Psychological crises in adults. Crises in human life

Federal Agency for Education.

Department of Pedagogy and Psychology.

Essay on the topic: "Crises in human life"

Completed by 1st year student

FEiVS group ED-12b

Ivkova Xenia

Checked by Kalashnikov P.F.

Moscow 2009

Introduction…………………………………………………………………………………………..3

Age crises as a consequence of development. General principles age mental development…………………………………………………………………………..4

Crises by age parameters. Neonatal crisis and infancy………………………………………………………………………………………………..5

Crisis of one year and early childhood………………………………………………………...5

Crisis of seven years…………………………………………………………………………………..7

Age-related crises of adulthood……………………………………………………………………7

Conclusion………………………………………………………………………………………..9

References………………………………………………………………………………….10

Introduction

A crisis in life is always unpleasant. Whether it's health, or family, or work, or friendships. A person is out of his usual rhythm. It hurts, it hurts. However, it is possible to mitigate the inevitable crises built into human nature and avoid those that are the result of the wrong choice of the person himself.

A crisis is not a dead end, but some contradictions that accumulate in a person. There are a number of so-called normative crises that a person goes through throughout his life: the crisis of one year, three years, transitional age. The problem that many do not deal with is adolescence: when a person would like others to see him older, stricter, harder than he really is. When two norms are applied to a teenager: you are already big, you must take out the garbage” and “you are still small, you must be at home at 9 o'clock”. Double standards are also very often characteristic of adults: a good family man - outwardly, a rude man, a misogynist - inside. Important age crisis“Root transplants”, when a person, as it were, moves into a different information and communication environment. At this stage, many people often get married. Much depends on the quality of the "soil" on which they fall.

A very important crisis is the mid-life crisis at 35-45. It is associated with the loss of the meaning of life when work, friends, personal life change. There is a depreciation of what a person has achieved. Life gets stuck when part of your energy and time needs to be spent on washing, cooking, going to the store, etc. smoothing out conflicts with mother-in-law, wife and children. By this time, controversy has accumulated.

The last crisis is the "nodular period". It has no time frame. Conventionally, this is when a person collects things in a bundle and stores them, preparing for death. He exists in two worlds. Some allow themselves more, strive to get what they did not have. Hence late love, creativity, great freedom. As the last time. Other people do just the opposite.

All life crises are like nesting dolls. It is hard when a person does not get out of the crisis, but accumulates them. All of them are connected with the search for the meaning of life and attempts to answer questions like “Why am I living? For whom?" The second important feature of the crisis is the problem of personal freedom, the struggle for it at all stages of life.

Entering a crisis is the beginning of this mathematical equation. The main thing is to correctly reduce the components of the equation, to find an equivalent exchange.

Age crises as a consequence of development. General principles of age-related mental development

In the development of the child's psyche, a number of age periods are distinguished with characteristic features formation of perception and thinking, other higher mental functions, as well as the sensitivity characteristic of each of them, which is most clearly manifested in the development of speech functions. There are also critical periods, or developmental crises, through which the age-related development of the psyche occurs, emphasizing its unevenness. At the same time, the transition from one period to another can manifest itself in the form of a sharp change, a “jump” in development. The physiologically critical period is characterized by "the transformation of one dominant state, characteristic of the previous age period, into a significantly new dominant state, required in the subsequent age period." The criticality of the development of HMF, timed to a certain period, is manifested in the irreversible, as is commonly believed, the fading of opportunities effective development corresponding abilities after the transition of the age limits of this period. In this regard, the concepts of sensitive and critical periods are in many respects close and often combined. It is known that the unevenness of mental development is its integral, internally intrinsic property. At the same time, it is necessary to consider it not only in the external aspect, as the uneven pace of development of the psyche as a whole - the alternation of periods of acceleration and slowdown in the pace of development, and in critical phases the possibility of a short-term regression - but also in the internal, structural aspect, as the asynchrony of the development of individual functional systems, or different subsystems within one system. Heterochrony, being a reflection of the internal inconsistency of development, can be considered as its internal source. Another fundamental principle of mental development is the principle of epigenesis, which is a general systemic principle of progressive development, the formation of systems of ever-increasing complexity with the transition to higher levels of organization by integrating old ways of organizing with new ones with their subsequent modification.

Crises by age parameters. The neonatal crisis and infancy

The neonatal crisis was not discovered, but calculated by the latter and singled out as a special, crisis period in the mental development of the child. A sign of a crisis is weight loss in the first days after birth.

The social situation of the newborn is specific and unique and is determined by two factors. On the one hand, this is the complete biological helplessness of the child, he is not able to satisfy a single vital need without an adult. Thus, the infant is the most social being.

On the other hand, with maximum dependence on adults, the child is still deprived of the main means of communication in the form of human speech.

The contradiction between maximum sociality and minimum means of communication lays the foundation for the entire development of the child in infancy.

The main neoplasm is the emergence of the child's individual mental life. What is new in this period is that, first, life becomes an individual existence, separate from the mother organism. The second point is that it becomes mental life, for, according to Vygodsky, only mental life can be a part of social life people around the child.

Up to a year, the child's speech is passive: he understands intonation, often repeated constructions, but does not speak himself. But it was at this time that the foundations of speech skills were laid. Children themselves lay these foundations, seeking to establish contact with adults through crying, cooing, cooing, babbling, gestures, and then the first words.

Autonomous speech is formed for about a year and serves as a transitional phase between passive and active speech. Sometimes autonomous speech is called children's jargon. Its form is communication. In terms of content - an emotionally direct connection with adults and the situation.

One year crisis and early childhood

The crisis of one year is characterized by the development of speech action. The baby's body regulates biological system associated with biorhythms. Now, however, it has come into conflict with the verbal situation based on self-command or order from adults. Thus, a child of about a year old finds himself without a system at all that allows him to reliably navigate in the world around him. Biological rhythms are strongly deformed, and speech rhythms are not so formed that the child can freely control his behavior.

At this age, there is a separation of the lines of mental development of boys and girls. They are inherent different types leading activity. In boys, object-tool activity is formed on the basis of objective activity. In girls, on the basis of speech activity - communicative.

Object-tool activity includes manipulation with human objects, the beginnings of design, as a result of which abstract, abstract thinking is better developed in men.

Communicative activity involves mastering the logic of human relations. Most women have a more developed social thinking than men, the sphere of manifestation of which is the communication of people. Women have thinner intuition, tact, they are more prone to empathy.

Sex differences in the behavior of children are due not so much to biological and physiological reasons as to the nature of their social communication. The orientation of boys and girls to different types of activity is set socially, as a result of cultural patterns. In fact, there are more similarities between male and female babies than differences. Differences appear later. Basically, boys and girls develop in parallel and go through the same stages.

So, by the age of three, children of both sexes develop the following neoplasms of age: the beginnings of self-awareness, the development of self-concept, self-esteem. The child does 90% of the work of language acquisition. In three years, a person goes half the way of his mental development.

The first ideas about yourself arise in a child by the age of one.

These are ideas about the parts of your body, but the baby cannot yet generalize them. With special training by adults, by the age of one and a half, the child can recognize himself in the mirror, masters the identity of the reflection and his appearance.

By the age of 3, a new stage of self-identification is reached: with the help of a mirror, the child gets the opportunity to form his own idea of \u200b\u200bhis present self.

The child is interested in all ways of confirming his Self. Spiritualizing individual parts of the body, in the game he learns the will over himself.

A three-year-old kid is interested in everything connected with him, for example, in the shadow. Begins to use the pronoun "I", learns his name, gender. Identification with one's own name is expressed in a special interest in people who have the same name.

By the age of 3, the child already knows whether he is a boy or a girl. Children draw similar knowledge from observations of the behavior of parents, older brothers and sisters. This allows the child to understand what forms of behavior in accordance with his gender are expected of him by others.

The crisis of three years precedes the crisis of the age of seven and is one of the most difficult periods of a child's life. The child singles out his "I", moves away from adults and tries to build other "more adult" relationships with them. Well-known domestic psychologist L.S. Vygodsky identifies several characteristics of the crisis three years of age.

Negativism. Negative reaction of the child to the request or demand of an adult. This reaction is not directed against the very action that is required of the child. It is directed towards the request itself. The main thing that drives the child at this moment is to do the opposite.

Manifestation of stubbornness. The child insists on something, not because he really wants it, but because he demands that his opinion be taken into account.

The line of manifestation of independence is very clearly traced. The child wants to do everything himself. In general, this is good. But everything is good in moderation. Hypertrophied manifestation of independence often does not correspond to the capabilities of the child. Which can lead to internal conflict with oneself, and conflict with adults.

It happens that conflicts between children and adults become, as it were, a system of relations. It seems that they are constantly at war. In such cases, one can speak of a protest-revolt.

In families where the child is alone, despotism may appear.

In families with many children, instead of despotism, jealousy towards other children may appear. Jealousy in this case will be regarded as a tendency to power and an intolerant attitude towards the younger ones.

Devaluation of old rules and norms of behavior, attachments to certain things and toys. Psychologically, the child moves away from close adults and realizes himself as an independent subject.

Crisis of seven years

The crisis of seven years can manifest itself in the interval of approximately 6 to 8 years.

This crisis is another difficult period in the life of a child and his parents, no less difficult and significant than the crisis of three years and the well-known crisis of adolescence. This phenomenon is closely connected with a sharp change in the child's living conditions, his social status and the emergence of new rules and even meaning in his life - the child goes to school. One more step on the way to an adult independent life. More duties, responsibilities, new rules, new roles, new people, new relationships. Of course, it is not so easy for a baby to enter this completely different period of his life - and as a reaction to these new requirements - the crisis of seven years. And very often in the pre-school fuss, parents do not pay enough attention to the condition of the child.

Often we pay too much attention to how the baby learned to count, draw, behave, and with all these worries we forget to look into the inner world of the child. And what happens to him at this time? To understand this crisis from the inside, let's look at it from the outside.

External manifestations of the crisis of seven years

Even a stranger, a neighbor or acquaintance who sees the child very rarely, can notice strong changes in his behavior.

The main feature of the changes that occur in a seven-year-old child is that he becomes not as clear as he was before, these changes are much more complex and deeper, and not all the actions of the child are now so easy to explain, as it was, say, at three years old, before the onset of the crisis.

Age crises of adulthood

Throughout the life of any of us waiting for several age-related crises.

The first crisis occurs at a very young age, about 10-12 years old. The child during this period ceases to be a baby and becomes a teenager. The range of his interests is expanding, previously unshakable parental authorities are fading, he is learning to form his own opinions and perform independent actions, as well as be responsible for them.

The second crisis overtakes us at the time of youth - at about 16-20 years old. The young man is already formally and is considered an adult. Moreover, he considers himself an adult, and, accordingly, he tries to prove it to himself ... and to the rest of the world. In addition, this is the time of real, adult responsibility: the army, the first job, the university, perhaps the first marriage ... Behind young man parents cease to stand, he really begins an independent life, nourishing numerous hopes for the future.

The third crisis occurs approximately in the thirtieth anniversary. The first frenzy of youth is already over, a person evaluates what has been done and already looks into the future much more soberly. He begins to want peace, stability. Many at this age begin to “make a career”, others, on the contrary, devote more time to the family in the hope of finding some kind of “meaning of life”, something that would seriously occupy the mind and heart.

The fourth crisis falls on 40-45 years. A person sees old age ahead, and behind it the worst thing is death. The body loses strength and beauty, wrinkles, gray hair appear, diseases overcome. There comes a time for the first battle with old age, a time when one strikes into love adventures, then goes headlong into work, then begins to do extreme things like skydiving or climbing Everest. During this period, some seek salvation in religion, others in various philosophies, while others, on the contrary, become cynical and angrier.

The fifth crisis falls on 60-70 years. A person in these years, as a rule, retires and does not know at all what to do with himself. In addition, health is not the same, old friends are far away, and someone may be dead, the children have grown up and have been living their lives for a long time, even if they are in the same house with their parents ... A person suddenly realizes that life is coming to an end and he is no longer in the center of her cycle, that his age is ending. He feels lost, may become depressed, lose interest in life.

Each crisis is both a change in a person's worldview and a change in his status in relation to both society and himself. Learning to perceive yourself, new, from a positive point of view - this is the main thing that will help to overcome the psychological difficulties of age-related crises.

Conclusion

Age crises are some time periods in human development, during which there are sharp mental changes. They do not last long, from several months to a year and are a normal phenomenon in the personal development of a person.

The duration of these crises and their manifestations depend on the individual characteristics and the conditions in which a person is in a given period of time. Conditions include both the family and the social environment.

The opinions of psychologists about age-related crises differ. Some believe that the crisis is the result of improper upbringing, that development should take place smoothly and harmoniously. Others believe that the crisis is a normal process of transition to a more difficult age stage. Some psychologists believe that a person who has not survived the crisis will not develop further.

Domestic psychologists distinguish between stable and crisis periods of development. They alternate with each other and are a natural process of child development. Obvious shifts in development are manifested, the child changes greatly in behavior, conflicts with adults. Losing interest in activities. This is observed not only at school, but also in circles. Some children have unconscious experiences, internal conflicts.

Well-known domestic psychologist D.B. Elkonin said: "To each point of his development of the district approaches with a certain discrepancy between what he learned from the system of relations man - man, and what he learned from the system of relations man - object. Just the moments when this discrepancy takes on the greatest value, and are called crises, after the cat. there is a development of that party, a cat. lagged behind in the previous period. But each of the parties is preparing the development of the other.

Bibliography

1 KG. Jung. Psychological types. - M.: Progress-Univers, 1995 - 718 p.

2. L.S. Vygodsky. The problem of age periodization child development. Questions of psychology, 1972, No. 2.

4. I.A. Arshavsky. Fundamentals of age periodization. - In the book: Age Physiology. L .: Nauka, 1975 - S. 60

6. Ya.L. Kolominsky. Man: psychology. - M.: Enlightenment, 1986 - 223 p.

7. I.S. Con. Psychology of adolescence-M.: Education, 1979 - 175 p.

8. B.G. Ananiev. Man as an object of knowledge. - L .: Ed. Leningrad State University, 1968 - 338 p.

Our life is like swimming down the river - in some periods, events change with dizzying speed and a person is forced to make important decisions every day, while at other moments a person’s life seems to “freeze” and he begins to feel that he has nothing interesting happens, and for quite a long time.

What is a "psychological crisis"? I propose to dwell on this issue in more detail and consider the main causes of crises in adults.

Psychological crisis - this is a state when a person can no longer live according to previously established rules, as well as use already formed patterns of behavior that in the past, it would seem, completely suited him. Such a state can cause fear, lack of self-confidence, so a person begins to think about how to live on, but most often alone he is unable to take any specific actions to form new behaviors, which increases the feeling of inner anxiety and tension.

First of all, it is necessary to understand that a psychological crisis is an absolutely normal phenomenon that can happen (and happens throughout life, and more than once) with every person. Moreover, the symptoms of the crisis are a kind of signals showing that the time has come to stop and look back, assess the present and think about the future in order to continue our further movement in the “right” direction. In most cases, the occurrence of psychological crises is closely related to certain age periods.

Psychological crisis 18-22 years old symbolizes a person's search for his place in life. On the this stage a person begins to consider himself already an adult and seeks to prove this to all the people around him. To overcome this state, it is important to accept yourself as you are, with all the advantages and disadvantages. Since at this age young people and girls enter higher educational establishments and acquire a profession, it is important to listen to yourself and choose a specialty in which there is really an interest, and not imposed by people around you. This will avoid feelings of disappointment and regret in the future.

Psychological crisis 30 years associated with a reassessment of one's life direction, professional activity. At this age, there may be a feeling of missed opportunities, a desire to blame others for this and try to "start all over again." How to deal with a crisis successfully? To cope with the fear of change, to realize that you can change your life and nothing bad will happen from it. Moreover, new opportunities will open up. This also applies to the field of professional activity. If you do not feel satisfied with your work, maybe this is a reason for acquiring a new specialty? Think about it.

Psychological crisis 35-37 years old. Results achieved during a lifetime in family, career, relationships, etc. begin to be comprehended not by themselves, but from the point of view of personal satisfaction (why do I need all this?). Overcoming this crisis consists in recognizing one's own mistakes, correcting one's life plans, and effectively redistributing one's time and energy.

Ppsychological crisis 40-45 years old. If a person has taken an active position throughout his life, then he has a feeling of stability and satisfaction. If a person has not managed to achieve his goals, then he has a feeling of humility. At this stage, it is important to single out for yourself a certain specific goal, and move in its direction, then this age can become the best in his life.

Psychological crisis 50-55 years. The stage of meaningful maturity, as this age is often called, is associated with a new assessment of one's life achievements and awareness of personal freedom. How to deal with the crisis? Appreciate the delights of life for yourself: travel, go to the theater or do other things that are pleasant for you.

Psychological crisis 60-65 years. It occurs when a person finds himself outside the professional activity in which he has been engaged for most of his life. He suddenly realizes that life is coming to an end, however, the most dramatic moment of the last crisis is that nothing can be changed in the past. A person thinks not only about events, but about the meaning of the years lived. How to overcome this state? If you cannot imagine your life without work, find a part-time job, think about your hobbies, pay attention healthy lifestyle life.

Age crises are a pattern of human mental development. Knowing their frequency and causes of occurrence, it is possible to mitigate the inevitable, "normative" crises and avoid those that are the result of the wrong choice of the person himself.

Crisis #1

The first important stage in a series of crisis periods is from 3 to 7 years. It is also called the period of " strengthening the roots". At this time, a global attitude towards the world is being formed: whether it is safe or hostile. And this attitude grows out of what the baby feels in the family, he is loved and accepted, or, for one reason or another, he has to “survive”.

This does not mean physical survival (although families are different, including those where the child has to fight for survival in the literal sense), but psychological: how small man feels protected among the closest people, whether he is spared from all kinds of stress.

This is a very important period, since self-esteem and a person’s attitude towards himself depend on the feeling that the world around is benevolent. From here, curiosity and the desire to be better develop normally, and much more.

Such a child grows up with a sense of the importance of his own efforts: “I will try, and the world around me will support me.” Such children turn out to be optimists who are not afraid of independence and decision-making. Distrust in the world of adults (and therefore in the world in general) forms a person who is always doubting, lacking initiative, and apathetic. Such people, growing up, are not able to accept not only themselves, with all the shortcomings and virtues, they also do not know the feeling of trust in another person at all.

Crisis #2

The next crisis is most acute in the period from 10 to 16 years. This is a transition from childhood to adulthood, when one’s own strengths are evaluated through the prism of the merits of other people, there is a constant comparison: “I’m better or worse, am I different from others, if yes, then in what exactly and how is it good or bad for me?” . And most importantly: “How do I look in the eyes of other people, how do they evaluate me, what does it mean to be an individual?” The task that a person faces during this period is to determine the measure of his own independence, his psychological status, the boundaries of his I among others.

This is where the understanding comes that there is a huge adult world with its own norms and rules that need to be accepted. Therefore, the experience gained outside the home is so important, therefore all the instructions of the parents become unnecessary and only irritate: the main experience is there, in the adult world, among peers. And you only want to fill the bumps yourself, without caring mother's hands.

A positive resolution of this crisis leads to an even greater strengthening of self-esteem, strengthened self-confidence, that "I can do everything myself." If the crisis is not resolved properly, then dependence on parents is replaced by dependence on stronger and more self-confident peers, on any, even imposed "norms" of the environment, on circumstances, finally. “Why try, achieve something, I still won’t succeed! I'm the worst!"

Self-doubt, envy of other people's successes, dependence on the opinions, on the assessment of others - these are the qualities that a person who has not passed the second crisis carries throughout his future life.

Crisis #3

The third crisis period (from 18 to 22 years old) is associated with the search for one's own place in this complex world. The understanding comes that the black and white colors of the previous period are no longer suitable for understanding the entire palette of the outside world, which is much more complex and less unambiguous than it seemed until now.

At this stage, dissatisfaction with oneself may again appear, the fear that "I do not correspond, I cannot ...". But we are talking about finding your own way in this difficult world, self-identification, as psychologists say.

If this crisis is unsuccessfully passed, there is a danger of falling into the trap of self-deception: instead of your own path, look for an object to follow or a “broad back”, behind which you can hide for the rest of your life, or, on the contrary, begin to deny all kinds of authorities, but at the same time not offer anything of your own, confine itself to protest, without constructive solutions and ways.

It is during this period that the "habit" is formed to raise one's own significance by humiliating, belittling the significance of others, which we so often meet in life. The ability to calmly and with full responsibility accept yourself as you are, with all the shortcomings and virtues, testifies to the successful passage of the crisis, knowing that your own individuality is more important.

Crisis #4

The next crisis (22 - 27 years), subject to its successful passage, brings us the ability to change something in our lives without fear, depending on how we change ourselves. To do this, we must overcome a certain “absolutism” in ourselves, which makes us believe that everything that has been done in life to this moment is forever and there will be nothing new.

For some reason, the global life course that we have been moving along is no longer satisfying. There is an incomprehensible feeling of anxiety, dissatisfaction with what is, a vague feeling that it could be different, that some opportunities have been missed, and nothing can be changed.

With the successful passage of this stage of the crisis, the fear of change disappears, a person understands that no life course can claim to be “absolute”, global, given once and for all, that it can and should be changed, depending on how you change yourself, not be afraid to experiment, start something anew. Only under the condition of such an approach can the next crisis be successfully avoided, which is called “correction of life plans”, “reassessment of attitudes”.

Crisis #5

This crisis occurs somewhere at the age of 32-37, when experience has already been accumulated in relationships with others, in a career, in a family, when many serious life results have already been obtained.

These results are beginning to be evaluated not in terms of achievements as such, but in terms of personal satisfaction. "Why do I need it? Was it worth the effort?" To many, the realization of one's own mistakes seems very painful, something that needs to be avoided, clinging to past experience, to illusory ideals.

Instead of calmly adjusting plans, a person says to himself: “I will not change my ideals, I will adhere to the chosen course once and for all, I must prove that I was right, no matter what!”. If you have had the courage to admit mistakes and adjust your life, your plans, then the way out of this crisis is a new influx of fresh strength, opening up prospects and opportunities.

If it turned out to be impossible to start everything from the beginning, this period will be more destructive for you than constructive.

Crisis #6

One of the most difficult stages - 37 - 45 years. For the first time, we are clearly aware that life is not endless, that it is getting harder and harder to carry an “extra load” on ourselves, that it is necessary to concentrate on the main thing.

Career, family, connections - all this is not only settled, but also overgrown with a lot of unnecessary, annoying conventions and obligations that have to be observed, because “it’s necessary”. At this stage, there is a struggle between the desire to grow, develop and the state of "swamp", stagnation. You have to make a decision what to carry on yourself and further, and what you can throw off, what to get rid of.

For example, from part of the worries, having learned to allocate time and effort; from duties in relation to relatives, dividing them into primary, really necessary, and secondary, those that we do out of habit; from unnecessary social ties, dividing them into desirable and burdensome.

Crisis #7

After 45 years, a period of second youth begins, and not only in women who become "berries again", but also in men. According to one of the Western psychologists, we finally stop measuring our age by the number of years lived and begin to think in terms of the time that has yet to be lived.

Here is how A. Libina describes this crisis period: “Men and women of this age can be compared with teenagers. Firstly, rapid changes occur in their body, caused by natural physiological processes. Because of hormonal changes during menopause, they, like teenagers, become quick-tempered, touchy, easily irritated over trifles. Secondly, their sense of self is again aggravated, and they are again ready to fight for their Self, even at the slightest threat of independence. Fight in the family - with children who have already left or are about to leave the parental nest, at work - feeling extremely uncomfortable and unstable in the role of pensioners who are "stepping on the heels" of younger ones.

Men at the age of 45 face the long-forgotten questions of youth: "Who am I?" and "Where am I going?" This is also true for women, although they have a much more difficult crisis.

Many studies show that the most vulnerable during this crisis are women who consider themselves exclusively housewives. They are driven to despair by the thought of the “empty nest”, which, in their opinion, becomes a house abandoned by grown children. Then they start rearranging the furniture at home and buying new curtains.

Many perceive this crisis as a loss of meaning in life, while others, on the contrary, see this inevitable turn of events as an opportunity for further growth. This largely depends on how previous age crises were handled.

During this period, hidden resources and hitherto unidentified talents may be discovered. Their implementation becomes possible thanks to the discovered advantages of age - the ability to think not only about your own family, but also about new directions in work and even the beginning of a new career.

Crisis #8

After fifty, the age of "meaningful maturity" begins. We begin to act, guided by our own priorities and interests, more than ever before. However, personal freedom does not always seem like a gift of fate, many begin to acutely feel their own loneliness, lack of important things and interests. Hence the bitterness and disappointment in the life lived, its futility and emptiness. But the worst thing is loneliness. This is in the case of a negative development of the crisis due to the fact that the previous ones were passed "with errors".

In a positive development scenario, a person begins to see new prospects for himself, without devaluing the previous merits, looking for new areas of application for his life experience, wisdom, love, creative forces. Then the concept of old age acquires only a biological meaning, without limiting vital interests, does not carry passivity and stagnation.

Numerous studies show that the concepts of "old age" and "passivity" are absolutely independent of each other, this is just a common stereotype! AT age group after 60 there is a distinct difference between "young" and "old" people. It all depends on how a person perceives his own state: as a brake or as an incentive for the further development of his personality, for an interesting, fulfilling life.

All these periods of crisis, with which our life is full, smoothly pass one into another, like a ladder, “lifelong”, where you cannot get to the next step without standing on the previous one and where, having stumbled on one step, you no longer step smoothly and correctly, straight putting the foot on the next. And even more so, you won’t be able to jump over a few steps: anyway, someday you will have to go back and finish the “work on the mistakes”.

Age-related personality crises are alternating, temporary manifestations of a change in a person’s psychological attitude to the surrounding reality, depending on the age period. As a rule, such phenomena are of a negative nature, which can stimulate not only a stressful effect on the human psyche, but also the development of certain psychopathological conditions and disorders, for example, states, phobias, and so on.

In some cases, in order to prevent the development of pathological conditions, the intervention of a specialist with the imputation of medications into the state of assistance is necessary. However, it is worth noting that age-related personality crises are a physiologically normal phenomenon that occurs in the majority of people and contributes to the direct development of the personality, which is due to a change in life values. But not all psychologists and psychotherapists agree with this statement, some of them quite confidently believe that the appearance of age-related crises in men and women is a pathological process due to a number of etiological causes and dependencies. And it must be treated, like any mental disorder or disorder.

The strength of manifestation and the period of age-related crises are always different, although there is some binding to a certain age. However, it is rather conditional, since only the individual characteristics of a person, the surrounding social and microsocial factors, are decisive.

In domestic psychotherapy, the studies of L. S. Vygotsky, who did not consider the age crisis as a pathology, play an important role. He believed that a smooth transition to the next age crisis, especially in childhood, contributes to the formation of a stronger personality with strong-willed resistance to negative manifestations environment. However, such a phenomenon is appropriate provided not only the smooth appearance of the crisis period, but the correct attitude of others, or psychologists, if their intervention is necessary.

In addition, according to L. S. Vygotsky, a sharp jump into the crisis phase and its successful overcoming contributes to the formation of a new round of character in human psychology - factors that contribute to giving some descriptive characteristic to the individual.

Some features of the age crisis

Age-related personality crises are of sufficient decisive importance precisely in childhood, since during this age period the formation of a human character, its relationship with society and volitional characteristics take place. For the same reason, the greatest number of consecutive crisis outbreaks falls on the age period of childhood and early adolescence, when the episodes are quite stormy.

In general, age-related crises in children do not last long, as a rule, several months and, only in especially neglected cases, under a certain set of accompanying circumstances, drag on for a couple of years. A child is always characterized by a sharp change in attitude towards himself, his parents and the environment. The boundaries of childhood crises are always fuzzy and extremely blurred, the transition will always be smooth, but the middle of the crisis period is always characterized by a sharp emotional outburst and swaying affect.

Outwardly, the children's age crisis is manifested by severe difficulties in education, disobedience, the emergence of bad habits, and sometimes antisocial behavior. As a rule, such a picture is always supplemented by a decrease in school performance and a vivid manifestation of internal experiences, fixation on any problems that, in fact, cannot be something significant.

A characteristic feature of age-related crises, both in childhood and older age, is the spontaneous occurrence of so-called neoplasms in the character of the individual, which determine his attitude to various environmental factors. It should be noted that such neoplasms are of a pronounced temporary nature, quickly appear and also quickly disappear, making it possible for the next ones to appear. In a word, not every neoplasm in the personality is fixed in the character traits of the individual, but only those that most firmly, for various reasons, linger in the mind. The ones that bring positive effect and euphoria to its owner, thanks to which a person understands that he is able to get some benefit and pleasure. Although often this awareness of usefulness is deeply subjective and is not combined with the norms of generally accepted morality.

D. B. Elkonin made an attempt to somewhat materialize the causality of the manifestation of a crisis state associated with age. He argues that the reason for the emergence of the crisis lies in the conflict between the well-established understandings of a person that arose in the previous crisis period, and new factors that gradually appear in life. The critical point of such a conflict, when the knowledge and awareness accumulated in the present reaches its maximum amount, causes the development of crisis signs. It is difficult to disagree with such statements, because the concept of “age” necessarily involves dynamics, in this case associated with the number of years lived.

Age associated with the emergence of crises

Modern practical psychology has sufficient experience to make an attempt to rank age-related crises depending on the amount of time lived.

Newborn Crisis. Despite the insufficient opportunities for the manifestation of verbal and motor discontent, even at such a young age, a person is characterized by some awareness of the crisis situation, which arose due to living conditions and adaptation to new conditions of existence. Many psychologists argue that the crisis of the newborn is perhaps the most severe of the entire set of such crises;

Crisis of the first year of life. This period is very significant for a person, first of all, because it becomes possible to verbally state one's requirements, moreover, against the general background of non-verbal manifestations of affective signs;

Crisis of the third year of life. It is characterized by the formation and the first manifestations of independence. There is a desire to form new ways of communicating with adults, the emergence of contacts with other representatives of the surrounding society - their peers, educators in kindergarten and so on. A new world of previously unknown opportunities opens up for the child, which quite effectively make their own adjustments to the possible development of stress factors.

L. S. Vygotsky identifies several main signs of a three-year-old crisis that are inherent in any physiologically and mentally healthy child. The main of these signs is - to the requests of others to perform some action, which is outwardly manifested by the execution exactly the opposite.

The first signs of stubbornness begin to appear precisely at this age - the child first gets acquainted with a situation where not everything can be done as he would like and as he considers right.

The tendency to the manifestation of independence, also has to be in any child at the age of about three years. This could be given a positive assessment if the child could objectively assess their capabilities. But, often, this is impossible, therefore, the overestimation of his capabilities and the situation that arose as a result of his wrong actions leads to conflict.

It would be more correct to call this crisis a school one, since the beginning of a person's school activity contributes to its manifestation. In addition to the fact that the educational process makes you concentrate on gaining new knowledge, acquiring new social contacts, getting to know the positions of your peers, who, as it turned out, have their own views on what is happening around, the school crisis begins to form the true will of a person, based on his genetically potential. Thus, it is thanks to school that a person develops the concept of either his inferiority, low self-esteem, insufficient level of intelligence, or, on the contrary, an increased sense of self-importance, selfishness, an irresistible sense of his own competence and social significance.

The overwhelming majority of all schoolchildren occupy one of the two indicated extremes, and only a few, thanks to their genetic inclinations and upbringing, are able to take a neutral, middle position, which allows them to learn from the mistakes of others. Such children usually have high level intelligence, against the background of demonstrative incapacity, otherwise - laziness. The reason for this is very simple - there is the possibility of using one's peers who are weaker in emotions, addictions and mind.

In addition, during this period, for the first time in a child's life, the inner life of the child begins to form, which leaves a semantic imprint on the nature of his behavior. The little man gradually begins to take advantage of the opportunity to think about the possible consequences of his decisions, thus his physical activity begins to acquire an intellectual underpinning;

Age crisis from 11 to 15 years. The next most important stressful period in a person's life, this time associated with puberty. This situation opens up new possibilities and new dependencies that can prevail over old stereotypes, and so much so that they completely overlap. This period is also called the transitional or pubertal crisis. This is the first opportunity to look at the opposite sex through the hormonal prism of desires and pleasures, and not as ordinary peers.

Sexual attraction contributes to the formation of their ego - at this time, teenagers begin to pay attention to their appearance, listen to the words of more experienced boys and girls.

The constant desire to be an adult or to seem like one often leads to conflict with parents who have already forgotten about their similar period. Often, during the pubertal crisis, the help of a psychologist or psychotherapist is required, especially in problematic, inferior families;

Crisis 17 years. Stimulated by the end of school activities and the transition to adulthood. Depending on the year of graduation, the age of crisis can fall between 15 and 18 years of age. Now it is possible to divide the problem into age-related crises in men and women. Often, by this time, the first sexual experience is behind them, which, too, can serve as a separate reason for the occurrence of a sexual crisis in women. But, as a rule, this problem is very transient - the resulting pleasure covers all negative thoughts and experiences.

This period is characterized by the generation of various fears, for women - the upcoming family life, for men - leaving for the army. In addition, there is the problem of getting vocational education- a step that will determine the future life of each individual.

It comes, as a rule, in the middle of the lived path and is characterized by a deep reassessment of values, weighing the experience gained against the background of the quality of achievements. As a rule, a very small number of people are satisfied with their lives, believing that they have not lived their lives fully enough or uselessly. During this period, there comes a real growing up, a maturity that allows you to assess the meaning of your life.

Retirement Crisis. Like the crisis of newborns, it is one of the most difficult in a person's life. If in the first case a person is not aware of the critical impact of stress factors, then during the last crisis, the situation worsens with full perception and awareness. This period is equally difficult for both women and men. This is especially true for an acute sense of lack of demand in the professional arena - a person still retains his ability to work, feels that he can be useful, but his employer is not satisfied with this state of affairs. The appearance of grandchildren somewhat improves the situation, especially it softens the course of the age crisis in women.

Biological aging, a number of serious diseases, loneliness due to the death of one of the spouses, an understanding of the imminent end of the life process, very often lead to a situation where it begins to be required.

The truth has long been known that life has a black and white color, where the stripes different color alternate with enviable constancy. Either you are lucky in everything and everything works out, and then, suddenly, “the black streak has gone”, with all the ensuing consequences. But it also happens that, it seems, everything in life is going fine, there are no minor misfortunes and, moreover, major misfortunes do not occur, and everything works out as before, but ... Something gnaws, and gnaws from the inside, it is this before "for some reason, it does not please, but, on the contrary, irritates, and the mood is constantly bad, and everything that you liked before is disgusting ...

Do not rush to diagnose yourself with depression. There is such a concept that has long since become not scientific, but quite everyday, like an age crisis. We have all heard this word and can even roughly explain its meaning, but for some reason we believe that this concept does not apply to everyone. There is a crisis of three years, there is a teenage one, well, maybe even an senile one. And everything, the rest of a person's life flows smoothly and calmly, without crises. This is not true. Crisis periods cover our entire mature, and not just children's life, and we must be prepared for this.

Psychologists say that you should not be afraid of crises, they, like signal lights, indicate to us that the time has come for changes, without which a full life is impossible. But what changes - this is a question for each of us personally, to which we must answer ourselves, without help and prompting. The crisis tells us that it is time to stop, look back, carefully assess the present and reconsider the future. After all, life is always change, otherwise nothing makes sense.

To go through some segment of the path with a quick step, seeing the goal ahead of you, and then, having reached it, to settle for a long time in the "swamp", where there is no current - it is unlikely that anyone will like such a prospect, even the laziest of us. Often, it happens that you can get out of the "swamp" only by changing your attitudes to life in general and to your environment, in particular. It's not always easy. This means that you must constantly check your life, your movement along it according to a compass - according to crisis periods. It is they, flowing easily or, on the contrary, with pain, torment and despair, that will show us whether we have been moving correctly so far.

Psychologists all over the world have been writing and writing about life crises for a long time, because almost all psychological problems of a person are associated with them. There are many recognized and well-described crisis periodizations that any practicing psychologist relies on, and which it would be extremely useful for every person to know. I would not like to torment the reader with an abundance of scientific psychological terms and calculations.

In this regard, it seems to me very successful the description of life crises given in one of the books by the Russian psychologist Alena Libina, who summarized the experience of the best foreign and domestic psychologists and her own observations, describing all the main life stages, crises through which each of us passes.

Crisis #1

The first important stage in a series of crisis periods is from 3 to 7 years. It is also called the "strengthening the roots" period. At this time, a global attitude towards the world is being formed: whether it is safe or hostile. And this attitude grows out of what the baby feels in the family, he is loved and accepted, or, for one reason or another, he has to “survive”.

As you understand, this does not mean physical survival (although families are different, including those where the child has to fight for survival in the literal sense), but psychological: how much a small person feels protected among the closest people, whether he is spared from any kind of stress.

This is a very important period, since self-esteem, a person’s attitude towards himself, also depends on the feeling that the world around is benevolent. From here, curiosity and the desire to be better develop normally, and much more.

Such a child grows up with a sense of the importance of his own efforts: "I will try, and the world around me will support me." Such children turn out to be optimists who are not afraid of independence and decision-making. Distrust in the world of adults (and therefore in the world in general) forms a person who is always doubting, without initiative, apathetic. Such people, growing up, are not able to accept not only themselves, with all the shortcomings and virtues, they also do not know the feeling of trust in another person at all.

Crisis #2

The next crisis is most acute in the period from 10 to 16 years. This is the transition from childhood to adulthood, when one’s own strengths are evaluated through the prism of the merits of other people, there is a constant comparison: “I’m better or worse, am I different from others, if yes, then how exactly and how is it for me - good or bad? ". And most importantly: “How do I look in the eyes of other people, how do they evaluate me, what does it mean to be an individual? » The task that a person faces during this period is to determine the measure of his own independence, his psychological status, the boundaries of his I among others.

The positive resolution of this crisis leads to an even greater strengthening of self-esteem, strengthened self-confidence, that "I can do everything myself." If the crisis is not resolved properly, then dependence on parents is replaced by dependence on stronger and more self-confident peers, on any, even imposed "norms" of the environment, on circumstances, finally. “Why try, achieve something, I still won’t succeed! I'm the worst! ".

Crisis #3

If this crisis fails, there is a danger of falling into the trap of self-deception: instead of your own path, look for an object to follow or a “broad back”, behind which you can hide for the rest of your life, or, conversely, begin to deny all kinds of authorities, but at the same time not offer anything of your own, be limited only to protest, without constructive solutions and ways.

It is during this period that the "habit" is formed to raise one's own significance through humiliation, belittling the significance of others, which we so often meet in life. The ability to calmly and with full responsibility accept yourself as you are, with all the shortcomings and virtues, testifies to the successful passage of the crisis, knowing that your own individuality is more important.

Crisis #4

With the successful passage of this stage of the crisis, the fear of change disappears, a person understands that no life course can claim to be “absolute”, global, given once and for all, that it can and should be changed, depending on how you yourself change, Do not be afraid to experiment, start something anew. Only under the condition of such an approach can the next crisis be successfully avoided, which is called “correction of life plans”, “reassessment of attitudes”.

Crisis #5

This crisis comes somewhere at the age of 32 - 37 years, when experience has already been gained in relationships with others, in a career, in a family, when many serious life results have already been obtained.

These results are beginning to be evaluated not in terms of achievements as such, but in terms of personal satisfaction. " Why do I need it? Was it worth the effort? ". To many, the realization of one's own mistakes seems very painful, something that needs to be avoided, clinging to past experience, to illusory ideals.

Instead of calmly adjusting plans, a person says to himself: “I will not change my ideals, I will adhere to the chosen course once and for all, I must prove that I was right, no matter what! ". If you have had the courage to admit mistakes and adjust your life, your plans, then the way out of this crisis is a new influx of fresh strength, opening up prospects and opportunities.

If it turned out to be impossible to start everything from the beginning, this period will be more destructive for you than constructive.

Crisis #6

One of the most difficult stages is 37-45 years. For the first time, we are clearly aware that life is not endless, that it is getting harder and harder to carry an “extra load”, that it is necessary to concentrate on the main thing.

Crisis #7

Here is how A. Libina describes this crisis period: “Men and women of this age can be compared with teenagers. Firstly, rapid changes occur in their body, caused by natural physiological processes. Due to hormonal changes during menopause, they, like teenagers, become quick-tempered, touchy, easily irritated over trifles. Secondly, their sense of self is again aggravated, and they are again ready to fight for their Self, even at the slightest threat of independence. Fight in the family - with children who have already left or are about to leave the parental nest, at work - feeling extremely uncomfortable and unstable in the role of pensioners who are "stepping on the heels" of younger ones.

Men at the age of 45 face the long forgotten questions of youth: "Who am I?" and "Where am I going?" This is also true for women, although they have a much more difficult crisis.

Many studies show that the most vulnerable during this crisis are women who consider themselves exclusively housewives. They are driven to despair by the thought of the "empty nest", which, in their opinion, becomes a house abandoned by grown children. Then they start rearranging the furniture at home and buying new curtains.

Crisis #8

In a positive version of development, a person begins to see new perspectives for himself, without devaluing the previous merits, they are looking for new areas of application for their life experience, wisdom, love, and creative forces. Then the concept of old age acquires only a biological meaning, without limiting vital interests, does not carry passivity and stagnation.

Numerous studies show that the concepts of "old age" and "passivity" are absolutely independent of each other, this is just a common stereotype! In the age group after 60, there is a clear difference between "young" and "old" people. It all depends on how a person perceives his own state: as a brake or as an incentive for the further development of his personality, for an interesting, fulfilling life.

All these periods of crisis, with which our life is full, smoothly pass one into another, like a ladder, "life-long", where you cannot get to the next step without standing on the previous one and where, having stumbled on one step, you no longer step smoothly and correctly, straight putting the foot on the next. And even more so, you won’t be able to jump over a few steps: anyway, someday you will have to go back and finish the “work on the bugs”.

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