Contents
Problem
What signs of a harmonious personality do people value above and below everything in their intuitive ideas? Are there significant differences in the value ideas of a harmonious personality among young and older people? What could account for these differences, if any? The answers to these questions can shed light on a general understanding of the essence of personal harmony and on the change in the significance of this ideal and its individual components with age.
define
The person here is considered as a manager, i.e. motivating, guiding, organizing and regulating behavior, the center of the psyche, its most important part. It has a biocultural nature, they are born and become it (Motkov O.I., 2008). Value representations are relatively stable, significant ideas of a person about something, not always clearly realized, stored in her experience. They are personal values. Harmony — the optimal ratio of the parts of the whole object and its optimal functioning; also the optimal correlation of the object with the surrounding world, with its influences. Optimality is different for different types of objects and different forms of functioning. For example, the following types of optimality of harmonious ratios are possible: symmetrical, asymmetric — the type of the golden section, the type of brighter asymmetry.
A harmonious personality (HL) is a personality with an optimally integrated internal dynamic structure, with optimal coordination with the outside world, with optimally flowing life and development (Motkov O.I., 2003). In such a personality, all three types of optimality of the ratios of its parameters can be combined, depending on the type of personal characteristics under consideration. The optimality of personal proportions will also be a function of both the work of the subject of the personality (i.e., her operational self, organizing behavior here and now, her «dispatcher»), and a function of largely hereditary types of temperament and character, type and level of intelligence, and others. mental formations.
Experimental technique
Expert opinions were selected on the characteristics of GL by K. Rogers, L.N. Sobchik, Golitsyna G.A. and Petrova V.M., Libina A.V., Rosen R. and other authors, as well as the signs of GL studied in my studies. The result was a list of 20 signs of an ideal GL, which became the core of the methodology «Assessment of signs of a harmonious personality» (Motkov O.I., 2001). Respondents are asked to evaluate on a 5-point scale the significance of each attribute in their imaginary ideal GL (and not in themselves).
List of signs of an ideal harmonious personality
- The predominance of positive emotions and a calm mood
- Good physical health in general
- In general, a positive self-image, although he also sees his minuses
- Healthy and varied lifestyle
- Preferential reliance on oneself in life, and not on external circumstances
- Flexibility in managing your emotions and actions
- A sense of proportion in their desires, claims and actions
- Acceptance of the duality of the World, the presence in it of both light and dark
- Striving for high enough, but not for maximum achievements
- Realism of ideas and desires
- Moderate, unsharp expression of temperament and character traits
- Satisfaction with life in general
- Satisfaction with family relationships
- Satisfaction with relationships with friends
- Satisfaction with relationships at work (in the study group)
- Openness to learning new things, creative activity
- Goodwill towards people
- Feeling the beauty of nature and unity with it
- Predominant orientation towards universal values of the search for truth, goodness, beauty and harmonious life
- The ability to save your life energy
All signs are grouped into 5 generalized indicators: I — OOP — General assessment of all 20 signs (No. 1,2, … 20), II — OB — Optimal Functioning (No. 1,2,4,5,6), III — Mind — Moderation in desires and expressiveness of character traits (No. 7,9,10,11,20), IV — Ud — Satisfaction with life, oneself and relationships with people (No. 3,12,13,14,15), V — MD — Wisdom and Spirituality as creative, moral and aesthetic characteristics of the GL (No. 8,16,17,18,19). Arithmetic averages are calculated for the general (I) and four particular indicators of the methodology (II — V). Correlating the averages for particular factors, we determine the most and least pronounced particular characteristics of the ideal of personal harmony in a given group of subjects or in an individual respondent. The average score of the subject in the BEP in the region of 4,00 points is close to the professional ideas of psychologists.
Then all 20 test scores are ranked. The first five ranks (1-5) indicate the most significant signs of a harmonious personality for the subject, the last five (16-20) are the least significant. A qualitative analysis of the hierarchy of assessments of the traits of the subject (or group) according to their individual significance is carried out. In fact, we get a hierarchy of value ideas of the subject about the characteristics of the harmony of personality and human life. Comparison of value ideas about the harmonious personality of respondents from different groups allows us to determine their group specificity, similarities and differences between them.
It is assumed that the test subjects have intuitive value ideas about GL behind the assessments of signs. On their basis, in the course of evaluation, attribution takes place, attribution to a sign of a certain significance, the projection of value ideas that are important for the respondents themselves onto the ideal image of a harmonious personality. In fact, the values of the subject in relation to personal harmony are studied.
Several studies have been conducted with subjects of different age and gender groups. One of them is briefly described in this article.
Study groups
A study of ideas about GL was carried out in 170 subjects of four age groups. Young — age 17-20 years, 73 students of humanitarian universities, of which 55 are female and 18 are male (2002-2009, Moscow). Maturing — 21-30 years old, 55 people: 36 women and 19 men with higher and incomplete higher education (2002-2009, Moscow and Kaluga). Mature — 31-44 years, 20h. and Very mature — 45-61 years, 22h. — in these senior groups there are 22 women and 20 men (separately in subgroups — approximately in half) with higher, incomplete higher and secondary (9 people) education (2002-2004, Moscow, Moscow Region and Kaluga). The names of the groups are given conditionally, primarily taking into account their biological age.
The results
Very interesting facts have been obtained. There are no significant differences at all according to the Mann-Whitney U test between the estimates of GL signs in Young and Maturing! Therefore, they can be combined into one group of the Ripening — 17-30 years old, 128 people = 91g + 37m. There are no significant differences in perceptions of GL between the groups of Mature and Very Mature! We combine them into a general group of Mature — 31-61 years old, 42 hours = 22g + 20m.
At the same time, between the combined groups of Mature (128 hours, 17-30 years old) and Mature (42 hours, 31-61 years old) 20 significant differences out of 25 possible were found! methods. Differences are especially great according to the signs of Wisdom-Spirituality of MD (significance level p=0,00003), Optimal Functioning of SP (p=0,00024) and Temperance of Mind (p=0,0009). Mature people appreciate these qualities of a harmonious personality significantly higher than the Ripening ones.
Thus, the nature of the assessment of HL signs remains approximately the same in the “ripening” period of life from 17 to 30 years. Then, after 30, it changes significantly, there is a jump in the estimates of importance (and, consequently, in value) of most signs of a harmonious personality towards their significant increase. Further, from 31 to 61 years old, the respondents’ value representations remain high, relatively constant, stable, almost unchanged throughout the entire period of maturity studied. At this time of true adulthood, the values of personal harmony become, on the whole, significantly more important than in the previous, as it were, preparatory, “ripening” period of their development.
In the hierarchy of particular GL factors, the following changes are observed in terms of significance: in the Mature, the indicator of Wisdom-Spirituality turned out to be in the 1st place — 4,343 points (in the Mature ones, it is only in the 3rd place — 3,88 points), and the factor of Satisfaction with relationships and life moved to the 3rd place — 4,22 b. (At Ripening, it is in 1st place — 4,05 b.). The Optimal Functioning Index in both groups is in the same 2nd place (respectively, in Mature — 4,338 points and in Maturing — 4,02 points), and the Moderation indicator in both groups is in the last 4th place (respectively, in Mature — 3,95 .3,55 b., in the Ripening — 4,21 b.). The overall average score of GL signs (PLO) in Mature is 3,87 b, in Maturing — XNUMX b.
Those. the Mature in the 1st place were the broad spiritual values of moral, aesthetic and creative interaction with people and nature, holistic — interesting and diverse, and at the same time realistic — functioning, and among the Ripening ahead we see signs of personal well-being, satisfaction with relationships with the closest environment With friends, at work, at home.
Particularly large differences between Mature and Ripening according to the U-criterion (at the level of p = 0,000 …), with a significantly higher score in the former, were found in the following points of the methodology: 4 — Healthy and varied lifestyle; 7 — A sense of proportion in their aspirations; 10 — Realism of ideas and desires; 17 — Goodwill and openness to people. Very significant differences can be traced on many other points (except for signs of Satisfaction with relationships and life).
The discussion of the results
So, the data show the slow and specific nature of the development of the values of personal harmony and familiarization with them among today’s youth. They practically do not change from the age of 17 to 30 and finally “ripen”, becoming very important only after 30. In the first place among the Ripening are the characteristics of satisfaction with relationships with close people. This fact reflects the greatest importance at this age of communication with friends, which helps their self-determination, natural aspirations to find a second half, build a family, have children, and make friends at work. According to Erickson, this is a period of importance of intimacy, friendship, and cooperation (Erickson E., 1993). And I want everything at once. Therefore, the characteristics of moderation are relegated to the background and valued the least (a manifestation of «youthful maximalism»?).
In the period of 31-44 years, the most interesting thing happens — a significant shift towards an increase in the significance of most of the signs of HL, i.e. the value of signs of personal harmony is growing significantly. Further, with age, the value of their assessment remains approximately the same. The significance of the group of attributes of Wisdom-spirituality (moral, creative and aesthetic values, acceptance of the duality of the world), as well as the qualities of Optimal Functioning (first of all, a harmonious lifestyle) and Moderation in achievements and expression of emotions (sense of proportion, realism in desires and etc.). In my opinion, in the Mature in the period of 31-44 years there is a shift towards proper personal maturity, which is expressed primarily in a change in human values in the direction of increasing the importance of spiritual qualities and traits of wisdom, as well as the characteristics of moderation and harmony of lifestyle. They value these “existential values” much more than the Ripening Ones (according to A. Maslow). At the same time, their values paradoxically combine high ideal aspirations and the importance of realistic and moderate self-organization of behavior. The latter can be considered a manifestation of growing wisdom (“… a wise man is stronger than the stars, because he conquers his passions” — Thomas Aquinas / J. “Science and Religion”, 1991, No. 10, p. 12).
This period is exactly one of the “… the most significant crises … the mid-life crisis (between 35 and 40 years). According to E. Erickson, it is associated with reflection, analysis of achievements and mistakes … as well as with the assessment of one’s ability to self-actualize in the remaining period of time ”(Psychology of Development. Edited by T.D. Martsinkovskaya. M .: Academy, 2001, p. 241). Apparently, for my subjects, this crisis ends with the strengthening of the spiritual component of their values and the desire to live in accordance with them.
Interestingly, B. Livehud considers the period from 20 to 40 years to be the middle (“expansive”) phase of life (Livehud B., 1994, p. 48). According to my data, this average period, in terms of the development of personal maturity, spiritual values (which are “beyond pure necessity” — ibid., p. 48), begins today not from 20 years old, but only after 30. On the other hand, Livehud notes that at 40 years there is a “big turn” in life, “a transition to a new dominant of values” (ibid., p. 73). “Whoever, already in the middle phase of life, has developed an interest in art, science, nature or social activities, he will almost imperceptibly go through a big turn in his life after forty years. On the other side of the threshold, he will be able to draw more and more strength for life from a spiritual source. Who, however, in the middle phase of life pursued only personal success, proceeded only from himself … or who passively lived by his work or life circumstances, he enters an existential crisis after the fortieth year of life and becomes a tragic person by the mid-fifties, feeling sadness for the old good times, feeling threatened in everything new” (Livehud B., 1994, pp. 48-49). Most of my respondents aged 31-44, as we have seen, are turning their interests towards spiritual values and towards greater wisdom. We can assume that, axeologically, they overcame the midlife crisis in a positive way. In the older group of 45-61 years, existential values retain their high significance and there is no longer any reassessment of values. There is, as it were, their conservation, rooting in the personality. B. Livehud writes that «spiritual development is decisive for the last phase of life» (ibid., p. 49). However, the results of my experiment allow us to say that such development in the studied groups occurs most intensively in the period of 31-44 years, and not after it.
How can we explain the nature of the shifts in the values of a harmonious personality and the corresponding values found in the study among our subjects?
On the one hand, there is a natural age-related maturation of neurostructures that are also responsible for personal manifestations, their subsequent “freezing” and aging, which leads to a decrease in the speed of information processing, an increase in the inertia of views in the period of maturity and old age. According to the researchers of the Big Five, such superfactors of personality, close to spiritual characteristics, as “readiness for consent (goodwill)” and “consciousness”, mature only by the age of 30 and are more pronounced in older age groups (Pervin L.A., John O P. Personality Psychology: Theory and Research, Moscow: Aspect Press, 2001, pp. 294-295).
On the other hand, it should be taken into account that in our society about 20 years ago, during the transition to the Russian form of capitalism, a gradual shift in family, social and personal values began to occur. People are now more focused only on their desires, on material goods and maximum achievements, they value their autonomy more highly. The protracted pursuit of these, in fact, selfish and individualized values, possibly leads to infantilization, slowing down the process of formation of the highest values of the individual, to its delay, as it were, at the teenage stage in the period of 17-30 years. These respondents, who were born after 1980 and who to some extent absorbed the new socio-economic and psychological atmosphere of society, can already be considered children of perestroika and post-perestroika. The test groups of Mature (31-61 years old), for the most part, lived through their youth period back in Soviet times, when open aspirations for material enrichment and distance from other people were not yet very encouraged in society.
It is possible that the determining cause is both the first and the second. Which of these hypothetically causal factors have more weight — the biological factors of the maturation of neurostructures responsible for the manifestation of value ideas and their subsequent stabilization (i.e., the age factor), or the sociocultural factor of changes in the economic system, family and social values - can only be shown by a special study . In particular, it would make sense to conduct an experiment similar to mine in 2015-2025 with people aged 31-45. By that time, they will also be people who have experienced a difficult “perestroika childhood”. The calculation of the significance of differences according to the Mann-Whitney U criterion between the group of perestroika and post-perestroika Maturing subjects (17-30 years old) and this group of new perestroika Mature subjects will also show whether there are significant differences in their value ideas of personal harmony or not. Since the groups will be equalized in terms of the possible influence on their values of the common socio-cultural perestroika factor, all the differences found in the future experiment can be safely attributed to the influence of the age factor. If there are no significant differences in the values of the GL between the Ripening and the new Mature, then the differences that I found between the value ideas about the GL of the Ripening and the Mature can be explained primarily by the influence of the sociocultural factor on the nature of the values of the Mature, and not by the biologically fueled age crisis and ripening in followed by a preference for spiritual values.
I hope that this kind of new study of the magnitude of the values of personal harmony among «perestroika and post-perestroika» subjects of different ages will be carried out.
Probably, the age of expert psychologists also influences the assessment of the qualities of a harmonious personality. All of them wrote about personal harmony already in adulthood. The qualities they singled out, perhaps, are internally closer to the ideas of the subjects of the Mature group. Although the formation of the personality of some experts took place in capitalist, and not in Soviet society (K. Rogers and A. Maslow).
In general, the assessments of the characteristics of a harmonious personality in the entire experimental group (170 people, 113g and 57m) are quite high, which confirms the validity of the signs proposed by the experts: The overall assessment of the significance of the signs of HL is 3,96 p. (74%), Optimal Functioning — 4,10 p.p. (78%), Moderation — 3,65 p.p. (67%), Satisfaction with relationships — 4,10 p.p. (78%), Wisdom-Spirituality — 3,99 p.p. (75%).
The method «Assessment of signs of a harmonious personality» can be used to study such an important aspect of personality maturity as the value of psychological harmony. A high assessment of the GL signs, especially on the factors of MD, OB and Moderation, will indicate a fairly high personal maturity of the respondent.
Literature
- Golitsyn G.A., Petrov V.M. Harmony and Algebra of Living: In Search of Biological Principles of Optimality. Moscow: Knowledge, 1990
- Libin A.V. Differential psychology: At the intersection of European, Russian and American traditions. M.: Meaning, 2000, 549 p.
- Livehud B. Crises of life — the chances of life. Human development between childhood and old age. Kaluga: Spiritual knowledge, 1994
- Motkov O.I. Methodology «Assessment of signs of a harmonious personality.» M., 2001. http://psychology.rsuh.ru/archive/motarticle15.doc
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- Pervin L.A., John O.P. Psychology of Personality: Theory and Research. Moscow: Aspect Press, 2001, p. 294 — 295
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