What is development as a type of change. Development of a person's character: features, conditions and main factors

Chapter 3

PSYCHOLOGICAL PROBLEMS OF PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT

What characterizes the process of personality development?

Personality represents the ontogenetic acquisition of a person, the result of a complex process of his social development. This understanding of the personality determines the main principle and the consideration and solution of the problems of its formation - Principle 1> Pvitiya.

What is development? How is it characterized? What is the fundamental difference between development and any other changes. object? As you know, an object can change, but not develop. Height, for example, it is a quantitative change in a given object, including a mental process. There are processes that fluctuate in the "less-more" range. These are growth processes in the proper and true sense of the word. Growth takes place in time and is measured in time coordinates. The first main characteristic of growth is a process of quantitative changes in the internal structure and composition of its constituent elements, without significant changes in the structure of individual processes. For example, when measuring the physical growth of a re-Wenck, we see a quantitative increase. LS Vygotsky emphasized that there are growth processes in mental processes, for example, an increase in the stock of words without changing the functions of speech.

But behind these processes of quantitative growth, other phenomena and processes can also occur. Then the growth processes become only symptoms, behind which are essential, ie changes in the system and structure of processes. In such period-J, jumps in the growth line are observed, which indicate i significant changes in the body itself. For example, endocrine glands are co-connected. In such cases, we are dealing with development.

Acting as the highest type of movement, development represents. ..the fight is not a simple, universal and eternal growth, increase, but a qualitative transformation, characterized by a number of certain patterns:

- progressive character, when the steps already passed would repeat the known features, properties of the lower ones, but repeat them on a higher basis;

-irreversibility, i.e. not copying, but moving on the new
level, a new round of the spiral, when the results of pre
previous development;

Development is the unity of the opposing
positivity, are the internal driving force of the process
sa development. It is the resolution of internal contradictions
and leads through a leap to a new stage of development, to a new quality
woo process.

Development is primarily characterized by qualitative changes, the emergence of new formations, new mechanisms, new processes, new structures. H. Werner, L. S. Vygotsky and other psychologists described the main signs of development. The most important among them: differentiation, dismemberment of the formerly single element; the emergence of new sides, new elements in the development itself; restructuring of connections between the sides of the object. As psychological examples, we can mention the differentiation of the natural conditioned reflex into the position under the breast and the complex of revival; the appearance of a sign function in infancy; change during childhood of systemic and semantic consciousness. Each of these processes meets the listed development criteria.

In psychology, the idea of ​​the development of the psyche both in phylogeny (evolution of a species) and in ontogenesis (individual development of an organism from birth to the end of life) became widespread only at the end of the 19th century. One of the concepts of the ontogenetic development of the child was proposed by K. Buhler, who transferred the biogenetic law of F. Müller and E. Haeckel to the social development of the child. According to this law, ontogeny in the intrauterine state is a short and concise repetition of phylogeny. K. Buhler formulated the law of recapitulation, extending the biogenetic law to postnatal development: the development of a child is a repetition of sociogenesis.

The modern understanding of mental development sees its causes in various biological and social factors, in the uniqueness of the path of formation of each personality. Gradually, there is an expansion and clarification of the conceptual apparatus necessary for the disclosure of the laws of human development. A number of concepts have appeared that clarify the term "development".

1. Oioinous development- the emergence of a new compared to the previous ■ dad. Psychologists refer to such changes as noooiryuninny sh »ipacmux periods.

2 Ishitpschishms isshsnsnin - the loss of the previously formed uchih "martyrs and" * 11 "ui< и» и к;н1тп1, имевших место в предыдущих

periods of development. Gerontologists argue that such changes can be seen not only in old age, but also in adolescence, adolescence, when there is an accumulation of changes that turn into neoplasms.

3. Heterochronous development- manifestation at different times
mental qualities in ontogenesis. Some functions are ahead of

eugene in development, others are lagging behind.

4. Biological development- development determined by the
aedic and congenital factors, where hereditary

there is the emergence of a new one due to the gene apparatus, and the innate determines intrauterine development.

5. Social development- human development under interconnected
11 by the influence of the natural and social environment, historical
thread of society, national identity of the individual, etc.

6. Special development- development of mental functions,
processes, personality traits in a professional environment
cooking. This includes the development of professional memory,
thinking, attention, abilities, etc.

The formation of a personality acts as a special type of development that has its own tendencies, prospects for deployment, self-determination, self-realization, including all types of natural types of development.

In a complex, multifaceted process of personality development, a system of progressive and regressive, irreversible and successive changes, repeating in the higher the known features of the lower, giving a recombination of existing elements, etc., is combined.

What is the differencepreformedand unreformed types of development (according to L. FROM. Vygotsky)?

As Vygotsky showed, there are many different types development. Therefore, it is important to correctly find the place that the child's mental development takes among them, that is, to determine the specifics of mental development among other developmental processes. L. S. Vygotsky distinguished: preformed and unreformed types of development. Preformed type - then this type, when at the very beginning they are given, fixed, fixed as those stages that the phenomenon (organism) will pass, tick and the final result that the phenomenon will achieve. Here everything is given from the very beginning. An example is embryonic development. Despite the fact that embryogenesis has its own history (there is a tendency to a reduction in the lower stages, the most

stage influences the previous stages), this does not change the type of development. In psychology, there was an attempt to present mental development according to the principle of embryonic development, this theory was called preformism (representatives - St. Hall, K. Buhler).

Unreformed type development is most common on our planet. It includes the development of the galaxy, the development of the Earth, the process of biological evolution, the development of society. The process of a child's mental development also belongs to this type of process. The unreformed path of development is not predetermined in advance. Children different eras develop in different ways and reach different levels of development. From the very beginning, from the moment the child is born, neither the stages through which he must go, nor the result that he must reach are given. Childhood development is an unreformed type of development, but it is a completely special process that is determined not from below, but from above, by the form of practical and theoretical activity that exists at a given level of development of society. (As the poet said: “As soon as they are born, Shakespeare is already waiting for us.”) This is a feature of children's development. Its final forms are not given, but given. Not a single developmental process, except ontogenetic, is carried out according to a ready-made model. Human development follows the pattern that exists in society. According to LS Vygotsky, the process of mental development is a process of interaction between real and ideal forms. The task of a child psychologist is to trace the logic of mastering ideal forms. A child does not immediately master the spiritual and material wealth of a person. But development is generally impossible outside the process of mastering ideal forms. Therefore, within the unreformed type of development, the child's mental development is a special process. The process of ontogenetic development is a process unlike anything else, an extremely unique process that takes place in the form of assimilation.

Parameter name	Value
Topic of the article:	Development processes
Rubric (thematic category)	Culture

Some developmental processes, such as growth during prenatal or early puberty, or graying of hair, are primarily biological. Evidence confirms that early speech development is also primarily biologically determined, as noted later in this chapter (see also chapter 5). Many other aspects of development, such as learning to count, using the Internet, or developing an addiction to sushi, may depend largely on personal experience. The attribution of speech patterns, vocabulary, "emphasis" and intonation of people with whom you grew up or learned a second language is an additional example of development that occurs largely under the influence of experience.

Moreover, most of the development that occurs during a person's life path is the result of successful interactions between biology and experience. Development as a whole cannot be defined as determined by purely biological factors or only by the influence of experience; rather, it is a continuous dynamic play of these two basic causes. Suppose you were born with some intellectual potential based on the specifics of the nature of your central nervous system. Τᴀᴋᴎᴍ ᴏϬᴩᴀᴈᴏᴍ, there is a biologically defined continuum within which your intelligence may decline from time to time. But how intelligent you are

Chapter 1. Perspectives and Research Methods 21

They are also determined by your childhood nutrition, your experience of living at home and being at school, and many other even more, at first glance, secondary factors. As another example, let's suppose you were born with some specific personality orientation, such as shyness or sociability. Nevertheless, your personality in its formation has undergone the influence of interactions that you entered with other people during your life, awareness of the sense of your own self, acquired by you in infancy, the socio-cultural environment in which you grew up, and many other factors.

Gone are the days when theorists concentrated on individual components of development, up to the complete exclusion of all others, as noted earlier. Likewise, development professionals no longer argue about whether certain aspects of the cognitive or personality domain are a function. exclusively biological inclinations or exclusively a function of life experience. The speech function appears and improves, obviously, through the development of innate abilities under the influence of the experience received by the subject. All children born healthy are “equipped” in advance with the ability to master the language. Οʜᴎ spontaneously go through a sequence of actions, including listening to the sounds of speech, pronouncing simple speech sounds and gradually decoding the words and sentences that they hear from the lips of the people around them (Pinker, 1997). Nevertheless, it is obvious that in order for them to pronounce real words and sentences that are understandable to others, they must hear speech around them in a certain language. However, babies spontaneously show emotions such as anger or distress, but over time they will have to learn how to deal with their emotions in their particular culture. This observation by Donald Hebb (1966) is worthy of special appreciation, as it was made more than a third of a century ago.

What theorists still argue about (sometimes very heatedly) is how much and how this characteristic or behavior model is biologically or socially determined. For example, some theorists define the influence of biological factors on intellectual ability up to 75 or 80% (see Chapter 9). Representatives of the other extreme position believe that only 25% of the total process of development of intellectual abilities is biologically specified. For this reason, the debate of the past is still relevant today; they remain, although they have shifted their emphasis.

Heredity and environment. Today, the problem of combining in a person the biological principle and his developmental experience is most often reduced to the problem of interaction heredity and Wednesday. In Chapter 3, we will take a closer look at the genetic factors that can underlie human development, predetermining its course, and their interaction with the specific effects of the physical and social environment around a person. Theorists who prioritize the dictates of heredity speak of the strong influence of the underlying biological structures of man.
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In support of their position, they cite data obtained in the course of experiments on animals and in the process of statistical procedures carried out with humans. In addition, they emphasize the fact that specific genes have already been identified that determine development and behavior, and

22 Part I. The Beginning

The third stage of a person's life path is the Toddler period (the first two years of life)

combat attention is drawn to those of them that cause such manifestations as mental retardation. On the other hand, explanations of human development made from the standpoint of environmentalists (supporters of the dominant role environment in human behavior and development), focus on the experience of individuals related to thinking and consciousness, and, in addition, on such environmental factors as nutrition and health, each of which can also contribute to the onset of mental retardation. As noted earlier, both approaches now recognize each other's points of view. Heredity and environment interact, but theorists still debate their relative contributions to development and how they are made. The position they take on this issue determines the direction and nature of their research.

Growing up and learning. These concepts usually refer to processes of change that occur together or independently of each other. Terms such as "growth", "growing up" and "aging" refer to purely biological processes. Teaching is a change that occurs over time and is associated with practice or acquired experience. When development is viewed in terms of growing up and learning, the emphasis often shifts to development. time periodization. For example, how does the biologically determined development of the muscles and bones of the human skeleton interact with his practical activities related to his personal experience? More precisely, what types of activity, when and how often result in normal development of muscles and motor functions? Similar questions arise when considering cognitive and personal development, where the process of maturation of his nervous and hormonal systems enters into interaction with the experience of the individual. How can experience gained in childhood affect the entry into puberty, a biological process? Or how the biologically determined phenomenon of menopause (complete cessation of menstrual cycles due to changes in the hormonal system) can be affected by a woman's lifestyle, if it can influence it at all? What are the comparative contributions of growing up and learning? And also, are there ʼʼkriti-

Chapter 1. Prospects and Research Methods 23

What are the periodsʼʼ during which the interaction of maturation and learning is critical for optimal development? Similar questions will be asked many times in the following chapters.

Critical and sensitive periods. The problem of the interaction of growing up and learning leads to a related question: are there critical periods, during which should occur or never certain types of development not occurring? Consider the impact of certain diseases on the course of pregnancy (see Chapter 4). If a pregnant woman who is not immune to rubella (German measles), is exposed to the virus of this disease within 2 months after conception, the likelihood of serious fetal abnormalities, for example, the subsequent deafness of an infant or even a miscarriage, is greatly increased. However, if the same woman is exposed to the rubella virus 6 months after conception, it will not affect her developing baby.

Another example is taken from the animal kingdom. There is a critical period of time, lasting several hours after birth, when the goslings develop affection for the goose mother simply by being around her. This phenomenon is known as imprinting(see chapter 6). Imprinting in goslings does not occur before or after this period. Could it be that humans also have a similar critical period during which babies develop emotional attachments to those who care for them? Or, more broadly, do we have critical periods of acquiring certain skills or behaviors?

Theorists argue. Despite recent evidence that early experiences directly and indirectly have a decisive permanent effect on brain structure (Shore, 1997; see also Ramey and Ramey, 1998), a detailed analysis of temporal periodization is rather difficult. Often, reasoning in terms of sensitive or optimal

Control questions to the topic

ʼʼKey problems in the study of human developmentʼʼ 1

‣‣‣ The boundaries of developmental periods such as childhood or adolescence are universal across cultures.

‣‣‣ The process of socialization is associated with deliberate learning; the process of mastering culture is associated with involuntary learning.

‣‣‣ Scientific research on human development began in the 16th century.

‣‣‣ Only heredity determines the main features of any area of ​​human development and behavior.

‣‣‣ In the study of the temporal periodization of human development, in most cases it is advisable to use the terms of sensitive rather than critical periods.

Reflection question What do we mean when we say that development is holistic, holistic and always takes place in context?

24 Part I. The Beginning

periods during which there is the best and most effective teaching of certain skills, the development of certain traits. This does not mean that these types of learning and development only take place during these periods. For example, if you learn a foreign language as a child, you are more likely to speak it as well as native speakers than if you learn it as a teenager. At the same time, a child learns some aspects of the language faster and more easily than an adult. Still you can you learn a foreign language at any time in your life, and if you put in enough effort, you will be able to speak it almost in the same way as your native language.

Obviously, there is such an indicator as readiness, implying the achievement of a certain level in its development, allowing to acquire a certain model of behavior; before this maturity level is reached, this behavior cannot be acquired. For example, no special training will allow a three-month-old baby to walk without the support of others; at this level of maturity, the infant simply does not have the ability to maintain balance and it is extremely important for the muscles to perform coordinated movements of the legs under the weight of his body.

The exact nature of the temporal periodization of human development is still not known. The main problem of research remains to find out the optimal periods for the development of various models of behavior.

Table 1.2 summarizes the key issues discussed in this section.

Table 1.2 Key problems of human development

Heredity and environment

To what extent is development determined by genetic factors and to what extent is it influenced by specific factors of the physical and social environment?

Growing up and learning

How does the interaction of the biologically determined process of growing up and learning based on personal experience determine development?

Critical and sensitive periods

Are there critical periods during which specific types of development should (or should never) occur?

Development processes - concept and types. Classification and features of the category "Development Processes" 2017, 2018.

Subject, object and goals of developmental psychology. The structure of developmental psychology

Developmental psychology- is engaged in the study of the age dynamics of the development of the human psyche, the ontogeny of mental processes and the psychological properties of the personality of a person who qualitatively changes over time.

Development results in change. Types of changes:

1) anatomical and physiological (the development of those organs and systems that are more associated with the course of mental development - the nervous system, the musculoskeletal system, the reproductive system)

2) cognitive (sensation, perception, memory, etc.)

3) personal (temperament, character, will, emotions, self-awareness)

4) social (changes in communication, behavior)

Development Learning Objectives:

1) the definition of universal changes (inherent in all people). To determine what is the norm for a certain period. Example: A child should be able to speak by age 2.

2) determination of individual differences within the framework of the norm of mental development (indicates that there are no absolutely identical people)

The structure of developmental psychology: (divided into sections)

Prenatal Psychology - studies the development of a person from conception to birth.

Children - from birth to 10-11 years old.

Adolescents and adolescents - from 10-11 years old to 18-20.

Maturity (acmeology) - from 18-20 to 60 years old,

Elderly and senile age - from 60 to death.

Developmental psychology- a process that goes simultaneously in two directions of evolution (improvement) and envolution (deterioration).

Developmental Psychology Interdisciplinary Links

Developmental psychology has close interdisciplinary ties with a number of sciences:

1) genetics, anatomy and developmental physiology; these sciences help to illuminate the features of prenatal development, physical and motor development. Of particular interest is the development of the central nervous system, sensory organs and endocrine glands;

2) sociology and social disciplines. are relevant to developmental psychology through process analysis social interaction in the family, school, peer group, socio-economic conditions of development.

3) psychological disciplines: general psychology , allows you to better understand the mental processes of cognition, emotions, will; psychology of creativity, helps to explain the development of gifted and advanced children; pedagogical psychology , allows you to properly teach and educate; psychodiagnostics comes with developmental psychology in adaptation and application diagnostic techniques in a comparative analysis of intellectual, personal development and to determine the age norms of development.

4) ethology (deals with the comparative study of behavior among animals). It reveals the biological roots of behavior by supplying information about the interaction of the environment and the individual. Equally valuable is methodological opportunity to conduct observations and experiments on animals, and especially in cases where their conduct on humans is prohibited for ethical reasons. The ability to transfer results obtained in animals to humans is very important for understanding human development.

5) cultural anthropology and ethnology, which study intercultural differences in behavior and experience. This allows us to trace the influence of the social environment (cultural environment) on the course of mental development processes;

Development concept. Categories characterizing the development process

Development- a change that forms a branching process containing, on the one hand, the nodes of qualitative changes, acceptably following each other, and on the other, the lines of quantitative changes connecting the nodes to each other.

Changes in the process of development can be:

1) quantitative (memory size) and qualitative (when new properties appear),

2) continuous, discontinuous,

3) universal (inherent in all people) and individual,

4) purposeful and undirected,

5) progressive (evolutionary) and regressive (involutionary)

6) reversible (once arisen can disappear. Example: knowledge) and irreversible (persist for life. Example: speech)

7) biological (example growth) and social (example: the language in which we speak)

Development is general process, and it is characterized by development mechanisms. And these mechanisms can be described in such categories as:

1) Growth (these are quantitative changes)

2) Maturation is a process regulated by internal factors. Aimed at changes in biological organs and systems of a person involved in those systems that are involved in mental changes.

Factors: irreversibility of many changes, scaling up (if development was inhibited, then with such a factor, scaling up occurs); the occurrence of changes at a strictly defined age, the course of development processes in the same sequence in different people.

Maturation processes create the initial prerequisites for numerous processes of mental development and at the same time limit the influence of the social factor.

3) Learning - the process of assimilating certain knowledge and behavior patterns. Learning requires a certain teacher-student pattern.

4) Differentiation - when a certain general structure begins to split into small fractional parts, and as a result of which new properties of mental processes arise, new types appear. Integration is the reverse process of differentiation.

5) Imprinting is a mechanism of involuntary, uncontrolled by consciousness, the assimilation of knowledge and behavior. Example: having speech at an early age, capturing parental behavior.

6) Socialization - the process of assimilating social or social norms, values, rules. There are two sides to the concept of socialization. The first is the social formation of a person, i.e. the process of its spontaneous growth into the social environment. The second is social formation a person, i.e. the process of purposefully adapting it to existing values ​​and norms.

7) Individualization - the process of a person's search for their dissimilarity in comparison with other people.

the highest type of movement, changes in matter and consciousness; transition from one quality. states to another, from old to new. R. is characterized by specificity. object, structure (mechanism), source, forms and direction. Depending on the qualities. the specifics of nature and the structure of the forms of existence of matter are distinguished: R. inorganic. matter (or even already - the macrocosm, physical. and chemical. forms of the existence of matter), R. organic. matter (its biological forms), R. society ( social forms existence of matter), R. consciousness (its various forms). However, being strictly defined. type of dependence in an object, R. of any forms is characterized by a number of creatures. general points and features concerning, first of all, the specifics of the developing objects themselves. The process of change captures any objects, any of their sides - their internal. components and external, directly perceived forms, their beings. connections and external dependencies, etc. R. - not just a change, not every change in the object, but a change associated with transformations in the internal. the structure of an object, in its structure, which is a set of functionally interconnected elements, links and dependencies. Therefore, in the material and spiritual world, where all objects and phenomena, without exception, are in a state of constant movement and change, one can speak of R. only in relation to objects with a simple or complex systemic structure (see System). As a characteristic of objects with a more or less complex structure, the process of R. itself is distinguished by definition. structure (mechanism). Viewed from this t. Sp. it is primarily a collection of a number of system components involved in the process. Some of these components play the role of forming the process, others - its conditions. The process generators answering the question "what is developing?" Represent the starting point of the process; the generators answering the question "what is developing into?" are the result of the process. Both those and others are the central, leading components of the process R. laconically expressing the essence of transformations in the object in the process of R., and at the same time a "vector" indicating the direction of these transformations. The conditions of the process are those of its components, to-rye ensure the transformation of the starting point into the result. They differ from the so-called. concretely-historian. conditions for the flow of R.; the latter are associated either with the external features of the developing object, or with factors lying outside of it, related to its interaction with "neighboring" systems, and determine the specific form of the process. R. is not any change in the structure of an object, but only a so-called, qualitative change. "... Development is obviously not a simple, universal and eternal growth, increase (or decrease), etc. "(Lenin V. I., Soch., Vol. 38, p. 251). The structure of an object is characterized by three points: the number of components (in this sense, two-term, three-term, generally n-term structures are distinguished), the order of their arrangement (eg. structures are linear and circular) and the nature of the relationship between them (for example, structures are reversible, where all elements are "equal", and irreversible, where there are relations of "domination" and "subordination" between the elements). finds its expression in the fact that R. is a transition from the structure of one quality (characterized by one quantity, order and nature of the dependence of the components) to the structure of another quality (characterized by a different quantity or order, or the nature of the dependence of the components). Consequently, the R. process is not coincides only with changes in the number of structural components of the object (simple increase or decrease in their number) and therefore cannot be depicted as a movement from a structure with n elements to a structure with n + 1 or with n - 1 elements. In the process of R., structural elements can not only arise, but also disappear, so that in the definition. borders total number them can remain constant. Also the qualities. a change in the structure, the appearance of new components in it can take place without a visible increase in the number of elements, due to the redistribution of old elements, a change in the nature of relations between them, etc. The main thing, due to the systemic nature of the developing object, is the appearance (disappearance) in its structure of K.-L. the component is never equal only to the quantities. growth (decrease) does not mean a simple addition (subtraction) of "one", but leads to the emergence of many new connections and relations, to the transformation of old connections, etc. accompanied by more or less serious substantial or functional. transformation of the entire mass of components within the system as a whole. The structure of the object at the starting point of R. and the structure of the object as a result of R. are defined. the states of the developing object, limited in time, i.e. historical. states. Thus, R.'s process, taken from t. Sp. its mechanism as a whole, there are a number of historical. states of the object in their connections, transitions from one to another, from the previous to the next. The most important characteristic of R. is time. R. proceeds in time. At the same time, the concept of "the course of time" is not identical with the concept of "process R." This is indicated by the fact that, within certain limits, the passage of time is not accompanied by qualities. changes in the object, and the fact that at the same time intervals different objects are able to travel in their R. different "distances" and vice versa: for the passage of similar "distances" different objects require different time. In other words, the R. of an object is not a function of the objective course of time as such, but of the vital activity of the object itself. In contrast to the phenomena of movement, changes, which can be caused by the action of forces external to the moving object, R. is the self-movement of the object - an immanent process, the source of which is contained in the developing object itself. A process of this kind is described, for example, by Marx in relation to the currency of money from a commodity (see Capital, vol. 1, 1955, p. 94). R. arises as a result of contradictions, the struggle of the new and the old, the struggle of "contradictory, interconnected, opposite tendencies" inherent in objects "of nature (and of spirit and society, including ) ", overcoming them, transforming them into new contradictions. "Development is a" struggle "of opposites" (V. I. Lenin, Soch., Vol. 38, p. 358). R.'s process is characterized by a wide variety of specific types and forms. This is due to both the general nature of the developing objects (inorganic, biological, social, etc.), and the greater or lesser complexity of their structure. In particular, R. can take the form of the transformation of one object into another (for example, "a means of labor from a tool turns into a machine ..." - see K. Marx, Capital, vol. 1, p. 377), differentiation of an object ( compare the process of divergence in biology), the subordination of one system to another and their transformation (compare the process of assimilation in the sociology of culture), etc. etc. There are two forms of R.: evolutionary and revolutionary (see. Evolution and Revolution). The first form of R. is a slow, gradual, often hidden from the eye changes in the structure of an object, they are called quantities. changes. The second form of R. is sudden, abrupt, abrupt, so-called. qualities. changes in the structure of the object associated with radical transformations in its entire structure. Between these two forms of R. there is a complex dialectic. communication. Evolution prepares the revolution, leads to it and ends with it. In turn, the new quality acquired by the object again leads to the stage of slow quantities. savings. Thus, each process is dialectical. the unity of the discontinuous and the continuous, the transition of quantitative changes to qualitative ones and vice versa. R. is further characterized by definition. focus. The transition from one state of an object to another is not an endless repetition of the past, it is not a movement in a circle, although historically the later stages include many moments inherent in the previous stages. R. coincides with the act. movement towards a more developed and perfect or with movement in the opposite direction. In this sense, they speak of the progressive and regressive directions in the object's R., of the ascending and descending lines of its R. (see Progress, Regression). R. of matter and consciousness, taken as a whole, is distinguished by an unconditional progressive direction, it is an endless movement along an ascending spiral, a contradictory movement, which includes retreats, backtracking, but on the whole going from simple forms to complex forms, from lower, primitive systems , to higher, highly organized systems. R.'s idea finds expression in the principle of historicism and is one of the most leading in the entire history of philosophy, natural science, and social science. In its original naive form, it was already formulated in ancient philosophy by Heraclitus: "... everything exists and at the same time does not exist, since everything flows, everything is constantly changing, everything is in a constant process of emergence and disappearance" (Engels F. , Anti-Duhring, 1966, p. sixteen). Aristotle, Descartes, Spinoza, Kant, Lomonosov, Rousseau, Diderot, Fichte, Hegel, Herzen, Saint-Simon, K.F. Wolf, Laplace, Copernicus, Lyell, Mayer, Darwin, Mendeleev, Timiryazev, Weisman and many others. other philosophers, natural scientists and sociologists of the past. In the history of thinking, as in the present. science, there are two fundamentally different views of R. - metaphysical and dialectical (see V. I. Lenin, Soch., vol. 38, p. 358). His highest expression is dialectical. approach to R. reaches in the dialectic system. materialism, where the idea of ​​R., constituting the main methodological. principle, for the first time receives its all-round justification, and R. itself is analyzed for the first time as natures. a process proceeding on the basis of objective laws (see ibid., vol. 21, p. 38). Formulating DOS. the laws of dialectics, which are the laws of R., dialectical. materialism simultaneously provides the method of scientific. analysis of R.'s processes, their reproduction in thinking. Lit .: Kushner P.I., Sketch of R. societies. forms, 7th ed., M., 1929; Asmus V.F., Essays on the history of dialectics in new philosophy,, M. - L., 1930; his, Dialectics of Kant, 2nd ed., M., 1930; him, Marx and the bourgeois. historicism, M. - L., 1933; Kedrov B.M., On quantities. and qualities. changes in nature, [M.], 1946; his, Denial of negation,?., 1957; his, On the ratio of forms of motion of matter in nature, M., 1958; R.'s problems in nature and society. [Sat. Art.], M. - L., 1958; Rubinstein S. L., About thinking and ways of its research, M., 1958; Lem G., On the transition from an old quality to a new one in societies. R., M., 1958; Schaff?., The Objective Nature of the Laws of History, trans. from Polish., M., 1959; Melyukhin S.T., On dialectics of R. inorganic. nature, M., 1960; Grushin B.?., Essays on Historical Logic. research, M., 1961; Bogomolov A.S., The idea of ​​R. in the bourgeois. philosophy of the 19th and 20th centuries, M., 1962. See also lit. at Art. Dialectics, Unity and struggle of opposites, Transition of quantitative changes into qualitative ones, Denial of negation law, Progress. B. Grushin. Moscow.

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The idea of ​​development came to psychology from other areas of science. Charles Darwin's work "The Origin of Species by Natural Selection ..." prompted researchers to study the course of mental development of children. Development was first seen as the child's gradual adaptation to the environment. One of the first attempts to systematically monitor the psychological and biological development of a child from birth to three years is described in the book by V. Preyer "The Soul of a Child", in which the author described the development of his daughter.

Development - the process of irreversible, directed and regular changes, leading to the emergence of quantitative, qualitative and structural transformations of the psyche and human behavior.

Almost all researchers agree that development can be defined as change over time. Yu.N. Karandashev highlighted the main approaches to the definition of the concept of "development":

Development as growth- the process of quantitative changes in the external features of an object, measured in height, length, width, thickness, weight, etc. In modern science, such a definition does not occur, since growth is just one of the aspects of development, its external indicator and quantitative characteristics.

Development as maturation- morphological changes proceeding under the direct control of the genetic apparatus, modern science such a definition does not occur, since the importance of biological heredity is exaggerated here and the importance of other aspects of development is underestimated.

Development as improvement. This definition is often used in pedagogy and has a teleological character, that is, it initially assumes the presence of a goal (teleo), which is a certain “perfect”, ideal form of development, but at the same time it is not clear whether it is externally (God, education , external environment) or internally given (through the hereditary apparatus), and why this particular form of development should be considered as the best, perfect, and not any other.

Development as universal change. As one of the criteria for determining development, the requirement is put forward for the generality, universality of the changes taking place, that is, the same changes should take place in people of different cultures, religions, languages, levels of development, but at the same time it is impossible to really establish which changes can be attributed to the general, universal, and which to consider as private.

Development as a qualitative, structural change. The definition of development through qualitative changes is associated with understanding the object as a system. In this case, we are talking about improving only the structure of the object, excluding the quantitative measure of improvement and retaining only the qualitative one.

Development as a quantitative and qualitative change. This definition most fully reveals the essence of the concept of "development".

Development as a change entailing new changes. Dissatisfaction with the existing definitions of development stimulated the search and emergence of new ideas. For example, G.-D. Schmidt shows the presence of a close, existential connection between changes following each other, A. Flammer notes that development should be considered only those changes that entail new changes ("avalanche of changes"). In this definition, the idea of ​​evolutionary continuity of changes is carried out.

HER. Sapogova notes that changes in development can be:

Quantitative (qualitative);

Continuous (discrete), intermittent;

Universal (individual);

Reversible (irreversible);

Focused (undirected);

Isolated (integrated),

Progressive (evolutionary) or regressive (involutionary).

Development can be considered at phylo-, anthropo-, onto- and micro levels:

Phylogenesis - development of a species, that is, the ultimate time distance, including the emergence of life, the origin of species, their change, differentiation and continuity, that is, the entire biosocial evolution, starting with the simplest and ending with humans.

Anthropogenesis - p The development of mankind in all its aspects, including cultural sociogenesis, that is, a part of phylogeny that begins with the emergence of Homo sapiens and ends today.

Ontogenesis - individual development, that is, a temporary distance the length of a human life, which begins from the moment of conception and ends with the end of life.

Microgenesis - the shortest time distance, covering the "age" period, during which short-term processes of perception, memory, thinking, imagination, detailed sequences of actions (for example, behavior when solving problems), etc. take place.

The main properties of development are:

Irreversibility - the ability to accumulate changes, "build" new changes over the previous ones;

Directivity - the ability of the system to conduct a single, internally interconnected line of development;

Regularity - the ability of the system to reproduce the same type of changes in different people.

IN modern psychology the problem of development is being intensively developed within the framework of genetic psychology, comparative psychology, psychogenetics, developmental psychology and acmeology.

Main areas of mental development:

1) psychophysical area of ​​development, includes external (height and weight) and internal (bones, muscles, brain, glands, sensory organs, constitution, neuro- and psychodynamics, psychomotor) changes in the human body;

2) the psychosocial area of ​​development, involving changes in the emotional and personal spheres. At the same time, one should especially point out the importance of interpersonal relations for the formation of the self-concept and self-awareness of the individual;

3) the cognitive area of ​​development, which includes all aspects of cognitive development, the development of abilities, including mental ones.

The individual is the bearer of the psychophysical properties of a person. The bearer of psychosocial properties is a person, and cognitive - a subject of activity.

Currently, the mental development of a person is considered from the point of view of a systems approach, which includes four aspects:

dynamic characterizes mental development as a process that takes place throughout life, that is, it is the age-related dynamics of various mental functions (perception, attention, memory, thinking, etc.);

structural- qualitative changes in mental processes, for example, the complication of memorization processes, the development of rational methods of thinking;

Causal - determining the determinants of the driving causes of development;

ontological- elucidation of the specifics of human mental development as a biological and social unity.

Thus, a systematic approach to development involves the study of what, how, in which direction, with what changes, for what reasons, develops in the psyche and personality of a person - a biosocial being throughout life.

There are the following types of development:

preformed development - a type of development when at the very beginning both the stages that the organism will go through and the final result that will be obtained are set;

unreformed development is a type of development that is not predetermined in advance;

mental development- development of cognitive mental processes;

personal development- development of human qualities, moral judgments, motivational-need-spheres and "I" -concept.

Mental and personal development are closely interrelated, but not always unidirectional or side by side. At different age periods, they may not coincide and affect each other in different ways.

Mental development factors - these are the leading determinants of human development: heredity, environment and activity. The action of the factor of heredity is manifested in the individual properties of a person and acts as a prerequisite for development, the action of the factor of the environment (society) - in the social properties of the individual and the action of the factor of activity - in the interaction of the two previous ones.

Let's consider each of the factors in more detail.

1. Heredity - the property of the organism to repeat in a number of generations similar types of metabolism and individual development in general.

M.S. Egorova and T.N. Maryutina, comparing the significance of hereditary and social factors of development, emphasize that the genotype (the genetic constitution of the organism) contains the past in a reduced form: information about the historical past of a person and the program of his individual development. Thus, genotypic factors typify development, that is, they ensure the implementation of a species genotypic program and, at the same time, the genotype individualizes development. Studies of geneticists have revealed an amazingly wide polymorphism that determines the individual characteristics of people. Each person is a unique genetic object that will never be repeated.

2. Wednesday - the social, material and spiritual conditions of his existence surrounding a person. Phenotype is the totality of all the traits and properties of an individual that have developed in ontogenesis during the interaction of the genotype with the external environment. It should be emphasized that the environment is a very broad concept. There are different types of environments, each of which in its own way affects the development of a person, therefore, when describing the determinants of mental development, this concept needs to be concretized. In a broad sense, learning is referred to as environmental determinants of mental development.

Mental development is influenced by macro- (country, ethnos, society, state), meso- (region, media, subcultures, type of settlement) and micro-factors (family, neighborhood, peer groups).

3. Activity - the active state of the organism as a condition for its existence and behavior, which manifests itself when the movement programmed by the organism towards a certain goal requires overcoming the resistance of the environment. The principle of activity is opposed to the principle of reactivity.

According to the principle of activity, the vital activity of the organism is an active overcoming of the environment, according to the principle of reactivity, it is the balancing of the organism with the environment. Activity manifests itself in activation, various reflexes, search activity, voluntary acts, will, acts of free self-determination.

Consider the basic principles of human mental development.

Subject, tasks and methods of developmental psychology

Age-related psychology- a branch of psychological science, the object of research of which is a person who develops from birth (and recently all more research appears in the field of prenatal development as a source of the formation of mental life) to death.

Subject her research is the laws of mental development in ontogenesis, the age dynamics of the human psyche, mental processes and personality traits of a developing person at various stages of his life path.

Ontogenesis Is the mental development of a person from birth to death.

Among the most significant issues that is engaged in developmental psychology include:

Scientific substantiation of the age norms of various psychophysiological functions;

Revealing the actual and potential capabilities of a person at different periods of his life;

Scientific forecasting of development;

Justification of the role and significance of each previous stage of development for the next.

The age-related evolution of the psyche has a certain specificity, which consists in the following features:

The age dynamics of various forms of the psyche is different different intensity and plays different roles in mental development at every stage human life;

Age features of the manifestation of mental functions are interrelated with individual characteristics development of each individual person.

The current state of psychological science makes it possible to study age variability in terms of several aspects:

Ontological aspect (the laws of the relationship between biological and social in the understanding of age-related changes in humans)

Chronological aspect (characterizes mental evolution as a process that takes place in time throughout a person's life; age dynamics is determined according to such metric criteria as speed, pace, duration, focus (vector) changes in mental phenomena at different stages of development). This approach allows you to identify unevenness and heterochronism development of the psyche.

Structural and dynamic aspect allows you to assess the patterns of qualitative transformations, to determine how succession and transformation are carried out at different stages mental structures (phenomena).

The causal aspect considers the problem of determination (determines the development of the driving forces and conditions of human evolution, considering external and internal factors).

Development concept

Consider the relationship of concepts - change, growth and development, which are somehow present in the descriptions of the dynamics of the human psyche.

Development- this is a whole series of changes occurring over a certain period of time. (Change means no stagnation.) Development- this is an irreversible, directed, regular change that occurs according to certain laws (the absence of regularities indicates the randomness of changes). Irreversibility changes ensures the continuity of the development process (it is impossible to undo what has already happened), in each new appearance of the changed object there are always "traces" of past experience. If we consider development from the point of view of the vector - the direction of change - then it should be noted that development is not limited to growth, progress... (Growth is a systematic change, when a certain factor within one System increases, progresses in terms of number, size or weight.) Development includes and regression... Another developmental characteristic is procedural. In this sense, changes can go evolutionary(consistent, progressive change) and revolutionary by way (revolutionary changes are explosive, but not unexpected from the point of view of the logic of development, but have causality). Development can be characterized as a change in which, at critical moments, structural changes occur throughout the system.

The approaches to understanding development and interpreting the changes associated with it are constantly changing. It should be noted that there is still no well-established unified view of the features and nature of development. The dynamics of these views is of unconditional interest and gives an idea of ​​the impact on the movement of scientific thought in this direction today.

According to S. Buhler, development is a change in a certain direction, subject to the laws of maturation. "Development is a fundamental biological property." Through quantitative growth, any organism reaches the point where the old primitive structure can no longer control the expanded organism. Continued growth then means either the disintegration of the organism (biological death can serve as an example), or the reorganization of the internal structure of the organism, which would again be able to control the expanded organism.

Development is already in the simplest living organism. Already in this primitive development lies, according to D. Harris, growth, which he calls "planned development." It begins with a constantly repeating gradual cell division and differentiation, thanks to which organs and the body as a whole are formed. This is a natural phase of construction. This is followed by a phase of balance between creation and destruction. At this time, the mature organism fully performs its functions. Finally, the third phase begins, in which destruction prevails and death occurs. In this process, the plant grows from sprout to stems and leaves and finally flowers and seeds. This happens throughout the year. In perennial plants, this development is repeated: from the root, which alone is preserved and shoots again and again.

And the animal has a life cycle of creation, balance and decline, each species has its own individual lifespan. They say that the life of an animal is determined chronotypically. A mouse reaches the age of one and a half to two years, a dog can live for twelve years, and a person is about eighty.

When considering the structure of the body, it turns out that the development process, by definition, proceeds discretely. Development is growth from one structural crisis to another structural crisis. At the same time, development goes through several phases:

The growth of the whole organism or its parts;

Differentiation and formation of organs (formation of subsystems); at the same time, the functions that were initially globally performed by the entire system are concentrated in subsystems that reach a higher degree of perfection (the formation of organs);

Hierarchization; certain bodies govern other bodies, sometimes referred to as hierarchical integration;

Integration into a new system; the whole organism works at a higher level and with increased complexity.

Biological development is always finish oriented. Everything develops, striving for one goal, set at the very beginning - to a mature organism. Creation, balance and decline play a role in this process. All living organisms obey this law, and man is no exception.

However, human development is not limited to biological maturation. The psychological image of a person is deeper and more meaningful. Therefore, in addition to biological, they consider mental, social and spiritual development.

As L.S. Vygotsky, there are many different types of development. He singled out: preformed and unreformed types of development. A preformed type is a type when at the very beginning both the stages that the phenomenon (organism) will pass and the final result that the phenomenon will achieve are set, fixed, fixed. Everything is given here from the very beginning. An example is embryonic development. Despite the fact that embryogenesis has its own history (there is a tendency to reduce the lower stages, the newest stage affects the previous stages), but this does not change the type of development. In psychology, an attempt to present mental development according to the principle embryonic development belongs to Art. Hall. His theory of recapitulation is based on Haeckel's biogenetic law: ontogeny is a brief repetition of phylogeny. Mental development was considered Art. Hall as a brief repetition of the stages of mental development of animals and ancestors of modern man.

The unreformed type of development is the most common. It includes the development of the Universe, the development of our planet, the process of biological evolution, and social development. The process of human mental development also belongs to this type. The unreformed path of development is not predetermined in advance. People are representatives of different cultural and historical eras, develop in different ways and reach different levels of development. This is the meaning of the idea that age is a concrete historical category. Human development is not predetermined biologically or genetically, from birth the child is not given those stages through which he must go through, the results that he must achieve in the process of development are not determined.

With the development of psychology, approaches to the interpretation of the processes occurring in the human psyche with age have changed. Different people have come and gone on the stage scientific theories and the concept, common to them, perhaps, is only the understanding that development is a change of stages, the boundaries of which are outlined very conditionally. Each scientific concept tries to determine the patterns of development processes, sources and conditions that determine it.

The division of ontogenesis into separate periods and stages, phases and epochs, ages is the essence of the periodization of mental development. The basis for periodization is determined by a specific concept - theoretical or empirical.

Sections of developmental psychology(branches of developmental psychology)

Child psychology (the subject of research here is the patterns of mental development from birth to the end of adolescence);

Youth psychology (it should be noted that in different sources the boundaries of adolescence are defined ambiguously; some researchers include the adolescent stage at this age, others consider it as the beginning of maturity);

Adult psychology (acmeology is one of the developing directions here, exploring adulthood as a period highest achievements in activity);

Gerontopsychology (psychology of old age)

Developmental psychology

Three ages and death
Hans Baldung, 1540-1543
Prado Museum, Madrid

Age-related psychology- a branch of psychology that studies the psychological changes of a person as they grow up. It consists of three sub-branches: gerontopsychology, child psychology, and pre- and perinatal psychology. Explores the psyche and the human body at all age periods and at all stages, taking into account biological, anthropological, sociological and psychological factors that affect its development.

History

In the 20s. XX century developmental psychology took shape as a branch of psychological knowledge, as an independent science.

1. Development of philosophical theories

60-70 years. XX century. - the term "developmental psychology" is firmly established in world science (synonym genetic psychology ).

Subject, tasks and methods

Subject of Developmental Psychology and Developmental Psychology

1. Formation of personality traits

The object of developmental psychology is a complex dynamic system of interrelated processes and phenomena.

The scientific goal of developmental psychology is the comprehension of psychological phenomena by analyzing their origin, therefore it is included in the field of general psychology [ source not specified 2000 dayssource not specified 2000 days].

Developmental Psychology Functions

Research methods

1. Organizational method.
   • comparative method - comparing different groups; data for each group are compared with each other and conclusions are drawn about what development trends are observed here and what causes them.
   • the longitudinal method is lengthy and involves several methods. The method is used in various types of research, for example, in selective or complex research.
   • complex - a combination of comparative and longitudinal methods
2. Empirical method.
   • observation method
   • experimental method
   • psychological diagnostics (conversation, testing, questionnaire, survey)
   • biographical method
   • observational method (observation and self-observation)
3. Interpretive method
   • genetic method
   • structural method

Development theories

• Gesell's theory of maturation
• Psychosexual development of Sigmund Freud
• The Eight Stages of Erickson's Life
• Bettelheim's theory of autism
• Jung's maturity theory

Developmental psychology is:

Developmental Psychology Hans Baldung. Three ages and death. 1540-1543. Prado Museum. Madrid

Developmental psychology (Age-related psychology) - a branch of psychology that studies the psychological changes of a person as they grow up. It consists of three subsectors: gerontopsychology, child psychology, pre- and perinatal psychology. Explores the psyche and the human body at all age periods and at all stages, taking into account biological, anthropological, sociological and psychological factors that affect its development.

Developmental psychology emerged in 1882. Its appearance is associated with the publication of a book by the outstanding German physiologist and psychologist Wilhelm Preyer "The Soul of a Child", dedicated to child psychology.

In the 20s. In the 20th century, developmental psychology took shape as a branch of psychological knowledge, as an independent science.

The origins of developmental psychology as a science:

1. Development of philosophical theories
2. The discoveries of evolutionary biology in the 19th century
3. Socio-historical changes
4. Development of natural sciences and humanities

60-70 years. 20th century - the term "developmental psychology" is firmly established in world science (synonym - genetic psychology).

Subject of developmental psychology and developmental psychology:

1. Conditions and driving reasons for the ontogenesis of the human psyche
2. Development of mental processes (cognitive, emotional, volitional)
3. Development of various types of activities (activities)
4. Formation of personality traits
5. Age and individual psychological characteristics

Developmental Psychology Object- a complex dynamic system of interrelated processes and phenomena.

Research goal of developmental psychology- comprehension of psychological phenomena by comprehending their genesis (origin), therefore it is included in the field of general psychology [ source not specified 260 days]. This is a part of general psychology that studies the similarities and differences in the psychological functioning of a person throughout his life [ source not specified 260 days].

Tasks[ source not specified 1262 days] developmental psychology:

1. Disclosure of general patterns of development
2. Establishing the reasons for the transition from one stage to another
3. Periodization of age periods
4. The psychological picture of each stage
5. Study of the leading factors of development

Developmental psychology functions:

1. Description - describes the features of a person's development at different age periods in terms of external behavior and internal experiences
2. Explanation of the development process - understanding the reasons, factors, conditions for changes in behavior and experiences of a person at different age stages.
3. Prediction of certain changes in behavior and experiences of a person as a result of his development
4. Correction of mental development - creating optimal conditions for managing development

Development theories

• Early theories: preformism, conformism Locke and Rousseau
• Gesell's theory of maturation
• Ethological and evolutionary theories of Darwin, Lorentz and Tinbergen
• Attachment Theories - Bowlby and Ainsworth
• Educational philosophy of Montessori
• Organism theory and Werner's comparative theory
• Piaget's theory of cognitive development
• Stages of moral development according to Kohlberg
• Learning Theories: Pavlov, Watson, Skinner
• Bandura's social learning theory
• Cultural-historical theory of Vygotsky and Luria
• Psychoanalysis of Sigmund Freud
• Separation-individuation theory by Margaret Mahler
• The Eight Stages of Erickson's Life
• Bettelheim's theory of autism
• Shachtel's theory of childhood experiences
• Jung's maturity theory

Notes (edit)

1. from the book: W. Crane, "Theories of Development", 2002 (see excerpt from the book)

see also

• Development
• Cognitive development
• Stress analysis

Literature

Karabanova O.A. Age psychology. Lecture notes. M., "Airiss-press", 2005, p. 238. ISBN 5-8112-1353-0

Links

• Makogon IK Stages of development and age crises.
• Norms and stages of development of children
• Articles about child psychology
• Kon I.S. Psychology of early adolescence
• From the history of the formation and development of Russian developmental psychology in the second half of the 19th - early 20th century.
• Characteristics of developmental psychology, developmental psychology as a science
• Growth and Development
• Shapar V. B. Modern course practical psychology, or How to Succeed

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Categories:

• Developmental psychology
• Development theories

Subject, tasks and problems of developmental psychology and developmental psychology

2. Subject of developmental psychology and developmental psychology.

3. The tasks of developmental psychology (L. Montada and others).

11. Areas of development.

1. The concept of developmental psychology and developmental psychology.

Modern psychology is a ramified system of scientific disciplines, among which developmental psychology, or, more correctly, the psychology of human development, associated with the study of age dynamics of the development of the human psyche, ontogeny of mental processes and psychological qualities of the personality of a person who qualitatively changes over time.

The concept of developmental psychology in principle already concepts of developmental psychology, since development is considered here only as a function or chronological age, or age period; focuses on the age characteristics of the psyche.

Development psychology is associated not only with the study of the age stages of human ontogenesis, but also examines the various processes of macro- and micropsychic development in general, studies the process of mental development itself. Therefore, strictly speaking, developmental psychology can only be a part of developmental psychology, although they are sometimes used interchangeably.

2. Subject of developmental psychology and developmental psychology.

Two sources feed developmental psychology. On the one hand, these are the explanatory principles of biology and evolutionary theory, on the other, the methods of socio-cultural influence on the course of development.

The definition of developmental psychology as a doctrine of the periods of psychological development and personality formation in ontogenesis, their change and transitions from one age to another, as well as the historical analysis of the successive stages of ontogenesis, indicate that the subject of developmental psychology has changed historically. Currently, the subject of developmental psychology is the disclosure of the general laws of mental development in ontogenesis, the establishment of age periods, the formation and development of activity, consciousness and personality and the reasons for the transition from one period to another, which is impossible without taking into account the influence of cultural, historical, ethnic and socio-economic conditions.

Constituents subject of developmental psychology are:

- changes that occur in the psyche and behavior of a person during the transition from one age to another;

In this case, the changes can be different:

Quantitative (increase vocabulary, memory size ...)

Evolutionary - accumulate gradually, smoothly, slowly;

Qualitative (complication of grammatical constructs in speech - from situational speech to monologue, from involuntary to voluntary attention)

Revolutionary - deeper, occur quickly (a leap in development), appear at the turn of the periods;

Situational - associated with a specific social environment, its influence on the child; unstable, reversible and in need of consolidation;

- the concept of age- is defined as a specific combination of the psyche and human behavior.

Age or age period is a cycle of child development, which has its own structure and dynamics. Psychological age (L.S.Vygotsky) is a qualitatively unique period of mental development, characterized primarily by the appearance of a neoplasm, which was prepared by the entire course of previous development.

The psychological age may not be the same as the chronological age of an individual child recorded on his birth certificate and then in his passport. The age period has certain boundaries. But these chronological boundaries can shift, and one child will enter a new age period earlier, and another later. The boundaries of adolescence associated with the puberty of children "float" especially strongly.

- patterns, mechanisms and driving forces mental development;

- childhood- the subject of developmental psychology according to Obukhova is a period of enhanced development, changes and learning.

3. Tasks of developmental psychology.

Tasks and functions of developmental psychology broad and ambiguous. Currently, this branch of psychology has acquired the status of a scientific and practical discipline, in connection with which, among its tasks, theoretical and practical tasks should be distinguished. The theoretical tasks of developmental psychology include the study of the main psychological criteria and characteristics of Childhood, Youth, Adulthood (Maturity), Old age as social phenomena and sequential states of society, the study of the age dynamics of mental processes and personal development depending on the cultural, historical, ethnic and socio-economic conditions, various types of education and training, the study of differential psychological differences (sexually mature and typological properties of a person), the study of the process of growing up in all its completeness and manifold manifestations.

Among the scientific and practical tasks facing developmental psychology is the creation of a methodological basis for monitoring the course, the full value of the content and conditions of mental development at different stages of ontogenesis, the organization of optimal forms of activity and communication in childhood and adolescence, as well as the organization of psychological assistance during periods age crises, in adulthood and old age.

L. Montada proposes to single out 6 main tasks related to the field of application of developmental psychology in practice.

1. Orientation in the life path. This task assumes the answer to the question "what do we have?" determination of the level of development. The sequence of age-related changes in the form of a description of quantitative developmental functions or qualitative stages of development is a classic issue in developmental psychology.

On this basis, statistical age developmental norms, thanks to which it is possible to give a general assessment of the course of development both in individual cases and in relation to various educational and educational issues. So, for example, knowing what tasks children of 7 years old solve independently, it is possible to determine whether a particular child is below, above or on a par with the norm. At the same time, it is possible to determine whether the educational and educational requirements correspond to the given norm of independence.

2. Determining the conditions for development and change. This task presupposes an answer to the question "how did this arise?" what are the reasons and conditions that led to this level of development. Explanatory models of developmental psychology are focused primarily on the analysis of the ontogeny of personality traits and its disorders, taking into account attitudes, developmental environment, interaction with educators, special events, as well as - as an ideal case - the interaction of all these variables.

At the same time, psychologists are interested not so much in the short-term as in the long-term influences of development factors. The cumulative nature of the influence of development factors and the discrete nature of cause-and-effect relationships are also taken into account. Knowledge of the conditions allows you to delay violations of the course of development (prevention) and make appropriate decisions to optimize development progress. Of particular importance for obtaining the required effect is the determination of the conformity of the conditions of development and possible options interference with the current level of development of the individual, his personal properties.

3. Forecast of stability and variability of personality traits. This task assumes the answer to the question "what will happen if ..?" forecast not only of the course of development, but also of the measures taken. Many activities in the practice of educational and educational work - explicitly or implicitly - imply a forecast of further development. For example, the right to take care of the child after the parents divorced is retained by the mother only if it is considered that this will be the best for the further development of the child. To make such predictions, knowledge about the stability or instability of the properties and conditions of development of both the personality itself and the personality in the group is necessary. Due to the multitude of attendant factors, psychological predictions of this kind are often erroneous.

4. Explanation of development goals and correction. This task presupposes an answer to the question "what should be?" determines what is possible, real, and what should be excluded. As an empirical science, developmental psychology, in contrast to pedagogy, neutral in relation to social order, public and personal opinion. Therefore, she is able and obliged to resist them, if this contradicts the established facts and laws. At the same time, she performs the function of justifying certain proposals and projects, if they are consistent with her knowledge. And finally, she is the initiator of the correction already decisions taken if research shows them to be unfounded. A falsely established norm of development leads to significant distortions in the practice of educational and educational work.

5. Planning corrective actions. This task presupposes an answer to the question "how can the goals be achieved?" what needs to be done to get the expected effect from the intervention. So, corrective measures are needed only if the set development goals are not achieved, if the development tasks are not mastered, or there is a fact that the conditions for development lead to its undesirable course.

A distinction should be made here:

1) the development goals of the individual himself;

2) development potentials of the individual himself;

3) social requirements for development;

4) development opportunities.

Accordingly, corrective measures should be differentiated according to their purpose. Often there is a discrepancy between these goals, which should be the object of correction. The purpose of the planned correction may be the prevention of developmental disorders, the correction of development, or the optimization of developmental processes. In any case, informed decisions must be made about when the intervention promises to be successful, where it should be applied, and which method should be chosen.

6. Assessment of developmental correction. This task presupposes an answer to the question "what did this lead to?" what the corrective measures gave. Modern developmental psychology refrains from hasty assessment of the effectiveness of certain corrective actions. She believes that a real assessment can be obtained only as a result of prolonged observation of the individual, during which both positive effects and side effects should be established. It is also believed that the assessment of effectiveness is largely determined by that scientific paradigm, which the psychologist adheres to.

4. The main functions of developmental psychology and developmental psychology.

Like any science, developmental psychology has functions descriptions, explanations, forecast, correction. With regard to a certain area of ​​research (in our case, to mental development), these functions act as specific scientific tasks, those. general goals that science seeks to achieve.

The description of development presupposes the presentation of the phenomenology of developmental processes in their entirety (from the point of view of external behavior and internal experiences). Unfortunately, a lot in developmental psychology is precisely at the level of description.

Explaining development means identifying the causes, factors and conditions that led to the changes in behavior and experience. The explanation is based on a causal relationship, which can be strictly unambiguous (which is extremely rare), probabilistic (statistical, with varying degrees of deviation), or even absent. It can be single (which is very rare) or multiple (which is usually the case in the study of development).

If the explanation answers the question "why did this happen?", Revealing the reasons for the existing effect and determining the factors that caused it, then the forecast answers the question "what will this lead to?", Indicating the consequences that follow from the given cause. Thus, if, in explaining development, the thought moves from effect to cause, then in the development forecast we go from cause to effect. This means that when explaining the changes that have occurred, the study begins with their description and continues with the transition to a description of the possible causes and their connection with the changes that have occurred.

When forecasting, the study also begins with a description of the changes that have occurred, but they are no longer considered as a consequence, but as the cause of possible changes, the description of which needs to be drawn up. The development forecast always carries hypothetical character, since it is based on explanation, on the establishment of links between the resulting effect and possible causes. If this connection is established, then the fact of its existence allows us to consider that the set of identified causes will inevitably entail a consequence. This, in fact, is the meaning of the forecast.

If there is a description of the development creating his image in the mind of the researcher, the explanation is networking consequences with possible causes, and the development forecast - prediction it, proceeding from the already established causal relationships, then the correction of development is managing it through a change in possible causes. And since development is a branching process with nodes of qualitative and lines of quantitative changes, the possibilities of correction are theoretically unlimited. Limitations are imposed here to a greater extent by the possibilities of description, explanation and forecast, which provide information about the nature of the processes occurring and the nature of the object as a whole. It is important to note the special place of prognosis and correction of development in solving applied problems of developmental psychology.

The result of the description, explanation, forecast and correction becomes model or theory development.

Undoubtedly, one of the main questions of the theory of individual human development is precisely the question of the relationship between age, typological and individual characteristics person, about the changing and contradictory relationships between them. Individual development with age becomes more and more peculiarly individualized.

Exploring the dynamics of age, the characteristics of individual periods and the relationship between them, one cannot abstract from the life path of a person, the history of his individual development in various social ties and mediations. The age periods of life common to all people (from infancy to old age) are characterized by relatively constant signs of somatic and neuropsychic development.

Developmental psychology studies how people's behavior and experiences change with age. Although most developmental theories focus on the period of childhood, their ultimate goal is to uncover patterns of development throughout a person's life. The study, description and explanation of these patterns determines the range of those tasks that developmental psychology solves.

5. Sections of developmental psychology and their features.

The structure of developmental psychology and developmental psychology:

Developmental psychology studies the process of development of mental functions and personality throughout a person's life.

There are 3 sections of developmental psychology:

1. Child psychology (from birth to 17 years old);

2. Psychology of adults, mature ages;

3. Gerontology or psychology of old age.

In the West, interest in the study of childhood (we are talking about the period from about 7 years to adolescence) arose only after the end of the industrial revolution in the 19th century. However, already long before this, early childhood was considered as a separate period of the life cycle. At the moment when changes in the economic organization of society, caused by the industrial revolution, began to occur (such as the migration of the population from rural areas to cities), a favorable period began for the study of childhood.

The Industrial Revolution resulted in factory workers requiring basic literacy and numeracy skills that could only be acquired through general education. primary education... Thus, research into the psyche of the child received a powerful impetus, since it was they who could make education more effective. Undoubtedly, other social factors (such as increased well-being, improved hygiene, increased control of childhood diseases) also contributed to the shift in focus towards childhood.

Adolescence as a separate stage between childhood and adulthood has also been identified and described in a system of biological, historical and cultural changes. The distinctive biological characteristics of adolescence provided visible landmarks for distinguishing this phase of the life cycle. However, it became an object of research in developmental psychology only in the 20th century, when Western society reached such a level of well-being that made it possible to remove economic responsibility from the adolescent. This made it possible to postpone the entry of adolescents into working life and at the same time to increase the terms of education.

In modern developmental psychology, we will extend the historical analysis not only to Childhood as a socio-psychological phenomenon of society, but also to Youth, Maturity, and Old Age. However, until recently, these ages were outside the sphere of actual interests of developmental psychology (developmental psychology), since Maturity was viewed as the age of "psychological fossilization", and Old Age - as the age of total extinction. Thus, developing physically, socially, an adult is, as it were, excluded from the development process in its socio-psychological meaning and from the history of the development of a particular person as a really acting subject, the development of his consciousness, self-awareness, and other personal qualities.

Adult development - life path - only very recently became the object of research. Social and medical achievements, which made it possible to live to a very old age and live long enough after the end of active labor activity, attracted attention to the problems and real opportunities old people. Therefore, the question arose about the psychology of aging, also addressed to developmental psychology.

The actualization of the interest of developmental psychology in the study of the periods of Maturity and Old Age is associated with the humanization of society and the beginning of the revival and active development of acmeology (declared in the works of B.G. Ananyev) as a science about the period of maximum flowering of personal growth, the highest moment of manifestation of spiritual forces. These trends and scientific approaches have significantly changed the modern situation of understanding the Adult, opening up a new space for a person, emphasizing the importance of studying the main points of his creative self-development.

As D.I. Feldstein points out, these important and promising directions should in the long run reveal the problem of the Adult in development and the problem of his development, which is possible only if all stages of ontogenesis are considered in unity, and old age, including deep , will be studied as a moment of an individual path. In the cognition of an adult, in understanding his personal characteristics, taking into account the historical situation is of great importance.

Modern man has not only acquired new possibilities of choice, a new level of self-awareness (the available studies of individuals of antiquity - A.F. Losev, of the Middle Ages - Ya.A. Gurevich and others, testify to the difficult path of acquiring a person at the turn of the millennium, require him to further develop in terms of developing relations, deepening self-determination, "general maturation." And the constantly growing opportunities (determined by the achievements of science, technology, medicine, "informatization, etc.) determine a new situation in the development of an adult, pushing the boundaries of his life. And in this regard, the problem of old age, the problem of an elderly person, is of particular importance.

Among the individual sections of developmental psychology, gerontology is the "youngest" area of ​​research. Right now the old ideas about old age are breaking down. Two of its aspects are more and more differentiated - physical and psychological. Old age is a natural stage in human development, and the possibilities of lengthening human life are becoming more and more obvious, including due to the internal self-development of the individual himself, the development of his psychological resistance against aging.

So, at each point in the life cycle, there are both biological and cultural aspects of development. Biological processes promote development and provide natural "labeling" of individual stages. They gain importance as a prerequisite for social history and provide an incentive for a deeper understanding of the life cycle. Society influences the development of a person throughout his life. It sets a frame of reference against which individual stages or periods of life can be identified and studied.

6. Actual problems of developmental psychology at the present stage.

1. The problem of organic and environmental conditioning of the psyche and human behavior;

2. The problem of the influence of spontaneous and organized education and upbringing on the development of children (which influences more: family, street, school?);

3. The problem of correlation and identification of inclinations and abilities;

4. The problem of the relationship between intellectual and personal changes in the mental development of a child.

The modern nature of the requirements of social practice, presented by developmental psychology, determines its rapprochement not only with pedagogy, but also with medicine and engineering psychology, as well as with other related branches of science that study humans.

The emergence of a new problematics at the junction of developmental and engineering psychology and labor psychology is due to the need to take into account the age factor when building effective training regimes for operators and when teaching professional skills in highly automated production, when assessing the reliability of work and adaptive capabilities of a person in conditions of overload. There are very few studies in this direction.

The convergence of medical sciences and developmental psychology is taking place on the basis of the increasing demands of clinical diagnostics for the purpose of more accurate prevention, treatment and labor expertise, using deep and comprehensive knowledge about the states and capabilities of a person at different periods of his life. Close relationship with clinics, medicine, including geriatrics, contributes to the in-depth development of the main problems of developmental psychology, such as the potentials of human development in different age periods, the definition of age norms of mental functions.

One of urgent problems is the expansion of knowledge on the age characteristics of the psychophysiological functions of adults through their micro-age analysis during the period of growth and involution. Carrying out research in the indicated plan on schoolchildren of different ages made it possible to show the effect of complex patterns of age-related variability of some psychophysiological functions at different levels of their organization and to give a theoretical description of them.

The formation of a person as a person, as a subject of knowledge, social behavior and practical activities in one way or another is associated with age limits, which mediate the process of social impact on a person, social regulation of his status and behavior in society.

The specificity of the age factor lies not only in the fact that it manifests itself in different ways in certain periods of the life cycle. Its study is complicated by the fact that it acts in unity with individual characteristics, which are important to take into account when developing age standards.

The problem of age rationing includes not only the consideration of averaged standards, but also the question of individual variability psychological characteristics... In addition, individual differences appear as an independent problem in the structure of developmental psychology. Consideration of age and individual characteristics in their unity creates new opportunities for studying learning ability, for determining ontogenesis and the degree of maturity of psychological functions.

The next cycle of problems in developmental psychology is associated with the phenomenon of accelerating the development process. Acceleration during the period of growth and maturation of the organism and retardation of aging, pushing back the boundaries of gerontogenesis in modern society under the influence of a whole complex of socio-economic, sanitary-hygienic and biotic factors influence the construction of a system of age rationing. At the same time, the issues of acceleration and retardation remain poorly studied precisely due to the fact that the age-specific criteria of mental development in their variety are insufficiently developed.

For further investigation of one of the main problems of developmental psychology - the classification of periods of life - the structural-genetic approach to human ontogenetic development is of paramount importance.

On the basis of knowledge of the main characteristics of the human life cycle, its internal laws and mechanisms, the development of a synthetic problem of the hidden possibilities and reserves of mental development itself can be carried out.

Among the main problems of developmental psychology is the study of developmental factors, since it is carried out in the interaction of a person with the outside world, in the process of communication, practical and theoretical activity. The determinants and conditions of human development include socio-economic, political and legal, ideological, pedagogical, as well as biotic and abiotic factors.

In this way, a certain hierarchy of urgent problems of a more general and particular order is outlined, the solution of which is subordinated to the main goal - the further development of the theory of individual development and the expansion of the possibilities of applying scientific knowledge in developmental psychology to solving problems of social and industrial practice, since now the scientific study of the laws of mental development is becoming a necessary condition for the further improvement of all forms of upbringing and education, not only of the younger generation, but also of an adult.

7. Characteristics of childhood according to Feldstein D.I.

In modern developmental psychology, the historical analysis of the concept of "childhood" is most fully given in the concept of DI Feldstein, who considers childhood as a socio-psychological phenomenon of society and a special state of development.

In the concept of D.I.Feldstein, a meaningful psychological analysis of the system of interaction of functional ties that determine the social state of Childhood in its generalized understanding in a particular society is given, and ways of solving the issue of what connects different periods of Childhood, which ensures the general state of Childhood , which brings him into another state - into Adulthood.

Defining childhood as a phenomenon of the social world, D. I. Feldshtein identifies the following characteristics.

Functionally - Childhood is expected as an objectively necessary state in the dynamic system of society, the state of the process of maturation of the younger generation and, therefore, preparation for the reproduction of the future society.

In his meaningful definition is a process of constant physical growth, the accumulation of mental neoplasms, the development of social space, reflection on all relations in this space, the definition of oneself in it, one's own self-organization, which occurs in the constantly expanding and complicating contacts of the child with adults and other children (younger, peers , seniors), the adult community as a whole.

Essentially - Childhood is a form of manifestation, a special state of social development, when the biological laws associated with age-related changes in the child, to a large extent manifest their action, "obeying", however, increasingly the regulating and determining action of the social.

And the meaning of all meaningful changes lies not only in the acquisition, appropriation of social norms by the child (which, as a rule, is the main focus), but in the very development of social, social properties, qualities that are inherent in human nature. In practice, this is carried out in achieving a certain level of socialization, which is typical for a specific historical society, more broadly for a specific historical time, but at the same time it is a state of development of that social level that characterizes a person of a certain era, in this case modern man. At the same time, the social principle, as he grows up, increasingly determines the characteristics of the child's functioning and the content of the development of his individuality.

According to D.I.Feldshtein, the main, internally inherent goal of childhood in general and of every child in particular, is growing up - mastering, appropriating, realizing adulthood. But the same goal - growing up children, subjectively having a different focus - to ensure this growing up - is the main thing for the Adult world. The attitude of the Adult community to Childhood, regardless of the definition of its upper limit, is distinguished first of all by stability - this is an attitude towards a special state, as a phenomenon outside the adult sphere of life.

The author of the concept considers the problem of the attitude of the Adult community to Childhood in a wide socio-cultural context and socio-historical plan and highlights the position of the World of Adults to Childhood not as a totality of children of different ages- abroad of the Adult World (who need to be raised, educated, trained), but as a subject of interaction, as a special state of its own, which society goes through in its constant reproduction. This is not a “social nursery”, but a social state, unfolded in time, ranked by density, structures, forms of activity, etc., in which children and adults interact.

8. Interdisciplinary links between developmental psychology and developmental psychology.

In recent decades, developmental psychology has changed both in content and in interdisciplinary communication... On the one hand, it influences other scientific disciplines, and on the other, it itself is influenced by them, assimilating everything that expands its subject content.

Biology, genetics, developmental physiology. These disciplines are important primarily for understanding prenatal development, as well as for the subsequent stages of ontogenesis from the point of view of its early foundations. They play a significant role in the analysis of the adaptive capabilities of newborns, as well as general physical and motor (motor) development, especially in relation to subsequent changes in behavior and experience. The development of the central nervous system, sensory organs and endocrine glands is of particular interest here. In addition, the discoveries of biology are of particular importance for understanding the subject-environment problem, ie. explanations of the similarities and differences in the development of different individuals.

Ethology. The importance of ethology, or the comparative study of behavior, has grown significantly in recent years. It reveals the biological roots of behavior by supplying information about the interaction of the environment and the individual (for example, the study of imprinting). No less valuable is the methodological opportunity to conduct observations and experiments on animals, and especially in cases where their conduct on humans is prohibited for ethical reasons. The ability to transfer results obtained in animals to humans is extremely important for understanding human development.

Cultural Anthropology and Ethnology. The subject of the study of cultural anthropology and ethnology is overcultural universals and intercultural differences in behavior and experience. These disciplines make it possible, on the one hand, to check the patterns identified in the American-European cultural environment, in other cultures (for example, East Asian) and, on the other hand, due to the expansion of the cultural environment, to identify intercultural differences that determine the different course of development processes. The study of children's folklore (subculture) has acquired particular importance in recent years.

Sociology and social disciplines. These sciences acquire their significance for developmental psychology both due to certain theoretical premises (role theory, theory of socialization, theory of the formation of attitudes and norms, etc.), and due to the analysis of the processes of social interaction in the family, school, group of one-year-olds, and also through the study of the socio-economic conditions of development.

Psychological disciplines. The sciences of the psychological cycle are most closely related to developmental psychology. Sciences united by name "General Psychology", allow you to better understand the mental processes of motivation, emotions, cognition, learning, etc. Pedagogical psychology closes the psychology of development to pedagogical practice, the processes of teaching and upbringing.

Clinical (medical) psychology helps to understand the development of children with disabilities different parties psyche and merges with developmental psychology along the lines of child psychotherapy, psychoprophylaxis, psychohygiene. Psychodiagnostics goes hand in hand with developmental psychology in the field of adaptation and the application of diagnostic techniques in the comparative analysis of intellectual, personal, etc. development and to determine the age norms of development. You can find links between developmental psychology and psychology of creativity and heuristic processes(along the line of gifted and outstripping the norm of development of children); psychology of individual differences, etc.

In recent years, the volume of interaction between developmental psychology and pathopsychology(oligophrenopsychology, childhood neuroses) and defectology (work with hearing impaired and visually impaired children, children with mental retardation, etc.). One can find the merging of developmental psychology with psychogenetics, psycholinguistics, psychosemiotics, ethnopsychology, demography, philosophy, etc. Almost all progressive and interesting work in developmental psychology is usually performed at the intersection of disciplines.

Over a long period of its existence, developmental psychology has assimilated general psychological methods observation and experiment, applying them to the study of human development at different age levels. Developmental psychology is closely related to other areas of psychology: overall psychology, human psychology, social, pedagogical and differential psychology. As you know, in general psychology, mental functions are investigated - perception, thinking, speech, memory, attention, imagination. In developmental psychology, the process of development of each mental function at different age stages is traced.

In human psychology, such personal formations as motivation, self-esteem and the level of aspirations, value orientations, worldview, etc. are considered, and developmental psychology answers the questions when these formations appear in a child, what are their characteristics at a certain age. The connection between developmental psychology and social psychology shows the dependence of the development and behavior of the child on the characteristics of those groups to which he belongs: from the family, the group of the kindergarten, the school class, and teenage companies. Development and educational psychology, as it were, look at the process of interaction between a child and an adult from different angles: developmental psychology from the point of view of a child, pedagogical - from the point of view of an educator, teacher.

In addition to age-related patterns of development, there are also individual differences that differential psychology deals with: children of the same age can have different levels of intelligence and different personal characteristics. In developmental psychology, age patterns are studied that are common to all children. But at the same time, possible deviations in one direction or another from the general lines of development are also noted. In addition to the sciences of the psychological cycle, developmental psychology is associated with philosophy, anatomy, physiology, and pedagogy.

9. Definition of the concept of development.

Developmental psychology in quality subject studies the regular changes in a person in time and the related facts and phenomena of mental life. Almost all researchers agree that development can be defined as a change in time: the idea of ​​change and their course in time undeniable. It's another matter to answer questions what and as changes. This is where the divergence begins. (Sapogova E.E., 2001)

Development as growth. This understanding is almost never found in modern science. Under growth understand the process quantitative changes (accumulation) of external features of an object, measured in height, length, width, thickness, weight, etc. This means that, firstly, growth is only one of the sides of development, i.e. remain and others; secondly, that growth is only external a development indicator that says nothing about its essence; thirdly, growth can only be quantitative characteristics of development.

Development as maturation. This definition of development is used primarily in everyday thinking. Under maturation is understood as reduction, curtailment of development to morphological changes, proceeding under the direct control of the genetic apparatus. This means that such a definition exaggerates the importance of biological heredity and, accordingly, underestimates the importance of other aspects of development.

Development as improvement. This definition is often used in pedagogy and is teleological character, those. it initially assumes the presence of a goal (teleo), which is a certain "Perfect" those. the best, exemplary, ideal form of development. In this case, firstly, it is not clear Who such a goal can be set: is it externally(God, education, external environment) or internally given (through the hereditary apparatus). And secondly, it is not clear why exactly this the form of development should be considered as the best, perfect, and not any other (who sets the criteria for "perfection"?).

Development as universal change. As one of the criteria for determining development, the requirement is put forward community, universality ongoing changes. It means that the same changes should take place among people of different cultures, religions, languages, levels of development. With the clear evidence of this requirement, it turns out to be not feasible. First, it is impossible to really establish which changes can be attributed to general, universal, and which to be considered as private. And, secondly, a large mass of particular changes with such an approach will generally be denied to be considered the subject of developmental psychology.

Development as a qualitative, structural change. The definition of development through qualitative changes is associated with understanding the object as systems. If the definition is based on a significant improvement(deterioration) of its structure, then we thereby return to the definition of development through improvement, keeping its flaws. The only difference is that the subject of improvement is narrowed. If there is no question of improvement (deterioration), then it is not clear where the development is directed. And finally, if earlier it was about improving the object as a whole, now it is only about improving only it. structures. In other words, a quantitative measure of improvement is excluded and only a qualitative one is retained.

Development as a quantitative and qualitative change. In the previous case, the qualitative nature of the changes was taken as a basis, and the quantitative one was leveled. However, the very idea of ​​their connection is present in all variants of definitions. So, for example, growth can be viewed as a quantitative change, but some qualitative transitions stand out in it. Maturation is closer to a qualitative change, but it also contains a quantitative aspect. By limiting only quantitative changes, we take an unconditional step back in the understanding of development. However, excluding quantitative changes from the definition of development, we lose the opportunity to establish what caused these qualitative changes themselves.

Development as a change entailing new changes. Dissatisfaction with the existing definitions of development stimulated the search and emergence of new ideas. So, G.-D. Schmidt postulates a close, existential link between changes following one after another. A. Flammer writes that only those changes that entail new changes (“an avalanche of changes”) should be considered development. This definition holds the idea evolutionary continuity changes.

Changes in development can be:

1) quantitative / qualitative;

2) continuous / discrete, intermittent;

3) universal / individual;

4) reversible / irreversible;

5) purposeful / non-targeted;

6) isolated / integrated;

7) progressive (evolutionary) / regressive (involutionary).

In addition, development can be considered in different temporal dimensions, forming changes at the phylo-, anthropo-, onto- and microlevels.

10. Categories of development: growth, maturation, differentiation.

For a general integral characteristic of development processes, categories are used that do not refer to individual characteristics, but to development as a whole. These are the categories of growth, maturation, differentiation, learning, imprinting (imprinting), socialization (cultural sociogenesis).

Height. Changes during development can be quantitative or qualitative. Increases in body height or increases in vocabulary are quantitative changes. Physiological changes at the age of puberty or the acquisition of an understanding of the ambiguity of words in proverbs are, on the contrary, qualitative changes. Therefore, in the pair category "quantity - quality", the concept of growth refers to the quantitative aspect of development.

Growth is only a separate aspect of the course of development, namely, a one-dimensional quantitative consideration of development processes. To consider development in the aspect of growth means to limit ourselves to the study of purely quantitative changes, when knowledge, skills, memory, the content of feelings, interests, etc. are considered only from the point of view of increasing their volume.

Maturation. The maturational approach to development has dominated psychology for a long time. It is customary to refer to biological maturation as all processes that spontaneously occur under the influence of endogenously programmed ones, i.e. hereditarily determined and internally controlled growth impulses.

These processes include physical changes that are important for mental development - the maturation of the brain, nervous and muscular systems, endocrine glands, etc. Based on the psychophysical unity of a person, i.e. connections between somatic and mental processes, biologically oriented developmental models presented mental development by analogy with anatomical and physiological maturation as an internally regulated process of maturation.

Maturation is usually spoken of when past experience, learning or exercise (exogenous factors) do not influence (or have insignificant) influence on the nature of the changes taking place.

Along with limiting the external conditions of development, a number of signs are distinguished that indicate the presence of maturation processes:

1) the similarity of occurrence and course;

2) occurrence at a strictly defined age;

3) catch-up;

4) irreversibility.

Differentiation. If development is understood as the dependence of qualitative changes on maturation, then it is necessary to turn to the concept of differentiation. In a narrow sense, differentiation means the progressive isolation of heterogeneous parts from the original undivided whole, following the example of such somatic processes as cell division and the formation of tissues and organs.

It leads to growth, on the one hand, of structural complexity, and on the other, to variability and flexibility of behavior. This also includes the growing diversity, specialization and autonomy of individual structures and functions. In a broad sense, differentiation simply means the general content of the progressive fragmentation, expansion and structuring of mental functions and modes of behavior.

11. Areas of development.

Development takes place in three areas: physical, cognitive and psychosocial. TO physical area include such physical characteristics like the size and shape of the body and organs, changes in brain structure, sensory capabilities, and motor (or motor) skills. Cognitive area(from lat. "Cognitio" -"Knowledge", "cognition") covers all mental abilities and mental processes, including even a specific organization of thinking. This area includes processes such as perception, reasoning, memory, problem solving, speech, judgment, and imagination.

IN psychosocial area includes personality traits and social skills. It includes the individual style of behavior and emotional response inherent in each of us, that is, how people perceive social reality and react to it. Human development in these three areas occurs simultaneously and interconnected. Table 1 describes the three main areas of development.

Table 1.

There are complex interactions between the various areas of human development. Thus, development is not a sequence of separate, not coordinated changes, but is of a holistic, systemic nature, as a result of which changes in one area entail changes in others.

Biological developmental processes. All living organisms develop according to their genetic code, or plan. Psychologists, when talking about the development process in accordance with the genetic plan, use the term maturation. The maturation process consists of a sequence of preprogrammed changes not only appearance organism, but also its complexity, integration, organization and function.

Unhealthy diet or illness can slow ripening, but that does not mean that proper nutrition, good health, and even targeted stimulation and training should speed it up significantly. Apparently, this is true both for the entire life of a person and for processes such as motor development in infancy or the development of secondary sexual characteristics in adolescence.

The maturation of body organs and motor abilities proceeds at different rates. Each organ or ability usually has its own point of optimum maturity. Growth term usually indicates an increase in size, functionality, or complexity to that point. Aging refers to biological changes that occur after the point of optimum maturity. At the same time, the aging process does not necessarily imply a decline in activity or deterioration of the body. Aging can increase human judgment and discernment. In addition, it should be noted that the aging process of some body tissues begins already in adolescence and even in childhood.

12. The influence of the environment on human development.

Every moment we are exposed to the environment. Light, sound, heat, food, medicine, anger, kindness, austerity - all these and much more can serve to satisfy basic biological and psychological needs, cause serious harm, attract attention, or become components of learning. Some environmental influences are temporary and limited to a single situation, such as influenza at age 22.

However, many other environmental influences can be permanent, as in the case of uninterrupted interactions with parents or periodic visits by restless and influential grandparents who interfere with the lives of their children and grandchildren. Environmental influences can delay or stimulate the growth of an organism, generate persistent anxiety, or contribute to the formation of complex skills.

The environment affects human development through the processes of learning and socialization. In addition, many environment-related behavioral changes occur through the interaction of maturation and learning, and the effect of such interaction can significantly depend on the synchronization of these processes.

Learning. The main process by which the environment induces lasting changes in behavior is called learning. Learning occurs as a result of a single personal experience or a series of exercises. It can be observed in almost all human actions (solving algebraic equations, practicing the technique of moving with the ball on the football field, etc.). Every time, forming attitudes, opinions, prejudices, values ​​or stereotypes of thinking, a person acquires skills and gains knowledge.

Despite the fact that on some particular issues of theories of learning, the opinions of psychologists differ, the majority agree that one of the main processes of learning is conditioning. Conditioning is the establishment of connections between various events occurring in the environment around a person. For example, a child may become afraid of spiders simply by observing how their buddy reacts to them.

Socialization. Socialization - it is the process by which a person becomes a member of a social group: family, community, clan. Socialization includes the assimilation of all attitudes, opinions, customs, life values, roles and expectations of a particular social group. This process lasts a lifetime, helping people to find peace of mind and feel like full members of society or some cultural group within this society.

In childhood, we take on some roles immediately, others only after a lapse of time. A girl can play many roles every day: a student, a neighbor, an older sister, a daughter, a member of a sports team, a bosom friend, etc. As she becomes a teenager, the number of roles will increase. Each new role will require her to adapt to the behavior, social attitudes, expectations and values ​​of the nearest social groups.

Socialization is usually understood as a two-way process. Scientists used to believe that children's behavior is almost entirely determined by how parents and teachers behave. It was believed, for example, that at first children passively identify with certain significant adults in their life, and then imitate them in their behavior. Later research is mainly devoted to the study of the mutual influence of children and parents on each other's behavior. The socialization of the infant occurs through the experience he gains within the family, but his very presence forces family members to master new roles.

In general, the process of socialization occurs at all stages of life, and not only in childhood or adolescence. Adults strive to master new roles to prepare for expected life changes. However, it is in childhood that socialization processes develop behavioral stereotypes that persist in later life. Socialization contributes to the creation of a nucleus of values, attitudes, skills and expectations, the totality of which forms an adult from a child.

Interaction of development processes. There is an ongoing debate among scientists about the extent to which our behavior is determined by maturation, and to what extent by learning. The baby first sits down, then gets up and finally walks - here the processes of maturation are of paramount importance. But the development of such behavior can be prevented by medications, poor nutrition, fatigue, illness, inhibitions, or emotional stress.

Some skills, such as the performance skills of a musician or the movement skills of an athlete, are maintained and improved only through experience and continuous exercise. There are also behaviors that are generally difficult to categorize. Children have congenital the ability to speak, but in order to use it, they must learn language. Babies involuntarily express emotions such as anger or distress, but they must learn manage their feelings according to the norms of their culture.

Thus, behavior is a product of the interaction of the processes of maturation and learning. A number of restrictions or features of behavior are embedded in the genetic code, however, any behavior develops within the framework of a specific characteristic of each biological species Wednesday.

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