The concept of crisis in psychology

2024 Author: Miguel Ramacey | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 06:11

Life is full of amazing stories, wonderful incidents, interesting twists of fate. It is given to a person so that he can do something useful for himself and for society. However, harsh everyday life is fraught with the emergence of various kinds of problems, stressful situations and crises. They comprehend absolutely every person at one stage or another of his life. But what is a crisis? How does it manifest itself? What does the concept of crisis mean in psychology?

Crisis concept

Often a person is faced with a moment when he begins to worry about some problem. The feeling of excitement is constantly intensifying and does not leave him, negative thoughts continue to constantly visit his consciousness. Often such a problem arises due to a change that served as an impetus for the transition to a new life stage. He does not agree with this change and is not ready to put up with it. This state is called a crisis.

In psychology, the definition of this concept is briefly given. A psychological crisis is a person's emotional state arising from a stressful situation associated with undesirable changes in life. A more detailed interpretation of the definition of a crisis in psychology says that a crisis is a state of severe transitional change in a person’s feelings, arising from experienced stress, associated with an illness, or resulting from a mental trauma. A crisis is also defined by an emotionally significant event or a radical change in status in personal life, which negatively affects the moral well-being of a person.

Varieties of crisis in psychology

There is a classification of crises experienced by a person, which differ in their form, sources of experiences and stages of his life development. So, psychology in the crises of life makes a distinction in three main areas:

• Neurotic crises. They are based on age-related changes and can be generated in the mind of a person even without changing external conditions or the influence of external factors on his psycho-emotional state. As a rule, neurotic crises take their beginning in childhood, when primary communications with the surrounding society and habitat are established. This kind of turning point in life predetermines, in fact, an unjustified feeling of hopelessness of the situation, a feeling of getting into a dead end. This entails maladjustment of the personality or, simply speaking, hermitism.
• Crisis of development. Otherwise referred to as age crises. In the psychology of modernity, a number ofboundary age stages, at which the human emotional and psychological state changes, the perception of what is happening and the attitude towards the world around us vary. Changes in the form, duration and severity of such turning points depend directly on the specific personality of the individual and his typological characteristics, as well as on the social conditions of stay and pedagogical influence. Some experts consider the manifestation of an age crisis in psychology to be an absolutely normal phenomenon, since this is how the personal and characteristic components of a person as a social unit are formed. But many see this as a malignant manifestation that prevents a person from adapting normally to communication with peers in childhood and adolescence and finding communication in adulthood.
• Traumatic crises. The psychology of children, adolescents, adults and elderly people is not immune from the negative impact on the conscious processes of such external factors as tragic life situations. Accidents, natural disasters and other catastrophic events give a powerful impetus to the emergence of depression resulting from a stressful state and a long crisis process of stagnation.

Age Crisis

It is the crisis of development that occupies a significant niche in the system of vital turning points. Age crises in psychology are usually divided into nine stages.

• Stage 1 is the neonatal crisis. It implies instability of all levels of the physiological and psycho-emotional statebaby. Accustomed to the well-established processes in the womb, he is not ready immediately after birth to reorganize to another sphere of habitation. The psychology of the age crisis in infants is the mildest and most easily experienced, since the difficulties are expressed more in the physical restructuring of the infant's body.
• Stage 2 is a year-long crisis. It involves the formation of a baby, open to the first educational processes. He learns to sit, walk, talk, change from breast milk to adult nutrition. This is a kind of stress for the child, because he crosses the border of the first year of his life.
• Stage 3 is a three-year crisis. It manifests itself in children in different ways, but is mainly determined by extreme stubbornness, whims and self-will. During this period of life, the baby tends to periodically refuse food that he does not like, resist when going to bed, do not want to dress himself and put away toys.
• Stage 4 - preschool crisis. Developmental psychology in a 7-year-old child is based on the formation of his social sense of his "I". At this time, the baby begins to imitate adults, act like manners, talk about his desires. This is no longer the baby who is only able to pronounce individual words and carelessly play game attributes scattered on the floor. The age psychology of the crisis of 7 years implies the departure of the child from early childhood and the loss of childish naivety and spontaneity. At this time, it becomes more difficult for parents to control their child, because the baby begins to spend more time outside the home, with hispeers, at school. The process of adaptation to new living conditions, meeting a large number of new people, classmates and teachers become unusual for a 7-year-old child. The psychology of the crisis of this time for the child's consciousness is determined by the first manifestations of the child's own "I".
• Stage 5 - crisis of 13 years or pubertal crisis. The psychology of adolescence involves the beginning of the child's personal development, the formation of his psycho-emotional development. This period is accompanied by rapid changes not only morally, but also physically. Therefore, this age is otherwise called transitional.
• Stage 6 - youth crisis. It occurs in a teenager when he reaches the age of 17, when he, it seems, is no longer a teenager, but not yet an adult. At this stage, the question arises of choosing one's future, connected with the completion of general education and the need to enter a university, to determine one's profession. Often young people cannot cope with their desires and their preferences, it is difficult for them to understand what they want from life, what they dream of becoming, and therefore a turning point occurs.
• Stage 7 - 30 year crisis. In the psychology of age, a separate place is occupied by the period of maturity, which is marked by summing up the first life results. If it is welcomed by men, then women want to delay the moment of thirty years as far as possible.
• Stage 8 - the crisis of 40 years. This period of life is tolerated by women even more painfully than the previous one. They begin to feel not as beautiful as before, so oftenare in despair. But not only ladies are experiencing this stage with difficulty. For men, the fortieth birthday is the first bell in the gradual fading of former strength in all physiological respects, and yet physical strength and he alth are almost the main dignity of every man.
• Stage 9 - the crisis of age over 50. At a time when a fifty-year-old person has to take stock of the work done in life and dreams realized, he, unfortunately, has to realize the fact that more than half of his life has already been lived, which is not to return already those happy moments that pleased him so much before, that he would not become younger and he althier, that he would not be able to do everything that could be done in his youth.

The psychology of life crises over the years, using the example of people of different age categories, reveals the features and forms of manifestation of emotional instability and restructuring of a person against the background of age-related changes in his body.

How it happens in men

Crisis moments manifest themselves differently in people of different sexes, age groups, social strata of the population. For example, the psychology of the age crisis in children differs significantly from that of adults, and the forms of transferring life's turning points in men and women also differ. When is the most common turning point in a man's life? How is it justified?

The crisis in the psychology of a man often occurs with the onset of his fortieth birthday. The forties are "fatal" - this is how a man interprets the period when he realizes that heno longer the young and lively handsome man, full of he alth and strength. The fact is that a man is essentially a breadwinner. By his forty years, he sums up the half-lived life and assesses the current situation. If by this time he has reached the top of his career, is successfully carrying out his labor activity, is financially secure and able to support his family, he is happy. But a man constantly needs emotional nourishment. He wants to be admired, thanked for his work, told him what a "well done" he is. A frequent problem that occurs in men closer to forty years is the search for a “spectator”. After all, his wife, who has long been accustomed to his professional achievements and has lived with him for twenty years, takes his earnings for granted and does not consider it something special. A man longs to be appreciated, he requires constant attention. The fact is that the representative of the strong half should feel powerful and all-powerful, and the wife no longer provides him with this feeling.

That is why so often men after forty start looking for young beauties who admire their position in society, their achievements, their stateliness.

In addition to feeling moral and emotional dissatisfaction, they give their first "bells" signs of rectal dysfunction. Male libido is his fortress, his faith in himself, his pride in himself. And then suddenly, it would seem, for no apparent reason, the first signals of age-related resistance of the body begin to appear. The man becomesirritable, he loses faith in himself, constantly thinks about it and begins to think negatively. It was then that the form of the crisis of age manifested itself in the representatives of the stronger sex.

The psychology of many men is arranged in such a way that his "dignity" is the main proof that he is really a man. When, for some reason, it stops working, as before, it seems to him that life is over, that everything is very bad, that his wife, employees at work, the whole wide world are to blame for this. According to statistics, it is this age category that accounts for the largest number of divorce proceedings, because the “alpha males” explain all their troubles by the inattention, coldness and indifference of their wives, find any clues in order to make a scandal and accuse the woman of being where she is. - was wrong. Although the point here is exclusively in a man and in his crisis state of the "fatal" forties.

How it happens in women

If we talk about women, their crisis stage begins ten years earlier than men. At the age of 30-35, the representatives of the fair half usually begin to think that half of their lives have already been lived, and the goals and dreams that were thought up in their distant youth have not found their implementation. Mature beauties begin to rush about in their own doubts. During this period, many of them are characterized by a bad mood, low spirits, depression. All this together is generated by a midlife crisis. How does it manifest?

• Loss of confidencein itself. It is difficult for representatives of the weak half of humanity to be satisfied with themselves when any doubts torment them. They sneak up unnoticed, but grow with lightning speed and powerful force. Uncertainty in one's irresistibility, in one's own strength, in one's need for the family drives a woman into a dead end and exacerbates the state of crisis.
• Dissatisfaction with appearance is one of the worst female phobias. The reason for this condition is the loss of youthful beauty and charm, the appearance of facial wrinkles and weight gain. At this age, many women suffer especially from an inferiority complex, often completely unreasonably.
• Awareness of the beginning of the aging process - panicky fear seizes women when they "exchange" the fourth decade of life. It seems to many of them that they are already completely unattractive to men, that they can no longer be successful among them. There is a constant comparison of oneself with the younger generation of young beauties. Thus, an analysis of one's age-related changes is carried out and the state of depressive stagnation intensifies.
• Feeling useless - if a lady in her thirties is not yet married, the fear of eternal celibacy settles in her mind. She looks at the surrounding female colleagues, girlfriends, acquaintances who have successfully married and have long been happy wives, and she is overcome by a feeling of total despondency and emotional discomfort. She wants love, attention, affection, care, and (most importantly) a stamp in her passport.
• Feeling of unfulfilled debt. Any female representative hasmaternal instinct. This is inherent in nature, which does not choose who to give happiness to become a mother, and who not. Basically, all women dream of becoming mothers, raising children for their own joy. But the current modernity is so harsh that girls, being young, purposeful, highly estimating themselves, often refuse men who want to connect their lives with them. First, they push a potential husband away from themselves, and then cry at the age of thirty that there is still no spouse who could give them the opportunity to become a happy mother. In fact, this period is experienced by women very, very painfully. This is perhaps one of the peak moments of the woman's thirtieth birthday crisis.

Relationship crisis

Relationships between a man and a woman, their carnal connection, passionate feelings, emotions and love are an integral part of the life of every representative of humanity. Absolutely all people at some point in their lives want to love and be loved. As a result, love, sexual, partnership relations are established between young people of opposite sexes, which, oddly enough, can also undergo a crisis.

The psychology of relationships is based on many factors of spending time together. Often, not yet being husband and wife, young people undergo a crisis phase of their living together or existence, which ends in parting. What is it?

A relationship crisis is a period in a couple's life when one of the parties is no longer satisfied with the progress of the jointexistence. This is the moment when the partners no longer want to live the way they used to, they want to change and redirect the love affair to another, new and more pleasant direction. But often young people do not find a consensus, misunderstand each other, quarrel and come to the only right way out - parting. This is the relationship crisis. It is very difficult to overcome if young people have lost interest in each other. Therefore, it is easier to prevent the onset of a crisis phase in a relationship than to try to change something when both of them no longer need it.

Family Crisis

The relationship psychology of an unmarried couple is different from that of married people. Although there is much in common between these two types of relationships, the nature of their psycho-emotional and mental state is different. The psychology of family crises is more multifaceted and wide-ranging than that of young people who are not officially registered, since they have much more duties and responsibilities to each other. Married people have joint property, joint children, are bound by law and official marriage ties. Therefore, it is morally and financially much more difficult for them to experience the crisis of family life.

Family psychology provides for many factors that provoke the emergence of turning points in the life of spouses. What is the intensity of marital passions:

• Reduction in sexual activity and physical attraction to each other.
• Loss of desire to please each other.
• The appearance of quarrels on the basis of raising children.
• Differences of opinion, loss of commonviews, interests, values.
• Misunderstanding each other's feelings.
• Mutual irritability from actions or conversations in the family circle.
• Manifestations of selfishness.
• Losing the need to share your joys and successes with your rightful other half.
• The relationship of a wife with her husband's mother.
• Relationship between husband and wife's mother.
• Wife's dissatisfaction with the fact that (in her opinion) her husband can achieve nothing in life.
• Husband's dissatisfaction with the fact that his wife is always busy, does not find time to pay attention to him, does not look after herself (or does it too zealously, while spending the lion's share of the family budget).

Often the manifestation of turning points appears in the form of crises of family life over the years. The psychology of modernity counts down the period of possible downturns in relationships, starting from two to three months after the day of marriage and ending with twenty-five years of marriage. The main boundary dates are six months, a year, the date of birth of the first child, five years, a decade of marriage. These are peculiar stages of restructuring and psychological reorientation, reassessment of the values of one or each of the spouses. Plus, the previously described age-related turning points separately for men and women also contribute to the differentiation in a married couple of family crises over the years.

Psychology of the financial crisis and its impact on a person

Another type is the moment of financial insolvency. Probably every representative of modern societyat least once in a situation where he fell under a reduction or quit his job himself, when he became financially dependent on his parents or spouse. Moments of lack of money often cause the development of a crisis state in any representative of society in the early or late stages of his life. It is just as difficult to deal with them as with age or family crises. But it is worth paying attention to the fact that all this is fixable, that any negative situation can be overcome in order to prevent the harmful consequences of the impact of crisis oppression.

What is fraught with a crisis for a person

The onset of a turning point, developing in an undesirable way, provokes the emergence of many negative factors and negative consequences for a person. These could be:

• Moral oppression.
• A state of melancholic dissonance.
• Depression.
• Stress.
• Nervous breakdown.
• Development of alcoholism.

It is very important to be able to get out of problem situations and prevent the development of these behavioral patterns. After all, each of them together can lead to very unpleasant consequences, even thoughts of suicide.

How to deal with life's crises

To overcome the all-consuming feeling of being led by the crisis influence, you must be able to think constructively and act immediately. If you sit back, it's hard to achieve anything.

First, you need to find the cause of the problem. Finding and Finding a Sourceall troubles will help to cope with them faster.

Secondly, you need to analyze the situation objectively, try to look at it from the outside. Perhaps, seeing the state of affairs in a different light, you will be able to see your own mistakes that provoked a family crisis, or see the resolution of the situation in the predetermination of some specific way out of it.

Third, you need to be loyal to yourself. Finding fault with their appearance, their age-related changes should be perceived by people easier. Aging is a natural process. It is necessary to commemorate it not with experiences, but with attempts to live every moment of life with dignity and happiness. Then there will be no need to look for ways to overcome the crisis.