Paternal Sphere Of Personality: Stages And Features Of Formation

2024 Author: Harry Day | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 15:43

The formation of the paternal sphere of personality begins at an early age and includes the passage of the following stages:

1. Formation of the matrix of the paternal relationship. This happens in the process of interaction with parents.
2. Formation of the self-concept of the father. This stage is actualized when a man finds out about the pregnancy of his wife (girlfriend).
3. Accepting and fulfilling the role of a father when a child is born.

The formation of the paternal sphere of the personality is very different from the formation of the maternal sphere.

Of course, there are exceptions to the rules, which, however, these rules only confirm.

So women, unlike men, even before planning pregnancy, are guided by what a baby is and how to behave with it. Along with instinctive programs that are launched when a woman becomes pregnant, girls, even at the stage of play activity, actively interact with the symbolic representations of the child in the form of a doll.

The miniskills and models of behavior with the child obtained in this period are actualized at the stage of interaction with their own child.

Even before the birth of a child, a woman already has a partially formed concept of her image “I am a mother”. During pregnancy, this concept is actualized and almost completely formalized.

Men, in most cases, did not go through the stages of development of the paternal sphere in play.

This does not mean that boys do not play with the family. They play, but even then they are offered to play "purely male" roles: to go to work, to repair something, and so on. And the girls lull the dolls to sleep at this time.

Therefore, the formation of the concept "I am a father" (awareness of oneself as a father) coincides with the moment when a man learns about a future child.

The second important difference between the formation of the paternal and maternal spheres is that the mother from the very beginning is in a situation of very close physical and emotional interaction with the child. And for the father during the pregnancy of his wife, the child still exists more on the "theoretical" level.

That is, he knows that he will soon have a baby, he is worried with his wife, but he cannot truly grasp the reality of the child's existence. At the same time, for the mother, the existence of the child is already an unsubstantiated fact. Therefore, women communicate with an unborn child more openly and more courageously.

Based on this, it is very important for the normal development of the process of forming paternity to ensure close physical contact between the father and the newborn. Indeed, unlike the mother, whose attachment to the child is formed during pregnancy, in the father this process is very little connected with bodily, physiological sensations.

In this context, it is very important to ensure that boys have access to dolls during childhood. Let them play with them, "feed", "put to bed", "walk".

It should be noted that in the process of forming paternity, an important place is given to adaptive psychological and behavioral restructuring of a man's mental activity, that is, adaptation to his new paternal role.

And the indicators of a man's successful adaptation to fatherhood are considered to be satisfaction with his paternal role and the absence of acute problems during interaction with a child, which is determined by paternal competence.

Indeed, it is in the process of interacting with the child that the methods of behavior and communication are tested, which has a good effect on the formation of the components of fatherhood and their development.