Erikson's concept of ego is the period of personal maturation. Erikson's theory of periodization of personal development

The first stage of human development corresponds to the oral phase of classical psychoanalysis and usually covers the first year of life.

During this period, Erikson believes, a parameter of social interaction develops, the positive pole of which is trust, and the negative pole is distrust.

The degree of trust with which a child develops in the world around him, in other people and in himself, largely depends on the care shown to him. A baby who gets everything he wants, whose needs are quickly satisfied, who never feels sick for a long time, who is rocked and caressed, played with and talked to, feels that the world, in general, is a cozy place, and people are responsive and helpful creatures. . If a child does not receive proper care, does not encounter loving care, then distrust develops in him - fearfulness and suspicion towards the world in general, towards people in particular, and he carries this distrust with him into other stages of his development.

It must be emphasized, however, that the question of which principle will prevail is not resolved once and for all in the first year of life, but arises anew at each subsequent stage of development. This brings both hope and threat. A child who comes to school with a feeling of wariness may gradually develop confidence in a teacher who does not allow injustice towards children. In doing so, he can overcome the initial distrust. But on the other hand, a child who has developed a trusting approach to life in infancy may become distrustful of it at subsequent stages of development if, say, in the event of a parent’s divorce, an environment filled with mutual accusations and scandals is created in the family.

Independence and indecisiveness

The second stage covers the second and third years of life, coinciding with the anal phase of Freudianism. During this period, Erickson believes, the child develops independence based on the development of his motor and mental abilities. At this stage the child masters various movements, learns not only to walk, but also to climb, open and close, push and pull, hold, release and throw. Kids enjoy and are proud of their new abilities and strive to do everything themselves: unwrap lollipops, get vitamins from a bottle, flush the toilet, etc. If parents allow the child to do what he is capable of, and do not rush him, the child develops a feeling that he controls his muscles, his impulses, himself and, to a large extent, his environment - that is, he gains independence.

But if educators show impatience and rush to do for the child what he himself is capable of, he develops shyness and indecisiveness. Of course, there are no parents who do not rush their child under any circumstances, but the child’s psyche is not so unstable as to react to rare events. Only if, in an effort to protect the child from effort, parents show constant zeal, unreasonably and tirelessly scolding him for “accidents”, be it a wet bed, soiled panties, a broken cup or spilled milk, does the child develop a feeling of shame in front of other people and lack of confidence in one’s ability to manage oneself and the environment.

If a child emerges from this stage with a great deal of uncertainty, this will adversely affect the independence of both the teenager and the adult in the future. Conversely, a child who takes away much more independence from this stage than shame and indecision will be well prepared to develop independence in the future. And again, the relationship between independence on the one hand, and shyness and uncertainty on the other, established at this stage, can be changed in one direction or another by subsequent events.

Entrepreneurship and guilt

The third stage usually occurs between four and five years of age. The preschooler has already acquired many physical skills; he can ride a tricycle, run, cut with a knife, and throw stones. He begins to invent activities for himself, and not just respond to the actions of other children or imitate them. His ingenuity manifests itself both in speech and in the ability to fantasize. The social dimension of this stage, says Erikson, develops between enterprise at one extreme and guilt at the other. How parents react to the child’s ideas at this stage largely determines which of these qualities will prevail in his character. Children who are given the initiative in choosing motor activities, who run, wrestle, tinker, ride a bicycle, sled, or skate at will, develop and consolidate their entrepreneurial spirit. It is also reinforced by the parents’ readiness to answer the child’s questions (intellectual entrepreneurship) and not interfere with his fantasizing and starting games. But if parents show the child that his motor activity is harmful and undesirable, that his questions are intrusive, and his games are stupid, he begins to feel guilty and carries this feeling of guilt into further stages of life.

Skill and Inferiority

Stage four - ages six to eleven years primary school. Classical psychoanalysis calls them the latent phase. During this period, the son's love for his mother and jealousy for his father (for girls, on the contrary) are still in a latent state. During this period, the child develops the ability for deduction, organized games and regulated activities. Only now, for example, are children properly learning to play pebbles and other games where they must take turns. Erickson says that the psychosocial dimension of this stage is characterized by skill on the one hand and feelings of inferiority on the other.

During this period, the child’s interest in how things work, how they can be mastered, adapted to something, intensifies. Robinson Crusoe is understandable and close to this age; In particular, the enthusiasm with which Robinson describes his activities in every detail corresponds to the child’s awakening interest in work skills. When children are encouraged to make anything, to build huts and airplane models, to cook, cook and do handicrafts, when they are allowed to finish what they start, praised and rewarded for their results, then the child develops skill and ability for technical creativity. On the contrary, parents who see nothing but “pampering” and “messing” in their children’s work activities contribute to the development of their feelings of inferiority.

At this age, however, the child’s environment is no longer limited to the home. Along with family important role other social institutions also begin to play a role in his age-related crises. Here Erikson again expands the scope of psychoanalysis, which until now only took into account the influence of parents on the child's development. A child’s stay at school and the attitude he encounters there has a great influence on the balance of his psyche. A child who lacks intelligence is especially likely to be traumatized by school, even if his diligence is encouraged at home. He is not so stupid that he gets into a school for mentally retarded children, but he learns the material more slowly than his peers and cannot compete with them. Continuous falling behind in class disproportionately develops his feelings of inferiority.

But a child whose inclination to make something has died out due to eternal ridicule at home can revive it at school thanks to the advice and help of a sensitive and experienced teacher. Thus, the development of this parameter depends not only on parents, but also on the attitude of other adults.

Identity and role confusion

During the transition to the fifth stage (12-18 years old), the child is faced, as classical psychoanalysis claims, with the awakening of “love and jealousy” for his parents. The successful solution of this problem depends on whether he finds the object of love in his own generation. Erickson does not deny that this problem occurs in adolescents, but points out that others exist. The teenager matures physiologically and mentally, and in addition to the new sensations and desires that appear as a result of this maturation, he develops new views on things, a new approach to life. Important place In the new features of the teenager’s psyche, he is interested in the thoughts of other people, in what they think about themselves. Teenagers can create for themselves a mental ideal of family, religion, society, in comparison with which the far imperfect, but realistically existing families, religion and society. The teenager is able to develop or adopt theories and worldviews that promise to reconcile all contradictions and create a harmonious whole. In short, the teenager is an impatient idealist who believes that creating an ideal in practice is no more difficult than imagining it in theory.

Erikson believes that the parameter of connection with the environment that arises during this period fluctuates between the positive pole of identification of the “I” and the negative pole of role confusion. In other words, a teenager who has acquired the ability to generalize is faced with the task of combining everything that he knows about himself as a schoolchild, son, athlete, friend, boy scout, newspaperman, and so on. He must collect all these roles into a single whole, comprehend it, connect it with the past and project it into the future. If a young person successfully copes with this task of psychosocial identification, then he will have a sense of who he is, where he is and where he is going.

Unlike previous stages, where parents had a more or less direct influence on the outcome of developmental crises, their influence now turns out to be much more indirect. If, thanks to parents, a teenager has already developed trust, independence, enterprise and skill, then his chances of identification, that is, of recognizing his own individuality, increase significantly.

The opposite is true for a teenager who is distrustful, shy, insecure, filled with a sense of guilt and awareness of his inferiority. Therefore, preparation for comprehensive psychosocial identification in adolescence should begin, in fact, from the moment of birth.

If, due to an unsuccessful childhood or a difficult life, a teenager cannot solve the problem of identification and define his “I,” then he begins to show symptoms of role confusion and uncertainty in understanding who he is and what environment he belongs to. Such confusion is often observed among juvenile delinquents. Girls who show promiscuity in adolescence very often have a fragmented idea of ​​their personality and do not correlate their promiscuity with either their intellectual level or their value system. In some cases, young people strive for “negative identification,” that is, they identify their “I” with an image opposite to the one that parents and friends would like to see.

But sometimes it is better to identify yourself with a “hippie”, with a “juvenile delinquent”, even with a “drug addict”, than not to find your “I” at all.

However, anyone who does not acquire a clear idea of ​​his personality in adolescence is not doomed to remain restless for the rest of his life. And those who identified their “I” as a teenager will certainly encounter facts along the path of life that contradict or even threaten the idea they have about themselves. Perhaps Erickson, more than any other psychological theorist, emphasizes that life is a continuous change in all its aspects and that successfully solving problems at one stage does not guarantee a person freedom from the emergence of new problems at other stages of life or the emergence of new solutions for old ones that have already been solved seemed to be a problem.

Intimacy and loneliness

Sixth stage life cycle is the beginning of maturity - in other words, the period of courtship and early years family life, that is, from the end of adolescence to the beginning of middle age. Classical psychoanalysis does not say anything new or, in other words, anything important about this stage and the one that follows it. But Erickson, taking into account the identification of the “I” that has already occurred at the previous stage and the inclusion of a person in work activity, points to a parameter specific to this stage, which is concluded between the positive pole of intimacy and the negative pole of loneliness.

By intimacy, Erickson means more than just physical intimacy. In this concept he includes the ability to care for another person and share everything essential with him without fear of losing himself. With intimacy the situation is the same as with identification: success or failure at this stage does not depend directly on the parents, but only on how successfully the person has passed through the previous stages. As with identification, social conditions can make it easier or more difficult to achieve intimacy. This concept is not necessarily related to sexual attraction, but extends to friendship. Between fellow soldiers who have fought side by side in difficult battles, such close bonds are often formed that can serve as an example of intimacy in the broadest sense of the concept. But if a person does not achieve intimacy either in marriage or in friendship, then, according to Erikson, his lot becomes loneliness - the state of a person who has no one to share his life with and no one to care about.

Universal humanity and self-absorption

Seventh stage- mature age, that is, already the period when children have become teenagers, and parents have firmly tied themselves to a certain type of occupation. At this stage, a new personality dimension appears with universal humanity at one end of the scale and self-absorption at the other.

Erickson calls universal humanity the ability of a person to be interested in the destinies of people outside the family circle, to think about the life of future generations, the forms of the future society and the structure of the future world. Such interest in new generations is not necessarily associated with having children of their own - it can exist in anyone who actively cares about young people and about making it easier for people to live and work in the future. Those who have not developed this sense of belonging to humanity focus on themselves and their main concern becomes the satisfaction of their needs and their own comfort.

Integrity and hopelessness

The eighth and final stage in Erikson's classification is the period when the main work of life has ended and the time of reflection and fun with grandchildren, if any, comes for the person. . The psychosocial parameter of this period lies between integrity and hopelessness. A feeling of wholeness and meaningfulness in life arises for those who, looking back on their lives, feel satisfaction. Anyone who sees their life as a chain of missed opportunities and annoying mistakes realizes that it is too late to start all over again and that what has been lost cannot be returned. Such a person is overcome by despair at the thought of how his life could have turned out, but did not work out.

Eight stages of personality development according to Erik Erikson in the table

Assuming that the eight stages listed above represent universal feature human development, Erikson points out cultural differences in the ways of solving problems inherent in each stage. He believes that in every culture there is a "crucial coordination" between the development of the individual and his social environment. We are talking about coordination, which he calls the “gear wheel of life cycles” - the law of coordinated development, according to which society provides support to a developing individual precisely when she especially urgently needs it. Thus, from Erikson's point of view, the needs and opportunities of generations are intertwined.

According to Erikson, all people in their development go through eight crises, or conflicts. The psychosocial adaptation achieved by a person at each stage of development can change its character at a later age, sometimes radically. For example, children who were deprived of love and warmth in infancy can become normal adults if they are given extra attention in later stages. However, the nature of psychosocial adaptation to conflict plays an important role in the development specific person. The resolution of these conflicts is cumulative, and the way a person copes with life at each stage of development influences how he copes with the next conflict.

According to Erikson's theory, specific developmental conflicts become critical only at certain points in the life cycle. At each of the eight stages of personality development, one of the developmental tasks, or one of these conflicts, acquires more important compared to others. However, despite the fact that each of the conflicts is critical only at one of the stages, it is present throughout life. For example, the need for autonomy is especially important for children aged 1 to 3 years, but throughout life people must constantly test the degree of autonomy they can exercise each time they enter into new relationships with other people. The stages of development given below are represented by their poles. In fact, no one becomes completely trusting or distrustful: in fact, people vary in their degree of trusting or distrusting throughout their lives.

The stages of development identified by Erikson extend to the internal drives of the individual and to the attitudes of parents and other members of society to these forces. In addition, Erikson views these stages as periods of life during which the individual's life experiences dictate the need for the most important adaptations to the social environment and changes in his own personality. Although the way an individual resolves these conflicts is influenced by the attitudes of his parents, the social environment also has an extremely large influence.

Crisis of three years.

The crisis of three years (first described by E. Köhler in his work “On the Personality of a Three-Year-Old Child”) attracted the attention of V. Stern and S. Bühler. However, the interpretation of the crisis of three years was predominantly negative and was considered as a “disease” of growth. In Russian psychology, starting with the works of L.S. Vygotsky, the crisis was considered in its positive meaning - the formation of a fundamentally new system the child’s social relations with the world, taking into account his increasing independence. Behind every negative symptom of the crisis, L.S. Vygotsky taught to see a positive achievement - a new formation that reflects the increased capabilities of the child. D.B. Elkonin called the crisis of three years a crisis of independence and emancipation from adults.

The origin of this crisis is based on the contradiction of two trends that equally determine the life and activity of the child. The first is the desire to take part in the life of adults and the disintegration of the previous joint objective activity that the child has already mastered. The second is the assertion of independence through the possibility of realizing independent intentions and actions - “I myself!” In the precritical phase, one can observe a number of symptoms indicating that the child distinguishes himself as an independent subject: acute interest in his image in the mirror; interest in his appearance and how he looks in the eyes of others. Girls become interested in dressing up; boys begin to show concern about the success of their activities, for example, in design. They react sharply to failure and failure. The three-year crisis is one of the most acute in terms of behavioral symptoms. The child becomes uncontrollable and easily becomes angry and furious. Previous educational methods fail, behavior is almost impossible to correct. The crisis period of three years is very difficult for both the adult and the child himself.

Early age ends with the crisis “I myself!” - the birth of the subject as an autonomous personality with independent intentions, goals and desires, embodied in the self-system (L.I. Bozhovich) and personal action (D.B. Elkonin). It is based on the child achieving a new level of autonomy and independence, which leads to the transition to the era of childhood.

At the first stage of development (oral-sensory), corresponding to infancy, trust or distrust in the world. With the progressive development of personality, the child “chooses” a trusting relationship. It manifests itself in easy feeding, deep sleep, non-tension of internal organs, and normal bowel function. A child who trusts the world that surrounds him tolerates the disappearance of his mother from his field of vision without much anxiety or anger: he is confident that she will return, that all his needs will be satisfied. The baby receives from the mother not only milk and the care he needs, but “nutrition” from the mother is also connected with the world of shapes, colors, sounds, caresses, smiles. Maternal love and tenderness determines the “amount” of faith and hope derived from the child’s first life experience.

At this time, the child seems to “absorb” the image of the mother (the mechanism of introjection arises). This is the first stage in the formation of the identity of a developing personality.

The second stage (muscular-anal) corresponds to early age. The child’s capabilities increase sharply; he begins to walk and assert his independence. But the growing feeling independence should not undermine the previously established trust in the world. Parents help preserve it by limiting the child’s desires to demand, appropriate, and destroy when he tests his strength.

Parents' demands and restrictions at the same time create the basis for negative feelings shame and doubt. The child feels the “eyes of the world” watching him with condemnation, strives to force the world not to look at him, or wants to become invisible himself. But this is impossible, and the child develops “inner eyes of the world” - shame for his mistakes, awkwardness, dirty hands, etc. If adults make too severe demands, often reproach and punish the child, he or she develops a fear of “losing face,” constant wariness, constraint, and unsociability. If the child's desire for independence is not suppressed, a relationship is established between the ability to cooperate with other people and insist on one's own, between freedom of expression and its reasonable limitation.

At the third stage (locomotor-genital), coinciding with preschool age, the child actively learns about the world around him, models in play the relationships of adults that have developed in production and in other areas of life, quickly and eagerly learns everything, acquiring new tasks and responsibilities. Added to independence initiative.

When a child’s behavior becomes aggressive, initiative is limited, feelings of guilt and anxiety appear; In this way, new internal authorities are laid - conscience and moral responsibility for one’s actions, thoughts and desires. Adults should not overload a child's conscience. Excessive disapproval, punishment for minor offenses and mistakes cause a constant feeling of entitlement. guilt, fear of punishment for secret thoughts, vindictiveness. Initiative slows down, develops passivity.

At this age stage there is gender identity and the child masters a certain form of behavior, male or female.

Junior school age - pre-pubertal, i.e. preceding the child's puberty. At this time, the fourth stage (latent) is unfolding, associated with instilling hard work in children and the need to master new knowledge and skills. The school becomes for them a “culture in itself,” with its own special goals, achievements and disappointments. Comprehending the basics of work and social experience allows the child to gain recognition from others and acquire a sense of competence. If the achievements are small, he is acutely aware of his ineptitude, inability, disadvantageous position among his peers and feels doomed to be mediocre. Instead of a feeling of competence, a feeling of inferiority is formed.

Initial period schooling- this is also the beginning professional identification feelings of connection with representatives of certain professions.

Adolescence and youth constitute the fifth stage of personality development, the period of deep crisis. Childhood is coming to an end, and this big stage of life's journey, when completed, leads to the formation identity. It combines and transforms all previous identifications of the child; new ones are added to them, as the child, who has matured and changed in appearance, is included in new social groups and acquires different ideas about himself. Holistic personal identity, trust in the world, independence, initiative and competence allow a young man to solve the main task that society sets for him - the task of self-determination in choosing a life path.

In early adulthood, at the sixth stage, an adult faces a problem proximity(intimacy). It is at this time that true sexuality manifests itself. But a person is ready for intimacy with another not only sexually, but also socially. After a period of searching and establishing his own identity, he is ready to “merge” it with the identity of the one he loves. A close relationship with a friend or loved one requires loyalty, self-sacrifice and moral strength. The desire for them should not be drowned out by the fear of losing one’s “I”.

The third decade of life is the time to start a family. It brings love, understood by E. Erikson in the erotic, romantic and moral sense. In marriage, love is manifested in care, respect and responsibility for a life partner.

The inability to love, to establish close, trusting relationships with other people, and a preference for superficial contacts leads to isolation and a feeling of loneliness.

Maturity, or average age, - the seventh stage of personality development, unusually long. Decisive here is “a person’s attitude towards the products of his labor and towards his offspring”, concern for the future of humanity. Man strives for productivity and creativity, to realize their opportunities to pass something on to the next generation - own experience, ideas, created works of art, etc.

The desire to contribute to the lives of future generations is natural; at this age it is realized, first of all, in relationships with children. E. Erikson emphasizes the dependence of the older generation in the family on the younger.

A mature person needs to be needed.

If productivity is not achieved, if there is no need to care about other people, affairs or ideas, and indifference, self-focus appears. Anyone who pampers himself like a child comes to stagnation and impoverishment of his personal life.

The last stage late maturity, becomes integrative: at this time “the fruits of the seven previous stages ripen.” A man accepts what he has passed life path as it should and gains integrity of the individual.

Only now does wisdom emerge. Looking into the past makes it possible to say: “I am satisfied.” Children and creative achievements are perceived as an extension of oneself, and the fear of death disappears.

People who are dissatisfied with the life they have lived and consider it a chain of mistakes and unrealized opportunities do not feel the integrity of their “I”. The inability to change something in the past, to start living again is annoying, own shortcomings and failures seem to be the result of unfavorable circumstances, and approaching the last border of life causes despair.

One of the most relevant and acute social aspects social life are the problems of proper development and quality education of the individual. These problems always require a deep, highly scientific substantiation of the essence of the factors of this process from a psychological point of view.

According to the known epigenetic theory, proposed by psychologist Erik Erikson, each person, in the process of his growth and development throughout his life, lives through certain basic stages, and at each of them his behavior and perceptions of the world are different. What are the stages of human personality development according to Erikson’s epigenetic theory?

STAGES OF DEVELOPMENT ACCORDING TO ERICKSON

In total, according to the epigenetic theory of E. Erikson, a person goes through eight stages of development as. Moreover, each of these stages can go both positively and negatively, that is, the scenario of events in life can develop along a positive path (PP) or along a negative path (NP).

Each stage, according to Erikson’s theory, has its own name and covers a certain period of time, namely a certain age of a person, it looks like this:

• first stage: from 0 to 1 year – trust/distrust;
• second stage: 2-3 years – independence/indecisiveness;
• third stage: 4-5 years – enterprise/guilt;
• fourth stage: 6-11 years – skill/inferiority;
• fifth stage: 12-18 - personality identification/role confusion;
• sixth stage: 18-25 years – intimacy/isolation (early adulthood);
• seventh stage: 26-64 years – productivity/inertia (average maturity);
• eighth stage: after 64 years – integration/despair ().

The success of each subsequent stage directly depends on how the previous stage went.

FIRST STAGE: TRUST/DISTRUST

If upbringing follows a positive path, then the child is given enough attention, he is cared for and looked after. At any cry of the baby, excited parents immediately come running and immediately solve his problems: they feel sorry for him, help him with any actions, treat him, change a wet diaper, etc. The baby constantly sees mom and dad, who are glad to each other and to him, happy and friendly. The baby develops a positive idea of ​​the world, he sees it as a cozy place where everyone treats him kindly and everyone can be trusted.

If events develop according to a negative scenario, the child sees frequent quarrels between parents, feels a general negative background and lack of attention, even if he is cared for at the proper level. He rarely sees his parents, is often alone, sad and cries. As a result, a persistent suspicious attitude towards the world is formed, increased anxiety and suspiciousness develops.

SECOND STAGE: INDEPENDENCE/INDECISION

With positive developments in the life of a child at this age, he becomes more independent, this is encouraged and stimulated by his parents. The whole world is open to the child for exploration, with the exception of particularly dangerous areas. During this period, the child develops the “I myself” strategy, therefore, provided that the parents carefully limit this process and do not oppress it, the child moves on to the next stage of personal development with attitudes towards independence.

Things are completely different for a child whose upbringing follows a negative path. In this case, the child’s activity and independence are constantly suppressed by the parents. All the child’s intentions to make any decisions on his own are harshly suppressed, the child is constantly dissuaded from his ability to do anything correctly, and initiative is nipped in the bud. As the child moves forward in life, he will try in every possible way to avoid any responsibility and look back at his parents for any action.

THIRD STAGE: ENTREPRENEURSHIP/GUILTY

If events develop in a positive way, at the age of 4-5 years the child experiences an active awareness of his own personality. Personality formation at this stage of education occurs in the form of a game. The child begins to realize his gender and often strives to take the position of one of the parents in his relationship with his mother or father. This age is very delicate, so parents should under no circumstances deprive the child of care and attention, so that his desire to imitate his father (for a boy) or mother (for a girl) will later result in confidence and enterprise.

If nothing has changed since the last stage and development is still proceeding in a negative way, the child’s initiatives to imitate one of the parents are suppressed and he begins to feel guilty. Behavior becomes not entirely adequate, since the child cannot realize and understand what exactly he is ashamed of and why he feels this guilt.

STAGE FOUR: SKILL/INFERENCE

Life continues with a positive attitude and the child’s games move to a new, more complex and interesting level. Now he is diligently learning to follow a certain sequence of actions, for example, he can already play checkers with his parent. A strong desire to design and make is awakened, and if his crafts and “inventions” are encouraged by his parents, if they encourage him in case of failures, help as needed, the child develops, becomes skillful, and his intelligence increases.

With negative development, the child is brought up as a slacker; any desire to do anything is suppressed and is called a waste of time. At the same time, any attempts to make anything are ridiculed. This parental behavior instills in him an acute sense of inferiority and over time he loses initiative.

STAGE FIVE: PERSONAL IDENTIFICATION/ROLE CONFUSION

Brought up in a safe and positive environment cozy home and own inner world, a completely grown-up child meets adolescence calmly and confidently. He firmly knows what he wants and what he strives for. The direction of the individual and his dreams are actively shaped. There is a unification of all “roles” into one common, whole one - the adult himself.

In a negative scenario of personality development at this age, the child turns into a frightened teenager, unsure of his own strengths and skills, experiencing serious problems with self-identity. Girls often become sexually active, and boys have problems with society - they begin to behave in ways that adults prohibit. Their only guideline in life becomes the desire to do everything “to spite” everyone.

STAGE SIX: INTIMACY/ISOLATION

At this stage, with a positive scenario for the development of events, the young personality enters a period of maturity, serious relationship, including intimate ones. This is not about intimate maturity, but about the ability to take responsibility for another person, share his difficulties, and enter into spiritual and physical intimacy with him.

If things don't go well, early adulthood can result in isolation, loneliness, feelings of abandonment, and internal turmoil. The thirst for affection and love remains unsatisfied due to immoderation in one’s powers, internal contradictions and inability to accept independent decisions and build relationships.

STAGE SEVEN: PRODUCTIVITY/INERTITY

This is the longest stage human life, and with favorable development, right now a person begins to think and worry not only about himself, but also about the people around him. He becomes attentive and caring, not only to his parents, children and loved ones, but also to strangers in general.

A bad option for the development and education of the individual during this period turns into cynicism. A person, hiding behind arrogance and feigned arrogance, begins to fiercely defend his, and only his, interests, theories and goals, defend his point of view and prove to everyone his exclusivity. Although in fact, the reason for this behavior is deep self-doubt and a strong fear of being ridiculed for one’s good intentions.

STAGE EIGHT: INTEGRATION/DESPERATION

At this last stage of his life, a person who has developed in a positive way finds peace and calmly observes life. He stops actively working, replacing work worries with communication with children and grandchildren, takes on things that have been put on the back burner, and tries to live in pleasure. Such a person remains positive in everything. Internally, he is already completely ready for the end of his life and looks back on the years he has lived with gratitude.

A person who has developed and lived negatively all the time is not at all ready to take stock of his life, because he finally understands that he will not see a positive account in the end. He becomes bitter and offended, thoughts that everything could have turned out completely differently occupy almost all of his free time.

CONCLUSION

Personal development is very complex process, in which basic cognitive mental processes, feelings and emotions, will and needs, consciousness and self-awareness, theories and interests, ideals and beliefs, abilities, character and temperament, abilities, skills and habits are in a very complex inter-stage interaction.

According to Erik Erikson, who was very optimistic about his own theory of personality development, mistakes of one period, with sufficient attention and diligence, can be changed at the next stage. However, not all psychologists and sociologists share his optimism and advise parents to be attentive to their children and themselves, providing them with a painless transition from one stage to the next stage.