Erik Erickson's epigenetic theory. Epigenetic theory E
E. Erickson's theory arose from the practice of psychoanalysis. However, unlike the theory of 3. Freud, his model of development is psychosocial, not psychosexual. Thus, the influence of culture and society on development was emphasized, and not the influence of the pleasure received from the stimulation of erogenous zones. In his opinion, the foundations of the human self are rooted in the social organization of society.
E. Erickson was the first to use the psychohistorical method (the application of psychoanalysis to history), which required him to pay equal attention both to the psychology of the individual and to the nature of the society in which a person lives.
According to E. Erickson, each stage of development corresponds to its own expectations inherent in a given society, which an individual may or may not justify, and then he is either included in society or rejected by it. These considerations of E. Erickson formed the basis of the two most important concepts of his concept - "group identity" and "ego identity". Group identity is formed due to the fact that from the first day of life, the upbringing of a child is focused on including him in a given social group - on developing a worldview inherent in this group. Egoidentity is formed in parallel with group identity and creates in the subject a sense of stability and continuity of his Self, despite the changes that occur to a person in the process of his growth and development.
The formation of ego identity or, in other words, the integrity of the individual, continues throughout a person's life and goes through a number of stages. Each stage of the life cycle is characterized by a specific task that is put forward by society. Society also determines the content of development at different stages of the life cycle. However, the solution of the problem, according to E. Erickson, depends both on the level of psychomotor development of the individual already achieved, and on the general spiritual atmosphere of the society in which this individual lives.
The task of infancy is the formation of basic trust in the world, overcoming feelings of disunity and alienation. The task of an early age is the struggle against a sense of shame and strong doubts in one's actions for one's own independence and self-sufficiency. The task of the playing age is the development of an active initiative and at the same time experiencing a sense of guilt and moral responsibility for one's desires. During the period of study at school, a new task arises - the formation of industriousness and the ability to handle tools, which is opposed by the awareness of one's own ineptitude and uselessness. In adolescence and early adolescence, the task of the first integral awareness of oneself and one's place in the world appears; the negative pole in solving this problem is the lack of confidence in understanding one's own self ("diffusion of identity"). The task of the end of youth and the beginning of maturity is the search for a life partner and the establishment of close friendships that overcome the feeling of loneliness. The task of the mature period is the struggle of the creative forces of man against inertia and stagnation. The period of old age is characterized by the formation of a final integral idea of oneself, one's life path, as opposed to possible disappointment in life and growing despair.
The solution of each of these problems, according to E. Erickson, is reduced to the establishment of a certain dynamic relationship between the two extreme poles. The development of personality is the result of the struggle of these extreme possibilities, which does not subside during the transition to the next stage of development. This struggle at a new stage of development is suppressed by the solution of a new, more urgent task, but incompleteness makes itself felt during periods of life's failures. The balance achieved at each stage marks the acquisition of a new form of ego identity and opens up the possibility of including the subject in a wider social environment. When raising a child, one should not forget that "negative" feelings always exist and serve as dynamic countermembers of "positive" feelings throughout life.
The transition from one form of ego identity to another causes identity crises. Crises, according to E. Erickson, are not a personality disease, not a manifestation of a neurotic disorder, but "turning points", "moments of choice between progress and regression, integration and delay."
E. Erickson's book "Childhood and Society" presents his model of "eight human ages". According to Erickson, all people in their development go through eight crises, or conflicts. Psychosocial adaptation, achieved by a person at each stage of development, at a later age can change its character, sometimes radically. For example, children who were deprived of love and warmth in infancy may become normal adults if additional attention was given to them in later stages. However, the nature of psychosocial adaptation to conflicts plays an important role in the development of a particular person. The resolution of these conflicts is cumulative, and how a person adjusts to life at each stage of development influences how they deal with the next conflict.
According to Erickson'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, becomes more important than 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 check the degree of their independence, which they can show 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 absolutely trusting or distrustful: in fact, people vary the degree of trust or distrust throughout their lives.
As a result of the struggle of positive and negative tendencies in solving the main problems during epigenesis, the main “virtues of the personality” are formed - the central neoplasms of age. Since positive qualities are opposed to negative ones, the virtues of a person have two poles - positive (in the case of solving the main social problem of age) and negative (in case this problem is not solved).
So, basic faith against basic distrust gives rise to HOPE - DISTANCE; autonomy versus shame and doubt: WILL - IMPULSE; initiative versus guilt: PURPOSE - APATHY; hard work against feelings of inferiority: COMPETENCE - INERTIA; identity vs. identity diffusion: LOYALTY - RENANT; intimacy versus loneliness: LOVE IS CLOSED; generation versus self-absorption: CARE - REJECTION; egointegration versus loss of interest in life: WISDOM IS CONSPIRECT.
Stages of the life cycle and their characteristics, given by E. Erickson, presented in Table. 3 (the table is given according to ).
1. Trust or distrust. The formation of this first form of ego-identity, like all subsequent forms, is accompanied by a developmental crisis. His indicators at the end of the first year of life: general tension due to teething, increased awareness of himself as a separate individual, weakening of the mother-child dyad as a result of the mother's return to professional pursuits and personal interests. This crisis is more easily overcome if, by the end of the first year of life, the ratio between the child's basic trust in the world and the basic distrust is in favor of the first.
2. Autonomy or shame and doubt. Starting to walk, children discover the possibilities of their body and ways to control it. They learn to eat and dress, use the toilet and learn new ways to get around. When a child manages to do something on his own, he gains a sense of self-control and self-confidence. But if a child constantly fails and is punished for it or called sloppy, dirty, incapable, bad, he gets used to feeling shame and self-doubt.
3. Initiative or guilt. Children aged 4-5 take their exploratory activity outside of their own bodies. They learn how the world works and how you can influence it. The world for them consists of both real and imaginary people and things. If their research activities are generally effective, they learn to deal with people and things in a constructive way and gain a strong sense of initiative. However, if they are severely criticized or punished, they get used to feeling guilty for many of their actions.
4. Industriousness or feeling of inferiority. Between the ages of 6 and 11, children develop numerous skills and abilities at school, at home and among their peers. According to Erickson's theory, the sense of self is greatly enriched with the realistic growth of the child's competence in various areas. It is becoming increasingly important to compare yourself with your peers. During this period, negative evaluation of oneself in comparison with others causes especially strong harm.
5. Identity or confusion of roles. Before adolescence, children learn a number of different roles - student or friend, older brother or sister, student at a sports or music school, etc. During adolescence and adolescence, it is important to understand these different roles and integrate them into one holistic identity. Boys and girls are looking for basic values and attitudes that cover all these roles. If they fail to integrate a core identity or resolve a major conflict between two important roles with opposing value systems, the result is what Erickson calls identity diffusion.
The fifth stage in personality development is characterized by the deepest life crisis. Childhood is coming to an end. The completion of this major stage of the life path is characterized by the formation of the first integral form of ego-identity. Three lines of development lead to this crisis: rapid physical growth and puberty (the "physiological revolution"); preoccupation with “how I look in the eyes of others”, “what I am”; the need to find one's professional vocation that meets the acquired skills, individual abilities and the requirements of society. In the adolescent identity crisis, all past critical moments of development reappear. The teenager must now solve all the old problems consciously and with an inner conviction that it is this choice that is significant for him and for society. Then social trust in the world, independence, initiative, mastered skills will create a new integrity of the individual.
6. Closeness or isolation. In late adolescence and early adulthood, the central conflict of development is the conflict between intimacy and isolation. In Erickson's description, intimacy includes more than sexual intimacy. It is the ability to give a part of yourself to another person of any gender without fear of losing your own identity. Success in establishing this kind of close relationship depends on how the five previous conflicts were resolved.
The interval between youth and adulthood, when a young person seeks (through trial and error) to find his place in society, E. Erickson called "mental moratorium". The severity of this crisis depends both on the degree of resolution of earlier crises (trust, independence, activity, etc.), and on the entire spiritual atmosphere of society. An unsurmounted crisis leads to a state of acute diffusion of identity, which forms the basis of a special pathology of adolescence. Identity pathology syndrome, according to E. Erickson: regression to the infantile level and the desire to delay the acquisition of adult status as long as possible; a vague but persistent state of anxiety; feelings of isolation and emptiness; constantly being in a state of something that can change life; fear of personal communication and inability to emotionally influence persons of the opposite sex; hostility and contempt for all recognized social roles.
7. Generativity or stagnation. In adulthood, after previous conflicts are partially resolved, men and women can pay more attention and help other people. Parents sometimes find themselves helping their children. Some people can direct their energies toward solving social problems without conflict. But failure to resolve previous conflicts often leads to excessive self-absorption: excessive concern for one's health, the desire to satisfy one's psychological needs without fail, to preserve one's peace, etc. .
8. Ego integrity or despair. In the last stages of life, people usually review the life they have lived and evaluate it in a new way. If a person, looking back at his life, is satisfied because it was filled with meaning and active participation in events, then he comes to the conclusion that he did not live in vain and fully realized what was allotted to him by fate. Then he accepts his life as a whole, as it is. But if life seems to him a waste of energy and a series of missed opportunities, he has a feeling of despair. Obviously, this or that resolution of this last conflict in a person's life depends on the cumulative experience gained in the course of resolving all previous conflicts.
The concept of E. Erickson is called the epigenetic concept of the life path of the individual. As is known, the epigenetic principle is used in the study of embryonic development. According to this principle, everything that grows has a common plan. Based on this general plan, separate parts develop. Moreover, each of them has the most favorable period for predominant development. This happens until all the parts, having developed, form a functional whole. Epigenetic concepts in biology emphasize the role of external factors in the emergence of new forms and structures and thus oppose preformist teachings. From the point of view of E. Erickson, the sequence of stages is the result of biological maturation, but the content of development is determined by what the society to which he belongs expects from a person. According to E. Erickson, any person can go through all these stages, no matter what culture he belongs to, it all depends on how long his life is.
The significance of E. Erickson's concept lies in the fact that he was the first to characterize the stages of the entire life cycle and introduced later ages into the area of interest of developmental psychology. He created a psychoanalytic concept about the relationship between the Self and society and formulated a number of concepts of “group identity”, “ego-identity”, “mental moratorium” that are important for practical psychology.
Erik Erikson's epigenetic theory of personality
E. Erickson(1902-1979) - a follower of Z. Freud, but he expands the approach of his teacher by considering development in a wider system of social relations.
E. Erickson's theory arose from the practice of psychoanalysis. Accepting the structure of personality 3. Freud, he created psychoanalytic concept of the relationship between "I" and society. Drawing attention to the role of "I" in the development of personality, E. Erickson shifted the emphasis from "It" to "I". In his opinion, the foundations of the human "I" are rooted in the social organization of society. Applying psychoanalysis in post-war America, he saw various phenomena - anxiety, apathy, cruelty, confusion - as the result of the impact of a difficult period of war on the individual.
E. Erickson accepts the idea of unconscious motivation adopted in psychoanalysis, but devotes his research mainly to socialization processes.
The works of E. Erickson mark the beginning of a new path in the study of the psyche - psychohistorical method , which is the application of psychoanalysis to history. This method requires equal attention both to the psychology of the individual and to the nature of the society in which the person lives. E. Erickson analyzed the biographies of Martin Luther, Mahatma Gandhi, Bernard Shaw and others. E. Erickson conducted field ethnographic research into the upbringing of children in two Indian tribes and came to the conclusion that the style of motherhood is always determined by what exactly that social society expects from a child in the future. the group to which he belongs.
Erickson discovered different cultures have different "trust schemes" and traditions of care for the child. This interest began with the observation of child rearing in Indian tribes, which Erickson observed on reservations:
In some cultures, the mother shows tenderness very emotionally, she always feeds the baby when he cries or is naughty, does not swaddle him. In other cultures, on the contrary, it is customary to swaddle tightly, let the child scream and cry, "so that his lungs are stronger." The last way of leaving, according to Erickson, is characteristic of Russian culture. This explains, according to Erickson, the special expressiveness of the eyes of Russian people. A tightly swaddled child, as was customary in peasant families, shows the main way of connecting with the world - through a glance. In these traditions, Erickson finds a deep connection with how society wants its member to be. So, in one Indian tribe, Erickson notes, the mother, whenever the child bites her chest, hits him painfully on the head, bringing him to furious crying. The Indians believe that such techniques contribute to the upbringing of a good hunter from a child.
If an individual meets the expectations of society, he is included in it, and vice versa. These considerations formed the basis of two important concepts of his concept - "group identity" and "ego-identity".
Group identity It is formed due to the fact that from the first day of life, the upbringing of a child is focused on including him in a given social group, on developing a worldview inherent in this group. Ego-identity (personal identity) is formed in parallel with group identity and creates in the subject a sense of stability and continuity of his "I", despite the changes that occur with a person in the process of his growth and development. Until the age of 17-20, the formation of this main nuclear formation of the personality takes place. Personality develops through inclusion in various social communities and experiencing its inextricable connection with them. Identity - this is a psychosocial identity - it allows a person to accept himself in all the richness of his relations with the outside world, and determines his system of values, ideals, life plans, needs, social roles. If the identity does not add up, a person does not find himself, his place in life.
E. Erickson singled out the stages of a person's life path, each of them is characterized by a specific task that is put forward by society. The solution to this problem depends on the already achieved level of psychomotor development of the individual and on the general spiritual atmosphere of society.
1. trust - distrust of the world around (0 - 1 year);
2. a sense of independence - a sense of shame and doubt (1 - 3 years);
3. initiative - a sense of guilt (4 - 5 years);
4. industriousness - a feeling of inferiority (6 - 11 years);
5. understanding of belonging to a certain gender - a lack of understanding of the forms of behavior corresponding to this gender (12 - 18 years old);
6. desire for intimate relationships - isolation from others (early maturation);
7. vital activity - focus on oneself, age-related problems (normal growing up);
8. feeling of fullness of life - despair (late maturation).
The formation of all forms of identity is accompanied by a development crisis. Crises are turning points, a choice between progress or regression. Adolescence, according to E. Erickson, is the most important period of development, which accounts for the main identity crisis. It is followed by either the acquisition of an "adult identity" or developmental delay, i.e., the diffusion of identity.
The interval between youth and adulthood, when a young person seeks (through trial and error) to find his place in society, E. Erickson called "psychic moratorium". The severity of this crisis depends both on the degree of resolution of earlier crises (trust, independence, activity, etc.), and on the entire spiritual atmosphere of society. An unsurmounted crisis leads to a state of acute diffusion of identity, which forms the basis of a special pathology of adolescence. E. Erickson introduced into psychology concept of ritualization. ritualization in human behavior, it is an interaction based on an agreement of at least two people who resume it at certain intervals in repeating circumstances (ritual of mutual recognition, critical, dramatic and other rituals); it is essential to the "I" of all participants. In the process of personality development, the ritual element, having once arisen, is successively included in the system that arises at higher levels, becoming an essential part of the subsequent stages. In the case of identity diffusion, when a young person cannot find his place in life, spontaneous ritualizations intensify, which look defiant from the outside and are accompanied by ridicule from strangers.
E. Erickson's concept is called epigenetic concept of the life path of the individual. According to the epigenetic principle used in the study of embryonic development, the weight that grows has a general plan. Based on this general plan, separate parts develop. Moreover, each of them has the most favorable period for predominant development. This happens until all the parts, having developed, form a functional whole.
Epigenetic concepts are opposed to preformist teachings, as they emphasize the role of external factors in the emergence of new forms and structures. From E. Erickson's point of view, the sequence of stages is the result of biological maturation, but the content of development is determined by what society expects from a person.
E. Erickson himself admitted that his periodization cannot be considered as a theory of personality, it is only the key to building such a theory.
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Introduction
2. Basic provisions
Conclusion
Bibliography
Introduction
E. Erickson is a follower of 3. Freud. In the US Bicentennial Dictionary of Famous Americans, he was called "the most creatively brilliant of all who have worked in the psychoanalytic tradition since Freud." As emphasized by D. N. Lyalikov, E. Erikson's main core of his teaching is most valuable: the development of the concepts of personal and group identity, mental moratorium, and the doctrine of youthful identity crisis. E. Erikson himself believed that he expanded the Freudian concept, went beyond it. First, he shifted the emphasis from "It" to "I". According to E. Erickson, his book "Childhood and Society" is a psychoanalytic work about the attitude of the "I" to society. E. Erickson accepts the idea of unconscious motivation, but devotes his research mainly to the processes of socialization. Secondly, E. Erickson introduces a new system in which the child develops. For 3. Freud, this is a triangle: child-mother-father. E. Erickson considers development in a wider system of social relations, emphasizing the historical reality in which the "I" develops. It concerns the dynamics of relations between family members and sociocultural reality. Thirdly, the theory of E. Erickson meets the requirements of the time and the society to which he himself belongs. The goal of E. Erickson is to reveal genetic possibilities for overcoming psychological life crises. If 3. Freud devoted his work to the etiology of pathological development, then E. Erickson focused on studying the conditions for the successful resolution of psychological crises, giving a new direction to psychoanalytic theory. In 1966, in a report read at the Royal Society of London, E. Erickson applied some of the provisions of ethology to his scheme of individual development. Ethologists have shown that the most highly organized animals develop in relation to each other a system of ritualized actions that actually serve as a means of survival for individual individuals. It should be noted that among primitive peoples there is a practice of annual ritual wars, which serve to prevent a real war. At all levels of human relationships, there are essentially ritual acts. In the ability to ritualize one's relationships and develop new rituals, E. Erickson sees the possibility of creating a new lifestyle that can lead to overcoming aggressiveness and ambivalence in human relations. In the article "The Ontogeny of Ritualizations" E. Erickson writes that the concept of "ritual" has three different meanings. One of the oldest is used in ethnography and refers to rites and rituals performed by adults in order to mark recurring events: the change of seasons or periods of life. Young people take part in these rituals, and children can watch them. In psychiatry, the term "ritual" is used to refer to compulsive behavior, compulsive repetitive actions, similar to the actions of animals locked in a cage. In ethology, the term "ritual" is used to describe certain phylogenesis-formed ceremonial actions in the so-called social animals. An example is the greeting ceremony, which was described by K. Lorenz. When a newborn gosling climbs out of its nest and lies with its neck stretched out in a heap of wet shell fragments, it can observe a vital reaction if you lean towards it and make a sound reminiscent of the sounds of a goose, then the gosling will raise its head, stretch its neck and emit a thin but clear distinguishable sound. Thus, before the gosling can walk or eat, it can perform this early form of encounter ritual. The life and growth of the gosling depends on the success of this very first response to the presence of the mother (and she, in turn, achieves it). So, already at the phylogenetic level in the repetitive forms of behavior, which ethologists and E. Erickson, following them, call ritualization, there is a relationship, the content of which is the exchange of messages.
1. E. Erickson's epigenetic theory of personality development
Erik Erickson's theory is so. same, like the theory of Anna Freud, arose from the practice of psychoanalysis.
E. Erikson created a psychoanalytic concept about the relationship between "I" and society. At the same time, his concept is the concept of childhood. It is human nature to have a long childhood. Moreover, the development of society leads to a lengthening of childhood. "Long childhood makes a person a virtuoso in the technical and intellectual senses, but it also leaves a trace of emotional immaturity in him for life," wrote E. Erickson.
E. Erikson interprets the structure of personality in the same way as Z. Freud. If at some point in our daily life, he wrote, we stop and ask ourselves what we have just been dreaming about, then a series of unexpected discoveries awaits us: we are surprised to notice that our thoughts and feelings make constant fluctuations in that direction. then in the opposite direction from the state of relative equilibrium. Deviating to one side from this state, our thoughts give rise to a series of fantastic ideas about what we would like to do; deviating in the other direction, we suddenly find ourselves under the power of thoughts about duty and obligations, we already think about what we should do, and not about what we would like to do; the third position, as if "dead point" between these extremes, is more difficult to remember. Here, where we are least aware of ourselves, according to E. Erickson, we are most of all ourselves. Thus, when we want it is "It", when we must - it is "Super-I", and "dead point" is "I". Constantly balancing between the extremes of these two instances, "I" uses defense mechanisms that allow a person to come to a compromise between impulsive desires and the "overwhelming force of conscience."
As emphasized in a number of publications, the work of E. Erickson marks the beginning of a new way of studying the psyche - the psychohistorical method, which is the application of psychoanalysis to history. Using this method, E. Erickson analyzed the biographies of Martin Luther, Mahatma Gandhi, Bernard Shaw, Thomas Jefferson and other prominent people, as well as the life stories of contemporaries - adults and children. The psychohistorical method demands equal attention both to the psychology of the individual and to the character of the society in which the individual lives. The main task of E. Erickson was to develop a new psychohistorical theory of personality development, taking into account the specific cultural environment. freud personality psychological attitude
In his first major and most famous work, E. Erickson wrote that the study of personal individuality is becoming the same strategic task of the second half of the 20th century, as was the study of sexuality in the time of Freud, at the end of the 19th century.
Each stage of the life cycle is characterized by a specific task that is put forward by society. Society also determines the content of development at different stages of the life cycle. However, the solution of the problem, according to E. Erickson, depends both on the already achieved level of psychomotor development of the individual, and on the general spiritual atmosphere of the society in which this individual lives.
The task of infancy is the formation of basic trust in the world, overcoming feelings of disunity and alienation. The task of an early age is the struggle against a sense of shame and strong doubts in one's actions for one's own independence and independence. The task of the playing age is the development of an active initiative and at the same time experiencing a sense of guilt and moral responsibility for one's desires. During the period of study at school, a new task arises - the formation of industriousness and the ability to handle tools, which is opposed by the awareness of one's own ineptitude and uselessness. In adolescence and early adolescence, the task of the first integral awareness of oneself and one's place in the world appears; the negative pole in solving this problem is the lack of confidence in understanding one's own "I" ("diffusion of identity"). The task of the end of youth and the beginning of maturity is the search for a life partner and the establishment of close friendships that overcome the feeling of loneliness. The task of the mature period is the struggle of the creative forces of man against inertia and stagnation. The period of old age is characterized by the formation of a final integral idea of oneself, one's life path, as opposed to possible disappointment in life and growing despair.
The solution of each of these problems, according to E. Erickson, is reduced to the establishment of a certain dynamic relationship between the two extreme poles. The development of personality is the result of the struggle of these extreme possibilities, which does not subside during the transition to the next stage of development. This struggle at a new stage of development is suppressed by the solution of a new, more urgent task, but incompleteness makes itself felt during periods of life's failures. The balance achieved at each stage marks the acquisition of a new form of ego identity and opens up the possibility of including the subject in a wider social environment. When raising a child, one should not forget that "negative" feelings always exist and serve as dynamic countermembers of "positive" feelings throughout life.
The transition from one form of ego identity to another causes identity crises. Crises, according to E. Erickson, are not a personality disease, not a manifestation of a neurotic disorder, but "turning points", "moments of choice between progress and regression, integration and delay."
Psychoanalytic practice convinced E. Erickson that the development of life experience is carried out on the basis of the child's primary bodily impressions. That is why he attached such great importance to the concepts of "organ mode" and "modality of behavior." The concept of "organ mode" is defined by E. Erikson following 3. Freud as a zone of concentration of sexual energy. The organ with which sexual energy is connected at a particular stage of development creates a certain mode of development, that is, the formation of the dominant quality of the personality. According to the erogenous zones, there are modes of retraction, retention, intrusion and inclusion. Zones and their modes, emphasizes E. Erickson, are in the center of attention of any cultural system of raising children, which attaches importance to the child's early bodily experience. Unlike 3. Freud, for E. Erikson the mode of an organ is only a primary point, an impetus for mental development. When society, through its various institutions (family, school, etc.), gives a special meaning to this mode, then its meaning is “alienated”, detached from the organ and turned into a modality of behavior. Thus, through modes, a connection is made between psychosexual and psychosocial development.
The peculiarity of modes, due to the mind of nature, is that for their functioning, another, an object or a person, is necessary. So, in the first days of life, the child "lives and loves through the mouth," and the mother "lives and loves through her breasts." In the act of feeding, the child receives the first experience of reciprocity: his ability to "receive by mouth" meets with a response from the mother.
Like 3. Freud, E. Erickson connects the second phase of infancy with teething. From this point on, the ability to "take in" becomes more active and directed. It is characterized by the "biting" mode. Being alienated, the modus manifests itself in all types of activity of the child, displacing passive receiving. “The eyes, initially ready to receive impressions as they come naturally, learn to focus, isolate and “snatch” objects from a more vague background, follow them,” wrote E. Erickson. “Similarly, the ears learn to recognize meaningful sounds , localize them and control the search turn towards them, in the same way as the arms are learned to stretch purposefully, and the hands to grasp tightly. As a result of the distribution of the modus to all sensory zones, a social modality of behavior is formed.
- "taking and holding things." It manifests itself when the child learns to sit. All these achievements lead to the child singling out himself as a separate individual.
The formation of this first form of ego-identity, like all subsequent forms, is accompanied by a developmental crisis. His indicators at the end of the first year of life: general tension due to teething, increased awareness of himself as a separate individual, weakening of the mother-child dyad as a result of the mother's return to professional pursuits and personal interests. This crisis is more easily overcome if, by the end of the first year of life, the ratio between the child's basic trust in the world and the basic distrust is in favor of the first. Signs of social trust in an infant are light feeding, deep sleep, normal bowel movements. The first social achievements, according to E. Erickson, also include the willingness of the child to let the mother disappear from sight without excessive anxiety or anger, since her existence has become an inner certainty, and her reappearance is predictable. It is this constancy, continuity and identity of life experience that forms in the young child a rudimentary sense of his own identity.
The dynamics of the relationship between trust and distrust of the world, or, in the words of E. Erickson, "the amount of faith and hope learned from the first life experience", is determined not by the characteristics of feeding, but by the quality of child care, the presence of maternal love and tenderness, manifested in care about the baby. An important condition for this is the mother's confidence in her actions. “A mother creates a sense of faith in her child by the type of treatment that combines sensitive concern for the needs of the child with a firm sense of complete personal trust in him within the framework of the life style that exists in her culture,” emphasized E. Erickson.
E. Erickson discovered different "trust schemes" and traditions of child care in different cultures. In some cultures, the mother shows tenderness very emotionally, she always feeds the baby when he cries or is naughty, does not swaddle him. In other cultures, on the contrary, it is customary to swaddle tightly, let the child scream and cry, "so that his lungs are stronger." The last way of leaving, according to E. Erikson, is characteristic of Russian culture. According to E. Erikson, they explain the special expressiveness of the eyes of Russian people. A tightly swaddled child, as was customary in peasant families, has the main way of communicating with the world - through the look. In these traditions, E. Erickson finds a deep connection with how society wants to see its member.
In many cultures, it is customary for a baby to be weaned at a specific time. In classical psychoanalysis, as is known, this event is considered as one of the most profound childhood traumas, the consequences of which remain for life. E. Erickson, however, does not assess this event so dramatically. In his opinion, the maintenance of basic trust is possible with another form of feeding. If a child is picked up, rocked to sleep, smiled at him, talked to him, then all the social achievements of this stage are formed in him.
The second stage of personality development, according to E. Erickson, consists in the formation and upholding by the child of his autonomy and independence. It starts from the moment the child begins to walk. At this stage, the pleasure zone is associated with the anus. The anal zone creates two opposite modes - the mode of retention and the mode of relaxation. Society, attaching special importance to accustoming a child to neatness, creates conditions for the dominance of these modes, their separation from their organ and transformation into such modalities of behavior as preservation and destruction. Parental control allows you to keep this feeling through the restriction of the growing desires of the child to demand, appropriate, destroy, when he, as it were, tests the strength of his new capabilities.
The emergence of a sense of shame, according to E. Erickson, is associated with the emergence of self-awareness, because shame suggests that the subject is fully exposed to the public, and he understands his position. "The child would like to force the whole world not to look at him," but that is impossible. Therefore, social disapproval of his actions forms the "inner eyes of the world" in the child - shame for his mistakes. According to E. Erickson, "doubt is the brother of shame." Doubt is associated with the realization that one's own body has a front and back side - the back. The back is not visible to the child himself and is completely subject to the will of other people who can limit his desire for autonomy.
The struggle of a sense of independence against shame and doubt leads to the establishment of a relationship between the ability to cooperate with other people and insist on one's own, between freedom of expression and its restriction. At the end of the stage, a mobile balance develops between these opposites. It will be positive if parents and close adults do not excessively control the child and suppress his desire for autonomy. The modes of invasion and inclusion create new modalities of behavior at the third, infantile-genital stage of personality development. "Intrusion into space through energetic movements, into other bodies through physical attacks, into the ears and souls of other people through aggressive sounds, into the unknown through consuming curiosity," according to E. Erickson's description, a preschooler at one pole of his behavioral reactions, then as on the other, he is receptive to the environment, ready to establish tender and caring relationships with peers and young children. In Z. Freud, this stage is called phallic, or Oedipal. According to E. Erickson, the child's interest in his genitals, awareness of his gender and the desire to take the place of the father (mother) in relations with parents of the opposite sex is only a particular moment in the development of the child during this period. The child eagerly and actively learns the world around him; in the game, creating imaginary, modeling situations, the child, together with peers, masters the "economic ethos of culture", that is, the system of relations between people in the production process. As a result, the child develops a desire to get involved in real joint activities with adults, to get out of the role of a little one. But adults remain omnipotent and incomprehensible for the child, they can shame and punish. In this tangle of contradictions, the qualities of active enterprise and initiative should be formed.
Aggressive behavior of the child inevitably entails the restriction of initiative and the emergence of feelings of guilt and anxiety. So, according to E. Erickson, new internal instances of behavior are laid - conscience and moral responsibility for one's thoughts and actions. It is at this stage of development, like no other, that the child is ready to learn quickly and eagerly. "He can and wants to act together, unite with other children for the purposes of design and planning, and he also seeks to benefit from communication with his teacher and is ready to surpass any ideal prototype," E. Erickson noted.
The fourth stage of personality development, which psychoanalysis calls the "latent" period, and E. Erickson - the time of the "psychosexual moratorium", is characterized by a certain drowsiness of infantile sexuality and a delay in genital maturity, which is necessary for the future adult to learn the technical and social foundations of labor activity. The school in a systematic way introduces the child to knowledge about the future work activity, transfers in a specially organized form the "technological is with" culture, forms diligence. At this stage, the child learns to love to learn and learns most selflessly those types of technology that are appropriate for a given society.
The danger that awaits the child at this stage lies in feelings of inadequacy and inferiority. According to E. Erickson, "the child in this case experiences despair from his ineptitude in the world of tools and sees himself doomed to mediocrity or inadequacy." If, in favorable cases, the figures of the father and mother, their significance for the child fade into the background, then when a feeling of inadequacy arises for the requirements of the school, the family again becomes a refuge for the child.
E. Erickson emphasizes that at each stage, the developing child must come to a sense of his own worth, which is vital for him, and he should not be satisfied with irresponsible praise or condescending approval. His ego-identity reaches real strength only when he understands that his achievements are manifested in those areas of life that are significant for a given culture.
The fifth stage in personality development is characterized by the deepest life crisis. Childhood is coming to an end. The completion of this major stage of the life path is characterized by the formation of the first integral form of ego-identity. Three lines of development lead to this crisis: rapid physical growth and puberty (the "physiological revolution"); preoccupation with "how I look in the eyes of others", "what I am"; the need to find one's professional vocation that meets the acquired skills, individual abilities and the requirements of society. In the teenage crisis, identities rise up again. All critical moments of development that have been passed. The teenager must now solve all the old problems consciously and with an inner conviction that it is this choice that is significant for him and for society. Then social trust in the world, independence, initiative, mastered skills will create a new integrity of the individual.
Adolescence is the most important period of development, which accounts for the main identity crisis. It is followed by either the acquisition of an "adult identity" or developmental delay, that is, "diffusion of identity."
The interval between youth and adulthood, when a young person seeks (through trial and error) to find his place in society, E. Erickson called "mental moratorium". The severity of this crisis depends both on the degree of resolution of earlier crises (trust, independence, activity, etc.), and on the entire spiritual atmosphere of society. An unsurmounted crisis leads to a state of acute diffusion of identity, which forms the basis of the social pathology of adolescence. Identity pathology syndrome according to E. Erickson: regression to the infantile level and the desire to delay the acquisition of adult status as long as possible; a vague but persistent state of anxiety; feelings of isolation and emptiness; constantly being in a state of something that can change life; fear of personal communication and inability to emotionally influence persons of the opposite sex; hostility and contempt for all recognized social roles, even male and female ("unisex"). In extreme cases, there is a search for a negative identity, the desire to "become nothing" as the only way of self-affirmation.
The love that arises at this age, according to E. Erickson, is not initially sexual in nature. "To a large extent, youthful love is an attempt to come to the definition of one's own identity by projecting one's own initially indistinct image onto someone else and seeing it already in a reflected and clarified form," says E. Erickson.
The formation of ego-identity allows a young person to move to the sixth stage of development, the content of which is the search for a life partner, the desire for close cooperation with others, the desire for close friendships with members of their social group. The young man is not afraid now of losing his "I" and depersonalization. The achievements of the previous stage allow him, as E. Erickson writes, "with readiness and desire to mix his identity with others." The basis of the desire for rapprochement with others is the complete mastery of the main modalities of behavior. The young man is ready for intimacy, he is able to give himself to cooperation with others in specific social groups and has enough ethical strength to firmly adhere to such group affiliation, even if this requires significant sacrifices of compromise.
The danger of this stage is loneliness, avoidance of contacts that require complete intimacy. Such a violation, according to E. Erickson, can lead to acute "character problems", to psychopathology.
The seventh stage is considered as central to the adult stage of a person's life path. According to E. Erickson, personality development continues throughout life. Personal development continues through the influence of children, which confirms the subjective feeling of being needed by others. Productivity and procreation (procreation), as the main positive characteristics of a person at this stage, are realized in caring for the upbringing of a new generation, in productive labor activity and in creativity. In everything that a person does, he puts a particle of his "I", and this leads to personal enrichment.
On the contrary, in the event that an unfavorable developmental situation develops, an excessive focus on oneself appears, which leads to inertia and stagnation, to personal devastation. Such people often see themselves as their own and only child. If conditions favor such a trend, then physical and psychological disability of the individual occurs. It was prepared by all previous stages, if the balance of forces in their course developed in favor of an unsuccessful choice. The desire to care for others, creativity, the desire to create things in which a particle of unique individuality is invested helps to overcome the possible formation of self-absorption and personal impoverishment.
The eighth stage of the life path is characterized by the achievement of a new completed form of ego-identity. Only in a person who has somehow shown concern for people and things and adapted to the successes and disappointments inherent in life, in the parent of children and the creator of things and ideas - only in him does the fruit of all seven stages gradually ripen the integrity of the personality. E. Erickson notes several components of such a state of mind: it is an ever-increasing personal confidence in one's commitment to order and meaningfulness; it is the post-narcissistic love of the human personality as an experience of the world order and the spiritual meaning of the life lived, regardless of the price they are achieved; this is the acceptance of one's life path as the only proper and not in need of replacement; it is a new, different from the former, love for one's parents; it is an affectionate attitude towards the principles of past times and various activities in the form in which they manifested themselves in human culture. The owner of such a personality understands that the life of an individual is only an accidental coincidence of a single life cycle with a single segment of history, and in the face of this fact, death loses its power. At this stage of development, wisdom arises, which E. Erickson defines as a detached interest in life as such in the face of death.
On the contrary, the absence of this personal integration leads to the fear of death. There is despair, for there is too little time left to start life anew and in a new way, to try to achieve personal integrity in a different way. This state can be conveyed by the words of the Russian poet V. S. Vysotsky: "Your blood was frozen with eternal cold and ice from the fear of living and from the premonition of death."
2. Basic provisions
Summing up 15 years of practical and theoretical work, Erik Erikson put forward three new provisions that became three important contributions to the study of the human "I":
Along with the phases of psychosexual development described by Freud (oral, anal, phallic and genital), during which the direction of attraction changes (from autoeroticism to attraction to an external object), there are also psychological stages of development of the “I”, during which the individual establishes the main guidelines for relationship with oneself and one's social environment.
The formation of personality does not end in adolescence, but stretches over the entire life cycle.
Each stage has its own developmental parameters that can take positive and negative values.
Conclusion
The concept of E. Erickson is called the epigenetic concept of the life path of the individual. As is known, the epigenetic principle is used in the study of embryonic development. According to this principle, everything that grows has a common plan. Based on this general plan, separate parts develop. Moreover, each of them has the most favorable period for predominant development. This happens until all the parts, having developed, form a functional whole. Epigenetic concepts in biology emphasize the role of external factors in the emergence of new forms and structures and thus oppose preformed expiration teachings. From the point of view of E. Erickson, the sequence of stages is the result of biological maturation, but the content of development is determined by what the society to which he belongs expects from a person. According to E. Erickson, any person can go through all these stages, no matter what culture he belongs to, it all depends on how long his life is.
Evaluating the work carried out, E. Erickson admitted that his periodization cannot be considered as a theory of personality. By. in his opinion, this is only the key to the construction of such a theory.
Erikson's concept can be completed with the words of his favorite philosopher Kierkegaard: Life can be understood in reverse order, but it must be lived from the beginning.
Bibliography
1. Obukhova L.F. Child (age) psychology: Textbook. - M., Russian Pedagogical Agency. 1996. - 374 p.
2. Stolyarenko L.D. Pedagogical psychology. - Rostov n / D .: Phoenix, 2000. - 544 p.
3. Kjell L "Ziegler D. Theories of personality: Basic provisions, research and application / Translated from English. S. Melenevskaya, D. Viktorova. - St. Petersburg: Peter, 1998. - 606 p.
4. Elkind, Erik Erickson and the eight stages of human life / Per. from English. - M.: Kogito-center, 1996. - 16s.
5. Erikson E. Childhood and society (translated from English) - St. Petersburg, 1996.
6. Erickson E. Identity: youth and crisis. (Translated from English). - M., 1996.
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Freudianism is a philosophical generalization of psychoanalysis. The concept of psychosexual development of society and the individual. Basic postulates of psychoanalysis. The role of culture in the development of social relations. The role of personality in culture. Theological ideas of Freud.
Eric Erikson, a student of Freud, based on Freud's theory of the phases of psychosexual development, created a new theory - psychosocial development. It includes eight stages of the development of the "I", at each of which guidelines are worked out and refined in relation to oneself and to the external environment (Erickson, 1996). Erickson noted that the study of personal individuality is becoming the same strategic task of the second half of the 20th century, which was the study of sexuality in the time of Freud, at the end of the 19th century. First of all, Erickson's theory differs from Freud's theory in the following ways:
8 stages according to Erickson are not limited only to childhood, but include the development and transformation of personality throughout life from birth to old age. Adult and mature age are characterized by their own crises, during which the tasks corresponding to them are solved.
Unlike Freud's pansexual theory, human development, according to Erickson, consists of three autonomous, albeit interconnected, processes: somatic development, studied by biology; development of the conscious self, studied by psychology; and social development, studied by the social sciences.
The basic law of development, according to Erickson, is the "epigenetic principle", according to which at each new stage of development, new phenomena and properties arise that were not at the previous stages of the process.
Stages of development of the psyche according to Erickson:
1. Oral-sensory. Corresponds to the oral stage of classical psychoanalysis. Age: first year of life. Stage objective: basic trust versus basic mistrust. Valuable qualities acquired at this stage: energy and hope.
The extent of the infant's confidence in the world depends on the care shown to him. Normal development occurs when his needs are quickly met, he does not experience long illness, he is cradled and caressed, played with and talked to. The mother's behavior is confident and predictable. In this case, trust is developed in the world into which he has come. If he does not receive proper care, distrust, timidity and suspicion are developed.
2. Musculo-anal. Coincides with the anal stage of Freudianism. Age - the second or third years of life. Stage objective: autonomy versus shame and doubt. Valuable qualities acquired at this stage: self-control and willpower.
At this stage, the development of independence based on motor and mental abilities comes to the fore. The child learns different movements. If the parents leave the child to do what he can, he develops the feeling that he owns his muscles, his impulses, himself, and, to a large extent, the environment. Independence appears.
The outcome of this stage depends on the ratio of cooperation and self-will, freedom of expression and its suppression. From a sense of self-control, as the freedom to dispose of oneself without loss of self-respect, a strong sense of goodwill, readiness for action and pride in one's achievements, a sense of one's own dignity, originates. From the feeling of loss of freedom to dispose of oneself and the feeling of someone else's overcontrol comes a steady tendency to doubt and shame.
3. Locomotor-genital. The stage of infantile genitality corresponds to the phallic stage of psychoanalysis. Age - preschool, 4-5 years. The task of the stage: initiative (enterprise) against feelings of guilt. Valuable qualities acquired at this stage: direction and purposefulness.
By the beginning of this stage, the child has already acquired many physical skills, begins to invent activities for himself, and not just respond to actions and imitate them. Shows ingenuity in speech, the ability to fantasize.
The preponderance of qualities in character largely depends on how adults react to the child's undertakings. Children who are given the initiative in choosing an activity (running, wrestling, messing around, riding a bicycle, sledding, skating) develop entrepreneurial spirit. It reinforces her parents' willingness to answer questions (intellectual enterprise) and not interfere with fantasizing and starting games.
At this stage, the most important separation occurs between the potential triumph of man and the potential total destruction. It is here that the child becomes forever divided within himself: into a childish set, which retains an abundance of growth potentials, and a parental set, which maintains and enhances self-control, self-government, and self-punishment. A sense of moral responsibility develops.
4. Latent. Corresponds to the latent phase of classical psychoanalysis. Age - 6-11 years. The task of the stage: diligence (skill) against feelings of inferiority. Valuable qualities acquired at this stage: systematic and competent.
Love and jealousy are at this stage in a latent state, which is what its name says - latent. These are the elementary school years. The child shows the ability for deduction, organized games, regulated activities. Interest in how things are arranged, how to adapt them, master them. During these years, he resembles Robinson Crusoe and is often interested in his life.
When children are encouraged to make crafts, build huts and aircraft models, cook, cook and needlework, when they are allowed to complete the work they have begun, they are praised for the results, then the child develops skill, the ability for technical creativity.
When parents see only “pampering” and “dirty” in the child’s labor activity, this contributes to the development of a sense of inferiority in him. The danger of this stage is the feeling of inadequacy and inferiority.
5. Adolescence and early youth. Classical psychoanalysis notes at this stage the problem of "love and jealousy" for one's own parents. A successful decision depends on whether a person finds an object of love in his own generation. This is a continuation of the latent stage according to Freud. Age - 12-18 years. Stage objective: identity versus role confusion. Valuable qualities acquired at this stage: dedication and fidelity.
The main difficulty at this stage is the confusion of identification, the inability to recognize one's "I". A teenager matures physiologically and mentally, he develops new views on things, a new approach to life, an interest in the thoughts of other people, in what they think of themselves.
The influence of parents at this stage is indirect. If a teenager, thanks to his parents, has already developed trust, independence, enterprise and skill, then his chances of identification, i.e., awareness of his own individuality, increase significantly.
6. Early adulthood. Freud's genital stage. Age: Courtship and early years of married life, from late adolescence to early middle age. Here and below, Erickson no longer names age limits. Stage objective: intimacy versus isolation. Valuable qualities acquired at this stage: affiliation and love.
By the beginning of this stage, a person has already identified his "I" and is involved in labor activity.
Closeness is important to him - not only physical, but also the ability to take care of another person, to share everything essential with him without fear of losing himself. The newly minted adult is ready to exercise moral strength in both intimate and comradely relationships, remaining faithful, even if significant sacrifices and compromises are required. Manifestations of this stage are not necessarily sexual attraction, but also friendship. For example, close ties are formed between fellow soldiers who fought side by side in difficult conditions - a model of closeness in the broadest sense.
The danger of the stage is the avoidance of contacts that oblige to intimacy. Avoiding the experience of intimacy for fear of losing the ego leads to feelings of isolation and subsequent self-absorption. If neither in marriage nor in friendship does he achieve intimacy, loneliness awaits him, he has no one to share his life with and no one to take care of. The danger of this stage is that a person experiences intimate, competitive, and hostile relationships with the same people. The rest are indifferent to him. And, only having learned to distinguish the fight of rivals from a sexual embrace, a person masters an ethical sense - a hallmark of an adult. Only now does true genitality emerge. It cannot be considered a purely sexual task. This is a combination of methods for selecting a partner, cooperation and rivalry.
7. Adulthood. Classical psychoanalysis no longer considers this and the subsequent stage, it covers only the period of growing up. Age: mature. Stage objective: generativity versus stagnation. Valuable qualities acquired at this stage: production and care.
By the time this stage is reached, a person has already firmly associated himself with a certain occupation, and his children have already become teenagers.
This stage of development is characterized by universal humanity - the ability to be interested in the fate 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. To do this, it is not necessary to have your own children, it is important to actively take care of young people and to make life and work easier for people in the future.
Those who have not developed a sense of belonging to humanity focus on themselves, and their main concern becomes the satisfaction of their needs, their own comfort, self-absorption.
Generativity, the central point of this stage, is an interest in the order of life and the guidance of a new generation, although there are individuals who, due to failures in life or special gifts in other areas, do not direct this interest to their offspring. Generativity includes productivity and creativity, but these concepts cannot replace it. Generativity is the most important stage of both psychosexual and psychosocial development.
8. Maturity. Age: retired. Stage objective: integrity versus despair. Valuable qualities acquired at this stage: self-denial and wisdom. The main work in life is over, it is time for reflection and fun with the grandchildren. The feeling of wholeness, meaningfulness of life arises in someone who, looking back at the past, feels satisfaction. The one to whom the life lived seems to be a chain of missed opportunities and unfortunate blunders, realizes that it is already too late to start all over again and the lost cannot be returned. Such a person is overcome by despair at the thought of how his life could have developed, but did not. The absence or loss of the accumulated integrity is expressed in the fear of death: it is not perceived as a natural and inevitable completion of the life cycle. Despair expresses the consciousness that there is little time left to try to start a new life and experience other paths to wholeness.
The term "epigenesis" was taken by E. Erickson from biology. According to the epigenetic principle, everything that grows and develops has a general plan, on the basis of which separate parts develop, each of which has the most favorable period for preferential development. This happens until all the parts, having developed, form a functional whole.
According to E. Erickson, the sequence of stages is the result of biological maturation, but the content of development at each stage is determined by what the society to which he belongs expects from a person. Any person goes through all these stages, no matter what culture he belongs to, it all depends on the duration of his life.
E. Erickson accepted the ideas of 3. Freud about the three-membered structure of personality, identifying Id with desires and dreams, and Super-Ego with feelings of duty, between which a person constantly fluctuates in thoughts and feelings. Between them there is a "dead point" - Ego, in which, according to E. Erickson, we are most of all ourselves, although we are least aware of ourselves.
Infant age. Stage one: foundational faith and hope vs. foundational hopelessness. The peculiarity of modes is that another object or person is necessary for their functioning. In the first days of life, the child “lives and loves through the mouth”, and the mother “lives and loves through the breast”. In the act of feeding, the child receives the first experience of reciprocity: his ability to "receive through the mouth" meets with a response from the mother.
Early childhood. Second stage: autonomy versus shame and doubt. It begins from the moment when the child begins to walk. At this stage, the pleasure zone is associated with the anus. The anal zone creates two opposite modes - the mode of retention and the mode of relaxation (letting go). Society, attaching special importance to accustoming a child to neatness, creates conditions for the dominance of these modes, their separation from their body and transformation into such modalities of behavior as "preservation" and "destruction". The struggle for "sphincter control" as a result of the importance given to it by society is transformed into a struggle for mastery of one's motor abilities, for the establishment of a new, autonomous self.
Preschool age. Third stage: initiative versus guilt. Being firmly convinced that he is his own person, the child must now find out what kind of person he can become.
School age. Fourth stage: industriousness versus inferiority. The fourth stage of personality development is characterized by a certain drowsiness of infantile sexuality and a delay in genital maturity, which is necessary for the future adult to learn the technical and social foundations of labor activity.
Adolescence and youth. Fifth stage: personal identity versus role confusion (identity confusion). The fifth stage is characterized by the deepest life crisis. Three lines of development lead to it: 1) rapid physical growth and puberty ("physiological revolution"); 2) concern about how a teenager looks in the eyes of others, what he is; 3) the need to find one's professional vocation that meets the acquired skills, individual abilities and the requirements of society. In the adolescent identity crisis, all past critical moments of development reappear. The teenager must now solve all the old problems consciously and with an inner conviction that it is this choice that is significant for him and for society. Then social trust in the world, independence, initiative, mastered skills will create a new integrity of the individual.
Youth. Sixth stage: intimacy versus loneliness. Overcoming the crisis and the formation of ego-identity allows young people to move on to the sixth stage, the content of which is the search for a life partner, the desire for close friendships with members of their social group. Now the young man is not afraid of the loss of the Self and depersonalization, he is able to "with readiness and desire to mix his identity with others."
Maturity. Seventh stage: productivity (generativity) vs. stagnation. This stage can be called the central one at the adult stage of a person's life path. Personal development continues due to the influence of children, the younger generation, which confirms the subjective feeling of being needed by others. Productivity (generativity) and generation (procreation), as the main positive characteristics of a person at this stage, are realized in caring for the upbringing of a new generation, in productive labor activity and in creativity. In everything that a person does, he puts a particle of his I, and this leads to personal enrichment. A mature person needs to be needed.
Old age. Eighth stage: integrity of the personality against despair. Having gained life experience enriched by caring for the people around him, and primarily about children, creative ups and downs, a person can gain integrativity - the conquest of all seven previous stages of development. E. Erickson highlights several of its characteristics: 1) an ever-increasing personal confidence in their propensity for order and meaningfulness; 2) post-narcissistic love of a human person (and not an individual) as an experience expressing some kind of world order and spiritual meaning, no matter what price they get; 3) acceptance of one's only life path as the only proper and not in need of replacement; 4) new, different from the former, love for their parents; 5) a comradely, participatory, connected attitude to the principles of remote times and various activities in the form in which they were expressed in the words and results of these activities.