Considering the previous question, we came to the conclusion that a person is not born as a person, but becomes. Most psychologists today agree with this point of view. However, there are different points of view on the question of what laws personality development is subject to. These discrepancies are caused by different understandings of the importance of society and social groups for the development of the individual, as well as the patterns and stages of development, crises of personality development, possibilities for accelerating the development process and other issues.
This internalization of the rules and norms of society leads to the formation of a conscience, which is five to six years old, and an internalized police force, so to speak, that enforces the rules set by parents and society, even without their presence.
In the process of development, more and more rules and laws, most recently the laws of morality and ethics, are internalized. Our conscience makes us feel guilty, shameful, and self-righteous when we don't follow the rules. This internalization of rules represents the first stage of moral development, which, according to Kohlberg, takes place in three stages.
There are many different theories of personality, and in each of them the problem of personality development is considered in its own way. For example, psychoanalytic theory understands development as the adaptation of a person’s biological nature to life in society, the development of certain defense mechanisms and ways of satisfying needs. The trait theory bases its idea of development on the fact that all personality traits are formed during life, and considers the process of their origin, transformation and stabilization as subject to other, non-biological laws. Social learning theory represents the process of personality development as the formation of certain ways of interpersonal interaction between people. Humanistic and other phenomenological theories interpret it as a process of becoming “I?”.
Development of intelligence and abstract thinking
In the first stage, before preschool age, the child directs his moral judgment in accordance with generally accepted rules. In the second stage, which begins in prepuberty, moral judgment is determined by the expectations and principles of the family, age group, or culture. In the third stage, which occurs during adolescence, the young person begins to develop ethical principles whose value and validity are independent of whether they are presented by an authority. This development begins when the young person also begins to accept other opinions and understands that the family's views are only part of the truth. The opinion of friends and clique is much more important than the opinion of parents and teachers, and he is increasingly aware that they are not always, even quite rarely, with the family. The young man begins to critically study the rules and norms applied in the family and compare them with his own experience. Finally, he forms his own opinion, which also shows him that his family's views and opinions are not infallible. Therefore, he became more or less disillusioned with his parents' views. Since the boy is convinced that he is right, but his parents reject his opinion, the argument is very frequent. Intelligence is an important part of a person's personality.
However, in addition to considering the problem of personality development from the perspective of one or another theory, there is a tendency towards an integrated, holistic consideration of personality from the perspective of different theories and approaches. Within the framework of this approach, several concepts have been formed that take into account the coordinated, systemic formation and interdependent transformation of all aspects of personality. These development concepts are classified as integrative concepts.
It is the ability to acquire knowledge and apply it in such a way as to create intelligent action. It is about integrating facts, experiences and perceptions from the real environment so that problems arising from new knowledge and behavior can be rationally solved.
With age, new intelligence structures develop, thanks to which a person can adapt to new requirements. If you acquire new knowledge, it will be incorporated into your existing knowledge. New perspectives and better understanding of different contexts emerge.
Since the twelfth century, a young person has been able to perform operations of reflection that involve things and processes that are not perceptible, can be experienced, imagined and tangible. Young people begin to deal with the problems of society, such as war, hunger, pollution, racial problems, human dignity, human contempt, love, hate, freedom and oppression. Political thinking is born. And they are trying to find solutions. Since youth can become the subject of their thoughts, self-evaluation and self-criticism now begins.
One of these concepts was the theory belonging to the American psychologist E. Erikson, who in his views on development adhered to the so-called epigenetic principle: genetic predetermination of the stages that a person necessarily goes through in his personal development from birth to the end of his days. E. Erikson identified and described eight psychological crises in life, which, in his opinion, inevitably occur in every person:
In case of problems, the young person can solve the problem by imagining the situation. Finally, he develops the ability to recognize and evaluate situations and characteristics in the correct context and draw conclusions for his actions from this. However, this development depends on the intelligence of the person. With increasing reflexivity, the young man begins to understand himself as a rational being with his own personality, his own judgment, his own morality and his own identity, and learns that others also see and respect him.
This gives him the strength and courage to own up to his opinions, his opinions and his actions responsibly, even if the result of many of his actions does not cause much enthusiasm in his family. Emotional intelligence is also a part of personality. Emotional intelligence refers to those human qualities that we previously designated as character.
1. Crisis of trust and mistrust (during the first year of life).
2. Autonomy versus doubt and shame (around two to three years of age).
3. The emergence of initiative as opposed to feelings of guilt (from about three to six years).
4. Hard work as opposed to an inferiority complex (age from seven to 12 years).
5. Personal self-determination as opposed to individual dullness and conformism (from 12 to 18 years).
Research shows that these skills determine success in life and a person's future quality of life more than intellectual properties, and that they can be learned in the first place. Shapiro has the following characteristics: Emotional understanding and self-expression, learning to deal with difficulties and stress, Effort, willingness to perform, perseverance, hard work, ambition, moral abilities such as tolerance, caring for others, humor, politeness, independence and self-reliance, ability to conquer friends, cooperation, effective time management.
6. Intimacy and sociability as opposed to personal psychological isolation (about 20 years).
7. Concern for raising a new generation as opposed to “immersion in oneself” (between 30 and 60 years),
8. Satisfaction with life lived as opposed to despair (over 60 years old).
The formation of personality in Erikson’s concept is understood as a change of stages, at each of which there is a qualitative transformation of a person’s inner world and a radical change in his relationships with people around him. As a result of this, he as a person acquires something new, characteristic specifically for this stage of development and retained by him (at least in the form of noticeable traces) throughout his life. Moreover, new personal traits, in his opinion, arise only on the basis of previous development.
The ego identity represents the core of personality. It includes the feeling that it is always the same in different situations and remains. Ego identity is the awareness that the ego unites opposites within the personality into unity. It conveys a sense of freedom, feeling good in one's body, being important and being accepted by others as an independent person.
How ego identity is formed. Ego identity is formed by learning the norms and meanings in the environment. If the social environment supports the desire young man to his own views and opinions, a stable identity emerges. If the environment does not support the efforts or even boycotts them, problems arise in identity development because the youth cannot live their ideas. There is also the possibility that the young person does not develop his own behavior, but instead assumes the behavior, norms, concepts, interests of other people and makes his own.
Forming and developing as a person, a person acquires not only positive qualities, but also disadvantages. It is almost impossible to present in detail in a single theory all possible combinations of positive and negative neoplasms. In view of this, Erikson reflected in his concept only two extreme lines of personal development: normal and abnormal. B pure form they almost never occur in life, but thanks to clearly defined poles, one can imagine all the intermediate options for a person’s personal development (Table 20.1).
Such models can be parents, friends, age or adults. If these models are people with good qualities, the identification is positive, but if people with bad qualities, with addiction problems, aggressiveness, criminality, a young person with these characteristics will more or less identify and in his personal development cause damage. If the identification is unsuccessful or only insufficient, this leads to many problems. Such teenagers do not rest on their own, but depend on the opinions of others and are thus easily manipulated and seductive.
In Russian psychology, it is generally accepted that personality development occurs in the process of its socialization and education. Since man is a social being, it is not surprising that from the first days of his existence he is surrounded by his own kind and included in various kinds of social interactions. A person gains his first experience of social communication within his family even before he begins to speak. Subsequently, being a part of society, a person constantly acquires a certain subjective experience, which becomes an integral part of his personality. This process, as well as the subsequent active reproduction of social experience by the individual, is called socialization.
Gender identity is awareness of one's own gender. The child understands from the sixth to eighth year of life that his gender is established and cannot be changed. It also involves accepting the basic elements of social differences that are determined by society, which are associated with the corresponding sex, gender roles. Thus, girls and women almost always describe themselves in relation to others, be it a friend, a lover, expectant mother or wife. At the heart of a woman's experience is still interconnectedness: caring, nurturing, affection.
In her opinion, she is emotionally stressed. In contrast, people do not describe their self-realization through contact with other people, which they experience rather as a limitation. They want to achieve their goals: personal achievements, success, great ideas and optionality are the criteria for men's self-esteem. Their thinking is not emotional, but formal and abstract.
Stages personality development (according to E. Erikson)
Table 20.1
Stage of development
Normal line of development
Abnormal line of development
1, Early infancy (from birth to
Trust in people. Mutual love, affection, mutual recognition between parents and child, satisfaction of children’s communication needs and other vital needs
How Parents Can Promote Their Child's Personality, Intelligence, and Personality Development
Personality development largely depends on family structure and parental behavior patterns. If the relationship is characterized by trust, parents promote the youth's abilities through supportive support, and if they allow him autonomy and initiative, he can develop strong personality with a stable identity. The development of gender identity also depends very much on how children and adolescents experience their parents, whether they can identify with them or not.
Distrust of people as a result! mistreatment of the child by the mother, ignoring, neglecting him, deprivation of love. Too early or abrupt weaning of a child about | breasts, his emotional isolation
2. Late infancy (from 1 year to 3 years)
Independence, confidence and yourself. The child looks at himself as an independent, separate person, still dependent on his parents
Of course, parents also play an important role in the moral development of their children, since a young person, in the process of his development, internalizes the actual norms of himself or others. They teach their children what is good and evil. Parents are influenced not only by their genes, the structure of which they cannot influence, but also by the optimal support of their children in their intellectual and school development. They must ensure that their children acquire as much knowledge and awareness as possible and provide them with information on how to deal with it so that it becomes a smart action.
Self-doubt and an exaggerated sense of shame. The child feels unadapted and doubts his abilities. Experiences deprivation and deficiencies in the development of basic motor skills, such as walking. He has poorly developed speech and has a strong desire to hide his inferiority from people around him.
In a trusting, supportive environment, confident and socially open, skeptical young people who are interested in other people develop open but critical relationships with your parents. Because values and norms are mediated particularly in social relationships, the moral judgment and conscience of youth are particularly pronounced, which can lead to varied social experiences, in the family, peer group, school, workplace and in these institutions also in the decision-making process .
How parents can promote their children's emotional intelligence. . Mother of three adult children, lives in Bad Würzach in Allgäu. After studying medicine, psychology and pediatric education, she settled in a pediatrician's office in Bad Wursach. During her studies, she trained as a psychotherapist. In addition to her practice, Dr. She has published several successful parent consultants.
3. Early childhood (about 3-5 years old)
Curiosity and activity. Lively imagination and interested study of the surrounding world, suitable for adults, inclusion in sexual behavior
Passivity and indifference to people. Lethargy, lack of motivation, infantile feelings of envy of other children, depression and evasiveness, lack of signs of role-playing behavior
Defining Personality Development: Many Conflicting Theories
Everyone has a personality. And does it have the flexibility of a specific threshold? In fact, personality development is part of the process of maturing our character. It begins in childhood and continues throughout life. Science has unified that our personality is essentially characterized by our individuality and identification with ourselves. However, when it comes to personal development, theories and opinions vary greatly.
In short, there is no clear theory of personality development that can summarize all the various influences—the interaction of innate or early acquired personality differences, as well as the multiple influences of environment, education, or socialization.
4. Middle childhood (from 5 to 11 years old)
Hard work, a strong sense of duty and a desire to achieve success. Development of cognitive and communication skills. Setting yourself and solving real problems. Active assimilation of instrumental and objective actions, task orientation
Feeling of own inferiority. Underdeveloped work skills. Avoidance of difficult tasks, situations of competition with other people. An acute sense of one’s own inferiority, doomed to remain mediocre throughout one’s life. The feeling of calm before the storm,” or the period of puberty. Conformity, slavish behavior. Feeling of futility of efforts made when solving various problems
However, we share the view that personality is not fixed in any way, but can develop throughout life - consciously and actively. This is why introversion is not necessarily a ramp. But we can greatly explore and develop what is within us. And that's what this article is about.
Personal Development: Three Building Blocks
The importance of our personality and its development was recently demonstrated by research by Nobel Prize winner and James Heckman. The result can be summarized as follows: success depends more on your personality than yours. Personal development is perhaps most closely related to the work of a sculptor. He is also trying to develop a figure from the rock block in accordance with his ideas. This is inevitably associated with changes, which are not always pleasant for the stone and exhausting for the sculptor.
5. Puberty, adolescence and adolescence (from 11 to 20 years old)
Life self-determination. Development of time perspective - plans for the future. Self-determination in questions: what to be? and who to be? Active self-discovery and experimentation in different roles. Teaching. Clear sexual polarization in the forms of interpersonal under the stump. Formation of worldview. Taking leadership in peer groups and deferring to them when necessary
Confusion of roles. Displacement and confusion of time perspectives: the appearance of thoughts not only about the future and present, but also about the past. Concentration of mental strength on self-knowledge, a strongly expressed desire to understand oneself and damage to the development of relations with the outside world by people. Gender-role fixation. Loss of work activity. Mixing forms of gender-role behavior and leadership roles. Confusion in moral and ideological attitudes
End of table. 20.1
Stage once]] I
5. Early adulthood (20 to 45 years old)
7. Middle adulthood (from 40-45 to 60 years)
8. Late adulthood (over 60 years old)
Normal line of development
Closeness to people. The desire for contacts with people, the desire and ability to devote oneself to people. Having and raising children, love and work. Satisfaction with personal life
Creation. Productive and creative work on yourself and with other people. A mature, fulfilling and varied life. Satisfaction with family relationships and a sense of pride in your children. Training and education of the new generation
Fullness of life. Constant thinking about the past, its calm, balanced assessment. Accepting life as it is. A feeling of completeness and usefulness of life lived. The ability to come to terms with the inevitable. Understanding that death is not scary
Abnormal line of development
What about people? Avoidance of people, especially close, intimate relationships with them. Character difficulties, promiscuous relationships and unpredictable behavior. Non-recognition, isolation, the first symptoms of mental disorders, mental disorders arising under the influence of supposedly existing and acting threatening forces in the world
Stagnation Egoism and egocentrism. Unproductivity at work. Early disability. Self-forgiveness and exceptional self-care
Despair. The feeling that life has been lived in vain, that there is too little time left, that it is passing too quickly. Awareness of the meaninglessness of one’s existence, loss of faith in oneself and in other people. The desire to live life again, the desire to get more from it than was received. A feeling of the absence of order in the world, the presence of an evil, unreasonable principle in it. Fear of approaching death
The process of socialization is inextricably linked with communication and joint activities of people. At the same time, in Russian psychology, socialization is not considered as a mechanical reflection of directly experienced or observed social experience. The assimilation of this experience is subjective: the perception of the same social situations may be different. Different individuals can extract different social experiences from objectively identical situations, which is the basis of a different process -individualization.
The process of socialization, and consequently the process of personality formation, can be carried out both within the framework of special social institutions, for example at school, and in various informal associations. The most important institution for the socialization of the individual is the family. It is in the family, surrounded by close people, that the foundations of a person’s personality are laid. Very often we can come across the idea that the foundations of personality are laid before the age of three. This age period a person not only experiences rapid development of mental processes, but also gains first experience and skills of social behavior that remain with him until the end of his life.
It should be noted that socialization can be either regulated, purposeful, or unregulated, spontaneous in nature. Focusing on the possibilities simultaneous the existence of socialization both as a purposeful and as an unregulated process, A. A. Rean explains this with the help of the following example. We all know very well that important knowledge is acquired in school lessons, many of which (especially in the humanities) have direct social significance. However, the student learns not only the lesson material and not only social rules, but also enriches his social experience due to what, from the teacher’s point of view, may seem accompanying, “random*.” There is an appropriation of the actually experienced or observed experience of social interaction between teachers and students. And this experience can be both positive and negative.
As follows from the above example, regulated socialization in most cases is associated with the process of education, when parents or a teacher set a certain task to shape the child’s behavior and take certain steps to complete it.
In psychology, it is customary to divide socialization into primary And secondary. Secondary socialization is usually associated with the division of labor and the corresponding social distribution of knowledge. In other words, secondary socialization is the acquisition of specific role knowledge when social roles are directly or indirectly related to the division of labor. It should be noted that within the framework of the concept of B. G. Ananyev, socialization is considered as a bidirectional process, meaning the formation of a person as an individual and as a subject of activity. The ultimate goal of such socialization is the formation of individuality. Individualization is understood as the process of development of a specific personality.
When considering the problem of personality development, the relationship between socialization and individualization of a person causes a lot of controversy. The essence of these disputes is that some psychologists argue that socialization interferes with the development of a person’s creative potential, while others believe that individualization of personality is negative trait, which must be compensated by the process of socialization. As A. A. Rean notes, socialization should not be considered as a process leading to the leveling of a person’s personality, individuality, and as the antipode of individualization. Rather, on the contrary, in the process of socialization and social adaptation, a person acquires his individuality, most often in a complex and contradictory way. Social experience, which underlies the socialization process, is not only assimilated, but also actively processed, becoming a source of individualization of the individual.
It should be noted that the process of socialization is carried out constantly and does not stop even in mature age. By the nature of its course, personality socialization is a process with an indefinite end, although with a specific goal. It follows that socialization is not only never completed, but also never complete.
Simultaneously with socialization, another process occurs - inculturation. If socialization is the assimilation of social experience, then inculturation is the process of an individual’s assimilation of universal human culture and historically established methods of action in which the spiritual and material products of human activity in different eras are assimilated. It should be noted that there is no identity between these concepts. Often we can observe a lag of one process from another. Thus, a person’s successful assimilation of a universal human culture does not mean that he has sufficient social experience, and vice versa, successful socialization does not always indicate a sufficient level of inculturation.
Since we touched upon the issue of the relationship between socialization and individualization, we involuntarily approached the problem of self-actualization of the individual - one of the central problems of the theory of personality development. Currently, it is generally accepted that the fundamental property of a mature personality is the need for self-development, or self-actualization. The idea of self-development and self-realization is central, or at least extremely significant, for many modern concepts of man. For example, it occupies a central place in humanistic psychology and acmeology.
When considering the problem of personality development, authors, as a rule, strive to determine the reasons that determine human development. Most researchers consider the driving force of personal development to be a complex of diverse needs. Among these needs, the need for self-development occupies an important place. The desire for self-development does not mean striving for some unattainable ideal. The most important thing is the individual’s desire to achieve a specific goal or a certain social status.
Another issue addressed within common problems personality development, is the question of the degree of stability of personal properties. The basis of many theories of personality is the assumption that personality as a socio-psychological phenomenon is a vitally stable formation in its basic manifestations. It is the degree of stability of personal properties that determines the sequence of her actions and the predictability of her behavior, and gives her actions a natural character.
However, a number of studies have found that human behavior is quite variable. Therefore, the question involuntarily arises about how much and in what ways a person’s personality and behavior are truly stable.
According to I. S. Kon, this theoretical question contains a whole series of particular questions, each of which can be considered separately. For example, what are we talking about about the constancy - behavior, mental processes, properties or personality traits? What is an indicator and measure of the constancy or variability of the assessed properties in in this case? What is the time range within which personality traits can be judged as constant or changeable?
It should be noted that the ongoing studies do not give a clear answer to this question; moreover, they obtained different results. For example, it has been noted that even personality traits that should represent a pattern of consistency are in fact not constant and stable. In the course of research, so-called situational traits were also discovered, the manifestation of which can vary from situation to situation in the same person, and quite significantly.
At the same time, a number of longitudinal studies show that a person still has a certain degree of stability, although the degree of this constancy is not the same for different personal properties.
In one such study, conducted over 35 years, more than 100 people were assessed on a specific set of personality characteristics. They were examined for the first time at the age corresponding to junior high school, then in high school and then again at the age of 35-45 years.
Within three years from the date of the first examination to the second (at the end of school) 58 % The personal characteristics of the subjects were preserved, i.e., a relationship was identified for these parameters between the results of the first and second examination. Over the 30 years of the study, significant correlations between the study results remained for 31% of all personal characteristics studied. Below is a table (Table 20.2), which lists personality traits assessed by modern psychologists as quite stable.
In the course of the research, it turned out that not only personal qualities assessed from the outside, but also assessments of one’s own personality are very stable over time. It was also found that personal stability is not characteristic of all people. Some of them, over time, discover quite dramatic changes in their personality, so profound that the people around them do not recognize them as individuals at all. The most significant changes of this kind can occur during adolescence, young adulthood and early adulthood, for example in the range from 20 to 40-45 years.
In addition, there are significant individual differences in the period of life when a person’s personal characteristics are more or less stabilized. For some people, personality becomes stable in childhood and does not change significantly thereafter; for others, the stability of personal psychological characteristics, on the contrary, is discovered quite late, between the ages of 20 and 40. The latter most often include people whose external and internal life in adolescence and youth was characterized by tension, contradictions and conflicts.
Much less stability of personal characteristics is found when the personality is examined not over a long period of time, but in different situations. With the exception of intelligence and cognitive abilities, many other personality characteristics are situationally unstable. Attempts to link the stability of behavior in various situations with the possession of certain personality traits. In typical situations, the correlation between personality traits assessed using questionnaires and corresponding social behavior was less than 0.30.
Meanwhile, in the course of research it was found that the most stable are dynamic personality traits associated with innate anatomical and physiological inclinations, properties nervous system. These include temperament, emotional reactivity, extroversion-introversion and some other qualities.
Thus, the answer to the question about the stability of personality traits is very ambiguous. Some properties, usually those that were acquired in later periods of life and are unimportant, have virtually no stability; other personal qualities, most often acquired in early years and one way or another conditioned organically, it is. Most studies devoted to this problem note that the actual behavior of an individual, both stable and changeable, significantly depends on the constancy of the social situations in which a person finds himself.
In our opinion, a person has a number of personality characteristics that are very stable formations, since they are present in all people. These are the so-called integrative characteristics, i.e. personality traits formed on the basis of simpler psychological characteristics. Among such characteristics it is necessary, first of all, to include the adaptive potential of the individual.
We proposed this concept based on an analysis of numerous experimental studies devoted to the problem of adaptation. In our opinion, each person has personal adaptation potential, that is, a set of certain psychological characteristics that allow him to successfully adapt to the conditions of the social environment. Depending on the degree of development of the individual’s adaptive potential, a person more or less successfully shapes his behavior in various situations. Thus, we should not talk about the constancy of behavior, but about the constancy of traits that determine the adequacy of behavior in certain conditions.
Personality formation is a process that does not end at a certain stage of human life, but always lasts. There are no two identical interpretations of the term “personality”, because it is a rather multifaceted concept. There are two radically different professional views on the phenomenon of human personality. According to one of them, personality development is influenced by a person’s natural data, which is innate. The second view evaluates personality as a social phenomenon, that is, it recognizes exclusively the influence on the personality of the social environment in which it develops.
Factors in personality formation
From the many personality theories presented by different psychologists, the main idea can be clearly identified: personality is formed on the basis of a person’s biological data and the learning process, gaining life experience and self-awareness. A person’s personality begins to form in early childhood and continues throughout life. It is influenced by a number of factors, both internal and external. Let's look at them in more detail. Internal factors are, first of all, a person’s temperament, which he receives genetically. External factors include upbringing, the environment, the social level of a person, and even the time, the century in which he lives. Let us consider in more detail the two sides of personality formation - biological and social.
Personality as a biological object. The very first thing that influences the formation of personality is the genetic material that a person receives from his parents. Genes contain information about the program that was laid down in the ancestors of two genera - maternal and parental. That is, a newborn person is the successor of two births at once. But here we should clarify: a person does not receive character traits or talent from his ancestors. He receives a basis for development, which he must already use. So, for example, from birth a person can receive the makings of a singer and a choleric temperament. But whether a person can be a good vocalist and control the irascibility of his temperament depends directly on his upbringing and worldview.
It should also be noted that personality is influenced by culture and social experience of previous generations, which cannot be transmitted with genes. The significance of the biological factor in personality formation cannot be ignored. It is thanks to him that people who grow up in the same conditions become different and unique. The mother plays the most important role for the child, because he is closely connected with her, and this contact can be attributed to the biological factors influencing the formation and development of personality. IN mother's womb the child is completely dependent on the mother.
Her mood, emotions, feelings, not to mention her lifestyle, significantly influence the baby. It is a mistake to think that a woman and her fetus are connected only by the umbilical cord. They are interconnected, this connection affects the lives of both. The simplest example: a woman who was nervous and experienced a lot negative emotions During pregnancy, there will be a child susceptible to fears and stress, nervous conditions, anxieties and even developmental pathologies, which cannot but affect the formation and development of the child’s personality.
Each newborn person begins his own journey of personality formation, during which he goes through three main stages: absorbing information about the world around him, repeating someone’s actions and behavior patterns, and accumulating personal experience. In the prenatal period of development, the child does not get the opportunity to imitate someone, cannot have personal experience, but he can absorb information, that is, receive it with genes and as part of the mother’s body. This is why heredity, the attitude of the expectant mother to the fetus, and the woman’s lifestyle are of such great importance for the development of personality.
The social side of personality formation. So, biological factors lay the foundation for personality development, but human socialization also plays an equally important role. Personality is formed sequentially and in stages, and these stages have some similarities for all of us. The upbringing a person receives as a child influences his perception of the world. One cannot but underestimate the influence on the individual of the society of which she is a part. There is a term that indicates a person’s joining the system of society - socialization.
Socialization is entry into society, so it has a duration limit. The socialization of the individual begins in the first years of life, when a person masters norms and orders and begins to distinguish the roles of the people around him: parents, grandparents, educators, strangers. An important step in the beginning of socialization is the individual’s acceptance of his role in society. These are the first words: “I am a girl”, “I am a daughter”, “I am a first grader”, “I am a child”. In the future, a person must decide on his attitude to the world, his vocation, his way of life. For adolescents, an important step in socialization is choosing a future profession, and for young and mature people - creating their own family.
Socialization stops when a person completes the formation of his attitude to the world and realizes his own role in it. In fact, the socialization of an individual continues throughout life, but its main stages must be completed on time. If parents, educators and teachers miss some points in raising a child or teenager, then the young person may have difficulties in socialization. So, for example, people with whom preschool age sex education was not provided even at the elementary level; they have difficulties in determining their sexual orientation, in determining their psychological gender.
To summarize, we can say that the starting point for the development and formation of personality is the family, in which the child learns the first rules of behavior and norms of communication with society. Then the baton passes to kindergartens, schools, and universities. Sections and clubs, interest groups, and rehearsed classes are of great importance. Growing up, accepting oneself as an adult, a person learns new roles, including the roles of a spouse, parents, and specialists. In this sense, a person is influenced not only by upbringing and communication environment, but also by the media, the Internet, public opinion, culture, the political situation in the country and many other social factors.
Personality formation process
Socialization as a process of personality formation. The process of socialization has a huge impact on the development and formation of personality. The formation of personality as an object of social relations is considered in sociology in the context of two interrelated processes - socialization and identification. Socialization is the process of an individual’s assimilation of patterns of behavior and values necessary for his successful functioning in a given society. Socialization covers all processes of cultural inclusion, training and education, through which a person acquires a social nature and the ability to participate in social life.Everything around the individual takes part in the process of socialization: family, neighbors, peers in children's institutions, school, the media, etc. For successful socialization (personality formation), according to D. Smelser, the action of three factors is necessary: expectations, behavior changes and the desire to meet these expectations. The process of personality formation, in his opinion, occurs in three different stages: 1) imitation and copying by children of the behavior of adults, 2) the play stage, when children recognize behavior as playing a role, 3) the stage of group games, in which children learn to understand that from a whole group of people is waiting for them.
Many sociologists argue that the process of socialization continues throughout a person's life, and argue that the socialization of adults differs from the socialization of children in several ways: the socialization of adults rather changes external behavior, while the socialization of children forms value orientations. Identification is a way of realizing belonging to a particular community. Through identification, children accept the behavior of parents, relatives, friends, neighbors, etc. and their values, norms, patterns of behavior as their own. Identification means the internal assimilation of values by people and is a process of social learning.
The process of socialization reaches a certain degree of completion when the individual reaches social maturity, which is characterized by the individual acquiring an integral social status. In the 20th century, Western sociology established an understanding of sociology as that part of the process of personality formation, during which the most common common personality traits are formed, manifested in sociologically - organized activities regulated by the role structure of society. Talcott Parsons considers the family to be the main organ of primary socialization, where the fundamental motivational attitudes of the individual are laid.
Socialization is a complex, multifaceted process of social formation and development of personality, occurring under the influence of the social environment and the targeted educational activities of society. The process of personal socialization is the process of transforming an individual with his natural inclinations and potential opportunities for social development into a full member of society. In the process of socialization, a person is formed as a creator of material wealth, an active subject of social relations. The essence of socialization can be understood provided that the individual is considered simultaneously as an object and subject of social influence.
Education as a process of personality formation. The educational influence of the surrounding social environment has a huge influence on the formation of a person’s personality. Education is the process of purposeful influence on a person by other people, the cultivation of personality. A question arises. What plays a decisive role in the formation of personality, its social activity and consciousness - apparently higher supernatural, natural forces or the social environment? The concepts place the greatest emphasis on moral education based on the bringing of “eternal” ideas of human morality carried out in the form of spiritual communication.
The problem of education is one of the eternal social problems, final decision which is basically impossible. Education remains not only one of the most widespread forms of human activity, but also continues to bear the main burden on the formation of human sociality, since the main task of education is to change a person in the direction determined by social needs. Education is the activity of transferring socio-historical experience to new generations, a systematic and purposeful influence that ensures the formation of personality, its preparation for social life and productive work.
Considering education as a function of society, which consists in consciously influencing an individual in order to prepare him to fulfill one or another social role by transferring to him the social experience accumulated by mankind, developing certain traits and qualities, we can determine the specificity of the subject of the sociology of education. The sociology of education is the formation of the individual as a specific bearer of sociality with certain ideological, moral, aesthetic attitudes and life aspirations as a result of education as a purposeful activity of society.
On the one hand, the education of the individual is aimed at introducing a person to the values of culture, on the other hand, education consists of individualization, in the acquisition by the individual of his own “I”. Despite the importance of purposeful educational activities, the influence of specific living conditions is of decisive importance for the formation of a personality with conscious traits and principles of behavior.
Conditions for personality formation
The moral formation of personality is an important component of the process of socialization of the individual, his entry into the social environment, his assimilation of certain social roles and spiritual values - ideology, morality, culture, social norms of behavior - and their implementation in various types social activities. Socialization of the individual, his moral formation are caused by the action of three groups of factors (objective and subjective): – universal human experience in the sphere of work, communication and behavior; – material and spiritual features of a given social system and the social group to which the individual belongs ( economic relations, political institutions, ideology, model, law); – the specific content of industrial, family, everyday and other social ties and relationships that make up personal life experience individual.
It follows from this that the moral formation of personality occurs under the influence of the conditions of social existence. But social existence is a complex concept. It is determined not only by what characterizes society as a whole: the dominant type of production relations, organization of political power, level of democracy, official ideology, morality, etc., but also by what characterizes large and small social groups. These are, on the one hand, large social communities of people, professional, national, age and other demographic macrogroups, and on the other – family, school, educational and production groups, everyday environment, friends, acquaintances and other microgroups.
The individual is formed under the influence of all these layers of society. But these layers themselves, their influence on people, both in content and intensity, are unequal. General social conditions are the most mobile: they change to a greater extent as a result of social transformations, in them the new, progressive is more quickly established and the old, reactionary is eliminated. Macrogroups are slower and more difficult to respond to social changes and therefore lag behind general social conditions in their social maturity. Small social groups are the most conservative: in them the old views, mores and traditions that contradict collectivist ideology and morality are stronger and more stable.
Personality formation in the family
A family, from the position of sociologists, is a small social group based on marriage and consanguinity, the members of which are connected by a common life, mutual assistance, and moral responsibility. This ancient institution of human society has passed difficult path development: from tribal forms of community life to modern forms family relationships. Marriage as a stable union between a man and a woman arose in clan society. The basis of the marriage relationship gives rise to rights and responsibilities.
Foreign sociologists consider the family as a social institution only if it is characterized by three main types of family relationships: marriage, parenthood and kinship; in the absence of one of the indicators, the concept of “family group” is used. The word "marriage" comes from the Russian word "to take". A family union can be registered or unregistered (actual). Marriage relationships registered government agencies(in registry offices, wedding palaces) are called civil; illuminated by religion - church. Marriage is a historical phenomenon; it has gone through certain stages of its development - from polygamy to monogamy.
Urbanization has changed the way and rhythm of life, which has led to changes in family relationships. The urban family, not burdened with running a large household, focused on self-sufficiency and independence, has moved into the next phase of its development. The patriarchal family was replaced by the married one. Such a family is usually called nuclear (from the Latin nucleus); it includes spouses and their children). Weak social security and financial difficulties currently experienced by families have led to a reduction in the birth rate in Russia and the formation of a new type of family - a childless one.
Based on the type of residence, the family is divided into patrilocal, matrilocal, neolocal and unilocal. Let's look at each of these forms. The matrilocal type is characterized by the family living in the wife's house, where the son-in-law was called "primak". For a long period in Rus', the patrilocal type was widespread, in which the wife, after marriage, settled in her husband’s house and was called a “daughter-in-law.” The nuclear type of marriage relationship is reflected in the desire of the newlyweds to live independently, separately from their parents and other relatives.
This type of family is called neolocal. For the modern urban family characteristic type family relationships can be considered a unilocal type, in which spouses live where there is opportunity cohabitation, including renting housing. A sociological survey conducted among young people showed that young people entering into marriage do not condemn marriages of convenience. Only 33.3% of respondents condemn such marriages, 50.2% are sympathetic to it, and 16.5% even “would like to have such an opportunity.” Modern marriages have aged. Middle age over the past 10 years, the number of people getting married has increased by 2 years among women and by 5 years among men. The tendency, characteristic of Western countries, to start a family by solving professional, material, housing and other problems, is also observed in Russia.
Marriages nowadays, as a rule, are of different ages. Usually, one of the members of the marriage union, often the eldest, takes responsibility for solving economic, household and other problems. And although family psychologists, for example, Bandler, consider the optimal age difference between spouses to be 5-7 years, modern marriages are characterized by a difference of 15-20 years (and the woman is not always younger than a man). Changes in social relations have also affected the problems of the modern family.
In the practice of family relations, fictitious marriages take place. In this registered form, marriage is typical for the capital and large industrial and cultural centers Russia, their basis is obtaining certain benefits. The family is a complex multifunctional system; it performs a number of interrelated functions. The function of a family is a way of displaying the activity and life of its members. The functions include: economic, household, recreational, or psychological, reproductive, educational.
Sociologist A.G. Kharchev considers the reproductive function of the family to be the main social function, which is based on a person’s instinctive desire to continue his kind. But the role of the family is not limited to the role of a “biological” factory. In fulfilling this function, the family is responsible for the physical, mental and intellectual development child, it acts as a kind of fertility regulator. Currently, demographers note a decline in the birth rate in Russia. Thus, in 1995, newborns amounted to 9.3 per thousand of the population, in 1996 - 9.0; in 1997-8 newborns.
A person acquires value for society only when he becomes an individual, and its formation requires targeted, systematic influence. It is the family, with its constant and natural nature of influence, that is called upon to form the character traits, beliefs, views, and worldview of the child. Therefore, highlighting the educational function of the family as the main one has social meaning.
For each person, the family performs emotional and recreational functions that protect the person from stressful and extreme situations. The comfort and warmth of home, the fulfillment of a person’s need for trusting and emotional communication, sympathy, empathy, support - all this allows a person to be more resistant to the conditions of modern hectic life. The essence and content of the economic function consists of managing not only the general household, but also economic support for children and other family members during the period of their incapacity.
