Historical and Evolution Vector of Research of Personality Development in Modern Psychology

Abstract

The article deals with the personality development in the context of contemporary historical and evolutionary approaches in developmental psychology and social psychology. It advocates the relevance of enriching the methodological base of this search on the basis of the ideas of evolu­tionism, methodologies of general, developmental, social psychology, modern interdiscipli­nary platform of «developmental sciences» in foreign psychology. Methodological study of personality historiogenesis should be based on broadening the spectrum of essential characteristics of personality development. The methodological platform of «developmental sciences» allows you to include  an innovative essential characteristic called contextuality to the already recognized characteristics, namely: the stages-of-man, the continuity of human development. It is believed that its introduction not only strengthens the evolutionary status of the principle of development, but also changes the way of determining the basic «unit» of development in this field. It is shown that the historiorization of personality development in the evolutionary perspective proceeds from the priority of the social and historical component of this process represented by the line of historiogenesis, that is, the development of personality in the diachronic aspect. It is argued that the accentuation of the value of social and psychological analysis within the mentioned line implies not only the addition to the spectrum of already known essential characteristics of the personality development of contextuality, but also the differentiation between generational interaction as a «unit» of the analysis of this process. The historical and evolutionary heuristic concept of «intergenerational interaction» is seen in the fact that its content is focused on taking into account the progression, heterochrony, contextuality of the historiogenesis of the personality in relational respect as the unity of processes of sociocultural constancy and variability, continuity and innovation of behavioral expressions. It is shown that the enrichment of the spectrum of essential characteristics of personality development in the diachronic aspect of the analysis allows to focus on the study of psychosocial development paired with historical and cultural ones, to give priority to the constancy-variability of these types of development, to go to the analysis of the range of forms of personality development, in particular, ritualized forms of behavior.