Personal development is a long and complex process. Firstly, what makes adults care for many years not only about the physical health of the child, but also about his moral, mental, spiritual growth? Secondly, what motivates a grown-up person to personal self-improvement and how to do it?
What does development mean?
The word "development" means a rather voluminous concept. It:
- movement from lower to higher;
- transition from one qualitative state to a more perfect one;
- progressive movement from old to new.
That is, development is a natural, inevitable process, which means progressive changes in something. Science believes that development takes place on the basis of emerging contradictions between new and aging forms, the ways of existence of something.
A synonym for the word “development” is the word “progress”. Both of these words indicate success in something achieved in comparison with the past.
The opposite meaning has the word “regression” - this is a backward movement, a return from the achieved high level to the previous, lower level, that is, this is a decline in development.
Types of human development
After birth, a person goes through such types of development:
- physical - increases height, weight, physical strength, body proportions;
- physiological - improves the functions of all body systems - digestive, cardiovascular, etc .;
- mental - the sense organs are improved, the experience of using them with the aim of obtaining and analyzing information from the outside world is growing, memory, thinking, and speech are developing; values, self-esteem, interests, needs, motives of actions change;
- spiritual - the moral side of the personality is enriched: needs are formed to comprehend their place in the world, the significance of their activities for its improvement, responsibility for its results is growing;
- social - the circle of relations with society is expanding (economic relations, moral, political, industrial, etc.).
Sources, driving forces of human development depend on such factors as living conditions, social circle, as well as on his internal attitudes and needs.
Concept of personality
The words “man” and “personality” are not synonymous. Compare their meanings.
Man is a biological creature with innate physical characteristics. The conditions for its development are favorable external factors: heat, food, protection.
Personality is a result, a phenomenon of social development, in which consciousness and self-consciousness are formed. She possesses certain psychological and physiological properties acquired as a result of development and upbringing. Psychologists believe that personal qualities appear only as a result of social relations.
Each person is unique, possesses only inherent positive and negative qualities. Each person has his own life goals and aspirations, intentions, reasons and motives for action. In choosing the means he is guided by his own circumstances and views on morality. An antisocial person, for example, does not know or does not recognize generally accepted norms of morality and is guided in his actions by selfish goals. Irresponsibility, conflict, a tendency to blame others for their own failures, inability to learn from their own mistakes are characteristic features of such a person.
External forces of personal development
The driving force is what pushes the object forward, a kind of spring, lever. A person also needs motivation for personal improvement. Such incentives are both external driving forces, development factors, and internal.
External include influences from others - relatives, acquaintances who pass on their own life experience.
They convince a person to perform (or not to perform) some actions, to change something in life, offer options and means of development, help him in this.
The driving force behind the development of an individual may be government policy, for example, in the field of education and employment. A person chooses from the available options the specialty or place of work that is most promising for him. As a result, he takes possession of new knowledge and labor skills, which are developing for him as a person.
If a person strives for internal, moral, intellectual growth, he seeks answers to his questions in literature, cinema, in works of art, religion, science, analyzes someone else's experience - all these are also sources that drive his development.
Internal incentives for personality development
An indispensable condition and driving forces of the development of an individual is the growth of his mental capabilities and needs, their contradictions with the old. Insufficiency of internal and external means pushes a person to search for new, adequate ways to satisfy increased demands - there is a forced or conscious assimilation of new knowledge, skills, and a sensual, emotional perception of the world is developing.
Then the process repeats: the acquired experience becomes obsolete and there is a need to resolve requests of a new, higher level. As a result, communication with others becomes more conscious and selective, diverse.
Personality Development Goals
As you can see, the driving forces of development are the needs of society in raising a person who meets the pressing social criteria, and the need of the person himself for self-development.
The image of a full-fledged and self-sufficient member of society should look like this. Social and personal goals of the development of the individual coincide. He will be useful to society and will fulfill his own growth program, if his abilities are realized, he will be spiritually and physically healthy, educated, efficient, purposeful, creative.
In addition, his interests should be socially oriented and implemented in social activities.
Stages of development
The driving forces of development are, as we see, a whole complex of influences on a person throughout his life. But this effect should be dosed, and the goals, forms, means, methods of education appropriate to the age stages of a person and the level of his individual development. Otherwise, the formation of personality is slowed down, distorted or even stopped.
Stages of personality formation according to D. B. Elkonin and the leading type of activity in each of them:
- Infant age - direct communication with adults.
- Earlier childhood is a subject-manipulative activity. A child learns to handle simple objects.
- Preschool age is a role-playing game. The child in a playful manner tries on adult social roles.
- Younger school age - educational activities.
- Adolescence - intimate communication with peers.
Given this periodization, one should know that the driving forces of development are both special knowledge in the field of pedagogy and psychology, and a reasonable approach to the choice of means of education at each age stage of the child.
Personal Growth Conditions
Healthy heredity, psychophysiological health and a normal social environment, proper education, the development of natural inclinations and abilities are indispensable conditions for human development. Their absence or the presence of adverse development factors lead to the formation of a flawed personality.
There are numerous examples of how negative external influences or internal motives impeded or even stopped the formation of a full member of society. For example, an unhealthy family climate, erroneous life principles and attitudes create a child's misconception about his place in this world and the ways to achieve it. The result is a denial of social and moral values, a lack of desire for self-development, spirituality, education, work. Dependent psychology, asocial morality, following the lower motives are formed.
The developmental ability inherent in nature itself, the internal driving forces of personality development, are completely or partially absent in people with hereditary or acquired malformations of the central nervous system. Their existence is reduced to the satisfaction of physiological needs.