Lecture
The psychological approach to analyzing the developmental norm includes general-psychological and age-psychological aspects. Let us focus on the problem of age periodization, in the context of which the main characteristics of normal mental and personal development are examined. The periodization proposed by psychologists has its own interpretation of the facts, i.e., it explains why something happens, occurs, or does not occur, and this can serve as a basis for choosing specific ways of influencing an individual's personal fate.
The problem of "norm-anomaly" has an important psychological aspect connected with an individual's perception of and adaptation to society. In psychology, "norm" denotes typical, socioculturally acceptable behavioral and psychological characteristics that society considers normal for a given context. "Anomaly", in turn, represents a deviation from this norm.
Here are several psychological aspects of the "norm-anomaly" problem:
Social adaptation: People who do not meet the standards of the "norm" may face difficulties in social adaptation. An outward difference or behavioral anomalies can provoke a negative reaction from others, which can affect the individual's psychological well-being and self-esteem.
Social pressure: There is pressure in society to conform to norms and standards, which can lead to a desire to hide one's characteristics or anomalies. This can cause an internal conflict between the desire to be true to oneself and social conformity.
Psychological tension: People who deviate from the "norm" may experience psychological tension caused by feelings of insecurity, fear of condemnation, anxiety, and even depression. They may worry about not meeting society's expectations.
Identity and self-understanding: Understanding oneself as an individual with anomalies can create difficulties in forming one's identity. People may experience an internal conflict between their unique traits and the desire to conform to standards.
Self-esteem: Comparison with others and the fear of being "different from everyone else" can affect self-esteem. People may evaluate themselves negatively because of their anomalous traits, even though these traits may have positive sides.
Need for support: People with anomalies may feel a need for psychological support in order to cope with psychological pressure, stress, and difficulties in adaptation.
L.S. Vygotsky worked on the periodization of mental development. He understood mental development as a process of qualitative transformations (crises), the periodic breaking down of old, obsolete structures and the formation of new ones. He developed a periodization of mental development in childhood, in which the central concept is that of the critical age. Vygotsky identified several critical, turning points in a child's mental development, believing that crises are necessary stages of development. Moreover, the more vivid, acute, and energetic the course of a crisis, the more productive the process of personality formation. Vygotsky's periodization presents the following ages and crises: the crisis of the newborn, the crisis of one year, the crisis of three years, the crisis of seven years, the crisis of thirteen years, and the crisis of seventeen years.
According to L.S. Vygotsky's views, a child's personality changes as a whole, and the laws governing the change of this whole determine the change in each of the mental functions. Each age period is characterized by a particular structure of consciousness as a whole, which is what determines the particular role of each mental function. At each age there is a central new formation that also unites the others.
In the works of Russian psychologists - A.V. Zaporozhets, A.R. Luria, A.N. Leontiev, D.B. Elkonin, and V.V. Davydov - who belonged to Vygotsky's school, a theoretical and experimental grounding is given for the parameters of a child's normal mental and personal development.
A significant contribution to solving this problem was made by the talented Russian psychologist D.B. Elkonin (1904-1984). He developed an original concept of the age periodization of a child's mental development, basing it on the laws governing the development of the activity of a growing person, i.e., on the leading activity.
In studying the mechanisms of mental development, D.B. Elkonin turns to an analysis of the system of a person's relations. There are two systems of relations: the system person-object and the system person-person. As applied to development, these systems appear as the system child - societal object and the system child - societal adult. An adult serves for the child as the bearer of new and increasingly complex ways of acting with objects, as well as of the norms, standards, and measures worked out by society and necessary for orientation in the surrounding reality. The formation of a child's personality is carried out through activity within the systems child - societal object and child—social adult.
Child development, according to D. B. Elkonin's hypothesis, is periodic. In the course of a child's development, periods in which the predominant mastery is of tasks, motives, and norms of relations between people—and, on this basis, the development of the motivational-need sphere—alternate consistently with periods in which the predominant mastery is of socially developed methods of acting with objects, and on this basis the formation of children's intellectual-cognitive abilities, their operational-technical capacities. The content mastered in each period is distinctive.
In children's mental development, D. B. Elkonin identifies two sharp transitions—the transition from early childhood to preschool age, known in the literature as the crisis of three years, and the transition from primary school age to adolescence, usually called the crisis of puberty. These transitions have much in common. In both transitions there is an increased tendency toward independence, as well as a number of negative manifestations connected with relations with adults. Their common feature is the growing difficulty of the adult's communication with the child, indicating that the child already needs new relations with him. At the same time, critical periods proceed individually and variably. Crises of child development have been described by L. S. Vygotsky, D. B. Elkonin, A. N. Leontiev, L. I. Bozhovich, and others.
The crisis of three years was scientifically described by L. S. Vygotsky, who identified both its negative and positive aspects. The first symptom indicating the crisis is the child's negativism, i.e., refusal to comply with any demands from an adult, with the child reacting negatively not to the content but to the adult's request itself. The second symptom is stubbornness, when the child insists on something not because he wants it, but because he demanded it. The next symptom is obstinacy, which, unlike stubbornness, is more generalized in character, directed against established norms of life and caused by the urge to insist on one's own wish. The fourth symptom is self-will, which manifests itself in the child's insistence on independence in decision-making. He wants to do everything himself. Vygotsky calls a number of other symptoms secondary. This is protest-rebellion, when the child's behavior begins to take on features of protest, as if in a state of constant conflict. The symptom of devaluation, when children begin to use indecent words, calling their beloved mothers, fathers, and grandmothers by abusive names. There is also a symptom which, in families with an only child, may be expressed in the form of despotism, and in a family with several children appears in the form of jealousy toward other children. But behind all these symptoms L. S. Vygotsky also sees positive traits. This is separation from the adult, the appearance of the psychological new formation of the Self, the manifestation of independence.
The crisis of three years, in the view of researchers, is a crisis of the child's social relations with adults, evidence that the child is no longer satisfied with the forms of care and control that adults have used up to now, and that he needs a change in relations toward him. If the adult encourages the child's reasonable independence, the difficulties in relationships pass (D. B. Elkonin).
Preschool age is an important period in the formation of personality. Academician A. N. Leontiev, who undertook an attempt to construct a theory of child development in childhood, concluded that it is precisely in preschool childhood that the personal mechanisms of behavior take shape. He calls the emergence of a hierarchy, a subordination of motives, the most important new formation of preschool age. These are motive relationships of a higher type, established «on the basis of singling out more important motives that subordinate the others». The preschooler's activity is prompted and directed not by separate, unrelated motives that alternate, reinforce one another, or come into conflict, but by a system of mutually subordinated motives.
A. N. Leontiev links all other specific psychological changes to this central mental formation. Among them, the development of voluntariness in certain mental processes stands out in particular. In preschool age, voluntary behavior arises and develops. This means that by the end of preschool age the child is able to hold on to a goal that has arisen and act according to rules, can plan an upcoming activity in a situation familiar to him, and achieve its result.
The preschooler assimilates ethical norms. He develops moral evaluations and conceptions, an active attitude toward life events, compassion, and caring.
The assimilation of norms and rules, the ability to relate one's actions to these norms, are the first rudiment of voluntary behavior.
In preschool age, elements of self-awareness, elements of self-evaluation and evaluation arise. In the child, as L. I. Bozhovich notes, a need appears for real, socially significant and evaluated activity, different from play. This tendency is expressed in the desire to be a schoolchild.
The crisis of seven years is called the crisis of spontaneity (L. S. Vygotsky, D. B. Elkonin). During the transition to school age, obvious changes occur in the child's character and behavior: he begins to «put on airs» and «play the clown». The child's spontaneity is lost, and he may resort to affectation as a means of defense. L. S. Vygotsky calls the most essential feature of the crisis of seven years «the beginning of the differentiation of the internal and external sides of the child's personality». The child begins to understand himself, to orient himself in his own feelings and experiences, and the very character of his experiences is restructured. They begin to acquire meaning for the child. Experiences lead to the loss of spontaneity, and the child develops new relations toward himself. The positive side of the crisis of seven years, in L. S. Vygotsky's view, consists in the emergence of such new formations as self-love and self-esteem, arising in generalized form precisely during this period.
Crises of development in children of school age
Entering school leads to a fundamental change in the system of the child's social relations and activity and coincides with the period of the second physiological crisis, occurring at the age of 7. A sharp endocrine shift takes place in the child's body, accompanied by a rapid growth of the body, an enlargement of the internal organs, and vegetative restructuring. The physiological restructuring may be accompanied by complications: neuropsychic vulnerability, increased fatigability. However, this does not hinder the child's adaptation to new conditions (V. P. Petrunek, L. N. Taran).
The social situation of the child's development changes fundamentally. He becomes a «social subject», performing socially significant and socially evaluated activity. All his life relations are restructured and are largely determined by how successfully he masters learning activity, which becomes the leading one. The child's normal development during this period is characterized by the formation of the following qualitatively new psychological formations:
■ the child moves to a qualitatively new level of voluntary regulation of behavior and activity. The younger schoolchild develops skills of self-control, self-organization, and self-regulation, which fundamentally changes his intellect, personality, and social relations;
a restructuring of all cognitive processes takes place; reflection, analysis, and an internal plan of action arise and develop;
stable cognitive needs and interests are formed; a new cognitive attitude toward reality arises;
an adequate self-evaluation is formed; criticality toward oneself and others develops;
skills of communicating with peers are acquired, along with the ability to establish friendly contacts and relations;
the schoolchild masters the «ability to learn», i.e., acquires the skills and abilities of learning work;
■ the child's individual abilities and capacities are revealed. Thus, a normally developing younger schoolchild is
an active, cheerful child who wants to and knows how to learn, confident in himself and his abilities, organized, able to manage his attention and memory, able to make friends, and to relate his actions to moral norms and rules.
Psychologists also recognize as normal the fact that most of these positive achievements may outwardly be lost during the crisis period of adolescence (I. V. Dubrovina).
Many studies have been devoted to the study of adolescence. These are the classic works of L. S. Vygotsky, D. B. Elkonin, T. V. Dragunova, D. I. Feldstein, L. I. Bozhovich, and the contemporary works of A. M. Prikhozhan, N. N. Tolstykh, S. K. Masgutova, and others.
Researchers explain the adolescent crisis in different ways. In Russian psychology, in the context of L. S. Vygotsky's ideas, a position has developed according to which the adolescent crisis plays an essential role in the overall process of age-related development. Crisis manifestations—opposing oneself to adults, alienation from adults, the winning of a new position—are not only regular, i.e., normal, phenomena, but also productive for the formation of the adolescent's personality (A. M. Prikhozhan).
The following most important manifestations of the adolescent crisis can be identified. Like all critical periods of development, the crisis of adolescence passes through three phases: a negative, or pre-critical, phase—the phase of breaking down old habits and stereotypes and the disintegration of previously formed structures; the culminating point of the crisis, which as a rule occurs at age 13, although significant individual variations are possible; and a post-critical phase, when new structures are formed and new relations take shape.
It is significant that adolescents may, as it were, provoke situations that are forbidden to them, deliberately «forcing» their parents into them, in order to be able to test their strength in overcoming these prohibitions and thereby push back the boundaries of their independence. This makes it possible to satisfy the need for self-assertion. If this does not happen and development during this period proceeds smoothly and without conflict, then later, at 17-18 years of age, a delayed and painful crisis may appear, or the infantile position of the «child» may become protracted and may persist even into adulthood.
Psychologists describe two main paths along which the crisis proceeds. The most common is the crisis of independence. Its symptoms are the same as in preschool age—obstinacy, stubbornness, negativism, self-will, devaluation of adults, a negative attitude toward their demands that were previously carried out, protest-rebellion, jealousy over possessions. But in adolescence they are expressed in their own way. Thus, jealousy over possessions is revealed in the striving to protect one's individual inner, psychological space from external encroachments. His main possession is the experience of his own inner world, which the adolescent protects and jealously guards from others. The second path is the crisis of dependence, whose symptoms are the opposite: excessive obedience, dependence on older or stronger people, regression to old interests or tastes and forms of behavior. This is a kind of return to the system of relations that guaranteed emotional well-being and a sense of confidence and security. The first and second variants are both ways of self-determination. But in the first case it is expressed in the position «I am no longer a child», and in the second—«I am a child and want to remain one». The first variant proves the most favorable for development!
Specialists emphasize that both tendencies are present in the symptoms of the crisis, but one of them dominates. The simultaneous presence of a striving for independence and a striving for dependence is connected with the duality of the adolescent's position. On the one hand, there are «adult» claims, a demand for rights equal to those of adults, an expansion of the boundaries of independence; on the other hand, there is the adolescent's insufficient psychological and social maturity, which gives rise in him to a need for help, support, and protection from adults. The adolescent expects (of course, unconsciously) that adults will ensure the relative safety of this struggle and will protect him from overly risky steps. This is precisely why a permissive-liberal, overly «indulgent» attitude can provoke discontent and even a suppressed irritation in the adolescent, while a sufficiently firm but reasoned prohibition leads to emotional well-being and reassurance, although it does not exclude an initial outburst of indignation. In the context of cultural-historical psychology and the psychological theory of activity, the normally developing adolescent is characterized by tendencies toward the development and self-development of such human qualities as:
■ independence of thinking, intellectual activity, a creative approach to solving cognitive tasks;
■ this is a sensitive period for the development of creative thinking;
pronounced and stable interests, attention to oneself and to another person as an individual;
adequate forms of asserting one's independence, personal autonomy, and individuality;
adequate self-esteem, a high level of aspiration, a developed sense of personal dignity, internal criteria of self-evaluation;
the ability to consciously set goals for oneself, to reorder motives, to make decisions, and to be responsible for their consequences;
moral and volitional qualities, personal reflection, i.e., understanding, sympathy, and empathy toward another;
mastery of ways of regulating behavior and emotional states, adequate ways of responding in various life situations;
the ability to control a situation, resistance to unfavorable environmental influences;
a positive attitude toward work, orientation toward cultural and moral values and human meanings;
mastery of skills of friendly, selective communication with peers; orientation toward a socially positive leader among peers; adequacy of behavior at school and outside it (D. B. Elkonin, A. M. Prikhozhan).
There are also other scholarly positions within which the problem of norm versus anomaly is addressed. They are widely represented in foreign conceptions of personality. Of considerable interest, in our view, is the conception of the American psychotherapist E. Erikson, who, as it were, analyzes a person's life from within and shows the sources of his development along the line of norm versus anomaly
The child develops as a living, organic unity, as a holistic phenomenon. That is precisely why E. Erikson considers deviations in his development in the context of the holistic development of his personality.
The basic quality of a normal person is identity, or, in other words, integrity. This is a generalized concept that includes the concept of a person's mental health, a sense of the stability and continuity of the Self, belonging to a social group, acceptance by it, and sameness. Identification, according to Erikson, determines the integrity of the personality, its system of values, ideals, life plans, abilities, and needs. This is a special style and way of experiencing, of sensing oneself, of perceiving oneself from the point of view of other people and of historical time.
The formation of identity, of personal integrity, continues throughout a person's entire life and passes through a number of stages. This process is influenced not only by parents and people close to the child, but also by the broader social environment, society, and specific social conditions, i.e., the time and place in which the child's mental life unfolds. Erikson identified 8 main stages of identity development, during which the child moves from one stage of self-awareness to another. At each stage, the possibility arises of forming opposing qualities, which the person becomes aware of in himself and with which he begins to identify himself. In the course of development, a person's qualities are formed successively, each of which at a certain moment becomes determinative of his mental life and behavior. At the same time, development presupposes the presence of actual and potential properties, which selectively influence other properties of the personality and regulate the influences of the social environment, selecting the corresponding opportunities of the child and the adult. At the same time, the need for acceptance by the group, by the social environment, is the most important source of a person's activity and manifests itself as a mechanism for including the child in the system of social relations.
The transition from one form of identity to another is accompanied by crises. At this moment vulnerability increases, but at the same time the person's potential and energy for further development also increase. Society, for its part, offers the person new tasks and opportunities for realizing this potential. At each stage of development, a person finds himself faced with a choice between polar attitudes toward the world and toward himself.
It should be remembered that the concepts of "norm" and "anomaly" are relative and depend on cultural, social, and temporal contexts. Support from psychologists and specialists in the field of correctional (special) pedagogy can help people cope with the psychological aspects associated with deviations from social norms.
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