The concept of crisis development. Types and signs of growing up crises

Concept of age crisis

A crisis of age-related development is a special short-term condition, characterized by psychological changes, and arising at certain moments in the age-related development of the individual. Most often, crises arise when habitual situations and phenomena change.

A person needs time to move to a new level of his psychological development and get used to his new role in society.

The course of crises is individual and depends on the characteristics of the human psyche. At the same time, views and judgments may change both in relation to oneself and to many processes and phenomena in society.

This transitional stage may be accompanied by unpleasant symptoms:

• Depressive states.
• Vivid dissatisfaction with oneself.
• Various problems of internal and external nature.
• Changes in human behavior and habits.

The form of manifestation, severity and duration of the crisis state is individual for each person. These transitional stages are necessary for a person to form a more realistic view of life and himself. They help build sustainable relationships with the outside world.

The concept of crisis development. Types and signs of growing up crises

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L. S. Vygotsky under the crisis of development

understood the concentration of sharp and major shifts and displacements, changes and fractures in the child’s personality
.
A crisis is a turning point in the normal course of mental development. It arises when “when the internal course of child development has completed some cycle and the transition to the next cycle will necessarily be a turning point...” (Vygotsky L. S., 1984, p. 384). A crisis is a chain of internal changes in a child with relatively minor external changes. The essence of each crisis, he noted, is a restructuring of the internal experience that determines the child’s attitude to the environment, a change in the needs and motivations that drive his behavior. This was also pointed out by L.I. Bozhovich, according to whom, the cause of the crisis is the dissatisfaction of the child’s new needs (Bozhovich L.I., 1979). The contradictions that make up the essence of the crisis can occur in an acute form, giving rise to strong emotional experiences and disturbances in the behavior of children and in their relationships with adults.

A developmental crisis 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 relationships with people around him and types (methods) of activity. Each of us has encountered manifestations of such crises.

The crisis of puberty was the first to be described in the scientific literature. Later, the three-year crisis was discovered. Even later, the crisis of seven years was studied. Along with them, the newborn crisis and the one-year crisis are distinguished. Thus, from birth to adolescence, a child experiences five crisis periods.

Any crisis has two sides that must be taken into account, revealing its psychological content and significance for the subsequent development of the child.

The first of these is the destructive side of the crisis. Childhood development involves processes of coagulation and death. The emergence of the new certainly means the death of the old. The processes of the dying away of the old are concentrated mainly in periods of crisis. But the negative side of the crisis is the reverse, the shadow side of the positive, constructive side. “Constructive processes are always carried out here, positive changes occur, which constitute the main meaning of each turning point,” emphasizes V.V. Davydov (Davydov V.V., 1986, p. 76). We are talking about psychological new formations already known to us.

In conclusion, a few words about the peculiarities of the development crisis

.

Firstly

, 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, which leave their mark on the course of the crisis.

Secondly

, we are faced with the difficulty of educating children at this moment due to the fact that “the change in the pedagogical system applied to the child does not keep up with the rapid changes in his personality” (Vygotsky L. S., 1984, pp. 252-253). Conflicts with adults arise more often at this time, and with them come painful and painful experiences. A three-year-old child for some time becomes stubborn, capricious, obstinate and self-willed. A seven-year-old child at this time becomes unbalanced, unrestrained and capricious. In thirteen-year-old adolescents, their performance decreases, their previous interests fade and often die out, and their behavior becomes negative (Davydov V.V., 1986). In general, it should be borne in mind that the crisis stage is always accompanied by a decrease in the rate of progress of the child in the course of learning.

At the same time, it must be borne in mind that the nature of the crisis largely depends on specific life situations. If parents, educators, teachers and other people significant to the child promptly take into account the changes occurring in him and build their attitude in accordance with them, then the course of the crisis is significantly mitigated. As A. N. Leontiev noted, “in reality, crises are by no means inevitable companions of mental development. What is inevitable is not crises, but turning points, qualitative shifts in development. On the contrary, a crisis is evidence of a turning point or shift that did not occur in a timely manner. There may be no crises at all if the child’s mental development does not develop spontaneously, but is a rationally controlled process—the process of education” (Leontyev A.N., 1981, p. 518).

The presence of crisis periods in a child’s development presupposes 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. The progressive nature of development is attenuated. This is probably why L.N. Tolstoy called this time “the desert of loneliness.”

1.1. Newborn crisis

A person comes into this life, and at this moment he is faced with the most important crisis of his life - birth. For a newborn’s body, the process of birth is a severe physical test that depletes his body and is a powerful stressful situation. How difficult it is for the mother at this moment, but what horror the child experiences at the same time, it is difficult to imagine, although there are theories that every person has a memory of this, which is stored deep in the unconscious, and has a powerful influence in the future on the formation of the psyche.

A newborn is initially helpless. As soon as he is born, he must adapt to living conditions that differ sharply from existence in the womb. His life depends on how the body can adapt to changed environmental conditions.

Many modern psychologists point to the importance of the process of natural birth, because this crisis is the most important link in the mental development of a child.

Official statistics prove that children born naturally adapt faster and more effectively to society than the so-called “Caesareans” - children born as a result of a “Caesarean section”, among whom introversion is a pronounced feature.

The mental development of a child during infancy begins with the first cry, although most scientists have divided opinions on this matter. It is believed that the first cry is not only the result of a spasm of the glottis that accompanies respiratory reflexes, but also the first manifestation of a negative emotion. In the first days of life, a child responds with a cry to unpleasant sensations associated with the need for food, sleep, and warmth. A smile appears somewhat, expressing positive emotions, which is usually either when visually concentrating on an object, or in response to affectionate words addressed to it and the smile of an adult (end of the first - beginning of the second month). We can say that the manifestation of a smile in a child is caused by receiving impressions associated with an adult and gradually develops a special emotional-motor reaction addressed to an adult, which is called a revival complex. The child focuses his gaze on the adult’s face, smiles at him, animatedly moves his legs and arms, and makes sounds. All this is a manifestation of the emerging need for communication, the child’s first social need.

1.2 The crisis of the first year is an age-related crisis that occurs at the junction of infancy and early age, when the image of the self begins to take shape. It is based on the experience accumulated by the child in relationships with people around him and the objective world. The emerging image of the Self, in turn, qualitatively changes the nature of these relationships. From being immediate, they become mediated by the child’s attitude towards himself and his assessment of the adult’s actions. Behaviorally, K. p.g. manifests itself in various symptoms depending on the nature of relationships with surrounding adults. These symptoms are in many ways similar to those of other critical ages (3 and 7 years).

With an adequate attitude of adults to the personality, skills and capabilities of the child, progressive changes in activity and behavior are noted: the rapid accumulation of skills and abilities, the emergence of confidence, persistence in achieving goals, in communicating with loved ones and strangers. In the case of excessive demands from adults for a child or, on the contrary, underestimated ones, as well as in the case of an indifferent attitude, ignoring the child’s personality and his achievements, symptoms such as touchiness, capriciousness, stubbornness, aggression, and sharp affective outbursts often appear. Particularly characteristic are frequent manifestations of disobedience in routine moments: difficulties in going to bed, feeding, dressing. Typically, such symptoms disappear if parents begin to play more with the child, positively assessing his skills, independent actions, showing sensitivity and respect for the child’s personality, his desires, the right to choose actions, activities, etc. If parents fail to change their attitude to the child, then suppression of his personality or consolidation of conflictual relationships may occur.

1.3. Crisis of three years.

The crisis of three years is marked by the appearance and manifestation of the “will” of the child. During this period, the relationship between a child and an adult turns into a difficult test. The child begins to compare himself with adults and wants to enjoy the same rights and perform the same actions. He defends his independence and self-sufficiency in a stubborn desire to do this and not otherwise, feeling the charm and exciting anxiety of his own expression of will. This captivates him so much that he begins to consciously resist the will of the adult and openly oppose his desires to his expectations.

Important symptoms of the crisis of three years (E. Koehler):

- negativism. Expressed by refusal to obey the demands of adults.

- stubbornness. An individual is singled out and a demand is made that it be taken into account. The child insists on his demands and decisions.

- obstinacy. As a rule, this is a protest against the order that exists in the house.

- self-will. The child himself wants to do something, strives for emancipation from the adult.

- devaluation of adults. Mother is fool" .

- protest-riot. The child is in a state of conflict, war with others.

- desire for despotism. (found in families with only one child)

All these symptoms develop within the relationship between an adult and a child. Attempts to communicate with a child within the framework of a previously established relationship can lead to the maintenance of opposition, stubbornness and negativism.

This period becomes decisive for establishing the relationship between good will and hate-filled self-affirmation, between cooperation and self-will, self-expression or humble servility. But it is the experience of crisis that sharpens the child’s sensitivity to the feelings and experiences of other people, teaching not only positive communication skills, but also the skills of acceptable forms of isolating oneself from others. The child must emerge from this period with a sense of initiative, as the basis for a reliable sense of his own ambitions and goals.

1.4. Crisis of seven years. Ready for school.

The main symptom of the seven-year crisis is the loss of spontaneity.

This is due to the fact that between the desire to do something and the activity itself, a new moment arises - the experience of what significance this action will have for the child himself, what it can bring. This is an internal orientation regarding the meaning of an activity, its positive and negative manifestations, satisfaction or dissatisfaction from it. Thus, in the mental development of the child, the emotional and semantic basis of the action arises for the first time. According to the views of D.B. Elkonin, when an orientation toward the meaning of an action appears, then we can talk about the child’s transition to a new age. Diagnosis of this transition is one of the most pressing problems of modern developmental psychology. Directly related to this problem is the problem of the child’s readiness for school, his mental and moral development.

During this period, the characteristic features of the child’s behavior are the so-called “mannering” and the “bittersweet” symptom. Mannerism manifests itself in the fact that the child constantly “builds up something” of himself, plays roles and images invented by himself, and often becomes secretive. The “bittersweet” symptom in a child is caused by the desire to hide the internal (and sometimes physical) sensation of pain and fear. The child begins to withdraw into himself and becomes uncontrollable. The crisis requires a transition to a new social situation, a new content of relationships, including with loved ones. The child strives to carry out mandatory, socially necessary and socially useful activities (according to D.B. Elkonin) / These tendencies are expressed in the desire to go to school as soon as possible.

The problem of school readiness still does not have a clear solution. Often a child comes to school with higher developmental indicators, but later it is discovered that the child is not mentally ready.

1.5 Adolescence crisis.

The image of the physical “I” and self-awareness in general is influenced by the pace of puberty. Children with late maturation appear to be in the least advantageous position; acceleration creates more favorable opportunities for personal development. After the relatively calm primary school age, adolescence seems turbulent and complex. Development at this stage really proceeds at a rapid pace, especially many changes are observed in terms of personality formation. And, perhaps, the main feature of a teenager is personal instability. Opposite traits, aspirations, tendencies coexist and fight with each other, determining the inconsistency of the character and behavior of a growing child.

Many teenagers, falling under the influence of a physical condition, begin to get very nervous and blame themselves for their failure. These sensations are often not realized, but latently form tension that is difficult for a teenager to cope with. Against such a background, any external difficulties are perceived as especially tragic.

Adolescence is a period of desperate attempts to “get through everything.” At the same time, a teenager for the most part begins his journey with taboo or previously impossible aspects of adult life. Many teenagers try alcohol and drugs out of curiosity. If this is done not for testing, but for courage, physical dependence arises. But overindulgence and testing can lead to psychological dependence, which manifests itself in tension, anxiety, and irritability.

Teenagers are quite frivolous about human vices and weaknesses and, as a result, quickly turn to alcohol and drugs, turning them from a source of oriented behavior (curiosity) into an object of their needs. Against this background, reflecting on his “fall,” the teenager often turns it into a form of self-affirmation, drowning out the inner feeling of loss of himself, his personal crisis.

Teenagers are very curious about sexual relationships. Where internal inhibitions are weak, where the sense of responsibility for oneself and others is poorly developed, readiness for sexual contacts with representatives of the opposite and sometimes the same sex breaks through. A high degree of tension before and after sexual intercourse places a severe test on the psyche. First sexual impressions can have an impact on the sexual life of an adult. Therefore, it is important that these impressions reflect decent forms of interaction between young sexual partners. The tension from the uncertainty of life in a new capacity (smoker, sexual partner, etc.) as a result of loss of self-identity pushes many adolescents into a state of acute crisis.

Separately, we should point out the adolescent crisis associated with spiritual growth and changes in mental status. Although during this period there is an objective change in the social status of the adolescent (new relationships emerge with loved ones, peers, teachers; the field of activity expands, etc.), the most important factor influencing the emergence of a crisis is reflection on the inner world and deep dissatisfaction with oneself. Loss of identity with oneself, the discrepancy between previous ideas about oneself and today’s image - this is the main content of adolescent experiences. Many teenagers experience a crisis in external manifestations of negativism - meaningless opposition to others, unmotivated opposition to parents and teachers. The task of close adults and psychologists here is clear - it is necessary to get involved in the problems of the adolescent and try to make his life easier during this period.

1.6. Middle age crisis.

The midlife crisis is the strangest and most terrible time in a person’s mental development. Many people (especially creative ones), not finding strength in themselves and not finding a new meaning in life, simply leave it. This period (after adolescence) accounts for the largest number of suicides. Ideas about life formed between the ages of twenty and thirty often do not satisfy a person. Analyzing the path traveled, his achievements and failures, a person discovers that despite an already established and outwardly prosperous life, his personality is imperfect, that a lot of time and effort was wasted... In other words, there is a reassessment of values, a critical revision of one’s “I”.

Having realized himself during his youth, a person suddenly realizes that, in essence, he is faced with the same task - search, self-determination in new circumstances of life, taking into account real opportunities (including limitations that he had not noticed before). This crisis manifests itself in a feeling of the need to “do something” and indicates that a person is moving to a new age level - the age of adulthood. “The Crisis of Thirty” is the conventional name for this crisis. This state can occur earlier or later; the feeling of a crisis state can occur repeatedly throughout life (as in childhood, adolescence, adolescence), since the development process proceeds in a spiral without stopping.

1.7 “Knot period” Crisis of old age.

In old age (old age), a person has to overcome three sub-crises. The first of them is to re-evaluate one’s own “I” in addition to its professional role, which for many people remains the main one until retirement.

The second sub-crisis is associated with the awareness of the fact of deteriorating health and aging of the body, which gives a person the opportunity to develop the necessary indifference in this regard.

As a result of the third sub-crisis, a person’s self-concern disappears, and now he can accept the thought of death without horror.

There comes a time when, in the space of individual existence, a tense dialogue between life and death begins to clearly sound, the tragedy of temporality is realized. Nevertheless, aging, fatal diseases and dying are perceived not as components of the life process, but as complete defeat and a painful misunderstanding of the limited ability to control nature .

It can be stated that there are two leading attitudes in their attitude towards death: firstly, the reluctance to burden their loved ones, and secondly, the desire to avoid painful suffering. This period is also called the “nodular” period, because, not wanting to be burdened with old age and death, many older people begin to prepare for death, collect things associated with the ritual, and save money for the funeral. Therefore, many in a similar position are experiencing a deep and all-encompassing crisis, affecting simultaneously the biological, emotional, philosophical and spiritual aspects of life. In the scientific work “On Death and Dying,” Elisabeth Kübler-Ross emphasizes the importance of open and honest communication with dying people, the willingness of the latter discuss any topics psychologically close to them. As a result of this approach, they can teach the survivors important things relating not only to the final phases of life, but also to the problems of the workings of human consciousness, as well as to some rare aspects of our existence in general. In addition, this process will enrich its participants and, possibly, reduce their level of anxiety regarding their own death. In this regard, it is important to understand the socio-psychological mechanisms of human adaptation to the phenomenon of death. We are talking about a system of psychological protection, certain models of symbolic immortality, and the social approbation of death - the cult of ancestors, memorial rites, funeral and memorial services, and educational programs of a propaedeutic nature, in which the phenomenon of death becomes a topic of reflection and spiritual quest. Culture of empathy for death another person is an integral component of the general culture of both the individual and society as a whole. At the same time, it is quite rightly emphasized that the attitude towards death serves as a standard, an indicator of the moral state of society, its civilization. It is important to create not only conditions for maintaining normal physiological vitality, but also the prerequisites for optimal life activity, to satisfy the needs of elderly and elderly people for knowledge, culture, art, literature, which are often beyond the reach of older generations.

At the present stage, the crisis situation for elderly and elderly people is caused and aggravated by the following circumstances:

1. The economic status of this social group is extremely low, and a process of impoverishment is occurring.

2. There is no well-thought-out system of professional routes for people of retirement age who have retained labor and social activity.

3. The health status of people in this age category is usually worse than that of younger members of society. The presence of chronic diseases forces them to seek medical help more often, and this, accordingly, leads to additional costs. There is practically no rehabilitation system.

4. The increasing novelty of the situation, the constant emergence of new, unusual realities of social life at the final stage of human ontogenetic development gives rise to a feeling of anxiety, apocalyptic moods, and a crisis of social identity in the elderly and elderly.

5. Social assistance services are in their infancy.

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Role and significance in personality development

The crisis of age-related development has a great impact on the development of a person as an individual. Childhood and youth crises are important for the formation of personality. Such crises begin and end unnoticed, the child becomes emotional, capricious and uncontrollable. During this period, the baby begins to realize himself as an individual and defend his rights and his opinion.

Teenagers often experience decreased performance and fatigue. Teenagers overcome internal conflicts and experience anxiety and worry. During this period, young people begin to realize what their place is in this world and learn to distinguish true values ​​from imposed and false beliefs.

They form and learn to defend their opinions about such concepts as love, friendship, devotion, fidelity and honesty. Childhood and adolescent crises “prepare” young people for adulthood. At this time, it is important to help the child find himself in this world.

For an adult, crises are also very important. They help get rid of past beliefs that interfere with the development and realization of existing potential. As an adult, a person learns to take responsibility for everything that happens in his life, acquires new knowledge and skills, as well as strengthening his character.

Youthful romanticism gradually fades into the background, a person learns to think sensibly and pragmatically. Crises also help an adult psychologically prepare for old age.

Coming of age crisis article on the topic

Coming of age crisis

Growing up crises are an integral part of child development and personality formation, which separates one age stage (critical ages) from another.

In Russian psychology, there are two main views on the nature of critical ages:

• critical ages are necessary stages of development when special psychological work occurs (L.S. Vygotsky, D.B. Elkonin);
• critical ages are necessary qualitative transformations, when a change in leading activity and a transition to a new system of relations simultaneously occur. The emphasis is on external, social conditions, rather than psychological mechanisms of development (A.N. Leontyev, L.I. Bozhovich).

Obviously, development is impossible without age-related crises. Child psychologists distinguish two types of ages:

- critical;

- stable.

During a crisis (a period of critical age), development occurs rapidly, rapidly, sometimes taking on a catastrophic character. This period is filled with disharmony, contradiction between the environment and the child’s attitude towards it.

In a stable period, development contributes to the formation of a new personality structure - a neoplasm, which in turn leads to disharmony between the child and the reality around him. It should be noted that the emergence of something new in a child’s psychological development is simultaneously accompanied by the collapse of the old.

One of the most difficult periods of child development is the 7-year-old crisis. This is evidenced by the attention paid to its study by outstanding psychologists and teachers (L.S. Vygotsky, D.B. Elkonin, A.N. Leontyev, L.I. Bozhovich, E. Erikson).

The crisis of 7 years is a psychological stage when the child loses his spontaneity and gains the freedom that is given to him by the arbitrariness and indirectness of his mental life: the child begins to perceive and be aware of his experiences, the “logic of feelings” appears. In addition, a child of this age is not only capable of not only being aware of his own experiences, but also of generalizing them (he can consciously say what he likes and what he doesn’t, without relying on the prompts of an authoritative adult).

Thanks to the beginning of school life, the child’s range of interests and social contacts expands; communication with adults and peers occurs arbitrarily, within the framework of certain rules.

The main manifestations of this crisis are mannerisms, antics, disobedience, denial of everything that adults tell him, which is typical for all children's crises: both for the 3-year-old crisis and for the teenage crisis. The child becomes poorly controlled, does not respond to comments from parents and adults, showing them that he does not hear them or goes into open conflict.

The result of each age-related crisis is a mental new formation, which becomes the basis for further development. As a result of this crisis, an important mental new formation occurs - the ability and need for social functioning: the child strives to take a new social position - the position of a schoolchild.

Let us consider the important mental characteristics of children of this age and the crisis of seven years in more detail.

Characteristics of the crisis of seven years

The emerging personality of a child of this age acquires an internal position that lasts for the rest of his life and determines his behavior, activities, attitude towards the surrounding society and himself. This position is formed depending on various factors: the psychological state of the child himself, his place in the environment, this environment itself.

The main psychological difficulty for a child of this age is the need to occupy a new, more “adult” position in life, the need to perform work that is important not only for him, but also for the people around him - parents, younger children, peers: first of all, this , of course, studying at school, but also helping parents with housework, in their work, playing sports, caring for pets on their own.

As a result, the child develops a new level of self-awareness - awareness of himself not only as a boy, son, play partner, but also as a friend, student, classmate, that is, an understanding of his social role, awareness of his social “I”, his place in society. It becomes important for the child to communicate with others, the form of communication, that is, how he communicates and how they communicate with him.

The beginning of school age, as one of the most important and turning points, is accompanied by a crisis, described in pedagogical and psychological literature as the 7-year-old crisis. The crisis of seven years is characterized by the following features: a child of this age (6-7 years), first of all, loses his childish spontaneity. The main reason for this spontaneity is the lack of differentiation between inner and outer life. The behavior and activity of a preschool child (his experiences, needs, desires, expression of these desires) are still an insufficiently differentiated whole. In adults, behavior is highly differentiated, and therefore does not give the impression of being as spontaneous and naive in its own way as the behavior of a child.

It is known that a seven-year-old child begins to quickly grow in length, his teeth change, which is a manifestation of a number of changes in the child’s body, and the changes are of a deeper, more complex nature than the changes of the previous crisis of three years. An active psychological transformation occurs, manifested in external signs: the child begins to act mannered, capricious, his gait and manner of movement change. Fidgetiness, clowning around, lack of motivation for some actions, instability of behavior - all these are the main symptoms of the crisis of seven years.

No one is surprised if a preschool child says stupid things, jokes, plays, but the state of a child of early school age, pretending to be a jester, causing condemnation from adults by his actions, gives the impression of unmotivated behavior.

An important feature of the seven-year crisis is the beginning of differentiation between the internal and external aspects of the child’s personality.

The loss of spontaneity in a child means the introduction of an intellectual element into his behavior, which becomes a link between emotion and direct action and makes naive and direct actions characteristic of a preschool child impossible. The crisis of seven years leads to the fact that in every experience, in every manifestation of it, a certain intellectual moment arises in the child.

An essential feature of a person’s perception at the beginning of school age is structure, when perception is not made up of individual parts, but is an image within which various parts exist. An adult perceives the surrounding reality not only as the proximity of objects or their contiguity, but also as the entire reality with semantic connections and relationships.

Just as in speech there are not only names, but also meanings of objects, so a child, already at an early age, is forced to express in his speech not only the meanings of objects, but his own and other people’s actions, his internal states and sensations (“I want to sleep,” “I want to eat.” ", "I'm in pain"). In communication, a person has to name, associate his internal states with words, and therefore generalize.

In infancy, a child lacks meaningful perception: he perceives the room as a whole and does not perceive chairs, a table, a bed, etc. separately; he perceives everything as an inseparable whole, unlike an adult who examines individual parts of the background. The same thing happens with the child’s perception of his emotions: he is happy, upset, but does not understand that he is happy, like a baby when he is hungry, does not understand that he is hungry. A young child does not understand the difference between feeling hungry and knowing that he is hungry.

At the age of 7, when a crisis occurs, the child develops a structure of experiences when he begins to understand what it means “I am happy”, “I am sad”, “I am angry”, “I am kind”, “I am evil”, he has a meaningful understanding of his own experiences arises, he discovers the very fact of his experiences.

So, let’s highlight the main features of the seven-year crisis:

The child’s emotions and experiences acquire meaning (a rejoicing child understands that he is happy), thanks to which the child develops a new attitude towards himself, which was impossible before the generalization of experiences.

This process can be compared to a game of chess, when with each move new connections between the pieces appear on the chessboard. Experiences, acquiring meaning, create new connections among themselves, as a result of which a restructuring of the entire nature of the child’s experiences occurs by the age of 7.

By the seven-year crisis, generalization of experiences, or affective generalization, the logic of feelings, first appears. A school-age child acquires a generalization of feelings: if some situation has already happened to him several times, he develops an affective generalization, the nature of which also relates to a single experience or affect, as a concept relates to a single perception or memory.

For example, a preschool child lacks real self-esteem, pride, and ambition. The child loves himself, but he lacks self-love as a generalized attitude towards himself, the same in different situations, there is no self-esteem as such, a generalized attitude towards others and an understanding of his worth.

The level of demands on oneself, on success, on one’s position in the world around us arises precisely after the crisis of seven years. By the age of 7, a child experiences a number of complex psychological formations that cause behavioral difficulties that are fundamentally different from the difficulties of preschool age.

Due to the fact that during the seven-year crisis, differentiation of internal and external arises, semantic experience appears for the first time, and an acute struggle of experiences arises. A preschool child who cannot decide whether to take more or tastier candies is not waging an internal struggle, although he hesitates. Internal struggle (namely, the contradictions of experiences and the choice of one’s own experiences) becomes possible only at this age.

Such new developments of this age as pride and self-esteem remain with the child for life, and such symptoms of crisis as mannerisms and antics disappear over time. However, it is at this age that forms of difficult education first appear (conflicts, contradictory experiences, insoluble contradictions), which are not typical for preschool age.

In fact, when this internal bifurcation of experiences appears and an internal attitude arises, when for the first time a child becomes aware of his emotions, then that change in experiences takes place, without which school age would be impossible.

The child’s attitude towards the environment changes, therefore, the environment itself changes, since the emergence of self-esteem provokes the child’s desire to change the environment: the child begins to compare himself with other children (with peers and children older than himself) and demand equal treatment. This is clearly demonstrated by the example of some prohibitions on the part of parents: if a preschooler could come to terms with some kind of parental prohibition, then a child of this age will already actively defend his rights. Even if he understands that in fact, he is not at all interested in what is forbidden to him.

The most dangerous moment in the 7-year crisis is the change of authorities. If previously parents were the highest authority for the child, and everything they said was the truth, now parents fade into the background. The teacher becomes the leader in the eyes of the child - any word he says is law for the child. Therefore, in this case, the qualifications of the teacher are especially important, who at this moment becomes the king and god for the beginning schoolchild.

The personal crisis of seven years as a crisis of worldview plays an important role in the further development of the child. It is extremely important to treat the child with understanding and patience during this period:

- avoid extremes in communication with the child;

- coordinate the style of behavior and communication with the child with all family members;

- do not ignore the child’s behavior, monitor what is happening to him, and try to convey to him that his parents and relatives have other things to do, they cannot take care of him around the clock, push the child to greater independence and initiative: give him independent tasks so that he feels independent and autonomous from those around him, does not rely only on loved ones, but also relies on his own skills and efforts;

- at the same time, the child should always feel the support and approval of an adult who is authoritative in his eyes: ignoring or prohibitions are not the most effective means of education; if possible, it is worth doing without them.

As mentioned above, the best that parents can give their child during the crisis of seven years is attention, love, kindness and support. We must understand that this crisis is not a pathology, but a normal stage in the development of a child’s psyche. Therefore, the easiest way to overcome this difficult stage is through joint efforts.

List of used literature

• Vygotsky L.S. Questions of child psychology. St. Petersburg: Soyuz, 1999. - 224 p.
• Vygotsky L.S. The problem of the child's cultural development. // Bulletin of Moscow University. Episode 14 “Psychology”. - 1991, No. 4. — P. 5-18.
• Leontyev A.N. Mental development of a child as a process of assimilation of human experience. / Reader on child psychology: from baby to teenager: textbook / ed. G.V. Burmenskaya. – 2nd edition, expanded. M.: MPSI, 2005. – P. 82-91.
• Obukhova L.F. Age-related psychology. M.: Russian Pedagogical Agency, 1996. - 374 p.
• Elkonin D.B. Child psychology. M.: 1960. - 384 p.
• Erickson E.G. Childhood and society / trans. [from English] and scientific. ed. A.A. Alekseev. St. Petersburg: Summer Garden, 2000. - 416 p.

Developmental crises in psychology

A developmental crisis is a turning point in the normal course of psychological development of an individual.

They accompany a person throughout his life. The most severe crises that cannot be ignored are the following:

• Crisis of 3 years. This is one of the very first big crises in a person’s life. During this period, the baby becomes persistent, uncontrollable, irritable and very stubborn. His tastes and preferences change. It seems to parents that the child is simply doing everything out of spite, but this is not so, with all his behavior the child wants to show that he is no longer small, can do everything himself and have his own opinion. During this period, you should not put pressure on the child; you need to allow him to take the initiative and make his own decisions. It is necessary to control behavior very delicately so as not to make the child want to become even more stubborn.
• The teenage crisis can occur from 13 to 19 years of age. Parents fear this period most of all, because it is at this stage of their development that a person commits many rash acts. In addition, during this period, hormonal changes in the body occur, which affects the character. At this time, the teenager decides on the choice of his profession and place in society. Parents need to be patient and understanding. At this time, you need to become a friend to a teenager. A lot of pressure from parents will make you want to rebel and do the opposite. Many mistakes made in youth can leave an imprint on the rest of a person’s life. The parents' task is to prevent this from happening.
• Quarter life crisis. Occurs at the age of 25-30, when a person begins to understand and accept himself more. During this period, a person abandons the ideals imposed by parents and society, infantilism disappears and the ability to realistically evaluate everything that happens appears. At this age, a person first recognizes himself as an adult. Many people consider themselves unprepared for adult life, which results in anxiety, apathy and fear of the future.
• A midlife crisis occurs between 40 and 60 years of age. It is at this time that a person realizes that most of his life has already been lived. Often people worry about unfulfilled plans and goals and mentally prepare for old age.

Classification

Crises of personality development haunt people of all ages. It all starts in infancy and goes until the moment when a person retires.

• Newborn crisis. A child needs love and care. When a young creature has little communication, he develops new emotional and situational forms of communication.
• Infancy. The child begins to move, and he needs someone from the adults to pay him attention on a constant basis. At this age, the child learns about the world through play.
• Crisis 3 years. The child has learned to walk and talk, and now he has a desire to explore this world. To do this, he constantly asks a variety of questions, trying to bring clarity to what is happening around him.
• Preschool crisis. The child begins to engage in self-knowledge. It is important for him that adults understand him and perceive him as a mature individual.
• School crisis. The child begins to think logically. He understands the world through the analysis and explanation of teachers. Thinking and the ability for long reasoning are formed.
• Crisis 13 years. The teenager becomes aware of himself, his social circle expands. He emphasizes his maturation and wants to become autonomous.
• Youth period. A person separates from his parents, becomes an independent person, develops his own worldview and forms personal interests. Finding your calling.
• Middle age crisis. A person has reached the middle of his life and, looking back, tries to understand whether everything in life is good. Often individuals compare their lives with the lives of friends and against this background they understand whether everything is fine with them or whether it’s time to change something.
• Crisis of old age. A person retires and rethinks his interests. He understands what is important to him and what he has achieved in life.

Reasons for appearance

The causes of crises directly depend on a person’s age:

• The neonatal crisis is associated with the fact that the baby leaves the mother’s womb and comes into a new, incomprehensible world to which it is necessary to adapt and adapt.
• In the first year of his life, the baby faces another crisis, the reason for which is the awareness of his independence. At this time, the child becomes capricious, refuses to fulfill the requests of his parents, and behaves illogically and contradictorily.
• After 3 years, the child begins to separate himself from the outside world, becoming aware of his own “I”. At this age, the baby tries to separate from adults, showing his independence as much as possible. The child becomes uncontrollable, ignores all prohibitions, tries to do everything in defiance, often throws tantrums, not wanting to obey anyone.
• The crisis of 7 years appears due to the child entering a new social environment (school) and the appearance of his first responsibilities. Successes and failures in studies, relationships with classmates - all this leads to stress. At this time, the child may develop new character traits. He feels like an adult and defends the right to make his own decisions. Prohibitions and advice cause a negative reaction. During a crisis, illogical behavior, antics, mockery, and fidgeting are possible.
• The cause of the pubertal crisis is the hormonal changes in the body due to puberty. At this time, the teenager goes through the stage of rebellion and tries to prove to everyone that he is already an adult. Possible manifestations of aggression, nervousness, isolation, feelings of inferiority. During this period, the teenager reacts sharply to criticism regarding his appearance or personal characteristics.
• A midlife crisis occurs due to unfulfilled expectations and unfulfilled goals. During this period of his life, a person understands that time has already been lost and many of his desires will never come true.
• The retirement crisis is associated with a change in the usual way of life. During this period of life, a person realizes that he is not in demand, despite his remaining ability to work.

Pharmacies Pharmakon

What are you afraid of? Or the Crisis of Forty Years The 40th birthday is considered a turning point in a person’s life. In fact, this is the time of fulfillment of human destiny in different spheres of life: professional, social, personal...

The most important feature of this age is the awareness of responsibility for the content of one’s life to oneself and to other people. The development of the personality of a mature person requires getting rid of unjustified maximalism, characteristic of youth and partly of youth, a balanced and multifaceted approach to life’s problems. Past experience, in the absence of reasonable flexibility, can become a source of conservatism, rejection of everything that does not come from oneself. For these reasons, for most people who have reached the cherished date of 40 years, a time of crisis comes, which in psychology is called the “crisis of forty.”

It occurs when the crisis of 30 years (crisis of the meaning of life) did not lead to a proper solution to problems, that is, to a certain extent, it is a repetition of it.

In addition to problems usually associated with professional activity, the crisis of 40 years is often caused by aggravation of family relationships. At this time, children usually begin to live independent lives, relatives of the older generation die, etc. The loss of loved ones, the loss of a very important common aspect of the life of the spouses - direct participation in the lives of children, daily care for them - contribute to the final understanding of the nature of the marital relationship. And if, apart from the children of the spouses, nothing significant connects them both, there is a possibility that the family may fall apart. It is no coincidence that the crisis of 40 years is often associated with serious changes in life, including changing professions and starting a new family.

DIE

In other dimensions

During times of transition, our way of life undergoes sudden changes in four dimensions.

First dimension

: internal sense of self in relation to others.

Second dimension

: feeling of safety and danger.

Third dimension

: our perception of time – do we have enough time or are we starting to feel a lack of it?

Fourth dimension

: feeling of physical decline.

All these sensations set the basic tone of life and push us to certain decisions.

Three ages

There are three interrelated, but not coinciding ages: chronological (passport), physical (biological) and psychological. It is well known that a person’s physical age is often quite different from his passport age. For example, at 40 years old you can look and, most importantly, have the condition of all body systems like a young person, or you can show all the signs of aging and fading.

In maturity, all three options for the relationship between psychological age and chronological age are possible: adequacy, lag and advance. This is precisely what is associated with the emergence of various fears and complexes of adulthood.

· Firstly, psychological age being ahead of chronological age at 40 years usually means premature aging

.

Most often, this is due to the finiteness of set and realized life goals, which does not make it possible to have new long-term prospects. Premature aging is often associated with misfortune, for example, the loss of a loved one, serious illness, natural or social disaster. Very often the fear of loneliness and lack of demand develops.

· Secondly, the lag in psychological age from chronological age can be of a different nature

.

There is a well-known type of “eternal youth” who cannot and does not want to grow up. For example, a strong and long-term lag in psychological age can occur in the case of a very close relationship between a mother and an only child. Having become an adult, he remains passive, helpless and requires constant care from a loved one - mother or wife (husband), if he dares to start a family. In such cases, the lag in psychological age leads to the implementation of infantile attitudes of the individual, and orientation towards long-established stereotypes, artificial prolongation of the lifestyle characteristic of the previous age period, acquires the functions of a defense mechanism. A 40-year-old adult develops fear

: “It’s too early for me” or “I can’t”, etc.

Thus, the development of complexes and fears in forty-year-olds is directly related to a person’s awareness of his role in life, with his past, future, and present. At the same time, it can be argued that all fears and complexes live in our heads.

· Woman aged 40

From a physiological point of view, a woman’s withering occurs gradually, and, as a rule, this process “declares” itself in full force after 45 years.

The appearance of representatives of the fair (at any age!) sex changes (such is the wise nature), and often these changes bring frustration: the figure is noticeably rounded, plumper, noticeable wrinkles appear. It seems to a woman that her natural beauty is slipping away, and is being replaced by withering - external, spiritual...

The experiences associated with this time of life make a woman very vulnerable to signs of the past. It is often during this period that the past is given unjustifiably great importance, and the real present is devalued. Sometimes you have to observe 40-year-old women who suddenly begin to behave like teenagers (excessive makeup, ridiculously numerous jewelry, “strange” clothes and manners). Behind these facts is a fear of reality

, experiencing the past as extremely valuable. Over the years, it becomes more and more difficult for such a woman to resist the past; there is a temptation to retreat into it, to look for lost youth in the “golden age.” At this age, she is most acutely aware that she has limited opportunities to meet a worthy couple, start a family, and have children. Just as it is natural to want to find a husband at any cost, especially since young girls do not allow you to relax.

For others, it’s the opposite: by the age of 40, children have grown up or are almost grown up, and the opportunity arises to live for themselves. And sometimes there is a desire, before it’s too late, to “change my husband.”

All women over 40 are divided into two categories:

· those who are confident in themselves;

· those who cannot boast of high self-esteem.

The first, confident ones, become happy - they know how to accept life as it is and find pleasure in every day.

But the second category - those who are unsure of themselves - as soon as they turn 40, they begin to be terribly embarrassed about everything possible: their body, age, wrinkles, actions, desires, dreams, even their own laughter. They reason approximately like this: “I am a respectable, grown-up woman, and it is indecent for me to behave this way (wear this skirt, listen to these songs, go to this cinema, think exactly this way, etc.).” This is how emotional tension arises, and “old age” really comes much earlier than expected.

· Man aged 40

Psychologists say that the crisis of 40 years is typical for both men and women. Although in society it is more common to talk about a crisis in men. One of the versions why more attention is paid to the stronger half of humanity in this matter is that their crisis is more acute and severe. It brings with it more social consequences. Women, due to their natural characteristics, experience this stage of life with fewer losses.

By and large, the same natural changes occur with a man as with a woman. By the end of the period of maturity, he must rethink his place in the changed socio-psychological space

, where he experiences a strong influence of experiences coming, among other things, from
physiological changes
in the body.

One of the most “terrible” male fears is associated with the instinct of self-preservation

.

Men are afraid of getting sick or getting into a car accident, for example, which will result in restrictions. This is perceived as very painful.

At the age of 40, a man often becomes the owner of a large family, where he needs to be not only a father, but also a grandfather, father-in-law, etc. He needs to build relationships with people

, which belong to his family, but are, in fact, strangers to it.
At the same time, the problem of changing relationships with a spouse who is entering menopause (or is already experiencing it) arises. This problem is not always resolved positively; serious family conflicts
, including a breakdown in relationships.

Another strong fear is to be worse than others. From childhood, men were required to be a leader. He is forced to compete from a young age. The man constantly lives with the thought that “Vasya will come, who has a better car,” and vigilantly looks around in order to notice that Vasya in time. He is afraid of not being a support for his loved ones. In turn, the desire to be successful and first in everything is not easy - the more achieved in life, the more a man is afraid of collapse

. Life shows that by the middle of the period of maturity (45 years), a representative of the strong half of humanity seems to rediscover the joys of life: from cooking to philosophy, and often literally in one day can make decisions about changing their lifestyle and implement it with enviable pedantry.

Age is a reason to be proud

The crises of life are objective - these are the laws of nature. But if you take some conscious steps in time, you will cope with your fears - those that lie at the heart of the crisis. The main postulate that you must learn is: DON'T BE ASHEMED ABOUT YOUR AGE!

Life doesn't stop after 30, 40, 50 and even 70. Accept yourself, love yourself at any age!

Our advice will help and support you in your desire to cope with the problems caused by age.

· Introspection

Identify your strengths and weaknesses. Try keeping a journal that will act as a mirror reflecting your life's journey. This is an important factor in raising self-esteem and building self-confidence.

· Find a role model

People who achieve great success in life often have before their eyes an image of a great person whom they want to be like.

· Map out the steps for personal and professional growth

Set goals that you need to achieve by a certain date. They should not be too easy, but also achievable for you.

· Determine the means

Decide how you will achieve your goals. Ill-thought-out means lead to unnecessary wanderings, which will delay the achievement of the goal for an indefinite period of time.

· Allow yourself the forbidden

Today, allow yourself what you dismissed as unacceptable in your youth, no matter what area of ​​life it concerns: work, home, hobby - you can do anything now! Your time has come. Say more often: “I can afford it.”

· Develop the “Achievement Syndrome”

a) identify yourself with the heroes of works of fiction who, after difficult trials, achieve their goals (for example, the heroine of M. Mitchell’s novel “Gone with the Wind”);

b) compete with other people;

c) create images of future success in your imagination.

Every age has its advantages.
It is, first of all, a resource - experience, knowledge, connections, that is, everything that is necessary for life. Make full use of it. Back to section

Periodization

A crisis of age-related development occurs during the transition from one age to another. At the same time, the person becomes withdrawn and irritable.

Childhood crises

Most age-related crises occur in childhood or adolescence.

Periodization of childhood crises:

• Neonatal crisis (occurs from birth to 2 months). During this period, the child adapts to new living conditions.
• Year 1 crisis. Usually occurs after the child's first year of life.
• Crisis of 3 years. At this age, the child shows stubbornness and self-will.
• Crisis 7 years. During this period, the need to lead an active social life is formed.
• Adolescent crisis (from 11 to 15 years). An attitude towards oneself as a member of society is formed. This crisis occurs against the background of hormonal changes in the body associated with growing up.
• Crisis of adolescence (from 15 to 21 years old). This is a time of searching for oneself in a wider social environment. A period of new achievements and self-realization.

Adult crises

Periods of crises in adulthood:

• Average maturity (crisis occurs between the ages of 30 and 60). Life plans are adjusted and priorities are set (family, career, hobbies).
• Aging and old age (from 60 years). Getting used to a new social status, searching for new activities, moral preparation for old age.

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 child's 1-year crisis here.

Signs and manifestations of a fracture

Signs of a crisis depend on the person’s age. In childhood and adolescence, the crisis is endured violently and emotionally. In adulthood, it can manifest itself in the form of apathy and depression.

In children

Before the age of 2 years, children show their dissatisfaction in the form of aggression, hysterics, crying and insults. This happens at moments when a child is forced to do something he doesn’t like. Children often throw toys and fall to the floor in hysterics.

At the age of 3 years, in addition to negativism, a child exhibits such qualities as obstinacy, stubbornness, self-will and protests. The child tries to defend his point of view and do everything the way he wants. At this age, the opinions and desires of parents are devalued. Children show jealousy, aggression and obstinacy, and often throw tantrums.

At the age of 7 years, signs of atypical behavior appear - mannerisms, illogical actions, antics, outbursts of aggression.

In adolescence, emotional instability, depression, and sudden mood swings appear. There is a desire to seem like an adult, to separate oneself from parents, which is why frequent conflicts occur, reluctance to accept criticism, prohibitions and previously established rules of behavior. At this age, the older generation loses its authority, teenagers strive to communicate with peers.

The crisis of 17 years manifests itself in the form of doubts and self-doubt. Anxiety and nervousness are also common.

In adults

In adulthood, crises manifest themselves in the form of depression. Most often, people do not show any emotions, withdrawing into themselves. This affects a person’s health and relationships with people around him. Hidden negative emotions often break through, causing outbursts of aggression and the desire to “shift” the blame for one’s failures onto another person.

Age crisis. Pathology or normal?

By definition, an age crisis is a transition period between age stages, which is inevitably experienced by a person during the transition from one age stage to another upon completion of certain stages of development. This crisis is caused by physiological shifts and changes in the body, functional changes, and such a crisis is called normal, since it accompanies a person throughout his life. But the peculiarity of the course of the age crisis depends on the person’s temperament, his character, individual, biological and social relationships. During a crisis, a person becomes unstable and even to weak external stimuli can respond unreasonably emotionally, violently, and aggressively.

In a state of real crisis, the emotional sphere of a person changes. He may experience one of three dominant feelings: depression, destructive feelings or loneliness.

The depressive reaction manifests itself in feelings such as apathy, indifference, disappointment, fatigue, melancholy, depression, and indifference.

Destructive feelings include irritability, anger, resentment, aggression, hatred, annoyance, stubbornness, pickiness, suspiciousness, envy.

Loneliness is expressed in such experiences as a feeling of uselessness, misunderstanding, dead end, hopelessness, emptiness nearby.

For a person in crisis, the volume of communication changes: it is either sharply limited, i.e. a person withdraws into himself or increases sharply, and he experiences loneliness in the crowd. A person seems to be looking for oblivion in the frequency of superficial contacts with other people. There are patterns of experiencing a crisis that are more characteristic of women and more characteristic of men.

The patterns that are characteristic of women are related to communication. Stereotypes allow a woman to show herself as weak, share her problems, and ask for help in solving them. Similar behavior in men is not approved and not welcomed by society. Therefore, men are characterized by a pattern of internal experience. The ability to independently cope with the situation and independence in decision-making is assumed. Therefore, for men, the external absence of signs of crisis does not mean its absence in reality.

Tension can grow inside a person, accumulate and express itself in self-aggressive, including suicidal ways. In addition, during a crisis, a woman is more likely to display aggressive emotions and aggressive behavior than a man.

By what signs can we determine the beginning of an approaching crisis?

The very first thing is the presence of a problem that creates discomfort that spreads to many areas of life. There are troubles at work, we cannot distract ourselves from this either at home, or on vacation, or when meeting with friends, this is one thought that has firmly settled in our head and spins day and night, like a broken record. Accordingly, the mental state begins to affect the physiology: sleep and appetite are lost, and what was previously enjoyed no longer brings pleasure. Then relationships with others and loved ones change for the worse. We are annoyed by things that we did not pay attention to before. There is a feeling that they do not understand us and are doing everything to spite us. The predisposition to crisis states is especially high in children, adolescents and older people. The risk group for the development of crisis conditions also includes people with physical exhaustion, those with psychological trauma, and those who have experienced a severe loss.

A crisis is not a dead end, but a kind of contradiction that each of us has to go through on the way to growing up. A person who survives a crisis always becomes stronger because he has experience that he did not have before the crisis. Age crises arise at the junction of two ages and characterize the completion of one stage of development and the beginning of another. This period is characterized by a rejection of the old, when a person loses some of what he previously acquired. A new formation central for a certain age carries a motivating force and becomes the starting point for the formation of the personality of a person of the next age.

When faced with a period of crisis, people develop different types of coping behavior.

The first type is problem-solving behavior. The main direction of behavior is adaptation to changed conditions.

The second type is regression. Here, the behavior is based on childhood forms of behavior, which in infancy made it possible to overcome the problem by shifting responsibility to others. The most common types of regression are alcoholism and drug addiction.

The third type is denial. The perception of reality is distorted in such a way as if the problem disappears by itself. Inertia begins to dominate - a state of inaction based on a person’s opinion that nothing can be done in a given situation, and any actions are doomed to failure.

The following symptoms are identified as indicators of a crisis state: decreased performance, stagnation, decrease and change in motivation, instability, inadequate self-esteem, vagueness of one’s own professional ideas, inadequate emotional reaction, inappropriate behavior.

Crisis of 33 years (youth: 20–40 years). A person begins to realize his own limitations and real possibilities. There is a final farewell to youth. The construction of our own nest and future stable life is in full swing. Long-term friendships are cooling. Men at this time usually take their first permanent mistress, get involved in their careers, and devote less time to home and children. Emancipated women experience the crisis of this age in the same way as men, and the rest experience depression from a decrease in the attention of their spouse in conditions of deep psychological and social dependence on him. One of the hallmarks of this crisis is the desire to change profession. At this point, many people change jobs, open their own businesses, or radically change their field of activity.

At 38–40 years old (adult: 40–60 years old) the midlife crisis unfolds, a period of extraordinary life changes. The main achievements at this age are a high level of professionalism, personal maturity, and a high level of reflection. Character traits and the boundaries of the psychological image have already been formalized, religious, economic, social, political interests and personal values ​​are stabilized, and the professional trajectory is clearly outlined. Closer to 40 years of age, a person begins to clearly realize how different his dreams and life plans are from the course and result of their implementation. At this age, youthful maximalism and excessive emotionality, mental and behavioral cruelty, inability and unwillingness to adapt and adapt to changing living conditions are inadequate. The number of problems in adult life is increasing, what they will be, and how ready we are for them is unknown. A person must be aware and be able to assess the real state of things, be ready to solve problems, and not complain about bad luck and the treachery of life.

The crisis of old age (60–80 years old) affects changes in three main areas: intellectual, emotional and moral. Everything that previously did not cause difficulties - counting quantities, remembering names, dates - is perceived with difficulty. People do not remember well what is happening to them now, but they remember very well the events of distant years. A person experiences attacks of causeless sadness and tearfulness. For a completely insignificant reason, strong nervous overexcitation arises, for example, watching a film about past times, and the association with the fact that it is not the times that one feels sorry for, but one who feels sorry for oneself as a young person in those times. Broken dishes - it’s not just the dishes that I feel sorry for, but the fact that a piece of memory goes with it, because this set was bought for the 50th anniversary. New norms of behavior, clothing, habits of spending free time, etc. are rejected. Attitudes to many aspects of life are changing. For an elderly person, his relevance and self-affirmation are important. Work from a means of living becomes the meaning of life. The central symptom of crisis in old age is the fear of death.

In addition to age-related crises, there is another amazingly important concept on which it is appropriate to focus special attention. This is psychological aging (growing up), independent of passport age.

Here, at the first stage, the connection is maintained with the type of activity that is leading for a person, i.e. directly related to the profession (usually teachers, doctors, artists, scientists).

At the second stage, there is a narrowing of the circle of interests due to the loss of professional attachments. When communicating with others, conversations on everyday topics predominate; only television news, TV series, neighbors, etc. are discussed. In groups of such people it is already difficult to discern the level of education and level of intellectual development.

The third stage is talking only about your health: what medications, what treatments, what herbs, etc., etc. tirelessly. In newspapers, magazines, and television programs, attention is drawn only to these topics. The best listener is the local doctor.

Look around you, look around. I think that without difficulty you can name more than one person or two, there are more, many more who are not of advanced age, not even retired, and the crisis seems to have passed or have simply not grown up to it, but have grown old psychologically. Became an old soul. When physiologically still young, full of strength, but... empty of soul, and from the age of 35, at best, or even 28, he firmly settled in the second or third, or even simultaneously in both of these stages of his psychological aging. Happy aging! Conscious and carefully acquired! And then there will be the fourth and fifth stages: the circle of communication narrows to the limit, the exposure of needs of a purely vital nature (food, peace, sleep); emotionality and communication fade away.

What is still happening to us? Are age-related crises really so terrible for a person, harmful, dangerous and the cause of all our ups and downs, failures and misfortunes? Is psychological aging associated with them? Or is it psychological aging that is paramount and has a destructive effect on age-related crises? Or again, both concepts are nothing more than another convenient screen for masking one’s own vices (laziness, cowardice, self-centeredness, etc.). I think there is no point in giving specific examples on this topic. More than enough of them can be found in any article, both here and in any psychological journal. Everything is not as complicated and scary in reality as they prefer to present it. Again, everything comes down to the question: “How far are we ready to go, to what level to sink, what other reasons and reasons to find, what obstacles to create with our own hands in front of ourselves, just not to notice the obvious - all the problems are in ourselves?” Why are they trying to make an ordinary physiological process to blame for everything that happens to us, starting from early childhood? When you listen to the myths and legends about the three-year crisis, your hair stands on end! Poor kids! What can we say about the teenage crisis or the crisis of 40 years?! But when you start explaining elementary physiology (an introductory anatomy course in a regular high school), what is actually happening to us and why, where things come from, how they interact, it immediately becomes obvious that the concept of crisis is closely adjacent to the concepts of “character”, “personality”, and even “habits”, “upbringing”, “level of education”, etc. “To live means to change, to change means to grow up, and to grow up means to constantly create oneself,” as well as “we either make ourselves miserable and unhappy, or we make ourselves strong - the amount of effort expended remains the same.” So if, excuse me, we not only didn’t spend half our lives straining ourselves in creating ourselves, in strengthening ourselves, but we didn’t even take a step along the road to ourselves, but all we did was recognize the next crises and fight them, while at the same time signing up to ourselves ourselves and everyone around us in our own powerlessness before this monster, then what can we say here? No matter how strange it may sound, it means it was convenient and profitable. Convenient and profitable, as long as you don’t have to work on yourself...

In a literal sense, a crisis is a separation of roads, a separation of life paths. A crisis experience always involves stress and uncertainty and generates tension and anxiety. A crisis means the loss of some existing life form to which we are accustomed, but it means the acquisition of a new opportunity to enter a new life form, unknown to ourselves . A crisis marks the end of one stage of development and the beginning of another. This is the life of the individual in its highest, actual form, awareness of the deep contradiction within oneself and the way out of this contradiction, which requires the concentration of all physical, mental, intellectual and spiritual forces of a person. Of course, on one condition. Provided that we develop... Provided that our shell has a worthy filling, there is a backbone, there is fortitude. For an integral personality, an age crisis is more a norm than a pathology.

And among primitive, limited people, by the way, crises and intrapersonal conflicts practically never occur; for them everything in life is simple. And it is right.

Phases

The crisis of age-related development has 3 phases of its course:

• Precritical. A person realizes the difference between objective reality and the new ideal form of his future life. Life begins to seem incomplete, a desire arises to achieve new results, to build a new future.
• Critical. This phase consists of 3 stages:

1. An attempt to realize what you want in real life situations.
2. Conflict stage . When trying to change his life, a person has to come into conflict with the people around him, defending his new position in life.
3. Reflection. There is a revision of one’s own abilities and the formation of new internal structures of the psyche.

• Postcritical. A new real form of development of situations is being formed. Previously idealized situations become real.

Table of the main turning points of a person

The main turning points in a person’s life have their own development tasks, as well as their own positive and negative changes.

Features of overcoming

Crises of age-related development have their own characteristics of overcoming. The methods depend on exactly what age the person is. Children aged 3 years need the help and support of their parents. At this time, it is worth showing patience and giving the baby visible independence.

It is very important to learn to unobtrusively control your baby’s actions, encouraging his independence. At the age of 7 years, a child needs parental support if he has problems adapting to a new environment (school). It is important for parents to be patient and calmly respond to their child’s emotional manifestations.

It is important to engage your child in activities, hobbies and other interesting activities. During this period, it is important to direct the child’s energy in the right direction and teach him to make efforts to achieve results.

During adolescence, a child experiences enormous stress. Parents should be patient and avoid pressure. During this period, it is important not to suppress the teenager’s attempts to become independent, but to exercise control over his behavior unnoticed. It would be a good idea for a teenager to consult a psychoanalyst.

In adulthood, a person is able to cope with his own crises. At the age of 25, a person should learn to trust himself, his tastes and his ideas about life. Don't compare yourself to other people. It is important to abandon imposed stereotypes and strive to find something that inspires and delights. The main thing to do is to realize that mistakes happen to everyone and they are inevitable.

A midlife crisis can lead to loss of work, social connections, and clinical depression. At this time, it is important not to make rash decisions so as not to lose important areas of your life. It is advisable to consult with a psychologist who will help you look at familiar things from a different angle.

During a crisis in old age, it is important not to withdraw into yourself. At this age, it is important not to lose contact with family and friends. You need to communicate more with people, share your experiences, thoughts and feelings. It is important to realize that life does not end with retirement. You need to learn to find new interesting activities, tune in to the positive and appreciate wonderful moments.

To overcome the crisis, you should use universal tips suitable for people of any age:

• It is necessary to realize and accept the situation.
• Communicate more and surround yourself with positive, inspiring people.
• Follow your daily routine and come up with small pleasant rituals (for example, reading before bed).
• Avoid making important decisions during depression.
• It is necessary to play sports and take walks in the fresh air.
• Spend time alone with your thoughts.
• You should understand your new desires and priorities. You shouldn’t cling to the old, you need to develop further.
• You should not compare yourself with others, it is important to realize your uniqueness and value.

Age crises are necessary for a person for his further development. They help you adapt to changes in life and realize your true desires. It is important to be prepared for this important turning point in life in order to take timely measures to eliminate its negative consequences.

Crises of age-related development and their impact on personality

Crises of age-related development are phenomena that every person faces in life. They manifest themselves in the transformation of people’s attitudes towards the surrounding reality, psychological changes in connection with development and improvement at a certain age stage.

Most often, age crises are characterized by negative changes manifested in stress and depression.

Most people successfully cope with these stages in life, reaching a new, more productive level of development. However, in some cases, you may need the help of a specialist to help you cope with the causes and consequences of stressful situations.

Specifics of the definition

The opinions of psychologists on the nature of age-related crises are diametrically divided.

Some believe that periods of crisis are a necessary component of physiological and psychological changes. Without them, personal development cannot occur, because throughout a person’s life’s journey, a person’s system of values, view of society and himself changes.

Other psychologists claim that the emergence of crises in a person’s life is associated with mental disorders. That is, the manifestations of these stages are classified as psychological diseases that must be treated.

In any case, you need to understand that the time of onset of the age crisis and the severity of its manifestation are individual for each person, although psychologists distinguish conditional age limits.

The famous psychologist and pedagogical figure L. S. Vygotsky argued that crisis periods are not only a normal and natural state of a person, caused by changes in physical and psychological factors, but also a very useful phenomenon, with the help of which a person can move to a new stage of his development. With their help, a person develops strong-willed character traits and expands his personal and social horizons. However, the teacher emphasizes that such an impact on the individual will occur if the behavior of others has a competent pedagogical and psychological approach.

If a person is ready for change, then problems with the psychological state will not arise. However, people often feel sorry for themselves, not wanting to change anything in their lives. In this case, we can say that they themselves provoke the onset of such depressive states, from which only a specialist can help.

Manifestation Traits

It is necessary to clearly understand that periods of crisis are stages in a person’s life when not only character traits are formed, but also important, often life-changing decisions are made. After all, the word “crisis” is translated from Greek as “fork in the road.” A person chooses his life path, environment, interests.

Changes in people's consciousness take place against the background of their usual way of life. What begins to happen to a person is incomprehensible and frightening at first. A constant feeling of discomfort haunts and deprives you of the opportunity to feel confident in the future. The feeling that you need to change something in life and change yourself does not go away.

At this time, constant conflict situations occur with family, friends and colleagues. A person expresses dissatisfaction with everything that surrounds him. This happens due to internal tossing, unwillingness to accept reality, and the search for ideal solutions.

During a crisis, it is important for a person to find the only correct solution that will help him change for the better. Otherwise, he cannot do without the help of a specialist.

All development crises are characterized by the following provisions:

• A crisis period causes complex psychological changes to which every person is subject. This must be accepted, using all available potential to get out of the current situation;
• The changes in consciousness that appear are not the end, but the beginning of a new path. All accumulated contradictions over a certain period of time come to the surface and require resolution;
• There is a way out of any situation, you just need to make an effort to realize your hidden potential;
• Having correctly “survived” a turning point, a person becomes stronger, more confident and more interesting. He gains confidence in his own abilities and develops a comfortable lifestyle.

Various crises in humans are based not only on physiological changes associated with age. Critical stages can occur for various reasons related to personal life, professional activity or health status. These are personal crises. Their appearance is influenced by several factors:

• Physical or psychological trauma;
• Formation of personal qualities and character;
• The influence of others: peers, adults, any significant people for a person;
• Desire to achieve excellence in all areas of activity;
• Sudden changes in a person’s usual course of life.

During a turning point, a person always faces a certain choice that he must realize and accept. The success of a person’s future life will depend on the correctness of this choice.

Characteristics

Psychologists identify “natural” turning points that occur after reaching a certain age in all people.

Crises and age-related changes have a close relationship. Turning points are of particular importance in childhood and adolescence. At this time, there is an intensive formation of personal qualities, character traits and attitudes towards the surrounding reality. This is why most age-related turning points occur in childhood.

Basically, any transitional stage in children does not last long; with a competent approach from adults, it takes only a few months. The time frame cannot be clearly defined either, since the physical and psychological capabilities of children are different.

Children are characterized by drastic changes in their attitude towards others and themselves.

External changes manifest themselves in disobedience, aggressive behavior, and whims.

In adolescence, a protest against an established way of life can be expressed by an addiction to bad habits, a decrease in interest in educational activities, and a focus on one problem that does not carry anything important.

An important feature of turning points is the emergence of new character traits that indicate the attitude towards society and the surrounding reality. It is worth noting that such neoplasms are temporary in nature and after a short time they change to others, deeper and more stable.

Distinctive features

A person who is at a turning point in life always stands out from his environment. There are several signs that can be used to characterize the onset of a crisis.

• An absent look. People are constantly immersed in themselves, they may not notice those around them, they may not hear the questions asked;
• Sudden change in mood. Moreover, this symptom is especially pronounced in adolescence, when boys and girls have not yet learned to control their emotions. In adulthood, it is easier for people to control mood swings, but here, too, everything is very individual.
• Consciously or unconsciously, a person skips meals, sleeps poorly, and has nightmares that prevent them from getting enough sleep.
• Excess of emotionality. When experiencing a turning point, people go to two extremes: they either see everything in negative terms, or they put on rose-colored glasses, developing vigorous activity in all directions.

Regardless of what age a certain turning point in life occurs, those around you should not suppress its manifestations. A person must survive this period in order to learn certain lessons from it, otherwise psychological disorders cannot be avoided.

In order to help your loved ones survive developmental crises, you need to know their approximate age range and specific manifestations.

Let us consider the main turning points associated with the maturation of the individual.

Birth

When taking its first breath, a newborn, unlike its parents, does not experience joy from its birth. The first feeling that visits him is fear of a new unknown world, where everything is so different from what he experienced before in the womb.

Bright light, loud sounds, cold - all this causes severe psychological discomfort in the baby. The umbilical cord, which provided a reliable connection with the mother, is cut. The struggle for life begins.

The beginning of the way

The first attempts to move independently, sounds that begin to form words, the desire to touch and taste everything. The child develops conscious desires, which stand out more and more clearly against the background of reflexive needs. The slow and painful, often unconscious, first separation from the mother begins.

This condition is painful because the baby still really needs her help and support, both physically and psychologically. However, the desire to explore the world is becoming stronger. This first internal contradiction causes personality conflict.

Third year

One of the most emotionally difficult turning points in the development of a little person. Physical development is progressing at a rapid pace, the baby wants to do everything himself. However, he does not always succeed in this.

A personality begins to form, separating oneself from parents and peers. The desire to show independence and express one’s position is expressed in violent protests against the established way of life. Protests manifest themselves in whims, disobedience, and aggression.

Adults must be patient, because their behavior largely determines what kind of personality their child will grow up to be, how he will relate to others, and what kind of relationships he will develop in society. After all, the baby’s demands are determined by his unconscious needs and desires, which he is still unable to understand.

It is important for parents to develop a specific behavior strategy with the help of which they can show all the diversity of the surrounding reality and teach their child to correctly use all life’s opportunities in a positive way.

School realities

This transition period is not as emotionally pronounced as in three-year-olds. However, children experience severe discomfort when entering school, because their usual way of life changes and the demands placed on them by adults increase.

It is important for parents to support their children during this period, because this is the time of development of children’s self-esteem. Not only the academic performance of schoolchildren, but also their relationships with peers, self-confidence and their actions depend on the competent approach of teachers.

The formation of personality during this period occurs very intensively. Teachers and peers become people who influence the development of children’s character, because children spend most of their time at school.

If for some reason the child does not have a good relationship in the school community, parents must fill this vacuum, show ways out of dead-end situations, and teach how to resolve controversial and conflict situations.

Almost adults

Adolescence is considered to be a transition from the position of “child” to the title of “adult”. This stage is characterized by a sharp change in hormonal levels, intensive development of internal organs and physique, and puberty.

At this time, the formation of personality occurs under the influence of the opinion of society: for a teenager it is very important what people significant to him say about his actions.

The manifestation of negativism, aggression, the desire for independence at any cost are signs of a crisis of adolescence.

The influence of parents' authority depends on their competent position. If adults become friends for older children, capable of understanding, helping and guiding, and not judging, this will help avoid conflict situations at home.

It largely depends on the parents how quickly this difficult, but very important period for the formation of personality will pass.

Life definition

After graduating from school, when hormonal passions have already subsided, young people face a number of new important problems. You need to decide on the choice of your future profession, your future life path, and setting goals.

Young people are already consciously planning their future adult lives. Modern realities provide a huge choice of different paths, and they are desperately trying to find their own, only necessary and important for them. At the same time, they often make the mistake of accepting the one that their parents imposed on them as the only correct option. The price for this mistake will be a prolonged midlife crisis.

Crisis of thirty

It would seem that this time should become reliable and stable for a determined personality. However, it is at this time that a person begins to think about the correctness of the choice made in his youth, clearly sees and can analyze the mistakes made.

For some, these years will be the best time in their lives, since, having managed to analyze everything that does not suit them, people will be able to achieve great heights in their careers and personal development. Others will begin ineffective self-analysis, which will lead to depression and a complete refusal to further self-improvement.

Closer to forty

Perhaps the most difficult period for an already formed personality.

A person comes to the realization that half of his life has already been lived, and much of what he wanted could not be realized.

Family, career, familiar surroundings seem to be unnecessary ballast that interferes with “free swimming.”

It is during this period that most families are destroyed, people change their profession, social circle and passions.

Men most often try to fulfill themselves in love pleasures, women - in self-analysis. People are trying to change their usual way of life in some way, being careful not to have time to do what they think are important things.

Retirement

The age of analysis, comprehension of the years lived. As soon as a person approaches the retirement age, there is a clear awareness of the immutable truth: life is coming to an end, and one cannot return to one’s former youth.

Many people, especially those who have no relatives or for some reason have bad relationships with them, fall into a depressed state, acutely feeling their loneliness.

This is the moment in life when the support of family is vital. It is important for older people to know that they are needed and useful.

It is very gratifying that recently in our country there has been a trend of increasing numbers of people who have learned to enjoy their old age. After all, now they have a lot of free time, there are no responsibilities to adult children, and they can live for their own pleasure, doing what they love, for which they never had time during working days.

To spite all crises

If in childhood parents help overcome turning points in the development of personality, then in adulthood a person has to cope with problems himself.

Psychologists have developed tips that will help you learn a lesson from any crisis situation, become better, and not get bogged down in depression.

• Learn to find joy in simple things. Happiness consists of little things.
• Learn to relax and enjoy being alone with yourself.
• Physical activity can kill any depression. Take up dancing, yoga, or just jogging in the morning. A charge of vivacity and good mood is guaranteed to you.
• Do only things that bring you pleasure in your free time.
• Love yourself. Make it a rule to praise yourself for any little things, raise your self-esteem by any means.
• Don't suppress your emotions. If you want to cry, don't hold yourself back. This way, you can get rid of the burden of accumulated negative emotions.
• Communicate as much as possible, do not isolate yourself. If you feel that any communication makes you uncomfortable, seek help from a specialist.

From all that has been said above, it is obvious that age-related crises are characteristic of every person, without exception. But how these turning points will pass depends on the adult generation, which was able to provide the necessary support in time, guiding them on the right path.

The more correct the parents’ approach to crises in childhood, the easier it will be for a person to pass through turning points in life in adulthood.