Growing Up as the Formation of an Autonomous Personality

A special role in the transition from childhood to adulthood is played by the formation of self-determination - the integration of freedom and responsibility - in the process of passing through the teenage crisis. The report was made by the head of the laboratory Dmitry Leontiev

The speech was held at the open seminar of the Institute of Education of the Higher School of Economics on December 04, 2018. The report presented the results of studies of individual trajectories of the development of an autonomous personality through the establishment of freedom and responsibility.

Personality is what a person can oppose to internal impulses and external pressures. The development of personality cannot be reduced to biological maturation or to the assimilation of cultural experience. Developing, the person gradually masters his own behavior, learns to regulate bodily impulses and separate from symbiotic connections. “Social situations of development” contribute to the formation of a socially predictable personality in childhood; after adulthood, development becomes optional and is governed by individual tasks. The essence of personal development is to change the forms and mechanisms of self-regulation and is not tied to age periodization.