The concept of age in developmental psychology. See the meaning of Absolute Age in other dictionaries

Age is one of the fundamental and complex categories of psychology. There are two levels of analysis of this concept:

Absolute(or calendar, chronological) age is expressed by the number of time units (minutes, days, years, millennia, etc.) separating the moment of the object's appearance from the moment of measuring its age. This is a purely quantitative, abstract concept, denoting the duration of the existence of an object, its localization in time. The definition of absolute age is called dating.

Conditional age (or age of development) is determined by establishing the location of an object in a certain evolutionary genetic series, in a certain process of development, on the basis of some qualitative and quantitative features. Establishment of conditional age - element periodization, which involves the choice of not only chronological units of measurement, but also the reference system itself and the principles of its division.

Analysis individual development of a person shows that the category of age in terms of the life path specific person can be viewed from several perspectives.

biological age is determined by the state of metabolism and functions of the body compared with the average statistical level of development characteristic of the entire population of a given chronological age - those genetic, morphological, physiological and neurophysiological changes that occur in the body of each person are taken as a basis. Thanks to the statistical data obtained about the chronological age at which changes should occur, certain age standards were established. Accordingly, if at a given age a person has not yet experienced the expected changes, it means that he is lagging behind in his biological development, i.e. his biological age less chronological. If, on the contrary, changes have occurred that should occur at an older age, then they say that the biological age of a person exceeds his chronological age.

Psychological age is established by correlating the level of mental (mental, emotional, etc.) development of the individual with the corresponding normative level.

social age measured by level correlation social development person (for example, measures of mastering a certain set of social roles) with what is statistically normal for his peers.

There is also subjective age personality, having internal system reference. This concept means own assessment a person of his age, age self-awareness, depending on the intensity, eventful fullness of life. The basis of subjective age is self-awareness. Therefore, subjective age is relatively free from chronological age. A person may feel older than their years, younger or according to their age.

Subject psychological research is an psychological age a person, and the main task in this regard is the search for a reference system and chronological units of measurement, i.e., the construction of periodization mental development.

The purpose of any periodization is to mark points on the line of development that separate qualitatively unique periods from each other. The question is what determines the qualitative originality. In the history of psychology, attempts have been repeatedly made to construct a periodization of mental development. Their systematization was undertaken by L.S. Vygotsky, The Problem of Age. The scientist divided all the periodizations that existed by that time into three groups, and did it so methodologically successfully that, as a rule, modern periodizations successfully fit into the proposed systematization.

The first group consisted of periodizations created not by dividing the process of development into stages, but by analogy with the stepwise construction of other chronological systems. Such is, in particular, the well-known periodization S. Hall , created by analogy with ideas about the stages of development of society. He singled out the stage of digging and digging (0–5 years), the stage of hunting and capturing (5–11 years), the pastoral stage (8–12 years), the agricultural stage (11–15 years), the stage of industry and trade (15–20 years). years), correlating them with the animal stage of development of society, the period of hunting and fishing, the time of the end of savagery and the beginning of civilization, sometimes romanticism, etc.

To the second group (the most numerous) L.S. Vygotsky attributed periodizations, which are based on any one (rarely several) individual signs of development. An example of this type of periodization is the scheme P.P. Blonsky , built taking into account dentition (the appearance and change of teeth) and, accordingly, including toothless childhood, milk-toothed childhood, the period of changing teeth, the stages of eruption of premolars and canines, permanently toothed childhood.

This group also includes periodization. psychosexual development 3. Freud, suggesting the following phases of personality development: 1) oral phase (1st year of life): erogenous zones - in the mouth area; forms of behavior - capture, retention, sucking, biting; 2) anal phase (2 - 3rd years of life): erogenous zones - in the anus; forms of behavior - interest in the functions of departure; 3) phallic phase (from 3 to 6 years): erogenous zones - in the area of ​​the primary genital organs; forms of behavior - the study of their genitals; 4) latent phase (from 5–6 years old to 11–12 years old, i.e., the stage of puberty): erogenous zones are not distinguished and there are no specific forms of behavior; 5) genital phase (puberty phase): all erogenous zones and forms of behavior are activated.

A special place in the periodizations of the second group is occupied by the periodization J. Piaget which is based on the development of intellectual structures. The development of intelligence is represented in periodization as a factor in achieving equilibrium with environment and is described through four stages: 1) the pre-operational stage of thinking (sensory-motor intelligence) with its reflexes and adaptive reactions; 2) stages of pre-conceptual and intuitive thinking ( domestic action with images, symbols); 3) the stages of concrete operations; and 4) the stages of formal operations.

By analogy with the stages identified by J. Piaget, periodization is based on L. Kolberg lies the formation of morality. From these positions, periodization distinguishes the pre-moral level (associated with an orientation towards avoiding punishment and receiving encouragement), the level of conventional morality (associated with an orientation towards a model or authority) and the level of autonomous morality (associated with an orientation towards a social contract and generally accepted moral norms).

There are many options for periodization of the second group. All of them are named L.S. Vygotsky are monosymptomatic, since most of them are based on only one, albeit important, sign of development.

In the third group L.S. Vygotsky included periodizations associated with highlighting the essential features of mental development itself. This group includes the periodization of E. Erickson, an important advantage of which is the coverage of the entire life of the individual, and not just early ages. E. Erickson singled out 8 phases of development: 1) the first phase (infancy, the first year of life) is characterized by the child's primary trust or distrust of the environment; 2) the second phase (early childhood: 2-3 years of life) is characterized by autonomy or shame and doubt; 3) the third phase (up to school age: 4 - 5 years of life) is characterized by initiative or guilt; 4) the fourth phase (school age: from 6 to 11-12 years old, i.e. until maturity) is characterized by a sense of value and diligence or low value; 5) the fifth phase (youth) is characterized by personal individuality, identity or identity diffusion; 6) the sixth phase (youth: 20–30 years) is characterized by closeness, intimacy and solidarity or isolation; 7) the seventh phase (maturity: 30–40 years) is characterized by creativity, integrativity or stagnation; 8) the eighth phase (senior adulthood (plus old age): from 40 years and older) is characterized by the integrity of the personality or split and despair.

L.S. Vygotsky also proposed his own periodization. He singled out in development stable and critical ages (periods). In stable periods, there is a slow and steady accumulation of the smallest quantitative changes in development, and in critical periods these changes are found in the form of irreversible neoplasms that have arisen abruptly. According to L.S. Vygotsky, stable and critical periods in development alternate: 1) neonatal crisis, 2) stable period infancy, 3) crisis of the first year of life, 4) stable early childhood, 5) crisis of three years, 6) stable preschool age, 7) crisis of seven years, 8) stable younger school period, 9) pubertal crisis, 10) stable adolescence, 11) crisis of 17 years, etc.

Line L.S. Vygotsky in modern domestic psychology continued A.N. Leontiev and D.B. Elkonin. Their position on the issue of periodization can be expressed in several theses:

1) the inconsistency of many periodizations of mental development is due to the fact that, although characteristic, but outwardly separate signs of development were taken as their basis, and not inner being this process, while the foundations of periodization must be sought only in internal contradictions development itself;

2) the periodization of mental development must be built taking into account the change of one integral activity of another, the child's personality changes as a whole in its own internal structure, and the laws of change of this whole determine the movement of each of its parts;

3) when considering the sources of development of the psyche, each period should be associated with the most significant type of integral activity of the child (leading activity);

4) the holistic activity of the child, specific for each of his age, determines those mental changes that occur in him for the first time, – neoplasms. It is these neoplasms that serve as the main criterion for division child development for certain ages at each age level there is always a central neoplasm that determines the development process as a whole and characterizes the restructuring of the entire personality of the child on a new basis.

From the point of view of A.N. Leontiev and D.B. Elkonin, the basis of mental development is a change in activity, which determines the emergence of neoplasms; at the same time, the new formations achieved are a prerequisite for the formation of a new type of activity that transfers the child to new stage development.

A new type of activity, which underlies the holistic mental development of a child at a given age, is called the leading one. Leading activity is 1) activity in which other new types of activity arise and within which differentiate; 2) activity in which particular mental processes are formed or rebuilt (for example, in a game - imagination, in teaching - logical thinking); 3) activities on which the main developments observed in a given period depend. psychological changes in the child's personality. Thus, the leading activity is the activity, the development of which causes major changes in mental processes and psychological features personality at this stage of its development.

At the heart of periodization A.N. Leontiev is actually the type of leading activity. Accordingly, it distinguishes: 1) infancy with direct emotional communication between a child and an adult; 2) early childhood with substantive activities; 3) preschool childhood with the game 4) school age with learning; 5) adolescence with social useful activity and communication with peers; 6) adolescence with educational and professional activities.

D.B. Elkonin, relying on the experience of cultural and historical psychology L.S. Vygotsky, proposed to consider each period of development on the basis of four criteria, including: 1) social situation development as a system of relations into which the child enters, and a way of orientation in these relations; 2) the main (leading) type of activity; 3) the main neoplasms of development; 4) crisis.

Dividing each period into two stages, D.B. Elkonin believed that changes are made at the first stage motivational-need spheres of personality, and on the second one is mastering operational and technical spheres. Scientists have discovered the law of alternation, the periodicity of different types of activity at each stage: the activity of one type, orienting the subject in the system of relations between people, in the norms and rules of interaction in society, is necessarily followed by another type of activity, in which there is an orientation in the ways of using objects. Each time there are always contradictions between these two types of orientation.

Stages and stages of child development according to D.B. Elkonin:

- stage early childhood consists of two stages: infancy with a neonatal crisis (motivation-need sphere of the personality) and early age, the beginning of which marks the crisis of the 1st year of life (operational-technical sphere);

- the stage of childhood begins with a crisis of 3 years, which marks the beginning preschool age(motivational-need sphere). The second stage opens with a crisis of 7 years and passes into primary school age (operational-technical sphere);

- the stage of adolescence is divided into stages adolescence(motivational-need sphere), the beginning of which is the crisis of 11-12 years, and the stage of early youth (operational-technical sphere), associated with the crisis of 15 years. According to D.B. Elkonin, the crises of 3 and 11 - 12 years old are crises of relations, after them new orientations arise in human relations; and the crises of the first year, 7 and 15 years are the crises of the worldview, changing the orientation in the world of things.

Domestic developmental psychology accepts the periodization of D.B. Elkonin. However, this periodization is limited to considering only early ages. In this regard, it must be emphasized that one of the most actual problems modern psychology is the development of a detailed, scientifically substantiated periodization of the mental development of an adult.


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"absolute age" in books

author Eskov Kirill Yurievich

CHAPTER 1 Age of the Earth and the Solar System. Absolute and relative age. Geological scale

From the book Amazing Paleontology [History of the Earth and Life on It] author Eskov Kirill Yurievich

CHAPTER 1 The Age of the Earth and solar system. Absolute and relative age. Geological scale First of all, we note that for scientists, the very formulation of the question of the age of the Earth was once very revolutionary - for "age" implies the presence of a "date

Absolute watchman

From the book Like a Blade author Bashlachev Alexander Nikolaevich

Absolute watchman This city slips and changes names. This address has long been carefully erased by someone. This street does not exist, and there is no building on it, Where the Absolute Watchman rules all night. It is cast in an ice-cold, neutral mold. He is a tight spring. He is dumb and stern. general host

Absolute gentleman

From the book by Elizabeth Taylor. Cleopatra of Hollywood by Benoit Sophia

An absolute gentleman Taste is formed gradually. Twenty years ago, I happened to marry men whom I would not invite to dinner with me today. Elizabeth Taylor

Absolute Nightmare

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Absolute Nightmare

From the book Health Factory author Smirnov Alexey Konstantinovich

An absolute nightmare Little by little medicine. Maybe someone remembers how I talked about the terrible pill Tsifran? This antimicrobial pill has a side effect track record nightmares and hallucinations appear. I myself never ate it, of course, but I gave it to my wife once, when

Perfect Pitch

From the book Parting with Myths. Conversations with famous contemporaries author Buzinov Viktor Mikhailovich

Perfect Pitch How great Timo sings! And this is two and a half years. I suppose you haven't performed at such a tender age yet? - I started later - at the age of three. I read poetry in a club in Vilga. - So, the grandson followed in the footsteps of his grandfather, an artist ... - Timo, indeed,

Perfect Pitch

From the book Human Superpowers author Mavlyutov Ramil

Absolute pitch As soon as such a person hears a sound, he can accurately reproduce it. Experts believe that such people first classify sounds and remember them in categories, and then determine which category they belong to. given sound. They are

17. The age of Christ and the age of Andronicus

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18. The age of Faust and the age of Andronicus-Christ

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17. THE AGE OF CHRIST AND THE AGE OF ANDRONIKUS

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19.4. The age of Prince Kurbsky and the age of Bachelor Carrasco

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X. GOD THE ABSOLUTE

From The Urantia Book author inhabitants of heaven

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Age- one of the central categories of developmental psychology, which has two meanings.

Absolute age(calendar, or chronological) is expressed by the number of time units (minutes, days, years), from the moment of conception to death. Determining the chronological age of an object is called dating.

Conditional age(or age of development) is determined by establishing the location of an object in a certain evolutionary-genetic series, in a certain process of development, on the basis of some qualitative and quantitative features. The result of a certain conditional age is the placement of an object in a certain periodization. The signs by which the conditional age is determined are called age properties, i.e. each period is distinguished by its properties (characterize the average person).

A person has several conditional ages: psychological, biological, social, subjectively experienced age of the individual

biological age is determined by the state of metabolism and body functions in comparison with the statistically average level of development characteristic of chronological age. If at a given age a person has not yet experienced the expected changes, it means that he is lagging behind in his biological development, i.e. his biological age is less than chronological. If, on the contrary, the biological age exceeds the chronological age.

Psychological age is determined by correlating the level of mental (mental, emotional, etc.) development of the individual with the corresponding norms. If mental changes lag behind the chronological age, then the psychological age is less than the chronological one, and if the chronological age is ahead of it, the psychological age exceeds the chronological one.

social age is measured by correlating a person's level of social development (for example, mastering a certain set of social roles) with what is statistically normal for his peers.

subjectively experienced age of a person the self-awareness of a person is taken as a basis, i.e. To what chronological age does he ascribe himself. subjective age can be less than, greater than, or equal to chronological age.

The life path of an individual

The development of the individual is described in several terms: Life time (length), life cycle (the life of an individual is subject to some cyclicity, the stages of life are a constant cycle), life path(totally reflects the life of a person).

In modern Ψ great importance acquires biographical method- study of man goes through his biography, it is customary to study the developing individual in a changing world. life path characterized by irregularity and heterochronism of the course of age-related processes. the unevenness and heterochrony of age-related processes make any scientific organization life path and individual stages deliberately conditional, allowing for any variations and deviations from statistical averages, which are quite normal, irremovable, representing different types development.

(you can say what is highlighted, or you can not. Depending on how much time)

American scientists Sherrod and Brim made the following conclusions:

Neither process nor final result development cannot be considered unidirectional and leading to the same end result.

Development occurs from conception to death, while plasticity and the ability to change persist throughout life. Different developmental processes can begin, continue and end at different points in life. Development in different areas do not necessarily have similar trajectories or principles.


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Age is a specific, relatively time-limited step psychological development the individual and his development as a species, characterized by a set of regular physiological and psychological characteristics.

Absolute age - age, expressed by the number of time units (minutes, days, years, etc.) separating the moment of the object's appearance until the moment of its measurement.

Conditional age (age of development) - is determined by the location of the object in a certain evolutionary-genetic series, based on quantitative and qualitative characteristics.

Chronological age - age individual person from the moment of conception to the end of life.

Biological age - is determined by the state of certain properties and functions of the body in comparison with the average level of development characteristic of a given chronological age.

Psychological age - is determined by correlating the level of mental development of the individual with the corresponding normative average symptom complex.

Social age - is determined by correlating the level of social development of a person with the average statistical norm for his peers.

Social age is associated with social change that occur in the psyche and depend on age. These include the most important life events a person, the so-called social hours (time of marriage, the beginning and end of education, etc.), as well as age-related changes that determine the worldview of a person, his attitude to life.

Subjective psychological age - the experienced age of the individual, which is based on a person's self-awareness; subjective age is determined by age-related self-awareness, depending on the tension, eventfulness of life and the subjectively perceived degree of self-realization of the individual. Subjective age is reversible within certain limits; a person can not only grow old in psychological time, but also become younger in it. In addition, subjective age may not match in various fields life (for example, in the family and professional). In the framework of works devoted to the study of subjective psychological time, the studies of the Ukrainian scientist B. I. Tsukanov (Odessa) are interesting, who conducted a study of the relationship between the type of temperament and the perception of a unit of time. It turned out that choleric people are characterized by the advancing of subjectively experienced time in comparison with real time(t=0.7, where t is the ratio of subjectively experienced to objective time), which is accompanied by striving forward, into the future, and an acute shortage of time. Sanguine people also tend to be ahead of the subjectively experienced time, although not so strong (t = 0.8), a constant desire for the future, combined with the desire to do as much as possible, mobility. Melancholic "stands in time" hallmark of this type is that the subjective unit of time is synchronized with the objective unit (t=1.0). Unlike the previous types, the subjective time of the phlegmatic lags behind the objective (t = 1.1), therefore the subjectively experienced time moves slowly and evenly, in the life of the phlegmatic there is always enough, even an excess of time; he is oriented to the past, and he gets used to the changes coming from the future slowly and with great difficulty.

The individual development of a person is the ontogeny of the phylogenetic program embedded in him, his periodization is based on the identification of a number of universal age processes (growth, maturation, development, aging), as a result of which the corresponding individual age properties (differences) are formed. Age properties show how the average individual of one age differs from the average individual of another age. Age processes, age properties, as well as the alternation of periods of stability and crises that characterize a person's life, determine the age stages or stages of development.

In modern domestic and foreign psychology Numerous periodizations of mental development are described, the authors of which are L. S. Vygotsky, D. B. Elkonin, A. Wallon, Z. Freud, E. Erikson and others.

One of the most famous foreign periodizations of mental development is the periodization of J. Piaget, who also considered age features thinking.

AGE. The concept of "age", at first glance, looks simple and unambiguous, like the answer to the question "How old are you?" or “What year were you born?” In reality, everything is much more complicated. The word "age" denotes the duration of the existence of the object, its localization in time. Absolute, calendar or chronological age expressed by the number of time units (minutes, days, years, millennia, etc.) separating the moment of the object's appearance from the moment of its measurement. This is a purely quantitative, abstract concept. Conditional age or age of development is determined by establishing the location of an object in a certain evolutionary-genetic series, in a certain process of development, on the basis of some qualitative and quantitative features. Both of these concepts are widely used both in the historical and biological sciences and in the sciences of inanimate matter. However, they do not match. Determining the chronological Time of an object is called dating. Establishment of a conditional age - an element of periodization , which involves the choice of not only chronological units of measurement, but also the reference system itself and the principles of its division. Any periodization is an attempt to structure the flow of time, highlighting in it certain chronological segments that have some meaningful meaning. Although periodization is logically more complicated than dating, in fact any dating and the very need to clarify the chronological age of an object implies some kind of periodization, within and in connection with which it is carried out.

It is characteristic that the concept of chronological time and the terms expressing it historically arose much later than the division human life to such stages as childhood, adulthood and old age, or ideas about cosmic and social cycles. The etymology of the Slavic terms "age" and "age" shows that words ascending to the original meaning "years" or "time" arose later than words ascending to the meanings "growth" and "strength". The word "age" comes from the root "growth"; its semantics is associated with the concepts of "give birth", "nurture", "grow", "educate". The words “old”, “elderly” are later formations from this root: “old” means grown up, lived. The concepts describing the duration, course and own "life time" (English, "life time", German "Lebenszeit") are historically the latest. They arose on the basis of the undifferentiated concept of "life", in which quantitative characteristics(time, duration) were not yet separated from the life processes themselves. The oldest Slavic chronological concepts are those that go back to the meaning of "eternity", "for a century". And the word "age" originally meant " vitality”, going back to the Indo-European verbs with the root veik - “apply force”, “be able”, etc.

Age categories remain ambiguous and in modern science. Since the individual development of a person, like any other organism, is ontogeny with a phylogenetic program embedded in it, its periodization is based on the identification of a number of universal age processes(growth, maturation, development, aging), during which the corresponding age properties (differences). Both are summarized in the concept age stages(phases, stages, periods) or stages of development(childhood, transitional age, maturity, old age, etc.). Age properties - how the average individual of a given chronological age and / or being at a given age stage differs from the average individual of a different age. Age processes show how age properties are formed and in what way (gradually or abruptly, abruptly) the transition from one age stage to another occurs.

A five-year-old child is always something different from a fifteen-year-old, and this latter from a fifty-year-old man. But these differences can be studied and described in different ways.

Individual development is described in such terms as "ontogenesis", "course of life", "life path", "life cycle", "biography", their components ("stages of development", "age of life", etc.) and derivatives ( "age properties"). Its standards are multidimensional. biological age is determined by the state of metabolism and body functions in comparison with the average statistical level of development characteristic of the entire population of a given chronological age. social age. an individual is measured by correlating the level of his social development (for example, mastering a certain set of social roles) with what is statistically normal for his peers. mental age is determined by correlating the level of mental (mental, emotional, etc.) development of a given individual with the corresponding normative, average statistical indicators. In addition, there is subjective, experienced age personality; we are talking about age self-awareness, how old a person feels, how he perceives his age, whether he considers himself young or old, a child or an adult; subjective age depends on the tension, eventfulness of life and the perceived degree of self-realization of the person.

Individual development studied age physiology and age psychology(now more accurately called developmental psychology), always takes place in a certain social system. Therefore, the second group of age categories - social and age processes and social and age structure of society, described in such terms as "age stratification", "age division of labor", "age strata", " age groups”, “generations”, “age cohorts”, etc.

The third frame of reference - age symbolism, reflection of age processes and properties in culture. Age symbolism includes normative age criteria, i.e. culturally accepted age terminology, periodization life cycle indicating the duration and objectives of its main stages; age stereotypes - traits and properties attributed to persons given age and set by him as an implied norm; ideas about how the growth, development and transition of an individual from one age stage to another should proceed; age rites - rituals through which culture structures and formalizes the relationship of age strata, classes and groups, and age subculture - a specific set of signs and values ​​by which representatives of this age stratum recognize and assert themselves as different from all other age communities "We" .

Although each of these subjects is inherently complex, physiologists and psychologists have long played a leading role in the study of individual development; relatively recently sociologists have joined them. The study of the age stratification of society is the field of sociology and demography, while age symbolism is studied mainly by anthropologists, folklorists and historians. As science advances age categories are increasingly differentiated, acquiring a system of specific indicators. So, biological age is divided into skeletal (bone), dental age, age of sexual development, etc. Social age is a set of normative role properties and identities derived from the age division of labor and social structure society. Concepts such as preschool, school, student, working, retirement, marriageable age or the age of civil majority only make sense in the context of social relations certain society and change with them.

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