During the period of human development, his personal qualities, worldview and thinking are formed. In the process of such formation, factors influencing the development of personality are identified. Moreover, such factors are divided into 2 categories: internal and external.

But this is a rather rough division, since the number of factors is quite impressive. Some order is required. For this purpose, a certain classification is created. Initially, the classification is not specified, but only the main factors are identified into groups. But given the huge number of these preconditions for personality formation, they are divided according to

• sources of reconstruction;
• nature of appearance.

At the same time, there is a broad interpretation even of the groups themselves.

For example, the famous Austrian psychologist Z. Freud pointed out the presence of subconscious factors that influence a person, but are hidden.

Modern ideologists insist on the presence of a borderline type of factors. That is, those that are not internal or external to their fullest extent. Proponents of the theory of existential personality formation are

• Albert Camus;
• Karl Jaspers;
• Jean-Paul Sartre.

A striking example of understanding such aspects is the modeling of a situation of “forced” personal freedom.

Personality types

Factors that determine personality development are usually divided according to the degree of activity of their influence on a person. And from this we can draw conclusions about personality types. Among them are the following:

• A modal type is a type personal characteristics, formed fully on the basis of accents generally accepted for culture, locality, mentality and a particular society. In essence, this is a type that is intensively influenced by external factors that have been created by society and the environment for centuries.
• Basic type - personality characteristics that undergo a process of formation due to external factors with a direction towards a clear social adaptation. Here the key positions are occupied by the arguments put forward by the family, the team, and the established system of education and training.
• Marginal type is a type in which the factors of development and personality formation cannot be clearly and clearly classified and identified which particular group influences a person in to a greater extent. It is in such a person that an example of borderline factors is displayed.

But these are all rules with some exceptions. Psychologists distinguish the so-called cumulative method of influence of factors. This means that even despite the pronounced features in the formation of personalities of a particular region, one or another social group, there are ambiguous situations and circumstances.

It is under the influence of the latter that the intensity of the influence of some factors becomes stronger, while others begin to be expressed to a lesser extent. For example, in a military situation, the main ones will be reactive factors. This is a situation where a person does not know what may happen tomorrow. As a result, he lets everything take its course and does not plan anything, does not try to predict. But at the same time, active type factors can be activated. And this manifests itself in perseverance, determination, the desire to set goals and achieve them, and confidence in one’s rightness.

Types of factors influencing personality formation

At the same time, it is worth understanding that the factors influencing the development of personality lie in the field of view of psychology, pedagogy, philosophy, political science, and sociology. But despite the different tasks of these sciences, it is customary to distinguish the main types of factors:

• biological, which are embedded in genetic memory and determined by the development of humans as a species of mammal;
• environmental factors, namely: place, geographical or climatic features residence and development of the individual;
• cultural, that is, resulting from social partnership, communication, imprints of stereotypes of a particular society or social group;
• individual - those that are formed on the basis of personal opinions, judgments and acquired life experience of a particular person. It is on their basis that a person forms his attitude towards people, situations, and himself, using evaluative criteria that only he understands.

“To talk about the predominance of one or another type of factor in society will not be correct. Society, its understanding of reality, and the historical situation are changing. This leads to different dynamics of the influence of factors in the formation of personality on a person.”

environmental factors (family, cultural factors)

genetic (mediated at a certain stage)

climatic conditions and dietary style

random factors (10)

The basis of personal cognition, and therefore the formation of a person as an individual, are mental processes: sensation, perception, representation, thinking, imagination, attention, memory, emotions, feelings, will. Sometimes speech is added to this list.

The entire set of specified mental processes in the literature it is often divided into groups;

1. Cognitive (sensation, perception, representation, thinking, imagination, attention).

2. Mnemonic (memory).

3. Emotional-volitional (emotions, feelings, will) (5).

Main factors of personality development

What reasons influence the development of personality, lead to its decline, and what reasons contribute to its development? Personal development has a certain influence the nature surrounding her(habitat). Here we can state the undeniable fact that temperate climate for personal development is more favorable than the harsh climate of the north and hot climate tropics.

It is unlikely that anyone will dispute, along with climate, the importance of other meteorological as well as geographical conditions. Great deserts, unsuitable for human life, and all those areas where a person has to spend a lot of strength and energy fighting the surrounding nature are not conducive to the development of personality. Likewise, unfavorable soil and meteorological conditions, characterized by the endemic development of certain common diseases, cannot but have a detrimental effect on the development of the individual, worsening the physical health of the body.

The first and main condition proper development personality is the nature of the organism, the heritage of its fathers or those anthropological features that form the basis for the development of personality.

Hardly anyone can doubt meaning of race in the above respect. The best example is the fact that of the three human races, the black, despite its numerousness, has not reached the same degree of cultural development as the other two races.

Another example of influence anthropological features on the development of the individual are the peoples of ancient Hellas, who achieved an amazing culture and no less amazing personal development and then died due to special historical conditions. Despite the fact that the same geographical conditions remained as in Greece and past centuries, despite the fact that the center of civilization still remains, as before, on the European mainland, the modern Greeks, due to the new anthropological characteristics they acquired during the period of long slavery, apparently do not promise to become the great people that they undoubtedly were in ancient times.

Another factor that influences personality development deserves no less attention. This - biological factor, associated with the conditions of conception and development of the human body.

In any case, one cannot fail to take into account the fact that only the harmonious development of body and spirit ensures the correct improvement of the personality. If physical development is naturally weak, if a person from an early age is exposed to physical adversity and a number of common infectious diseases, especially with a protracted course, if at the same time he develops such general painful lesions rooted in insufficient and improper nutrition of the body as anemia, scrofula, rickets and others, then the full flowering of the personality will be delayed to one degree or another.

Personal development has a significant impact unfavorable economic conditions, consistently leading to physical weakening of the body, fundamentally undermining the body’s nutrition and disrupting the proper development of the brain, and, consequently, the personality.

Further, an important factor leading to personality development is social activities. Where not social activities, not there full development personality. Without social activity, a person stops at a certain stage of his development; she is a passive member of society, deprived of that initiative that serves as the key to the normal development of social life and the sustainable development of statehood. Peoples whose social activities are absent or poorly developed prepare in their midst less developed and more passive individuals compared to other peoples, which ultimately affects all branches of culture.

To this it must be added that the natural consequence of the absence of properly organized social activity in the form of self-government is idleness and inactivity, which is especially found in this case. favorable conditions predominantly in the wealthier classes of society. Meanwhile, idleness, no matter what it is caused by, naturally leads to a decrease in mental performance, to an irreparable loss of mental material during inactivity, to insufficient improvement of neuropsychic mechanisms, which is also proven, among other things, by psychometric studies. Idleness also leads to moral and physical degeneration, especially if it is accompanied by its natural companions - alcoholism, drug addiction, depraved acts and other excesses. Gradually, personality degradation occurs.

In terms of personal development, they deserve no less attention education and training.

Just as proper physical nutrition is necessary for the proper development of the body, spiritual nutrition is necessary for mental development, which leads to personal development. It is clear that for the integral development of the individual, proper upbringing and training constitute an essential basis.

It should be especially emphasized that the foundations of a future personality are formed in preschool age, and, therefore, correct and rational education should begin from the first days of a person’s life. Otherwise, significant changes may occur in the character of the individual, his worldview (due to certain conditions), which in the future may negatively affect both the person himself and the people around him.

The correct direction of mental development also plays an important role in the formation of personality. Since ignorance and lack of education leads to underdevelopment of the individual.

Education is understood as the purposeful development of each growing person as a unique human individual, ensuring the growth and improvement of the moral and creative powers of this person.

The real basis of personality is that special structure of the subject’s total activities that arises at a certain stage in the development of his human connections with the world.

Personality formation involves development goal setting process and, accordingly, the development of the subject’s actions. Actions, becoming more and more enriched, seem to outgrow the range of activities that they implement and come into conflict with the motives that gave rise to them. As a result, there is a shift of motives to goals, a change in their hierarchy and the birth of new motives - new types of activities; previous goals are psychologically discredited, and the actions corresponding to them either cease to exist altogether or turn into impersonal operations.

Of course, the formation of personality is a continuous process, consisting of a number of successively changing stages, the qualitative features of which depend on specific conditions and circumstances.

Personality as a social individual always fulfills a certain set of public functions. Each of these functions is carried out through a unique social behavior, constructed in the form of well-known behavioral procedures and the motivations that determine them. These procedures, motives and social functions of the individual as a whole are determined by the norms of morality, law and other phenomena of social development. Any human activity is carried out in a system of object-subject relations, that is, social connections and interrelations that form a person as a social being - a person, subject and object of the historical process.

Of the numerous, including not yet fully resolved, issues of personality development, we will focus on one problem that is important both from a philosophical and from a specific scientific point of view, namely the problem of the driving force of human development. In the process of development, the body's blind forces of attraction turn into conscious needs, instinctive adaptation to nature and the social environment becomes more and more conscious and systematic, including not only adaptation to reality, but also its transformation.

It is known that development is a constant struggle of opposites found in every at the moment in a certain temporary unity.

Since a person reflects and expresses social relations, he is not independent in his behavior and activities. Being an object, a person is at the same time a subject of knowledge and practice. The degree of independence, of course, varies from person to person. It, first of all, depends on the history of their development, on political-economic and socio-pedagogical conditions, as well as on the level that a person has reached in the process of development. Independence– one of the most important prerequisites for the correct formation of personality.

Social conditions shape personality as a system of relationships. They determine both the content of personality and its structure and form.

The formation of a person as an individual requires from society a constant and consciously organized improvement of the system of public education, overcoming stagnant, traditional, spontaneously formed forms.

Personality form characterize the peculiarities of the way it implements its content, its relationships. Decisiveness or indecisiveness, courage or cowardice, constancy or instability, hardness or pliability, integrity or inconsistency, harmony or internal contradiction - all these are external manifestations, form, and the relationship of various components of the content of personality.

The formation of a person as an individual is associated with a relatively high level of neuropsychic development, which is necessary internal condition this becoming.

Personal development is, first of all, its social development. Social development leads to mental development. But this latter has a strong influence on the social development of the psyche, prepares and anticipates the future social development of the individual, and determines its usefulness.

Personality – multifaceted, multi-level, multi-quality education. Part of her mental life proceeds at an unconscious level, at the level of the free flow of associations, spontaneously formed impulses, involuntary “movements of the soul,” etc. But as the personality, developing, masters more and more advanced ways of transforming the world around her, she acts more as a subject not only of his behavior, but also of his inner world, his mental life. The main characteristic of the subject is a person’s experience of himself as a sovereign source of activity, capable, within certain limits, of intentionally carrying out changes in the world around him and himself.

Typically, the formation of personality is attributed to later periods of a person’s life - adolescence, adulthood, and sometimes to preschool age. However, personality is not just discovered at a certain stage of human development, but is built gradually, so it is necessary to look for its origins at the earliest stages ontogeny.

Soon after the birth of a child, events occur that are important for the formation of his future personality: the formation of communication during contacts with his immediate environment. Communication is directly related to the development of children’s personality because even in its original direct emotional form it leads to the establishment of connections between the child and the people around him and turns out to be the first component of that ensemble public relations, which constitutes the essence of personality.

When identifying the concept of “individual” in personality psychology, first of all, they answer the question in what way a given person is similar to all other people, that is, they indicate what unites a given person with the human species. The concept of “individual” should not be confused with the opposite concept of “individuality”, with the help of which the answer is given to the question of how a given person differs from all other people. “Individual” means something whole, indivisible. When characterizing “personality,” they also mean “integrity,” but one that is born in society. One is born an individual, but one becomes a person. (A.N. Leontiev, S.L. Rubinstein)

In the development of personality, the following three points are distinguished:: individual human properties as prerequisites for personality development, socio-historical way of life as a source of personality development and joint activity as the basis for the implementation of a person’s life in the system of social relations. Behind each of these points are different and as yet insufficiently correlated areas of personality study.

Formation and development of personality determined by the totality of the conditions of social existence in a given historical era. Personality is the object of many economic, political, legal, moral and other influences on a person of society at a given moment of its historical development, therefore, at a given stage of development of a given socio-economic formation, in a certain country with its national composition.

Personal development represents the process of formation of increasingly complex, enriching, deepening connections with reality, accumulation in the brain of the potential for actions and experiences. Personal development is the development of the psyche, which means it is the development and complication of mental processes and the accumulation of experience - mental potential. Experience is carried out in the form of accumulation:

3. 
   The formation of human personality is influenced by external and internal, biological and social factors. Factor (from Latin factor - doing, producing) is the driving force, the cause of any process, phenomenon (S. I. Ozhegov).
   Internal factors include the individual’s own activity, generated by contradictions, interests and other motives, realized in self-education, as well as in activity and communication.
   External factors include the macroenvironment, meso- and microenvironment, natural and social, education in the broad and narrow social and pedagogical sense.
   Environment and upbringing are social factors, while heredity is a biological factor.
   There have long been discussions among philosophers, sociologists, psychologists and teachers about the relationship between biological and social factors, about the priority importance of one or another in the development of a person’s personality.
   Some argue that a person, his consciousness, abilities, interests and needs are determined by heredity (E. Thorndike, D. Dewey, A. Kobe, etc.). Representatives of this trend elevate hereditary factors (biological) to absolutes and deny the role of environment and upbringing (social factors) in the development of personality. They mistakenly transfer achievements biological science about the heredity of plants and animals on the human body. It's about on the recognition of innate abilities.
   Other scientists believe that development depends entirely on the influence of the environment and upbringing (D. Locke, J.-J. Rousseau, K. A. Helvetius, etc.) They deny a person’s genetic predisposition and argue that a child from birth is a “blank slate , on which you can write everything,” that is, development depends on upbringing and environment.
   Some scientists (D. Diderot) believe that development is determined by an equal combination of the influence of heredity, environment and upbringing.
   K. D. Ushinsky argued that a person becomes a person not only under the influence of heredity, environment and upbringing, but also as a result of his own activities, ensuring the formation and improvement of personal qualities. A person is not only a product of heredity and the circumstances in which his life takes place, but also an active participant in changing and improving circumstances. By changing circumstances, a person changes himself.
   Let us consider in more detail the essential side of the influence of leading factors on the development and formation of personality.
   Some authors, as noted above, assign a decisive role to biological factor- heredity. Heredity is the ability of organisms to transmit certain qualities and characteristics from parents to children. Heredity is determined by genes (translated from Greek “gene” means “giving birth”). Science has proven that the properties of an organism are encrypted in a kind of gene code that stores and transmits all information about the properties of the organism. Genetics has deciphered the hereditary program of human development. It has been established that it is heredity that determines what is common that makes a person human, and what is different that makes people so different from each other. What does a person inherit? The following are inherited from parents to children: anatomical and physiological structure, reflecting the specific characteristics of an individual as a representative of the human race (Homo sapiens): the inclinations of speech, upright walking, thinking, labor activity; physical characteristics: external racial characteristics, body type, constitution, facial features, hair, eye, skin color; physiological characteristics: metabolism, blood pressure and blood group, Rh factor, stages of maturation of the body; peculiarities nervous system: structure of the cerebral cortex and its peripheral apparatus (visual, auditory, olfactory, etc.), features of nervous processes that determine the nature and certain type highest nervous activity; anomalies in the development of the body: color blindness (color blindness), “cleft lip”, “cleft palate”; predisposition to certain hereditary diseases: hemophilia (blood disease), diabetes mellitus, schizophrenia, endocrine disorders (dwarfism, etc.).
   It is necessary to distinguish congenital human characteristics associated with changes in the genotype from acquired ones, which were the result of unfavorable conditions during life. For example, complications after an illness, physical injuries or oversights during the development of a child, violations of the diet, labor, hardening of the body, etc. Deviation or change in the psyche can occur as a result of subjective factors: fear, severe nervous shock, drunkenness and immoral acts parents, other negative phenomena. Acquired changes are not inherited. If the genotype is not changed, then some congenital traits are also not inherited. individual characteristics of a person associated with his uterine development. These include many anomalies caused by such reasons as intoxication, radiation, the influence of alcohol, birth injuries, etc.
   An extremely important question is whether intellectual, special and moral qualities are inherited? And what do children inherit - ready-made abilities for a certain type of activity or just inclinations?
   It has been established that only inclinations are inherited. Makings are the anatomical and physiological characteristics of the body, which are prerequisites for the development of abilities. Inclinations provide a predisposition to a particular activity.
   There are two types of makings:
   - universal (structure of the brain, central nervous system,
   receptors);
   - individual (typological properties of the nervous system, on which the rate of formation of temporary connections, their strength, strength depends
   concentrated attention, mental performance; individual structural features of analyzers, individual areas of the cerebral cortex, organs, etc.).
   Abilities are individual characteristics of a person, which are subjective conditions for the successful implementation of a certain type of activity. Abilities are not reduced to knowledge, skills and abilities. They are revealed in the speed, depth and strength of mastering methods and techniques of activity. High level of development of abilities - talent, genius.
   Some scientists adhere to the concept of innate abilities (S. Burt, H. Eysenck, etc.). Most domestic specialists - physiologists, psychologists, teachers - consider abilities as lifetime formations, formed in the process of activity and as a result of upbringing. It is not abilities that are inherited, but only inclinations. The inclinations inherited by a person can either be realized or not. Being an individual-natural basis of abilities, inclinations are important, but insufficient condition their development. In the absence of appropriate external conditions and adequate activity, abilities may not develop even if there are favorable inclinations. The lack of early achievements may indicate not a lack of abilities, but rather an inadequacy of the organization of activity and education to the existing inclinations.
   The question of inheritance of abilities for intellectual (cognitive, educational) activity raises especially heated discussions.
   Some scientists believe that all people receive from nature high potential opportunities for the development of their mental and cognitive powers and are capable of practically unlimited spiritual development. The existing differences in the types of higher nervous activity change only the course of thought processes, but do not predetermine the quality and level of intellectual activity itself. They do not agree with the idea that intelligence is passed on from parents to children. At the same time, these scientists recognize that heredity can adversely affect the development of intellectual abilities. Negative predispositions are created by brain cells in children of alcoholics, disrupted genetic structures in drug addicts, and some hereditary mental illness.
   Another group of scientists considers the existence of intellectual inequality of people to be a proven fact. The cause of inequality is considered to be biological heredity. Hence the conclusion: intellectual abilities remain unchanged and constant.
   Understanding the process of inheriting intellectual inclinations is very important, since it predetermines the practical ways of educating and training people. Modern pedagogy focuses not on identifying differences and adapting education to them, but on creating conditions for the development of the inclinations that each person has.
   An important issue is the inheritance of special inclinations and moral qualities. Special inclinations for a specific type of activity are called special. Special inclinations include musical, artistic, mathematical, linguistic, sports, etc. It has been established that people with special inclinations achieve higher results and advance more at a fast pace in the relevant field of activity. Special inclinations may appear already in early age, if created necessary conditions.
   Special abilities are inherited. In the history of mankind there have been many hereditary talents. It is known, for example, that J. S. Bach had 18 famous musicians in five generations of his ancestors. Many talented people was in the family of Charles Darwin.
   Particularly significant is the question of the inheritance of moral qualities and psyche. For a long time the prevailing assertion was that mental qualities are not inherited, but acquired in the process of interaction of the organism with external environment. Social essence personality, her moral qualities are formed only during life.
   It was believed that a person is born neither evil nor good, nor stingy, nor generous, nor a villain or a criminal. Children do not inherit the moral qualities of their parents; human genetic programs do not contain information about social behavior. What a person becomes depends on his environment and upbringing.
   At the same time, such prominent scientists as M. Montessori, K. Lorenz, E. Fromm argue that human moral qualities are biologically determined. Moral qualities, behavior, habits and even actions are passed on from generation to generation - both positive and negative (“the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree”). The basis for such conclusions is data obtained from the study of human and animal behavior. According to the teachings of I.P. Pavlov, both animals and humans have instincts and reflexes that are inherited. The behavior of not only animals, but also humans in some cases is instinctive, reflexive, based not on higher consciousness, but on the simplest biological reflexes. This means that moral qualities and behavior can be inherited.
   This question is very complex and responsible. IN lately position on the genetic determination of morality and social behavior people are occupied by domestic scientists (P.K. Anokhin, N.M. Amosov, etc.).
   In addition to heredity, the determining factor in personality development is the environment. The environment is the reality in which human development occurs. The formation of personality is influenced by the geographical, national, school, family, and social environment. The concept of “social environment” includes such characteristics as social system, system industrial relations, material living conditions, the nature of production and social processes etc.
   The question of whether environment or heredity has a greater influence on human development remains debatable. The French philosopher C. A. Helvetius believed that all people from birth have the same potential for mental and moral development, and differences in mental characteristics are explained solely by the influence of the environment and educational influences. The environment is understood in this case metaphysically; it fatally predetermines the fate of a person. A person is considered as a passive object of environmental influence.
   Thus, all scientists recognize the influence of the environment on the formation of a person. Only their views on assessing the degree of influence of the environment on the formation of personality do not coincide. This is due to the fact that there is no abstract medium. There is a specific social system, a person’s specific immediate and distant surroundings, specific living conditions. It is clear that a person achieves more high level development in an environment where favorable conditions have been created.
   An important factor influencing human development is communication. Communication is one of the universal forms of personality activity (along with cognition, work, play), manifested in the establishment and development of contacts between people, in the formation interpersonal relationships.
   A person becomes a person only through communication and interaction with other people. Outside human society, spiritual, social, and mental development cannot occur. The interaction of a person with society, as is known, is called socialization.
   Socialization of the individual is an objective phenomenon observed in the life of every person when he begins to live independently in society. Like any social phenomenon, socialization is multidimensional and therefore is studied by many sciences: sociology, cultural studies, ethnography, history, psychology, pedagogy, etc.
   In addition to those listed above, an important factor influencing the formation of personality is upbringing. Education in a broad social sense is often identified with socialization. Although the logic of their relations could be characterized as the relation of the whole to the particular. Is socialization a process? social development human as a result of spontaneous and organized influences of the entire set of factors of social existence. Education is considered by most researchers as one of the factors of human development, which is a system of purposeful formative influences, interactions and relationships carried out in various fields social existence. Education is a process of purposeful and consciously controlled socialization (family, religious, school education); it acts as a unique mechanism for managing socialization processes.
   Education allows you to overcome or weaken the consequences of negative influences on socialization, give it a humanistic orientation, and attract scientific potential for forecasting and designing pedagogical strategies and tactics. The social environment can influence unintentionally, spontaneously, but the educator purposefully guides development in the conditions of a specially organized educational system.
   Personal development is possible only in activity. In the process of life, a person constantly participates in a wide variety of activities - gaming, educational, cognitive, labor, social, political, artistic, creative, sports, etc.
   Acting as a form of being and a way of human existence, activity: ensures the creation of material conditions for human life; contributes to the satisfaction of natural human needs;
   promotes knowledge and transformation of the surrounding world;
   is a development factor spiritual world person, the form and condition for the realization of his cultural needs;
   enables a person to realize his personal potential and achieve life goals;
   creates conditions for human self-realization in the system of social relations.
   It should be borne in mind that personality development with the same external conditions largely depends on her own efforts, on the energy and efficiency that she shows in various types activities.
   Collective activities have a great influence on the development of personality. Scientists recognize that, on the one hand, under certain conditions, the collective neutralizes the individual, and on the other hand, the development and manifestation of individuality is possible only in the collective. Collective activity contributes to the manifestation creative potential personality, the role of the collective is indispensable in the formation of the ideological and moral orientation of the individual, his civic position, in emotional development.
   Self-education plays a great role in the development of personality. Self-education begins with awareness and acceptance of an objective goal as a subjective, desirable motive for one’s activity. The subjective setting of a specific goal of behavior or activity generates a conscious effort of will, the determination of a plan of activity. The implementation of this goal ensures personal development.
   Thus, the process and results of human development are determined by various factors - both biological and social. Factors of development and personality formation do not act in isolation, but in combination. Under different circumstances various factors may have a greater or lesser impact on personality development. According to most authors, in the system of factors, if not the decisive, then the leading role belongs to education.
   Questions for self-control What is personality development? What are driving forces personality development? How do socialization, education and personality development relate? What factors determine personality development? How does activity influence personality development?
   Basic literature Slastenin V. A., Kashirin V. P. Psychology and pedagogy: Textbook. aid for students higher textbook establishments. M., 2001. Likhachev B. Pedagogy: Course of lectures. 3rd ed. M., 1999. Kharlamov I. F. Pedagogy. Minsk, 2001.
   Additional literature Voronov V.V. Pedagogy in a nutshell (compendium). 3rd ed. M., 1999. Gessen S.I. Fundamentals of Pedagogy: Introduction to Applied Philosophy. M., 1995. Kon I. S. Child and society. M., 1988. Kotova I.V., Shiyanov E.N. Socialization and education. Rostov-on-Don, 1997.
   Dubinin N.P. What is a person. M., 1983.

   Factors influencing personality formation

   The formation of human personality is influenced by external And internal, biological And social factors. Factor(from lat. factor-doing, producing) is the driving force, the cause of any process, phenomenon (S.I. Ozhegov).

   TO internal factors refers to the individual’s own activity, generated by contradictions, interests and other motives, realized in self-education, as well as in activity and communication.

   TO external factors include the macroenvironment, meso- and microenvironment, natural and social, education in the broad and narrow social and pedagogical sense.

   Environment and upbringing are social factors, whereas heredity is biological factor.

   There have long been discussions among philosophers, sociologists, psychologists and teachers about the relationship between biological and social factors, about the priority importance of one or another in the development of a person’s personality.

   Some argue that a person, his consciousness, abilities, interests and needs are determined by heredity (E. Thorndike, D. Dewey, A. Kobe, etc.). Representatives of this trend elevate hereditary factors (biological) to absolutes and deny the role of environment and upbringing (social factors) in the development of personality. They mistakenly transfer the achievements of biological science about the heredity of plants and animals to the human body. It's about recognizing innate abilities.

   Other scientists believe that development depends entirely on the influence of the environment and upbringing (D. Locke, J.-J. Rousseau, K. A. Helvetius, etc.) They deny a person’s genetic predisposition and argue that a child from birth is a “blank slate , on which you can write everything,” that is, development depends on upbringing and environment.

   Some scientists (D. Diderot) believe that development is determined by an equal combination of the influence of heredity, environment and upbringing.

   K. D. Ushinsky argued that a person becomes a person not only under the influence of heredity, environment and upbringing, but also as a result of his own activities, ensuring the formation and improvement of personal qualities. A person is not only a product of heredity and the circumstances in which his life takes place, but also an active participant in changing and improving circumstances. By changing circumstances, a person changes himself.

   Let us consider in more detail the essential side of the influence of leading factors on the development and formation of personality.

   Some authors, as noted above, assign a decisive role to the biological factor - heredity. Heredity is the ability of organisms to transmit certain qualities and characteristics from parents to children. Heredity is due genes(translated from Greek “gen” means “giving birth”). Science has proven that the properties of an organism are encrypted in a kind of gene code that stores and transmits all information about the properties of the organism. Genetics has deciphered the hereditary program of human development. It has been established that it is heredity that determines what is common that makes a person human, and what is different that makes people so different from each other. What does a person inherit? The following are inherited from parents to children:

   -anatomical and physiological structure, reflecting the specific characteristics of an individual as a representative of the human race (Homo sapiens): the inclinations of speech, upright walking, thinking, labor activity;

   -physical features: external racial characteristics, body features, constitution, facial features, hair, eye, skin color; physiological features: metabolism, blood pressure and blood group, Rh factor, stages of maturation of the body;

   -features of the nervous system: the structure of the cerebral cortex and its peripheral apparatus (visual, auditory, olfactory, etc.), features of nervous processes that determine the nature and certain type of higher nervous activity;

   -anomalies in the development of the body: color blindness (color blindness), “cleft lip”, “cleft palate”;

   -predisposition to certain hereditary diseases: hemophilia (blood disease), diabetes mellitus, schizophrenia, endocrine disorders (dwarfism, etc.).

   It is necessary to distinguish congenital features person associated with changes in genotype, from acquired, which were the result of unfavorable living conditions. For example, complications after an illness, physical injuries or oversights during the development of a child, violations of the diet, labor, hardening of the body, etc. Deviation or change in the psyche can occur as a result of subjective factors: fear, severe nervous shock, drunkenness and immoral acts of parents, other negative phenomena. Acquired changes are not inherited. If the genotype is not changed, then Some congenital individual characteristics of a person associated with his uterine development are also not inherited. These include many anomalies caused by such reasons as intoxication, radiation, the influence of alcohol, birth injuries, etc.

   An extremely important question is whether intellectual, special and moral qualities? And also what children inherit - ready abilities to a specific type of activity or only the makings?

   It has been established that only inclinations are inherited. Makings of- These are anatomical and physiological characteristics of the body, which are prerequisites for the development of abilities. Inclinations provide a predisposition to a particular activity.

   There are two types of makings:

   - universal(structure of the brain, central nervous system,
   receptors);

   - individual(typological properties of the nervous system, on which the rate of formation of temporary connections, their strength, strength depends
   concentrated attention, mental performance; individual structural features of analyzers, individual areas of the cerebral cortex, organs, etc.).

   Abilities are individual characteristics of a person, which are subjective conditions for the successful implementation of a certain type of activity, Abilities are not limited to knowledge, skills and abilities. They are revealed in the speed, depth and strength of mastery of methods and techniques of activity. High level of development of abilities - talent, genius.

   Some scientists adhere to the concept of innate abilities (S. Burt, H. Eysenck, etc.). Most domestic specialists - physiologists, psychologists, teachers - consider abilities as lifetime formations, formed in the process of activity and as a result of upbringing. It is not abilities that are inherited, but only inclinations. The inclinations inherited by a person can either be realized or not. Being an individual-natural basis of abilities, inclinations are an important, but insufficient condition for their development. In the absence of appropriate external conditions and adequate activity, abilities may not develop even if there are favorable inclinations. The lack of early achievements may indicate not a lack of abilities, but rather an inadequacy of the organization of activity and education to the existing inclinations.

   Particularly controversial is the question of inheritance of abilities for intellectual (cognitive, educational) activities.

   Some scientists believe that all people receive from nature high potential opportunities for the development of their mental and cognitive powers and are capable of almost unlimited spiritual development. The existing differences in the types of higher nervous activity change only the course of thought processes, but do not predetermine the quality and level of intellectual activity itself. They do not agree with the idea that intelligence is passed on from parents to children. At the same time, these scientists recognize that heredity can adversely affect the development of intellectual abilities. Negative predispositions are created by brain cells in children of alcoholics, disrupted genetic structures in drug addicts, and some hereditary mental illnesses.

   Another group of scientists considers the existence of intellectual inequality of people to be a proven fact. The cause of inequality is considered to be biological heredity. Hence the conclusion: intellectual abilities remain unchanged and constant.

   Understanding the process of inheriting intellectual inclinations is very important, since it predetermines the practical ways of educating and training people. Modern pedagogy focuses not on identifying differences and adapting education to them, but on creating conditions for the development of the inclinations that each person has.

   An important question is about inheritance of special deposits And moral qualities. Special are called the inclinations for a certain type of activity. Special inclinations include musical, artistic, mathematical, linguistic, sports, etc. It has been established that people with special inclinations achieve higher results and advance at a faster pace in the relevant field of activity. Special inclinations can manifest themselves at an early age if the necessary conditions are created.

   Special abilities are inherited. In the history of mankind there have been many hereditary talents. It is known, for example, that J. S. Bach had 18 famous musicians in five generations of his ancestors. There were many talented people in the family of Charles Darwin.

   Particularly significant is the question of inheritance of moral qualities And psyche. For a long time, the prevailing assertion was that mental qualities are not inherited, but acquired in the process of interaction of the organism with the external environment. The social essence of a person, his moral qualities are formed only during his lifetime.

   It was believed that a person is born neither evil nor good, nor stingy, nor generous, nor a villain or a criminal. Children do not inherit the moral qualities of their parents; human genetic programs do not contain information about social behavior. What a person becomes depends on his environment and upbringing.

   At the same time, such prominent scientists as M. Montessori, K. Lorenz, E. Fromm argue that human moral qualities are biologically determined. Moral qualities, behavior, habits and even actions are passed on from generation to generation - both positive and negative (“the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree”). The basis for such conclusions is data obtained from the study of human and animal behavior. According to the teachings of I.P. Pavlov, both animals and humans have instincts and reflexes that are inherited. The behavior of not only animals, but also humans in some cases is instinctive, reflexive, based not on higher consciousness, but on the simplest biological reflexes. This means that moral qualities and behavior can be inherited.

   This question is very complex and responsible. Recently, domestic scientists (P.K. Anokhin, N.M. Amosov, etc.) have taken a position on the genetic determination of human morality and social behavior.

   In addition to heredity, the determining factor in personality development is the environment. The environment is the reality in which human development occurs. Personality formation is influenced geographical, national, school, family, social Wednesday The concept of “social environment” includes such characteristics as the social system, the system of production relations, material living conditions, the nature of production and social processes, etc.

   The question of whether environment or heredity has a greater influence on human development remains debatable. The French philosopher C. A. Helvetius believed that all people from birth have the same potential for mental and moral development, and differences in mental characteristics are explained solely by the influence of the environment and educational influences. The environment is understood in this case metaphysically; it fatally predetermines the fate of a person. A person is considered as a passive object of environmental influence.

   Thus, all scientists recognize the influence of the environment on the formation of a person. Only their views on assessing the degree of influence of the environment on the formation of personality do not coincide. This is due to the fact that there is no abstract medium. There is a specific social system, a person’s specific immediate and distant surroundings, specific living conditions. It is clear that a person achieves a higher level of development in an environment where favorable conditions are created.

   An important factor influencing human development is communication. Communication- This is one of the universal forms of personality activity (along with cognition, work, play), manifested in the establishment and development of contacts between people, in the formation of interpersonal relationships.

   A person becomes a person only through communication and interaction with other people. Outside human society, spiritual, social, mental development cannot occur. The interaction of a person with society, as is known, is called socialization.

   Socialization of the individual is an objective phenomenon observed in the life of every person when he begins to live independently in society. Like any social phenomenon, socialization is multidimensional and therefore is studied by many sciences: sociology, cultural studies, ethnography, history, psychology, pedagogy, etc.

   In addition to those listed above, an important factor influencing the formation of personality is upbringing. Education in a broad social sense is often identified with socialization. Although the logic of their relationship could be characterized as the relation of the whole to the particular. Is socialization a process? human social development as a result of spontaneous and organized influences the totality of factors of social life. Education is considered by most researchers as one of the factors human development, which is a system of targeted formative influences, interactions and relationships carried out in various spheres of social life. Education is a process of purposeful and consciously controlled socialization (family, religious, school education); it acts as a unique mechanism for managing socialization processes.

   Education allows you to overcome or weaken the consequences of negative influences on socialization, give it a humanistic orientation, and attract scientific potential for forecasting and designing pedagogical strategies and tactics. The social environment can influence unintentionally, spontaneously, but the teacher purposefully guides development in the conditions of a specially organized educational system.

   Personal development is possible only in activities- In the process of life, a person constantly participates in a wide variety of activities - gaming, educational, cognitive, labor, social, political, artistic, creative, sports, etc.

   Acting as a form of being and a way of human existence, activity:

   Ensures the creation of material conditions for human life;

   Contributes to the satisfaction of natural human needs;

   promotes knowledge and transformation of the surrounding world;

   is a factor in the development of a person’s spiritual world, a form and condition for the realization of his cultural needs;

   enables a person to realize his personal potential and achieve life goals;

   creates conditions for human self-realization in the system of social relations.

   It should be borne in mind that the development of an individual under the same external conditions largely depends on her own efforts, on the energy and efficiency that she displays in various types of activities.

   Personal development is greatly influenced by collective activity. Scientists recognize that, on the one hand, under certain conditions, the collective neutralizes the individual, and on the other hand, the development and manifestation of individuality is possible only in the collective. Collective activity contributes to the manifestation of the creative potential of the individual; the role of the team is indispensable in the formation of the ideological and moral orientation of the individual, his civic position, and emotional development.

   An important role in the development of personality self-education. Self-education begins with awareness and acceptance of an objective goal as a subjective, desirable motive for one’s activity. The subjective setting of a specific goal of behavior or activity gives rise to a conscious effort of will, the determination of a plan of activity. The implementation of this goal ensures personal development.

   Thus, the process and results of human development are determined by various factors - both biological and social. Factors of development and personality formation do not act in isolation, but in combination. Under different circumstances, different factors may have a greater or lesser influence on personality development. According to most authors, in the system of factors, if not the decisive, then the leading role belongs to education.

   Questions for self-control

   1. What is personality development?

   2. What are the driving forces of personality development?

   3. How are socialization, education and personal development related?

   4. What factors determine personality development?

   5. How does activity influence personality development?

   Basic literature

   1. Slastenin V. A., Kashirin V. P. Psychology and pedagogy: Proc. aid for students higher textbook establishments. M., 2001.

   2. Likhachev B. Pedagogy: Course of lectures. 3rd ed. M., 1999.

   3. Kharlamov I. F. Pedagogy. Minsk, 2001.

   Further reading

   1. Voronov V.V. Pedagogy in a nutshell (notebook). 3rd ed. M., 1999.

   2. Gessen S.I. Fundamentals of Pedagogy: Introduction to Applied Philosophy. M., 1995.

   3. Kon I. S. Child and society. M., 1988.

   4. Kotova I. V., Shiyanov E. N. Socialization and education. Rostov-on-Don, 1997.

   Dubinin N.P. What is a person? M., 1983.

   Chapter 3. Education as a social phenomenon and pedagogical process

   A person, if he wants to become a person, needs to get an education.

   Y. A. Komensky

   Despite the fact that personality is mainly formed through communication with other people, a number of factors influence the process of personality formation:

   1. First of all, the formation of personality is influenced by the genetic characteristics of the individual received at birth. Hereditary traits are the basis for the formation of personality. An individual's hereditary qualities, such as abilities or physical qualities, leave an imprint on his character, the way he perceives the world around him and evaluates other people. Biological heredity largely explains the individuality of a person, his difference from other individuals, since there are no two identical individuals in terms of their biological heredity. Heredity refers to the transmission from parents to children of certain qualities and characteristics embedded in their genetic program. Genetic data make it possible to assert that the properties of an organism are encoded in a peculiar genetic code, storing and transmitting this information about the properties of the organism. The hereditary program of human development ensures, first of all, the continuation of the human race, as well as the development of systems that help the human body adapt to changing conditions of its existence. TO hereditary properties The body includes, first of all, the anatomical and physiological structure and such features of the human body as skin color, eyes, hair, physique, features of the nervous system, as well as the specific inclinations of a person as a representative of the human race, i.e. the inclinations of speech, walking in an upright position, thinking and ability to work.
   2. The second factor influencing the formation of a person’s personality is the influence of the physical environment. It is obvious that the environment around us natural environment constantly influences our behavior and participates in the formation of human personality. For example, we associate the emergence of civilizations, tribes, separate groups population. People who grew up in different climates, differ from each other. Most a shining example This is illustrated by the comparison of mountain dwellers, steppe dwellers and jungle dwellers. Nature constantly influences us, and we must respond to this influence by changing our personality structure.
   3. The third factor in the formation of a person’s personality is considered to be the influence of culture. Any culture has a certain set social norms and shared values. This set is common to members of a given society or social group. For this reason, members of every culture must be tolerant of these norms and value systems. In this regard, the concept of a modal personality arises, embodying those general cultural values ​​that society instills in its members in the course of cultural experience. Thus, modern society, with the help of culture, strives to form a sociable personality who easily makes social contacts and is ready to cooperate. The absence of such standards puts a person in a position of cultural uncertainty, when he does not master the basic cultural norms of society.
   4. The fourth factor that shapes a person’s personality is the influence of the social environment. It should be recognized that this factor can be considered the main one in the process of forming the personal qualities of an individual. The influence of the social environment is carried out through the process of socialization. Socialization is the process by which an individual assimilates (internalizes) the norms of his group in such a way that the uniqueness of that individual or personality is manifested through the formation of his own Self. Personal socialization can take various forms.

   For example, socialization is observed through imitation, taking into account the reactions of other people, and communication different forms behavior. Socialization can be primary, that is, occurring in primary groups, and secondary, that is, occurring in organizations and social institutions. Failure to socialize an individual to group cultural norms can lead to conflicts and social deviance.
   5. The fifth factor that shapes an individual’s personality in modern society, should be considered the individual experience of a person. The essence of the influence of this factor is that each person finds himself in different situations, during which he is influenced by other people and the physical environment. The sequence of such situations is unique for each person and is oriented toward future events, based on positive and negative perceptions of past situations. The unique individual experience is one of the most meaningful.
   6. Education. Education is the process of purposeful influence on a person by other people, the cultivation of personality.

   Education from the point of view of its impact on the development and formation of a person’s personality is always purposeful. This is, first of all, the purposeful activity of society, using for its implementation all the means at its disposal - art, literature, mass media dissemination of information, cultural institutions, educational institutions, public organizations. Education involves equipping a person with a certain amount of socially necessary knowledge, skills and abilities, preparing him for life and work in society, for observing the norms and rules of behavior in this society, communicating with people, interacting with his social institutions. In other words, education should ensure that a person behaves in a manner that will correspond to the norms and rules of behavior accepted in a given society. This, naturally, does not exclude the formation of individual personality traits and qualities, the development of which is determined both by the individual inclinations of a person and by the conditions that society can provide him with for the development of these inclinations.

   Education remains not only one of the most widespread forms human activity, but also continues to bear the main burden of shaping human sociality, since the main task of education is to change a person in the direction determined by social needs. Education is the activity of transferring socio-historical experience to new generations, a systematic and purposeful influence that ensures the formation of personality, its preparation for public life and productive work.

   Education can also be considered as an integral part of the influence of the social environment on a person, but at the same time it is one of the factors external influence on human development and the formation of his personality. Distinctive feature education is, in addition to its purposefulness, and the fact that it is carried out by persons specially authorized by society to carry out this social function.

   Education is very important factor, which has a great influence on the development and formation of a person’s personality. However, the strength of its influence depends on a number of circumstances, and its significance in relation to the influence of the environment and heredity varies.