Features of student age
Modern students are, first of all, young people aged 18 to 25 years. Today, there is no unified approach to age periodization and the identification of phases of adult development. According to the international classification, the end of adolescence and the beginning of adulthood begins for a woman at the age of 20, and for a man at the age of 21. Consequently, the bulk of students complete their youth phase during their studies at a university and enter the adulthood phase.
The word “student” is of Latin origin, translated into Russian means “working hard, studying,” that is, acquiring knowledge. “Studenthood is the central period in the formation of a person, the personality as a whole, and the manifestation of a wide variety of interests,” writes N.A. Winter.
Student age is a time for the most complex structuring of the intellect, intensive and active socialization of a person as a future “doer”, a professional.
The age of 18-25 years is the period of the most active development of moral and aesthetic feelings, the formation and stability of character, and mastery of the full range of social roles of an adult. This age is also characterized by the fact that this period is sensitive for the development of intellectual and physical strength.
The time of studying at a university coincides with the period of adolescence, which is characterized by the complexity of the formation of personal traits.
The following scientists studied this age period: B.G. Ananyev, A.V. Dmitriev, Z.F. Isaeva, V.T. Lisovsky, I.S. Cohn et al.
Adolescence is a period of human life that marks the transition from dependent childhood to independent adulthood, which presupposes, on the one hand, the completion of physical, in particular puberty, and on the other, the achievement of social maturity.
Youth is the stage of formation of self-awareness, the stage of human intimacy, when the values of friendship, love, intimacy can be paramount.
IN AND. Slobodchikov believes that youth is the final stage of the personalization stage. In the form of the main new formations of this age, he identifies: self-reflection, awareness of one’s own individuality, the emergence of life plans, readiness for self-determination, an attitude towards consciously building one’s own life, gradual growth into various spheres of life.
The period of adolescence is a period of self-determination. Self-determination - social, personal, professional, spiritual and practical - is the main task of student age. Youth self-determination is an extremely important stage in personality formation. At this age, a person is an adult both biologically and socially. Society no longer sees him as an object of socialization, but as a responsible subject of social and production activity, evaluating its results according to “adult” standards. As the main result of self-determination, psychologists (I. Kon, V.I. Slobodchikov, E. Erickson and others) highlight the student’s need to take the internal position of an adult, recognize himself as a member of society, define himself in the world, that is, understand himself and his capabilities along with an understanding of your place and purpose in life.
Youth acts as a period of making important decisions that determine the student’s entire future life: choosing a profession and his place in life, life position, choosing a life partner, creating his own family. Entering a university strengthens a student’s faith in his own strengths and abilities and gives rise to hope for an interesting life. In this regard, in the second and third years, questions often arise about the correct choice of university, specialty, and profession. By the end of the third year, the issue of professional self-determination is finally resolved.
Social self-determination and the search for oneself are inextricably linked with the formation of a worldview. Youth is a decisive stage in the formation of a worldview. During this period of life, students try to reduce the diversity of facts to a few principles, build a coherent system of views on the world, and determine their place in this world.
This period is associated with the beginning of “economic activity,” by which we mean the student’s inclusion in independent production activities, the beginning of his work history and the creation of his own family. Transformation of motivation, the entire system of value orientations.
At this age, those qualities that were lacking in high school are noticeably strengthened - purposefulness, determination, perseverance, independence, initiative, and the ability to control oneself. Studying at a university strengthens a young person’s faith in their strengths and abilities, gives rise to hope for a full-fledged, professionally and creatively interesting life and activity. Labor is now becoming the leading sphere of activity, with the resulting differentiation of professional roles. For a student, the leading activities are professional, educational and scientific research.
K. Levin, in his concept, considers youth as a socio-psychological phenomenon, linking the mental development of a student’s personality with changes in his social status.
In E. Erikson’s concept, youth is characterized by the emergence of a feeling of one’s uniqueness, of being different from others. E. Erikson in his theory set before the young man the task of a holistic awareness of himself and his place in the world; the negative pole in solving this problem is uncertainty in understanding one’s “I”. A young man at this age must solve all the old problems consciously and with the inner conviction that this is the choice that is significant for him and for society. Social trust in the world, independence, initiative, and mastery of skills create a new integrity of the individual.
In adolescence, an identity crisis manifests itself, consisting of a series of social and individual choices, identifications and self-determinations. At this age, the student moves on to solving his own adult problems on the basis of an established identity and a desire for close cooperation with others. The student is unsure of his identity, avoids interpersonal intimacy, hides his thoughts and feelings, on the basis of this his relationships with others become very stereotypical, and he himself comes to loneliness.
Often there are shifts in the mood of students - from enthusiastic in the first months of study at the university, to skepticism when assessing the university regime, teaching system, and individual teachers.
Student age is characterized by great differentiation of emotional reactions and ways of expressing emotional states, as well as increased self-control and self-regulation. It should be recalled that the general features of this age include variability of moods with transitions from unbridled joy to despondency and a combination of a number of polar qualities that appear alternately. These include special sensitivity - sensitivity to others’ assessment of one’s appearance, abilities, skills, and along with this, excessive self-confidence and excessive criticism of others.
Students, like teenagers, tend to pay increased attention to ideas about the norm in relation to body height, size, weight, behavior, and movement. They tend to find physical abnormalities in themselves even in cases where all indicators correspond to the norm. This increased sensitivity can cause conflict reactions or even chronic mental disorders of a neurotic nature, contributing to a decrease in self-esteem.
Subtle sensitivity sometimes coexists with amazing callousness, painful shyness - with swagger, the desire to be recognized, appreciated by others, with emphasized independence, the fight against authorities - with the deification of random idols, sensual fantasy - with dry philosophizing, believes A.E. Lichko.
This age is characterized by rationalism, a reluctance to take anything for granted, emotions and feelings become more diverse. It is at this age that attitudes to reality, beliefs and views on the world are tested in practice, rethought and formed into a unified system of social orientations and attitudes. In adolescence, a person begins to perceive his emotions not as derivatives of external circumstances and events, but as the state of his “I”, a feeling of his own specialness, of being different from others appears, and sometimes a feeling of loneliness manifests itself (others do not understand me, I am alone). However, the general emotional well-being of boys and girls is becoming more equal.
For students of student age, communication with peers remains important. The consciousness of group belonging, solidarity, and friendly mutual assistance creates an extraordinary sense of emotional well-being and stability. Youthful sociability is often self-centered, and the need for self-identification and disclosure of one’s experiences is higher than interest in the feelings and experiences of others. This leads to emotional tension in relationships and dissatisfaction with them. Youth groups satisfy, first of all, the need for free, equal, emotionally rich communication. Free communication is not just a way to spend leisure time, but also a means of self-expression, establishing new contacts, and finding oneself. Belonging to a company increases a student’s self-confidence and provides additional opportunities for self-affirmation, helping to increase self-esteem.
At student age, there is an awareness of one’s irreversibility, an understanding of the finitude of one’s existence. It is the understanding of the inevitability of death that makes a person seriously think about the meaning of life, about his prospects, about his future, about his goals. The life plan begins to cover the entire sphere of personal self-determination: moral character, lifestyle, level of aspirations; there is an awareness of one’s goals, life aspirations, and the development of a life plan.
A holistic idea of oneself, an attitude towards oneself is also formed, and first the student recognizes and evaluates the features of his body, appearance, attractiveness, and then his moral, psychological, intellectual, and volitional qualities.
Youth self-esteem is often contradictory. A student's self-esteem is a regulator of his behavior and educational activities. Under the influence of student self-esteem, depending on the orientation, character, abilities, either a correct or incorrect attitude towards oneself develops, as a result of which self-esteem can become either a stimulus or a brake on personal development.
Student self-esteem is closely related to the level of his aspirations. The discrepancy between the student’s aspirations and real capabilities leads to the fact that he begins to incorrectly evaluate himself, as a result of which his behavior and educational activities become inadequate. A student’s self-esteem receives objective expression in how he evaluates and compares the abilities, opportunities, and performance results of other students.
Based on the analysis of achieved results in various types of activities, taking into account other people’s opinions about themselves and self-observation, self-analysis of their qualities and abilities, the student develops self-esteem. This concept is multi-valued, it implies self-satisfaction, self-acceptance, self-esteem, a positive attitude towards oneself, and the consistency of one’s actual and ideal self.
According to S. Coopersmith: “Self-respect is a personal value judgment, expressed in an individual’s attitudes towards himself.”
“High self-esteem is associated with positive, and low self-esteem with negative emotions, therefore, the motive of self-esteem is a personal need to maximize the experience of positive and minimize the experience of negative attitudes towards oneself,” says G. Kaplan.
Maurice Rosenberg, in his research, found that young men with low self-esteem are characterized by a general instability of self-images and opinions about themselves. They are more likely than others to “close themselves off” from others and are afraid to express their feelings in front of others. Such people are especially vulnerable and sensitive to everything that somehow affects their self-esteem. They are more concerned about the bad opinion of others about them.
Students with high self-esteem and a sense of self-confidence, they are more independent and less suggestible.
Self-awareness and self-esteem in adolescence strongly depend on stereotypical ideas about what men and women should be like, and these stereotypes, in turn, are derived from the differentiation of sex roles that have historically developed in a particular society.
One cannot but agree with the opinion of B.G. Ananyev that student influence on the student’s psyche, the development of his personality. During their studies at a university, in the presence of favorable conditions, students experience a significant development of mental levels.
Student development in various courses has some special features:
In the first year, students solve the problem of introducing a recent applicant to student forms of collective life. Students' behavior is characterized by a high degree of conformity. There is weak regulation of one's behavior and unmotivated risk. Inability to foresee the consequences of one’s actions (the age of selfless sacrifices and complete dedication). An inadequate identity is often formed; inability to make life plans, avoidance of close interpersonal relationships, choice of negative role models.
In the process of adaptation of first-year students to university, difficulties arise such as: 1) negative experiences associated with the departure of yesterday's schoolchildren from the school community. With his mutual assistance and moral support; 2) insufficient psychological preparation for the profession; 3) inability to carry out psychological self-regulation of behavior and activity; 4) the desire for self-education is insufficiently developed, etc.
The second year is the period of the most intense study (learning activity). All forms of training and education are intensively included in the lives of second-year students. Students receive general training, their broad cultural demands and needs are formed. The process of adaptation to this environment is basically complete.
The third year is the beginning of specialization, strengthening interest in scientific work as a reflection of further development and deepening the professional interests of students. The urgent need for specialization often leads to a narrowing of the scope of an individual’s diverse interests.
The fourth year is the first real acquaintance with the specialty during the internship period. Students are re-evaluating many values of life and culture.
In the fifth year, clear practical guidelines for future activities are formed. New, increasingly relevant values related to material and family status are emerging. Students are gradually moving away from the collective forms of university life.
Thus, it can be assumed that the psychological development of a student’s personality is a dialectical process of the emergence and resolution of contradictions, the transition of the external to the internal, self-esteem, and active work on oneself.
The development of the student’s body and personality is characterized by a number of contradictions: the onset of physical, civil, mental, and labor maturity does not coincide in time.
A characteristic feature of student age is the need for achievement. If it does not find its satisfaction in the student’s main areas of activity, then it shifts to other areas (sports, business, etc.). A person must find for himself an area of successful self-affirmation. Otherwise, the following are possible: neuroticism, withdrawal into illness.
Summarizing the above, we can conclude that the student years are a very difficult stage in a person’s life. At this stage, not only the physical, but also the mental development of a person is finally formed, the student’s personality and his entire future life are formed. For him at this age, the most important thing is that he is understood, accepted and taken into account, given the opportunity to express himself, and his emotions and feelings taken into account. The most important thing for a student is that he can feel significant, communicate with people, and these relationships are productive and of high quality.
High levels of anxiety can prevent one from successfully passing through this stage in a person’s life. After all, a closed, uncommunicative person, constantly expecting failure in everything, cannot feel comfortable enough and organize productive and high-quality relationships.
Gibadullina Alina Albertovna
Bashkir State University, Ufa.
Psychology faculty
Email: [email protected]
Annotation: This article discusses the characteristics of student age, as well as the views of various scientists on this age period.
Key words: Student age, psychological health, adolescence, intellectual maturity, self-knowledge.
Student age is an important stage in the development of personality. If we consider student age as an age category, then it represents a transitional stage from “maturation” to “maturity”. Student age is defined as late adolescence or early adulthood, and occurs in the period from 18 to 25 years.
Domestic psychologists are of the same opinion that during the period of student age there is an active formation of personality, internal position, forecasting of one’s place in the world, as well as planning of one’s future. Also, in the process of learning about the world around us and ourselves, the level of self-awareness and self-esteem increases.
Soviet psychologist L.S. Vygotsky was the first to not include adolescence in the periods of childhood, thereby distinguishing between childhood and adulthood. “The age from 18 to 25 years is more likely the initial link in the chain of adult ages than the final link in child development...” Accordingly, he was the first to call youth “the beginning of mature life.”
For the first time, the Soviet psychologist, honored scientist Boris Gerasimovich Ananyev spoke about the problem of students as a special socio-psychological and age category. He identified two phases in student (youth) age - one on the border with childhood (17-18 years old), the other on the border with adulthood. The first phase was called "early adolescence" and was characterized by the young man's uncertainty in society. At this stage, the young man understood that he was no longer a child, but not yet an adult. The second phase, adolescence, as such, is the initial stage of maturity. Adolescence, according to Ananyev, is a sensitive period for the development of the basic sociogenic potentials of a person. Also according to B.G. Ananyev, the period of ontogenetic development, is characterized by progress in the development of most mental processes and is located in the period from 24 to 27 years.
In his works, Alexey Nikolaevich Leontiev, when analyzing adolescence, focuses on the change in the leading type of activity. In the psychological periodizations of Daniil Borisovich Elkonin and Alexey Nikolaevich Leontyev, the leading activity in youth is recognized as educational and professional activity. Motives related to self-determination, choice of profession and preparation for independent life are the main and strongest at this stage.
When considering the works of Sergei Leonidovich Rubinstein, we will see that it is adolescence that plays the important role of “value-semantic self-determination,” that is, it is at this age that a person determines his future life, how he imagines it.
Lidia Ilyinichna Bozhovich, when describing adolescence, focuses all her attention on the development of the motivational sphere of the individual, that is, on determining one’s place in life, on moral consciousness and self-awareness.
Considering students as “a special social category, a specific community of people, organized by the institute of higher education” I.A. Zimnyaya highlights such main characteristics of student age as high cognitive motivation, a harmonious combination of intellectual and social maturity, as well as the highest social activity, human socialization, and the development of higher mental functions.
What allows us to talk about the mental characteristics of human development at student age? First of all, it is during this period that intensive intellectual development occurs, the formation of skills for cognitive, scientific and intellectual activities, worldview and attitude, as well as an understanding of one’s future life. This period is one of the most important periods in a person’s life, since his future life directly depends on how his student years will pass, what plans the young man will make at this time, and how he will interact with the world around him.
List of used literature:
- Vygotsky L.S. Psychology / S.L. Vygotsky - M.: Publishing House EKSMO-Press, 2000.-1008 p.
- Ananyev B. G. K psychophysiology of student age/ B. G. Ananyev // Modern psychological problems of higher education. - L., 1974 - 280 p.
- Abulkhanova - Slavskaya, K.A. ABOUT subject of mental activity/ K. A. Abulkhanova - Slavskaya. - M., 1973 - 288 p.
- Shapovalenko I. B. Developmental psychology (Psychology of development and age natural psychology)/ I. V. Shapovalenko. - M: Gardinki, 2005 - 349 p.
34.Features of student age.
Social and psychological characteristics of student age.
In Russian psychology, the problem of adulthood was first posed in 1928 by N.N. Rybnikov, who called the new section of developmental psychology, which studies mature personality, “acmeology.” Psychologists have been interested in the problem of a child’s mental development for quite a long time, and a person has become a “victim of childhood.” The psychology of mature ages, which includes student age as a transition from youth to maturity, has become a relatively recent subject of psychological science. Here, adolescence was considered in the context of the completion and winding down of mental development processes and was characterized as the most responsible and critical age. L.S. Vygotsky, who did not specifically consider the psychology of adolescence, was the first to not include it in childhood, clearly distinguishing childhood from adulthood. “The age from 18 to 25 years is more likely the initial link in the chain of adult ages than the final link in child development...” Consequently, unlike all earlier concepts, where youth traditionally remained within the boundaries of childhood, it was first named by L.S. Vygotsky’s “beginning of mature life.” Later this tradition was continued by domestic scientists. Students as a separate age and socio-psychological category were identified in science relatively recently - in the 1960s by the Leningrad psychological school under the leadership of B.G. Ananyev in the study of psychophysiological functions of adults. As an age category, students correlate with the stages of development of an adult, representing a “transitional phase from maturation to maturity” and is defined as late adolescence - early adulthood (18-25 years). The identification of students within the era of maturity - adulthood is based on a socio-psychological approach.
Considering students as “a special social category, a specific community of people organized by an institute of higher education,” I.A. Zimnaya highlights the main characteristics of student age, distinguishing it from other groups of the population by a high educational level, high cognitive motivation, the highest social activity and a fairly harmonious combination of intellectual and social maturity. In terms of general mental development, studenthood is a period of intensive socialization of a person, the development of higher mental functions, the formation of the entire intellectual system and the personality as a whole. If we consider students, taking into account only biological age, then it should be attributed to the period of adolescence as a transitional stage of human development between childhood and adulthood. Therefore, in foreign psychology this period is associated with the process of growing up.
The period of adolescence has long been considered as a period of human preparation for adult life, although in different historical eras it was given different social status. The problem of youth has worried philosophers and scientists for a long time, although the age boundaries of this period were unclear, and ideas about the psychological, internal criteria of adolescence were naive and not always consistent. In terms of scientific study, youth, in the words of P.P. Blonsky, became a relatively late achievement of mankind.
Adolescence was clearly regarded as the stage of completion of physical maturation, puberty and the achievement of social maturity and was associated with adulthood, although ideas about this period developed over time, and in different historical societies it was marked by different age boundaries. The very idea of youth has evolved historically. I.S. Kohn noted that “age categories in many, if not all languages, initially denoted not so much chronological as social status, social position.” The connection between age categories and social status continues today, when the expected level of development of an individual of a given chronological age determines his social position, nature of activity, and social roles. Age is influenced by the social system; on the other hand, the individual himself, in the process of socialization, learns, accepts new and leaves old social roles. K.A. Abulkhanova-Slavskaya, pointing to the social conditioning of mature ages, believes that the periodization of an individual’s life path, starting from youth, ceases to coincide with age and becomes personal. The psychological content of youth is associated with the development of self-awareness, solving problems of professional self-determination and entry into adulthood. In early youth, cognitive and professional interests, the need for work, the ability to make life plans, social activity are formed, the independence of the individual, and the choice of a life path are established. In his youth, a person establishes himself in his chosen field, acquires professional skills, and it is in his youth that professional training ends, and, consequently, the student period. A.V. Tolstykh emphasizes that in youth a person is most productive, withstands the greatest physical and mental stress, and is most capable of mastering complex methods of intellectual activity. The easiest way is to acquire all the knowledge, skills and abilities necessary in the chosen profession, to develop the required special personal and functional qualities (organizational abilities, initiative, courage, resourcefulness, necessary in a number of professions, clarity and accuracy, speed of reactions, etc.). A student as a person of a certain age and as a person can be characterized from three sides:
1) with psychological, which represents the unity of psychological processes, states and personality traits. The main thing in the psychological side is mental properties (direction, temperament, character, abilities), on which the course of mental processes, the occurrence of mental states, the manifestation of mental formations depend;
2) social, which embodies social relations, qualities generated by the student’s belonging to a certain social group or nationality;
3) with biological, which includes the type of higher nervous activity, the structure of analyzers, unconditioned reflexes, instincts, physical strength, physique, etc. This side is mainly predetermined by heredity and innate inclinations, but within certain limits it changes under the influence of living conditions. The study of these aspects reveals the qualities and capabilities of the student, his age and personal characteristics. If we approach a student as a person of a certain age, then he will be characterized by the smallest values of the latent period of reactions to simple, combined and verbal signals, the optimum of absolute and differential sensitivity of analyzers, and the greatest plasticity in the formation of complex psychomotor and other skills. Compared to other ages, adolescence shows the highest speed of working memory and switching of attention, solving verbal and logical problems. Consequently, student age is characterized by the achievement of the highest, “peak” results, based on all previous processes of biological, psychological, and social development. If we study the student as an individual, then the age of 18-20 years is the period of the most active development of moral and aesthetic feelings, the formation and stabilization of character and, most importantly, mastery of the full range of social roles of an adult: civil, professional and labor, etc. This period is associated with the beginning of “economic activity”, by which demographers understand the inclusion of a person in independent production activities, the beginning of a work biography and the creation of his own family. The transformation of motivation, the entire system of value orientations, on the one hand, the intensive formation of special abilities in connection with professionalization, on the other, distinguish this age as the central period for the formation of character and intelligence. This is the time of sports records, the beginning of artistic, technical and scientific achievements. Student age is also characterized by the fact that during this period the optimum development of intellectual and physical strength is achieved. But often “scissors” appear between these possibilities and their actual implementation. Continuously increasing creative possibilities, the development of intellectual and physical strength, which are accompanied by the flourishing of external attractiveness, also conceal the illusion that this increase in strength will continue “forever”, that the best life is still ahead, that everything planned can be easily achieved.” The time of studying at a university coincides with the second period of adolescence or the first period of maturity, which is characterized by the complexity of the formation of personality traits (works by B.G. Ananyev, A.V. Dmitriev, I.S. Kon, V.T. Lisovsky, etc.). A characteristic feature of moral development at this age is the strengthening of conscious motives of behavior. Those qualities that were completely lacking in high school are noticeably strengthened - purposefulness, determination, perseverance, independence, initiative, and the ability to control oneself. Interest in moral problems (goals, lifestyle, duty, love, fidelity, etc.) increases. At the same time, experts in the field of developmental psychology and physiology note that a person’s ability to consciously regulate his behavior at the age of 17-19 is not fully developed. Unmotivated risk and inability to foresee the consequences of one’s actions, which may not always be based on worthy motives, are common. So, V.T. Lisovsky notes that 19-20 years is the age of selfless sacrifices and complete dedication, but also of frequent negative manifestations.
Youth is a time of introspection and self-esteem. Self-esteem is carried out by comparing the ideal “I” with the real one. But the ideal “I” has not yet been verified and may be accidental, and the real “I” has not yet been fully assessed by the individual himself. This objective contradiction in the development of a young person’s personality can cause internal self-doubt in him and is sometimes accompanied by external aggressiveness, swagger, or a feeling of incomprehensibility.
The study of students as a social group was carried out by the laboratory of sociological research at Leningrad State University under the direction of V.T. Lisovsky. Students unite young people engaged in one type of activity - studies aimed at special education, having common goals and motives, approximately the same age (18-25 years old) with a single educational level, the period of existence of which is limited by time (on average 5 years). Its distinctive features are: the nature of their work, which consists in the systematic assimilation and mastery of new knowledge, new actions and new ways of learning, as well as in the independent “acquisition” of knowledge; his main social roles and belonging to a large social group - youth as its advanced and numerous part. The specificity of students as a social group lies in the same attitude towards all social forms of property, its role in the social organization of labor and partial participation in productive and unproductive labor. As a specific social group, it is characterized by special living, working and living conditions; social behavior and system of value orientations. The main features that distinguish students from other groups are social prestige, active interaction with various social entities and the search for the meaning of life, the desire for new ideas and progressive changes.
3) Psychological neoplasms of student age.
This age is characterized by the completion of the growth process, which ultimately leads to the flourishing of the organism, creating the basis not only for the young man’s special position in learning, but also for mastering other opportunities, roles and aspirations. From the point of view of developmental psychology, at student age the features of the inner world and self-awareness change, mental processes and personality traits evolve and are restructured, and the emotional-volitional structure of life changes.
Youth is the period of life from adolescence to adulthood (age boundaries are arbitrary - from 15-16 to 21-25 years). This is the period when a person can go from an insecure, inconsistent adolescent, claiming to be an adult, to actually growing up.
In his youth, a young man faces the problem of choosing life values. Youth strives to form an internal position in relation to itself (“Who am I?”, “What should I be?”), in relation to other people, as well as to moral values. It is in his youth that a young man consciously works out his place among the categories of good and evil. “Honour”, “dignity”, “right”, “duty” and other categories characterizing personality are of acute concern to a person in his youth. In youth, the young man expands the range of good and evil to its utmost limits and tests his mind and his soul in the range from the beautiful, sublime, good to the terrible, unchangeable evil. Youth strives to feel itself in temptations and ascent, in struggle and victory, fall and rebirth - in all the diversity of spiritual life that is characteristic of the state of the human mind and heart. It is significant for the young man himself and for all of humanity if a young man chose for himself the path of spiritual growth and prosperity, and was not seduced by vice and opposition to social virtues.
No matter how strangely youth is directed towards finding its place in the world, no matter how intellectually ready it is to comprehend everything that exists, it does not know much - there is still no experience of real practical and spiritual life among close people (“If youth knew...” ). In addition, it is in youth that the natural desire for the other sex truly awakens. This desire can overshadow, despite the understanding, knowledge, beliefs and already formed value orientations of the young person. Youth is a period of life when other feelings can be dominated by an all-consuming passion for another person.
Having begun the creation of his personality in adolescence, having begun to consciously build methods of communication, the young man continues this path of improving the qualities that are significant to him in his youth. However, for some it is spiritual growth through identification with an ideal, while for others it is the choice of an anti-hero to emulate and the associated consequences of personality development.
During this period of life, a person decides in what sequence he will apply his abilities to realize himself in work and in life itself.
Youth is an extremely significant period in a person’s life. Having entered adolescence as a teenager, a young man ends this period with true adulthood, when he truly determines his own destiny: the path of his spiritual development and earthly existence. He plans his place among people, his activities, his way of life. At the same time, the age period of adolescence may not give a person anything in terms of developing the ability to reflect and spirituality. Having lived through this period, a grown person may remain in the psychological status of a teenager.
Youth is a period of a person’s life, located ontogenetically between adolescence and adulthood, early youth. It is in youth that the formation of a person as an individual occurs, when a young person, having gone through the difficult path of ontogenetic identification of likeness to other people, appropriated from them socially significant personality traits, the ability to empathize, to have an active moral attitude towards people, towards himself and towards nature; the ability to assimilate conventional roles, norms, rules of behavior in society, etc.
In adolescence, the mechanism for identifying isolation receives new development. Also, this age is characterized by its own neoplasms.
Age-related neoplasms are qualitative changes in personality development at certain age stages. They reveal the peculiarities of mental processes, states, and personality traits that characterize its transition to a higher degree of organization and functioning. Neoplasms of adolescence cover the cognitive, emotional, motivational, and volitional spheres of the psyche. They also manifest themselves in the structure of the personality: in interests, needs, inclinations, and character.
The central mental processes of adolescence are the development of consciousness and self-awareness. Thanks to the development of consciousness in high school students, a purposeful regulation of their relationship to the environment and to their activities is formed, while the leading activity of the period of early adolescence is educational and professional activity.
I. Kon considers the development of independent logical thinking, imaginative memory, individual style of mental activity, and interest in scientific research to be the new formations of youth.
The most important new development of this period is the development of self-education, that is, self-knowledge, and its essence is an attitude towards oneself. It includes a cognitive element (discovery of one’s “I”), a conceptual element (an idea of one’s individuality, qualities and essence) and an evaluative-volitional element (self-esteem, self-respect). The development of reflection, that is, self-knowledge in the form of reflection on one’s own experiences, sensations and thoughts, determines a critical reassessment of previously established values and the meaning of life - possibly their change and further development.
The meaning of life is the most important new formation of early youth. I. Kon notes that it is during this period of life that the problem of the meaning of life becomes globally comprehensive, taking into account the short and long term.
Also an important new formation of youth is the emergence of life plans, and this manifests an attitude towards consciously building one’s own life as a manifestation of the beginning of the search for its meaning.
In youth, a person strives for self-determination as an individual and as a person involved in social production and labor activity. Finding a profession is the most important problem of youth. It is significant that in their youth some of the youth begin to gravitate towards leadership as an upcoming activity. This category of people strives to learn to influence others and for this purpose studies social processes, consciously reflecting on them.
Youth, gaining the potential of an individual entering the time of rebirth, begins to feel liberation from the direct dependence of a close circle of significant persons (relatives and loved ones). This independence brings intense experiences, overwhelms you emotionally and creates a huge number of problems. In order to reach an understanding of the relativity of any independence, in order to value family ties and the authority of the experience of the older generation, youth faces the spiritual path of the biblical prodigal son through difficult, unbearably difficult experiences of alienation from the circle of significant people, through deep reflexive suffering and the search for true values to returning in a new incarnation - now as an adult, able to identify himself with significant loved ones and now finally accept them as such. It is an adult, socially mature person who carries within himself the constancy of his worldview, value orientations, which organically combine not only “independence”, but also an understanding of the need for dependence - after all, the personality carries within itself the existence of social relations.
4) Specifics of the student’s educational motivation.
A general systemic representation of a person’s motivational sphere allows researchers to classify motives. As is known, in general psychology, the types of motives (motivation) of behavior (activity) are distinguished on different grounds, for example, depending on: a) on the nature of participation in the activity (understood, known and actually operating motives, according to A.N. Leontiev); b) from the time (extent) of conditioning the activity (distant - short motivation, according to B.F. Lomov); c) from social significance (social - narrowly personal, according to P.M. Yakobson); d) from the fact of inclusion in the activity itself or those outside it (broad social motives and narrow personal motives, according to L.I. Bozhovich); e) motives for a certain type of activity, for example, educational activities, etc.
The schemes of H. Murray, M. Argyle, A. Maslow and others can also be considered as classification bases. P. M. Jacobson is credited with distinguishing motives by the nature of communication (business, emotional). According to A.N. Leontiev, the social needs that determine integration and communication can be roughly divided into three main types; focused on: a) the object or goal of interaction; b) the interests of the communicator himself; c) the interests of another person or society as a whole.
It is also advisable to approach the determination of the dominant motivation of her activity from the position of the characteristics of the intellectual-emotional-volitional sphere of the individual as a subject. Accordingly, the highest spiritual needs of a person can be presented as needs (motives) of the moral, intellectual, cognitive and aesthetic planes. These motives correlate with the satisfaction of spiritual needs, human needs, with which such motives, according to P.M. Yakobson, are inextricably linked as “feelings, interests, habits, etc.” In other words, higher social, spiritual motives (needs) can be conditionally divided into three groups: 1) intellectual and cognitive motives (needs); 2) moral and ethical motives; and 3) emotional and aesthetic motives.
In the “teacher-learner” system, the student is not only the object of control of this system, but also the subject of activity.
When considering the motivation of educational activities, it is necessary to emphasize that the concept of motive is closely related to the concept of goal and need. In a person’s personality they interact and are called the motivational sphere. In the literature, this term includes all types of motivations: needs, interests, goals, incentives, motives, inclinations, attitudes.
Educational motivation is defined as a particular type of motivation included in a specific activity - in this case, educational activity. Like any other type, educational motivation is determined by a number of factors specific to the activity in which it is involved. Firstly, it is determined by the educational system itself, the educational institution; secondly, - the organization of the educational process; thirdly, - the subjective characteristics of the student; fourthly, - the subjective characteristics of the teacher and, above all, the system of his relations to the student, to the work; fifthly, the specifics of the academic subject.
Educational motivation, like any other type, is systemic, characterized by direction, stability and dynamism.
Accordingly, when analyzing motivation, we face the difficult task of determining not only the dominant motivator (motive), but also taking into account the entire structure of a person’s motivational sphere. Considering this area in relation to teaching, A.K. Markova emphasizes the hierarchical nature of its structure. Thus, it includes: the need for learning, the meaning of learning, the motive for learning, purpose, emotions, attitude and interest.
When characterizing interest (in the general psychological definition, this is the emotional experience of a cognitive need) as one of the components of educational motivation, it is necessary to pay attention to the fact that in everyday life, and even in professional pedagogical communication, the term “interest” is often used as a synonym for educational motivation. This can be evidenced by statements such as “he has no interest in studying”, “it is necessary to develop cognitive interest”, etc. This shift in concepts is due, firstly, to the fact that in the theory of learning it was interest that was the first object of study in the field of motivation (I. Herbert). Secondly, it is explained by the fact that interest itself is a complex, heterogeneous phenomenon.
A necessary condition for creating students’ interest in the content of learning and in the learning activity itself is the opportunity to demonstrate mental independence and initiative in learning. The more active the teaching methods, the easier it is to get students interested in them.
A major role in the formation of interest in learning is played by the creation of a problem situation, the confrontation of students with a difficulty that they cannot solve with the help of their existing stock of knowledge; When faced with a difficulty, they become convinced of the need to acquire new knowledge or apply old knowledge in a new situation. Only work that requires constant tension is interesting. Overcoming difficulties in educational activities is the most important condition for developing interest in it. The difficulty of educational material and a learning task leads to an increase in interest only when this difficulty is feasible and surmountable, otherwise interest quickly falls.
The educational material and teaching methods should be sufficiently (but not excessively) varied. Diversity is ensured not only by students encountering different objects during learning, but also by the fact that new sides can be discovered in the same object. The novelty of the material is the most important prerequisite for the emergence of interest in it. However, learning new things should be based on the knowledge the student already has. The use of previously acquired knowledge is one of the main conditions for the emergence of interest.
A positive relationship between motivational orientations and students’ academic performance was established (at a reliable level of significance). The most closely related to academic performance were orientations to the process and the result, less closely - to the orientation to “evaluation by the teacher.” The connection between a “trouble avoidance” orientation and academic performance is weak.
The need for communication and dominance has a significant but ambiguous influence on learning.
An extremely important provision for the organization of educational activities has also been established regarding the possibility and productivity of the formation of motivation through goal-setting of educational activities. A personally significant meaning-forming motive can be formed in young men and that this process is realized in the sequence of formation of its characteristics.
First, the educational-cognitive motive begins to act, then it becomes dominant and acquires independence, and only then is it realized, i.e. The first condition is the organization, the formation of the educational activity itself. At the same time, the very effectiveness of motivation is better formed when directed towards methods rather than towards the “result” of activity. At the same time, it manifests itself differently for different age groups, depending both on the nature of the learning situation and on the strict control of the teacher.
Psychological stability is defined as the ability to maintain the required level of mental activity with a wide variation of factors acting on a person. In relation to educational motivation, its stability is a dynamic characteristic that ensures relative duration and high productivity of activity, both under normal and extreme conditions. It has been established that the psychological determinants of resilience include:
initial type of motivational structure;
personal significance of the subject content of the activity;
type of educational task;
the strongest are internal factors: the dominance of motivational orientation, features of intrastructural dynamics and the psychological content of the motivational structure.
Educational motivation, being a special type of motivation, is characterized by a complex structure, one of the forms of which is the structure of internal (process and result) and external (reward, avoidance) motivation. Such characteristics of educational motivation are essential. How is its stability, connection with the level of intellectual development and the nature of educational activities.
Conclusion. The state educational system plays a leading and fundamental role in the development of society, in increasing the efficiency of its activities in a variety of areas of social practice. Educational institutions in world science are considered as social systems that represent the institution of human socialization, the formation and development of the citizen’s personality in modern society. The evolution of society is completely determined by the demographic scale of intellectual continuous mental development, which is carried out only through teaching in the social education system.
The specificity of the university is to train, first of all, scientific and pedagogical personnel, and therefore to form the personality of a scientist and teacher of the highest qualifications. To this end, it is necessary to increase the efficiency of professional training at a university, as well as improve the process of its individualization and humanization, taking into account the cognitive development of students. Until recently, it was believed that the level of a specialist’s qualifications was determined by the amount of knowledge acquired during the training process. However, studies (E.A. Klimov, 1969, V.D. Shadrikov, 1972) have shown that the degree of knowledge assimilation significantly depends on the individual characteristics of the student and that cognitive mental processes (sensory-perceptual, attentional, mnemonic) play an important role in this process , thinking, imaginative).
Organizing and improving the system of lifelong education for students is impossible without a holistic understanding of the mental and cognitive activity of the student and an in-depth study of the psychophysiological determinants of mental development at all levels of education (B.G. Ananyev, 1977; V.V. Davydov, 1978; A.A. Bodalev , 1988; B.B. Kossov, 1991; V.P. Ozerov, 1993). The most important principle in this case is the principle of an integrated approach to studying the abilities of students. When organizing and improving the system of continuous education, it is necessary to rely not only on knowledge of the patterns of mental development, but also on knowledge of the individual characteristics of students and, in connection with this, systematically guide the process of intellectual development.
Thus, the study of the psychological characteristics of student age is becoming a very important and necessary phenomenon in modern higher education psychology.
MINISTRY OF EDUCATION OF THE AUTONOMOUS REPUBLIC OF CRIMEA
REPUBLICAN HIGHER EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTION "ENGINEERING AND PEDAGOGICAL UNIVERSITY"
Faculty of Distance Learning
Department of Psychology
Test
in higher education psychology
topic (option) psychological characteristics of a student’s age
Students Kabantseva O.A.
Faculty Part-time study
Specialties preschool education
Correspondence Master's program
Supervisor
Test
Received
Submitted for review
Returned by reviewer
Simferopol
Test.
Subject. Psychological characteristics of a student's age.
Introduction.
Psychological neoplasms of student age.
Specifics of student's educational motivation.
Conclusion.
Introduction.
The development and functioning of education as a social structure of society is determined by all the conditions (economic, political, socio-cultural) of its existence as a whole. Education, along with other forms of social reality (culture, science, religion), is going through difficult, ambiguous times. Crisis phenomena are reflected primarily in the field of education. At the same time, during periods of crisis, society places higher demands on education that fulfills its social order in training specialists who have deep, stable knowledge in their professional field, who quickly navigate changing living conditions, who are able to quickly learn and retrain, and who are ready for social contacts - communicating with other people.
In the current situation, it is the sphere of education that creates the phenomenon of the modern world - the ability to “be” in changing circumstances and actively participate in the changes taking place. The sphere of university education is the most responsible link in the professional training of specialists in the chain of organized institutions of the educational system. University teachers and researchers must not only have the latest scientific information; it is not the knowledge that becomes more valuable, but the very methods of obtaining it, as certain “intellectual tools” that “crystallize” in the course of their activities, and are then applied as generalized structures in new conditions. The primary task of higher education is to help students master the means of thinking and activity. University education is, as is known, the final stage of the process of general educational training and the main stage of specialization and professional training. The quality of the organization of the learning process at this stage largely determines a person’s further comfortable stay in future professional activities, his readiness to solve non-routine, non-standard problems in production and communication situations, as well as his subjective existence in the process of interaction with other people. The content of education as the most important factor of economic and social progress should be aimed at “ensuring the self-determination of the individual, creating conditions for his self-realization”; it should ensure “the formation in the student of a picture of the world that is adequate to the modern level of knowledge and the level of the educational program (level of study). In this regard, the single goal of the educational system at all its levels and stages - creating conditions for the comprehensive development of the individual - takes on a special meaning at this educational level.
In Russian psychology, the leading role of education and training in the development of the psyche (without denying the role of heredity) is traditionally emphasized as its necessary conditions (P.P. Blonsky, L.S. Vygotsky, S.L. Rubinstein, A.N. Leontiev, G. S. Kostyuk, A.V. Zaporozhets, P.Ya. Galperin, N.F. Talyzina and many others). Education, while stimulating development, at the same time relies on it. “The most complex dynamic dependencies are established between the processes of learning and development, which cannot be covered by a single, pre-given, a priori, speculative formula” (L.S. Vygotsky).
The process of mental development is considered by most researchers as a dynamic process of qualitative and quantitative changes, during which new mental formations arise on the basis and through the differentiation of previous structures. Recently, the concept of “unlimited development” has become widespread in Russian psychology (B.G. Ananyev, L.I. Antsyferova, I.S. Kon, K.K. Platonov, A.V. Tolstykh, etc.), according to which development is an evolutionary-involutionary forward movement that does not stop until the cessation of life itself. This suggests that if mental development continues throughout life and its indicators are mental new formations and features specific to each age period (which is reflected in numerous periodizations of child development), then student age as a socio-psychological age category characterized by The intensive development of the entire structure of the personality, including the intellectual system, is also characterized by certain mental new formations and mental characteristics. Research has shown that at student age, further mental development of a person occurs, a complex restructuring of mental functions within the intellect, the entire structure of the personality changes due to entry into new, broader and more diverse social communities (B.G. Ananyev, M.D. Dvoryashina, L.S.Granovskaya, V.T.Lisovsky, I.A.Zimnyaya, I.S.Kon, etc.). The study of the patterns of human development at student age as a period of intensive intellectual development, the formation of educational and professional activities, assimilation of the role of a student, and entry into a new, “adult” life allows us to talk about the mental characteristics of student age.
1) Students are a separate age category.
Student age is a special period in a person’s life. The merit of the formulation of the problem of students as a special socio-psychological and age category belongs to the psychological school of B.G. Ananyeva. In the studies of L.A. Baranova,
M.D. Dvoryashina, 1976; E.I. Stepanova, 1975; L.N. Fomenko, 1974; as well as in the works of Yu.N. Kulyutkina, 1985, V.A. Yakunina, 1994 and others, a large amount of empirical observational material has been accumulated, experimental results and theoretical generalizations on this problem are presented.
Student age, according to B.G. Ananyev, is a sensitive period for the development of the basic sociogenic potentials of a person. Higher education has a huge impact on the human psyche and the development of his personality. During their studies at a university, in the presence of favorable conditions, students develop all levels of their psyche. They determine the direction of a person's mind, i.e. form a way of thinking that characterizes the professional orientation of the individual. Successful study at a university requires a fairly high level of general intellectual development, in particular perception, memory, thinking, attention, and the level of proficiency in a certain range of logical operations.
With the massive transition to a multi-level structure of training at a university, university education specialists note that in order to achieve a high level of scientific and practical training of students, it is necessary to solve two main problems: to ensure the opportunity for students to obtain deep fundamental knowledge and to change approaches to organizing educational activities in order to improve the quality training, develop the creative abilities of students, their desire for the continuous acquisition of new knowledge, and also take into account the interests of students in self-determination and self-realization (A. Verbitsky, Yu. Popov, E. Andresyuk).
Organizing and improving the system of lifelong education for students is impossible without a holistic understanding of the mental and cognitive activity of the student and an in-depth study of the psychophysiological determinants of mental development at all levels of education (B.G. Ananyev, 1977; V.V. Davydov, 1978; A.A. Bodalev , 1988; B.B. Kossov, 1991; V.P. Ozerov, 1993). The most important principle in this case is the principle of an integrated approach to studying the abilities of students. When organizing and improving the system of continuous education, it is necessary to rely not only on knowledge of the patterns of mental development, but also on knowledge of the individual characteristics of students and, in connection with this, systematically guide the process of intellectual development.
Social and psychological characteristics of student age.
In Russian psychology, the problem of adulthood was first posed in 1928 by N.N. Rybnikov, who called the new section of developmental psychology, which studies mature personality, “acmeology.” Psychologists have been interested in the problem of a child’s mental development for quite a long time, and a person has become a “victim of childhood.” The psychology of mature ages, which includes student age as a transition from youth to maturity, has become a relatively recent subject of psychological science. Here, adolescence was considered in the context of the completion and winding down of mental development processes and was characterized as the most responsible and critical age.
L.S. Vygotsky, who did not specifically consider the psychology of adolescence, was the first to not include it in childhood, clearly distinguishing childhood from adulthood. “The age from 18 to 25 years is more likely the initial link in the chain of adult ages than the final link in child development...” Consequently, unlike all earlier concepts, where youth traditionally remained within the boundaries of childhood, it was first named by L.S. Vygotsky’s “beginning of mature life.” Later this tradition was continued by domestic scientists.
Students as a separate age and socio-psychological category were identified in science relatively recently - in the 1960s by the Leningrad psychological school under the leadership of B.G. Ananyev in the study of psychophysiological functions of adults. As an age category, students correlate with the stages of development of an adult, representing a “transitional phase from maturation to maturity” and is defined as late adolescence - early adulthood (18-25 years). The identification of students within the era of maturity - adulthood is based on a socio-psychological approach.
Considering students as “a special social category, a specific community of people organized by an institute of higher education,” I.A. Zimnaya highlights the main characteristics of student age, distinguishing it from other groups of the population by a high educational level, high cognitive motivation, the highest social activity and a fairly harmonious combination of intellectual and social maturity. In terms of general mental development, studenthood is a period of intensive socialization of a person, the development of higher mental functions, the formation of the entire intellectual system and the personality as a whole. If we consider students, taking into account only biological age, then it should be attributed to the period of adolescence as a transitional stage of human development between childhood and adulthood. Therefore, in foreign psychology this period is associated with the process of growing up.
In Soviet times, there was an age limit for admission to full-time study - up to 35 years. Now there is neither a lower nor a higher age threshold for entering a university. So it turns out that both a seventeen-year-old girl and a seventy-five-year-old retired man can sit side by side on the same student bench.
Arran Fernandez recently entered Cambridge, for example. The 15-year-old student became the youngest student in the last 200 years. Bolivia awarded a diploma in political science to Herman Peters. The 90-year-old graduate dedicated his thesis to the 1952 revolution in Bolivia, of which he, in fact, was a direct participant.
However, the oldest student in the world, who has not only children and grandchildren, but even 4 great-grandchildren, does not stop there. Peters has already applied for admission to another higher education institution. But in Russia, Mark Goldman became the oldest student. He has already passed 75 years. Old age does not prevent a student at the Higher School of Economics from passing the exam with excellent marks.
At what age should you go to university?
In which age enter a university and become student- everyone's personal business. But you shouldn’t delay admission. Firstly, in this case you will not lose your learning and self-education skills. Getting back into the learning process after a long break is not easy. Secondly, learning abilities decline with age. Future employment should also be taken into account. It is more profitable for an employer to hire a twenty-five-year-old young man who already has work experience than a thirty-year-old university graduate without practice.
Another problem is the eternal student. He either moves from one specialty to another, or marks time, spending several years on the same course. At the same time, a huge amount of money is spent, moral and mental efforts are made - but all to no avail. It’s not for nothing that the phraseology “eternal student” has a pronounced negative connotation: it’s annoying to spend your whole life moving towards a goal, but never achieving it.