For decades, domestic psychology has paid more attention to the development of a child than an adult. The development of personality in the period of maturity is one of the most complex and insufficiently studied problems. The ambiguity of terminology, the blurring of time boundaries and descriptions of the stages of adulthood and specifically the period of middle life indicate the complexity and underdevelopment of this problem. Traditional psychology mainly presents descriptions of cases from psychotherapeutic practice (J. Hollis, 2002; Sheehy G., 1999; Jung K. G., 1996; Yalom I., 2004, etc.). In domestic psychology, middle age (maturity) was mainly studied from the point of view of professional and personal development in line with acmeology (Bodalev A.A., 1999; Derkach A.A., Zazykin V.G., 2003, etc.). However, there is a clear lack of empirical research on the study of personal characteristics of living in the middle of life (35-45 years).
There are many age classifications developed by experts from different areas of human knowledge (and for different reasons). For example, according to the ancient Chinese classification, maturity is divided into 4 periods: from 20 to 30 years old — the age of marriage; from 30 to 40 — the age of performing public duties; from 40 to 50 — knowledge of one’s own delusions; from 50 to 60 — the last period of creative life. Pythagoras compared ages with the seasons and, accordingly, maturity covered the periods of summer (20–40) and autumn (40–60).
Age periodization D.B. Bromley (1966) refers maturity to the fourth cycle and divides them into four stages: 1) early adulthood 21-25 years; 2) average adulthood 25–40 years; 3) late adulthood 40–55 years; 4) pre-retirement age of 55–65 years.
The stages of personality development according to E. Erickson include: early adulthood (from 20 to 40-45 years old), middle adulthood (from 40-45 to 60 years old) and late adulthood (over 60 years old).
The periodization scheme of individual development (BB Bunak, 1965) refers maturity to the second (stable) stage of development, which includes two periods, subdivided into two ages. Adult period: the first age — 22-28 years for men, 21-26 for women and the second age — 29-35 years for men, 27-32 for women. Mature period: the first age is 36-45 years for men, 33-40 years for women and the second age is 46-55 years for men, 41-50 for women.
Eric Erikson theorized that middle age, like other periods of life, presents people with certain developmental tasks and requires them to master certain skills and abilities in order to gain positive experience and find peace of mind in the next stage of life. According to Erickson, the main task of development in middle age is to choose between the stagnation of the ego and what Erickson himself called generativity, i.e., the expansion of ego interests beyond self-interest to wider areas of identification with other people, with the totality of people. in general and with future generations. Elsie Frenkel-Brunswik, based on the results of her research in Austria, came to the conclusion that in middle age people experience the most calm (stabilizing) period of life, reaping the fruits of their efforts expended in younger, but also more restless and stressful years. In middle age, they finally established strong attachments, were determined with a permanent place of residence, chose a life’s work and experienced the most productive periods of professional and creative activity. Her data confirm Erickson’s ideas about this stage.
Analyzing his own life distance, each mature person identifies his own, special age stages of the adult state. For example, a young man after serving in the army feels much more mature than his peers who did not serve in the army. There are also so-called professional boundaries for pilots, operators of certain industries, etc. According to their inner feelings, physically healthy, strong-willed people do not feel any special changes in themselves at the border and 60 years of age. Therefore, it is very difficult to create a psychological periodization of an adult, due to the fact that it is difficult to unequivocally chronologically identify the stages of the maximum flourishing of the personality — acme. The heyday of personality happens at 40, 60 and even 80 years. Some people may even have several such “explosions-ups”.
For a deeper understanding of the characteristics of the psychology of middle-aged people, consider some of the other most important characteristics.
Physiological characteristic. The data we have at our disposal suggest that middle age is the period in which all sensory thresholds increase (and therefore sensitivity decreases). After 30 years, the basal metabolism begins to decrease and the weight of the brain decreases. Reduced blood supply to the pituitary, thyroid, adrenal, pancreas, and gonads results in macroscopic histological changes and, despite an increase in tissue calcium, middle-aged people experience a decrease in physical strength, physical endurance, and physical attractiveness. The height of people also begins to decrease after 30 years; in terms of weight, in men it stabilizes around this time, while women seem to be able to gain weight up to 54 years, in all likelihood due to hormonal changes.
Intelligence. Although Thorndike’s studies have shown that learning capacity peaks between 22 and 25 years of age, Soddy and Kidson’s comparative analysis of numerous studies of age-related changes in mental ability leads to the following conclusion: if we neglect minor fluctuations, the maximum is reached. between the ages of 15 and 29, with all studies finding a slow, continuous decline in most abilities until age 60, when there is a marked acceleration in learning decline. The marked decrease was significantly pronounced in rote memory scores and scores on subtests such as «digital symbols» and «object folding», and much less so in scores on the «vocabulary» and «general awareness» subtests.
Sexuality. With regard to sexual life, it is known that it does not begin simultaneously with the acquisition of the ability to reproduce offspring and does not stop with the loss of this ability. Men who find a high level of sexual activity in their productive years keep it in the postmenopausal period. Similar results obtained in studies of women served as the basis for the assumption that a woman’s state of mind plays no less, and perhaps a greater role in the regulation of sexual desire and sexual behavior in the post-menopausal period than her endocrine system.
With regard to psychological development, studies reveal significant positive changes in the personality of adults moving with age to higher levels of competence, the existence of which was proved by B. Inelder and J. Piaget in The Development of Logical Thinking, higher stages of moral development according to L. Kohlberg, motivational urges of a higher order in the form that K. Kulen described them, and, as R. Veilant suggests, even to other types of defense mechanisms used in difficult situations. In conditions of stress, people of mature age do not lose their cheerful mood, provide assistance to others, think about the future and are in no hurry to respond to current inevitable conflicts. Social development is also characteristic of adulthood.
Self-attitude and its place in the structure of personality. The development of this issue was devoted to the works of V.V. Stolin, I.S. Cohn, R. Burns and others. In domestic and foreign psychology, self-relationship is understood as an emotional component of self-consciousness, which, on the one hand, relies on self-knowledge, and on the other hand, creates the main prerequisites for the formation of self-regulation, self-actualization and self-development. With a positive self-attitude, a person’s acceptance of his own personality as a whole, the experience of a sense of self-confidence, a sense of the value of his “I” are observed. Negative self-attitude is accompanied by a person’s desire to blame himself for his mistakes and failures, expressed by internal conflict, inadequate self-esteem, and intensive use of defense mechanisms.
Value-semantic sphere. Meaningfulness of life is considered as an energy characteristic of the semantic sphere, a measure of the degree and stability of the focus of the subject’s life activity on some meaning. The semantic sphere of personality is characterized by a person’s attitude to himself, the world around him, his own past and future, understanding of life and death in general; provides the subjective activity of the individual, develops and becomes more complicated when the individual is included in various spheres of social activity. The meaning of life is considered as an integrating education in the mental development of a person, which allows him to transform ideas about his own life as a set of individual age stages into a single line of a person’s life. This aspect of life was considered in their works by A.G. Asmolov, B.S. Bratus, F.E. Vasilyuk, A.N. Leontiev, V. Frankl and others.
Socio-political characteristics. Although we live in a society that may be youth-oriented, it is run by middle-aged people who have money, social position, knowledge and skills to compensate for their declining physical assets. Middle age is a period when often women in their family and beyond acquire more influence and significance as holders of power, practical skills and money compared to themselves in their younger years and compared to some middle-aged men with whom they change roles. . Contrary to popular belief about the devaluation of old age in industrial societies, anthropological studies of aging in many cultures show that everywhere middle-aged women (and older women, if they are healthy and do not require care for themselves) become objects of love and respect among their relatives and are perceived as members of the societies that make an important contribution to the quality of life.
Studies of the psychological characteristics of middle-aged people in different countries give different results. The best-known work in this area was presented by Ronald Kessler, a sociologist and Fellow of the J.D. and K.T. MacArthur, who is involved in the harmonious development of a person in middle age (MIDMAC, Foundation Research Network on Successful Midlife Development), as well as the chief manager of scientific projects of the Center for Social Research (Institute for Social Research) at the University of Michigan. R. Kessler believes: “Everything suggests that middle age is the best time of life. Studying the statistics on the US population, you come to the conclusion that the best age for a person is 50 years old. You are not yet worried about the illnesses and ailments of old age, and you are no longer tormented by the anxieties of young people: will anyone love me? Will I ever be successful in my job? The level of general distress is low: the number of depressive and anxiety conditions reaches a minimum at about 35 years of age and does not increase until the end of the seventh decade of life. You are healthy. You are active … Your family relationships are well-established, and the likelihood of divorce is very low. The middle of life is “the very thing” that you aspired to. You can devote your time to being, not becoming” [32, 17].
Researchers who share the point of view of R. Kessler believe that the mid-life crisis is the exception rather than the rule. For the vast majority of people, the transition to middle age occurs quietly and smoothly as youthful dreams of fame, wealth, personal accomplishment, and beauty are replaced by more realistic expectations.
What is the essence of this process in middle-aged people? Such a reorientation primarily involves comparing oneself with people who set themselves similar goals and achieve results in similar professional activities. Moreover, as K. Riff says, “the better your mental health, the less often you compare yourself with people who make you feel inferior.” A mentally healthy person in adulthood, experiencing some kind of difficulties, more often compares himself with people who are in a worse position.
One of the main features of the period of middle adulthood is the extreme subjectivity of a person in assessing his age. However, this does not mean at all that there are no changes at both the psychological and biological levels. Changes occur and entail changes in the personal sphere. In people who have reached the age of middle adulthood, there is a relative decrease in the characteristics of psychophysical functions. However, this does not affect the functioning of the cognitive sphere of a person, does not reduce his performance, allowing him to maintain labor and creative activity. Therefore, contrary to expectations of a decrease in intellectual development after it reaches its peak during adolescence, the development of individual human abilities continues throughout middle age. This is especially true for those of them that are associated with the labor activity of a person and his daily life.