Symptoms and diagnosis of emotional disorders. Emotional disorders in children Emotional personality disorders in children

Basically, it is considered that children are prone to colds and various viral diseases, although neuropsychiatric disorders in children are quite common and cause many problems for both the patients themselves and their parents.

And most importantly, they can become the foundation for further difficulties and problems in social interaction with peers and adults, in emotional, intellectual and social development, the cause of school "failure", difficulties in social adaptation.

Just as in adult patients, childhood neuropsychiatric diseases are diagnosed on the basis of a range of symptoms and signs that are specific to certain disorders.

But it should be taken into account that the diagnostic process in children is much more complicated, and some behavioral forms may not look like symptoms of mental disorders at all. Often this confuses parents and makes it possible to “hide” their heads in the sand for a long time. It is strictly forbidden to do this and it is very DANGEROUS !!!

For example, this category includes strange eating habits, excessive nervousness, emotionality, hyperactivity, aggression, tearfulness, "field" behavior, which can be regarded as part of the normal development of the child.

Behavioral disorders in children include a number of behavioral dissociative disorders, which are manifested by aggressive, defiant or inadequate actions, reaching open non-compliance with age-appropriate social norms.

Typical signs of pathology can be:

- "field" behavior, the inability to sit in one place and concentrate one's attention;

- excessive pugnacity and deliberate hooliganism,

- cruelty to other people or animals,

- intentional damage to property,

- arson,

- theft

- leaving home

- frequent, causeless and severe outbursts of anger;

- causing provocative actions;

- systematic disobedience.

Any of these categories, when sufficiently pronounced, is a cause for concern, not in itself, but as a symptom of a serious illness.

TYPES OF EMOTIONAL AND BEHAVIORAL DISORDERS IN CHILDREN

Hyperactive behavior

Demonstrative behavior

This type of behavioral disorder in children is manifested by intentional and conscious non-compliance with generally accepted social norms. Deviant acts are usually directed at adults.

attention deficit
Protest behavior

There are three forms of this pathology: negativism, obstinacy and stubbornness.

Negativism is the refusal of a child to do something just because he was asked to do it. Most often it occurs as a result of improper upbringing. Characteristic manifestations include causeless crying, impudence, rudeness, or, on the contrary, isolation, alienation, and resentment.

Stubbornness - the desire to achieve one's goal in order to go against the parents, and not to satisfy a real desire.

Obstinacy - in this case, the protest is directed against the norms of upbringing and the imposed lifestyle in general, and not at the leading adult.

Aggressive behavior

Aggressive behavior is understood as purposeful actions of a destructive nature, contrary to the norms and rules adopted in society. The child causes psychological discomfort in others, causes physical damage to living and inanimate objects, etc.

Infantile behavior

In the actions of infantile children, traits characteristic of an earlier age or a previous stage of development can be traced. With an appropriate level of physical abilities, the child is distinguished by the immaturity of integrative personal formations.

Conformal behavior

Conformal behavior is manifested by complete submission to external conditions. Its basis is usually involuntary imitation, high suggestibility.

Symptomatic behavior (fears, tics, psychosomatics, logoneurosis, hesitations in speech)

In this case, a violation of behavior in children is a kind of signal that the current situation is no longer unbearable for a fragile psyche. Example: vomiting or nausea as a reaction to stress.

It is always very difficult to diagnose disorders in children.

But, if the signs can be recognized in a timely manner and contact a specialist in time, and treatment and correction can be started without delay, then severe manifestations of the disease can be avoided, or they can be minimized.

It must be remembered that childhood neuropsychiatric disorders do not go unnoticed, they leave their negative mark on the development and social opportunities of the little man.

But if professional neuropsychological assistance is provided in a timely manner, many diseases of the child's psyche are cured in full, and some can be SUCCESSFULLY ADJUSTED and feel comfortable in society.

In general, specialists diagnose children with problems such as ADHD, tics, in which the child has involuntary movements, or vocalizations, if the child tends to make sounds that do not make sense. In childhood, anxiety disorders, various fears can be observed.

With behavioral disorders, children ignore any rules, they demonstrate aggressive behavior. In the list of frequently occurring diseases, disorders related to thought disorders.

Often neurologists and neuropsychologists use the designation "borderline mental disorders" in children. This means that there is a state that is an intermediate link between deviation and norm. Therefore, it is especially important to start the correction on time and quickly get closer to the norm, so as not to eliminate gaps in intellectual, speech and social development.

The causes of mental disorders in children are different. Often they are caused by a hereditary factor, diseases, traumatic lesions.

Therefore, parents should focus on complex correctional techniques.

A significant role in the correction of behavioral disorders is assigned to psychotherapeutic, neuropsychological and corrective methods.

Emotional disorders and sociopathies make up the two largest groups of the most common disorders. Emotional disorders, as their name already suggests, are characterized by such abnormal emotional states as anxiety, phobia, depression, obsession, hypochondria, etc. In practice, the doctor usually determines the patient's condition in accordance with the form that the emotional disorder takes, for example, the state of phobias or depression. These conditions are usually called "neuroses", but it seems to us that in diagnosing a child it is better not to use this term, since such conditions in children are, to a very limited extent, analogous to neurotic conditions in adults.

An example of emotional distress would be the Toby case described above. It manifested itself very clearly in the girl Jane, who was examined during a wide population survey. At the age of about nine, she suddenly began to suffer greatly and feel infinitely unhappy, became suspicious and anxious, hushed and withdrawn into herself. It seemed to her that the children began to avoid her, and she came home from school almost every day in tears. She was quite tense and frustrated, and had fits of rage up to three times a week. The teacher considered her the most unfortunate child she had seen in her life. The girl begged her mother to pick her up from school. During the examination, she was ready to cry all the time, looked deeply depressed and talked about her disturbing relationships with other children. She also said that sometimes she doesn't care whether she lives or dies.

Syndrome of behavioral disorder or social maladaptation

A group of disorders called social maladaptation syndrome are those behavioral disorders that cause strong disapproval of others. This includes variations of what is commonly referred to as bad behavior, but also a range of other behaviors that are characterized by lying, fighting, being rude. Of course, just because a child has committed an illegal act, violates the law, does not mean that he has a syndrome of social maladjustment. For this, it is necessary that the child's behavior be considered abnormal in its sociocultural context and would be in the nature of a social danger. Population studies have shown that almost all boys have done something that is basically against the law. However, most of them are completely normal guys who do not have any mental disorders. At the same time, as already noted, it should be borne in mind that the syndrome of social maladaptation does not necessarily include the commission of illegal acts. Many children with this syndrome have never been brought to justice, and some variants of the syndrome are limited to misbehaving only at home. Some children with social maladjustment syndrome may have emotional disorders (especially depression), but socially unapproved behavior always comes to the fore.

From the point of view of logic, the category of the syndrome of impaired behavior or social maladjustment is not satisfactory, since the diagnosis in this case depends on social norms. It also includes a highly heterogeneous mixture of disorders. Nevertheless, it was shown that its use is meaningful and very useful, since it turned out that the children that it unites in one group have much in common with each other. Social maladaptation syndrome is much more common in boys than girls and is usually accompanied by specific reading disorders. The prognosis of mental development in this type of disorder is much worse than in emotional disorders, since the analogy of these disorders with the origin of pathological personality traits in adults can be traced quite clearly.

In fact, a significant proportion of children have features of both syndromes. For this reason, the category of "mixed disorders" is also included in the diagnosis. In many ways, these mixed states are more similar to social maladaptation syndrome, but in some respects they are intermediate between this syndrome and emotional disorders.

Hyperkinetic syndrome

Sometimes there is a violation of mental activity, known as hyperkinetic syndrome. Impairment of motor functions, low ability to concentrate, manifested both in short concentration and increased distractibility, are the main characteristics of this syndrome.

At a younger age, these children are characterized by increased activity, manifested in the form of unrestrained, disorganized and poorly controlled behavior. During adolescence, this increased activity often disappears, giving way to inert and reduced activity. The phenomena of impulsivity expressed by mood swings, aggressiveness and disruption of relationships with peers are quite common for these children. They often have a delay in the development of mental functions, in particular speech, reading disorders and an insufficiently high level of intelligence development. Among boys, this syndrome occurs four to five times more often than among girls. The developmental prognosis in children with this type of disorder is not very good, and although increased activity decreases with age, many adolescents still continue to experience serious difficulties in social contacts.

early childhood autism

A developmental disorder called early childhood autism is especially rare. It is a very severe disorder that begins in infancy and is characterized by the following three main features. First, these children have a violation of the development of social relations. This is manifested in the fact that the baby looks indifferent to everything and is unable to feel affection for his parents for a long time. When he gets older, he does not develop friendships with anyone, and communication proceeds in a strange pompous manner. Secondly, these children have a pronounced lag in the development of both understanding and use of speech. In about half of the cases, it does not develop at all, but if speech does occur, it is usually stereotyped, filled with echolalic phrases and misused personal pronouns. Thirdly, rituals and various actions of a coercive nature are observed in the behavior of these children. This may manifest as carrying strange objects, odd finger movements, frilly eating habits (such as wanting only warm sandwiches), or an exclusive interest in numbers and tables.

Schizophrenia

In contrast to early childhood autism, schizophrenia begins only in late preschool or, much more frequently, during adolescence. In children, as well as in adults, the onset of the disease is rather insidious. The adolescent's thinking becomes confused and fragmented, his academic performance falls, relationships with others become more complicated, and he has illusions and hallucinations (especially auditory). It may seem to him that his thoughts are controlled from outside. Sometimes the onset of the disease is acute and proceeds both against the background of depressive and manic states, often at the same time, the sick child suddenly begins to feel that someone is pursuing him, and special significance is attributed to ordinary phenomena.

In general, this disease is not so rare, it actually affects one person in a hundred. But in the vast majority of cases, it begins in late adolescence or early adolescence after school has been completed.

Developmental Disorders

Finally, the last important group of problems is usually called a developmental disorder. In some respects, they differ significantly from other types of mental disorders, although they very often coexist next to them (especially with the sociopathy syndrome). For this reason, I proposed to consider them as an independent (fifth) aspect in the general diagnostic scheme. However, it seems convenient to me here to touch on them again very briefly.

So, this is a group of disorders, the main feature of which is a specific developmental delay. Biological maturation has a certain bearing on its origin, but it is also influenced by social facts. Specific speech developmental disorder (manifested either as a delay in speech development or severe pronunciation disorders) and specific reading retardation (in which, despite good intelligence, reading skills and sound-letter analysis of words are significantly impaired) are the two most common variants of this developmental disorders. All disorders in this group are much more common in boys (approximately four to one), and, characteristically, other family members often have similar problems.

FINAL QUALIFICATION WORK

Emotional disorders in children

Introduction

Chapter I. Emotional disorders in children of preschool and primary school age

1.2 Features of emotional development in children of preschool and primary school age

1.3 Emotional disorders in children of preschool and primary school age

Chapter II. Methods and techniques for psychodiagnostics of emotional disorders in children

2.1 Possibilities of diagnostic methods for detecting emotional disorders in children

2.2 Diagnosis of disorders of emotional development in children

Conclusion

Bibliography

Application

INTRODUCTION

Relevance of the topic

Every year the number of children who are diagnosed with some kind of nervous disease is increasing, and almost all children have some kind of deviation in the emotional sphere. According to A.I. Zakharov, by the end of elementary school, less than half of healthy children, and according to school teachers and psychologists, by the middle classes, most children can be diagnosed with emotional nervous disorder, and in fact only a few can be called healthy. If we take into account that emotional disorders do not appear at school age, but much earlier, and by school age some children come with stable nervous disorders, then we can draw sad conclusions.

Judging by the scale of the spread of this problem, in the near future we are threatened with "complete neuroticization of the population." Such a society will not be able to exist harmoniously in the future.

This topic, due to its relevance, deserves the attention of not only specialists in the field of pediatric neuropathology, but, above all, kindergarten parents and teachers. Therefore, it is certainly necessary to think about the timely diagnosis of emotional disorders in childhood, to try to identify them as early as possible, to select adequate methods of methodology in order to prevent most cases of emotional disorders and nervous diseases in children, which in turn will ensure the mental health of the younger generation.

Elaboration

The problem of emotional disorders and their diagnosis was dealt with by a large number of scientists, such as Zakharov A.I., Sukhareva G.E., Gannushkin L.K., Lichko A.E., Lebedinsky V.V., Nikolskaya O.S., K Leonhard, Gubinshtein S.Ya., Shard K.E., Borodulina S.Yu., Eliseev O.P., Bardyshevskaya M.N., Nepomnyashchaya N.I. etc.

Emotional disorders in children of preschool and primary school age.

Diagnosis of emotional disorders in children of preschool and primary school age.

Clarification of the possibilities of diagnosing emotional disorders in children of preschool and primary school age.

Main goals

1) Analyze the psychological essence and meaning of emotions, as well as consider the features of emotional development in children of preschool and primary school age.

2) Describe disorders of emotional development in children of preschool and primary school age.

3) To identify the possibilities of psychodiagnostic methods for identifying emotional disorders in children of preschool and primary school age.

5) Conduct a diagnosis of emotional disorders in children of the 1st grade secondary school.

Scientific and practical significance of the problem under study

Summarizing the material on the problem of diagnosing emotional disorders in children is useful not only for psychologists, teachers and doctors, but also for parents.

Chapter I. Emotional development of children of preschool and primary school age

1.1 Psychological essence, meaning of emotions

Cognizing reality, a person in one way or another relates to objects, phenomena, events, to other people, to his personality. Some phenomena of reality please him, others make him sad, admiration, indignation, anger, fear, etc. - all these are different types of a person's subjective attitude to reality. In psychology, emotions are called processes that reflect personal significance and assessment of external and internal situations for human life in the form of experiences. Emotions, feelings serve to reflect the subjective attitude of a person to himself and to the world around him.

Emotions are a special class of subjective psychological states, reflecting in the form of direct experiences of the pleasant, the process and results of practical activities aimed at satisfying its actual needs. Since everything that a person does ultimately serves the purpose of satisfying his various needs, since any manifestations of human activity are accompanied by emotional experiences. Emotions, Charles Darwin argued, arose in the process of evolution, as a means by which living beings establish the significance of certain conditions to meet their urgent needs (L.D. Stolyarenko, p. 233). As our ancestors evolved, the period of growing up and learning of young individuals became longer - they needed more and more time to learn how to get food, take care of themselves. In order for a child to survive, a mutual affection must have developed between him and the person who cared for him. Based on the data of modern research, it is safe to say that emotions are the cementing factor in the mutual attachment of mother and child. If you leave a one-year-old baby without a mother in an unfamiliar room, then he will certainly react to separation with a bright emotion. If the connection between the mother and the baby is broken for a longer time or is broken constantly, one can observe an expressive bouquet of negative emotions that can develop into severe forms of depression and can even cause general exhaustion of the body.

Undoubtedly, one of the reasons for the emergence of emotions in the course of evolution was the need to provide a social bond between mother and child. The ecological niche of the human child is such that the bearer of all the cognitive, social and physiological skills necessary for the survival of the infant is the adult who takes care of him. The child depends on the mother in everything: she satisfies his needs for food, warmth, care, protects him from danger. Among other things, for physiological health and psychological well-being, a child also needs parental love, the lack of which underlies many psychological disorders, and especially depression.

Another reason for the emergence of emotions was the urgent need for a means of communication between mother and child. Numerous studies on the emotional development of the child show that long before the child begins to understand the speech addressed to him and pronounce individual words, he can already inform others about his internal state using a certain set of signals. for example, hunger and pain may manifest through the outward expression of physical suffering. [Izard K.E., pp. 19-22].

Emotional sensations are biologically fixed in the process of evolution as a kind of way to maintain the life process within its optimal boundaries and warn of the destructive nature of a lack or excess of any factors.

For the first time, emotional expressive movements became the subject of Ch. Darwin's study. On the basis of comparative studies of the emotional movements of mammals, Darwin created the biological concept of emotions, according to which expressive emotional movements were considered as a vestige of expedient instinctive actions that retain their biological meaning to some extent and, at the same time, act as biologically significant signals for individuals not only their own, but also other types.

The result of deep theoretical thought is the biological theory of emotions by P.K. Anokhin. This theory considers emotions as a product of evolution, as an adaptive factor in the life of the animal world, as a mechanism that keeps life processes within optimal limits and prevents the destructive nature of a lack or excess of any life factors of a given organism.

The main provision of the information theory of emotions by P.V. Simonov is that emotions arise when there is a mismatch between a vital need and the possibility of satisfying it. A person's awareness of the means of satisfying a need can reduce emotions.

The "peripheral" theory of emotions by James - Lange proves that the emergence of emotions is due to changes in organic processes (for example, breathing, pulse, facial expressions). And the emotions themselves are the sum of organic sensations - “a person is sad because he is crying”, and not vice versa.

In this aspect, Arnold's concept is of interest, according to which an intuitive assessment of a situation, for example, a threat, causes a desire to act, which is expressed in various bodily changes, is experienced as an emotion and can lead to action. It can be expressed like this - "We are afraid because we think that we are being threatened."

Dalibor Bindra after a critical analysis of existing theories of emotion came to the conclusion that it is impossible to draw a rigid distinction between emotion and motivation. Emotions do not exist as a separate class of behavioral reactions, they are inseparable from sensation, perception, motivation. Bindra puts forward his own concept of the "central motivational state" - a complex of nervous processes resulting from the action of a combination of incentive stimuli of a certain type, which causes certain emotional and typical-species reactions. [L.D. Stolyarenko, p.236].

The results of experimental studies suggest that the cerebral cortex plays a leading role in the regulation of emotional states. IP Pavlov showed that it is the cortex that regulates the flow and expression of emotions, keeps under its control all the phenomena occurring in the body, has an inhibitory effect on the subcortical centers, controls them. If the cerebral cortex enters a state of excessive excitation, then there is an overexcitation of the centers flying below the cortex, as a result of which the usual restraint disappears. In the case of the spread of wide inhibition, oppression, weakening or stiffness of muscular movements, a decline in cardiovascular activity and respiration, etc. are observed.

It can be argued that emotions arise as a result of exposure to a certain stimulus, and their appearance is nothing more than a manifestation of the mechanisms of human adaptation and regulation of his behavior. It can also be assumed that emotions were formed in the process of evolution of the animal world and they reached the maximum level of development in humans, since they are represented objectively, at the level of feelings. [A.G. Maklakov, p.408].

The oldest in origin, the simplest and most common form of emotional experiences among living beings is the pleasure derived from the satisfaction of organic needs, and the displeasure associated with the inability to do this when the corresponding need is exacerbated. The diverse manifestations of a person's emotional life are divided into affects, emotions proper, feelings, moods, and stress.

The most powerful emotional reaction is affect - a strong, violent and relatively short-term emotional experience that completely captures the human psyche and predetermines a single reaction to the situation as a whole. Examples of affect are intense anger, rage, horror, stormy joy, deep grief, despair.

Emotions proper, unlike affects, are more lasting states. They are a reaction not only to events that have taken place, but also to probable or remembered ones. If affects arise towards the end of the action and reflect a total, final assessment of the situation, then emotions are shifted to the beginning of the action and anticipate the result.

In order to understand the essence of emotions, it is necessary to proceed from the fact that most objects and phenomena of the external environment, acting on the senses, cause us complex, multifaceted emotional sensations and feelings, which can include both pleasure and displeasure, tension or relief, excitement or sedation. In addition, from the point of view of the impact on human activity, emotions are divided into sthenic and asthenic. Sthenic emotions stimulate activity, increase the energy and tension of a person, induce him to actions, statements. And, on the contrary, sometimes experiences lead to stiffness, passivity, then they talk about asthenic emotions. Therefore, depending on the situation and individual characteristics, emotions can affect behavior in different ways. [L.D. Stolyarenko, p.234].

It should be noted that attempts have been repeatedly made to identify the main, “fundamental” emotions. In particular, it is customary to highlight the following emotions:

1) Joy is a positive emotional state associated with the ability to fully satisfy an urgent need.

2) Surprise - an emotional reaction that does not have a clearly expressed positive or negative sign to sudden circumstances.

3) Suffering - a negative emotional state associated with the received reliable or apparent information about the impossibility of satisfying the most important vital needs.

4) Anger - an emotional state, negative in sign, as a rule, proceeding in the form of affect and caused by the sudden appearance of a serious obstacle to satisfying an extremely important need for the subject.

5) Disgust - a negative emotional state caused by objects (objects, people, circumstances, etc.) contact with which comes into sharp conflict with the ideological, moral or aesthetic principles and attitudes of the subject.

6) Contempt - a negative emotional state that occurs in interpersonal relationships and is generated by a mismatch of life positions, views and behavior of the subject with life positions, views and behavior of the object of feeling.

7) Fear - a negative emotional state that appears when the subject receives information about a real or imagined danger.

8) Shame - a negative state, expressed in the awareness of the inconsistency of one's own thoughts, actions and appearance not only with the expectations of others, but also with one's own ideas about appropriate behavior and appearance. [A.G. Maklakov, p.395]

It should be noted that emotional experiences are ambiguous. The same object can cause inconsistent, conflicting emotional relationships. This phenomenon is called agility, i.e. duality of feelings.

Feelings are another kind of emotional states. This is the highest product of the cultural and emotional development of man. Feelings are even more than emotions, stable mental states that have a clearly expressed objective character: they express a stable attitude towards some objects (real or imaginary).

Depending on the orientation, feelings are divided into moral (a person's experience of his relationship to other people), intellectual (feelings associated with cognitive activity), aesthetic (feelings of beauty when perceiving art, natural phenomena) and practical (feelings associated with human activity).

Feelings play a motivating role in the life and activities of a person, in his communication with other people. In relation to the world around him, a person seeks to act in such a way as to reinforce and strengthen his positive feelings. They are always connected with the work of consciousness, they can be arbitrarily regulated. The manifestation of a strong and stable positive feeling for something or someone is called passion. Sustained feelings of moderate or weak strength, acting for a long time, are called moods.

Mood is the longest emotional state that colors all human behavior.

Passion is another type of complex, qualitatively peculiar and found only in humans emotional states. Passion is an alloy of emotions, motives and feelings, concentrated around a certain type of activity or object (person). [L.D. Stolyarenko, p.235].

The last type of emotional response is one of the most common types of affects - stress. It is a state of excessively strong and prolonged psychological stress that occurs in a person when his nervous system receives an emotional overload. Stress disorganizes human activity, disrupts the normal course of his behavior. According to G. Selye, stress is a non-specific response of the body to any requirement presented to it, which helps it to adapt to the difficulty that has arisen, to cope with it. What matters is the intensity of the need for adjustment or adaptation.

The very occurrence and experience of stress depends not so much on objective as on subjective factors, on the characteristics of the person himself: his assessment of the situation, the comparison of his strengths and abilities with what is required of him, etc.

Close to the concept and state of stress is the concept of frustration, which is experienced as tension, anxiety, despair, anger, which cover a person when, on the way to achieving a goal, he encounters unexpected obstacles that interfere with the satisfaction of needs.

The most common reaction to frustration is the emergence of generalized aggressiveness, most often directed at obstacles. Aggression, quickly turning into anger, manifests itself in violent and inadequate reactions: insult, physical attacks on a person or object. In some cases, the person reacts to the frustration by withdrawing, accompanied by aggressiveness that is not overtly shown.

Frustration leads to emotional disturbances only when there is an obstacle to strong motivation [L.D. Stolyarenko, p.243]

According to I.P. Pavlov, emotions play an important role in human life and perform a number of functions:

1) Reflective-evaluative function of emotions.

Emotions are a reflection of the human and animal brain of any active need (its quality and magnitude) and the probability (possibility) of its satisfaction, which the brain evaluates on the basis of genetic and previously acquired individual experience.

2) Switching function of emotions.

From a physiological point of view, an emotion is an active state of a system of specialized brain structures that prompts a change in behavior in the direction of minimizing or maximizing this state.

The switching function of emotions is found both in the sphere of innate forms of behavior and in the implementation of conditioned reflex activity, including its most complex manifestation.

An assessment of the probability of satisfying a need can occur in a person not only at a conscious level, but also at an unconscious level. The switching function of emotions is especially clearly revealed in the process of competition of motives, when the dominant need is singled out, which becomes a vector of purposeful behavior.

The dependence of emotions not only on the magnitude of the need, but also on the probability of its satisfaction, makes the competition of coexisting motives extremely difficult, as a result of which behavior often turns out to be reoriented towards a less important, but easily achievable goal.

3) Reinforcing function of emotions.

I.P. Pavlov understood reinforcement as the action of a biologically significant stimulus, which gives a signal value to another biologically non-existent stimulus combined with it. V. Vyrwicka came to the conclusion that direct reinforcement is not the satisfaction of any need, but the receipt of desirable and the elimination of undesirable incentives. For example, fear has a pronounced aversiveness for an animal and is actively minimized by it through the avoidance reaction.

4) Compensatory (replacement) function of emotions.

Emotions have an impact on other cerebral systems that regulate behavior, the processes of perception of external signals and the extraction of engrams of these signals from memory, and the autonomic functions of the body.

Emotion itself does not carry information about the surrounding world, the lack of information is replenished by searching behavior, improving skills, and mobilizing engrams stored in memory. The complex meaning of emotions lies in the replacement role [Yu.B. Gippenreiter, pp. 189-194].

5) The regulatory function of emotions and feelings - when, under the influence of negative emotional states, a person can form prerequisites for the development of various diseases, and vice versa, there are a significant number of examples when, under the influence of emotions, the healing process is accelerated, i.e. Emotions govern our health.

6) Pre-informational (signal) function of emotions

Emerging experiences signal to a person how the process of satisfying his needs is going on, what obstacles he encounters on his way, what should be paid attention to in the first place, etc.

7) Incentive (stimulating) function of emotions.

Emotions and feelings contribute to determining the direction of the search, as a result of which the satisfaction of the need that has arisen is achieved or the task facing the person is solved.

8) Communicative function of feelings.

Mimic and pantomimic movements allow a person to convey their experiences to other people, to inform them about their attitude to objects and phenomena of the surrounding reality. Facial expressions, gestures, postures, expressive sighs, changes in intonation are “the language of human feelings, a means of communicating not so much thoughts as emotions [AG Maklakov, p. 412].

The variety of emotional manifestations is expressed primarily in the prevailing mood of people. Under the influence of living conditions and depending on the attitude towards them, some people are dominated by an elevated, cheerful, cheerful mood; in others - low, depressed, sad; the third - capricious, irritable, etc.

Significant emotional differences are also observed in the emotional excitability of people. There are people who are emotionally insensitive, in whom only some extraordinary events evoke pronounced emotions. Such people do not so much feel the situation as they are aware of it with their minds. There is another category of people - emotionally excitable, in whom the slightest trifle can cause strong emotions, a rise or fall in mood.

Between people there are significant differences in the depth and stability of feelings. Some people are completely captured by feelings, leaving a deep mark after themselves. In other people, feelings are superficial, flow easily, hardly noticeable, quickly pass. Manifestations of affects and passions are noticeably different in people. In this regard, one can single out unbalanced people who easily lose control over themselves and their behavior. Other people, on the contrary, are always balanced, completely in control of themselves, consciously controlling their behavior.

It should be noted that significant differences in the manifestation of emotions and feelings largely determine the uniqueness of a particular person, i.e. define his personality. [A.G. Maklakov, p.414].

Thus, emotions play an extremely important role in people's lives. So, today no one denies the connection of emotions with the characteristics of the vital activity of the organism. It is well known that under the influence of emotions, the activity of the organs of blood circulation, respiration, digestion, glands of internal and external secretion, etc. changes. Excessive intensity and duration of experiences can cause disturbances in the body. MI Astvatsaturov wrote that the heart is more often affected by fear, the liver by anger, the stomach by apathy and depression. The emergence of these processes is based on changes occurring in the external world, but affects the activity of the whole organism.

Emotions characterize the needs of a person and the objects to which they are directed. In the process of evolution, emotional sensations and states are biologically fixed as a way of maintaining the vital process within its optimal boundaries. Their significance for the body is to warn about the destructive nature of any factors. Thus, emotions are one of the main mechanisms for regulating the functional state of the body and human activity. Thanks to emotions, a person is aware of his needs and the objects to which they are directed. Another common feature of emotions is their assistance in the realization of needs and the achievement of certain goals. Since any emotion is positive or negative, a person can judge the achievement of the goal. Thus, we can conclude that emotions are most directly related to the regulation of human activity. [A.G. Maklakov, p.393].

1.2 Features of the emotional development of children of preschool and primary school age

Emotions go through the path of development common to all higher mental functions - from external socially determined forms to internal mental processes. On the basis of innate reactions, the child develops the perception of the emotional state of the people around him. Over time, under the influence of increasingly complex social contacts, emotional processes are formed.

The earliest emotional manifestations in children are associated with the organic needs of the child. This includes manifestations of pleasure and displeasure in the satisfaction or dissatisfaction of the need for food, sleep, etc. Along with this, such elementary feelings as fear and anger begin to appear early. At first they are unconscious.

Children also develop empathy and compassion very early. So, in the twenty-seventh month of life, the child cried when he was shown the image of a crying person.

It should be noted that positive emotions in a child develop gradually through play and exploratory behavior. For example, a study by K. Buhler showed that the moment of experiencing pleasure in children's games shifts as the child grows and develops. Initially, the child has pleasure at the moment of obtaining the desired result. In this case, the emotions of pleasure play an encouraging role. The second step is functional. A playing child is pleased not only with the result, but also with the process of activity itself. Pleasure is no longer associated with the end of the process, but with its content. At the third stage, older children develop an anticipation of pleasure - in this case, emotion arises at the beginning of play activity, and neither the result of the action nor the performance itself are central to the child's experience.

Another characteristic feature of the manifestation of feelings at an early age is their affective nature. Emotional states in children at this age arise suddenly, proceed violently, but disappear just as quickly. A more significant control over emotional behavior occurs in children only at the older preschool age, when they also develop more complex forms of emotional life under the influence of increasingly complex relationships with people around them. [A.G. Maklakov, p.409].

Preschool age, as A.N.Leontiev wrote, is "the period of the initial actual warehouse of the personality." It is at this time that the formation of the main personal mechanisms and formations takes place. Emotional and motivational spheres closely related to each other develop, self-consciousness is formed.

Preschool childhood is characterized by a generally calm emotionality, the absence of strong affective outbursts and conflicts on minor occasions. This new, relatively stable emotional background determines the dynamics of the child's ideas. The dynamics of figurative representations is freer and softer compared to the affectively colored processes of perception in early childhood. Previously, the course of a child's emotional life was determined by the characteristics of the particular situation in which he was placed. Now the appearance of ideas makes it possible for the child to distract himself from the immediate situation, he has experiences that are not related to it, and momentary difficulties are not perceived so sharply, they lose their former significance.

So, emotional processes become more balanced. But this does not at all imply a decrease in the saturation, intensity of the child's emotional life. The day of a preschooler is so full of emotions that by the evening he can, tired, reach complete exhaustion. [I.Yu.Kulagina, V.N.Koliutsky, p.218].

The emotional development of a preschooler is also associated with the development of new interests, motives and needs. The most important change in the motivational sphere is the emergence of social motives that are no longer determined by the achievement of narrow personal, ulitarian goals. Therefore, social emotions and moral feelings begin to develop intensively. The establishment of a hierarchy of motives leads to changes in the emotional sphere. The selection of the main motive, to which the whole system of others is subordinate, stimulates stable and deep experiences. Moreover, they do not refer to the immediate, momentary, but rather distant results of activity. Feelings lose their situationality, become deeper in their semantic content, and arise in response to supposed mental circumstances. (P.M.Yakobson) [G.A.Uruntaeva, p.254].

Desires, motives of the child are connected with his ideas and thanks to this, the motives are rebuilt. There is a transition from desires (motives) directed at the objects of the perceived situation, to desires associated with the represented objects that are in the "ideal" plan. The child's actions are no longer directly related to an attractive object, but are built on the basis of ideas about the object, about the desired result, about the possibility of achieving it in the near future. The emotions associated with the performance make it possible to anticipate the results of the child's actions, the satisfaction of his desires.

The mechanism of emotional anticipation is described in detail by A.V. Zaporozhets. They show how the functional place of affect changes in the general structure of behavior. Comparing the behavior of a young child and a preschooler, we can conclude that a child under 3 years of age experiences only the consequences of his own actions, their assessment by an adult. They do not have worries about whether the act deserves approval or blame, what it will lead to. Affect turns out to be the last link in this chain of unfolding events.

Even before the preschooler begins to act, he has an emotional image that reflects both the future result and his assessment by adults. Emotionally anticipating the consequences of his behavior, the child already knows in advance whether he is going to act well or badly. If he foresees a result that does not meet the accepted standards of upbringing, possible disapproval or punishment, he develops anxiety - an emotional state that can slow down actions that are undesirable for others. The anticipation of a useful result of actions and the high appreciation it causes from close adults is associated with positive emotions that additionally stimulate behavior. Adults can help the child create the right emotional image. Wishes that are oriented to the emotional imagination of children, and not to their consciousness, are much more effective. thus, in preschool age there is a mixture of affect from the end to the beginning of activity. Affect (emotional image) becomes the first link in the structure of behavior. The mechanism of emotional anticipation of the consequences of activity underlies the emotional regulation of the child's actions [I.Yu. Kulagina, V.N. Kolyutsky, pp. 219-220].

Emotional anticipation makes the preschooler worry about the possible results of the activity, to anticipate the reaction of other people to his actions. Therefore, the role of emotions in the activity of the child changes significantly. If earlier he felt joy because he got the desired result, now he rejoices because he can get this result. If earlier the child fulfilled a moral standard in order to deserve a positive assessment, now he fulfills it, foreseeing how those around him will be delighted with his act.

Gradually, the preschooler begins to foresee not only the intellectual, but also the emotional results of his activities. Assuming how happy mom will be, he gives her a gift, refusing an attractive game. It is at preschool age that a child masters the highest forms of expression - the expression of feelings through intonation, facial expressions, pantomime, which helps him understand the experiences of another person.

Thus, on the one hand, the development of emotions is due to the emergence of new motives and their subordination, and on the other hand, emotional anticipation ensures this subordination. [G.A. Uruntaeva, pp. 254-255].

The structure of the emotional processes themselves also changes during this period. In early childhood, vegetative and motor reactions were included in their composition: experiencing resentment, the child cried, threw himself on the sofa, covered his face with his hands or moved chaotically, shouting incoherent words, his movements were uneven, his pulse was frequent. ; in anger, he blushed, shouted, clenched his fists, could break a thing that turned up under his arm, hit, etc. These reactions are preserved in preschool children, although the outward expression of emotions becomes more restrained in some children. In addition to vegetative and motor components, the structure of emotional processes now also includes complex forms of perception of imaginative thinking and imagination. The child begins to rejoice and grieve not only about what he is doing at the moment, but also about what he has yet to do. Experiences become more complex and deeper.

The content of affects changes - the range of emotions inherent in the child expands. Figurative representations acquire an emotional character and all the child's activities are emotionally saturated. [I..Kulagina, V.N. Kolyutsky, p.220].

Changes in the emotional sphere are associated with the development of not only the motivational, but also the cognitive sphere of the personality, self-consciousness. The inclusion of speech in emotional processes ensures their intellectualization when they become more conscious, generalized. The first attempts to restrain one's feelings, for example, external and manifestations - tears, can be seen in a child at 3-4 years old. Although the baby is still bad at it. The older preschooler, to a certain extent, begins to control the expression of emotions by influencing himself with the help of a word.

But still, preschoolers have difficulty restraining the emotions associated with organic needs. Hunger, thirst make them act impulsively.

At preschool age, the development of communication with adults and peers, the emergence of forms of collective activity and, mainly, role-playing games lead to the further development of sympathy, sympathy, and the formation of camaraderie. Higher feelings are intensively developing: moral, aesthetic, cognitive.

Relationships with loved ones are the source of humane feelings. If in early childhood a child was more often an object of feelings on the part of an adult, then a preschooler turns into a subject of emotional relationships with himself empathizing with other people. Practical mastery of the norms of behavior is also a source of development of moral feelings. Experiences are now caused by social sanction, the opinion of the children's society. At this age, moral assessments of actions from external requirements become the child's own assessments and are included in his experience of attitudes towards certain actions or actions.

A powerful factor in the development of humane feelings is a role-playing game. Role-playing actions and relationships help the preschooler to understand the other, take into account his position, mood, desire. When children move from simply recreating actions and the external nature of relationships to conveying their emotionally expressive content, they learn to share the experiences of others.

In labor activity aimed at achieving a result useful to others, new emotional experiences arise: joy from common success, sympathy for the efforts of comrades, satisfaction from the good performance of one's duties, dissatisfaction with one's poor work.

On the basis of acquaintance of children with the work of adults, love and respect for it is formed. And preschoolers transfer a positive attitude to work to their own activities. (Ya.Z.Neverovich)

Empathy with peers largely depends on the situation and position of the child. In conditions of acute personal rivalry, emotions overwhelm the preschooler, and the number of negative expressions addressed to a peer increases sharply. The child does not give any arguments against a peer, but simply (in speech) expresses his attitude towards him, empathy with a friend is sharply reduced.

Passive observation of the activities of a peer causes twofold experiences in a preschooler. If he is confident in his abilities, then he rejoices in the success of another, and if he is not sure, then he feels envy.

When children compete with each other, realistically evaluating their capabilities, comparing themselves with a friend, the desire for personal success increases the power of expression to the highest level. In group competitions, the interests of the group serve as the main core, and success or failure is shared by everyone together, the strength and number of negative expressions decreases, because against the general background of the group, personal successes and failures are less noticeable.

The child experiences the brightest positive emotions in a situation of comparing himself with a positive literary hero, actively empathizing with him and with confidence that in such a situation he would have acted the same way. Therefore, there are no negative emotions towards the character.

Sympathy and sympathy encourage the child to commit the first moral deeds. Even a 4-5-year-old child fulfills moral standards, showing a sense of duty, first of all, towards those with whom he sympathizes and sympathizes. R. Ibragimova's research made it possible to trace how the sense of duty develops during preschool age.

The beginnings of a sense of duty are observed in the third year of life. The kid obeys the requirements of an adult, not realizing their meaning. During this period, there is only a process of accumulation of initial moral ideas: “it is possible”, “it is impossible”, “bad”, “good” and correlating them with one's actions and deeds. Emotional reactions to the positive or negative side of the actions of adults in a baby are unstable. He can give in, but only under the influence of an adult or out of sympathy and sympathy for someone.

The first more or less complex manifestations of a sense of duty occur in children 4-5 years old. Now, on the basis of life experience and initial moral ideas, a moral consciousness is born in the child, he is able to understand the meaning of the requirements presented to him and relate them to his own actions and actions, as well as to the actions and actions of others.

The child experiences joy, satisfaction when he performs worthy deeds and grief, indignation, discontent when he or others violate generally accepted requirements, commit unworthy deeds. The feelings experienced are caused not only by the assessment of adults, but also by the evaluative attitude of the child himself to his own and other people's actions, but these feelings themselves are shallow and unstable. At the age of 5-7, a child has a sense of duty in relation to many adults and peers, a preschooler begins to experience this feeling in relation to babies.

The most pronounced sense of duty is manifested in 6-7 years. The child realizes the necessity and obligation of the rules of social behavior and subordinates his actions to them. The ability to self-esteem increases. Violation of the rules, unworthy actions cause awkwardness, guilt, embarrassment, anxiety.

By the age of 7, the sense of duty is not based only on attachment and extends to a wider range of people with whom the child does not directly interact. Experiences are deep enough and persist for a long time.

The development of camaraderie and friendship takes place long before children begin to understand their relationship with comrades in terms of moral norms. At the age of 5, the guys are dominated by friendship alternately with many children, depending on the circumstances. At the age of 5-7 years, the friendship of one child with many children is preserved, although paired friendships are more common. Friendship in small subgroups is most often born in the game on the basis of game interests and inclinations, including intellectual interests. Pair friendship is characterized by deep sympathy. Kids are friends because they play together, because playing and being friends is the same for them. Older preschoolers play with those with whom they make friends on the basis of sympathy and respect.

The development of intellectual feelings in preschool age is associated with the formation of cognitive activity. Joy when recognizing something new, surprise and doubt, bright positive emotions not only accompany the child's small discoveries, but also cause them. The surrounding world, nature especially attracts the baby with mystery, mystery. Surprise creates a question that needs to be answered.

The development of aesthetic feelings is associated with the formation of children's own artistic and creative activity and artistic perception.

Aesthetic feelings of children are interconnected with moral ones. The child approves of the beautiful and good, condemns the ugly and evil in life, art, literature. Older preschoolers begin to judge actions not only by their results, but also by their motives; they are occupied with such complex ethical issues as the justice of the reward, retribution for the wrong done, etc. [G.A.Uruntaeva, pp. 255-260].

In the second half of preschool childhood, the child acquires the ability to evaluate his own behavior, tries to act in accordance with the moral standards that he learns.

Foreign psychologists have shown that the assimilation of ethical norms and the socialization of a child's moral behavior proceed faster and easier with certain family relationships. The child should have a close emotional connection with at least one of the parents. Children are more likely to imitate caring parents than indifferent ones. In addition, they adopt the style of behavior and attitudes of adults, communicating more often and engaging in joint activities with them.

In communication with loving parents, children receive not only positive or negative emotional reactions to their actions, but also explanations why some actions should be considered good and others bad. All this leads to an earlier awareness of ethical standards of behavior.

The assimilation of moral norms, as well as emotional regulation of actions, contributes to the development of voluntary behavior of a preschooler. [I.Yu.Kulagina, V.N.Kolyutsky, p.224].

Thanks to intensive intellectual and personal development, by the end of preschool age, its central neoplasm is formed - self-awareness. Self-esteem appears in the second half of the period on the basis of the initial, purely emotional self-esteem (“I am good”) and a rational assessment of someone else's behavior. The child first acquires the ability to evaluate the actions of other children, and then - their own actions, moral qualities and skills.

The child judges moral qualities mainly by his behavior, which is either consistent with the norms accepted in the family and the group of peers or does not fit into the system of these relations. His self-esteem therefore almost always coincides with the external assessment, primarily with the assessment of close adults.

Assessing practical skills, a 5-year-old child exaggerates his achievements. By the age of 6, overestimated self-esteem persists, but at this time children praise themselves no longer in such an open form as before. At least half of their judgments about their success contain some justification. By the age of 7, the majority of self-assessment of skills becomes more adequate.

In general, the self-esteem of a preschooler is very high, which helps him to master new activities, without hesitation and fear to be involved in educational-type activities in preparation for school. An adequate image of the "I" is formed in the child with a harmonious combination of knowledge, gleaned by him from his own experience and from communication with adults and peers. [I.Yu.Kulagina, V.N.Koliutsky, p.225].

Thus, the features of emotional development in preschool age is that:

1) The child masters social forms of expression of feelings.

2) The role of emotions in the child's activity changes, emotional anticipation is formed.

3) Feelings become more conscious, generalized, reasonable, arbitrary, extra-situational. A system of motives is formed, which forms the basis of the arbitrariness of mental processes and behavior in general.

4) Higher feelings are formed - moral, intellectual, aesthetic.

5) There is a development of imagination, figurative thinking and arbitrary memory. [G.A.Uruntaeva, p.260].

The turning point in the mental development of the child is the crisis of 7 years, which occurs on the border of preschool primary school age.

The main symptoms of this crisis include:

Loss of spontaneity: the child begins to understand what this or that desired action can cost him personally. If earlier behavior was built and implemented according to desires, now, before doing something, the child thinks what it can cost him;

Mannering: his soul becomes closed and he begins to play a role, portraying something of himself and hiding something at the same time;

A symptom of "bitter candy": when a child feels bad, then at this age he tries to hide it from others.

Along with this, one can easily notice that during this period of time the child changes dramatically, becomes more difficult to educate than before. Often you can meet with aggressiveness (verbal and physical), and in some children it takes on extreme forms in the form of a destructive attitude towards things. The child becomes quick-tempered, rude in response to some kind of discontent or on the part of an adult, he is poorly contacted, disobedient. Some children may even refuse to eat and drink.

Often you can meet with the opposite phenomenon - absolutely passive behavior. Such children disturb their parents and caregivers with excessive passivity and absent-mindedness. It is clear that childhood experiences are the cause in both cases. They are being restructured. From “I myself” and “I want” to “So it is necessary” is not a short path, and a preschooler goes through it in just 3-4 years. [V.A. Averin, pp. 229-230].

All psychological neoplasms of preschool age together will allow the child to fulfill a new role for himself - the role of a schoolboy. And it is the formation and level of development of psychological processes that determines the level of readiness of the child for school and his first steps to adapt to it.

Readiness for learning consists of a certain level of development of mental activity, cognitive interests and readiness for arbitrary regulation of behavior. [V.A. Averin, p.232].

The beginning of school life expands the perception of the surrounding world, increases experience, expands and intensifies the sphere of communication of the child. Under the influence of a new way of life, which forms a new social situation for the development of a younger student, arbitrariness in the behavior and activities of the child goes a long way in its development.

At primary school age, the leading factor in the formation of voluntary behavior is educational activity, partly work in the family. The latter is associated with the child's having certain responsibilities in the family, when the activity itself begins to have a pronounced arbitrary character.

1. For the development of voluntary behavior, it is important for a child not only to be guided by the goals that an adult sets for him, but also the ability to independently set such goals and, in accordance with them, independently organize and control his behavior and mental activity. In the first and second grades, children are still characterized by a low level of arbitrariness in behavior, they are very impulsive and unrestrained. Children are not yet able to independently overcome even minor difficulties that they face in learning. Therefore, at this age, the upbringing of arbitrariness consists in systematically teaching children to set goals for their activities, to persistently achieve them, i.e. teach them independence.

2. The next moment in the development of voluntary behavior is associated with the growing importance of relations between schoolchildren. It is during this period that collective ties arise, public opinion, mutual evaluation, exactingness and other phenomena of public life are formed. On this basis, the orientation begins to form and be determined, new moral feelings appear, moral requirements are assimilated.

All of the above matters in the lives of third-graders and fourth-graders, but is weakly manifested in the lives of students in grades 1-2. As long as they still remain indifferent as to whether they received the reprimand in private with the teacher or in the presence of the whole class; at the same time, a remark made in the presence of comrades to a pupil of the third or fourth grade is experienced much stronger and sharper. [Averin V.A., pp. 288-290].

High grades for a small student are a guarantee of his emotional well-being, a source of pride and a source of other rewards.

In addition to the status of a good student, the broad social motives for learning also include duty, responsibility, the need to get an education, etc. They are also realized by students, give a certain meaning to their educational work. But these motives remain only "known" in the words of A.N. Leontiev. If, for the sake of getting a high mark or praise, a child is ready to immediately sit down to study and diligently complete all the tasks, then the abstract concept of duty for him or the distant prospect of continuing his education at a university cannot directly encourage him to study. Nevertheless, the social motives of learning are important for the personal development of the student, and in children who do well from the 1st grade, they are quite fully represented in their motivational systems.

The motivation of underachieving schoolchildren is specific. In the presence of strong motives associated with getting a mark, the circle of their social motives for learning is narrowed, which impoverishes motivation in general. Some social motives appear by the 3rd grade.

The broad social motives of learning correspond to the value orientations that children take from adults, mainly assimilate to the family. What is the most valuable, significant in school life? First graders, who had completed only one quarter, were asked about their likes and dislikes about school. From the very beginning, future excellent students appreciate the educational content and school rules: I like mathematics and Russian, because it is interesting there, I like that the lessons are given, Everyone must be good, obedient. Future three-year-olds and underachievers gave different answers: “I like that there are holidays at school”, “I like the after-school, we all play there, we go for a walk.” starting their school life, they have not yet acquired adult values, they are not guided by the essential aspects of education.

Characteristics of emotional disorders

The main features of this disorder are:

negative emotions - emotional lability, anxiety, insecurity, depression, suicidal behavior;
antagonism - hostility;
disinhibition - impulsiveness, poor awareness of risk.

Self-harm and impulsive suicidal attempts are seen in severely ill people with borderline personality disorder.

Emotional disorders are diagnosed only if:

begin no later than early adulthood;
deviations occur at home, at work and in society;
the behavior results in clinically significant distress or impairment in the patient's social, occupational, or other important areas.

Emotionally unstable personality disorder should not be diagnosed if the symptoms can better explain some other mental state, especially in the presence of a previous traumatic brain injury.

The main disorders of the emotional sphere include:

euphoria - a carefree manifestation of a state of apparent absence of problems;
hyperthymia - elevated mood;
morio - benevolent absurd fun;
ecstasy - the highest degree of positive emotions;
hypothymia - a decrease in mood;
depression - a decrease in mood with deeper emotional experiences;
dysphoria - a melancholy-evil mood with grouchiness, grumbling, with outbursts of anger, rage, with aggression and destructive actions;
paralysis of emotions - the loss of the ability to rejoice, be upset or experience any other emotions;
emotional weakness - easy and capricious variability of mood;
emotional dullness - mental coldness, devastation, callousness, heartlessness;
emotional coldness - the loss of finer emotional boundaries. Most often it manifests itself against the background of a lack of restraint in communicating with other people;
ambivalence of emotions - simultaneous testing of different, sometimes conflicting feelings towards the same object;
confusion - a feeling of bewilderment, helplessness, stupidity;
explosiveness - excitability with violent outbursts of rage, anger and aggression, including against oneself.
emotional viscosity - obsessive emotions.

Diagnostic criteria

The patient must make a frantic effort to accept or even figuratively agree with real or imagined rejection.
The style of unstable and intense interpersonal relationships is characterized by an alternation between the extremes of idealization and devaluation.
Identity disturbance is very noticeable and manifests itself in the form of persistent unstable self-esteem or self-perceptions.
Impulsivity manifests itself in at least two areas that occur most frequently in the patient's life, for example, spending, sex, substance abuse, reckless driving, overeating. In some cases, the attitude to situations can develop into a mania.
Recurrent suicidal behavior, gestures or threats, as well as frequent attempts to harm one's own health.
Affective instability due to severe mood reactivity, such as intense episodic, irritability or restlessness, usually lasts for several hours and only in rare cases for more than a few days.
Chronic feelings of emptiness.
Frequent complaints about everything, intense anger or difficulty in controlling it, for example, frequent temperaments, constant aggression, recurring fights.
Transient, stress-related, paranoid ideas or severe dissociative symptoms.
The pattern of inner experience and behavior must differ markedly from the expectations of the individual's culture.
A stable clinical picture characterized by inflexibility and common in a wide range of personal and social situations.
Such behavior leads to clinically significant distress and disturbances in the patient's society, especially in the field of professional activity.

Principles and general management of emotional crises

The manifestation of clinical signs of an emotional personality disorder determines the use of the following psychotherapeutic maneuvers by a specialist:

maintain a calm and non-threatening stance;
try to understand the crisis from the patient's point of view;
to study the possible individual causes of the manifestation of emotional disorder;
it is necessary to use open testing, preferably in the form of a simple survey, which will determine the reasons that stimulated the onset and course of current problems;
seek to stimulate the patient to think about possible solutions to his problems;
refrain from suggesting a solution until a full clarification of the problems has been received;
explore other options for possible care before considering options for pharmacological intervention or inpatient care;
offer appropriate follow-up activities within the time agreed with the patient.

Short-term use of pharmacological regimens may be useful for people with an emotionally labile disorder during a crisis. Before starting short-term therapy for patients with emotional personality disorder, the specialist should:

make sure that there is no negative effect of the selected drug with others that the patient is taking at the time of the course;
identify the likely risks of prescribing, including the possible use of alcohol and illicit drugs;
take into account the psychological role of the prescribed treatment for the patient, the possible dependence on the drug;
ensure that the drug is not used as a substitute for other more appropriate interventions;
use only one drug in the initial stages of therapy;
avoid polypharmacy whenever possible.

When prescribing short-term treatment for emotional disorders associated with drug dependence, the following conditions should be considered:

choose a drug, such as an antihistamine sedative, that has a low side effect profile, low levels of addiction, minimal potential for abuse, and relative safety in overdose;
use the lowest effective dose;
the first dosages should be at least a third lower than the therapeutic dose if there is a significant risk of overdose;
obtain explicit patient consent with target symptoms, monitoring measures, and anticipated duration of treatment;
stop taking the drug after the trial period if there is no improvement in the target symptom;
consider alternative therapies, including psychological and psychotherapeutic, if target symptoms do not improve or the risk of recurrence does not decrease;
adjust all their actions with the personal participation of the patient.

After the appearance of symptomatic smoothing or its complete absence, it is necessary to conduct a general analysis of the therapy performed in order to determine which particular treatment strategy turned out to be the most useful. This should be done with the obligatory participation of the patient, preferably their family or caregivers if possible, and should include:

a review of the crisis and its antecedents, taking into account external, personal and interrelated factors;
analysis of the use of pharmacological agents, including benefits, side effects, safety concerns in relation to withdrawal syndrome and the role in the overall treatment strategy;
plan to stop treatment with pharmacological agents;
a review of psychological treatments, including their role in overall treatment strategies and their possible role in crisis deposition.

If drug treatment cannot be stopped within one week, regular review of the drug should be performed to monitor efficacy, side effects, abuse, and dependence. The frequency of examination should be agreed with the patient and recorded in the general therapy plan.

Possible individual therapies

Patients suffering from emotional distress due to sleep problems should be made aware of general sleep hygiene advice, including pre-sleep procedures, avoidance of caffeinated products, violent or addictive television programs or films. and also - use activities that can encourage sleep.

Specialists need to take into account the individual tolerance of sleeping pills by the patient. In any case, for emotional disorders, mild antihistamines that have a sedative effect will be prescribed.

When may hospitalization be required?

Before hospitalization in a psychiatric ward for a patient with emotional personality disorder is considered, attempts will be made by specialists to resolve the crisis in the form of outpatient and home treatment or other available alternatives to hospitalization.

Objectively, hospitalization for patients suffering from an emotional disorder is indicated if:

the manifestation of the patient's crises is associated with a significant risk for oneself or others, which cannot be stopped by other methods, except for compulsory treatment;
the actions of the patient, confirming the need for his placement in a medical institution;
submission of an application from the relatives of the patient or his attendants on the possibility of considering placing him in a medical institution.

AND ABOUT. Karelina

The problem of emotional well-being of children in the family and preschool institution is one of the most urgent, since a positive emotional state is one of the most important conditions for personality development.

The high emotionality of the child, which colors his mental life and practical experience, is a characteristic feature of preschool childhood. The inner, subjective attitude of the child to the world, to people, to the very fact of his own existence is an emotional worldview. In some cases, it is joy, fullness of life, agreement with the world and oneself, lack of affectivity and withdrawal into oneself; in others - excessive tension of interaction, a state of depression, low mood, or, conversely, pronounced aggression.

Thus, the emotional attitude of a preschooler is “an expression of subjective experience, its intensity and depth, the maturity of emotions and feelings in general".

The emotional experience of the child, that is, the experience of his experiences, can have both positive and negative coloring, which has a direct impact on his current state of health. Modern scientific data convincingly show that the result of a positively directed childhood experience: trust in the world, openness, willingness to cooperate provides the basis for the positive self-realization of a growing personality,.

For the mental health of children, a balance of positive and negative emotions is necessary, ensuring the maintenance of peace of mind and life-affirming behavior,. Violation of the emotional balance contributes to the emergence of emotional disorders, leading to a deviation in the development of the child's personality, to a violation of his social contacts.

An analysis of the psychological literature (,,,) allows us to distinguish three groups of disorders in the development of the emotional sphere of a preschooler: - mood disorders; - conduct disorders; - psychomotor disorders.

Mood disorders can be divided into 2 types: with an increase in emotionality and its decrease. The 1st group includes such conditions as euphoria, dysphoria, depression, anxiety syndrome, fears. The 2nd group includes apathy, emotional dullness, parathymia,.

Euphoria - high spirits, not associated with external circumstances. A child in a state of euphoria is characterized as impulsive, striving for dominance, impatient.

Dysphoria is a mood disorder, with a predominance of angry-dreary, gloomy-dissatisfied, with general irritability and aggressiveness. A child in a state of dysphoria can be described as sullen, angry, harsh, unyielding.

Depression is an affective state characterized by a negative emotional background and a general passivity of behavior. Depression in preschool age in its classic form is usually atypical, erased. A child with a low mood can be described as unhappy, gloomy, pessimistic.

Anxiety syndrome is a state of unreasonable concern, accompanied by nervous tension, restlessness. An anxious child can be defined as insecure, constrained, tense.

Fear is an emotional state that arises in case of awareness of impending danger. A preschooler who is afraid looks timid, frightened, withdrawn.

Apathy is an indifferent attitude to everything that happens, which is combined with a sharp drop in initiative.

An apathetic child can be described as lethargic, indifferent, passive.

Emotional dullness is the flattening of emotions, first of all, the loss of subtle altruistic feelings while maintaining elementary forms of emotional response.

Parathymia, or inadequacy of emotions, is a mood disorder in which the experience of one emotion is accompanied by an external manifestation of an emotion of the opposite valency.

Emotional dullness and parathymia are characteristic of children with schizophrenia.

Behavioral disorders include hyperactivity and aggressive behavior: normative-instrumental aggression, passive-aggressive behavior, infantile aggressiveness, defensive aggression, demonstrative aggression, purposefully hostile aggression,.

Hyperactivity is a combination of general motor restlessness, restlessness, impulsive actions, emotional lability, and impaired concentration. A hyperactive child is restless, does not complete the work he has begun, his mood quickly changes.

Normative-instrumental aggression is a type of childish aggressiveness, where aggression is used mainly as a norm of behavior in communicating with peers.

An aggressive child is defiant, restless, pugnacious, enterprising, does not admit guilt, demands the submission of others. His aggressive actions are a means to achieve a specific goal, therefore, positive emotions are experienced by him upon reaching the result, and not at the moment of aggressive actions.

Passive-aggressive behavior is characterized by whims, stubbornness, the desire to subdue others, unwillingness to discipline.

Infantile aggressiveness is manifested in the child's frequent quarrels with peers, disobedience, making demands on parents, and the desire to offend others.

Defensive aggression is a type of aggressive behavior that manifests itself both in the norm (an adequate response to external influences) and in an exaggerated form, when aggression occurs in response to a variety of influences.

The emergence of hypertrophied aggression may be associated with difficulties in decoding the communicative actions of others.

Demonstrative aggression is a kind of provocative behavior aimed at attracting the attention of adults or peers. In the first case, the child uses verbal aggression in an indirect form, which manifests itself in various statements in the form of complaints about a peer, in a demonstrative cry aimed at eliminating a peer. In the second case, when children use aggression as a means of attracting the attention of their peers, they most often use physical aggression - direct or indirect, which is involuntary, impulsive (direct attack on another, threats and intimidation - as an example of direct physical aggression or destruction products of the activity of another child in case of indirect aggression).

Purposefully hostile aggression is a type of childish aggressiveness, where the desire to harm another is an end in itself. The aggressive actions of children, bringing pain and humiliation to their peers, do not have any visible purpose - neither for others, nor for themselves, but imply getting pleasure from causing harm to another. Children use mainly direct physical aggression, while the actions are distinguished by particular cruelty and composure, feelings of remorse are completely absent.

Psychomotor disorders include: 1. amimia - lack of expressiveness of the facial muscles, observed in some diseases of the central or peripheral nervous system; 2. hypomimia, a slight decrease in the expressiveness of facial expressions; 3. inexpressive pantomime.

As T.I. Babaeva emphasizes, the condition for the social and emotional development of a child is his “ability to“ read ”the emotional state of the people around him, empathize and, accordingly, actively respond to it.” Therefore, difficulties in adequately determining the emotional states of people can also be attributed to disorders in the emotional development of a preschooler, since in the practice of teaching and educating children the task of forming emotionality is solved only fragmentarily, and priority attention is paid to the development of thought processes. One of the reasons for this situation is the lack of coverage of the issue of emotional impact.

Violations of emotional development in preschool age are due to two groups of reasons,.

Constitutional reasons (type of the child's nervous system, biotonus, somatic features, that is, a violation of the functioning of any organs).

Features of the interaction of the child with the social environment. A preschooler has his own experience of communicating with adults, peers and a group that is especially significant for him - a family, and this experience can be unfavorable: 1) if a child is systematically subjected to negative assessments from an adult, he is forced to displace a large amount of information from the environment into the unconscious . New experiences that do not coincide with the structure of his "I" concept are perceived negatively by him, as a result of which the child finds himself in a stressful situation.

2) With dysfunctional relationships with peers, emotional experiences arise that are characterized by acuteness and duration: disappointment, resentment, anger.

3) Family conflicts, different requirements for the child, misunderstanding of his interests can also cause him negative experiences. The following types of parental attitudes are unfavorable for the emotional and personal development of a preschooler: rejection, overprotection, treatment of a child on the basis of a double bond, excessive demands, avoidance of communication, etc. Among the emotional traits that develop under the influence of such parental relationships, aggressiveness, auto-aggressiveness, lack of abilities for emotional decentration, feelings of anxiety, suspiciousness, emotional instability in communicating with people. Whereas close, rich emotional contacts, in which the child is "the object of a benevolent, but demanding, evaluative attitude, ... form confidently optimistic personal expectations in him."