Various social groups or entities. Social groups

Lecture:

Social groups

Social groups are one of the elements of the social structure of society. Social groups are associations of people connected by common characteristics (gender, age, nationality, profession, income, power, education and many others), interests, goals, and activities. There are more social groups on Earth than individuals, because the same individual is included in several groups. Pitirim Sorokin noted that history does not give us a person outside the group. Indeed, from birth a person is in a group - a family, the members of which are connected by blood relations and a common way of life. The circle of groups expands as they grow older; street friends, a school class, a sports team, a work collective, a party, and others appear. A social group is characterized by such characteristics as internal organization, common goal, joint activities, rules and regulations, interaction (active communication).

In sociology, along with the term social group, the term social community is used. Both terms characterize an association of people, but the concept of community is broader. Community is the unification of different groups of people according to some characteristic or life circumstances. The main difference between a community and a group is that between members of the community there is no stable and repeating connection, which exists in a group. Examples of a social community: men, children, students, Russians, etc.

The transitional position between a social community and a social group is occupied by a quasi-group - this is an unstable short-term community of people that is random in nature. Examples of quasi-groups are a concert audience, a crowd.

Types of social groups

Social groups
Kinds		Signs	Examples
1.	Primary	Direct personal contacts, emotional involvement, solidarity, sense of “we”, individual qualities are valued	Family, school class, friends
1.	Secondary	Indirect subject contacts, lack of emotional relationships, abilities to perform certain functions are valued	Professional, territorial, demographic groups, party electorates
2.	Large	Large numbers	Nations, age groups, professional groups
2.	Small	Small number	Family, school class, sports team, work team
3.	Formal	Arise at the initiative of the administration, the behavior of group members is determined by job descriptions	Party, labor collective
3.	Informal	Created spontaneously, the behavior of group members is not regulated
4.	Reference	A real or imagined significant group with which a person identifies and is oriented towards	Political party, denomination
4.	Non-referential	A real group that has little value for the person who studies or works in it	School class, sports section, work team
5.	Professional	Joint professional activities	Doctors, lawyers, programmers, agronomists, veterinarians
	Ethnic	General history, culture, language, territory	Russians, French, Germans
	Demographic	Gender, age	Men, women, children, old people
	Confessional	General religion	Muslims, Christians, Buddhists
	Territorial	Common area of residence, unity of living conditions	City dwellers, villagers, provincials

Functions of social groups

American sociologist Neil Smelser identified four socially significant functions of social groups:

1. The function of human socialization is the most important. Only in a group does a person become human and acquire a sociocultural essence. In the process of socialization, a person masters knowledge, values, and norms. Socialization is closely related to education and upbringing. A person receives education at school, college or university, and is raised primarily in the family.

2. The instrumental function is to carry out joint activities. Collective work in a group is important for the development of an individual and society, because a person cannot do much alone. By participating in a group, a person acquires material resources and self-realization.

3. The expressive function of a group is to satisfy a person’s needs for respect, love, care, approval, and trust. Communication with group members brings joy to a person.

4. The supporting function is manifested in the desire of people to unite in difficult and problematic life situations. The feeling of group support helps a person reduce unpleasant feelings.

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A social group is an association of people connected by common relationships that are regulated by special social institutions and who have common norms, values and traditions. A social group is one of the main components of social structure. The bonding factor for a group is a common interest, that is, spiritual, economic or political needs.

Belonging to a group presupposes that a person possesses certain characteristics that, from the point of view of the group, are valuable and significant. From this point of view, the “core” of the group is identified - those of its members who possess these characteristics to the greatest extent. The remaining members of the group form its periphery.

A specific personality cannot be reduced to membership in one group, since it certainly belongs to a sufficiently large number of groups at once. Indeed, we can classify people into groups in many different ways: by religious affiliation; by income level; from the point of view of their attitude to sports, to art, etc.

By way of organization:

Formal group is a group with legal status, interaction in which is regulated by a system of formalized norms, rules, and laws. These groups have a consciously set goal, a normatively established hierarchical structure and act according to an administratively established order (organizations, enterprises, etc.).

Informal group arises spontaneously, on the basis of common views, interests and interpersonal interactions, has no official regulation and legal status. (friendly companies, informal associations among young people, rock music lovers)

real (room with patients);

conditional (alcoholics of some city, for the most part unfamiliar with each other, and do not consider themselves to be part of this social group).

By way of interaction:

primary(or contact) – friends; Primary groups are usually small groups characterized by close ties between members and, as a result, have a great influence on the individual. The last feature plays a decisive role in determining the primary group.

secondary(or non-contact) - a community of young mothers on a forum with relevant topics. In secondary groups, there are practically no close relationships between individuals, and the integrity of the group is ensured by the presence of common goals and interests.

By size and prevalence in society social groups there are:

big– existing throughout society (pensioners, nationalities and nations, men and women, scientists, workers, children, schoolchildren, military, students, politicians, lawyers, etc.); a large group is a large collection of people who do not have direct contacts with each other, but are united by the awareness of belonging to the group, way of life, general psychology, customs and traditions: nation, class, estate, ethnic community.

average(workers of a factory, residents of a city); These are relatively stable groups of people who also have common goals and interests, connected by the same activities, but at the same time not in close contact with each other.

small(family, group of friends, neighbors next door). Small groups are characterized by the fact that their members are in direct contact with each other and have common goals and interests: the connection between group members is so strong that a change in one of its parts certainly entails a change in the group as a whole.

Depending on socially significant characteristics- real and nominal.

Real groups- these are groups identified according to socially significant criteria:

gender - men and women;

age - children, youth, adults, elderly;

income - rich, poor, wealthy;

nationality - Russian, French, American;

marital status - married, single, divorced;

profession (occupation) - doctors, economists, managers;

place of residence - city dwellers, rural residents.

Nominal(conditional) groups, sometimes called social categories, are identified for the purpose of conducting sociological research or statistical population accounting (for example, to find out the number of passengers on benefits, single mothers, students receiving personal scholarships, etc.).

A quasi-group is an informal, spontaneous, unstable social community that does not have a specific structure and value system, and the interaction of people in which, as a rule, is external and short-term in nature.

The main types of quasigroups are:

An audience is a social community united by interaction with a communicator and receiving information from him. The heterogeneity of a given social formation, due to the difference in personal qualities, as well as the cultural values and norms of the people included in it, determines the different degrees of acceptance and evaluation of the information received.

A crowd is a temporary, relatively unorganized, structureless accumulation of people united in a closed physical space by a commonality of interests, but at the same time devoid of a clearly recognized goal and connected by similarities emotional state

random crowd - an indefinite collection of individuals formed spontaneously without any purpose (to watch a celebrity suddenly appear or a traffic accident);

conventional crowd - a relatively structured collection of people under the influence of planned, predetermined norms (spectators in a theater, fans in a stadium, etc.);

expressive crowd - a social quasi-group formed for the personal pleasure of its members, which in itself is already a goal and result (discos, rock festivals, etc.);

active (active) crowd - a group that performs some kind of action, which can act in the form of: a gathering - an emotionally excited crowd gravitating towards violent actions, and a rebellious crowd - a group characterized by particular aggressiveness and destructive actions.

Social circles are social communities that are created for the purpose of exchanging information between their members

The entire history of people's lives is the history of their relationships and interactions with other people. During these interactions, social communities and groups are formed.

The most general concept is social community – a set of people united by common conditions of existence, regularly and systematically interacting with each other.

In modern sociology, several types of communities are distinguished.

First of all, nominal communities– a collection of people united by common social characteristics, which are established by a scientist-researcher to solve the scientific problem assigned to him. For example, people of the same hair color, skin color, who love sports, collect stamps, and spend holidays at sea can be united, and all these people may never come into contact with each other.

Mass communities- this is a really existing set of people, accidentally united by common conditions of existence, and without a stable goal of interaction. Typical examples of mass communities are fans of sports teams, fans of pop stars, and participants in mass political movements. The features of mass communities can be considered the randomness of their occurrence, temporariness and uncertainty of composition. One of the types of mass community is crowd. The French sociologist G. Tarde defined a crowd as a multitude of people gathered at the same time in a certain place and united by feeling, faith and action. In the structure of the crowd, the leaders stand out, on the one hand, and everyone else, on the other.

According to sociologist G. Lebon, the behavior of the crowd is due to a certain infection that provokes collective aspirations. People infected with this infection are capable of thoughtless, sometimes destructive actions.

How to protect yourself from such an infection? First of all, people who are highly cultured and well informed about political events are immune to it.

In addition to the crowd, sociologists operate with such concepts as audience and social circles.

Under audience is understood as a collection of people united by interaction with a specific individual or group (for example, people watching a performance in a theater, students listening to a lecture by a teacher, journalists attending a press conference of a statesman, etc.). The larger the audience, the weaker the connection with the unifying principle. Please note that while broadcasting a meeting of a large group of people, the television camera may pick out someone in the audience who has fallen asleep, someone who is reading a newspaper or drawing figures in his notebook. The same situation often occurs in student audiences. Therefore, it is important to remember the rule formulated by the ancient Romans: “It is not the speaker who is the measure of the listener, but the listener who is the measure of the speaker.”

Social circles– communities created for the purpose of exchanging information between their members. These communities do not set any common goals and do not make joint efforts. Their function is to exchange information. For example, discuss changes in the exchange rate of the dollar against other currencies, the performance of the national team in the qualifying round for the World Cup, reforms planned by the government in the field of education, etc. A variety of such social circles is the professional circle, for example, scientists, teachers, artists, painters. The most compact in composition is the friendly circle

Social circles can nominate their leaders, shape public opinion, and serve as the basis for the formation of social groups.

The most common concept in sociology is the social group.

Under social group is understood as a set of people united on the basis of joint activities, common goals and having an established system of norms, values, and life guidelines. Science identifies several characteristics of a social group:

Composition stability;

Duration of existence;

Determination of composition and boundaries;

General system values and norms;

Awareness of belonging to a group by each individual;

Voluntary nature of the association (for small groups);

The unification of individuals by external conditions of existence (for large social groups).

In sociology, there are a number of bases for classifying groups. For example, depending on the nature of connections, groups can be formal or informal. Based on the level of interaction within the group, primary groups are distinguished (family, group of friends, like-minded people, classmates), which are characterized by a high level of emotional connections, and secondary groups, which have almost no emotional connections (work collective, political party).

Let us give an example of the classification of social groups on different grounds in the form of a table.

Table: Types of social groups

Basis of classification of groups	Group type	Examples
by number of participants	small medium large	family, group of friends, sports team, board of directors of the company, workforce, residents of the microdistrict, university graduates, ethnic groups, religions, programmers
by the nature of relationships and connections	formal informal	political party, labor collective, cafe visitors
at the place of residence	settler	townspeople, villagers, residents of the metropolitan metropolis, provincials
depending on gender and age	demographic	men, women, children, old people, youth
by ethnicity	ethnic (ethnosocial)	Russians, Belarusians, Ukrainians, Vepsians, Maris
by income level	socio-economic	rich (high income people), poor (low income people), middle class (middle income people)
by nature and occupation	professional	programmers, operators, teachers, entrepreneurs, lawyers, turners

This list can go on and on. It all depends on the basis of the classification. For example, a certain social group can be considered all users of personal computers, mobile phone subscribers, the totality of metro passengers, and so on.

Citizenship is also a unifying, group-forming factor - a person’s belonging to the state, expressed in the totality of their mutual rights and obligations. Citizens of one state are subject to the same laws and have common state symbols. Belonging to one or another political party or organization establishes ideological affinity. Communists, liberals, social democrats, nationalists have different ideas about the future and the correct structure of society. In this respect, they are very similar to political communities and religious associations (confessions), only they pay more attention not to external changes, but inner world people, their faith, good and evil deeds, interpersonal relationships.

Special groups are formed by people with common interests. Sports fans from different cities and countries share a passion for their favorite sport; fishermen, hunters and mushroom pickers - searching for prey; collectors - the desire to increase their collection; poetry lovers - worries about what they read; music lovers - impressions of music and so on. We can easily spot all of them in a crowd of passers-by - the fans wear the colors of their favorite team, music lovers walk around with players and are completely absorbed in their music, etc. Finally, students around the world are united by the desire for knowledge and education.

We have listed fairly large communities that unite thousands and even millions of people. But there are also countless smaller groups - people in line, passengers of one compartment on a train, vacationers in a sanatorium, museum visitors, neighbors in the entrance, street comrades, party participants. Unfortunately, there are also socially dangerous groups - gangs of teenagers, mafia organizations, extortion racketeers, drug addicts and substance abusers, alcoholics, beggars, people without a fixed place of residence (homeless people), street hooligans, gamblers. All of them either directly relate to the criminal world or are under its close attention. And the boundaries of transition from one group to another are very invisible. A regular visitor to a casino can instantly lose his entire fortune, fall into debt, become a beggar, sell his apartment, or join a criminal gang. The same thing threatens drug addicts and alcoholics, many of whom at first believe that they will give up this hobby at any moment if they wish. It is much easier to get into the listed groups than to then get out of them, and the consequences are the same - prison, death or incurable illness.

A social group is a collection of people who have a common social characteristic and perform a socially necessary function in the structure of the social division of labor and activity (G.S. Antipova).

A social group is a collection of individuals who interact with each other in a certain way, are aware of their belonging to a given group and are recognized as members of this group from the point of view of others (American sociologist R. Merton).

A social group is an entity of two or more people who come into contact with a specific purpose and consider this contact to be meaningful (C.R. Mills).

Depending on the density, form of connections and their constituent members, large and small, primary and secondary social groups are distinguished.

The main object of sociological research is small social groups (a small social group can number from 2 to 15 – 20 people). A small social group is small in composition, its members are united by common activities and are in direct, stable, personal communication.

– small staff;
– spatial proximity of its members;
– duration of existence;
– community of group values, norms and patterns of behavior;
– voluntariness of joining the group;
– informal control over the behavior of members.

Typology of small groups. Currently, about fifty different bases for classifying small groups are known.

According to the level of group consciousness, the following types of groups are distinguished (according to L.I. Umansky):

1. conglomerate group - a group that has not yet realized the single goal of its activities (the concepts of diffuse or nominal groups are similar to this);
2. an association group with a common goal; all other signs (preparedness, organizational and psychological unity) are absent;
3. group-cooperation, characterized by unity of goals and activities, the presence of group experience and preparedness;
4. a group-corporation, which is placed above cooperation by the presence of organizational and psychological unity (sometimes such a group is called autonomous). A corporation is characterized by the manifestation of group egoism (opposing itself to other groups, individuals, society) and individualism up to asociality (for example, a gang);
5. team – a group distinguished by the highest level social development, goals and principles of humanism;
6. gomphoteric (lit. “knocked down”) team, in which psychophysiological compatibility is added to all other qualities (for example, the crew of a spaceship).

A formal group has the following features: a clear and rational goal, certain functions, a hierarchy-based structure that presupposes the presence of positions, rights and responsibilities defined by relevant rules, formal relations between people are determined directly by their official position, and not by their personal qualities.

An informal group (neighbors, company at home or at work, etc.), which most often unites from 2 to 30 people, does not have fixed goals and positions; the structure of relationships and norms of relationships are determined directly by the personal qualities of people; there are no clearly regulated rules for membership, joining and leaving the group; members of an informal group know each other well, often see each other, meet and are in a relationship of trust, but not consanguinity.

A formal group, for its part, can be either official (enterprise, brigade, trade union, public or government organizations, etc.) or not a recognized official structure, i.e., unofficial (secret organization, illegal group, etc.). Consequently, not every formal group is official, and therefore the terms “formal”, “official” (respectively “informal”, “unofficial”) should not be used as unambiguous terms.

The division into groups we have considered carries with it a certain element of relativity; on the one hand, an informal group can turn into a formal one, for example, friends found an organization; on the other hand, a group can be both formal and informal, such as a school class.

Reference group. This term denotes that group (real or imaginary), whose system of values and norms acts as a kind of standard for the individual. A person always (wittingly or unwittingly) correlates his intentions and actions with how they can be assessed by those whose opinions he values, regardless of whether they are watching him in reality or only in his imagination.

The reference group can be:

– to which the individual currently belongs;
– of which he was previously a member;
– to which he would like to belong.

Personified images of people who make up the reference group form an “internal audience” towards which a person is guided in his thoughts and actions.

Based on the time of existence, there are temporary groups, within which the association of participants is limited in time (for example, conference participants, tourists as part of a tourist group) and stable, the relative constancy of whose existence is determined by their purpose and long-term principles of functioning (family, department employees, students of the same group ).

Small groups are part of the immediate social environment in which a person’s daily life activities take place and which largely determines his social behavior, determines the specific motives of his activities, and influences the formation of his personality.

A type of small social groups are primary groups (the term was introduced into sociology by Charles Cooley). A distinctive feature of these groups, according to Cooley, is the direct, intimate, interpersonal contact of its members, which is characterized by a high level of emotionality.

Through these groups, individuals gain their first experience of social unity (examples of primary social groups are family, student group, group of friends, sports team). Through the primary group, the socialization of individuals is carried out, their development of patterns of behavior, social norms, values and ideals.

The main type of secondary social group is a large social group formed to achieve certain goals - an organization (political, productive, religious, etc.).

So, secondary groups:

– Usually quite significant in size;
– They arise to achieve a specific goal;
– They maintain formal relationships;
– Relationships are limited (represented by contacts).

Types of primary and secondary groups:

	Primary groups	Secondary groups
Conditions of existence	Spatial proximity Predominance of personal (internal) assessment	Distance Predominance of external assessment
Characteristics of relationships	Spontaneity Informal management	Organization Formal management
Examples of relationships	Friend - enemy Husband - wife Parent - child Teacher - student	Seller - buyer Lecturer - listener Actor - spectator Boss - subordinate
Examples of groups	Playing, family, neighbors	Church organization, professional organization

Large social groups are communities of people that differ from small groups in the presence of weak constant contacts between all their representatives, but are no less united and therefore have a significant impact on social life.

A large social group is a quantitatively unlimited social community that has stable values, norms of behavior and social-regulatory mechanisms (parties, ethnic groups, industrial, industrial and public organizations).

Large social groups include:

– ethnic communities (races, nations, nationalities, tribes);
– socio-territorial communities (collections of people permanently residing in a certain territory and having a similar way of life). They are formed on the basis of socio-territorial differences;
– socio-demographic communities (communities distinguished by gender and age);
– social classes and social strata (collections of people who have common social characteristics and perform similar functions in the system of social division of labor).

Development of a social group

The problem of the development of a social group has never been posed with the goal of clarifying the different levels of this development, and, further, revealing the specifics of the various parameters of group activity at each of these levels. At the same time, without such an approach, the picture of the group’s development cannot be complete. A holistic view of the development of a group based on the characteristics of group processes also allows for a more detailed analysis, when the development of group norms, values, a system of interpersonal relationships, etc. is separately examined.

From the point of view of social psychology, the study of the characteristics of large social groups encounters a number of difficulties. The wealth of methods for studying various processes in small groups often contrasts with the lack of similar methods for studying, for example, the psychological appearance of classes, nations and other groups of this kind. This sometimes gives rise to the belief that the general psychology of large groups is not amenable to scientific analysis. The lack of tradition in such research further strengthens such views.

At the same time, social psychology in the precise meaning of the word, without a section on the psychology of large social groups, cannot claim success at all. According to Diligensky G.G., consideration of the psychology of large groups cannot be considered legitimate, because this is not one of the problems of this discipline, but its most important problem. “No matter how great the role of small groups and direct interpersonal communication in the processes of personality formation, these groups by themselves do not create historically specific social norms, values, and attitudes.” All these and other meaningful elements of social psychology arise on the basis of historical experience.

Referring to Diligensky G.G. “this experience will only “bring” to the individual through the medium of a small group and interpersonal communication.” Therefore, socio-psychological analysis of large groups can be considered as the “key” to understanding the content of the individual’s psyche.

Along with the experience of large social groups, mass social processes and movements are also of utmost importance for understanding the substantive elements of social psychology. Important factors that determine the entire structure of psychological characteristics of certain groups of people: the nature of social changes, transformations, direct participation in revolutionary movements, complex processes of forming public opinion.

Stages of development of a social group:

1. Diffuse group - in it, relationships are mediated not by the content of group activity, but only by likes and dislikes.
2. Association - a group in which relationships are mediated only by personally significant goals.
3. Corporation - relationships are mediated by the content of group activity that is personally significant, but asocial in its attitudes.
4. Team - interactions are mediated by the personally significant and socially valuable content of group activity (team, crew, crew).

Social groups of the population

One of the main means of personality development and the formation of its basic culture is the content of education.

Education is a purposeful process of upbringing and training in the interests of an individual, society, and state, accompanied by a statement of the achievement by a citizen (student) of educational levels (educational qualifications) established by the state:

1) basic general education;
2) secondary (complete) general education;
3) primary vocational education;
4) secondary vocational education;
5) higher professional education;
6) postgraduate professional education.

The level of general and special education is determined by the requirements of production, the state of science, technology and culture, as well as social relations.

The educational level of the population is one of the most important characteristics of society and the country.

We can distinguish a group of leading countries in the world in the field of education: Australia, Great Britain, Germany, India, Spain, Canada, Korea, China, the Netherlands, Poland, Russia, USA, Finland, France, Sweden, Japan.

Of this group of countries, the highest indicators of the level of education of the population are:

Education index - Australia, Spain, Canada, Finland (education index 0.99);
- share of the adult population with higher education – USA (30%), the Netherlands (28%), Canada, Australia, Korea (23%);
- number of university students - USA (13.2 million), India (11.8 million), China (10.8 million), Russia (6.9 million).

The USA (with a huge gap from other countries), Great Britain, Germany, France, Australia - in the export of educational services.
- USA, Great Britain - in international rankings of world universities.
- Finland, Korea, Japan - in the international study of functional literacy of students PISA24.
- China, India, USA - in terms of the scale of development of distance education.
- India, China, Russia - according to the dynamics of growth in the number of students in higher education.

Any society always has a social structure, which means the entire set of classes, strata, social groups, etc.

The social structure of society is always determined by the method of production and changes accordingly as social relations change.

Social stratification (stratification of society) is a hierarchically ranked social inequality, as well as a process as a result of which individuals and groups turn out to be unequal to each other and hierarchically grouped according to social characteristics. The stratification system implies a characteristic stratification and a method of its approval.

This provision did not correspond to the social structure of society, being unscientific.

Since the beginning of perestroika, the understanding of the social structure of society has changed, for example, Academician Zaslavskaya proposed a new structure based on specific sociological research:

1. Working class:
- moderately educated (the most widespread type);
- workers (they take more from the state than they give).
2. Peasantry:
- rural workers;
- farmers;
- collective farmers.
3. Intelligentsia;
4. Military personnel;
5. Entrepreneurs;
6. Major business managers;
7. State and party workers;
8. Senior political leadership;
9. etc. (students, pensioners, declassed elements, homeless people, clergy).

Currently, there are several models of stratification systems. Among them are Western and Eastern.

Western (using the example of the USA); includes seven status groups:

1. "Highest upper class" - chief executive officers of national companies, co-owners of prestigious law firms, senior military officials, federal judges, archbishops, stockbrokers, medical luminaries, famous architects, artists;
2. "Top class" - chief executives of medium-sized companies, mechanical engineers, newspaper publishers, doctors in private practice, practicing lawyer, college teacher;
3. "Upper middle class" - bank tellers, community college teachers, middle managers, high school teachers;
4. “Middle middle class” - bank employees, dentists, primary school teachers, shift supervisors at enterprises, insurance company employees, large store managers;
5. "Lower middle class" - auto mechanics, hairdressers, bartenders, salesmen, hotel employees, skilled workers, postal workers, police officers, truck drivers;
6. “Middle lower class” - taxi drivers, semi-skilled workers, gas station attendants, waiters, doormen;
7. The "lowest lower class" - domestic servants, gardeners, gatekeepers, garbage men.

There are mixed stratification systems; in addition, according to scientists, people are in constant motion, and society is in development. Therefore, an important mechanism of social stratification is social mobility, which is defined as a change by an individual, family, social group, or place in the social structure of society.

Vertical mobility is the movement of individuals and social groups from one stratum to another, in which the social position changes significantly (ascent, descent).

Horizontal mobility is the transition from one social group to another, located at the same social level.

Geographic mobility (migration) - change of place of residence, movement to another territory.

Some stratification trends of modern Russian society:

1. The gradual formation of a class system, with the continued influence of the ethacracy (ethacracy - the power of the state, based on ranks in the power hierarchy; class - the size of property and market exchange);
2. Changes in the structure of employment. New professions, development of self-employment;
3. Polarization based on property;
4. Updating the physical and technical stratification system.

Social groups of children

A small group is defined as simplest form a social group with direct personal contacts and certain emotional relationships between all its members, specific values and norms of behavior; develop in all areas of life and have an important impact on personal development. There are formal (relations are regulated by formal fixed rules) and informal (arising on the basis of personal sympathies).

Let's consider the specifics of a small kindergarten group. A kindergarten group, on the one hand, is a socio-pedagogical phenomenon, developing under the influence of educators who set socially significant tasks for this group. On the other hand, thanks to existing intragroup processes, it has the beginnings of self-regulation. Being a kind of small group, the kindergarten group represents genetically the earliest stage of social organization, where the child develops communication and various activities, and forms the first relationships with peers, which are so important for the development of his personality.

In relation to the children's group T.A. Repin distinguishes the following structural units:

1. behavioral, which includes: communication, interaction in joint activities and behavior of a group member addressed to another.
2. emotional (interpersonal relationships). It includes business relationships (in the course of joint activities), evaluative relationships (mutual evaluation of children) and personal relationships themselves. T.A. Repina suggests that preschoolers exhibit the phenomenon of interconnection and interpenetration of different types of relationships.
3. cognitive (gnostic). This includes children’s perception and understanding of each other (social perception), the result of which is mutual assessments and self-esteem (Although there is also an emotional coloring, which is expressed in the form of a biased image of a peer in a preschooler through the value orientations of the group and the specific personality of the perceiver).

In the kindergarten group, there are relatively long-term attachments between children. The existence of a relatively stable position of the preschooler in the group can be traced (according to T.A. Repina, 1/3 of the children remained in an unfavorable position in the preparatory groups). A certain degree of situationality appears in the relationships of preschoolers (children often forgot about peers who were absent on the day of the experiment). The selectivity of preschoolers is determined by the interests of joint activities, as well as the positive qualities of their peers. Also significant are those children with whom the subjects interacted more, and these children often turn out to be peers of the same sex. The question of what influences a child's position in a peer group is of exceptional importance. By analyzing the quality and abilities of the most popular children, you can understand what attracts preschoolers to each other and what allows the child to win the favor of their peers. The question of the popularity of preschool children was decided mainly in connection with the children's playing abilities. The nature of social activity and initiative of preschoolers in role-playing games was discussed in the works of T.A. Repina, A.A. Royak, V.S. Mukhina and others. Research by these authors shows that the position of children in role-playing play is not the same - they act as leaders, others as followers. Children's preferences and their popularity in a group largely depend on their ability to invent and organize a joint game. In the study by T.A. Repina also studied the child’s position in the group in connection with the child’s success in constructive activities. Increased success in these activities has been shown to increase the number of positive interactions and enhance the child's status.

It can be seen that the success of the activity has a positive effect on the child’s position in the group. However, when assessing success in any activity, what is important is not so much the result as the recognition of this activity by others. If the child’s successes are recognized by others, which is in connection with the value systems of the group, then the attitude towards him from his peers improves. In turn, the child becomes more active, self-esteem and level of aspirations increase.

So, the popularity of preschoolers is based on their activity - or the ability to organize a joint play activity, or success in productive activities.

There is another line of work that analyzes the phenomenon of children's popularity from the point of view of children's need for communication and the degree to which this need is satisfied. These works are based on the position of M.I. Lisina that the basis for the formation of interpersonal relationships and attachment is the satisfaction of communicative needs. If the content of communication does not correspond to the level of the subject’s communicative needs, then the partner’s attractiveness decreases, and vice versa, adequate satisfaction of basic communicative needs leads to preference for a specific person who has satisfied these needs. The results of experimental work carried out under the guidance of M.I. Lisina, showed that the most preferred were children who showed benevolent attention to their partner - goodwill, responsiveness, sensitivity to peer influences. And the study by O.O. Papir (under the leadership of T.A. Repina) discovered that popular children themselves have an acute, pronounced need for communication and recognition, which they strive to satisfy.

So, an analysis of psychological research shows that children’s selective attachments can be based on a variety of qualities: initiative, success in activities (including play), the need for communication and recognition from peers, recognition from adults, and the ability to satisfy the communicative needs of peers. Obviously, such a wide list of qualities does not allow us to identify the main condition for children's popularity. The study of the genesis of group structure showed some trends characterizing the age-related dynamics of interpersonal processes. From younger to preparatory groups, a persistent, but not in all cases, pronounced age-related tendency was found to increase “isolation” and “stardom,” reciprocity of relationships, satisfaction with them, stability and differentiation depending on the gender of peers. An interesting age-related pattern is also revealed in the justification of the elections: younger preschoolers are five times more likely than children in preparatory groups to name the positive qualities of a peer that he showed towards them personally; the elders noted the qualities of a peer, which showed an attitude towards all members of the group; in addition, if children of the first half of preschool age more often justify their choices by interesting joint activities, then children of the second half of age - by friendly relations.

There are groups that are more prosperous than others, with a high level of mutual sympathy and relationship satisfaction, where there are almost no “isolated” children. In these groups, a high level of communication is found and there are almost no children whom their peers do not want to accept into the common game. Value orientations in such groups are usually aimed at moral qualities.

Let's touch on the issue of children with communication difficulties. What are the reasons for their isolation? It is known that in such cases there cannot be full development of the child’s personality, because the experience of learning social roles is impoverished, the formation of the child’s self-esteem is disrupted, contributing to the development of self-doubt in the child. In some cases, difficulties in communication can cause these children to have an unfriendly attitude towards their peers, anger, and aggression as compensation.

A.P. Royak identifies the following characteristic difficulties:

1. the child strives for a peer, but is not accepted into the game;
2. the child strives for peers, and they play with him, but their communication is formal;
3. the child leaves his peers, but they are friendly towards him;
4. the child leaves his peers, and they avoid contact with him.

A. the presence of mutual sympathy;
b. presence of interest in the activities of a peer, the desire to play together;
c. presence of empathy;
d. the ability to “adapt” to each other;
e. availability of the required level of gaming skills.

Thus, the kindergarten group is a holistic entity, representing a single functional system with its own structure and dynamics. There is a complex system of interpersonal hierarchical connections of its members in accordance with their business and personal qualities, value orientations of the group, which determine which qualities are most highly valued in it.

Let's consider how children's communication with each other changes by older preschool age in the light of the concept of communication. Let us take as the main parameters: the content of the need for communication, motives and means of communication.

The need to communicate with other children is formed in the child during his lifetime. Different stages of preschool childhood are characterized by unequal content of the need for communication with peers. A.G. Ruzskaya and N.I. Ganoshchenko conducted a series of studies to identify the dynamics of development of the content of the need for communication with peers and found the following changes: the number of contacts of preschool children with peers, associated with their desire to share experiences with their peers, increases significantly (doubling). At the same time, the desire for purely business cooperation with a peer in a specific activity is somewhat weakened. It is still important for older preschoolers to respect their peers and the opportunity to “create” together. There is an increasing tendency for preschoolers to “play out” emerging conflicts and resolve them.

By the end of preschool age, the need for mutual understanding and empathy increases (by empathy we mean the same attitude, a similar assessment of what is happening, a consonance of feelings caused by a community of opinions). Research by N.I. Ganoshchenko and I.A. Zalysin showed that in a state of excitement, children visually turned to a peer twice as often and through speech three times more often than to an adult. When communicating with peers, older preschoolers' behavior becomes more emotional than when communicating with adults. Preschoolers actively turn to peers for a variety of reasons.

The data shown shows. That a preschooler in the senior group of a kindergarten is not only more active with peers in the desire to share experiences with them, but also the level of functioning of this need is higher. Equality of peers allows the child to directly “overlay” his attitude towards the world he perceives on the attitude of his partner. Thus, the need for communication is transformed from younger preschool age to older, from the need for benevolent attention and playful cooperation in early preschool age through middle preschool age with its dominant need for the benevolent attention of a peer - to senior preschool age with its needs not only for benevolent attention, but also in experience.

The preschooler’s need for communication is inextricably linked with the motives for communication. Motives are the driving forces behind an individual’s activity and behavior. The subject is encouraged to interact with a partner, i.e. becomes the motives for communicating with him, it is precisely those qualities of the latter that reveal to the subject his own “I” that contribute to his self-awareness (M.I. Lisina). In Russian psychology, there are three categories of motives for communication between older preschoolers and peers: business, cognitive and personal. The following age-related dynamics emerge in the development of motives for communicating with peers in preschoolers. At each stage, all three motives operate: the leading position in two or three years is occupied by personal and business motives; at three to four years - business, as well as dominant personal; in four or five – business and personal, with the dominance of the former; at five or six years old - business, personal, cognitive, with almost equal status; at six or seven years old - business and personal.

Thus, at the beginning, the child enters into communication with a peer for the sake of a game or activity, to which he is encouraged by the qualities of the peer necessary for the development of exciting activities. During preschool age, children's cognitive interests develop. This creates a reason to turn to a peer, in which the child finds a listener, a connoisseur, and a source of information. Personal motives that remain throughout preschool childhood are divided into comparing oneself with a peer, with his capabilities, and the desire to be appreciated by a peer. The child demonstrates his skills, knowledge and personal qualities, encouraging other children to confirm their value. The motive for communication becomes his own qualities in accordance with the property of his peer to be their connoisseur.

In the sphere of communication with peers, M.I. Lisina identifies three main categories of means of communication: among younger children (2-3 years old), the leading position is occupied by expressive and practical operations. Starting from the age of 3, speech comes to the fore and takes a leading position.

In older preschool age, the nature of interaction with a peer and, accordingly, the process of cognition of a peer is significantly transformed: the peer, as such, as a certain individuality, becomes the object of the child’s attention. A peculiar reorientation stimulates the development of peripheral and nuclear structures of the peer image. The child’s understanding of the partner’s skills and knowledge expands, and an interest appears in aspects of his personality that were previously unnoticed. All this helps to highlight the stable characteristics of a peer and form a more holistic image of him. The dominant position of the periphery over the core is preserved, because the image of a peer is realized more fully and accurately, and distorting tendencies caused by the activity of nuclear structures (affective component) have less impact. The hierarchical division of the group is determined by the choices of preschoolers. Let's consider evaluative relations. Processes of comparison and evaluation arise when children perceive each other. To evaluate another child, you need to perceive, see and qualify him from the point of view of the evaluative standards and value orientations of the kindergarten group that already exist at this age. These values, which determine children’s mutual assessments, are formed under the influence of surrounding adults and largely depend on changes in the child’s leading needs. Based on which of the children is the most authoritative in the group, what values and qualities are most popular, one can judge the content of the children’s relationships and the style of these relationships. In a group, as a rule, socially approved values prevail - to protect the weak, to help, etc., but in groups where the educational influence of adults is weakened, the “leader” can become a child or a group of children trying to subjugate other children.

The content of the motives underlying the creation of play associations for children of senior preschool age largely coincides with the content of their value orientations. According to T.A. Repina, children of this age mentioned a commonality of interests, highly appreciated the business successes of the partner, a number of his personal qualities, at the same time, it was revealed that the motive for unification in the game may be the fear of being alone or the desire to command, to be in charge.

Social groups of societies

The concept of “social group” is one of the most important for sociology, and, from this point of view, it can be compared with such sociological concepts as social structure and social institution. At the same time, the widespread use of this concept makes it very vague. It is used in various senses, which cannot always be reduced to a common denominator. However, we can try to give the following definition: a social group is an association of people who are connected by common relations, regulated by special social institutions, and have common goals, norms, values and traditions, and are also united by common activities. In some cases, a social group is also understood as an association of people along some significant social basis.

A social group has a number of characteristics that are very important from the point of view of its integrity:

In a social group, more or less stable interaction should occur, thanks to which the connections between group members become stronger and last for a long time;
the social group must be fairly homogeneous in its composition, that is, all its members must have a certain set of characteristics that are valuable from the point of view of the group and allow its members to feel more united;
a social group in the vast majority of cases belongs to broader social groups and communities.

According to N. Smelser, groups perform the following functions:

1) they participate in socialization, that is, they contribute to the fact that a person acquires the skills necessary for social life, as well as the norms and values shared by the group and society as a whole;
2) they contribute to the organization of joint activities of people, that is, they perform an instrumental function;
3) they can also perform a supporting function if people come together in a difficult situation or to solve a problem that they cannot solve alone;
4) groups perform an emotional function, giving their members the opportunity to satisfy emotional needs (needs for warmth, respect, understanding, trust, communication, etc.).

In sociology, there are many classifications of social groups according to various criteria. Depending on the density, form of connections and interactions of their constituent members, and the functional role, primary and secondary, small and large, formal and informal, referent and other social groups are distinguished.

Primary social groups play the most important role in social life and in the life of each individual. The primary group is a social community characterized by a high level of emotional closeness and social solidarity.

Characteristic features of a primary social group are: small membership, spatial proximity of members, duration of existence, common group values, norms and patterns of behavior, voluntariness of joining the group, informal control over the behavior of members.

The term “primary groups” was introduced into sociology by Charles Cooley. A distinctive feature of these groups, according to Cooley, is the direct, interpersonal contact of their members, which is characterized by a high level of emotionality. These groups are “primary” in the sense that it is through them that individuals first experience social unity. An example of primary social groups is a family, a school class, a student group, a group of friends, etc. Through the primary group, the initial socialization of individuals is carried out, their development of patterns of behavior, social norms, values and ideals. We can say that it is she who plays the role of the primary link between the individual and society. It is through it that a person realizes his belonging to certain social communities, and through it he participates in the life of the whole society.

A secondary social group is a social community, social connections and interactions in which are impersonal, utilitarian and functional in nature. The primary group is always oriented towards the relationships between its members, while the secondary group is goal oriented. In these groups, individually unique personality traits are not particularly important, and the ability to perform certain functions is more valued. Without a doubt, a secondary group can function in conditions of close emotional ties and friendly relations, but the main principle of its existence is the performance of specific functions, it is focused on achieving a specific goal. To understand the differences between primary and secondary social groups, consider the example of football teams. An example of a primary group is the so-called “yard team”. It consists of people whose goal is to spend their leisure time, warm up, simply communicate, etc. Such teams can participate in certain championships and tournaments, but achieving high sports results, especially making money, is not their main goal. An example of a secondary social group is football players, whose activities and everything connected with it (values, norms, etc.) are focused on obtaining high athletic results.

Primary groups are a type of small social groups. A small social group is a small group whose members are united by common activities, interests, goals and are in direct, stable communication with each other. The minimum size of a small group is two people (dyad). The maximum size of a small group can reach 2–4 dozen people.

Small groups, most often, are the same primary groups: family, circle of friends, sports team, primary production team - brigade, etc. They are characterized by close, emotionally charged, informal relationships. In small groups as primary groups, group opinion is of great importance for the implementation of joint activities and relationships. Personal contacts allow all group members to participate in the development of group opinion and control the behavior of its members.

Group size has a significant impact on the quality of social interaction. As the number of people in a group increases, the possibility of constant personal contacts between all its members disappears. Due to the lack of personal contacts, the opportunity to develop a unified group opinion is reduced, and group self-identification is weakened. People cease to realize that they belong to a single community. To reflect the uniqueness of interaction depending on the quantitative composition, along with the concept of small social groups in sociology, there is the concept of a large social group. Large social groups or communities are a stable collection of a significant number of individuals acting jointly and in solidarity in socially significant situations. Large groups include tens, hundreds, or even millions of members. These are classes, social strata, professional groups, national-ethnic communities (nationality, nation, race), demographic associations (men, women, youth, pensioners), etc. Due to their large number, members of these groups can be separated in time and space and not enter into direct communication with each other. Nevertheless, due to a number of factors uniting them, they constitute a certain group community. Belonging to one or another large social group is determined on the basis of a set of socially significant characteristics. As noted earlier, a small social group can be both primary and secondary, a large social group can only be secondary.

Depending on the presence or absence of official legal status and the associated nature of relations, social groups are divided into formal and informal. In a formal group, the position and behavior of individual members are regulated by normative documents (legal norms, charters, rules, office instructions, etc.). Formal groups are created to fulfill special goals, a certain range of tasks in which a particular community is interested. Thus, a school is created for the purpose of training and socializing the younger generation, an army - for the defense of the country, an enterprise - for producing certain products and generating income, etc. A formal group is a secondary group. It can be either a large or small group in terms of the number of participants.

Informal groups are a type of small group; they most often arise spontaneously. They are characterized by friendly, trusting relationships between their members. In these groups there is no rigid consolidation of their place in the division of labor, role and social position with their inherent rights and responsibilities. Contacts between members of an informal group are of a clearly personal nature; the sympathies, habits, and interests of its members act as a rallying factor. Order is based on tradition, respect, authority. Social control is exercised through informal norms, customs and traditions, the content of which depends on the level of cohesion of the group and the degree of its closedness to members of other social groups.

A special type of social groups are reference groups. A reference group is a group that, due to its authority for an individual, is capable of exerting a strong influence on him. Otherwise, this group can be called a reference group. An individual may strive to become a member of this group, and his activities are usually aimed at becoming more like its members. This phenomenon is called anticipatory socialization. In the usual case, socialization occurs in the process of direct interaction within the primary group. In this case, the individual adopts characteristics and methods of action characteristic of groups even before he interacts with its members.

Objective and subjective social groups are distinguished according to the given position: objective groups are groups that unite people regardless of their desire and will, for example, socio-demographic communities: children, women, etc. Subjective groups are groups of people that arise on based on their conscious choice. If a person decides to go to college, then naturally he voluntarily and consciously joins a student group.

Long-lasting and transient social groups. According to the time of existence, social groups are divided into durable groups - groups that exist for a long time, and transient - groups that exist for a short period of time.

All the diversity of social groups can be classified into the following types:

By type of main activity and main function - production and labor, socio-political, educational, executive and compulsory, family, military, sports, gaming;
in terms of social orientation - socially useful, socially unsafe;
according to the organization - unorganized, random groups, targeted, externally organized, internally organized;
by type of degree of ordering and normalization of relations - formal, informal;
according to the level of direct impact on the individual - primary–secondary, primary–minor, referent;
depending on openness, connections with other groups - open, closed;
according to the level of strength and stability of internal connections - united, little united, disconnected;
by duration of existence - short-term, long-term.

Thus, society in its concrete reality of life acts as a collection of many social groups. A person’s entire life from birth to death takes place in these groups. A social group is a kind of intermediary between an individual and society.

The group is very important for a person. First of all, it is the group that provides a person’s connection with society. A person acquires values due to the fact that his life is connected with other people - members of the groups to which he belongs. Even if a person opposes himself to society, this usually happens because he has adopted the values of his group.

In addition, the group also influences a person’s personal qualities, character, speech, thinking, interests, which, it would seem, are purely individual and have no relation to the social dimension of human existence. The child develops these qualities by communicating with parents, friends, and relatives.

At the same time, a specific person, of course, cannot be reduced to membership in one group, since he certainly belongs to a sufficiently large number of groups at once. And indeed, we can classify people into groups in many different ways: by religious affiliation; by income level; from the point of view of their attitude to sports, to art, etc.

Belonging to a group presupposes that a person possesses certain characteristics that, from the point of view of the group, are valuable and significant. The “core” of the group is formed by those members who possess these characteristics to the greatest extent. The remaining members of the group form its periphery.

In a group, norms, rules, customs, traditions, rituals, ceremonies are born, in other words, the foundation of social life is laid. Man needs and depends on the group, perhaps more than monkeys, rhinoceroses, wolves or shellfish. People survive only together.

Thus, the isolated individual is the exception rather than the rule. A person does not think of himself outside the group. He is a member of a family, a student class, a youth group, a production team, a sports team, etc.

Social groups are unique “engines” social development, without their efforts, no changes in society can occur. The quality of functioning of all social institutions at a given historical moment also depends on the nature of social groups.

The type of society, its socio-political and governmental structure depend on which groups society consists of, which of them occupy leading positions, which are subordinate.

Average social group

In the social sciences, the concept of “organization” is used in two ways. On the one hand, organization is one of the processes of managing a social system. On the other hand, an organization is a type of social system. IN in general terms an organization can be defined as an association of people aimed at achieving socio-economic goals and satisfying interests through joint work activities and having a legal status determined by the laws of society. The criterion that distinguishes a social organization from all other types of social groups is a certain structure of relationships and a system of interrelated interests that motivate work activity. According to A.L. Sventsitsky, organization is the most in a general way can be defined as a group with differentiation of roles.

The first classification is based on such a criterion (attribute) as size, i.e. the number of people who are members of the group. Accordingly, there are three types of groups:

1) small group - a small community of people who are in direct personal contact and interaction with each other;
2) middle group - a relatively large community of people who are in indirect functional interaction;
3) large group - a large community of people who are socially and structurally dependent on each other. In table The main differences between small, medium and large groups are presented. The second classification is associated with such a criterion as the time of existence of the group. Here short-term and long-term groups are distinguished. Small, medium and large groups can be either short-term or long-term. For example, an ethnic community is always a long-term group, and political parties can exist for centuries, or they can very quickly disappear from the historical scene. Such a small group, such as, for example, a team of workers, can be either short-term - people unite to complete one production task and, having completed it, separate, or long-term - people work at the same enterprise in the same team throughout their entire working life.

The third classification is based on such a criterion as the structural integrity of the group. On this basis, primary and secondary groups are distinguished. A primary group is a structural unit of an official organization that cannot be further decomposed into its component parts, for example: a team, department, laboratory, department, etc. A primary group is always a small formal group. A secondary group is a collection of primary small groups. An enterprise with several thousand employees, for example a factory, is called secondary (or primary) because it consists of smaller structural units - workshops, departments. The secondary group is almost always the middle group.

Main differences between groups:

	Small group	Middle group	Large group
Number	Dozens of people	Hundreds of people	Thousands and millions of people
	Personal: getting to know each other on a personal level	Status-role: acquaintance at the status level	No contact
Membership	Real behavioral	Functional	Conditional social-structural
Structure	Developed internal informal	Legally formalized (lack of developed informal structure)	Lack of internal structure
Connections in the labor process	Direct labor	Labor mediated by the official structure of the organization	Labor mediated by the social structure of society
	A team of workers, a classroom, a group of students, department staff	Organization of all employees of an enterprise, university, company	Ethnic community, socio-demographic group, professional community, political party

Thus, the organization of an industrial enterprise, firm, corporation, etc. is an average, secondary, most often long-term group. In social psychology, it has been established that the patterns of formation of a group’s development are largely determined by its size, the time of interaction between people and structural and functional unity. Let us consider the socio-psychological characteristics of the organization as an average group.

Understanding an organization as an average social group allows us to identify the socio-psychological specifics of this type of group. Organizations that unite workers into one structure play an important role in the economic, political, and ideological life of society.

Their role is manifested mainly in the following:

In organizations, the majority of society members are included in joint socially significant activities.
In organizations, a person gets the opportunity to work on modern means of production, for example, on complex machines with numerical control.
In the process of mastering a specialty, acquiring professional knowledge, skills and abilities, a subject of socially significant activity is formed.
In the process of communication in an organization, the formation of personal goals and values occurs, aimed at meeting the needs of society.
In the process of joint work, conditions are created for the development of creative activity of the individual.

Socially organized activities presuppose the possibility of collective discussion and joint resolution of issues related to the enterprise’s activities, performance evaluation officials, use of publicity, awareness, control over their activities.

In social psychology, structural-functional analysis is used to study organizations. The structure of an organization is understood as a relatively constant system of relationships between employees and their connections as a whole. The functions of an organization are understood as various standardized actions regulated by social and legal norms and controlled by social institutions.

Social work group

Social work with a group or group social work is defined as a method of psychosocial work and as a form of social work, if the number of objects of socio-psychological influence is taken as a criterion. In foreign scientific literature, social work with a group is traditionally defined as a method of social work. The group of clients who are included in the group process is considered as an object of social work. A group of specialists and professionals who participate in the work of interdisciplinary groups is the subject of social work.

The development of psychological approaches, techniques, and areas of activity of such groups took place within the framework of psychotherapy and practical psychology. The group process is built in accordance with psychoanalysis, behaviorism, cognitive psychology, humanistic psychology and other psychological theories and directions. Clients of group social work are people with problems of social adaptation and integration, victims of unfavorable conditions of socialization, those who have problems of psychological and emotional state as a consequence of life crises of different ages and social status.

The founders of the theoretical directions of group social work are considered to be American scientists K. Pappel and B. Rothman. They are responsible for the development of scientific approaches based on ego psychology, cognitive theory and social learning theory, relationship theory, role theory of personality, and communication theory.

Ego psychology suggests social worker the opportunity to understand the client’s behavior as an individual and as a member of a group, to observe how his individual adaptation to reality, to other people occurs, how he reacts to external pressure and internal anxiety. This allows us to explain the internal self-organization of the individual and his relationship with the outside world. When studying personality, special attention is paid to issues of development and adaptation, autonomy, freedom and the peculiarities of the functioning of one’s own self. A social worker, in the process of group work, tries to update clients’ psychological protection skills, helps to develop them with the help of a group, and to find different options for functioning. In his psychology, resistance is viewed not as a conflict, but as a dialogue between the individual and the environment. According to the concepts of ego psychology, the main purpose of working with a group is to support the mental health of the individual, his identity, and the development of self-realization.

Cognitive theories and social learning theories enable social workers to interpret and analyze the motives of behavior of individuals in group interaction, determine the value orientations of clients, help them understand how they “feel each other”, how their knowledge about the world and life situations are formed. Group interaction experiences shape value orientations, positive expectations, competence, and social interaction skills.

Relationship theory considers relationships in a group as certain stable connections that help the client understand his responsibilities in intergroup interaction, learn to coexist with other group members in circumstances that change, and develop the necessary skills to “build” psychological distance in group interaction.

The role theory of personality is based on knowledge about role expectations, role conflicts, and relationships that are formed in the process of group work. It is important for a social worker to create conditions for the client’s personal growth and improve his social functioning in society.

Communication theory creates the idea of the dynamic exchange of information between group members. Communication acts as a role-based exchange of information aimed at achieving a certain result. In this context, communication is a specific tool for solving group work problems. Communication theory allows a social worker to observe specific obstacles in the process of group dynamics that impede a person’s social functioning, develop programs to overcome them, and develop skills in identifying individual feelings and ideas in group communication.

The concept of group activity determines the formation of relationships not only in the group space, but also outside it. The external social environment is included in the process of social work, when individual members of the group need to learn to change the situation and influence their environment. Each group member can extrapolate individual concepts of competence, these may be accepted or rejected by the group. A feature of group social work is also its concept of causing the development of a group in a “group as a whole *” situation. This means that over time the group creates a structure of autonomous development in which leaders emerge who take on the functions of leadership and coordination of group processes.

It is believed that the main dominants of group work are spontaneity and planning. Actions unfold according to the “here and now” principle, giving clients the opportunity to gain experience that they can update in the future.

The following stages of the therapeutic process are distinguished:

1. Orientation stage - clients recognize themselves as members of a group, roles are selected, orientation in the situation occurs, fears of unknown events appear.
2. Stage of power - roles in the group are formalized, there is a struggle for leadership, resistance increases, aggression directed at one or another member of the group can spread, norms and values are formalized with the direct participation of the group.
3. Negotiation stage - the group is structured, group positive cohesion is formed, the goals, roles and tasks of the group are jointly determined, similar problems and emotional experiences are clarified.
4. Functional stage - the group is actively working, showing interest in solving problems, clients support each other, outlining the openness and spontaneity that characterize the features of this stage in which decisions are made.
5. Stage of group disintegration - a situation when individual members of the group and the group as a whole come to a solution to their problems, clients formulate conclusions about the need to stop joint group activities.

Goals of the therapeutic process:

Change group members' perceptions by learning from group experiences;
Change behavior that complicates an individual's social functioning through group relationships and the use of feedback mechanisms;
Understand and change norms, values and attitudes for effective social functioning;
Achieve emotional stability that supports the strength and vitality of the individual.

In social work, there are different target approaches to social group work:

Individual assessments (reception groups, work with images of older people, etc.).
Individual support and service (support for clients who are not capable of self-care and who experience difficulties in social adaptation).

Individual changes and social control(preventive work with groups of sexual aggression):

Socialization (work with groups to develop social skills for functioning in a microsociety);
- Interpersonal behavior (personal growth groups);
- Individual orientations and values (group work aimed at changing value orientations);
- Material circumstances (group work with the unemployed, those who receive financial assistance);
- Personal protection (group work with minorities);
- Personal growth and development (T-groups).

Education, information, training (legal groups, educational groups).

Leisure / compensation (development groups, permitting groups).

Mediation between individuals and social systems (mediation between groups, agencies, services).

Group changes and support (family work groups, communicative competence groups).

Environmental changes (group work to change the surrounding living space).

Social change (group goals are related to the social and political interaction of the group and other social institutions).

Small social groups

A small group is a fairly stable association of people connected by mutual contacts.

A small social group is a small group of people (from 3 to 15 people) who are united by common social activities, are in direct communication, and contribute to the emergence of emotional relationships.

With a larger number of people, the group is usually divided into subgroups.

Distinctive features of a small group:

Spatial and temporal co-presence of people. This co-presence of people enables personal contacts.
The presence of a constant goal of joint activity.
The presence of an organizing principle in the group. It may be personified in one of the group members (leader, manager), or maybe not, but this does not mean that there is no organizing principle. It’s just that in this case the leadership function is distributed among group members.
Separation and differentiation of personal roles (division and cooperation of labor, division of power, i.e. the activity of group members is not homogeneous, they make different contributions to joint activities, play different roles).
The presence of emotional relationships between group members, which influence group activity, can lead to the division of the group into subgroups, and form the internal structure of interpersonal relationships in the group.
Development of a specific group culture - norms, rules, standards of life, behavior that define the expectations of group members in relation to each other.

CLASSIFICATION OF SMALL SOCIAL GROUPS

Small groups are divided into formal and informal.

Formal groups are united by official goals and have a regulated structure necessary to achieve these goals.

Informal groups do not have a formally established structure. The interaction of members of an informal group is spontaneous, determined by their personal relationships and common value system. However, there is also a group hierarchy within it. Reference (from Latin referentis - reporting), or reference group - a group whose norms are recognized by the individual as the most valuable. Thus, a specialist is guided by a certain group of respected colleagues, an athlete - by the standards of known record holders. Hardened criminals are not upset by the disapproval of most people, but they are sensitive to the position of their criminal group.

Different groups may be referents in different ways. A teenager may highly value the standards of behavior of his friends and parents. Many of a person’s actions in the microenvironment are explained by his desire for self-affirmation in the reference group.

A socially positive group has a powerful impact on the socio-psychological development of the individual. By being included in these groups from birth, the child draws from them all the necessary components of social experience and human culture. In social groups, various abilities of the individual are realized. In them he learns his worth, realizes his strengths and weak sides.

However, a social group can not only enhance, but also suppress the capabilities of an individual (the effect of group suppression is called inhibition). An antisocial community can have a fatal impact on the fate of an individual who has not undergone socialization. Random, situationally arising asocial communities are especially dangerous for the developing personality. In such communities the individual is deindividuated, depersonalized. Entering the path of thoughtless obedience to a criminalized leader, a person leaves the path of social development, falls into the trap of primitive dependencies and responsibilities, and begins to be formed according to the standards of ersatz culture.

The most effective development of an individual is determined by its orientation towards elite social groups - socially high-status groups that have received universal recognition as priority groups in society (table below).

Social groups may take different positions regarding basic social values. Their activities can be socially oriented (industrial, educational, socio-cultural, etc. associations), and social - focused on meeting the needs only of members of a given group (hippies, rockers, breakers, etc.) and antisocial (criminal groups ).

The life activity of an antisocial group is carried out according to strict canons, rules of rank correspondence, the law of force, mutual responsibility, persecution of the weak, etc. Criminal, antisocial groups have a fundamentally different organization, different from socially positive groups.

Along with the socially developed, primitive groups are distinguished (yard associations, a group of drinking buddies, etc.).

In prisons and the army, some informal groups acquire special power based on merciless cruelty towards those who find themselves at the bottom of a given micro-social pyramid. The behavior of the leaders is characterized by extreme selfishness, self-affirmation through unlimited power, and intoxication with permissiveness. Here power is based on brute physical strength- at the top are the most aggressive types, those who impose conflicts and know how to gain the upper hand in conflict confrontation. Establishment in power leads to further deformations - the ground is created for arrogance, conceit and tyranny.

In socially positive informal groups, leaders become deeply respected, intelligent and highly moral individuals who care not about personal power, but about the development of the group, ensuring its success in intergroup selection.

Classification of social groups:

Basis of classification	Types of groups
1. By method of education	spontaneously arose - not official; specially organized - official; real; conditional
2. By the size of the group and the way its members interact	small; average; large; contact (primary); remote (secondary)
3. By the nature of joint activities	practical (joint work activities); Gnostic (joint research activities); aesthetic (joint satisfaction of aesthetic needs); hedonic (leisure, entertainment and gaming); directly communicative; ideological; socio-political
4. According to personal significance	referential; elitist
5. According to social significance	socially positive; asocial - socially destructive; antisocial - criminal, delinquent

A significant part of formal medium and small groups are production groups and labor collectives. These are open groups - they are open to the general public. social connections, are constantly replenished with new members and integrated into broad professional associations. The activities of these groups are largely regulated: the order of their activities and the criteria for evaluating the results of their work are determined. The formation of professional groups is carried out by relevant social organizations.

Society reproduces itself as an economically stable entity mainly through professional groups. However, the needs of society go far beyond professional activities. Along with professional and other formal groups, amateur social groups are constantly formed in it, focused on the implementation of newly emerging social needs.

Main social groups

The concept of a social group summarizes the essential characteristics of collective subjects of social ties, interactions and relationships, the main structural units of society. Russian sociologist G. S. Antipova defines a social group as a set of people who have a common social characteristic and perform a socially necessary function in the structure of the social division of labor and activity.

American sociologist R. Merton defines a social group as a set of individuals who interact with each other in a certain way, are aware of their belonging to a given group and are recognized as members of this group from the point of view of others. Thus, R. Merton identifies three main features in a social group: interaction, membership and unity.

Social groups, in contrast to mass communities, are characterized by:

1) stable interaction, which contributes to the strength and stability of their existence in space and time;
2) a relatively high degree of cohesion;
3) clearly expressed homogeneity of composition, that is, the presence of characteristics inherent in all individuals included in the group;
4) joining broader communities as structural entities.

Depending on the density, form of connections and their constituent members, large and small, primary and secondary social groups are distinguished. The main object of sociological research is small social groups (from 2 to 15-20 people). A small social group is small in composition, its members are united by common activities and are in direct, stable, personal communication.

The characteristic features of a small social group are:

1) small staff;
2) spatial proximity of members; 3) duration of existence;
4) commonality of group values, norms and patterns of behavior;
5) voluntariness of joining the group;
6) informal control over the behavior of members.

A type of small social groups are primary groups. The term “primary groups” was introduced into sociology by Charles Cooley. A distinctive feature of these groups, according to Cooley, is the direct, intimate, interpersonal contact of its members, which is characterized by a high level of emotionality. These groups are “primary” in the sense that it is through them that individuals first experience social unity. Examples of primary social groups are family, school class, student group, group of friends, sports team, etc.

Through the primary group, the socialization of individuals is carried out, their development of patterns of behavior, social norms, values and ideals. We can say that it plays the role of the primary link between society and the individual. Through it, a person realizes his belonging to certain social communities, and through it he participates in the life of the whole society.

The secondary group is formed from people between whom only minor emotional relationships have developed. Their interaction is subordinated only to the achievement of certain goals. In these groups, individually unique personality traits are not important, and the ability to perform certain functions is more valued. The main type of secondary social group is a large social group formed to achieve certain goals - an organization (political, productive, religious, etc.).

Socio-psychological group

In order to most generally characterize the conditions of activity of a particular group, its internal situation, the concepts of “socio-psychological climate”, “moral-psychological climate”, “psychological climate”, “emotional climate” are often used. In relation to the workforce, they sometimes talk about “production” or “organizational” climate. In most cases, these concepts are used in approximately the same sense, which does not exclude significant variability in specific definitions. In the domestic literature there are several dozen definitions of the socio-psychological climate and various research approaches to this problem (Volkov, Kuzmin, Parygin, Platonov, etc.).

The socio-psychological climate of a group is a state of the group psyche, determined by the characteristics of the life activity of this group. This is a kind of fusion of the emotional and intellectual - attitudes, relationships, moods, feelings, opinions of group members, all individual elements of the socio-psychological climate. The mental states of the group are characterized by varying degrees of awareness. It is necessary to clearly distinguish between the elements of the socio-psychological climate and the factors influencing it. For example, the peculiarities of the organization of work in any work collective are not elements of the socio-psychological climate, although the influence of the organization of work on the formation of a particular climate is undeniable.

The socio-psychological climate is always a Reflected, subjective formation, in contrast to the Reflected - the Objective life activity of a given group and the conditions in which it occurs. The reflected and the reflected in the sphere of public life are dialectically interconnected. The presence of a close interdependence between the socio-psychological climate of a group and the behavior of its members should not lead to their identification, although the peculiarities of this relationship cannot be ignored. Thus, the nature of the relationships in the group (reflected) acts as a factor influencing the climate. At the same time, the perception of these relationships by its members (reflected) represents an element of climate.

When addressing the problems of the socio-psychological climate of a group, one of the most important is to consider the factors that influence the climate. Having identified the factors influencing the climate of the group, one can try to influence these factors and regulate their manifestation. Let's consider the problems of the socio-psychological climate using the example of the Primary labor group - a team, a unit, a bureau, a laboratory. We are talking about elementary organizational cells that do not have any official structural divisions. Their number can vary from 3-4 to 60 people or more. This is the “cell” of every enterprise and institution. The socio-psychological climate of such a cell is formed due to many different influences. Let us divide them conditionally into macroenvironmental and microenvironmental factors.

By macroenvironment we mean a large social space, a wide environment within which one or another organization is located and carries out its activities. First of all, this includes the cardinal features of the socio-economic structure of the country, and more specifically, the specifics of this stage of its development, which is correspondingly manifested in the activities of various social institutions. The degree of democratization of society, features of state regulation of the economy, the level of unemployment in the region, the likelihood of bankruptcy of an enterprise - these and other factors of the macroenvironment have a certain impact on all aspects of the organization’s life. The macro environment also includes the level of development of material and spiritual production and culture of society as a whole. The macroenvironment is also characterized by a certain social consciousness, reflecting a given social existence in all its contradictions.

Thus, members of each social group and organization are representatives of their era, a particular historical period in the development of society. Ministries and departments, concerns, joint-stock companies, the system of which includes an enterprise or institution, exercise certain management influences in relation to the latter, which is also an important factor in the influence of the macroenvironment on the socio-psychological climate of the organization and all its constituent groups. As significant factors of the macroenvironment affecting the climate of an organization, it should be noted its diverse partnerships with other organizations and with consumers of their products. In conditions market economy The influence of consumers on the organization's climate is increasing. The microenvironment of an enterprise or institution is the “field” of people’s daily activities, those specific material and spiritual conditions in which they work. At this level, the influences of the macroenvironment acquire certainty for each group and a connection with the reality of life practice.

The conditions of everyday life shape the worldview and state of mind of the primary labor group, its socio-psychological climate. First of all, these are factors of the material and material environment: the nature of labor operations performed by people, the condition of equipment, the quality of workpieces or raw materials. Great importance They also have peculiarities of labor organization - shifts, rhythm, degree of interchangeability of workers, level of operational and economic independence of the primary group (for example, a team). The role of sanitary and hygienic working conditions, such as temperature, humidity, lighting, noise, vibration, is essential. It is known that the rational organization of the labor process, taking into account the capabilities of the human body, ensuring normal working and rest conditions for people have a positive impact on the mental state of each employee and the group as a whole. And, conversely, certain equipment malfunctions, technological imperfections, organizational troubles, irregular work, insufficient fresh air, excessive noise, abnormal room temperature and other factors of the material environment have a negative impact on the group’s climate. Therefore, the first direction for improving the socio-psychological climate is to optimize the complex of the above factors. This problem must be solved on the basis of the developments of specialists in occupational hygiene and physiology, ergonomics and engineering psychology.

Another, no less important group of microenvironmental factors consists of impacts that are group phenomena and processes at the level of the primary labor group. These factors deserve close attention due to the fact that they are a consequence of the socio-psychological reflection of the human microenvironment. For brevity, we will call these factors socio-psychological. Let's start with such a factor as the nature of official organizational ties between members of the primary labor group. These connections are enshrined in the formal structure of the unit.

The differences between the types of such a structure can be shown on the basis of the following “models of joint activity” identified by Umansky:

1. Joint-individual activity: each group member does his part of the common task independently of others (a team of machine operators, spinners, weavers).
2. Joint-sequential activity: a common task is performed sequentially by each member of the group (conveyor production team).
3. Collaborative-interacting activity: the task is performed with direct and simultaneous interaction of each member of the group with all its other members (installation team).

There is a direct relationship between such models and the level of development of the group as a collective. Thus, “cohesion in direction” (unity of value orientations, unity of goals and motives for activity) within a given group activity is achieved faster under the third model than under the second, and even more so under the first. The very features of one or another “model of joint activity” are ultimately reflected in the psychological traits of work groups. A study of teams at a newly created enterprise showed that satisfaction with interpersonal relationships in these primary groups increases as they move from the first “model of joint activity” to the third (Dontsov, Sargsyan).

Along with the system of official interaction, the socio-psychological climate of the primary labor group is greatly influenced by its informal organizational structure. Of course, friendly contacts during work and after it, cooperation and mutual assistance form a different climate than hostile relationships manifested in quarrels and conflicts. When discussing the important formative influence of informal contacts on the socio-psychological climate, it is necessary to take into account both the number of these contacts and their distribution. Within one brigade, there can be two or more unofficial groups, and members of each of them (with strong and friendly intra-group ties) oppose members of “not their own” groups.

When considering the factors influencing the group climate, one should take into account not only the specifics of formal and informal organizational structures, taken separately, but also their specific relationship. The higher the degree of unity of these structures, the more positive the influences that shape the group climate.

The nature of leadership, manifested in a particular style of relationship between the immediate leader of the primary work group and the rest of its members, also affects the socio-psychological climate. Workers who perceive shop floor managers to be equally attentive to their work and personal affairs are usually more satisfied with their jobs than those who report that managers are not attentive to them. The democratic leadership style of brigade foremen, the common values and norms of foremen and workers contribute to the formation of a favorable socio-psychological climate.

The next factor influencing the climate of a group is determined by the individual psychological characteristics of its members. Each person is unique and inimitable. His mental makeup is a combination of personality traits and properties that creates the originality of the character as a whole. All influences of the external environment are refracted through the prism of personality characteristics. A person’s relationship to these influences, expressed in his personal opinions and moods, in behavior, represents his individual “contribution” to the formation of the group’s climate. The psyche of a group should not be understood only as the sum of the individual psychological characteristics of each of its members. This is a qualitatively new education. Thus, for the formation of a particular socio-psychological climate of a group, it is not so much the individual properties of its members that matter, but the effect of their combination. The level of psychological compatibility of group members is also a factor that largely determines its climate.

Summarizing what has been said, we highlight the following main factors influencing the socio-psychological climate of the primary labor group.

Impacts from the macroenvironment: characteristic features of the current stage of the country’s socio-economic and socio-political development; the activities of higher structures that manage this organization, its own management and self-government bodies, public organizations, connections of this organization with other city and district organizations.

Impacts from the microenvironment: material and material sphere of activity of the primary group, purely socio-psychological factors (specifics of formal and informal organizational connections in the group and the relationship between them, group leadership style, level of psychological compatibility of workers).

When analyzing the socio-psychological climate of the primary labor group in a specific situation, it is impossible to attribute any influence to only the macroenvironment or only the microenvironment. The dependence of the climate of the primary group on the factors of its own microenvironment is always determined by the macroenvironment. However, when solving the problem of improving the climate in one or another primary group, priority attention should be paid to microenvironmental factors. It is here that the effect of targeted influences is most clearly visible.

Relationships in social groups

It is unlikely that anyone will dispute the statement: “Man is connected with other people and society by thousands of invisible threads.” The simplest element of any type of social activity of people is social action. Social action must be conscious and focused on the behavior of other people. Not every human action is social. For example, fishing and making tools are not social actions if they do not correlate with the behavior of other people. Suicide will not be social if its consequences do not influence the behavior of the suicide’s acquaintances or relatives.

Social actions can be divided into four types:

Physical action, such as slapping a person, passing a book, writing on paper;
verbal, or verbal, for example, insult, expression of greeting with the word “hello”;
gestures as a type of action: smile, handshake.

At the same time, even simple observation shows that social action, considered as an attempt by one individual to change the behavior of another, rarely occurs in practice in isolation. When someone tries to convince another that he is right, it is obvious that this is not communication with an inanimate object, a dumb creature. This other may actively object or agree, but one way or another he also performs social actions. Obviously, the first will experience the effect of the second, i.e. there is an exchange of actions, or social interaction.

Social interaction is systematic, fairly regular social actions of partners, directed at each other, with the goal of causing a very specific response from the partner; and the response generates a new reaction of the influencer. When communicating with friends, colleagues, and relatives, a person constantly carries out social interactions, which are even more diverse in forms of manifestation than social actions. First, like actions, social interactions are divided into physical, verbal, and gestural.

Secondly, social interactions can be classified into areas:

The economic sphere, where individuals act as owners and employees, the unemployed, and entrepreneurs;
- professional sphere, where individuals act as drivers, miners, cooks, lawyers;
family and kinship sphere, where people act as fathers, mothers, sons, aunts, widows, newlyweds;
- demographic sphere, including contacts between representatives of different genders, ages, etc.;
- the political sphere, where people confront or cooperate as representatives of political parties;
- the religious sphere implies contacts between representatives of different religions, the same religion, as well as believers and non-believers;
- territorial-settlement sphere - clashes, cooperation between locals and newcomers, urban and rural, emigrants.

One of the special forms of manifestation of social interactions, which is characterized by duration, stability and systematicity, and their self-renewal, are social relationships. These are, for example, interpersonal, intergroup, interethnic and others. The uniqueness of social relations lies in the fact that they are not reducible to only economic, only political or spiritual relations, since the individual and his groups are the bearers of the entire totality of social relations.

Depending on the uniqueness of the subjects, social relations are divided into social-group (social layers, classes, groups); socio-demographic (men, women, children, pensioners, etc.); socio-ethnic (“nations, nationalities, etc.); socio-professional (work collectives, professional associations); interpersonal (individuals), etc.

Social group activities

Social psychology, exploring patterns of behavior and activity of people determined by their inclusion in real social groups, emphasizes the importance of analyzing the specific impact of a particular social group on the individual. This approach is justified from the point of view of the methodology of activity theory. According to Yu. A. Sherkovin, it is important to understand a group as a community of interacting people acting as the subject of action.

For an individual, a group is significant, first of all, as a certain system of activity, the place of which is determined by its place in the social division of labor. In this case, the group itself acts as a subject of a certain activity and through it is included in the system of social relations.

The commonality of the content and forms of activity of the group also gives rise to the commonality of its psychological characteristics. Considering a group as a subject of activity, the following group formations are distinguished: group interests, group needs, group norms, group values, group goals, group opinion. Acceptance of these characteristics by an individual indicates psychological closeness with other members of the group, awareness of one’s belonging to a new group - social identification of the individual.

V. F. Porshnev found that the main psychological characteristic of a group is the presence of the concept “we are feelings,” which reflects the need to separate from another community and is an indicator of the individual’s awareness of belonging to this particular group. However, it must be remembered that this criterion is not absolute, since “we are a feeling” does not always arise in relation to the group in which the individual is actually included.

When solving some specific issues of social psychology, it becomes necessary to expand the range of ideas about the group as a subject of activity. This concerns social perception. In this context, a group can be both an object and a subject of perception. In practice, this happens when we talk about the relationship of one group to another, that is, one of the groups acts as a subject (hostile attitude, neutral, friendly, etc.).

The study of group norms, values and decisions helps to reveal the mechanism of connection between the individual and society. Social activity in its specific manifestation is the main characteristic of a social group. It contributes to the formation of a psychological community between group members, which is why joint group activity becomes an object of research in social psychology.

Large social groups

A large social group is a social community whose members, without direct contact with each other, are connected indirectly by psychological mechanisms of group communication.

Signs of large social groups:

1) have a structural and functional organization;
2) socio-psychological regulators of the life of large groups are group consciousness, customs and traditions;
3) a certain mental makeup, group psychology;
4) influence the formation of the corresponding type of personality - typical representatives of a class, party, nation, etc.;
5) a certain set of social norms governing interaction.

Types of large social groups:

1) by the nature of intergroup and intragroup social connections:
a) objective macrogroups - a group in which people are united by a community of objective connections that exist independently of the consciousness and will of these people;
b) subjective psychological macrogroups - groups that arise as a result of the conscious association of people;
2) by lifetime:
a) long-existing groups (classes, nations);
b) temporarily existing groups (crowd, audience);
3) by organization-disorganization:
a) organized groups (parties, unions);
b) unorganized (crowd);
4) by occurrence:
a) arising spontaneously (crowd);
b) consciously organized (parties, associations);
5) according to the contact level of group members:
a) conditional groups - groups created on a certain basis (gender, age, profession, etc.), in which people do not have direct contact with each other;
b) real large groups - really existing groups in which people have close contacts with each other (rallies, meetings);
6) by openness:
a) open;
b) closed - membership is determined by the internal regulations of the groups.

Levels of development of large social groups:

1) typological - people united in groups of this level have common characteristics that do not form the basis for creating a psychological community. Such groups have no unity;
2) identification – characterized by the presence of group identity; group members are aware of their belonging to a given group and identify themselves with its members;
3) solidaristic - characterized by group members’ awareness of their common interests, the group’s readiness for joint action in the name of group goals.

Factors that determine the level of psychological community of groups:

1) the degree of identification of group members;
2) the degree of heterogeneity and homogeneity of the group;
3) the nature of intra-group communications and the openness of the group to inter-group communications, the influence of the media of public opinion setting;
4) social mobility – the possibility of moving from one social group to another;
5) socio-historical experience of the group;
6) the ideology of uniting people.

Elements of social psychology depending on the spheres of the psyche:

1) elements of the motivational-need sphere:
a) group-wide needs;
b) general group interests;
c) motives for activity;
d) life values;
e) goals and social attitudes;
2) elements of the cognitive sphere are a reflection of social processes, the status of groups in the system of social relations, the level of development of the spiritual life of society:
a) group consciousness;
b) social perception and thinking;
c) collective ideas;
d) public opinion;
e) mentality;
3) elements of the affective sphere:
a) social feelings;
b) public sentiment;
c) affects;
4) elements of the behavioral-volitional sphere:
a) stereotypes of group behavior;
b) group skills;
c) social customs;
d) group skills.

Social groups of the region

Types of migration movements:

External – the movement of people from one country to another. There is a distinction between emigration and immigration.

External migration includes illegal migration.

Internal – movement of people within one country.

Irrevocable - not only with the same place of residence, but also often with a change of citizenship.

Permanently – temporarily – (according to the UN definition, permanent migrants are those leaving for 1 year or more).

Seasonal – repeated movement of people at certain times of the year.

Pendulum - regular, sometimes daily, movement of people between their place of residence and a place of work, study, etc. located in another locality.

Episodic in form: organized and unorganized.
Selective - migration of representatives of a certain category or group of people of one or one social group. class or layer, territorial and ethnic groups, national minorities, etc.

Reasons for migration: economic, social, cultural, political, religious, environmental, etc.

The migration process breaks down into 3 stages:

1. deciding to migrate;
2. direct movement;
3. adaptation, accommodation.

A social group is a collection of individuals who have common interests, group attitudes and orientations. It is characterized by normative regulation of its activities. A social group means the joint activity of its members within the framework of their own space-time continuum (an inextricable connection between activities, phenomena, processes in time and space).

Essential elements:

The central element is the activity of the group and each of its members, which is determined by their place in the system of social division of labor, connections and relationships. The activity is determined by the character of this group, in addition, it is decisive for interpersonal relationships;
- functional structure of group activity around which the activity is built: individual, intergroup.

Three main classifications of real social groups can be distinguished:

1. by volume or number of individuals included in them: large and small;
2. by origin: primary and secondary;
3. by the nature of the organization: formal and informal.

A large group differs from a small group in three ways:

1) it includes a significant number of members;
2) characterized by the absence of mandatory personal contacts;
3) Has a relatively lower degree of cohesion and organization.

Example: class, nation.

The origin of these groups can be a random and natural audience, public, crowd, social class, professional group, national-ethnic consequence historical development society, division of labor.

Small group:

Not numerous in composition;
- members are united by common social activities;
- are in direct personal communication, which is the basis for the emergence of emotional relationships, group norms and processes. Minimum – 2-3 people; the maximum is different for everyone, the maximum is determined by the need for joint group activity. MG, like social relations, act in the form of direct personal contacts.

The primary type of small group, the main difference is that it ensures the individual’s successful entry into other groups and their socialization.

Main functions:

1. Formation of moral standards that a person receives in childhood and carries throughout his life.
2. Act as a means of supporting people.

They arise through direct personal contacts face to face and are characterized by the complete interconnectedness of group members and the identification of members in it. Etc. family, friends, peers.

Secondary, in essence, are a type of large group (organization, social institution). In secondary groups there is no direct interaction between members. The main difference from the primary one: it is focused on achieving goals, while the primary one is on establishing a relationship. Example, the group of students is primary, the institute is secondary.

Formal groups - they are characterized by the rule of organization, and they have prohibitions and permissions sanctioned by society. In this group, relationships are formalized and the main function of a formal group is to ensure high orderliness and controllability of actions in achieving the goal. In a formal group, based on accepted norms, all positions and roles of its members are clearly distributed and assigned. Example, department staff.

Informal does not have a clear norm. The behavior of members is not regulated (this does not mean a lack of order or organization). Under certain conditions, an informal group can become formal, since in the course of its activities it can acquire the features of a formal group (political parties). There is a peculiarity in their interaction - the second can form inside the first. The role of an informal group can be both negative and positive; its emergence is associated with the emergence of an informal leader.

A reference group is a real or imaginary social group that acts for an individual as a standard with which he compares his social position, behavior and attitudes; it may be a group into which a person belongs, and he tries to assimilate all subcultural characteristics. If the reference group is imaginary, then it can be classified as a nominal group (conditional): a statistical nominal group does not imply mandatory direct connections between people (by age, place of residence). If the selection is carried out by the researcher himself, then it is called artificial. A certain part of nominal groups is close to real ones, that is, they may have the qualities of cohesion and contact. According to the given position, social groups are distinguished: objective (their position is given, determined, independent of will, desire, consciousness or need), social class.

Quasigroups are spontaneous, unstable groups.

Kinds:

Audience;
- crowd;
- social circles;
- ingroup – the group to which the individual belongs;
- outgroup is different.

Moreno's theory belongs to the category of socio-psychological direction. He introduced such concepts as social distance, social distance, which he used to define psychological relationships between groups. At the same time, the main component of social distance is relationships, relationships that are established between individuals and social groups.

At the end of the 30s, K. Levin’s theory of group dynamics appeared:

1. Small groups can be considered as integral entities.
2. Laws characterizing processes in small groups can be projected onto society as a whole.

The second principle is controversial, since here there is an exaggeration of the role of a small group as a social phenomenon, since as a result of this principle it can be assumed that all social problems can be solved at the level of a small group.

In the 40s - the beginning of the Second World War - the army attracted great attention. Sociological research was carried out. Stauffer drew attention to the study of social groups in the American army, and above all to the role of high morale in the formation of social groups. From this moment on, the concept of a reference group is introduced; it can be real or imaginary and acts as a social standard for the individual. A person constantly compares himself with this group, his behavior.

In the 50-80s, special attention was paid to voluntary associations, a bureaucratic mechanism that compares social groups with social organizations. As a result, an independent theory of social groups ceases to exist. Everything is considered in connection with the theory of social organizations. The social characteristics of social groups cannot be separated from achievements in the field of social psychology.

Individual of a social group

A social individual, Schizophrenic wrote, is an individual person, a group of people, an association of groups, and even an entire country. An elementary social individual (I will omit the word “social” for the sake of abbreviation) is not divided into two or more different individuals (a single person). Complex consists of two or more individuals. A normal individual has an organ with the help of which he reflects and evaluates the situation, establishes what is better and what is worse for him and for others, and foresees the immediate consequences of his actions and the actions of other people. For a person, this is the brain, but for groups of people, it is managing persons and organizations consisting of people. The purpose of this body is to provide the most favorable conditions for the existence of the individual.

I proceed from the assumption that a normal individual (and such are the overwhelming majority) correctly assesses his position in society, his capabilities, external circumstances, the immediate consequences of his actions, etc. Precisely the closest ones, because this is enough for the operation of social rules. It is impossible to foresee the consequences of actions far away (much time in advance) not so much because of the complexity of situations, but because of fundamentally unforeseen circumstances. Yes, this is not necessary. For social existence it is enough to know the immediate consequences of people's actions, and individuals are capable of this. For example, A knows that if he reports on B, then B will have troubles (they will be removed from the manager, will not be allowed to receive a bonus, a trip abroad will be canceled, etc.), and this is enough for A. Individuals may find themselves in a bad position as a result of their actions, but this cannot be viewed as the result of errors in social behavior. Individuals, from a social point of view, do not make mistakes. The concept of error is not applicable here at all. If, for example, as a result of A’s denunciation of B, over time this will cause trouble for A, then A’s denunciation is not a mistake. Here A acted in full accordance with some social law, and nothing more. And what this led to has nothing to do with the law as such. Just like a glass falling on the floor breaks. But this is not the glass's mistake. This is the result of the action of physical laws, and nothing more.

The social individual, further, has the ability to make volitional decisions, has freedom of will and choice, at least in relation to some actions. For example, an individual is free to vote for or against the adoption of a given article for publication. Speaking about free will in relation to a given action, I mean here only the following: the implementation or non-execution of a given action depends solely on the consciousness and will of the individual himself. The social individual, further, within certain limits sufficient to be considered as a whole, dominates his body. If this is a group of people, then this sign means that the people they lead are subordinate to the manager or organization. Finally, a social individual has a desire for self-preservation, avoids worsening his situation, strives to improve living conditions, etc. and takes some action to achieve this. The task of sociology is, first of all, to trace the rules by which these principles are implemented in social life.

In other words, a social individual carries out his actions in accordance with the principles:

1) he voluntarily and consciously does not do anything that is contrary to his interests;
2) if he can use his social position in his interests with impunity (small punishment does not count), he uses it to the maximum.

So bribes, forcing subordinates to cohabitate and participate in fraud, fraud for the purpose of profit, using public funds for personal purposes, etc. - all this (as well as officially established privileges in the form of closed distributors, cars, dachas, reservations for all types of services, etc.) are natural phenomena of people’s social life. And only the fear of exposure and punishment somehow holds back (and even then for the time being and on a small scale) from possible catastrophic consequences.

These characteristics are included in the very definition of the term “social individual”. A social individual also has other characteristics. This is the position in society, the power of influence, the degree of protection, the degree of harm (danger) to others, the power of grasping (appropriation), the power of return, the power of intelligence, the level of morality, the degree of resourcefulness, conscience, etc. All these characteristics can be precisely determined, so that as a result, some of them will be derived from others. All these signs are, in principle, measurable.

What an individual thinks about himself and what others think about him more or less coincides (in any case, there is a tendency towards coincidence). For himself, an individual can be as complex and spiritually rich as he likes. From a social point of view, this plays a rather negative role for the individual if spiritual wealth goes beyond the ordinary or professional average. From a social point of view, an individual is presented as a blank without an internal structure with clearly fixed forms and functions. Social progress partly consists in the formation of individuals who perform more complex functions, but have a simpler internal (spiritual) structure. How an individual thinks does not matter at all. What matters is how he acts. And he acts according to social rules.

The social individual is neither evil nor kind. He simply possesses the mentioned qualities to one degree or another. The question of measuring these qualities is not fundamental. A variety of methods can be proposed here. The magnitudes of these qualities of individuals are contained within certain socially acceptable frameworks (the latter are historically transitory, but in each era they are quite definite). Going beyond these boundaries is dangerous both for the individual himself and for those with whom he has to deal. Excessive intelligence, for example, is just as dangerous from a social point of view as excessive stupidity.

Every social individual has a social position and an official position. The social position of an individual is a function of many parameters - the position held, the prestige of the profession, the opportunity to have various kinds of privileges, connections, influence, etc. The official position is determined by the position held and the official status of the latter. There is no complete coincidence of social and official status, and in a sufficiently large and differentiated society it cannot be achieved in practice. However, due to the tendency for formality and sociality to coincide, there is a tendency to establish correspondence here too. This is expressed, in particular, in the desire to establish such standards of life that income, honor, fame, etc. were determined exclusively by the official position of individuals (so that the boss had better apartment than a subordinate, higher salary, better dacha; so that an academician is considered a greater scientist than a corresponding member, and the latter - than a simple doctor, etc.). A social individual strives to improve his social position. From this point of view, all individuals are careerists, ambitious, money-grubbers, etc., but not everyone manages to achieve what they want, and the majority, from the very beginning, is aware of the hopelessness of efforts and resigns itself to acting as a virtue. And only a few of those who could successfully participate in the struggle for social success find the strength to consciously choose a different path. However, he, too, one way or another, is designed for some kind of success.

Signs of a social group

A social group must be understood as any objectively existing stable collection of people connected by a system of relations regulated by formal or informal social institutions. Society in sociology is considered not as a monolithic entity, but as a collection of many social groups that interact and are in a certain dependence on each other. Each person during his life belongs to many such groups, including family, friendly group, student group, nation, etc.

The creation of groups is facilitated by similar interests and goals of people, as well as by the awareness of the fact that by combining actions one can achieve significantly greater results than with individual action. Moreover, the social activity of each person is largely determined by the activities of the groups in which he is included, as well as by the interaction within groups and between groups. It can be stated with complete confidence that only in a group a person becomes an individual and is able to find full self-expression.

Signs of a social group:

1. presence of internal organization;
2. general (group) goal of the activity;
3. group forms of social control;
4. samples (models) of group activities;
5. intense group interactions;
6. a sense of group belonging or membership;
7. role-coordinated participation of group members in common activities or complicity;
8. role expectations of group members relative to each other.

1. The inclusion of a group in a broader social context, a system of general relations.
2. The presence of a significant reason for group members to be in it together, and the reason must correspond to the interests of all group members.
3. The similarity of the fate of people in a group, if they share the events and conditions of group life.
4. The duration of the group’s existence is sufficient for the emergence not only of group communication but also of a group subculture, tradition, and history of the group.
5. The division of functional roles between group members, due to the nature of group activities.
6. The presence of special authorities in the group, planning, coordination and control over the implementation of group activities and individual behavior.
7. Awareness by group members of their belonging to it and the emergence on this basis of a feeling of “we” and a feeling of “they” with a tendency to overestimate the advantages of the former and the disadvantages of the latter, especially in a situation of intergroup conflict.
8. Recognition of the group by its social environment.

The problem of the group as the most important form of uniting people in the process of joint activity is one of the central ones in social psychology. The group itself is not a simple sum of the people included in it, but from the moment of its emergence represents an independent integral phenomenon, with its own characteristics that are not reducible to the individual characteristics of its members, own history development and patterns of life activity.

A group is a real existing entity in which people are brought together, united by some common characteristic, a type of joint activity, or placed in some identical conditions or circumstances, and in a certain way are aware of their belonging to this entity.

The focus of analysis in social psychology is the content characteristics of groups, identifying the specifics of the impact on the personality of a particular social group. The significance of a group for an individual lies, first of all, in the fact that a group is a certain system of activity, given by its place in the system of social division of labor and therefore itself acts as a subject of a certain type of activity and through it is included in the entire system of social relations.

The psychological characteristics of a group should include such group formations as group interests, group needs, group norms, group values, group opinion, group goals. And although the modern level of development of social psychology does not have either the tradition or the necessary methodological equipment to analyze all these formations, it is important to talk about these aspects, since it is precisely these characteristics that distinguish one group from another. For an individual belonging to a group, awareness of belonging to it is realized, first of all, through the acceptance of these characteristics, i.e. through awareness of the fact of some mental community with other members of a given social group, which allows him to identify with the group.

Let us consider the main parameters by which a socio-psychological analysis of a group can be carried out. The entire set of these parameters can be divided into the group’s own characteristics and characteristics that determine a person’s position in the group.

The first include: group composition, structure and group processes, group norms, values, system of sanctions.

The composition of a group, or its composition, is a set of characteristics of group members that are important from the point of view of analyzing the group as a whole. For example, the size of the group, its age or gender composition, etc. There are many such characteristics; the selection of the most significant is made taking into account the specific tasks set by the researcher.

The structure of the group is considered from the point of view of analyzing the functions that individual members of the group perform, as well as from the point of view of interpersonal relationships in it.

Group processes include, first of all, such indicators of group dynamics as the process of development and cohesion of the group, the process of group pressure, and the development of decisions.

The second set of indicators includes the system of group expectations, the system of statuses and roles of group members. The position of an individual in the system of group relations is characterized, first of all, by its status and roles performed. Status (or position) is the sum or set of psychological characteristics assigned to a person that determine his place in the group and how he will be perceived by other members of the group. Status is implemented through a role system. That is, the various functions that a person must perform in accordance with his position in the group. You cannot imagine a role as something unchanging: its dynamism lies in the fact that while maintaining status, the set of roles will change.

In relation to each member of the group, the group has a system of expectations regarding his behavior. Behavior that conforms to the model is rewarded, and behavior that does not conform is punished by the group. That is, the system of expectations is built on the basis of group norms and rules and is controlled through group sanctions.

All group norms are social norms, that is, they represent “establishments, models, standards of what should be done, from the point of view of society as a whole and social groups and their members.” Norms perform a regulatory function. Group norms are related to values, because any rules can be formulated only on the basis of the acceptance or rejection of some socially significant phenomena.

Let's turn to the classification of groups. All classifications of groups available in the literature have a common feature: forms of life activity of groups.

Group social behavior

Social behavior is a qualitative characteristic of social action and interaction. For example, 450 deputies simultaneously participate in work State Duma, i.e. they are engaged political activity. However, the behavior of these political subjects is ambiguous: some are dozing in their parliamentary chairs, others are shouting something from their seats, others are rushing to the microphone installed on the podium, and others are starting a fight with their colleagues.

Participants in mass events also behave differently. Thus, some demonstrators peacefully march along the declared route, others seek to organize unrest, and others provoke bloody clashes. All these differences in the actions of subjects of social interaction fall under the definition of “social behavior”. In other words, all the described actors are engaged in political activity or participate in a mass event, but their behavior is different. Therefore, social behavior is the way a social actor manifests his preferences, motives, attitudes, capabilities and abilities in social action or interaction.

The social behavior of an individual (group) can depend on many factors. Let's list some of them:

Individual emotional and psychological qualities of the subject of social interaction. For example, the behavior of V.V. Zhirinovsky is characterized by emotional intensity, unpredictability, shockingness; V.V. Putin - prudence, balance in words and actions, external calm;
personal (group) interest of the subject in current events. For example, a deputy intensively lobbies for a bill that interests him, although he is quite passive when discussing other issues;
adaptive behavior, i.e. behavior associated with the need to adapt to objective living conditions. For example, it is difficult to imagine a daredevil who, in a crowd glorifying a political leader (Hitler, Stalin, Mao Zedong), would shout slogans denouncing this leader;
situational behavior, i.e. behavior determined by actually arisen conditions, when a social subject in his actions is forced to take into account the situation that has arisen;
behavior determined by the moral principles and moral values of the actor. For example, Jan Hus, J. Bruno and many other great thinkers could not give up their principles and became victims of the Inquisition;
the competence of an actor in a particular political situation or political action. The essence of “competence” is how well the subject controls the situation, understands the essence of what is happening, knows the “rules of the game” and is able to use them adequately;
behavior caused by various types of manipulation. For example, through lies, deception, and populist promises, people are forced to behave in one way or another. Thus, a presidential candidate (governors, deputies) in his election program promises, if elected, to fulfill certain orders of his voters, but, having become president, he does not even think of fulfilling his promise;
violent coercion to a certain type of behavior. Such methods of influencing behavior are usually characteristic of totalitarian and authoritarian regimes. For example, under the communist regime in the USSR, people were forced to participate in mass political actions (subbotniks, rallies, elections, demonstrations) and at the same time behave in a certain way.

The nature of behavior is influenced by the motivation and degree of involvement of the actor in a particular event or process. For example, for some, participation in political events is a random episode, for others, politics is a profession, for others it is a calling and the meaning of life, for others it is a way to earn a living. Mass behavior can be determined by the socio-psychological properties of the crowd, when individual motivation is suppressed and dissolved in the not entirely conscious (sometimes spontaneous) actions of the crowd.

Four levels of a subject’s social behavior can be distinguished:

1) the subject’s reaction to the current situation, to certain successive events;
2) habitual actions or actions, acting as elements of behavior in which the subject’s stable attitude towards other subjects is expressed;
3) a purposeful sequence of social actions and actions in one or another sphere of life in order for the subject to achieve more distant goals (for example, entering a university, obtaining a profession, creating and settling a family, etc.);
4) implementation of strategic life goals.

Social control

The most important condition for social interaction and the effective functioning of the social system is predictability in the actions and behavior of people. Lack of predictability leads society (social community) to disorganization and collapse. Therefore, society creates various mechanisms of social control in order to coordinate the behavior of its members.

Various social institutions act as mechanisms of social control. For example, the institution of family exercises primary social control and regulates the behavior of people in the marriage and family sphere of society; political institutions regulate social control by political methods, etc.

In order for people's behavior to correspond to social expectations, certain standards of behavior are created (formed) in society - social norms.

Social norms are socially approved and/or legally enshrined rules, patterns, standards that regulate people's behavior.

They (norms) can be divided into two main types:

1) legal norms - norms formally enshrined in various types of legislative acts, for example the Constitution, Criminal Code, Traffic Rules, etc. Violation of legal norms involves legal, administrative and other types of punishment;
2) moral norms - informal norms that function in the form of public opinion. The main tool in the system of moral norms is public censure (condemnation) or public approval.

In order for people to always behave in accordance with the norms existing in society, it is necessary, firstly, to teach them appropriate behavior, and secondly, to monitor compliance with the norms.

Let's look at these conditions in more detail:

1. Certain standards of social behavior are instilled in the individual in early childhood. During the period of primary socialization in the family and preschool institutions the child receives the first ideas about how to behave in certain situations. In the course of further socialization, the individual learns various social roles, learns to distinguish in which social environment what behavior is most preferable, determines his attitude towards certain social expectations and norms of behavior, strives to behave in accordance with existing norms or, on the contrary, violates them.
2. Society, in the course of its functioning, not only forms social norms, but also creates mechanisms for monitoring their implementation, such as public opinion, the media, internal affairs bodies, courts, etc. It also determines in advance the basic typology of social roles and ensures their proper compliance. An individual who performs his role well, as a rule, receives a certain reward, and the “violator” receives punishment. Social structure, social relationships and impersonal social statuses prescribe certain standards of social behavior for individuals. For example, a popular entertainer, having won the gubernatorial elections and received the status of governor, is forced to abandon his previous role and play the role of a respectable political leader; yesterday's cadet, having received the rank and status of an officer, must play the role of a strict commander.

Control methods are very diverse and their application varies depending on specific conditions and goals. Thus, a manifestation of cowardice in normal conditions may be punished by the contemptuous attitude of others; a similar act committed by a soldier in wartime is often equated to treason and punishable by public execution.

The oldest and simplest method of social control is physical violence. It can be used as one of the methods of education in the family, as a way to fight crime, as one of the means to restore order in public places, etc.

Political control is the prerogative of state authorities and socio-political institutions of civil society. However, society itself, if it has a sufficient civil culture, can use mechanisms of political control to protect its interests. Political methods of social control are most effective because they rely on state power and can use legitimate violence for their own purposes.

Economic methods of social control are no less effective. Their essence lies in economic pressure (economic benefit or coercion) exerted on an individual or social groups. For example, an employee who is loyal to his employers may be rewarded with additional material rewards, while an employee who does not show due loyalty may lose part of his earnings and even his job.

There are other methods of social control, such as ideological, religious, sociocultural, moral and ethical, etc.

A significant place in social control is occupied by such a phenomenon as self-control. This mechanism of internal self-regulation of the individual, formed in the process of socialization and internal mental processes. The key concept in the formation of self-control mechanisms is internalization. This is the process of forming the internal structures of the human psyche through the assimilation of the social realities of the external world. By internalizing the social world, the individual acquires his identity with a certain social group, ethnic group, and culture. Social values and norms become their own internal norms, and social control turns into self-control. The main elements of self-control are consciousness, conscience and will.

Consciousness makes it possible to evaluate a particular situation from the point of view of sensory and mental images.

Conscience does not allow an individual to violate his established attitudes, principles, and beliefs.

Will helps an individual overcome his internal subconscious desires and needs and act in accordance with his beliefs.

Deviant behavior

Deviation (from Latin deviatio - deviation) is behavior, action, social phenomenon that does not correspond to the social norms established in a given society. This is any behavior that violates the legal norms accepted in society; does not correspond to social expectations, stereotypes, attitudes, values, patterns of behavior; is not approved (condemned) by public opinion and/or legislation existing in society.

Sociology studies deviation as a social phenomenon, that is, a phenomenon characterized by prevalence, a certain stability, and repetition. For example, such phenomena as crime, prostitution, drug addiction, corruption, and violation of ethical standards are widespread in modern society. All of them fall under the concept of “social deviation”.

Phenomena that are considered isolated and unique are not considered social. Thus, a resident of Germany, a certain Brandes, voluntarily came to the cannibal Meiwes, offered himself as a sacrifice and was eaten. The uniqueness of this event shocked the entire world community! Brandeis's behavior is certainly deviant, but is not the subject of sociological analysis.

Deviation has an evaluative nature. Society creates certain standards of behavior and instructs people to behave in accordance with them. Moreover, each society (social group) may have its own “subjective” assessments. Therefore, the same behavior in one society can be considered a deviation, and in another - the norm. For example, cannibalism is considered the norm in primitive cultures, but a deviation in modern ones. In addition, the assessment of behavior depends largely on the specific social context in which the behavior is viewed. So, murder in normal conditions of our Everyday life assessed as a felony; a murder committed in self-defense or to protect other people can be justified, that is, the person who committed the murder will not be punished; Killing committed during combat in a war is also not considered a crime.

The difficulty in defining deviation lies in the fact that the same act (phenomenon) in different social groups (classes) can be assessed differently. For example, the peasant war led by E.I. Pugachev (1773-1775) from the point of view of the tsarist autocracy was considered a crime against legitimate power, and from the point of view of the common people it was regarded as a legitimate struggle against the oppressors; privatization of state property carried out by the ruling elite in the 90s. XX century in Russia, in the opinion of this elite, it is considered a necessary condition for the transition to a market economy, and from the point of view of the majority of Russian citizens, it is the plunder of public property.

The norms created and approved by society are of a general nature and cannot take into account all the diversity real life. In addition, many people are unable or unwilling to comply with certain social norms.

Let's look at some of the reasons that contribute to violating social norms:

Norms contradict the cultural or religious traditions of certain social groups. Thus, in Russia polygamy is prohibited, but in accordance with the cultural and religious traditions of some ethnic groups it is considered legitimate.
Norms contradict (do not fully correspond) to the personal beliefs and value orientations of the individual (group). For example, a person becomes an outcast, goes to a monastery, becomes a member of a criminal group, because in everyday life he does not find real meaning for his existence. Thus, the famous traveler F. Konyukhov, in one of his interviews, when asked why he was already planning the next one before finishing his next trip, answered that under normal conditions his life loses all meaning.
The contradictory nature of the existing regulatory and legal system, when the implementation of some rules inevitably leads to the violation of others. This situation was in many ways typical of the Russian legal system in the 90s. XX century, when the country essentially lived in a legal vacuum, because the old legal norms were no longer in effect, and the new ones were not yet in effect.
Uncertainty in behavioral expectations when the rules are not entirely clear. For example, traffic rules require crossing the road only in designated places, but on large stretches there are no such “places.” Thus, a situation of uncertainty arises.
Disagreements regarding the legality of the adoption of certain norms (legal acts). For example, in the USSR a law was passed that limited the production, sale and consumption of alcoholic beverages, which literally “split” society into supporters and opponents of this law; The law on compulsory car insurance also caused a storm of indignation among Russian car owners and other citizens.
Forced deviation. The limited social opportunities that have developed in society force entire social strata to violate existing norms due to the fact that, within the legal framework, they are not able to satisfy their needs for food, housing, etc. For example, some people who do not have legal income are at risk for lives cut off high-voltage wires and hand them over to recycling collection points in order to have at least some means to meet their needs; a person sells his kidney in order to improve the financial situation of his family; a hungry child snatches a bun from a neighbor's boy.
Deviation as a way to change existing social norms. For example, revolutions are carried out in order to radically change existing social norms and relationships. The ruling elites evaluate revolutionary actions, as a rule, as deviant behavior, and radical citizens - as a natural process aimed at changing outdated social norms.

Social systems of the group

The social system is one of the most complex systems of living nature, representing a collection of people, the relationships between them, their knowledge, skills, and abilities. The main generic feature of a social system is its human nature and essence, since it is formed by people, is the sphere of their activity, the object of their influence. This is both the strength and vulnerability of social management, its creative nature and the possibility of manifestations of subjectivism and voluntarism.

The concept of a social system is based on a systematic approach to the study of ourselves and the world around us, and therefore this definition can be considered in both a broad and narrow sense. In accordance with this, a social system can be understood as either human society as a whole, or its individual components - groups of people (societies) united along some basis (territorial, temporary, professional, etc.). At the same time, it should be taken into account that the essential features of any system are: multiplicity of elements (at least two); existence of connections; holistic nature of this education.

Social systems, unlike others that received the program of their behavior from the outside, are self-regulated, which is internal to society at any stage of its development. As an integral totality, the social system has specific stable qualities that make it possible to distinguish social systems from each other. These characteristics are called systemic features.

The concept of system characteristics should be distinguished from the concept of system characteristics. The first characterizes the main features of the system, i.e. those features of society, a social group, or a collective that give us reason to call a given social entity a system. The second is the qualitative characteristics inherent in a particular system and distinguishing it from another.

The signs of a social system or, in other words, society, can be divided into two groups, the first of which characterizes the external conditions of life of a social organism, the second reveals the internal, most important points his existence.

External signs. The first sign of a society is usually called the territory on which the development of various social relations occurs. In this case, the territory can be called social space.

The second characteristic of a society is the chronological framework of its existence. Any society exists as long as it is expedient to continue the social ties that make it up, or as long as there are no external reasons that could liquidate this society.

The third feature of society is relative isolation, which allows us to consider it as a system. Systematicity allows us to divide all individuals into members and non-members of a given society. This leads to a person's identification with a certain society and viewing other people as strangers. Unlike the animal herd, where identification with society occurs on the basis of instinct, in the human collective the correlation of oneself with a given society is built, first of all, on the basis of reason.

Internal signs. The first sign of society is its relative stability, achieved through the constant development and modification of the social ties that exist in it. Society, as a social system, can exist only through the constant development and modification of the social connections that exist in it. The stability of a social system is thus closely related to its ability to develop.

The second sign is the presence of internal social structures. In this case, structure refers to stable social formations (institutions), connections, relationships that exist on the basis of any principles and norms specific to this society.

The third feature of society is its ability to be a self-sufficient, self-regulating mechanism. Any society creates its own specialization and infrastructure, which allow it to have everything necessary for normal existence. Any society is multifunctional. Various social institutions and relationships ensure the satisfaction of the needs of members of society and the development of society as a whole.

Finally, the ability to integrate is the seventh characteristic of society. This feature lies in the ability of a society (social system) to include new generations (systems, subsystems), to modify the forms and principles of some of its institutions and connections on the basic principles that determine one or another character of social consciousness.

I would like to especially note that the main distinguishing feature social systems, arising from their nature, is the presence of goal setting. Social systems always strive to achieve certain goals. Here nothing is done without conscious intention, without a desired goal. People unite in various kinds of organizations, communities, classes, social groups and other types of systems, which necessarily have certain interests and common goals. There is a close connection between the concepts of “goal” and “interest”. Where there is no community of interests, there cannot be unity of goals, since unity of goals based on common interests creates the necessary prerequisites for the development and improvement of such a supersystem as society as a whole.

The same object (including the social system), depending on the goals of the study, can be considered both statically and dynamically. Moreover, in the first case we are talking about the structure of the object of study, and in the second – about its functions.

The entire diversity of social relations is grouped into certain areas, which make it possible to distinguish separate subsystems in the social system, each of which fulfills its own functional purpose. The relationships within each subsystem are functionally dependent, i.e. together acquire properties that they do not possess individually.

The social system can effectively implement its tasks when performing the following functions:

1) it must have the ability to adapt, adapt to changed conditions, be able to rationally organize and distribute internal resources;
2) it must be goal-oriented, capable of setting main goals, objectives and maintaining the process of achieving them;
3) it must remain stable on the basis of common norms and values that are internalized by individuals and relieve tension in the system;
4) it must have the ability to integrate, to include new generations in the system.

As you can see, the above is not only a set of functions, but also distinctive features of social systems from others (biological, technical, etc.).

In the structure of society, the following main subsystems (spheres) are usually distinguished:

– economic – includes social relations of ownership, production, exchange, distribution and consumption of material and spiritual goods;
– political – a set of social relations regarding the functioning of political power in society;
– social – a set of social relations (in the narrow sense of the term) between groups of people and individuals who occupy a certain position in society, have a corresponding status and social roles;
– spiritual and cultural – includes relationships between individuals and groups of individuals regarding spiritual and cultural benefits.

When studying any phenomenon, it is important to highlight not only its characteristic features that distinguish it from other social formations, but also to show the diversity of its manifestation and development in real life. Even a superficial glance allows you to capture a multicolored picture of the social systems that exist in the modern world. Chronological, territorial, economic, etc. are used as criteria for differentiating types of social systems. factors, depending on the goals and objectives of the study.

The most common and generalized is the differentiation of social systems in accordance with the structure of social activity and social relations, for example, in such spheres of social life as material and production, social (in the narrow sense), political, spiritual, family and everyday life. The listed main spheres of public life are divided into private areas and their corresponding systems. All of them form a multi-level hierarchy, the diversity of which is due to the complexity of society itself. Society itself is a social system of the highest complexity, which is in constant development.

Without dwelling in detail on the types of social systems and their characteristics (since this is not the scope of this course), we will only note that the system of internal affairs bodies is also one of the types of social systems.

Interests of a social group

Social interest (from the Latin socialis - public and interest - important) is the interest of any social subject (individual, social group, class, nation), associated with its position in a certain system of social relations. These are conscious needs, real reasons for actions, events, accomplishments that stand behind the immediate internal motivations (motives, thoughts, ideas, etc.) of individuals, social groups, classes participating in these actions. According to A. Adler’s definition, social interest is an element of the motivational-need sphere; it acts as the basis for integration into society and the elimination of feelings of inferiority. It is characterized by a willingness to be imperfect, to contribute to the common well-being, to show trust, care, compassion, a willingness to make responsible choices, to creativity, intimacy, cooperation and inclusion.

Of utmost importance are class interests, which are determined by the position of classes in the system of industrial relations. However, any social interests, incl. and class, are not limited to the sphere of industrial relations. They cover the entire system of social relations and are associated with various aspects of the position of their subject. The generalized expression of all the interests of a social subject becomes his political interest, which expresses the attitude of this subject to political power in society. A social group, trying to realize its interests, may come into conflict with other groups. Therefore, private interest often takes the form of public or even universal interest. Then it takes on the appearance of a legitimate, legitimate interest and is not subject to discussion. Any social transformation of society is accompanied by a sharp change in the balance of interests. The conflict of class, national, and state interests underlies social revolutions, wars and other upheavals in world history.

Socio-economic interests - a system of socio-economic needs of a subject (individual, collective, social group, society, state).

Interest expresses the integrity of the system of socio-economic needs and in this capacity is a stimulus for the subject’s activity, determining his behavior. Awareness of a subject's own socio-economic interests is a historical process. Thus, awareness by commodity producers of their interests leads to their realization and, accordingly, is the basis of the mechanism of a market economy. The realization of socio-economic interests by the working class contributes to the creation of a system of social guarantees for the whole society.

In society there is a complex dialectic of interaction between private, collective and general interests. Thus, private socio-economic interests, being an incentive for individuals to act, thereby ensure the realization of general interest.

The interdependence and interdependence of interests is even more manifested in the dialectic of collective and general interest, the interests of social groups and national interest. However, in such a complex social organism as society as a whole, collective interest, much less private interest, does not always coincide with general interest in everything. The state, in the interests of all social groups and strata, as well as individuals, regulates and controls both private and group (collective) interests, forming and protecting state interests.

The purpose of any legal norm is based on social interest. In this sense, it is the main component of the state will. Social interest belongs to the fundamental categories of sociology. It can be presented as a concept that characterizes what is objectively significant, necessary for an individual, family, team, class, nation, society as a whole. Interest and need are not identical. Objective socio-economic needs act as motivating reasons for people’s volitional activity, but they determine it only when they manifest themselves in social interests. Society is characterized by the meaningful nature of all the actions of its members. Interest is what binds members of civil society together. Social interests determine the goals of people's activities.

As a result, certain relationships are established, a certain social system, political and legal organization of society, culture, morality, etc., which ultimately correspond to the economic conditions of society. Consequently, social interest is the starting point of people’s purposeful activity and the determinant of its social significance. This property of the category of interest determines its role in the formation of law as the main criterion for identifying the objective basis of the content of law, its social essence. Social interest, being conscious and enshrined in the rules of law, predetermines the operation of law.

The relationship between social interests as an objective reality and interest in law is explained by the relationship between the objective and the subjective in the interest itself. There are three points of view on this issue in the legal literature. Some authors consider interest to be an objective phenomenon; others - subjective; still others - by the unity of objective and subjective. Depending on the basis of classification, economic, political, spiritual, class, national, group, and personal interests are distinguished. In turn, each sphere of society has its own subgroups of the most important social interests.

Man is part of society. Therefore, throughout his life he contacts or is a member of many groups. But despite their huge number, social...

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11.04.2018 21:00

Man is part of society. Therefore, throughout his life he contacts or is a member of many groups. But despite their huge number, sociologists identify several main types of social groups, which will be discussed in this article.

Definition of social group

First of all, you need to have a clear understanding of the meaning of this term. A social group is a collection of people who have one or more unifying characteristics that have social significance. Another factor of unification is participation in any activity. You need to understand that society is not viewed as an indivisible whole, but as an association of social groups that constantly interact and influence each other. Any person is a member of at least several of them: family, work team, etc.

The reasons for creating such groups may be similarity of interests or goals, as well as the understanding that when creating such a group, you can achieve more results in less time than individually.

One of the important concepts when considering the main types of social groups is the reference group. This is a really existing or imaginary association of people, which is an ideal for a person. The American sociologist Hyman first used this term. The reference group is so important because it influences the individual:

Regulatory. The reference group is an example of an individual's behavioral norms, social attitudes and values.
Comparative. Helps a person determine what place he occupies in society, evaluate his own and others’ activities.

Social groups and quasi-groups

Quasi-groups are communities that arise by chance and exist for a short time. Another name is mass communities. Accordingly, several differences can be identified:

Social groups have regular interactions that lead to their stability.
High percentage of people's cohesion.
Group members have at least one common characteristic.
Small social groups can be a structural unit of wider groups.

Types of social groups in society

Man as a social being interacts with a large number of social groups. Moreover, they are completely diverse in composition, organization and goals pursued. Therefore, it became necessary to identify which types of social groups are the main ones:

Primary and secondary - allocation depends on how a person interacts with group members emotionally.
Formal and informal - the allocation depends on how the group is organized and how relationships are regulated.
Ingroup and outgroup - the definition of which depends on the degree to which a person belongs to them.
Small and large - allocation depending on the number of participants.
Real and nominal - the selection depends on the features that are significant in the social aspect.

All these types of social groups of people will be considered in detail separately.

Primary and secondary groups

The primary group is one in which communication between people is of a high emotional nature. Usually it does not consist a large number of participants. It is the link that connects the individual directly with society. For example, family, friends.

A secondary group is one in which there are many more participants compared to the previous one, and where interactions between people are needed to achieve a specific task. Relationships here, as a rule, are impersonal in nature, since the main emphasis is on the ability to perform the necessary actions, and not on character traits and emotional connections. For example, a political party, a work collective.

Formal and informal groups

A formal group is one that has a certain legal status. Relations between people are regulated by a certain system of norms and rules. There is a clearly defined goal and a hierarchical structure. Any actions are carried out in accordance with the established procedure. For example, the scientific community, sports group.

An informal group usually arises spontaneously. The reason may be a commonality of interests or views. Compared to a formal group, it has no formal rules and no legal status in society. There is also no formal leader among the participants. For example, a friendly company, lovers of classical music.

Ingroup and outgroup

Ingroup - a person feels direct belonging to this group and perceives it as his own. For example, “my family”, “my friends”.

An outgroup is a group to which a person has no relation; accordingly, there is identification as “stranger”, “different”. Absolutely every person has his own system for assessing outgroups: from a neutral attitude to an aggressive-hostile one. Most sociologists prefer to use a rating system - the social distance scale, created by the American sociologist Emory Bogardus. Examples: “someone else’s family”, “not my friends”.

Small and large groups

A small group is a small group of people united to achieve some result. For example, a student group, a school class.

The fundamental forms of this group are the forms “dyad” and “triad”. They can be called bricks of this group. A dyad is an association in which two people participate, and a triad consists of three people. The latter is considered more stable than the dyad.

Traits characteristic of a small group:

A small number of participants (up to 30 people) and their permanent composition.
Close relationships between people.
Similar ideas about values, norms and patterns of behavior in society.
Identify the group as “mine”.
Control is not regulated by administrative rules.

A large group is one that has a large number of participants. The purpose of unification and interaction of people, as a rule, is clearly fixed and clear to each member of the group. It is not limited by the number of people included in it. Also, there is no constant personal contact and mutual influence between individuals. For example, the peasant class, the working class.