Lecture
The main new formation of adolescent-youth age
is claims to adulthood. The new formation of youth
consists of passive and active claims to inward
adulthood.
L.S. Vygotsky's thesis on the unity of the external and internal, on the
transition of the interpsychic into the intrapsychic, is key to
understanding the formation of inward adulthood as leading for
youth, developing out of the outward adulthood that is already basic for
youth. Claims to adulthood in youth are linked to
the individual's ability to independently determine his life path and his
place in society, to make independent decisions and bear
responsibility for them, as well as to the person's striving for creative activity,
the expansion of the boundaries of his «self» and self-realization. The study of
claims to adulthood in adolescence and youth is currently being
conducted by O.I. Pashkevich.
The results of her research confirmed that the
dominant position in youth is occupied by the active
striving of young men to build their behavior on the basis of an internalized
model of adulthood (inward adulthood). Alongside this, at this
age the adolescent desire to look and be considered adult
in the eyes of peers (outward adulthood) is retained.
Thus, young people, on the one hand, integrate the demands
put forward by society and, on the other hand, take into account their own capabilities
and wishes in shaping their personal behavior under specific
objective conditions.
Youth is precisely the period of development when
«adulthood» begins to dominate over «childishness» and gradually
displaces it.
Youth is a period of personality stabilization. A system of
stable views on the world and one's place in it – a worldview – takes shape.
The central personal new formation of the period becomes
self-determination, both professional and personal.
As intellect, in its development, reaches the level of
formal operations, adolescents and young people begin to see inconsistencies
and contradictions both in the roles they perform and in the roles of other people,
including parents. Resolving these role conflicts helps them
build a new personal identity, which they will carry through
their entire remaining life. E. Erikson considered the formation of ego identity
to be the main task of adolescence and youth.
Besides self-knowledge, sources of identity for the adolescent and
young person are reference groups and significant others. This poses for
them the extremely complex task of integrating the heterogeneous
information they receive about themselves into a coherent, consistent personality.
J. Marcia (J. Marcia, 1980) modified E. Erikson's concept,
identifying four basic variants, or states, of identity formation
formation. These four variants, or identity statuses,
are foreclosure, diffusion, moratorium and identity
achievement. They are defined with regard to two factors: whether the
individual has gone through a period of making his own decisions, called the
identity crisis, and whether he has bound himself with firm commitments
regarding the choice he has made of a value system or a future
occupation.
Foreclosure – the identity status of those young men and women who
have taken on commitments without going through a period of making
independent decisions (without going through an identity crisis). The choice
was made in advance and determined by parents or teachers,
rather than independently.
Diffusion – the identity status of those who have not gone through an identity
crisis and have not made any decisions for themselves. They have not experienced
a crisis and have not chosen a professional role or a moral
code for themselves. They simply avoid such questions.
Young men and women in the moratorium status are at the very center
of an ongoing identity crisis or period of decision-making.
Young people in this status are still engaged in «finding themselves».
Identity achievement – the status of people who have gone through the crisis and
have bound themselves with commitments as a result of the choices they have made. As a
result, they choose their own work and strive to live in accordance with
the moral rules they have formulated for themselves. Identity achievement
is usually considered the most desirable psychological
state. The proportion of people with identity-achievement status
increases with age.
The high-school student on the threshold of true adulthood is entirely directed toward the
future, which both attracts and worries him. Without sufficient confidence
in himself and self-acceptance he will not be able to take the necessary step or determine his
further path. That is why self-esteem in early youth is higher than in
adolescence.
A worldview is a generalized system of a person's views
of the world as a whole, of the place of the human being in the world, and of one's own
place in it; a worldview is a person's understanding of the meaning of his
behavior, activity, position, as well as of the history and prospects of development
of the human race. A person's personality is created by value orientations,
which take shape in his life experience and which he projects onto
his future.
The second mode of existence is linked to the emergence of reflection. Developed
reflection, as it were, suspends and interrupts the continuous process of life
and carries a person mentally beyond its limits. The emergence of reflection
is linked to a philosophical comprehension of life. Reflection on humanity as a
whole, its past, present and future, characterizes the personality as having
come into being.
A true personality orients itself toward its worldview and actively
acts on its basis. It takes part in the life of society,
striving to change or maintain the foundations of human life in
accordance with its worldview and value orientations.
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