Gennady Ivanovich Maleichuk Currently, there are a number of psychological theories (Z. Freud, L.S. Vygotsky, E. Erikson, L.I. Bozhovich, D.B. Elkonin), authors which argue that a fully functioning personality is formed by passing through regular stages in its development. And each stage is accompanied by a crisis - a turning point in a person’s life, which occurs during the transition to the next stage of psychosocial development, and the authors consider crises to be a necessary and obligatory condition for further human development. Thus, E. Erikson notes that crisis does not mean the threat of catastrophe, but a turning point, and thereby an ontogenetic source of strength. However, according to I.Yu. Kulagina and V.N. Kolyutsky, some people who have reached adulthood experience another, “unplanned” crisis, not confined to the border of two stable periods of life, but arising within a given period. This is the so-called crisis of 40 years. As you know, during a midlife crisis, a person experiences experiences regarding determining his place in life. A person evaluates his achievements in comparison with the ideals that were set at the beginning of the period of growing up, taking into account the temporary limitations of the possibility of their implementation, there is a reorganization, rethinking and revaluation of those beliefs, values ​​and meanings that were significant for the person throughout his entire previous life. These experiences directly relate to a person’s identity, which scientists define as a sense of self-identity, one’s own truth, completeness, belonging to the world and other people; a feeling of acquisition, adequacy and stability of personal ownership of one’s own Self, regardless of the situation. Thus, the crisis of 40 years requires an adjustment of one’s life plan, the development of a largely new Self-concept and acceptance of one’s life as it develops. Purpose of the study: to study the characteristics of personal identity during the midlife crisis. Subject of the study: an adult aged from 36 to 43 years. Subject of the study: features of personal identity. The study involved 50 people (11 men and 39 women) aged from 36 to 43. Hypothesis: in During our research, we assumed that the crisis of 40 years (midlife crisis) is an identity crisis. To test this hypothesis, we chose the following methods: 1. Methodology for the study of self-attitude (MIS) by R.S. Panteleev, aimed at studying the characteristics of the internal dynamics of self-awareness, the structure and specificity of the individual’s attitude to his own “I”. The subjects are presented with 110 statements and a standard answer form, where they must indicate their agreement or disagreement on each of the points. The interpretation was carried out by analyzing the profile of three modality factors: self-esteem; autosympathy; internal disorder.2. Test to assess the level of self-actualization of a person (“SAMOAL”). The technique includes 100 paired statements, from which one must be selected during the survey, distributed across 11 scales, and also involves calculating the “general indicator of self-actualization.” In our work, we used 3 out of 11 scales: autonomy; self-understanding; autosympathy.3. Test "Who Am I?" M. Kuhn and T. McPartland was used to study the content characteristics of the self. To process the data obtained, the content analysis method was used. All results of processing the questionnaire “Who Am I?” were divided into 2 categories: objective characteristics; subjective characteristics.4. Dembo-Rubinstein self-esteem research technique. The subjects were presented with a modified version of this technique, consisting of 10 scales: external attractiveness; physical state; education; success in labor (professional) activities; self-realization in family life; social status; significance for others; feeling of joy from life; meaningfulness of life; controllability of one's life. The interpretation was carried out by analyzing threecommon factors:1. self-esteem of appearance (includes scales 1 and 2); 2. self-assessment of the level of social achievements (consists of scales 3 – 7); 3. self-assessment of life satisfaction (includes scales 8, 9, 10).5. Clinical interview, the purpose of which was to study the level of alienation. The method was a semi-structured interview, the number of main questions was 12. The conversation took place in a relaxed atmosphere at the subjects’ home and included the following stages: 1. establishing a “trusting distance”; provision of confidentiality guarantees; determination of the dominant motives for conducting interviews; 2. conversation on main issues; 3. assessment of the interview result. The results were recorded using a voice recorder and subsequently presented in the form of written texts. Processing of the received data: the general indicator of alienation was determined, as well as the level of alienation according to three parameters: 1. alienation over time; 2. alienation in social space; 3. alienation from the “I” space. Quantitative and qualitative analysis of the data obtained. The results of primary statistical data processing showed that the majority of subjects (60%) can be classified as having an average level of alienation, 32% of those studied have a low level of alienation, and only 8% of people experience a high level of alienation. As for the indicators according to the method of studying self-attitude, they are reflected in Table 1. Table 1. Distribution of subjects according to the results of the method of studying self-attitude. Modality factors LEVEL low average high self-esteem 0% 78% 22% autosympathy 4% 54% 42% internal disorder 18% 60% 22% Analysis of the first factor “self-esteem” shows that none of the subjects, depending on what level of alienation they belong to, has low self-esteem, that is, absolutely all subjects have a positive assessment of their own self according to in relation to social-normative criteria: morality, success, will, determination, social approval. It should be noted that of the two subjects with a low level of autosympathy, one person belongs to a high level of alienation, the other, on the contrary, to a low level, which indicates that there is no relationship between the level of autosympathy, which R.S. Panteleev defined as the emotional attitude of the subject to his self, and manifestations of an identity crisis. But at the same time, analysis of data on the factor “internal disorder” showed that out of 11 -ty people who received a high level of internal disorder, 10 people have medium and high levels of alienation, and only 1 person belongs to a low level. This factor contains scales that record internal conflict, self-blame and is associated with a negative self-attitude, independent of autosympathy and self-esteem. Thus, there is a connection between the above-mentioned features of a person’s self-attitude in mid-life and an identity crisis. Next, let's move on to analyzing the data obtained using a test to assess the level of self-actualization of an individual. The results of this technique are also shown in Table 2. Table 2. Distribution of subjects according to the results of the technique for assessing the level of self-actualization of the individual. LEVEL scales low average highautonomy 18% 66% 16%self-understanding 14% 70% 16%autosympathy 2% 62% 36%Analysis of the first scale The “Autonomy” methodology showed that out of 8 subjects with a high level of autonomy, 7 people have a low level of alienation. Thus, we can observe the relationship between the level of identity crisis and autonomy, which A. Maslow defines as the main criterion of a person’s mental health, its integrity and completeness. The second scale “Self-Understanding” revealed the absence of dependence between the level of alienation and the level of sensitivity, sensitivity to one’s desires and needs, since out of 8 subjects with a high level of self-understanding, 4 people had a low level of alienation and 4 people had an average level. The “Autosympathy” scale also did not reveal a connection withindicators of alienation, since 98% of respondents have medium and high levels of autosympathy, and only one person has a low level of autosympathy. The next step is to analyze the data obtained using the “Who Am I” technique. In general, it should be noted that this technique is not indicative in the study of the phenomena we are studying. Thus, 26% of the subjects (13 people) gave more objective characteristics, with 4 people having a low level of alienation, 7 people having an average level, 3 people having a high level of alienation. 68% of respondents indicated more subjective characteristics, 6% - equally objective and subjective. Next, we will analyze the data obtained using the self-esteem research methodology. According to the factor “External attractiveness”, 66% of respondents have a high level of satisfaction with their appearance and physical condition, 30% of respondents - average level of satisfaction, and 4% (2 people) belong to a low level of satisfaction, and both of them have a high level of alienation. Analysis of the factor “social achievements” found that 68% of subjects have a high level of satisfaction with their social achievements, 32% - average level, and there were no subjects who had a low level of satisfaction with social achievements. With regard to the “Life Satisfaction” factor, it should be noted that 48% of respondents showed a high level of life satisfaction, the same percentage showed an average level, and only 4% showed a low level satisfaction with their life, and one of the two people has a high level of alienation, the other - an average indicator. The next step in the quantitative and qualitative analysis of the data we received is their secondary statistical processing. In order to more objectively identify the presence of a certain kind of dependency between the phenomena we are studying, we turned to Spearman's rank correlation coefficient. Results of correlation analysis. For the entire sample of subjects, the highest correlation indicators were identified: 1. 0.87 – between the “autonomy” scale (“SAMOAL”) and the “autosympathy” scale (“SAMOAL”), which indicates the relationship between sensitivity, a person’s sensitivity to his desires and needs and an indicator of the mental health of the individual, its integrity and completeness;2. 0.78 – between self-assessment of the level of social achievements and self-assessment of life satisfaction;3. 0.62 – between the “self-esteem” scale (MIS) and the “autosympathy” scale (MIS), which reflects the connection between the assessment of the subject’s own self in relation to socio-moral criteria and the subject’s emotional attitude towards his self; 4. 0.5 – between the “autonomy” (“SAMOAL”) scale and the “autosympathy” (“SAMOAL”) scale, meaning the interdependence between the mental health of the individual and a well-recognized positive self-concept, which serves as a source of adequate self-esteem;5. 0.29 – between the “self-understanding” (“SAMOAL”) scale and self-assessment of life satisfaction, which suggests that a person’s satisfaction with life depends on how free the person is from psychological defenses that separate the personality from his own essence; on how much he is not inclined to replace his own tastes and assessments with external social standards; However, for us the most significant were the following correlation indicators: 0.32 - between the indicator of alienation in the social space and the indicator of alienation from the space of the Self; 0.43 - between the indicator of alienation in social space and the indicator of alienation in time; 0.27 - between the indicator of alienation in time and the indicator of alienation from the space of the Self. It should be emphasized that significant correlations between all indicators of alienation confirm the fact that an identity crisis simultaneously affects the entire psychological space of a person: its meanings, social relationships and attitude towards one’s physical body. Particular attention is drawn to the high correlation (0.44) between the general indicator of alienation and the factor “internal.