Psychological mechanisms of professional and personal development

What does "development" mean?

The word “development” means a rather broad concept. This:

• movement from lower to higher;
• transition from one qualitative state to a more perfect one;
• forward movement from old to new.

That is, development is a natural, inevitable process that means progressive changes in something. Science believes that development occurs on the basis of emerging contradictions between new and outdated forms, ways of the existence of something.

A synonym for the word “development” is the word “progress”. Both of these words denote success in something compared to the past.

The word “regression” has the opposite meaning - it is a movement back, a return from an achieved high level to a previous, lower one, that is, it is a decline in development.

Types of human development

After birth, a person goes through the following types of development:

• physical - height, weight, physical strength, body proportions increase;
• physiological - the functions of all body systems are improved - digestive, cardiovascular, etc.;
• mental - the senses are improved, the experience of using them grows in order to receive and analyze information from the outside world, memory, thinking, and speech develop; values, self-esteem, interests, needs, motives for action change;
• spiritual - the moral side of the individual is enriched: the need to understand one’s place in the world, the significance of one’s activities for its improvement is formed, responsibility for its results grows;
• social - the range of relations with society is expanding (economic relations, moral, political, industrial, etc.).

The sources and driving forces of human development depend on factors such as living conditions, social circle, as well as on his internal attitudes and needs.

The concept of personality

The words “person” and “personality” are not synonymous. Let's compare their values.

Humans are biological beings with innate physical characteristics. The conditions for its development are favorable external factors: warmth, food, protection.

Personality is a result, a phenomenon of social development, in which consciousness and self-awareness are formed. It has certain psychological and physiological properties acquired as a result of development and upbringing. Psychologists believe that personal qualities emerge only as a result of social relationships.

Each personality is unique, possessing only its own inherent positive and negative qualities. Each person has his own life goals and aspirations, intentions, reasons and motives for action. In choosing means, he is guided by his own circumstances and views on morality. An antisocial personality, for example, does not know or does not recognize generally accepted moral standards and is guided in his actions by selfish goals. Irresponsibility, conflict, a tendency to blame others for one’s own failures, and the inability to learn from one’s own mistakes are characteristic features of such a person.

The concept of development and formation of personality, the driving forces of development

⇐ PreviousPage 22 of 34Next ⇒

The main goal of the school is the process of shaping the child’s personality and its harmonious development. Personal development should be understood as an interconnected process of quantitative and qualitative changes that occur during the anatomical and physiological maturation of a person, the formation of his worldview, moral views, beliefs, and emotional and sensory sphere.

Formation is the process of formation of a person’s personality as a result of the objective influence of heredity, environment, targeted upbringing and the individual’s own activity.

Personal socialization is the process of an individual’s assimilation of social experience, values, norms, elements of culture, institutions inherent in society, and social groups to which he belongs. At the same time, a person is not only an object, but also a subject of this process.

Education is the process of purposeful formation of personality in the conditions of a specially organized educational system. Thus, all these concepts are not identical, just as the concepts of man and personality are not identical.

Man is a living being with the gift of thinking and speech, the ability to create tools and use them. Man is a unity of the physical and spiritual, natural and social, hereditary and acquired.

The individual (from the Latin Individuum - indivisible) is a person as a holistic and unique representative of the species with its psychophysical properties, which act as a prerequisite for the development of personality and individuality.

Personality is a person as a subject of relationships and conscious activity, capable of self-knowledge and self-development; a stable system of socially significant traits, relationships, attitudes and motives that characterizes a person as a member of society.

Man as a biological being and as an individual - a unique representative of the human race - appears before us primarily in his natural and biological characteristics, which constitute the prerequisite and condition for its social development. Man-personality as a social being is the highest value for the sake of which the development of society is carried out.

If the concept of a person as a biosocial being reflects both biological and social qualities, then the concept of personality means a specific social feature of a person and is associated with the assimilation of material and spiritual experience accumulated by humanity. The personality is endowed with a certain degree of awareness of the world and self-awareness. An individual becomes a personality when he is able to evaluate not only his environment, but also his position in it, and thereby act consciously and purposefully.

Individuality characterizes dissimilarity, originality, the difference between one person and personality from another.

So, a person, as a person, is characterized by:

• self-awareness (the basis for the formation of mental activity and independence of the individual, self-knowledge and the search for the meaning of life);

• activity (the desire to go beyond the limits of realized possibilities);

• the presence of a “I-image”, a system of a person’s ideas about his real self, his expected self, his ideal self (revealed in self-esteem, a sense of self-esteem, level of aspirations, etc.)

• orientation - a stable system of motives: needs, interests, ideals, beliefs, etc.

• abilities (properties and qualities that ensure success in performing certain activities);

• character (a set of stable individual qualities of a person, which determines his typical modes of behavior and emotional response).

Based on a comparison of the concepts “man”, “individual”, “personality”, “individuality”, psychologists assert (A. Asmolov, A. Petrovsky): the relationship between the individual as a product of anthropogenesis, a personality that assimilates socio-historical experience, and individuality that transforms world, can be conveyed to the formula: individuals are born, become individuals, and defend INDIVIDUALITY.

Thus, based on the fact that the biological properties and qualities of a person are immanently inherent in him, personal qualities - mental and social - are formed and developed throughout life, we can conclude: the object and subject of pedagogy is the personality of a person in all the diversity of its natural and social properties and qualities and manifestations; the process of education, ensuring the targeted formation and development of personality. The mental development of a human individual is a conditioned process. Recognition and understanding of the determinism of development is the basis for its practical management. The history of the previous development of human life influences its ontogenesis in two ways: biological and social. Therefore, the problem arises of the relationship between the roles of the biological (natural) and social (public) in the formation of the individual as a personality. In solving this problem, the biological and the social cannot be opposed; in the ontogenesis of the human psyche, there is a unity of biological and social factors, in which the leading role belongs to the social.

A factor (what does) is the cause, the driving force of a process, it is a phenomenon that interacts with others in the process of development of the whole. The history of science reflects various methodological approaches to the factors that determine the development of personality. Representatives of biologizing concepts assigned a decisive role to heredity, which determines the entire future of a person, his mental abilities, morality, behavior - fatally determines his fate. Representatives of this concept were: E. Haeckel, F. Muller, W. Stern, J. Dewey, E. Thorndike. Representatives of the sociological concept believed that a person is born “clean as a slate” (lat. tabula rasa), on which writing gradually appears, under the influence of experience and upbringing. The leading role of the environment denies the activity of the person himself in development; it is the environment that determines differences in mental abilities. Disadvantages of the environment determine a person’s tendency to crime and drunkenness. This point of view was shared by Z. Zazo, E. Spranger, Wundt.

At the end of the 19th century. The science of the holistic study of the child - pedology - arose. It was believed that psychologists, sociologists, doctors and teachers would compose a theory that would include all the most valuable conclusions and achievements of these sciences. Pedology was widespread in the Soviet Union in the mid-20s of the 20th century, while the biogenetic concept was very quickly eradicated. The sociogenetic concept exaggerated the role of the environment. It was believed that a child is 90% a product of environmental influences and only 10% of his behavior is determined by instincts. This concept demeaned the role of education, but pedologists for the first time made an attempt not only to describe, but also to explain pedagogical phenomena. Pedology was required to urgently solve the problems of forming a person in a new society. So, in 1936, pedology was called a pseudoscience and it was banned. Modern science recognizes three leading factors in the development and formation of personality: heredity, environment and upbringing. But it is necessary to consider these factors in their dialectical unity, interaction, and mutual influence.

Heredity as a development factor (uncontrollable factor)

The ontogeny of the human body is determined by biological heredity. The genotype determines the anatomical and physiological structure of the organism, its morphological and physiological characteristics, the structure of the nervous system, the sex of the organism, the stages of its maturation, as well as a number of morphological and functional characteristics of the organism. The genotype of the nervous system carries within itself a hereditarily determined enormous potential for the formation of new needs, forms of behavior and their mental processes.

What does a person inherit?

— Physical characteristics: external racial characteristics, skin color, hair, eye color, facial features, physique, features of the nervous system, on the basis of which, as a result of psychophysiological development and interaction of a person with the outside world, a certain type of higher nervous activity is formed;

— Physiological features: forms of metabolism, combination of proteins in the body, blood group and Rh factor, etc.

— Anomalies in the development of the body: “sixth finger”, “cleft lip”, “cleft palate”, clouding of the lens of the eye (cataract), color blindness (color blindness);

— Tendency to certain hereditary diseases: tendency to bleeding (hemophilia), schizophrenia, diabetes mellitus, endocrine disorders (dwarfism, etc..).

Not everything that is congenital is hereditary! The genotype of an organism depends not only on the chromosomal apparatus and genes, but also on external conditions that can influence them: radiation, intoxication, etc. As a result, non-hereditary deviations from normal development arise. Such abnormal developmental signs are congenital, but not hereditary. These include many anomalies caused by reasons such as intoxication, radiation, exposure to alcohol, birth trauma, etc.

The human individual is endowed from birth with the appropriate inclinations, abilities, and inclinations. Inclinations are not ready-made mental properties, but natural potentialities for their emergence and development. They are realized only in the human conditions of an individual’s life, with the help of means created by society. A particularly acute dispute in the views of scientists concerns the heredity of abilities for intellectual activity. Geneticist M.M. Dubinin believes that for a normal brain there is no genetic determination of variations in intelligence, therefore, the level of intelligence is not inherited from parents to children. But there is another point of view, which claims that mental abilities are 50% determined by heredity. The question of the heredity of moral qualities also raises controversy.

Environment as a development factor (semi-controllable factor).

The environment is a set of material, spiritual, social conditions of human existence and activity that interact with it as an organism and a person, that is, they support or restrain, stimulate or hinder the characteristic actions of a living being.

Environment is the person’s surroundings, which can be reduced to three groups:

— Macro factors that influence the socialization of all people on the planet or very large groups of people (space, planet, world, country, state, society);

— Mesofactors influence large groups of people who are determined by national characteristics (ethnic group), by place and type of settlement (region, village, city, town), by preference for one or another means of communication (radio, television, cinema, etc.). ;

— Microfactors that directly affect a specific person (family, peer groups, public organizations, school).

For the development of a child, you need, first of all, an environment that provides food, air, light, warmth, etc. Geographical environment - those natural conditions (climate, landscape, landscape, type of settlement, ecology, etc.) in which a person develops. The surrounding subject environment is also necessary for the development of the child’s activities, in particular cognitive ones.

The most important thing for a child's development is the social environment. Social environment - social system, system of production relations, material living conditions, nature of production and social processes. In general, these are people and groups of people who surround a person throughout life. They are divided: according to the type of community - social formation, class, group; according to the type of group - family, educational, social, labor, sports, military, etc., according to the formative influence - determining, training, exercising, teaching, educating, re-educating; by the method of influencing the form of consciousness - legal, moral, aesthetic, scientific, religious; by age - peers, older, younger, mixed; in relation to the environment - positive; indifferent, negative; according to the social orientation - social, asocial, according to the degree of contact - direct, indirect.

The organized environment is, first of all, those social institutions that, to one degree or another, are entrusted with the educational functions of the younger generation. These are primarily the families of the students; cultural institutions; educational institutions and non-school institutions, various clubs and interest associations operating in the community, etc.

The individual’s ability to develop and his use of quiet or other conditions for his development largely depend on the general relationships of people. In the process of human interaction with various groups, socialization and development occur. It is necessary to consider the social environment in connection with the life and activities of people. It is constantly changing due to their practical activities. With age, the child’s environment expands and changes the content of those conditions that influence his life and development. The child’s environment is not immutable also because it itself (directly or indirectly) influences him and leads him to change. The main form of influence of the social environment on the mental development of a child is education.

There is no consensus yet in assessing the influence of heredity and environment on human development. Scientists argue over the question - what has a greater influence on human development - environment or heredity?

Representatives of the sociological direction (J.-J. Rousseau, C.-A. Helvetius, D. Diderot, etc.). It was believed that the decisive factor in the development and formation of personality is the environment, and the main thing is the influence of the home environment. According to supporters of the biological movement, the influence of heredity on personality development is 80-90%, the influence of the environment, according to representatives of the sociological movement, is 90%. Representatives of the biosociological direction (convergence) are of the opinion that mental processes (sensations, perceptions, thinking, etc.). They have a biological nature, and the orientation, interests, and abilities of the individual are formed as a social phenomenon. The English psychologist D. Shuttleworth believes that biological and social factors influence the mental development of an individual in the following proportions: 64% of factors are heredity, 16% are differences in the levels of the home environment, 3% are differences in the upbringing of children in the same family; 17% - mixed factors (interaction of heredity and environment). Based on their views on the role of heredity or environment in personality development, representatives of these pedagogical theories assign another role to the process of education in personality development: from recognizing its complete powerlessness (under unfavorable environmental conditions) and passively following development (J. Piaget) to active intervention into human behavior (hard “behavioral engineering” by B. Skinner).

Education as a development factor (fully controllable)

The influence of heredity and environment is corrected by education. Education in a special pedagogical sense is the process and result of purposeful influence on the development of the individual, his relationships, traits, qualities, views, his beliefs, and ways of behavior in society. Its effectiveness lies in purposefulness, systematicity and qualified management. The weak side of upbringing is that it is based on a person’s consciousness and requires his participation in this process, while heredity and environment act insensitively and subconsciously. Through education, one can partially overcome unfavorable hereditary tendencies and reduce the negative influence of the environment. Work experience of the outstanding teacher A.S. Makarenko, who re-educated more of the thousands of children and adolescents with unknown heredity and, of course, the negative influence of the environment - street children and delinquents - proves the influence that upbringing has on the development and formation of personality.

Education can ensure the development of human traits and qualities only by relying on those inclinations and inclinations that are inherent in a person. Not every person can be trained to be a genius. The experiments of N.I. Ladigino-Kots showed that a baby monkey, being raised in the same conditions as a child, did not acquire any of the mental qualities inherent in humans.

Personal development is not a passive product of environmental influences, heredity and upbringing. In this case, the activity of the individual himself, his creative and transformative activity, is of great importance. Depending on the activity and internal position of the individual, it can be formed in different directions. Education successfully leads to development if it makes the pet an active participant in this process. The development and formation of personality is the result of the interaction of external and internal factors. Education plays a decisive role in development if it has a positive effect on the individual’s need to work on himself and stimulates his activity in this direction. From here we can formulate the law of development and formation of personality in activity: in the process of activity, a comprehensive and holistic development of a person’s personality occurs, and the attitude towards the surrounding world is formed. This activity should be aimed at development.

⇐ Previous22Next ⇒

Recommended pages:

Use the site search:

External forces of personal development

A driving force is something that pushes an object forward, a kind of spring, a lever. A person also needs incentives for personal improvement. Such incentives include both external driving forces, development factors, and internal ones.

External influences include influences from others - relatives, acquaintances, who convey their own life experience to him.

They convince a person to take (or not take) some actions, change something in life, offer options and means of development, and help him in this.

The driving force behind an individual’s development can be government policy, for example, in the field of education and employment. A person chooses from the available options the specialty or place of work that is most promising for him. As a result, he acquires new knowledge and work skills and abilities—his development as a person occurs.

If a person strives for internal, moral, intellectual growth, he looks for answers to questions that concern him in literature, cinema, works of art, religion, science, analyzes other people’s experience - all of these are also sources that drive his development.

Mechanisms of personality development and the basics of self-development

We often hear that a person is controlled by fate. They say that we were already born with certain character traits, and nothing can be done about it, or “what our parents raised us is what happened.”

But these phrases are no longer relevant for a long time. Those who live by these principles take a step back or, at least, stand still. We live in a progressive world, in a world of technology and information, in a world where everyone can become a successful person! You just have to really want it, and a strong desire will lead to the right action.

It's no secret that there is nothing in common between a successful person and a lazy person. Yes, friends, work, and work again, and first of all on yourself.

Self-development is an integral part of the life of a person who strives for well-being and stability. The word is understandable and well-known to everyone, but not everyone knows how to do it correctly.

The basic mechanisms of personality development also say little. Let's talk about this...

Personal development takes place in several stages. It all starts with knowing yourself, and this is followed by action. Action itself without understanding “where” and “why” usually leads to nothing, and sometimes it can even cause harm, so don’t rush.

But if you do everything correctly, then the process of achieving your goal will be much easier and, believe me, will evoke a lot of pleasant emotions.

You should start with understanding yourself, self-awareness. Think carefully about what is happening in your life now, what problems you have, what you really want. It is important to see the truth, understand and be sure to accept it.

Try to love yourself with all your advantages and disadvantages. Sometimes this can be very difficult, and the truth may not be entirely pleasant, but it is better to admit everything to yourself today, draw a development plan, and start following it.

In order to change your life for the better, to become more confident, happy and strong, changes are simply necessary. Change. Start by eliminating our two main enemies - fears and doubts.

You need to focus on your goals, think about them, strive for them. The criterion for personal development is purposefulness, that is, a person’s initial focus on actions, the process of implementation of which is in itself experienced as pleasure. This is very important, because the satisfaction of desires gives rise to an increase in opportunities.

Form new effective strategies. Learn from your mistakes, study your successful experience and the experience of other people. Your task is to see and understand what you specifically need to do in order to get what we are striving for.

The main goal of our existence is to develop our potential, to manifest in life what is given to us by nature. mechanisms of personality development help us with this . There is an approach to everything, the main thing is to wish, and life will always open doors.

You might be interested in these blog articles:

Virtual work for real money – just choose!

Is writing a business plan a waste of time?

Hotkeys speed up time

Motivational policy - actions for the benefit of business

Internal incentives for personality development

An indispensable condition and driving forces for the development of an individual are the growth of his mental capabilities and needs, their contradiction with the old ones. The insufficiency of internal and external means pushes a person to search for new, adequate ways to satisfy increased demands - forced or conscious assimilation of new knowledge, skills and abilities occurs, and a sensory, emotional perception of the world develops.

Then the process repeats: the acquired experience becomes outdated and the need arises to resolve requests of a new, higher level. As a result, connections with others become more conscious, selective, and diverse.

Psychological mechanisms of professional and personal development

The development of a person as a professional is closely related to the development of his personality. Professionalization occurs in conjunction with socialization. The personal space is wider than the professional one and significantly influences it. A person’s personality usually has a positive impact on the choice of profession and on the course of professional development in the process of professional training. Personality can also hinder the development of a professional (lack of hard work, basic human abilities, motives, barriers, etc.). At the same time, a person’s professional qualities, as they develop, begin to have a positive impact on the individual: success in the profession inspires and stimulates the individual. The most conducive to the professional and personal development of a future specialist are such personality traits as: adherence to professional ethics, individual and social responsibility, internal control, flexibility and efficiency, meaning-making, internal dialogical personality, adequate self-esteem and readiness for a differentiated assessment of the level of one’s professionalism, etc.

The psychological development of a specialist means the emergence of new qualities in the human psyche that were previously either completely absent from him or were present, but in a different form, as well as the emergence of new types of professional activity and professional communication. Consequently, professional and personal development can be considered as an “increment”, an enrichment of the human psyche.

The age-related development of a professional’s personality occurs in the context of general trends in age-related development. In the socio-psychological characteristics of youth, it is important to take into account that this time of human development, this stage of his life correlates with the formation of relative economic independence, distance from the parental home and the formation of his own family. Adolescence is the central period of development of character and intelligence; time of sports records, artistic, technical and scientific achievements; a period of intensive and active socialization of a person, which should also be taken into account in the problems and methods of organizing professional education.

Professional and personal development is a dynamic process that depends, firstly, on external conditions: during the period of professional training, the requirements for the profession, the structure of the main motives for its choice and acquisition, professional mentality, spiritual values, operational and technical sphere change in connection with the emergence of innovative technologies, etc. The formation of a future specialist also depends on internal conditions: a person’s ideas about the profession, the criteria for its assessment and ways of self-realization in it change.

The emergence of a selective positive attitude towards a profession means the formation of a “person - profession” system, within which the interaction between the object and the subject of the relationship begins. The concept of “a person’s attitude to a profession” cannot be reduced to the activity of the subject. The study of professional orientation, conditions and driving forces of its development is carried out taking into account the system of influences coming from the other side of the relationship, i.e. from the profession. Under certain conditions of interaction between the parties, this relationship takes on the character of a dialectical contradiction, creating the driving forces for the development of professional orientation.

The ideal model of correspondence between personality and work should contain a complete coincidence of the objective content of activity and its personal meaning. Such a coincidence is actually impossible for the following reasons. First of all, the structure of motives for choosing a profession is not always dominated by a motive internally associated with a given activity. However, there is the possibility of restructuring the system of motives and increasing the level of professional orientation. Something else has a more fundamental meaning. In all cases where interest in the specific content of an activity is predominant, the possibility of deepening this interest remains. With the correct organization of activity, its creative capabilities are increasingly reflected by man.

Thus, the discrepancy between the objective content of professional work and the personal meaning that his choice has for a person creates the prerequisites for professional growth.

The formation of professional and personal qualities of a specialist during the period of professional training is characterized by unevenness and heterochronicity, multi-temporality. Unevenness means crises in relation to educational and professional activities. Heterochrony is the difference in the development of professionally important qualities, differences in the speed and depth of their formation and development.

The development of professional and personal qualities always occurs in one or another professional environment with its subject richness and social relationships. In this regard, it is necessary to take into account the activity of the educational and professional environment, the psychological climate in the group, etc.

In general, in the professional and personal development of a future specialist, contradictory (ambivalent) tendencies appear with varying degrees of severity: between self-development and self-preservation, opposition between the results and the labor process, discrepancy between the motives of professional activity, mismatch in the pace of development of motivational and operational-technical aspects, uneven mastery of individual professional skills. qualities, etc.

A change in the social significance of a perspective, its awareness and adequate assessment of the degree of mismatch between the requirements of this perspective and existing knowledge and skills lead to the emergence of new needs and interests, a new system of goals and attitudes, and the need to improve views, beliefs and worldviews. These changes encourage vigorous activity that compensates for the mismatch that has arisen.

In the process of developing a professional orientation, the student goes through a number of steps.

• The first stage: the student outwardly decides to master a specific profession, having the appropriate emotional mood, episodic, situational interest, subject orientation, and some work habits, but he has not yet achieved independence and does not show initiative.
• Second stage: the student has a fixed orientation towards the profession, interests have become more stable and aptitudes have become more manifested; however, he is more interested in the practical aspects of the educational material; the goal he has formed gives the general direction of his educational and production activities, he develops a sense of self-confidence and independence, and also develops a sense of responsibility.
• Third stage: the student has a firm commitment to the profession, a stable interest and inclination towards it, showing particular passion for both the practical and theoretical side of the educational material; self-affirmation of personality occurs through professional work.
• Fourth stage: passion for one’s profession, professional orientation are formed in the presence of appropriate abilities, pronounced inclinations and calling; professional excellence and professional ideal are combined with firm convictions in the personal and social significance of their work.

The development of professional orientation cannot be understood by limiting its source only to the inner world of the individual and the activity of his consciousness. This is confirmed by the fact that awareness of the contradiction in question is not yet sufficient to resolve it. The possibility of exacerbation of this contradiction will largely depend on the nature of the subordination of such more general motivational factors as ideological motives, the desire for self-expression and the satisfaction of material needs. In the event of a conflict of motives, only reorientation or preservation of the original intention is possible. However, the internal struggle in itself cannot change the personal meaning that the content of his profession has for a person.

Cognitive activity, which provides an influx of new information about the profession and its requirements for a person, is more effective with a full professional orientation (the predominance of direct motives for choice). New horizons opening up to a person can stimulate in these cases value-oriented activities that expand and deepen the already established system of assessments and ideas.

When secondary motives predominate, new information about the requirements coming from the specific content of the activity is not always sufficient to change the initial personal meaning of choosing a given profession, and therefore may not lead to a shift in motives and, therefore, may not ensure the transition of the contradiction from the external to the internal level. Whether a person, as a result of processing new information about a profession, will be able to treat it in a new way, as if to rediscover it for himself personally, depends both on the content and brightness of the information, and on the psychological readiness of the individual to assimilate it. There is no doubt that the greatest opportunities for awakening the contradiction in question are contained in transformative activity, since in it the value relations of the individual directly interact with the requirements of the activity. Organizing an active test of strength in the field of activity to which we direct the student is the most important condition for increasing the level of his professional orientation. The implementation of this condition presupposes an organization of activity in which young people are given tasks that reveal the specifics of the activity and its creative aspects. The basis for changing the motivational attitude towards activity is a change in the corresponding needs, interests, and inclinations.

With the correct organization of the transformative activity of students (at each successive stage), the requirements of the activity presuppose a more multifaceted, active, and somewhat changed need of the individual. In this discrepancy lies the source of internal contradiction. At the same time, in the process of successful implementation of activity goals, this contradiction is resolved. A feeling of satisfaction, indicating further development and enrichment of the corresponding need. Sometimes the motive, initially contained in the goal of an activity, seems to shift to its means, in connection with which new (in content) motives arise. In other cases, the development of needs is due to the very process of assimilation of new forms of behavior and activity, mastery of ready-made cultural objects.

Undoubtedly, there are other mechanisms of professional and personal development, which consists in the implementation of the leading need from its elementary forms to increasingly complex ones - from one-sided or weakly expressed interest in professional activity to a deeper, more stable, complex need.

Thus, the psychological mechanisms of professional and personal development of a future specialist are a complex multi-level structure of motives, values, personal meanings and abilities.

In connection with the stated understanding of the driving forces of professional and personal development, it is necessary to organize students’ activities in a way that would actualize the contradiction between the requirements of the preferred activity and its personal meaning for a person.

Personal development goals

As we see, the driving forces of development are the needs of society to educate a person who meets essential social criteria, and the need of the person himself for self-development.

The image of a full-fledged and self-sufficient member of society should look like this. The social and personal goals of an individual’s development coincide. He will be useful to society and will fulfill his own growth program, if his abilities are realized, he will be spiritually and physically healthy, educated, efficient, purposeful, and creative.

In addition, his interests must be socially oriented and realized in social activities.

The concept of personality and the conditions of its psychological development

Remark 1
There are a great many definitions of the concept of personality; if we put them together, we can imagine personality as a person taken in a system of socially conditioned psychological characteristics that manifest themselves in social relations, are stable and determine the nature of the individual’s moral actions, significant both for himself and for his immediate environment.

Child development is a process that occurs in certain conditions, surrounded by the cultural and material heritage of mankind, in the system of established relations between members of a particular society. Thus, we can confidently say that the development of a child’s personality depends entirely on the social situation.

It is she who predetermines all the changes that will occur to the individual during the period of growing up. Thanks to the social situation, it is possible to determine the paths and forms of development, types of activities, new mental qualities and properties acquired by the child.

Too lazy to read?

Ask a question to the experts and get an answer within 15 minutes!

Ask a Question

This is precisely what constitutes the conditions for the mental development of the child’s personality, and in this regard, maximum attention should be paid to the social conditions that surround the child.

Stages of development

The driving forces of development are, as we see, a whole complex of influences on a person throughout his life. But this influence must be dosed, and the goals, forms, means, and methods of education must be appropriate to the age stages of a person and the level of his individual development. Otherwise, personality formation is slowed down, distorted or even stopped.

Stages of personality formation according to D. B. Elkonin and the leading type of activity in each of them:

• Infancy – direct communication with adults.
• Early childhood is an object-manipulative activity. The child learns to handle simple objects.
• Preschool age – role-playing game. The child tries on adult social roles in a playful way.
• Primary school age - educational activities.
• Adolescence – intimate communication with peers.

Taking into account this periodization, you should know that the driving forces of development are both special knowledge in the field of pedagogy and psychology, and a reasonable approach to the choice of means of education at each age stage of the child.

Conditions for personal growth

Healthy heredity, psychophysiological health and a normal social environment, proper upbringing, development of natural inclinations and abilities are indispensable conditions for human development. Their absence or the presence of unfavorable development factors lead to the formation of a defective personality.

There are numerous examples of how negative external influences or internal motives slowed down or even stopped the formation of a full-fledged member of society. For example, an unhealthy family climate, erroneous life principles and attitudes create in a child incorrect ideas about his place in this world and the ways to achieve it. The result is a denial of social and moral values, a lack of desire for self-development, spirituality, education, and work. A dependent psychology, asocial morality, and adherence to lower impulses are formed.

The ability for development inherent in nature itself, the internal driving forces of personality development, are completely or partially absent in people with hereditary or acquired malformations of the central nervous system. Their existence comes down to satisfying physiological needs.

In domestic pedagogical literature, it is customary to understand human development as the process of formation of personality, improvement of its physical and spiritual powers under the influence of external and internal, controllable and uncontrollable factors, among which the most important are targeted education and training (NP Volkova, MMFitsula). It occurs in the following directions: anatomical-physiological, mental and social. Instruments involve certain quantitative changes in the characteristics of a human being, which predetermine qualitative changes. This leads to the emergence of new signs and the disappearance of old ones. Human development cannot be reduced to the simple accumulation of new knowledge, skills and abilities from various fields of science, i.e. practical activities. If we consider, for example, that mental development is accompanied by an improvement in memory, thinking, perceptions, ideas, etc., then one gets the impression of its unconditional evolutionary, progressive movement; in fact, psychology determines its somewhat complex nature. Psychologists believe that human development is a complex involutionary-evolutionary (from the Latin involutio - folding, evolutio-unfolding) gradual movement, during which both progressive and regressive intellectual, behavioral, personal activity changes occur in the person himself, he changes according to direction, intensity, character and quality (BPAnanyev, L.S. Vigotsky).

Speaking about personal development, it should be remembered that, taking into account the philosophy of instability, each person, as a complexly organized unstable macrosystem, during his life passes through both the so-called “points of stability” and through “points of instability.” Such transitions are often accompanied by well-known in psychology and acmeology age crises. If some psychologists believe that a crisis is not a normal, random phenomenon, the result of improper upbringing, then others see in them a constructive function, but. LSVigotsky considered the alternation of crisis and stable periods as a law of psychological development, since during critical periods the internal constructive work of a person continues, and destructive activity is carried out due to the fact that there is a need to develop new personality traits and special features.

Scientists study the secrets of personality development by observing not only its minimums, but its maximums. Educators, psychologists, and geneticists have long been interested in issues related to the manifestations of talent and genetics. Observations have shown that neither rich genetically inherited inclinations nor external conditions that are remarkable for their implementation, taken by themselves, do not cause manifestations of genius. Often, despite favorable conditions, only a few out of hundreds of thousands realize their talent and, on the contrary, there have been many cases when highly gifted people realized their talent or genius in extremely unfavorable conditions. A striking example of this is the biographies of the great physicist. Michael. Faraday, who in childhood served for pennies in topography and shops, biography. TGShevchenko or. MVLo Monosova. Scientists say that for the highest manifestation of inner talents, extreme determination is first necessary. Famous geneticist. VPEFroimson writes about this: “If geniuses did not have this fanatical sense of purpose, then (with all their abilities), having been born as child prodigies, they would have remained so. But. Beethoven wrote in his will that he could not die without completing everything for which he was intended and, perhaps, expressed the special composition of creative energy better and more clearly than others. Goethe: “And if you don’t have this,” Die, but become!” You are only a sorrowful guest on a sad earth” (EfroimsonVP “God’s gift” or a natural phenomenon? / /. Public education - 1991-M2 - 138th phenomenon? //Public education. - 1991. -M2. -. P. 138) .

The mentioned “fanatical determination”, or the developed goal reflex, do not arise out of nowhere and are not artificially “brought” from the outside. They are gradually formed in the course of the “self-movement” of the individual, which, in the opinion of the domestic psychologist. GSKostyuk, which revealed his character, is characterized by the unity of external and internal conditions. External conditions are determined by the natural and social environment, which creates (or not) the necessary conditions for the development of the child’s inclinations and talents. They influence the development process through internal conditions due to the mechanism of internalization, i.e. transformation of external practical actions into internal morning mental actions. At the same time, with the help of the mechanism of exteriorization, the transition of the inner world to the external plane of activity is carried out.

A child's dreams, ideas that come from the childhood kingdom of fairy tales, first seek their objectification in play, and in adulthood - in work activity. A talented scientist and inventor. On this occasion, KETSIOLKOVSKY argued that any great invention begins with a thought, fantasy, fairy tale, followed by scientific calculations, and only then all this “crowns” implementation. The world of inner beauty, freshness would be great (according to the Florenskys, genius is the ability to preserve childhood for life) requires objectification from the earliest years of life. But such objectification primarily concerns activity. It’s one thing when a child is bought pencils or a construction set, that is, tools that help her to objectify the images of her imagination - to create, and another thing when she is “overwhelmed” with ready-made toys, products of someone else’s creativity, leaving a minimum for children’s creativity. Thus, it is not so much a poor environment that can hinder a child’s development as an environment that is oversaturated with opportunities; in some cases, it is not possible, figuratively speaking, because of the creativity of the dragon that gives birth to its own. George, to die at his hands, to perish under his hands.

So, the first important driving force of an individual’s mental development, the formation of personality, the source of its “self-propulsion” becomes the contradiction between external and internal

Internal contradictions, demanding their solution, encourage a person to be active. In place of old contradictions, new ones appear, which for their solution require new means, greater effort, and self-improvement; their appearance is due to the fact that the motivational side of personality development is ahead of its substantive and operational sides.

Therefore, the second main driving force of “self-propulsion”, which naturally manifests itself at all age stages, is the difference between the new needs and aspirations of the personality that is developing, and the level it has achieved in mastering the means necessary to satisfy them.

As the personality develops, its internal growth, the horizons of a person’s vision expand. “The melting snow of dreams” gives the power of a flow of new needs and motives. Ahead of the available means of their objectification, and the level of capabilities achieved by man, they are structured in a certain sequence, known (ASMakarenko) promising lines of development are built: close, medium, distant, more and more often in the middle of social motives of activity.

Excessive parental care, permissiveness, and oversaturation in pleasures can destroy the beneficial tendency to streamline the hierarchy of needs and motives, leaving the ability to order lower needs to higher ones without developing. And without this, there is nothing to even think about developing the goal reflex, that “fanatical determination” without which born child prodigies can remain so for the rest of their lives. Under such conditions, the freedom reflex corresponding to the goal reflex, which was originally discovered, is not formed. We catch IPPs in animals. Its essence boils down to the fact that each of them has a subordination of its most important needs, which it satisfies with various types of purposeful activities. This situation contributes to the formation of certain general patterns in the sequence of these types of purposeful activities; the choice of the first variant of activity is carried out in accordance with these patterns. When an animal, for a number of reasons, cannot carry out its activities in such a way that they correspond to the mentioned patterns, then this is a violation of its freedom reflex, which is accompanied by negative emotions and forces the animal to mobilize to return to activities that correspond to its freedom reflex.

Researchers claim that a similar reflex is inherent in humans. During the reign of higher spiritual values, a person did not violate his freedom reflex, since he subordinated individual interests entirely. During the reign of material values, everything becomes the other way around. Taking this into account, a high school student who is preparing to choose his life path finds himself at a kind of bifurcation point, which requires courage and support to choose the path to his “real”, authentic self, and not captive to average everyday stereotypes. It is possible to choose such a path only if all secondary needs and motives are subordinated to it.

Thus, the third driving force of “self-propulsion” of a person is the contradiction between the immediate, immediate, individual motives and distant, indirect ones, which determines the formation of the body freedom reflex on the basis of the intra-intentional orientation in its best manifestations and leads the development of a person onto the path of authenticity.

By building promising lines of his life in his dreams, a growing personality reveals his present and future. The contradiction between reality and dreams, like an abyss separating the “I - today” from the “I - future”, connecting the bridge between the edges of this abyss becomes first the primary situations of success in the primary reference groups, and subsequently the next ones in the next groups. Only by relying on them, later, in adulthood, will a person be able to overcome the abyss and reach the next land of the next step.

So, the fourth driving force is the contradiction between the expected, desired, future and existing, between what the individual wants and what he owns, which motivates action over a long period of time and unites. ITS min zero, present and future. Such a contradiction works positively only on the condition that the movement towards the “I - future” is supported. The hierarchy of the mentioned situations of success in the next reference groups. In the opposite case, there is a danger of developing dreamers of the Gogol type in mature periods of life. Manilova. To help, whenever possible, create primary situations of success, bringing them closer to the circles of the primary reference groups is the responsibility of both parents and schools. In the search for new reference groups, it is often necessary to go beyond the school, but both parents and teachers should be aware of this. After all, movement towards new situations of success strengthens the student’s faith in the reality of achieving a promising goal and helps him form positive suggestive complexes.

The fifth driving force of the “self-movement” of the individual is the contradictions that manifest themselves in the dialectical process of formation of the student’s cognitive sphere. They cause a transition from lower to higher degrees of decision in the development of thinking, from direct to indirect mental cognition by the schoolchild of objective reality, from the primary synthetic display of various objects to the analytical selection of their heterogeneous features and to the secondary synthetic display and unification into a group.

Contradictions that arise during educational activities are associated with differences between new cognitive tasks and learned methods of action, between established generalizations and new facts, and between situations that require individual creativity and previous experience of creative activity. To overcome the contradictions of learning activities, the student is forced to act actively, to enrich his knowledge, skills, and abilities. Moreover, the more such difficulties happen, the more intense the student’s efforts become, which contributes to his mental development.

Today in psychology there are opinions about the pedagogical necessity of learning difficulties. Regarding this, for example. ANPoddyakov writes: “Opposition to learning is as inevitable and necessary as assistance in learning. It can be either unjustified and unfounded, or justified and justified - if it is necessary to stop the transmission of dangerous experience, the zone of proximal development, subject to counteraction, can be defined as why the subject cannot learn on his own, but what he can learn and can develop in conditions counteraction with others” (Poddyakov. AN. Counteraction to learning and development as a psychological and pedagogical problem / /. Questions of psychology -1999 -. From 20logy. -1999. -. P. 20).

The sixth driving force of personality development is the contradictions between conscious and unconscious tendencies in the behavior and activities of the individual. It is known that some attitudes that develop in the course of conscious activity have the ability to move into the sphere of the unconscious. This leads to the fact that in the course of transferring them to other types of activities, they are capable of causing contradictions that slow it down and require overcoming. This determines the development of relationships between the conscious and unconscious.

The seventh driving force of personality development, in particular, its emotional sphere, is contradictions associated with polar ones, i.e. opposite emotions (pleasure - displeasure, joy - sadness, etc.). The development of the emotional sphere causes the personality to move from situational emotional states into stable feelings that are formed through awareness and overcoming of opposing experiences. For example, when. MC Roerich at one time said that joy is “a special wisdom,” he meant not only overcoming feelings, but also a deep awareness of life itself as a joyful essence.

The eighth driving force of “self-propulsion” is the contradictions associated with the development of voluntary regulation of the student’s behavior and activities, the formation of his independence and freedom. They are capable of causing so-called crises, which, according to their researcher. ILembrik is an indispensable component of a child’s development, a condition for her transition from one age level to the second. Crises are known at the age of three, seven and teenagers. In any case, they occur in different ways, more acutely or mildly, causing various changes in the child’s body, unfortunately, not always positive. Children are especially vulnerable. They require the attention of adults and the respect of adults.

Attentive attention to the changes that occur in the child, in his demands and needs, can soften the crisis and prevent it from going beyond the limits of the contradictions that caused it

Investigating the content, forms of education and ways to overcome internal contradictions at each stage of personality ontogenesis, the domestic psychologist. GSKostyuk came to the conclusion that these contradictions, being mostly unconscious at the initial stages of personality development, subsequently become an object of self-consciousness, cause dissatisfaction with oneself in the individual and are experienced as a conscious, active desire for self-improvement.