What periods is a human life divided into? age periodization. Age periods of human life

Table of age development from birth to the end of life.

Mental development is a process that unfolds over time and is characterized by both quantitative and qualitative changes. According to the definition of B. G. Ananiev, age development has two properties - metric and topological. The metric property means the duration of the course of certain mental processes and states, as well as the temporal characteristic of changes in the psyche that occur throughout a person's life. The metric property is measured by time intervals (days, months, years, etc.) or indicators of the dynamics of changes in a particular mental phenomenon (tempo, speed, acceleration). In the process of studying the temporal aspect of age development, temporal patterns were identified, such as unevenness and heterochrony. The unevenness of age development is expressed in the fact that individual mental functions and personal qualities of a person have a certain trajectory of changes over time, which can be both simple and complex, curvilinear in nature. In other words, the growth and aging of mental functions occurs unevenly, at different rates, which complicates the definition of different periods of a person's age development. The unevenness of mental development is influenced by historical time. The same properties function at different rates depending on the generation to which the individual belongs. Thus, the same periods of time, the volume of knowledge and the system of intellectual operations change significantly with the general progress of education and culture. in the 20th century compared to the 19th century. the pace and timing of the completion of maturation change, the phenomena of acceleration, or acceleration, of general somatic and neuropsychic development are observed, and at the same time, slowing down the aging process.

Another temporal pattern is expressed in the heterochrony of age development. When comparing the rates of variability of mental functions and properties with each other, a difference in timing is revealed in the passage of phases of age development, growth, achievement of maturity and evolution, which indicates the complexity and inconsistency of age development. Heterochrony can be intrafunctional, when certain aspects of mental function develop at different times, and interfunctional, in which various functions go through phases of their development at different times. Intrafunctional heterochrony refers to the timing of aging of various types of color sensitivity. With age, sensitivity to blue and red colors ages most quickly, and sensitivity to yellow and green colors (according to Smith) turns out to be more stable with age. Interfunctional heterochrony refers to the discrepancy in time between the achievements of the optimum of sensory and intellectual, creative abilities and social development. Sensory development reaches a maturity phase at 18–25 years (according to Lazarev), intellectual, creative abilities can reach their optimum on average much later - at 35 years (according to Leman), and personal maturity - at 50–60 years. All this creates favorable opportunities for the age-related individual development of a person throughout his life. During the period of growth, those functions that are of paramount importance for the formation of other forms of the psyche develop most rapidly. So, in early preschool childhood, orientation in space is formed, and then later the child learns the concepts of time. During the period of aging, heterochrony ensures the preservation and further development of some functions at the expense of others, which at this time weaken and involute. Awareness, vocabulary of an elderly person can increase, while psychomotor and sensory-perceptual functions deteriorate if there is no systematic training for them and they are not included in professional activities.

No less important than the metric property is the topological property of age development. It means the certainty of this or that state, the phase or period of the formation of the individual. Since age-related development as a holistic formation is a complex dynamic system, its qualitative topological features can be determined by studying the structural features of the interconnections of its various aspects, highlighting the leading, backbone factors that are associated with the specifics of a given period of life.

In modern periodizations of age development, metric and topological characteristics are used in a single classification scheme. The discrepancies of various periodizations, mismatches of boundaries for different periods are mainly associated with the inconsistency of mental development, due to the action of temporal patterns, unevenness and heterochrony, and with the topological complexity of various phases, the dynamics of the relationship between biological and social throughout the entire life cycle of a person. The structure of the life path and its main points (start, optimum, finish) change in the course of historical development, from generation to generation, which also affects the periodization of age development.

The various age classifications can be divided into two groups. Private classifications are devoted to individual segments of life, more often children's and school years. General classifications cover the entire life path of a person. Particular is the classification of the development of intelligence by J. Piaget, who distinguishes three main periods of its formation from the moment of birth to 15 years:

period of sensorimotor intelligence (0–2 years). There are six main stages in this period;

the period of preparation and organization of specific operations (3 years - 11 years). Two sub-periods are distinguished here - the sub-period of pre-operational representations (3 years - 7 years), in which Piaget distinguishes three stages, and the sub-period of specific operations (8-11 years);

and, finally, the period of formal operations (12-15 years old), when a teenager can successfully act in relation not only to the reality around him, but also to the world of abstract, verbal assumptions.

In the classification of D. B. Elkonin, also belonging to the first group, three epochs of life are considered - early childhood, childhood and adolescence. In each era, there is a change in the leading types of activity that cause changes in the development of the child and his transition to a new era. Following the periods in which the predominant development of the motivational sphere takes place, periods naturally follow in which there is a predominant development of socially developed methods of acting with objects, the formation of the operational and technical capabilities of children. Elkonin arranged the selected types of activity in the system "child - social adult" and in the system "child - social object" in the sequence in which they become leading. As a result, he received the following series, where the frequency of changing the leading types of activity is observed:

direct-emotional communication (infancy);

object-manipulative activity (early childhood);

role-playing game (preschooler);

educational activity (junior school student);

intimate-personal communication (younger teenager);

educational and professional activities (senior teenager).

Thus, in this age periodization, two indicators act as the main criteria for development - the motivational-required sphere and the operational and technical capabilities of the child. The absence of definite temporal boundaries in this classification indicates that the author has focused not on the metric, but on the topological characteristics of age development.

Among the periodizations covering the entire life cycle of a person is the classification of age periods adopted at one of the symposiums of the USSR Academy of Sciences in 1965 (Table 6).

Table 6

The periodization proposed by Birren includes the phases of life from infancy to old age. According to B. G. Ananiev, it is interesting because it takes into account modern historical trends in accelerating maturation during the period of growth and slowing down the aging process. According to this classification: youth - 12-17 years old, early maturity - 18-25 years old, maturity - 26-50 years old, late maturity - 51-75 years old, and old age - from 76 years old.

Eight stages of a person's life from birth to old age are described by E. Erickson, who drew attention to the development of the human "I" throughout life, to personality changes in relation to the social environment and to oneself, including both positive and negative aspects. The first stage (trust and distrust) is the first year of life. The second stage (independence and indecision) - 2-3 years. The third stage (enterprise and guilt) - 4-5 years. The fourth stage (skill and inferiority) - 6-11 years. Fifth stage (personal identification and confusion of roles) - 12-18 years. The sixth stage (intimacy and loneliness) is the beginning of maturity. The seventh stage (general humanity and self-absorption) is mature age and the eighth stage (wholeness and hopelessness) is old age. This classification uses metric and topological criteria. Moreover, with age, the importance of topological characteristics in assessing the psychological variability of a person increases. The classification of the German anthropologist G. Grimm is built purely qualitatively, without metric definitions of the duration of the phases of age development. In his opinion, numerical expressions for determining time limits are possible only for the first periods, meaning the increase in individual variability with age. This classification is of interest because it takes into account morphological and somatic changes, such an important indicator as a person's ability to work in different periods of his life. The most complete and detailed, covering the entire life cycle, is D. Bromley's age periodization. He considers human life as a set of five cycles: uterine, childhood, youth, adulthood and aging. Each of the cycles consists of a number of stages. The first cycle consists of 4 stages until birth. Since that time, development has been characterized by a change in the ways of orientation, behavior and communication in the external environment, the dynamics of the intellect, the emotional-volitional sphere, motivation, the social formation of the personality and professional activity. The second cycle - childhood - consists of three stages: infancy, preschool childhood and early school childhood, and covers 11-13 years of life. The adolescence cycle consists of two stages: the stage of puberty (11-13-15 years) and late adolescence (16-21). The cycle of adulthood consists of four stages:

1) early adulthood (21–25 years);

2) average adulthood (26–40 years old);

3) late adulthood (41–55 years);

4) pre-retirement age (56–65 years). The aging cycle consists of three stages:

1) removal from affairs (66–70 years);

2) old age (71 years or more);

3) the last stage - painful old age and decrepitude. Periodizations differ in how broadly and how detailed

they present age-related changes in various aspects of the psyche and to what extent the metric and topological properties of the age-related development of a person are expressed. According to B. G. Ananiev, the most difficult thing is to determine the duration of developmental phases and critical points, its discrete moments, since one should take into account the heterochrony of functional and personality changes, as well as age and individual variability in changing historical conditions.

From the moment of birth, various mechanisms of mental activity begin to function in a child, which ensure his interaction with adults and with the environment and the satisfaction of his vital needs. A newborn is capable of perceiving effects on various sense organs in an elementary form. All analyzers from the first days of a child's life carry out an initial, elementary analysis of the effects of the environment. Newborns not only respond to a strong sound, but are able to distinguish sounds that differ by one octave. It was established in children the presence of color, as well as taste and smell sensitivity. There is information about the presence of other types of sensations. The most sensitive areas to touch are the lips, forehead and palms of the child. He may refuse milk, which is 1 ° C colder than usual. Children in the first 10 days of life prefer structural, complex, three-dimensional, moving objects. Small children can follow the object, localize it in space, compare objects with each other. Along with various forms of sensory activity, the newborn has a large set of postural and locomotor reflexes. All this contributes to the rapid adaptation of the child to new conditions of life and the creation of prerequisites for its further development. The emergence of individual experience, the establishment of various relationships and connections with the social environment based on the mechanism of temporary connections means the transition from a newborn at the end of the first month of life to a new, infantile, period of development.

Infant age from 1 month to 1 year is characterized by a high intensity of the processes of development of sensory and motor functions, the creation of the prerequisites for speech and social development in conditions of direct interaction between the child and adults. At this time, the environment is extremely important, the participation of adults not only in the physical, but also in the mental development of the child (creation of an enriched physical and speech environment, emotional communication, assistance in the development of his various movements, the act of grasping and locomotion, the creation of problem situations, etc.). P.). Mental development in infancy is characterized by the most pronounced intensity, not only in terms of pace, but also in the sense of new formations. At present, the stages of development of all types of motor skills (eye movements, the act of grasping, locomotion), the initial forms of thinking, the prerequisites for speech, and perceptual function have been established. On this rich and multi-qualitative basis, after a year of life and throughout the entire life cycle of a person, the social development of the psyche is carried out.

The next - pre-preschool - period - from 1 year to 3 years of life. The importance of these two years of life is due to the fact that at this time the child masters speech and the prerequisites are created for the formation of the personality and the subject of activity. The rapid development of speech is due to the fact that almost simultaneously the child begins to learn the phonetic structure of the language (from 11 months) and its vocabulary (from 10–12 months). By the end of preschool age, he begins to link individual words into sentences (from 1 year 10 months), which means a transition to inflectional speech. The formation of connections between words and objects is directly dependent on the frequency, duration and nature of communication between adults and a child. On the basis of speech in the second year of life, he not only associates the word with a single object, but also begins to group objects according to the most striking external features, for example, by color. This means the appearance of the first stage in the development of the generalization function.

Preschool age is the initial stage in the formation of the regulatory function of speech. The inhibitory function of speech in its development lags behind its triggering function. A child under 3 years old cannot yet follow a complex instruction that requires a choice. He can only follow simple instructions from an adult. At this time, various basic forms of the psyche are actively developing: memory in the form of recognition, visual thinking, attention, perception, psychomotor. With age, the period between the perception of an object and its recognition lengthens. In the second year of life, the child recognizes close people and objects after a few weeks, in the third year - after a few months, and in the fourth - after a year after their perception.

At preschool age, various mental functions begin to take shape, such as the ability to generalize, transfer acquired experience to new conditions, the ability to establish connections and relationships and, in an elementary form, through active experimentation, solve specific problems using various objects as a means to achieve the goal. Speech and practical activity of the child play a significant role in the development of the thinking ability. The dominant function in the pre-school age is perception, which develops intensively during this period and at the same time it determines the specifics of other mental forms that function at the visual-sensory level (memory, thinking).

Starting from 1 year 6 months, children successfully cope with the choice of simple shapes according to the model, such as a square, a triangle, a trapezoid. At 3 years old, children could visually correlate the shape and shape of the holes and then act correctly, for example, insert a certain type of key into the corresponding hole.

How actively a preschooler will be included in sensory-perceptual activity depends not only on the formation of perception itself, but also on other forms of the child's psyche. And here, the organization by adults of the process of contemplation and experimentation, a wide and varied practical acquaintance of children with objects of the surrounding world, comes to the fore. To stimulate the cognitive and practical activity of the child, emotional contacts with the mother are important. At 6 months, children show the same results in mental development, regardless of living conditions and upbringing. At the age of one year, children separated from their parents begin to lag behind in their mental development. In 3 years, the influence of the socio-economic factor also affects. Children from cultural, wealthy families show superior development compared to children from working families. Studies of mental deprivation in childhood have shown that the long-term separation of a child from his mother or another person who takes her place in the first years of life, as a rule, leads to a violation of the mental health of the child, leaving consequences throughout his further development.

Direct contacts with the mother in early childhood provide a whole range of positive influences on the child. An adult not only emotionally stimulates cognitive and practical activity, but also carries out the optimal organization of the environment, enriching it with toys and various objects. It acts as a source of social and emotional reinforcement for the activities of a small child. At the same time, he uses the dominant role of perception in order to effectively influence children's behavior. In communication and cooperation with adults, the child's communicative activity begins to manifest itself, which, in turn, affects the development of his cognitive functions, not only speech, but also attention, memory, and especially their arbitrary forms.

The formation of the subject of practical activity originates in preschool age. At this time, the child learns to use various household and play items (typewriter, spoon, cup), can perform sequential actions according to elementary instructions. During this period of life, the direct cooperation of the child with adults is especially important, which contributes to the formation of his independence and initiative.

In early childhood, the prerequisites for personality development are also created. The child begins to separate himself from other objects, stand out from the people around him, which leads to the emergence of initial forms of self-consciousness. The first stage in the real formation of the personality as an independent subject, standing out from the surrounding world, is associated with the mastery of one's own body, with the emergence of voluntary movements. These latter are developed in the process of formation of the first objective actions. By the age of 3, the child develops an idea of ​​himself, which is expressed in the transition from calling himself by name to using the pronouns “my”, “I”, etc. Considering the genesis of self-consciousness, B. G. Ananiev believed that the formation of one’s own “I » there is a huge leap in development, as there is a transition to separating oneself as a permanent whole from the current stream of changing actions. The main factors in the genesis of the child's self-awareness, in his opinion, are communication with adults, mastery of speech and objective activity. It should also be noted that the pre-preschool age is characterized by rapid and at the same time uneven rates of development of various mental functions. The development of attention is of great importance. Children with an undeveloped reaction to novelty also demonstrate lower scores in memory, thinking and speech. During this period of life, an arbitrary form of attention appears, which is observed during visual search according to the verbal instructions of an adult. If at 12 months this form is still absent, then at 23 months it is already present in 90% of children. At this time, in terms of growth rates, the leading one is spatial visual memory, which is ahead of figurative and verbal memory in its development.

By the end of the second year of life, an arbitrary form of memorizing words appears. The ability to classify objects according to shape and color is manifested in most children in the second half of the second year of life. At preschool age, the speech function is intensively formed. In conditions of an impoverished social environment and insufficient communication between adults and children, precisely those functions that are basic for the social development of the psyche turn out to be underdeveloped. The study compared the mental functions of children aged 23–25 months raised in a family and in a children's home. The greatest differences were found in the development of speech, voluntary attention, classification by form and auditory memory, and the smallest differences were found in the development of involuntary forms of attention and classification by color.

Thus, by the age of 3, the necessary prerequisites are created for the transition to the next, preschool period. In early childhood, speech function, motor skills and objective actions are intensively formed. A variety of cognitive functions in their original forms (sensorics, perception, memory, thinking, attention) are also rapidly developing. At the same time, the child begins to develop communicative properties, interest in people, sociability, imitation, primary forms of self-consciousness are formed.

Mental development in early childhood and the variety of its forms and manifestations depends on how much the child is included in communication with adults and how actively he manifests himself in objective and cognitive activities.

Preschool age is a period of further intensive formation of the psyche, the emergence of various qualitative formations both in the development of psychophysiological functions and in the personal sphere. New high-quality educations occur due to many factors: speech and communication with adults and peers, various forms of cognition and inclusion in various types of activities (playing, productive, household). All this contributes to a better adaptation of the child to social conditions and the requirements of life. At the same time, the elementary forms of the psyche, sensorics and perception continue to develop.

Two contradictory tendencies are observed in the development of the basic properties of perception. On the one hand, there is an increase in integrity, and on the other hand, the detailing and structure of the perceptual image is manifested. By the end of preschool age, the ability to isolate the shape of an object appears. By the age of 6, children begin to cope with the task of laying out the contour of a figure, such as a mushroom, at home without errors. For younger children, the solution to this problem is still practically inaccessible. By filming the movement of the child's eyes in the experiments of V.P. Zinchenko, it was found that children at the age of 3 cannot yet fix the contour of planar figures. The movements of their eyes are carried out “inside” the figures with a small number of fixations (1–2 movements per second). Only at the age of 6 does a thorough acquaintance with the figure take place and eye movements follow along its entire contour. However, already at the age of 3, children are able to follow the pointer along the contour, which indicates a high learning ability at this age. The ability of children to select objects along the contour means the formation of the integrity of perception. From the age of 5-6, there comes a turning point in the development of such a property of perception as structure. This is expressed in the fact that children are able to build a figure from its individual parts, to single out and correlate structural elements in complex objects. Children successfully solve problems by choosing not only simple, but also complex multi-component figures according to the model. At preschool age, social perceptual standards are also assimilated in the form of knowledge of geometric figures, tempered musical structure.

The leading form of the psyche at this time is the representation, which is intensively developed in various types of playful and productive activities (drawing, modeling, design, role-playing, story games). Representations leave an imprint on the entire process of mental development. Various forms of the psyche are most successfully formed if they are associated with secondary images, that is, with representations. Therefore, such forms of the psyche as imagination, figurative memory and visual-figurative thinking are rapidly developing.

Children's cognition of various properties and connections of things occurs in the process of operating with the images of these things. Not only various mental functions, but also the child's speech, its development during this period are mainly associated with ideas. The understanding of speech by children largely depends on the content of those ideas that arise in them in the process of its perception. The development of mental functions in preschool age is complicated by the fact that in the process of communication, cognitive and practical activity, social forms of the psyche are actively formed, not only in the perceptual sphere, but also in the field of memory (verbal memory, arbitrary memorization of words and objects). By the end of preschool age, verbal-logical thinking appears. Preschool age is the initial stage in the formation of the subject of cognitive and practical activities.

This period of life is extremely important in terms of the genesis and formation of social forms of the psyche and moral behavior. The predominance of topics related to the image of a person in the work of a preschooler indicates his primary orientation towards the social environment. This creates a broad basis for the formation of primary forms of socially significant qualities. By the end of preschool age, there is a transition from an emotional direct relationship to the outside world to relationships that are built on the basis of the assimilation of moral assessments, rules and norms of behavior. The formation of moral concepts in preschool age occurs in various ways. When asked what kindness, courage, justice are, the children either used specific cases of behavior or gave the general meaning of the concept. Answers in the general form in children of 4 years old were 32%, and 7 years old - 54%. Thus, in communicating with adults, the child often learns moral concepts in a categorical form, gradually clarifying and filling them with specific content, which accelerates the process of their formation and at the same time creates the danger of their formal assimilation. Therefore, it is important that the child learns to apply them in life in relation to himself and others. This is essential, first of all, for the formation of his personality traits. At the same time, socially significant standards of behavior are important, which become literary heroes and people directly surrounding the child. Of particular importance as behavioral standards for a preschooler are the characters of fairy tales, where positive and negative character traits are accentuated in a concrete, figurative, accessible form, which facilitates the child's initial orientation in the complex structure of a person's personal properties. Personality develops in the process of real interaction of the child with the world, including the social environment, and through the assimilation by him of the moral criteria that regulate his behavior. This process is controlled by adults who contribute to the selection and training of socially significant properties. The independence of the child begins to manifest itself in the case when he applies moral assessments to himself and others and regulates his behavior on this basis. This means that at this age such a complex personality property as self-awareness develops. B. G. Ananiev singled out the formation of self-esteem in the genesis of self-consciousness. The adequacy of the child's value judgments is determined by the constant evaluative activities of parents, as well as educators in connection with the implementation of the rules of behavior for children in a group in various activities (games, duty, classes). Already at the age of 3-4 there are children who are able to independently assess some of their capabilities and correctly predict the results of their actions based on their own experience (for example, the distance of the jump). It should be noted that the influence of parents' assessments on the preschooler's self-esteem depends on the child's understanding of the competence of the mother and father and the style of upbringing, on the nature of relationships in the family. Children accept and assimilate the assessments of the parent, who for them is a significant person and the bearer of standards of behavior.

By the age of 5, children have a certain position in the group, they are differentiated by sociometric status. At the same time, the preferences that the child has for his peers in play activities, in the classroom, and in the performance of labor assignments are relatively stable. The selectivity of choice is associated with the formation of a motivational sphere and various personal properties at preschool age. The main motive that encourages children to unite is satisfaction with the process of playing communication. In second place is the orientation towards the positive qualities of the chosen one, which are manifested in communication (cheerful, kind, honest, etc.). Later, in children of 6–7 years old, their ability to perform any specific activity also acts as a motive for choosing a partner. Orientation to personal characteristics that are formed outside of direct play communication, in various activities, in communication with adults (industriousness, obedience, ability to draw, sing), indicates different sources of formation of motives that determine relationships in children's groups.

Preschool age is the initial stage in the formation of the subject of activity. The transition to the preschool period is marked by the fact that the child is no longer satisfied with simple manipulative actions that he mastered in previous years. Goal-setting, the volitional component of the subject of activity is formed. Concentration and consistency in actions, self-assessment of one's actions and the result obtained are manifested. Under the influence of assessments and control of an adult, a senior preschooler begins to notice mistakes in his own activities and in the work of others, and at the same time single out role models. At preschool age, both general, mental and special abilities for visual, musical, choreographic and other activities are formed. Their originality lies in the fact that they are based on the development of different forms of representations (visual, auditory, etc.).

The emerging various kinds of qualitative formations, such as personal properties, psychological structures of the subject of activity, communication and cognition, the intensive process of socialization of the natural forms of the psyche, its psychophysiological functions, create real prerequisites for the transition to the school period of life. Adults largely determine the originality and complexity of the mental development of a preschooler, forming his psychological readiness for schooling.

The main activity of school childhood is educational, during which the child not only masters the skills and methods of obtaining knowledge, but also enriches himself with new meanings, motives and needs, masters the skills of social relationships.

School ontogeny covers the following age periods: junior school age - 7-10 years; junior teenage - 11-13 years old; senior teenage - 14-15 years; adolescence - 16-18 years. Each of these periods of development is characterized by its own characteristics.

One of the most difficult periods of school ontogenesis is adolescence, which is otherwise called the transitional period, as it is characterized by the transition from childhood to adolescence, from immaturity to maturity.

Adolescence is a period of rapid and uneven growth and development of the body, when there is an intensive growth of the body, the muscular apparatus is being improved, and the process of ossification of the skeleton is underway. Inconsistency, uneven development of the heart and blood vessels, as well as increased activity of the endocrine glands often lead to some temporary circulatory disorders, increased blood pressure, cardiac tension in adolescents, as well as an increase in their excitability, which can be expressed in irritability, fatigue, dizziness and heartbeat. The nervous system of an adolescent is not always able to withstand strong or long-acting stimuli, and under their influence it often passes into a state of inhibition or, conversely, strong excitation.

The central factor in physical development in adolescence is puberty, which has a significant impact on the functioning of internal organs.

Sexual desire (often unconscious) and new experiences, desires and thoughts associated with it appear.

Features of physical development in adolescence determine the most important role during this period of the correct mode of life, in particular, the mode of work, rest, sleep and nutrition, physical education and sports.

A distinctive feature of mental development is that it has a progressive and at the same time contradictory hetero-chronic character throughout the entire school period. Psychophysiological functional development is at this time one of the main directions of mental evolution.

Learning activity is provided by the development of primary and secondary properties of an individual organization. The strength of the nervous system increases in relation to the processes of excitation and inhibition in the period from 8-10 to 18 years. Sensory sensitivity increases significantly in the process of development, for example, light-distinctive sensitivity increases from grade 1 to grade 5 by 160%.

The functions of attention, memory, thinking become more complicated. At the first stage (8-10 years), the progressive nature of the development of attention is noted, which is ensured by the growth of all its aspects (volume, stability, selectivity, switching). At the age of 10–13 years, there is a slowdown in growth, function and multidirectional changes in its individual aspects. At the age of 13–16, there is an accelerated and unidirectional growth of attention, especially its stability. Throughout school ontogenesis, the dynamics of the productivity of individual types of memory is oscillatory, curvilinear in nature. At the same time, the highest level of productivity of figurative memory is achieved at 8-11 years old, and verbal - at 16 years old (Rybalko E.F.).

The development of the intellectual sphere is the central link in development at school age. “Thinking is that function, the most intensive development of which is one of the most characteristic features of school age. Neither in sensations, nor in mnemonic abilities is there such a huge difference between a child of 6–7 years old and a young man of 17–18 years old, which exists in their thinking,” wrote P. P. Bolonsky. Schooling has a decisive influence on mental development.

Noting quantitative and qualitative changes in the development of cognitive functions and intellect in children, J. Piaget determined that as children grow up and go to school, they develop the ability to perform many previously inaccessible mental operations. At the age of 7-8 years, the child's thinking is limited to problems relating to specific, real objects and operations with them. Only from the age of 11-12 is the ability to think logically about abstract, abstract problems formed, there is a need to check the correctness of one's thoughts, accept the point of view of another person, mentally take into account and correlate several signs or characteristics of an object at the same time. The so-called "reversibility" of thinking appears, that is, the ability to change the direction of thought, returning to the original state of an object. Thanks to this, the child understands, for example, that addition is the opposite of subtraction, and multiplication is the opposite of division. Adolescents develop scientific thinking skills, thanks to which they talk about the past, present and future, put forward hypotheses, assumptions, and make forecasts. Young men develop an inclination towards general theories, formulas, etc. The tendency to theorize becomes, in a certain sense, an age-related feature. They create their own theories of politics, philosophy, formulas for happiness and love. A feature of the youthful psyche associated with formal operational thinking is a change in the relationship between the categories of possibility and reality. Mastering logical thinking inevitably gives rise to intellectual experimentation, a kind of game of concepts, formulas, etc. obey systems, not systems of reality.

The lack of formation of the mental sphere, the inability to make comparisons, establish cause-and-effect relationships, and draw conclusions make it difficult for the student to learn, require a huge amount of mechanical memory, perseverance, and make the learning process uninteresting.

The intellectual development of a person is determined by the level of maturity of functions and mental activity, as well as the conditions and content of training. The conditions of school specialized education impose a significant influence on the dynamics of intellectual functions. The development of intellectual potential has a negative effect on the reduction of requirements for students, the facilitation of training programs, training in the absence of the formation of life and professional goals, as this creates the prerequisites for a slow, disharmonious type of intellectual development.

The development of the intellectual sphere has an impact on the development of other aspects of the child's psyche. In the mental appearance of a teenager, “... the activity of analyzing thoughts, a tendency to reasoning and special emotionality, impressionability are most often combined. Such a combination of features of the “thinking” and “artistic” type characterizes the unique originality of age and, apparently, is a guarantee of multilateral development in the future” (N. S. Leites).

During the school period, the motives of educational activity develop. Primary school students in the structure of motivation are dominated by the motive of striving for the position of a schoolchild, in the middle grades (grades 5-8) the desire to take a certain place in the peer group prevails, in the senior grades (grades 10-11) the most significant is the orientation towards the future, and the leading motive is the motive of teaching for the sake of a future life perspective. At the same time, as noted by I. V. Dubrovina et al., many schoolchildren have an unformed cognitive need as a need to acquire and assimilate new knowledge. And this, in turn, leads to the fact that teaching is perceived by schoolchildren as an unpleasant duty, giving rise to negative emotions and persistent school anxiety, which is noted on average in 20% of schoolchildren.

If in the younger adolescence the most intense changes occur in physical development, then in the older adolescence and youth, the personality of the child develops most rapidly.

The process of personality development is characterized by two opposite tendencies: on the one hand, ever closer interindividual contacts are being established, the focus on the group is increasing, on the other hand, there is an increase in independence, the complication of the inner world and the formation of personal properties.

Adolescent crises are associated with emerging neoplasms, among which the central place is occupied by a “sense of adulthood” and the emergence of a new level of self-awareness.

The characteristic feature of a 10-15-year-old child is manifested in a heightened desire to establish himself in society, to achieve recognition of his rights and opportunities from adults. At the first stage, the desire for recognition of the fact of their growing up is specific for children. Moreover, for some younger adolescents, it is expressed in the desire only to assert their right to be like adults, to achieve recognition of their adulthood (at the level, for example, “I can dress the way I want”). For other children, the desire for adulthood consists in a thirst for recognition of their new capabilities, for others, in the desire to participate in various activities on an equal basis with adults (Feldshtein D.I.).

A reassessment of their increased capabilities is determined by the desire of adolescents for a certain independence and self-reliance, painful pride and resentment. Increased criticality towards adults, a sharp reaction to the attempts of others to belittle their dignity, belittle their adulthood, underestimate their legal capabilities are the causes of frequent conflicts in adolescence.

Orientation towards communication with peers often manifests itself in the fear of being rejected by them. The emotional well-being of a teenager more and more begins to depend on the place that he occupies in the team, begins to be determined primarily by the attitude and assessments of his comrades. A grouping tendency appears, which causes a tendency to form groups, “brotherhoods”, a readiness to recklessly follow the leader.

Intensively formed moral concepts, ideas, beliefs, principles that teenagers begin to be guided in their behavior. Often they form a system of their own requirements and norms that do not coincide with the requirements of adults.

One of the most important moments in the formation of a teenager's personality is the development of self-awareness, self-esteem (SE); adolescents develop an interest in themselves, in the qualities of their personality, a need to compare themselves with others, evaluate themselves, understand their feelings and experiences.

Self-esteem is formed under the influence of other people's assessments, comparing oneself with others, the most important role in its formation is the success of the activity.

If at primary school age SA is inseparable from the assessment of others, then significant changes occur in adolescence: a reorientation from external assessments to assessments of oneself. The content of SO becomes more complicated: it includes moral manifestations, attitudes towards others, and one's own capabilities. The perception of external assessments and self-perception are aggravated, the assessment of one's own qualities becomes an urgent task for a teenager. In adolescence, the development of SO goes in the direction of increasing its integrity and integration, on the one hand, and differentiation, on the other. With age, knowing himself, a person, as in a mirror, peers into another person. Turning to other people, comparing oneself with them is a necessary general prerequisite for knowing oneself. Thus, there is a kind of transfer of various personality traits, noticed in another, to oneself.

As shown by numerous studies, the presence of positive self-esteem, self-respect is a necessary condition for the normal development of the individual. At the same time, the regulatory role of self-esteem is steadily increasing from primary school age to adolescence and youth. The discrepancy between the self-esteem of a teenager and his claims leads to acute affective experiences, to exaggerated and inadequate reactions, the manifestation of resentment, aggressiveness, distrust, stubbornness.

Trends in the development of characterological features are that from 12 to 17 years of age, indicators of sociability, ease in communicating with people, dominance, perseverance, competitiveness increase markedly, at the same time, there is a tendency to reduce impulsivity, excitability. At this age, certain properties of character are especially sharply manifested and accentuated. Such accentuations, not being pathological in themselves, nevertheless increase the possibility of mental trauma and deviations from the norms of behavior. However, emotional difficulties and the painful course of adolescence are not a universal property of youth.

The crisis of adolescence proceeds much easier if the student during this period has relatively constant personal interests or any other stable motives for behavior. Personal interests, in contrast to episodic ones, are characterized by their "unsaturation"; the more they are satisfied, the more stable and tense they become. Such, for example, are cognitive interests, aesthetic, etc. The satisfaction of such interests is associated with the setting of ever new goals. The presence of stable personal interests in a teenager makes him purposeful, internally more collected and organized.

The transitional critical period ends with the emergence of a special personal formation, which can be designated by the term "self-determination", it is characterized by awareness of oneself as a member of society and one's purpose in life. In the transition from adolescence to early adolescence, the internal position changes dramatically, aspiration for the future becomes the main focus of the personality, the focus of the interests and plans of the young man is the problem of choosing a profession, a further life path. In essence, we are talking about the formation at this age stage of the most complex, highest goal-setting mechanism, which is expressed in the existence of a certain “plan”, a life plan in a person.

The internal position of the senior student is characterized by a special attitude to the future, perception, evaluation of the present from the point of view of the future. The main content of this age is self-determination, and above all professional.

Considering the main stages of becoming a professional, E. A. Klimov specifically highlights the stage of “option” (from Latin optatio – desire, choice), when a person makes a fundamental decision about choosing the path of professional development. The option stage covers the period from 11–12 to 14–18 years (Klimov E. A.).

The basis for an adequate professional choice is the formation of cognitive interests and professional orientation of the individual. The study of the development of interests allows us to distinguish 4 stages in the process of their formation. At the first stage, at the age of 12–13 years, interests are characterized by high variability, are poorly integrated, are not associated with the structure of individual psychological characteristics, and are predominantly cognitive. At the second stage, at the age of 14–15, there is a tendency towards greater formation of interests, their integration, inclusion in the general structure of individual and personal characteristics. At the third stage, at the age of 16–17 years, the integration of interests increases and, at the same time, their differentiation in accordance with gender, the unification of cognitive and professional interests takes place, and the interrelationships of interests with individual psychological properties increase. At the fourth stage - the stage of initial professionalization - there is a narrowing of cognitive interests, determined by the formed professional orientation and choice of profession (Golovey L. A.).

Interests that have reached a high level of development are the basis for the formation of a professional orientation of an individual and an adequate, mature professional choice. The professional orientation is based on individual psychological characteristics, the system of personality potentials and has a fairly pronounced gender specificity: boys are more likely to have a technical orientation, while girls have a social and artistic orientation.

The process of professional self-determination goes through a number of stages. The first stage is a children's game, during which the child assumes various professional roles and "loses" individual elements of the behavior associated with them. The second stage is a teenage fantasy, when a teenager sees himself in his dreams as a representative of a profession that is attractive to him. The third stage, covering the entire adolescence and most of adolescence, is the preliminary choice of a profession. Various activities are sorted and evaluated first in terms of the teenager's interests ("I love history, I'll be a historian!"), then in terms of his abilities ("I'm good at math, can I do it?") and, finally, from the point of view of his value system (“I want to help the sick, I will become a doctor”). The fourth stage - practical decision-making, the actual choice of profession - includes two main components: determining the level of qualification of future work, the volume and duration of the necessary preparation for it, i.e., the choice of a specific specialty. However, judging by the data of sociologists, the orientation toward entering a university is formed earlier than the choice of a specific specialty matures.

In addition to interests, abilities and value orientations, an important role in making a decision is played by an assessment of one's objective capabilities - the material conditions of the family, the level of training, the state of health, etc.

The most important psychological prerequisites for successful professional self-determination are the formed intellectual potential, adequate self-esteem, emotional maturity and self-regulation of the individual.

In the conditions of modern school education, when most schoolchildren must choose their future profession or profile of education at the age of 13–14, adolescents often turn out to be not ready for independent choice and show low activity in professional self-determination. This indicates the need to introduce professional orientation and psychological counseling in schools and other educational institutions when choosing a profession.

In developmental psychology, adulthood has traditionally been viewed as a stable period. The French psychologist E. Claparede described maturity as a state of mental "petrification", when the development process stops. However, later it was shown that the process of human development does not end with the onset of adulthood, at all stages of which sensitive and critical moments are distinguished, the nature of the psychophysiological development of maturity is heterogeneous and contradictory. The term "acmeology" was proposed by N. N. Rybnikov in 1928 to designate the period of maturity as the most productive, creative period of a person's life (acme - the highest point, flourishing, maturity, the best time). This period covers the age from 18 to 55–60 years and differs from the youthful period primarily in that general somatic development and puberty are completed in it, physical development reaches its optimum, it is characterized by the highest level of intellectual, creative, professional achievements.

The largest systematic comprehensive studies of this period of human life were organized and conducted under the guidance of Academician B. G. Ananyev at St. Petersburg State University and the Institute of Adult Education of the Russian Academy of Education.

The structure of the psychophysiological development of adults combines periods of ups and downs and stabilization of functions. At the same time, the stationary state is relatively rare (in 14% of cases). The contradictory structure of development characterizes both the most complex formations: intellect, logical and mnemonic functions, and the most elementary processes, including heat generation, metabolism, and multilevel characteristics of psychomotor.

In the early stages of maturity at the age of 18–20, optima (points of the highest rise) of visual, auditory, and kinesthetic sensitivity are noted. The volume of the visual field reaches its maximum at 20-29 years. Age-related variability of sensitivity depends on the professional activity of a person.

For example, people who deal with fine details experience a faster decrease in visual acuity than those whose professional activities are related to the perception of distant objects.

A study of the function of attention showed that the volume, switching and selectivity of attention increase gradually from 18 to 33 years old, after 34 years they begin to gradually decrease, at the same time, the stability and concentration of attention change slightly throughout maturity. The highest indicators of short-term verbal memory were noted at the age of 18–30 years, and the period of decline was at the age of 33–40 years. Long-term verbal memory is characterized by the greatest constancy at the age of 18 to 35 years and a decrease in the level of development - from 36 to 40 years. Figurative memory undergoes the least age-related changes.

It should be noted that specially organized memory exercise, when memorization becomes a special type of intellectual activity, increases the level of memory development not only in children, but also in adults.

Thus, the development of psychophysiological functions in the period of adulthood is complex and contradictory, which reflects ontogenetic patterns and the influence of labor activity, practical experience of a person.

As studies by B. G. Ananyev have shown, two phases are distinguished in the process of ontogenetic development. The first phase is characterized by a general frontal progress of functions (in youth, youth and early middle age). In the second phase, the evolution of functions is accompanied by their specialization in relation to a particular activity. This second peak of functional development is reached in later periods of maturity. If in the first phase of development the functional ontogenetic mechanism acts as the main mechanism, then in the second phase these are operational mechanisms, and the duration of this phase is determined by the degree of activity of a person as a subject and personality (Ananiev B.G.). Achieving high levels of development in adulthood is thus possible due to the fact that mental functions are under conditions of optimal load, increased motivation, and operational transformations. So, for example, in persons of driving professions, visual acuity, field of vision, and the eye remained intact until retirement age due to their involvement in professional activities.

Intelligence is of paramount importance in the structure of the development of the period of maturity. Most researchers cite relatively early dates for the appearance of optimum intellectual development and their gradual decline with age. So, Fulds and Raven believe that if the level of development of the logical ability of 20-year-olds is taken as 100%, then at 30 years old it will be 96%, at 40 years old - 87, at 50 years old - 80, and at 60 years old - 75% . The development of intelligence is determined by two factors: internal and external. The internal factor is giftedness. In the more gifted, the intellectual process is longer and involution occurs later than in the less gifted. The external factor is education, which resists aging and slows down the process of involution of mental functions. Verbal-logical functions, reaching an optimum in early youth, can remain at a fairly high level for a long period, declining by the age of 60. The use of the longitudinal method showed a sharp increase in the indices from 18 to 50 years old and their slight decrease by the age of 60 in creative people.

E. I. Stepanova identifies 3 macro-periods in the intellectual development of adults: I period - from 18 to 25 years old, II - 26-35 years old, III - 36-40 years old. These age macroperiods are distinguished by different rates of development of memory, thinking, attention and intelligence in general. The greatest variability of intelligence was noted in macroperiod I, in II and III there is relative stability with a pronounced rise in verbal intelligence, which can be explained by the influence of knowledge accumulated by a person. In general, in the entire range of adulthood from 17 to 50 years old, there is an uneven development of verbal and non-verbal components of intelligence. Scientific data convincingly show that the learning process itself is a factor in optimizing intellectual development. In persons with higher education and with constant mental training, the level of high intelligence is maintained throughout the entire range of adulthood; in the process of adult development, there is an increase in learning ability.

In the period of maturity, optima are also noted in the creative activity of a person. The optimal age moments of scientific creativity are known, which fall at the age of 35–45 years. However, in different types of activity they do not coincide. In choreography, such moments are celebrated between 20-25 years old, in music and poetry - between 30-35 years old, in philosophy, science, politics - at 40-55 years old. The creative activity of scientists of different specialties during maturity has a number of alternating periods of optima and declines (Table 7).

Table 7

Ontogenetic dynamics of creative activity of scientists

Thus, on the example of creative activity, the continuity of the development of the potentials of a mature person can be traced, and the period of adulthood manifests itself as the most productive in relation to the highest achievements of the intellect.

In the period of early adulthood, their own way of life is built, professional roles are mastered, and they are included in all types of social activity. In the period of middle adulthood comes the consolidation of social and professional roles. Late adulthood is characterized by the further establishment of social and special roles by occupation and at the same time their restructuring, the dominance of some of them and the weakening of others; the structure of family relations (the departure of children from the family) and the way of life are changing. The development of status occurs up to the pre-retirement age, when the peak of the most common social achievements is noted - position in society, authority.

Mature age can be called the age of a person's practical, professional life. The setting of life tasks is based on the principles and ideals already defined at the previous stage, the life plans of a person. Personal development during this period is closely related to professional and family roles and can be briefly described as follows. Early adulthood is the period of "entry" into the profession, social and professional adaptation, awareness of civil rights and obligations, social responsibility; family education, establishing intra-family relations, solving household and budgetary problems, developing a style for raising children.

The normative crisis of 30-33 years is due to a mismatch between a person's life plans and real opportunities. A person filters out the insignificant, reconsiders the value system. The unwillingness to make changes in the system of values ​​leads to the growth of contradictions within the personality.

The stable period of 33-40 years is characterized by the fact that at this age a person does what he wants most successfully, he has goals that he sets and achieves. A person shows literacy, competence in the chosen profession and requires recognition. 40-45 years - mid-life crisis; this age is a crisis for many, as there is a growing contradiction between the integrity of the worldview and the unilinear development. Man loses the meaning of life. To get out of the crisis, it is necessary to acquire a new meaning - in universal human values, in the development of interest in the future, in new generations. If a person continues to focus on himself, his needs, then this will lead him to go into illness, to new crises.

The period from 45 to 50 years is stable, a person reaches real maturity, he balances his needs well with the needs of others, he finds compassion and agreement with other people. For many, this period is a period of leadership and qualification.

The difficulties that accompany certain stages of life are overcome by the desire of the person himself to develop, become more mature and responsible. A mature personality in the course of development more and more independently chooses or changes the external situation of its development and, thanks to this, changes itself.

Thus, in the period of adulthood, there is an increase in the social development of the individual, his inclusion in various spheres of social relations and activities. The process of personality development in this case largely depends on the level of social activity and the degree of productivity of the personality itself.

In the periodization of gerontogenesis, three gradations are distinguished: old age: for men - 60-74 years, for women - 55-74 years, old age - 75-90 years, centenarians - 90 years and older. Aging in late ontogenesis occurs in various structures of a person as an individual, personality, subject of activity. The specifics of aging at various levels of its individual organization, where there is a decrease in the intensity of carbohydrate, fat and protein metabolism, a decrease in the ability of cells to carry out redox processes, has been studied in most detail. This is also facilitated by the growth of connective tissue in various functional systems, in skeletal muscles, blood vessels and other organs. At the same time, scientists come to understand aging as an internally contradictory process, characterized not only by a decrease, but also by a decrease in the activity of the body, due to the action of the law of heterochrony, i.e., the multidirectional changes occurring in individual functional systems. Of particular importance are the evolutionary-involutionary processes occurring in the central nervous system. During the period of gerontogenesis, the processes of excitation and inhibition are weakened. However, in this case, there is no frontal deterioration in the functions of the nervous system. In older people, the defensive conditioned reflex is the most preserved. The food reflex in them is developed more slowly than in the groups of young people, and it was not possible to obtain an orienting-exploratory reflex in older subjects after 65–70 years of age. Heterochrony in the central nervous system is also manifested in the fact that with age, primarily the inhibitory process and the mobility of nervous processes age, and the closing function suffers relatively less. Along with the increase in multidirectionality and inconsistency in the period of gerontogenesis, there is a clearly pronounced individualization of age-related variability of function. An associative experiment was conducted with subjects aged 40 to 90 years. In the group of 40–60 years, the latent period of speech reactions was from 1.2 to 7.2 s, in 60–70 year olds it ranged from 1.2 to 12 s, in the older group of 70–80 years it varied from 1, 2 to 15 s, and persons aged 80–90 years had a latent period from 1.3 to 25 s. Comparison of the obtained data with the average available for young age (1.2 s) demonstrates the extreme degree of individual differences in the elderly and senile age. There are subjects who, up to a very old age, are distinguished by a high preservation of the indicator of the latent time of speech reaction and other phenomena of the psyche, while in others this and other indicators change to a great extent with age.

During the period of gerontogenesis, adaptation to new conditions of life occurs and an increase in various ways of the biological activity of various structures of the body, ensuring its performance after the completion of the reproductive period. One of the ways of adaptation is the mobilization of the body's reserve capabilities. Along with the weakening of the intensity of oxidative processes, with age, the backup energy generation pathway, glycolysis, is activated, and the activity of many enzymes increases. Another way of restructuring the body is expressed in the formation of new adaptive mechanisms. Along with destructive changes (deposition of fats, salts), the pigment lipofuscin accumulates, which has a high rate of oxygen consumption, and the number of nuclei in many cells of the liver, kidneys, heart, skeletal muscles, nervous system also increases, which leads to an improvement in their metabolic processes. The appearance in old age of giant mitochondria, which are the main mechanisms of energy accumulation, has also been shown. Thus, during the aging period, overcoming destructive phenomena and increasing the activity of various body structures is carried out in various ways: by reserving, intensifying and compensating existing structural formations, as well as by forming high-quality formations that contribute to maintaining human performance. During the period of gerontogenesis, the role of the personal factor in creating a healthy lifestyle increases. In the conscious regulation of behavior aimed at the preservation of the individual organization and its further development, an important role is played by the emotional sphere, psychomotor and speech activity, which are integral characteristics of the human psyche. The data obtained in the study of physical inactivity demonstrate the variety of connections between the motor apparatus and various body systems. At the same time, the blood supply to the brain and heart is disturbed, focal destruction, oxygen starvation are observed in the organs, the intensity of oxidative processes in the heart and skeletal muscles decreases. A certain training system can optimize the functions of respiration, blood circulation and muscle performance in the elderly. The complex nature of the impact of emotionally significant stimuli on a person is evidenced by data on the dependence of life expectancy on the effects of prolonged stress. B. G. Ananiev attached great importance to the speech factor, which contributes to the safety of a person. He wrote that speech and thought functions resist the aging process and themselves undergo involutional shifts much later than all other psychophysiological functions. During the period of gerontogenesis, not only in the somatic organization, but also at the level of psychological functions, the inconsistency, unevenness and heterochrony of their age dynamics increase. This is expressed in the fact that the deterioration of the auditory analyzer with age is selective, due to both the historical nature of man and the protective functions of the body. In the high-frequency range (4000-16,000 Hz), after 40 years, there is a significant decrease in loudness sensitivity, in which its declines alternate with moments of rise. In the medium frequency range, where speech sounds are located, the deterioration of loudness sensitivity in the period of 20–60 years occurs to an insignificant degree, but low-frequency sounds (32–200 Hz) - noises, rustles retain their signal value in late ontogenesis. The decrease in different types of color sensitivity at the age of 25–80 also occurs at an unequal rate (data from A. Smith). Sensitivity to yellow after 50 years practically does not change, and to green it decreases at a slower pace. On the contrary, a significant weakening of the sensory response with age takes place to red and blue colors, i.e., to the extreme, short- and long-wavelength parts of the spectrum. At the same time, the visual function and sensory field of vision, according to our data, are characterized by a fairly high safety up to 70 years. All this testifies to the importance of these functions throughout a person's life, up to the period of aging.

During the period of gerontogenesis, heterochrony is also observed in the development of other mental functions. At the age of 70–90, mechanical imprinting suffers especially. Logical, verbal memory is best preserved. Semantic connections are the basis for the strength of memory at an older age. Based on the study of the English gerontologist D. B. Bromley, B. G. Ananiev wrote that in the process of gerontogenesis, the opposite course of development of verbal (awareness, vocabulary) and non-verbal (practical intelligence) functions is especially noteworthy. The decrease in non-verbal functions becomes pronounced by the age of 40. Meanwhile, it is precisely from this period that verbal functions progress most intensively, reaching a high level at 40–70 years. The preservation and further development of mental functions during the period of gerontogenesis is significantly influenced by professional activity and education. With a high level of education, there is no decline in verbal functions until old age. The level of education is closely related to the speed of speech, erudition and logical thinking. An important factor in the viability of an elderly person is his occupation. Persons of retirement age are characterized by a high preservation of those functions that were actively included in their professional activities. Thus, according to M. D. Aleksandrova, many non-verbal functions of older engineers did not change with age, and old accountants performed tests for the speed and accuracy of arithmetic operations as well as young ones. Visual acuity and field of vision remain at a high level until old age in drivers, sailors, and pilots. Meanwhile, in persons whose professional activity is based on the perception of near, not far space (mechanics, draftsmen, seamstresses), visual acuity can significantly decrease with age.

In late ontogenesis, the role of the individual, his social status and his inclusion in the system of social relations is enhanced, provided that the person's ability to work as a subject of various types of activity is preserved. Of particular importance as a factor opposing the involution of a person is his creative activity. Outstanding scientists and artists maintained high efficiency not only in old age, but also in old age. IP Pavlov created "Twenty Years of Experience" at the age of 73, and "Lectures on the work of the cerebral hemispheres" - at 77 years old. Leo Tolstoy wrote "Sunday" at the age of 71, and "Hadji Murat" at the age of 76. Michelangelo, Claude Monet, O. Renoir, S. Voltaire, B. Shaw, V. Goethe and many others were distinguished by high creative potential in the later years of their lives. Among the characteristic features of creative people is the breadth and diversity of their interests. The activity of creative individuals goes beyond their family and narrow professional interests and is expressed in their participation in pedagogical, social and other activities. In the activities of R. Tagore (1861–1941), an Indian writer and public figure, there is a pronounced variety of genres. He wrote poetry, plays, novels, novellas and short stories. In addition, he was a teacher, art critic, politician. After 60 years, he began to paint and created a number of wonderful canvases. Three peaks stand out in his literary work: 34, 49 and 69 years. On the whole, the work of R. Tagore is characterized by diversity, the search for something new, a huge capacity for work, dynamism and the absence of stereotypes of thinking.

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) also showed exceptional diversity in his work. He wrote sacred, orchestral, chamber, dance music, composed works for organ and choir, organ and solo singing, clavier, violin and orchestra. He composed fugues, sonatas, preludes, cantatas, chorales, concertos. In his later years, Bach was engaged in pedagogical and literary activities, wrote about music, and acted as a musicologist. An important feature of older people involved in creativity is strongly expressed activity motives, purposefulness and focus on the implementation and implementation of their plans and ideas in practice. Highly developed self-organization and criticality in relation to the results of their work, flexibility of mind are also inherent in a creative person throughout life up to the period of gerontogenesis. Direct interest in the process of creativity converges with the involvement of the individual in the life of society, which determines the personal meaning of creativity itself. The larger the personality, the more pronounced its orientation towards the future, towards social progress. After 70 years, one or another form of senile dementia, dementia is rarely found among outstanding figures of science and art, creative activity acts as a factor in psychological and biological longevity. Self-organization of vital activity is of paramount importance in the period of late ontogenesis as one of the most important conditions for longevity. Active longevity of an elderly person is thus promoted by his development as a socially active person and as a subject of creative activity.

Successful formation of a comprehensively and harmoniously developed personality is possible only if the laws of its development are taken into account.

The inclusion of a person in different systems: biological, ecological, social - determines the extreme complexity and heterogeneity of the determinants and potentials of individual development.

Human development is a single process determined by the historical conditions of social life. The result of the interaction of biological and social in the individual development of a person is the formation of individuality. Its essence is the unity and interconnection of the properties of a person as a personality and a subject of activity, in the structure of which the natural properties of a person as an individual function; the general effect of this fusion, the integration of all the properties of a person as an individual, personality and subject of activity is individuality with its holistic organization of all properties and their self-regulation. The socialization of the individual, accompanied by ever greater individualization, covers the entire life path of a person.

The nature of psychophysiological development is heterogeneous and contradictory throughout ontogeny. General development is the result of mastered activities: labor, knowledge and communication. They significantly influence the formation of the potential properties of a person.

In many works, the facts of a significant change in the indicators of various mental functions as a result of labor activity were revealed. If the first phase of the development of mental functions acts as a consequence of their age-related maturation, then the further progress of functions is primarily due to the formation of operational mechanisms in the process of activity, which can significantly expand the possibilities for developing potentials and contribute to creative longevity.

As the personality develops, the integrity and integrativity of its psychological organization grows, the interconnection of various properties and characteristics increases, new development potentials accumulate. There is an expansion and deepening of the ties of the individual with the outside world, society and other people. A special role is played by those aspects of the psyche that provide the internal activity of the individual, manifested in his interests, emotional, conscious attitude to the environment and to his own activities.

One of the development trends is the generalization of personality relations in the process of its formation: in the course of the ontogeny of integral individuality, there is a gradual elimination of mismatches between the properties of different levels (V. S. Merlin), a person becomes more whole, integrated. Apparently, it can be said that individuality as a product of development, having formed, itself becomes an objective factor in the further course of life and development.

The most important factor in development is general abilities or giftedness. At the same time, the presence of contradictions between the possibilities, potentials of a person and his interests, relationships, directions (that is, between potencies and tendencies) acts as a necessary factor and driving force for the development of individuality. The ways and means of resolving contradictions can be different: the formation of an individual style, a decrease in the level of claims, the emergence of new interests, relationships; development and improvement of the properties of the individual (Ganzen V. A., Golovei L. A.).

A number of studies have established a great similarity in the characteristics of personality development in childhood, adolescence, early, middle and late adulthood, which allows us to speak about the existence of various individual development styles.

Thus, development potentials include individual, subjective and personal characteristics, which, being transformed under the influence of human activities, constitute a kind of combination of individual development potentials.

In the process of ontogenesis, individual organs and systems mature gradually and complete their development at different periods of life. This heterochrony of maturation determines the peculiarities of the functioning of the organism of children of different ages. The main stages of development are intrauterine and postnatal, starting from the moment of birth. During the intrauterine period, tissues and organs are laid, and their differentiation occurs. The postnatal stage covers all childhood, it is characterized by the continuing maturation of organs and systems, changes in physical development, and significant qualitative changes in the functioning of the body. Each age period is characterized by its specific features. The transition from one age period to the next is designated as a turning point in individual development, or a critical period.

In modern science, there is no single generally accepted classification of periods of growth and development and their age limits, but the following scheme is proposed:

• 1) newborn (1-21 days);
• 2) infancy (21 days - 1 year);
• 3) early childhood (1-3 years);
• 4) preschool period (4-7 years);
• 5) primary school age (8-12 years for boys, 8-11 years for girls);
• 6) prepubertal period (12-15 years);
• 7) adolescence (15-18 years);
• 8) youthful period (18-21 years old)
• 9) mature age:

I period (22-35 years for men, 22-35 years for women);

II period (36-60 years for men, 36-55 years for women);

• 10) old age (61-74 years for men, 56-74 years for women);
• 11) senile age (75-90 years);
• 12) centenarians (90 years and above).

This periodization includes a set of features: the size of the body and organs, weight, ossification of the skeleton, teething, the development of endocrine glands, the degree of puberty, muscle strength. The scheme takes into account the characteristics of boys and girls. Each age period is characterized by specific features. The transition from one age period to another is called a turning point in individual development, or a critical period. The duration of individual age periods is largely variable. The chronological framework of age and its characteristics are determined primarily by social factors.

The duration of individual age periods is largely subject to change. Both the chronological framework of age and its characteristics are determined primarily by social factors. Various functional systems mature unevenly, they are switched on step by step, gradually replaced, creating conditions for the body to adapt in different periods of ontogenetic development. Those structures that together will constitute a functional system of vital importance by the time of birth are laid down and mature selectively and accelerated. For example, the orbicular muscle of the mouth is innervated at an accelerated rate and long before other muscles of the face are innervated. The same can be said about other muscles and structures of the central nervous system that provide the act of sucking. Another example: of all the nerves of the hand, those that provide contraction of the muscles - the flexors of the fingers, which carry out the grasping reflex, develop the earliest and most fully.

Neonatal period

Immediately after birth, there is a period called the neonatal period. The basis for this allocation is the fact that at this time the child is fed with colostrum for 8-10 days. Newborns in the initial period of adaptation to conditions outside of uterine life are divided according to the level of maturity into full-term and premature. Prenatal development of full-term babies lasts 39-40 weeks, premature babies - 28-38 weeks. When determining maturity, not only these terms are taken into account, but also the mass (weight) of the body at birth.

Newborns with a body weight of at least 2500 g (with a body length of at least 45 cm) are considered full-term, and newborns with a body weight of less than 2500 g are considered premature. In addition to weight and length, other dimensions are taken into account, for example, chest girth in relation to body length and head circumference in relation to chest circumference. It is believed that the girth of the chest at the level of the nipples should be more than 0.5 body length by 9-10 cm, and the girth of the head - more than the girth of the chest by no more than 1-2 cm.

infant period

The next period - chest - lasts up to a year. The beginning of this period is associated with the transition to feeding "mature" milk. During the breast period, the greatest intensity of growth is observed, compared with all other periods outside of uterine life. Body length increases from birth to a year by 1.5 times, and body weight triples. From 6 months milk teeth begin to erupt. In infancy, uneven body growth is pronounced. In the first half of the year, babies grow faster than in the second. In each month of the first year of life, new indicators of development appear. In the first month, the child begins to smile in response to the appeal of adults, at 4 months. persistently tries to stand on legs (with support), at 6 months. tries to crawl on all fours, at 8 - makes attempts to walk, by the year the child usually walks.

early childhood period

The period of early childhood lasts from 1 year to 4 years. At the end of the second year of life, teething ends. After 2 years, the absolute and relative values ​​of annual body size increases rapidly decrease.

Preschool

From the age of 4, the period of the first childhood begins, which ends at the age of 7. Starting from the age of 6, the first permanent teeth appear: the first molar (large molar) and the medial incisor on the lower jaw.

The age from 1 year to 7 years is also called the period of neutral childhood, since boys and girls almost do not differ from each other in size and body shape.

The period of primary school age

The period of second childhood lasts for boys from 8 to 12 years, for girls - from 8 to 11 years. During this period, sex differences in the size and shape of the body are revealed, and an increased growth of the body in length begins. Growth rates in girls are higher than in boys, since puberty in girls begins on average two years earlier. Increased secretion of sex hormones (especially in girls) causes the development of secondary sexual characteristics. The sequence of appearance of secondary sexual characteristics is fairly constant. In girls, the mammary glands first form, then pubic hair appears, then in the armpits. The uterus and vagina develop simultaneously with the formation of the mammary glands. To a much lesser extent, the process of puberty is expressed in boys. Only towards the end of this period do they begin to accelerate the growth of the testicles, scrotum, and then the penis.

prepubertal period

The next period - prepubertal - is also called the period of puberty. It continues in boys from 13 to 16 years old, in girls - from 12 to 15 years old. At this time, there is a further increase in growth rates - the puberty jump, which applies to all body sizes. The greatest increase in body length in girls occurs between 11 and 12 years, in body weight - between 12 and 13 years. In boys, an increase in length is observed between 13 and 14 years, and an increase in body weight between 14 and 15 years. The growth rate of body length is especially high in boys, as a result of which at the age of 13.5-14 they overtake girls in body length. Due to the increased activity of the hypothalamic-pituitary system, secondary sexual characteristics are formed. In girls, the development of the mammary glands continues, there is growth of hair on the pubis and in the armpits. The most clear indicator of puberty of the female body is the first menstruation.

In the prepubertal period, intensive puberty of boys occurs. By the age of 13, their voice changes (mutates) and pubic hair appears, and at 14, hair appears in the armpits. At the age of 14-15, boys have their first wet dreams (involuntary eruptions of sperm).

Boys, compared with girls, have a longer prepubertal period and a more pronounced pubertal growth spurt.

Pubertal (adolescent) and youthful age

Adolescence lasts for boys from 18 to 21 years old, and for girls - from 17 to 20 years old. During this period, the growth process and the formation of the body basically end, and all the main dimensional features of the body reach the definitive (final) value.

In adolescence, the formation of the reproductive system and the maturation of the reproductive function are completed. The ovulatory cycles in a woman, the rhythm of testosterone secretion and the production of mature sperm in a man are finally established.

Mature, elderly, senile age

The individual development of an adult is a continuation of ontogeny with a phylogenetic program embedded in it. In the period after early youth, the process of maturation of the individual and personality continues, passing through the stages of youth, adulthood, maturity and old age. This cycle ends with the death of a person, which, of course, can occur at earlier stages than old age (an incurable disease, accident, suicide, etc.). Getting acquainted with the periodization of the individual development of an adult, some specific problems should be taken into account. There are no rigid boundaries between the beginning and end of each stage. It depends on the regularities and maturation of the organism and the involutional processes in it. As shown by numerous studies of specialists, the processes of maturation and involution are characterized by unevenness and heterochrony. The unevenness of the processes and the heterochrony of the change of states of the individual, as a reflection of the internal contradictions of development, contain different possibilities of life - from premature aging in some cases to longevity in others. Indeed, one can be an old man in his thirties and creatively and physically active, a "young" seventy and older.

In anthropology, there are three main periods in the development of an adult: 1) mature age (20-40 years for women and 25-45 years for men); 2) maturity - up to 52 years; 3) old age, which is characterized by a continuous increase in involution and completion by natural physiological death, at the same time, the anthropological periodization of the development of an adult is not generally accepted in gerontology and psychophysiology.

The change of ups and downs in the level of development of thinking testifies not only to the unevenness of its development from age to age, but also to the cyclicity, which makes it possible to trace the transitional stages.

The highest values ​​of indicators of the development of thinking fall on 20, 23, 25 years and 32 years. In the third macroperiod, peaks are observed at the age of 39 and 45 years, but at a reduced level compared to the previous macroperiods. At the age of 26-29 there is a general decline, which is later replaced by a rise, which, however, does not reach the level of the first and second macroperiods.

The dynamics in the level of development of thinking throughout the considered ages of maturity is unstable. The greatest susceptibility to changes is observed at the age of 18-25 years, in the period of early maturity, which indicates an active restructuring in mental functions in these years.

Changes in memory also occur unevenly, however, compared to thinking, the pace is somewhat slower. The change of ups and downs occurs after about three or four years, while in thinking - after one or two. The highest values ​​of level indicators of memory fall on 19 years old, 23-24 years old and 30 years old. From 25 to 28 years, there is a decrease, followed by a further rise, the highest point of which falls on 30 years. In subsequent ages, there is a uniform decrease with fluctuations, which, compared with previous periods, is especially pronounced at 45-46 years.

According to E.I. Stepanova, in terms of the change of ups and downs, the development of memory is ahead of the development of thinking, and during the period of age-related development of maturity, the decrease in the level of memory invariably occurs faster.

Attention also develops unevenly. The most noticeable changes are observed between the ages of 22 and 25 years. In the first macroperiod, the level of attention turned out to be lower than the level of thinking and memory. A moderate rise begins at age 26 and continues until age 29. Indicators of the development of attention in these years were higher than those of thinking and memory. The highest points of rise fall on 29 years, 32 and 33 years. The decline at 34-35 coincides with a decrease in the level of memory and thinking in these years. In the future, the change of ups and downs continues. In the third macroperiod, the level of development of attention is ahead of the level of development of both thinking and memory, especially the latter. Here the peaks are at 38 years and 42 years.

Comparison of the development of different processes made it possible to single out three stages of uneven development.

The first is characterized by the multidirectional development of thinking and memory, which ultimately manifests itself in relative equilibrium in the form of a decrease in the level at 26 years. In the future, more coordinated and unidirectional changes are observed.

At the second stage, memory and thinking develop in parallel, but with a leading role of memory. At the age of 30, memory reaches its optimal point of development. The level of thinking at this age is higher than the level of memory.

The third stage starts at the age of 31. It is distinguished by the multidirectional development of memory and thinking, which affects the decrease in the level of memory and the preservation of a high level of development of thinking, the optimal point of which falls on 32 years. The multidirectional development of memory and thinking persists up to 46 years. The level of memory development decreases earlier than the level of thinking.

Comparison of the level of development of thinking and attention allows us to distinguish the following stages:

• 1. From 18 to 25 years old, the level of development of thinking is higher than the level of development of attention. Ups in the level of development of attention fall on 22 and 24 years, when there is a decline in the level of development of thinking. At low indicators of the development of attention, their relative stabilization is characteristic, and in thinking at high rates, variability is noted. In the future, the dynamics in the ratio of the levels of development of thinking and attention changes.
• 2. At the age of 26 to 29, attention begins to outpace thinking in terms of development. This is a stage of multidirectional development of thinking.
• 3. At the age of 30 to 32, the levels of both functions coincide. The lifting points here are at 32 years old, at the age of 33 to 35 years the level of attention is higher than the level of thinking.
• 4. From the age of 36, a stage begins when the level of attention decreases and the level of thinking increases. The stage of unidirectional development of thinking and attention is replaced by the stage of multidirectional development of these functions.

Correspondence in the age variability of mental functions and eutic search (the process of solving problems) was revealed. The rises in the indicators of the development of eutic search coincide with the peaks in the development of thinking, they also occur at 20, 25 and 32 years. The decline was found in the same years (26-29 years).

The highest points of rise in the development of intelligence fall on 19 years old, 22 years old and 25 years old. At the age of 36-40, the indicators characterizing the maturity of judgments are the highest, which, apparently, is associated with the acquisition of life experience.

A simultaneous increase in the level of development of memory, thinking and attention was found only in two microperiods - 22-25 years and 30-33 years, a simultaneous decrease in the level - only in one microperiod - 34-35 years.

The period of gerontogenesis (the period of aging) according to the international classification begins at the age of 60 for men and from 55 years for women and has three gradations: elderly, senile and centenarians. What can be a person's life during this period? Decay, decay, sickness, infirmity, disability, etc.? Or, on the contrary, the opportunity to lead a full-fledged (taking into account the changed realities), interesting life: work to the best of your ability, try to be needed by your loved ones, friends, accepting your own old age as the next stage of life, which has its own joys and its own problems (as and at previous stages of life)?

The aging process is a genetically programmed process, accompanied by certain age-related changes in the body. Older people are not as strong and not able, as in their younger years, to withstand prolonged physical or nervous stress; their total energy supply is getting smaller and smaller; the vitality of body tissues is lost, which is closely related to a decrease in their fluid content. As a result of this dehydration, the joints of older people harden. Age-related dehydration leads to drying of the skin, it becomes more sensitive to irritations and sunburn, itching appears in places, the skin loses its softness and becomes matte. Drying of the skin, in turn, inhibits perspiration, which regulates the surface temperature of the body. Due to the weakening of the sensitivity of the nervous system, the elderly and old people react slowly to changes in external temperature, therefore they are more susceptible to the adverse effects of heat and cold. There are changes in the sensitivity of various sense organs, the external manifestations of which are expressed in a weakening of the sense of balance, uncertainty in gait, loss of appetite, a need for brighter illumination of space, etc. Here are some examples: people over 50 need twice as much light, and people over 80 need three times; in a 20-year-old person, the wound heals on average in 31 days, at 40 years old - in 55 days, at 60 years old - in 100 days, and then - incrementally.

The complex and contradictory nature of human aging as an individual is associated with quantitative changes and qualitative restructuring of biological structures, including neoplasms. The body adapts to new conditions; in contrast to aging, adaptive functional systems develop; various systems of the body are activated, which preserves its vital activity, allows overcoming the destructive (destructive, negative) phenomena of aging. All this allows us to consider that the period of late ontogenesis is a new stage in the development and specific action of the general laws of ontogenesis, heterochrony and structure formation. Along with this, there is a growing need to strengthen conscious control and regulation of biological processes.

The elderly and old do not constitute a monolithic group; they are as heterogeneous and complex as people in adolescence, youth, youth, adulthood, maturity. Further changes during the period of gerontogenesis depend on the degree of maturity of a particular person as a person and subject of activity. Of particular importance is the creative activity of the individual as a factor opposing the involution of man as a whole. Here are some data on the preservation of those functions in people of retirement age that were leading in their professional activities. Scientists do not change their vocabulary and general erudition with age; older engineers have many non-verbal functions; drivers, sailors, pilots maintain a high level of visual acuity and field of vision until old age, etc.

However, even in the elderly, and even more so in senile age, it can be quite difficult for a person to cope with the general production norms of the working day, involutionary processes in one way or another affect the professional ability to work, gradually reducing it. But at the same time, his general ability to work, which is formed even before the start of professional labor activity, develops along with it, can persist for quite a long time. Long-term preservation of general ability to work is the main indicator of the viability of centenarians.

The concept of "age" can be considered from different aspects: from the point of view of the chronology of events, the biological processes of the body, social formation and psychological development.

Age covers the entire life path. Its countdown starts from birth and ends with physiological death. Age shows from birth to a specific event in a person's life.

Birth, growing up, development, old age - all the lives of a person, of which the entire earthly path consists. Having been born, a person began his first stage, and then, over time, he will go through all of them sequentially.

Classification of age periods in terms of biology

There is no single classification; at different times it was compiled in a different way. The delimitation of periods is associated with a certain age, when significant changes occur in the human body.

A person's life is the periods between key "points".

Passport, or chronological age may not coincide with the biological. It is by the latter that one can judge how he will do his job, what loads his body can withstand. Biological age can both lag behind the passport, and ahead of it.

Consider the classification of life periods, which is based on the concept of age based on physiological changes in the body:

The views of scientists on the age periods of human life

Depending on the era and country, scientists and philosophers have proposed various criteria for grading the main stages of life.

For example:

• Chinese scientists divided human life into 7 phases. “Desirable”, for example, was called the age from 60 to 70 years. This is the period of development of spirituality and human wisdom.
• The ancient Greek scientist Pythagoras identified the stages of human life with the seasons. Each lasted 20 years.
• The ideas of Hippocrates became fundamental for the further definition of periods of life. He singled out 10, each 7 years long, starting from birth.

Periods of life according to Pythagoras

The ancient philosopher Pythagoras, considering the stages of human existence, identified them with the seasons. He singled out four of them:

• Spring is the beginning and development of life, from birth to 20 years.
• Summer - youth, from 20 to 40 years.
• Autumn - heyday, from 40 to 60 years.
• Winter - fading, from 60 to 80 years.

Periods according to Pythagoras had a duration of exactly 20 years. Pythagoras believed that everything on Earth was measured by numbers, which he treated not only as mathematical symbols, but also endowed them with some kind of magical meaning. Numbers also allowed him to determine the characteristics of the cosmic order.

Pythagoras also applied the concept of “four” to age periods, because he compared them with eternal, unchanging natural phenomena, for example, the elements.

The periods of a person's life (according to Pythagoras) and their advantages are based on the doctrine of the idea of ​​eternal return. Life is eternal, like the successive seasons, and man is a part of nature, lives and develops according to its laws.

The concept of "seasons" according to Pythagoras

Identifying the age intervals of human life with the seasons, Pythagoras focused on the fact that:

• Spring is the time of the beginning, the birth of life. The child develops, absorbing new knowledge with pleasure. He is interested in everything around him, but everything is still happening in the form of a game. The child is flourishing.
• Summer is the growing season. A person blossoms, he is attracted by everything new, still unknown. Continuing to flourish, a person does not lose his childish fun.
• Autumn - a person has become an adult, balanced, former gaiety has given way to confidence and slowness.
• Winter is a period of reflection and summing up. Man has gone most of the way and is now considering the results of his life.

The main periods of the earthly path of people

Considering the existence of an individual, we can distinguish the main periods of human life:

• youth;
• mature age;
• old age.

At each stage, a person acquires something new, reconsiders his values, changes his social status in society.

The basis of existence is the periods of human life. The features of each of them are associated with growing up, changes in the environment, the state of mind.

Features of the main stages of the existence of a person

The periods of a person's life have their own characteristics: each stage complements the previous one, brings with it something new, something that has not yet been in life.

Youth is inherent in maximalism: there is a dawn of mental, creative abilities, the main physiological processes of growing up are completed, the appearance and well-being are improving. At this age, a system is established, time begins to be valued, self-control increases, and others are reassessed. A person determines the direction of his life.

Having reached the threshold of maturity, a person has already reached certain heights. In the professional field, he occupies a stable position. This period coincides with the strengthening and maximum development of social status, decisions are made deliberately, a person does not avoid responsibility, appreciates today, can forgive himself and others for mistakes, realistically evaluates himself and others. This is the age of achievements, conquering peaks and getting the maximum opportunities for your development.

Old age is more about loss than gain. A person ends his labor activity, his social environment changes, inevitable physiological changes appear. However, a person can still engage in self-development, in most cases it happens more on a spiritual level, on the development of the inner world.

Critical points

The most important periods of human life are associated with changes in the body. They can also be called critical: the hormonal background changes, which causes changes in mood, irritability, nervousness appear.

Psychologist E. Erickson identifies 8 crisis periods in a person's life:

• Teenage years.
• The entry of a person into adulthood is the thirtieth birthday.
• The transition to the fourth decade.
• Fortieth anniversary.
• Middle of life - 45 years.
• fiftieth anniversary.
• Fifty-fifth anniversary.
• Fifty-sixth anniversary.

Confidently overcome "critical points"

Overcoming each of the presented periods, a person moves to a new stage of development, while overcoming the difficulties that have arisen on his way, and strives to conquer new heights of his life.

The child breaks away from his parents and tries to find his own direction in life.

In the third decade, a person reconsiders his principles, changes his views on the environment.

Approaching the fourth ten, people try to gain a foothold in life, climb the career ladder, begin to think more rationally.

In the middle of life, a person begins to wonder if he lives correctly. There is a desire to do something that will leave a memory of him. There is disappointment and fear for their lives.

At the age of 50, a slowdown in physiological processes affects health, age-related changes occur. However, a person has already set his life priorities correctly, his nervous system works stably.

At 55, wisdom appears, a person enjoys life.

At 56, a person thinks more about the spiritual side of his life, develops his inner world.

Doctors say that if you are prepared and aware of the critical periods of life, then they will be overcome calmly and painlessly.

Conclusion

A person decides for himself by what criteria he divides his life periods, and what he puts into the concept of "age". It could be:

• Purely external attractiveness, which a person seeks to prolong by all available means. And he considers himself young, as long as appearance allows it.
• The division of life into "youth" and "the end of youth." The first period lasts as long as there is an opportunity to live without obligations, problems, responsibility, the second - when problems, life difficulties appear.
• Physiological changes in the body. A person clearly follows the changes and identifies his age with them.
• The concept of age is associated with the state of the soul and consciousness. A person measures his age by the state of his soul and inner freedom.

As long as a person's life is filled with meaning, the desire to learn something new, and all this is organically combined with the wisdom and spiritual wealth of the inner world, a person will be forever young, despite the weakening of the physical capabilities of his body.

Age is not only a quantitative and absolute concept. It still exists as a stage in the process of psychological and physical development. And quite a long time. From birth to death, to be exact. Dozens of years, and some - about or more than a hundred. And, accordingly, age categories and periods of life could not but form, which in many respects intersect with each other. However, this can be discussed in more detail.

Infancy

If we talk about age categories, then it is necessary to start from the earliest period. And this, of course, is infancy. Which is also divided into certain categories. The first lasts from the moment of birth until the 1st month. It is determined by weak emotional development - the child has a too “generalized” state. And the baby himself requires the constant participation of parents in every process of his life.

2nd period - from two to three months. It is characterized by a more developed emotional system. You can see that the baby already knows how to get upset and smile at familiar people, even focus on the face.

The next period lasts from 4 to 6 months. The child already has a more or less strengthened emotional and sensory system. He recognizes people who are constantly near him, distinguishes acquaintances from strangers, knows how to determine the direction from which sounds come.

In the period from 7 months to 1.5 years, the child undergoes the formation and training of motor abilities. When his age exceeds the mark of 2 years, the time of increased physical activity begins. And the child himself moves to another age category.

Childhood

This is quite a long period. Which is divided into several more. For early childhood (from 1 to 3 years) and (from 3 to 7). The first category is often called the nursery. This is a conditional division, which is associated mainly with social reasons. A child who first went through a nursery, and then through a kindergarten, does not experience further difficulties with fitting into a new team (class at school).

If we talk about age categories, then such a cell as schoolchildren can be considered one of the most difficult in psychological terms. Since it is during the period of education that the personality of the child is formed and a certain “foundation” is laid, which will play its role in the future.

In addition, children belonging to the school age category are growing intensively in all plans. There are such processes as ossification of the spine and growth of the skeleton, muscle tissue grows, the nervous apparatus of the muscles finishes forming, but lung tissue, lung capacity and volume increase. And, of course, the early age categories of children are characterized by the functional development of the brain. By the age of 8-9, the child already has a firmly established

Teenage years

It also needs to be noted with attention, talking about age categories. This period is ambiguous. Girls are considered teenagers between 10 and 18 years old. Boys - from 12 to 18.

Children of this age are experiencing turning points in the development of the body, because puberty occurs. The activity of the endocrine system changes, as does the functionality of organs. Children begin to grow more intensively, an increase in body weight is observed. The production of hormones is enhanced, which is reflected in psychosocial development. ends with the end of puberty. And children move to another age category.

Youth and youth

Here the psychological aspect plays an important role, not the biological one. And opinions differ. So, for example, psychologist E. Erickson believes that youth lasts from 13 to 19 years old, after which youth sets in, which lasts until the age of 35. During this period, the person begins to “ripen”, realize himself and, as a rule, enter into relationships.

But if we turn to the classification of the APN of the USSR, defined in 1965, then after the teenage period follows But for girls it starts at 16 and ends at 20, and for guys it lasts from 17 to 21.

If we talk about the biological component, then in people of this age category, the final completion of physical development is observed. But only in guys the body does not yet reach the strength and strength characteristic of an adult man. The same applies to girls. The figure of young ladies is clearly different from those possessed by women who have gone through childbirth. And in biological terms, the concept of youth is conditional for this very reason. A person may be 19 years old, and, in fact, psychologically she is considered a girl. But if she gave birth to a child, then her body loses its youth. And call her objectively a woman, not a girl.

Average age

Or, as it is commonly called, maturity. Talking about the age categories of people by year, it cannot be ignored. It is believed that this is the longest period. Traditionally, it lasts from 21 to 60 years for men, and from 20 to 55 for women.

The table of age categories shows that it is divided into two periods. The first - from 21-20 to 35. It is characterized by stable functioning of the body. After 35, the average person begins neuroendocrine restructuring. Basic physiological indicators are slowly but progressively decreasing. Perhaps the appearance of primary signs of diseases that usually overcome older people. But if a person is healthy, leads the right way of life, then all this can be postponed for an indefinite period. Again, the age categories of people are one thing, but how they manage their health is quite another. At 20, you can look 35, and vice versa. For some "persons" and at 25, the kidneys fail.

Maturity specifics

Specialists studying the age categories of the population managed to find out a lot of interesting and useful data. For example, human mortality from malignant tumors has tripled over the past 60 years.

And due to the fact that by the second period of maturity, a person increasingly begins to feel tired from constant work and the same lifestyle, various forms of pathology begin to appear. These are injuries (domestic and industrial), tumors, cardiovascular diseases. Largely due to the fact that a person ceases to critically evaluate himself - it seems to him that he is as young and full of energy as at 25. But if he is 50, then he can no longer do anything the way he does dealt with it 20 years ago.

And cardiovascular disease is a sad topic at all. They arise due to the fact that constantly accompanies a modern person in life: stress, nervous tension, depression, poor nutrition, lack of physical activity, smoking, alcohol. In addition to this, during the period of middle age, additional mental stresses are added, which appear for personal and family reasons.

Retirement age

It is entered by men and women who are 60 and 55 years old respectively. Signs of aging are growing: the structure of the hair and skin is changing, the gait becomes different, the shape of the figure is changing. Retirement age is accompanied by a decrease in the mass of the heart and its frequency contractions. Blood vessels lose elasticity, a certain amount of blood is also lost. The respiratory system also changes. The chest, due to changes in the tendons and ossification of the ribs, ceases to be as mobile as before. And the lungs, respectively, cannot cope with their task as before "briskly".

But, of course, it also depends on physiology. People can look great and feel great both at 65 and at 70. Again, lifestyle matters and how “tired” a person has been during his existence. The age categories of people by year is one thing. But the way they feel psychologically is completely different.

eldership

This is the last period of life, it is allocated conditionally. It usually lasts from 75 to 90-100 years. But this is in our time. In general, age periodization is a strange and controversial topic, especially if it concerns people who are “over 35”.

Recall, at least, the end of the XIX century. Then people of 45-50 years old were considered to be deep old people, who should have retired already! And this is really inspiring in our time. It turns out that old age gradually “recedes”, and the duration of young ages increases as a result.