relatively short period of time (several months, a year, or, at most, two), sharp and major shifts and shifts, changes and fractures in the child’s personality are concentrated. In a very short period of time, the child changes as a whole, in the main personality traits. Development takes on a stormy, rapid, sometimes catastrophic character; it resembles a revolutionary course of events, both in the pace of changes taking place and in the meaning of the changes taking place. These are turning points in child development, which sometimes take the form of an acute crisis. (See Appendix B)

The first feature of such periods is, on the one hand, that the boundaries separating the beginning and end of the crisis from adjacent ages are extremely unclear. A crisis occurs unnoticed; it is difficult to determine the moment of its onset and end. On the other hand, a sharp aggravation of the crisis is characteristic, usually occurring in the middle of this age period. The presence of a climax point, at which the crisis reaches its apogee, characterizes all critical ages and sharply distinguishes them from stable eras of child development.

The second feature of critical ages served as the starting point for their empirical study. The fact is that a significant proportion of children experiencing critical periods of development exhibit difficulties in educating themselves. Children seem to fall out of the system of pedagogical influence, which until quite recently ensured the normal course of their upbringing and education. At school age, during critical periods, children experience a decline in academic performance, weakening interest in school activities and a general decrease in performance. At critical ages, the development of a child is often accompanied by more or less acute conflicts with others. The inner life of a child is sometimes associated with painful and painful experiences, with internal conflicts.

True, all this is far from necessary. Different children experience critical periods differently. In the course of a crisis, even among children who are closest in type of development and social situation, there are much more variations than in stable periods. Many children do not experience any clearly defined educational difficulties or decline in school performance. The scope of variations in the course of these ages in different children, the influence of external and internal conditions on the course of the crisis itself is significant.

External conditions determine the specific nature of the detection and occurrence of critical periods. Dissimilar in different children, they determine an extremely motley and diverse picture of critical age options. But not the presence or absence of any specific external conditions, and the internal logic of the development process itself necessitates critical, turning points in a child’s life. Thus, if we move from an absolute assessment of educational ability to a relative one, based on a comparison of the degree of ease or difficulty in raising a child in the stable period preceding or following a crisis with the degree of difficulty in raising a child during a crisis, then one cannot help but see that every child at this age becomes relatively difficult to raise. compared to oneself at an adjacent stable age. In the same way, if we move from an absolute assessment of school performance to its relative assessment, based on a comparison of the rate of progress of a child during education at different age periods, one cannot help but see that every child in a period of crisis reduces the rate of progress compared with the rate characteristic of stable periods.

The third and, perhaps, the most theoretically important feature of critical ages, but the most unclear and therefore complicating a correct understanding of the nature of child development during these periods, is the negative nature of development. Everyone who wrote about these unique periods noted first of all that development here, in contrast to stable ages, performs more destructive than creative work. The progressive development of the child’s personality, the continuous construction of a new one, which was so clearly evident at all stable ages, during periods of crisis seems to fade, to be temporarily suspended. The processes of death and coagulation, disintegration and decomposition of what was formed at the previous stage and distinguished a child of a given age are brought to the fore. During critical periods, a child does not gain as much as he loses what he previously acquired. The onset of these ages is not marked by the emergence of new interests of the child, new aspirations, new types of activities, new forms of inner life.

A child entering periods of crisis is rather characterized by the opposite features: he loses the interests that yesterday directed all his activities, which absorbed most of his time and attention, and now seem to freeze; the previously established forms of external relations and internal life seem to be deserted. L.N. Tolstoy figuratively and accurately called one of these critical periods of child development the wilderness of adolescence.

This is what is primarily meant when they talk about the negative nature of critical ages. By this they want to express the idea that development, as it were, changes its positive, creative meaning, forcing the observer to characterize such periods mainly from a negative, negative side. Many authors are even convinced that negative content exhausts the entire meaning of development during critical periods. This belief is enshrined in the names of critical ages (sometimes this age is called the negative phase, sometimes the phase of obstinacy).

At turning points in development, a child becomes relatively difficult to educate due to the fact that changes in the pedagogical system applied to the child do not keep up with the rapid changes in his personality. The pedagogy of critical ages is the least developed in practical and theoretical terms.

Just as all life is at the same time dying, so child development - this is one of the complex forms of life - necessarily includes the processes of coagulation and dying. The emergence of something new in development certainly means the death of the old. The transition to a new age is always marked by the decline of the previous age. The processes of reverse development, the death of the old, are concentrated mainly at critical ages. But it would be a great mistake to believe that this exhausts the significance of critical ages. Development never stops its creative work, and during critical periods we observe constructive development processes. Moreover, the processes of involution, so clearly expressed at these ages, are themselves subordinate to the processes of positive personality construction, are directly dependent on them and form an inextricable whole with them. Destructive work is carried out during the specified periods, depending on the need to develop properties and personality traits. Actual research shows that the negative content of development during critical periods is only the opposite, or shadow, side of positive personality changes that constitute the main and fundamental meaning of any critical age.

Thus, the positive significance of the crisis of three years is reflected in the fact that new characteristic features of the child’s personality arise here. It has been established that if a crisis, for some reason, proceeds sluggishly and inexpressively, then this leads to a profound delay in the development of the affective and volitional aspects of the child’s personality at a later age. With regard to the 7-year crisis, all researchers noted that, along with negative symptoms, there were a number of great achievements in this period: the child’s independence increases, his attitude towards other children changes. During a crisis at the age of 13, a decrease in the productivity of a student’s mental work is caused by the fact that there is a change in attitude from visualization to understanding and deduction. The transition to a higher form of intellectual activity is accompanied by a temporary decrease in performance. This is confirmed by the other negative symptoms of the crisis: behind every negative symptom lies a positive content, which usually consists of a transition to a new and higher form. Finally, there is no doubt about the presence of positive content in the crisis of one year. Here, negative symptoms are obviously and directly related to the positive gains that the child makes as he gets on his feet and masters speech. The same can be applied to the newborn crisis. At this time, the child initially degrades even in terms of physical development: in the first days after birth, the weight of the newborn drops. Adaptation to a new form of life places such high demands on the child's vitality that a person is never so close to death as at the hour of his birth. And yet, in this period, more than in any of the subsequent crises, the fact emerges that development is a process of formation and the emergence of something new. Everything that we encounter in the development of a child in the first days and weeks is a continuous new formation. The negative symptoms that characterize the negative content of this period stem from the difficulties caused precisely by the novelty of a form of life emerging for the first time and becoming increasingly complex.

The most essential content of development at critical ages lies in the emergence of new formations that are highly original and specific. Their main difference from neoplasms of stable ages is that they are transitional in nature. This means that subsequently they are not preserved in the form in which they arose during the critical period, and are not included as a necessary component in the integral structure of the future personality. They die off, as if absorbed by the new formations of the next, stable age, being included in their composition as a subordinate entity that does not have an independent existence, dissolving and transforming in them so much that without a special and deep analysis it is often impossible to discover the presence of this transformed formation of the critical period in the acquisitions of the subsequent stable age.

Conclusion

Human development is a single process determined by historical conditions public life. The result of the interaction of biological and social in individual human development is the formation of individuality. Its essence is the unity and interconnection of the properties of a person as a person and a subject of activity, in the structure of which the natural properties of a person as an individual function; the general effect of this fusion, integration of all properties of a person as an individual, personality and subject of activity is individuality with its integral organization of all properties and their self-regulation. Socialization of the individual, accompanied by increasing individualization, covers the entire life course of a person.

As the personality develops, the integrity and integrativeness of its psychological organization grows, the interconnection of various properties and characteristics intensifies, and new development potentials accumulate. There is an expansion and deepening of the individual’s connections with the outside world, society and other people. A special role is played by those aspects of the psyche that ensure the internal activity of the individual, manifested in his interests, emotional, conscious attitude to the environment and to his own activities.

Crises differ in their structure and impact on people. What is certain is that by the end of the crisis a person becomes a different creature. The formed new formation becomes central and displaces the old one. The outcome of the crisis is difficult to predict. Support and friendly communication with people around you are of great importance. When a child is small, it is very important that adults treat the child with understanding and patience at this time. To do this, it is recommended to avoid extremes in communicating with the child (you cannot allow the baby everything or prohibit everything). It is important to coordinate the style of behavior with all family members. When the child gets a little older, it is important to expand the child’s circle of acquaintances and more often give him instructions related to communicating with other adults and peers. At the same time, the child’s self-confidence should be strengthened. But we must remember that the child imitates adults in his behavior and actions, and try to give him good personal example. During the three-year crisis, an internal restructuring takes place along the axis of social relations. Negativism must be distinguished from simple disobedience, and stubbornness from simple persistence, since the causes of these phenomena are different: in the first case - social, in the second - affective. The seven-star pattern of crisis symptoms suggests that new features are always associated with the fact that the child begins to motivate his actions not by the content of the situation itself, but by relationships with other people. The crisis of three years proceeds as a crisis of the child’s social relations.

From the above it follows that the very first steps of the child should be under the close attention of the parents. It is necessary to develop an optimal work and rest regime. After school, give the child the opportunity to fully relax, preferably in the fresh air. Try to do your homework in portions with short breaks. Sports activities are very useful, they will help the child switch from intellectual activity and provide an opportunity to release the motor energy accumulated during the day. Be sure to listen to your children’s complaints and talk about the problems that concern them school life. After all, the support of parents and their timely assistance remain the main source from which first-graders will draw strength so as not to despair, but to overcome their first school difficulties with confidence and optimism.

In adolescence, you need to be understanding and patient with new trends in the life of a teenager. In middle age, you need to try to make sure that life strategy was such that the midlife crisis was an occasion to open new horizons, and not to be locked in one’s own failures.

The unity of development and training, development and education means the interconnection and interpenetration of these processes. Development not only determines training and education, but also itself determines the course of maturation and development. The mental development of a child should be considered not only as a prerequisite, but also as a result of the entire course of his development in the process of education and upbringing.

The effectiveness of education, and, consequently, mental development depends on the extent to which the means, content, methods of teaching and upbringing are developed taking into account the psychological patterns of age and individual development and are not only based on the existing capabilities, abilities, and skills of children, but also set the future their further development, to what extent adults, when working with children of different ages, focus on developing their interest in the life around them, their interest and ability to learn, the ability to independently acquire knowledge, and the need for an active attitude towards the activities in which they are involved.

Thus, training and education, reasonably organized and specifically aimed at the development of children, provide high indicators in the formation of mental abilities and moral qualities of the human personality.

Until now, when studying the psychology of adults, first one age section or another was selected. The general picture of age development from 17-18 years to the age of gerontopsychology has not yet been presented. Today in adult psychology there are more questions than answers. During its development, psychology has been in crisis situations more than once and has had certain trends. And each of them expressed their views on man in their own way.

So, in this work the features and characteristics of age-related crises were presented: their symptoms, psychological content, dynamics of their course. The features of each of the age-related crises as certain “milestones” in human mental development are also considered. Of course, there are still many areas for further research in this area. The problem of crises and ways out of them is one of the most promising and pressing problems of psychology today.

Glossary

	New concepts
	Ontogenesis	Individual human development, which begins at birth and ends at the end of life.
	Developmental neoplasms	A qualitatively new type of personality and human interaction with reality, absent as a whole at the previous stages of its development.
	Leading activity	A type of activity in which other types of activity arise and differentiate, the basic mental processes are restructured and changes occur in the psychological characteristics of the individual at a given stage of development.
	"I-concept"	A relatively stable system of ideas a teenager has about himself, on the basis of which he builds his relationships with other people and relates to himself.
	Deprivation	Prolonged, more or less complete deprivation of a person's sensory impressions.
	Feeling of adulthood	A new formation of consciousness, through which a teenager compares himself with others (adults), finds models to assimilate, builds his relationships with other people, and rearranges his activities
	The “I Myself” Phenomenon	The appearance of statements like “I myself” in the child, indicating the separation of his own “I” from the “child-adult” unity.
	Prenatal development	Development that occurs before birth, intrauterine development of the fetus.
	Gestalt therapy	A branch of psychotherapy that was born in the 2nd half of the 20th century. Creator Fritz Perls. He believed that a person should be considered as an integral living system involved in interaction with the outside world.
	Sensitive period of development	A period of increased susceptibility of mental functions to external influences, especially to the effects of training and upbringing.
	Age-related sensitivity	Optimal combination conditions for the development of certain mental processes and properties inherent in a certain age period.
	Cumulative development	Accumulation during growth of mental properties, qualities, abilities, skills, leading to qualitative changes in their development.
	Developmental divergence	The variety of signs and properties, actions and modes of behavior that appear during development based on their gradual divergence.
	Development Convergence	Similarity, convergence, coagulation, synthesis, increased selectivity during the development of mental processes and properties, actions and modes of behavior.
	Age crisis	These are relatively short periods of ontogenesis (up to a year), characterized by sharp psychological changes.

List of sources used

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2. Ananyev, B. G. Man as an object of knowledge. [Text] / B. G. Ananyev. St. Petersburg: Peter, 2001. 288 p. ¶ ISBN 5-272-00315-2.

3. Bozhovich, L. I. The problem of personality formation. [Text] / L. I. Bozhovich. Voronezh: NPO Modek, 2001, - 352 p. ¶ ISBN 5-89395-049-6.

4. Vygotsky, L. S. Collected works. [Text]: in 6 volumes / L. S. Vygotsky. M.: Pedagogy, 1982. T. 3: Problems of mental development. 1983. - 368 p. ¶ ISBN 5-87852-043-5.

5. Craig, G. Developmental psychology. [Text] /G. Craig, D. Bokum.St. Petersburg: 2006. 940 p. ¶ ISBN 978-5-94723-187-5.

6. Leontyev, A. N. Activity. Consciousness. Personality. [Text] / A. N. Leontiev. M.: Academy, 2004. 352 p. ¶ ISBN 987-5-89357-153-0.

7. Myers, D. Social Psychology. Intensive course. [Text] / D. Myers: trans. Tsaruk L. St. Petersburg: Prime Eurosign, 2004. 512 p. ¶ ISBN 5-93878-131-0.

8. Malkina-Pykh, I. G.Age-related crises of adulthood. [Text] / I. G. Malkina-Pykh. M.: Eksmo-press, 2005. 414 p. ¶ ISBN 978-5-699-07426-6.

9. Mukhina, V. WITH. Age-related psychology. Phenomenology of development. [Text] / V. S. Mukhina. M.: Academy, 1999. 456 p. ¶ ISBN 5-7695-0408-0.

10. Ozhegov, S. I. Dictionary of the Russian language. [Text] / S. I. Ozhegov. M.: Peace and Education, 2006. 1328 p. ¶ ISBN 5-488-00353-3.

11. Polivanova, K. N. Psychology of age-related crises: a textbook for students of pedagogical universities. [Text] / K. N. Polivanova. M.: Academy, 2000. 184 p. ¶ ISBN 5-7695-0643-1.

12. Tolstykh, A. V. Ages of life. [Text] / A.V. Tolstykh. M.: Young Guard, 1988. 223 p. ¶ ISBN 5-235-00590-2.

13. Elkonin, D. B. Selected psychological works. [Text] / D. B. Elkonin. M.: Pedagogy, 1989. 560 p. ¶ ISBN 5-7155-0035-4.

14. Erickson, E. Childhood and society. [Text] / E. Erickson. M.: University Library, 1996. 592 p. ¶ ISBN 5-7841-0070-3.

Appendix A

Age periodization adopted by the International Symposium on Age Physiology in Moscow in 1965.

Periods of development	Duration
Newborn	1 10 days
Infancy	10 days 1 year
Early childhood	1 2 years
First period of childhood	3 7 years
Second period of childhood	8 12 years for boys 8 11 years for girls
Adolescence	13 16 years for boys 12 15 years for girls
Adolescence	17 21 for boys 16 20 for girls
Middle (mature) age First period	22 35 for men 21 35 for women
Second period	36 60 for men 36 55 for women
Elderly age	61 74 for men 56 74 for women
Senile age	75 90 for men and women
Centenarians	Over 90 years old

Appendix B

Structure of the age crisis

Phases of crisis
Pre-critical phase	The emergence of contradictions between the environment and man’s relationship to the environment, man’s discovery of the incompleteness of the real form in which he lives
The actual crisis phase: Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage 3	The growth and aggravation of contradictions, the culmination of the crisis, the implementation of subjectivity through testing: an attempt to implement general ideas about the ideal form in a real life situation; conflict, as a result of which it becomes clear that the direct embodiment of the ideal form in real life is impossible; reflection, internalization of the conflict between the desired and the real
Postcritical phase	Creation of a new social development situation; adoption of new forms of cultural transmission of the ideal form (new leading activity)

Appendix B

Differences between stable and crisis periods

Development criterion	Stable period	Crisis period
1. Rate of age development	Gradual, lytic	Harsh, critical
2. Length of period	Some years	From several months to a year (maximum two)
3. Having a climax	Not typical	Characteristic
4. Features of the child’s behavior	No significant changes	Significant changes, conflicts, difficult to educate
	Progressive	Regressive
6. Features of age-related neoplasms	Stable, fixed in the personality structure	Unstable, have a transitional nature

1 Tolstykh, A. V. Ages of life. M., 1998. P.156.

2 Vygotsky, L. S. Questions of child psychology. Union, 2004. P.26.

3 Ibid. P. 124.

4 Elkonin, D. B. Selected psychological works. M., 1989. P. 274.

5 Leontyev, A. N. Activity. Consciousness. Personality. M., 2004. P. 98.

6 Vygotsky, L. S. Collection. Op. in 6 volumes. Volume 3, Pedagogy, 1983. P.175.

7 Elkonin, D. B. Selected psychological works. M., 1989. P. 248.

8 Ozhegov, S.I. Dictionary of the Russian language. M., 2006. P.1106.

9 Ananyev, B. G. Man as an object of knowledge. St. Petersburg, 2001. P. 105.

10 Malkina-Pykh, I. G. Age-related crises of adulthood. M.: Eksmo-press, 2005. P. 114.

11 Polivanova, K. N. Psychology of age-related crises. M.: Academy, 2000. P. 75.

12 Craig, G., Bokum, D. Developmental Psychology. St. Petersburg, 2006. P. 437.

13 Abramova, G. S. Workshop on developmental psychology. M., 1999. P. 276.

14 Vygotsky, L. S. Collection. Op. in 6 volumes. Volume 3, Pedagogy, 1983. P.192.

15 Erickson, E. Childhood and Society. M., 1996. P. 314.

16 Myers, D. Social psychology. Intensive course. M., 2004. P. 293.

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