The formation of personality is affected by the influence of society. This is reflected in a person’s life form, his interests and success.

Methods of influence

For the full development of a person as an individual, communication with other people is necessary. This contributes to the rapid perception of social norms, established laws morality and value orientations.

Influence is a process that results in a complete or partial change in a person’s behavior, his interests, life goals, attitudes, and principles.

It can be negative or positive, is spontaneous, but is intrusive. Public influence is not subject to any control. Can be used to achieve positive or negative goals.

Psychology claims that influence should not have a negative impact on the formation of personality. Literacy, correctness, reasoned thought are the main requirements for psychological influence.

Positive influence

Consists of a positive change in a person, his personal growth. The environment matters. For the result to be truly positive, it is necessary to communicate with successful, intelligent, promising individuals from whom you can learn. Criticism from them will be reasoned, presented in a polite, tolerant manner. Being around such people will motivate a person to become better and try to achieve the same high level development and self-organization.

Psychologists and sometimes hypnologists have a positive influence on personality change. These are representatives of such species professional activity, which presuppose developed perception and correct personal assessment. Using various NLP techniques, suggestions, they help a person get rid of phobic and other mental disorders, understand his mistakes, and see possible prospects.

There are no two identical individuals in the world. Therefore, it is very important to learn to accept the opinions of others, evaluate them with dignity and not deny them.

A person who is able to accept thoughts that are completely contradictory to his thoughts is capable of self-improvement and work on himself. This will have a positive impact on decision making in the future.

Proper upbringing is another manifestation of a positive influence on the formation of personality. It is the basis for education of a certain nature. Parents teach the child how to behave correctly in society, what to do in a specific situation and what is best not to do. They are taught the basic laws of morality and norms of behavior.

The positive influence of society is manifested in:

• eliminating complexes;
• full formation of beliefs;
• the ability to argue your opinion;
• understanding that each person is a unique individual with his own beliefs and
• reasoning that may not coincide among several people;
• stimulating human development in the chosen direction;
• liquidation negative emotions, replenishment of positive ones, etc.

Modern scientific analysis proved that some features of an individual's behavior disappear when he leaves social environment or leaves the sphere of influence of a certain group of people. Such a group is a place where a person can express himself - work on communication skills and suggestion techniques.

A properly formed team makes it possible to learn to perceive yourself and others, notice the mistakes of others and be able to see your own. A person learns to filter information; in the process of discussion, he forms his own opinion or views on specific situations and behavior patterns.

Negative influence

There is a period in everyone’s life when the environment is dominated by unsuccessful, unpromising people who drag a person to the bottom. Their criticism does not teach anything, but is only reflected in the form of psychological deformation of the individual. As a result, such an individual, under pressure from society, often acts to the detriment of his own interests.

There are 3 main reactions to such group behavior. Each of these components has its own characteristics:

1. Suggestibility. A person unconsciously agrees with the opinions of others and accepts the behavior of the group. He doesn’t notice how his manner of communication and type of thinking are changing.
2. Conformism. A state in which an individual outwardly agrees with certain statements, but internally remains with his own opinion. There is a divergence from the thinking of the individual and the group.
3. Conscious agreement. An individual really changes his attitude towards something. The interests of the group are actively defended.

Under such negative influence of a group, a person may not have own opinion. The degradation process is activated.

Consequences of negative influence:

• increased emotionality;
• decreased level of self-knowledge and self-expression;
• depersonalization – renunciation of one’s interests and opinions;
• development of interpersonal conflicts;
• increased levels of anxiety and puzzlement, etc.

Another possible negative consequence of group influence may be the inability to unleash creative potential. The main reason is the reluctance of society to perceive a person with a distinctive type of thinking and a different vision of the world. All creative ideas are rejected. As a result creative potential and may disappear altogether or be stuck in development for a long time.

Even when an individual wants to show his independence, he is not allowed to do so. Self-esteem falls, and a person is unable to give an adequate assessment of himself, his actions and certain actions. He does not feel supported by others.

Dependence on the opinion of society

Codependency is a condition that arose due to the fact that a person was unable to resist the influence of others. The phenomenon is associated with decreased self-esteem and the predominance of negative emotions (anger, melancholy, irritation, nervousness, worry, anxiety, etc.).

Codependency not only negatively affects the nature of the individual, but also the emotional, psychological condition person. He constantly worries about what others will think of him - whether they will judge him or encourage him, whether he will be able to fulfill the expectations of others or whether he will disappoint someone.

Codependent people spend all their vital energy and strength on processing negative emotions. They may have a desire to get rid of negative impact society, but there may not be the strength to take any action in this direction.

The main manifestations of codependency created on a negative basis:

• intrusive help, even when there is no need for it;
• feeling of insignificance without a relationship with someone;
• energy is spent on maintaining relationships with others to gain security and peace of mind;
• fear of doing something contrary to public opinion;
• perceiving other people's problems as one's own;
• extinction of creative potential;
• absence positive thinking and making original decisions;
• there is a sense of responsibility for the actions of others;
• helping others even in cases where a person is forced to do something he does not want,
• so as not to disappoint anyone;
• may express indignation at injustice, but is unable to protect his own interests;
• always feels like a puppet; there is a deviation of praise, compliments, and pleasant statements;
• the patient blames himself for literally everything, even when he is really innocent;
• always considers himself not good enough.

A codependent person does not know how to say “no”. Because of this, he often does things he doesn't like. He is literally addicted to helping other people. He constantly has a feeling of victimhood or his own insignificance.

The main problem of such people is the lack life goal. They constantly help someone, satisfy other people's desires, sacrificing their own dreams.

This public influence is reflected in the physical condition of the patient. Sleep disturbances appear, mental disorders and central nervous system diseases actively develop.

A codependent allows others to hurt themselves. He never speaks openly about his needs. Always agrees to the conditions of others, even if they do not satisfy him.

Such a person is afraid of mistakes and failures. Loses interest in his life. As a result, he becomes a workaholic. Doesn't trust anyone, not even himself. She is very worried when others let her down, which is why she becomes depressed. Suffers from eating disorders and is unable to control emotions.

Codependency also affects an individual's lifestyle. Instead of a cheerful and cheerful state, he is constantly irritated, sad, despondent and complains about everything he can. He points out mistakes to everyone without noticing his own. It combines responsibility and irresponsibility at the same time.

Correction

The best solution is to become independent psychological level. Stop being afraid to express yourself, break generally accepted norms, and act contrary to others. The main rule to follow is the absence of a negative impact on society.

Independence is the main characteristic of a strong personality. She is responsible for every action and is not afraid of condemnation or failure. Has financial independence. She is conscientious, listens to the opinions of others, but compares them with her own interests. There is healthy egoism.

Rules to follow if you need to protect yourself from the negative influence of the public:

• Remember that you cannot please everyone. If the other person is not happy with something, don’t try to please him. This will eliminate the need to constantly obey the orders of this person.
• Stop paying attention to inadequate or eternally dissatisfied people. This takes a lot of strength and vital energy, which can be put to more worthy use. If someone begins to pour out their soul or often share their problems, be able to stop such a person in time. You should explain that you are not ready or do not have time to listen to such complaints.
• Relax more in the fresh air. Overwork has a negative impact on all aspects of health. It is important to learn meditation and often repeat motivating affirmations. Exercising helps a lot (even a regular walk in the park will do).
• You must take responsibility only for your own actions and actions. Then there will be no time to think about others. Situations should be created that enrich positive energy and make you happy.
• Never give in to rudeness. This is one of the most effective methods manipulation. Cold contempt can be used to make it clear that such communication is unacceptable. Know your worth.
• Constantly conduct self-analysis. This will help you keep yourself in good shape and not succumb to social pressure. Try to develop only good qualities. Clearly define your goals, set your priorities, and think about your plan of action. Such an action makes a person strong and independent.
• Learn to reject people who show pity. You can sympathize with someone, but doing it all the time is a bad decision. Remember the basic rule - no one owes anyone anything.
• Get rid of the influence of social stereotypes. The most popular of them is social deception. Someone does good, and the other individual should also do something good in return. In this primitive way, many control others to achieve their own goals.
• You can try to get rid of communication with unpleasant individuals or reduce any contact to a minimum. This will save you money vital energy and use it more productively.

One of the most important roles in a person’s upbringing is given to society. He grows up surrounded by people, acquiring moral values. Society is a collection of people who are entrusted with the task of educating a person. However, society has an impact on the individual different impact, which can be either harmful and destructive, or directing you on the right path. But if a person understands that the surrounding society has a destructive effect on his personality, then he should be able to get out of this environment. However, this requires considerable effort and the ability to resist.

IN literary works The problem of society's influence on a person becomes quite common.

An example of the revival of the human soul under the influence of the environment of close and dear people is the hero of Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky’s psychological novel “Crime and Punishment.” Rodion Raskolnikov, testing his theory about the right of a strong personality to commit a crime in the name of a great goal, goes to kill the old pawnbroker. After some time, he begins to have remorse, forcing the hero to doubt his ability to become the ruler of the “anthill”, to live according to the laws of his theory, which led him to the murder of a man. These remorse forces Raskolnikov to isolate himself from society: he pushes away friends and family, leaving himself completely alone.

But man by nature is a social being, and soon main character begins to feel the need for people. Sonya Marmeladova becomes a “lifeline” for him. She convinced him that he would get rid of the pangs of conscience if he repented and confessed. This example demonstrates the healing power of society, since the company of Sonya Marmeladova leads to the resurrection of spiritual life.

Anton Pavlovich Chekhov writes about the harmful influence of society on the individual in the story “Ionych”. Zemstvo doctor Dmitry Ionovich Startsev moves to the district town of S. for work. All visitors call this city boring and uninteresting, but residents say the opposite. They advise Dmitry Ionovich to get acquainted with the most gifted family of this city - the Turkins. In fact, this family is far from gifted: Ivan Petrovich, the head of the family, constantly uses monotonous flat jokes, his wife, Vera Iosifovna, writes mediocre novels, their daughter, Katerina Ivanovna,

plays the piano so that one gets the impression that stones are falling from the mountain, a butler named Pava has been playing the same role of a jester for many years, which Ivan Petrovich assigned to him. Startsev understands the mediocrity of this family and says that if the most gifted family of this city is so mediocre, then what about the rest of the population of this city. Soon, despite the awareness of the wretchedness of the townspeople, Dmitry Ionovich turned, without realizing it, into Ionych, an everyman in the city of S. He began to be interested in base values, so he became like the townspeople of the city of S., whose life passed sluggishly, dullly and without any the desire to perk up, to become better.

Of course, society influences a person. It can have both positive and negative effects; it can both heal a personality and destroy it. But in the end it all depends on the person.

Updated: 2018-01-15

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Here’s an article to think about, about your dependence or independence from society. The test at the end of the article will help you understand in more detail.

Modern man lives in society, and one way or another he is forced to participate in some kind of collective activity. It is physically impossible for a civilized person to be excluded from it. He is dependent on her. There can be no one-sided dependence. If that were the case, modern society would fall apart, and all people would disperse different sides. Society includes a person’s entire environment, his family, friends, classmates, even the information that he receives in the process of life, this is also a kind of society. A person largely depends on society; his way of thinking, life and physical health depends on his environment. Society influences a person to a large extent. It is worth noting that a third of his life a person learns to live in the most difficult of existing worlds- in the world public relations. This process is called socialization.

Socialization begins in childhood, when approximately 70% of the human personality. In childhood, the foundation of socialization is laid, and at the same time this is its most vulnerable stage, because During this period, a person begins to absorb information like a sponge; he also tries to imitate adults, taking from them not only good qualities, but also bad ones. And during this period, adults can impose their opinions, and the child at this moment is defenseless against the demands of elders, he will be forced to submit to them, which can affect further development person as an individual.
The entire process of personality development can be divided into several stages in accordance with the age of the child:
· Early childhood (0-3)
· Preschool and school childhood (4-11)
· Adolescence (12-15)
· Youth (16-18)

The biggest influence on a person’s personality is the opinion of their parents. What a child acquires in the family during childhood, he retains throughout his entire subsequent life. The importance of the family as an educational institution is due to the fact that the child lives in it for a significant part of his life, and the foundations of the child’s personality are laid in it.
- IN preschool age The collective becomes another significant social group from the point of view of personal development. As a rule, this is the kindergarten team. The development of a child’s personality is influenced by his relationships not only with peers, but also with teachers. The child learns the norms of discipline and interaction with others. The child wants to be respected by his peers and to have many friends. IN kindergarten he can gain life experience, because he communicates with children of his own age, takes something from them, trying to imitate.
- During adolescence, children often experience a crisis of personality development. The crisis of this age is characterized by a spirit of contradiction, the desire to do everything in one’s own way, to acquire one’s own experience of successes and failures.
- By the age of 18, as a rule, a child’s personality is fully formed. It is impossible to radically change an already established personality; you can only help the child correct his behavior. Therefore, it is so important to promptly instill in a child moral and ethical values, to teach him the norms of behavior and human relationships when the child’s personality is still developing. Youth completes the active period of socialization. At this age, important physiological changes occur that carry certain psychological shifts: attraction to the opposite sex, aggressiveness, often unmotivated, a tendency to take thoughtless risks and the inability to assess the degree of its danger, an emphasized desire for independence and independence. During this period, the formation of the foundation of the personality ends, its upper - worldview - floors are completed. Awareness of one’s “I” occurs as an understanding of one’s place in the life of parents, friends, and the surrounding society. Teenagers and young men are more susceptible to negative assessments from others, especially when it comes to clothing, appearance, behavior, circle of acquaintances.

Dependent person is someone who has allowed another person's behavior to greatly affect her or him, and who is obsessed with trying to control that person's behavior. Addiction is associated with low self-esteem and a huge amount negative emotions: fear, anxiety, lingering despair, anger, shame, guilt, etc. The life of addicted people is full of long-term stress. In fact, it was stress, including strong feelings about another person, that created this type of personality in them. These people are capable of experiencing a lot, but, as a rule, are not able to act in the right direction, because negative emotions takes all their energy away. Dependent people are so involved in other people's lives that they feel insignificant without a relationship with someone. At the same time, of course, they try to drag others into own life, including their negative experiences. Dependent people become so accustomed to “taking care” of another that they often offer intrusive help even when the other person does not need it, or when this help is absolutely useless.

Independent person- this is also a self-sufficient, independent person who is aware of personal responsibility for his life. Signs of an independent person:
· Responsible.
· Material independence.
· Self-sufficiency.
· Lives his own life.

For the full development of personality, a person needs communication with other people. Otherwise social norms And value orientations established in society will not be perceived or will be perceived distorted. Communication with those who are more developed forces you to reach a higher standard, sets more high standard than that of a loner, and a person in a group strives for the best - after all, he knows that the best exists, but a loner does not even suspect it.

Only direct communication in a group, personal contacts and achieving openness with other people give a person the opportunity to perceive someone else’s and convey his life experience. Relationships between people that develop in groups teach a person to comply with existing social norms; they carry within them value guidelines, which are acquired by the individual; the group is the place where a person practices his communication skills; From group members, a person receives information that allows him to correctly perceive and evaluate himself, preserve and strengthen everything positive in his personality, and get rid of the negative and shortcomings. The group gives a person self-confidence and supplies him with a system of positive emotions necessary for his development.

From all of the above we can conclude that a person will always depend and change for society. Because society can be taken as a small group of a person’s friends, as well as family, and since a person spends almost all his time with them, he depends on their opinions and decisions. Almost every person is in average dependence on society, i.e. a person thinks about what people say about him, every day he listens to people’s opinions and listens to them, acts as he was told.

What is society as a form of human life? At first glance, this question can be answered with a fairly obvious definition. Society is a collection of people, their total mass. However, this explanation is superficial. It does not affect those deep processes that occur within each society. Only by examining this phenomenon in more detail can one discover the reasons why people generally unite in such circles.

Concept of society

Historically, society as a form of human life arose at the very moment when the first representatives of the human race began to unite into groups. Hunters and gatherers began to live together for mutual benefit, to help each other survive in the wild. Gradually, the patterns by which people lived began to form. Rules and prohibitions arose. Regulatory norms have made society a stable system.

This phenomenon has many definitions. Some of them appeared as the fundamental canons of one or another philosophical theory. But, one way or another, any point of view specifies the functions of society. Such an association is created for adaptation, goal-setting, integration and self-preservation of people. Humanity appeared when it isolated itself from nature and began to live in artificial conditions (settlements, cities, etc.). Therefore, society is also a contrast to the wild state of the human race.

Personality in society

Human society as a form of human activity has been studied for several centuries. During this time, several particularly popular points of view about this phenomenon have emerged. The so-called “atomistic” theory is widespread. Its founder was this scientist who believed that society is not just a mass of people, but the totality of their unique actions.

That is, according to this theory, a person is recognized as an individual. It is the individual who gives rise to society, and not vice versa. This point vision appeared as a synthesis of the ideas of ancient philosophy and the Renaissance, when man was considered the center of the universe. Human interactions are born out of ambitions, desires and aspirations. Various motives encourage a person to make contact with his neighbor, co-worker, passer-by, etc. It is from these tiny threads that society is born as a form of human life.

Social groups

Another theory of the organization of society states that it is composed not of individuals, but of social groups. The founder of this idea was the Polish-American sociologist Florian Znaneski. He and his followers identified the term “society” with the term “humanity.” Social groups are formed according to a variety of characteristics. These can be like-minded people who are trying to bring their idea to life.

A social group is also built around representatives of the same profession or class. For example, the bourgeoisie influenced the society of the 19th century, trying to develop capitalism and market relations in it. At the same time, workers created trade unions, defended their rights and defended their interests. These groups had different goals. They confronted each other. But it was the sum of their opposing efforts that gave birth to the foundations of society on which Europe and the United States began to live in the 20th century.

Signs of society

There are several key signs. The first of these is territory. It is the basis of the entire social space, in the vastness of which various interactions and relationships between people appear and develop.

The next sign is that society is a huge force that integrates humanity. It creates conditions for each new generation to be drawn into society through education and accustoming to norms. The child, and then the teenager, is gradually included in the system of human relations. Even if a person tries to avoid society, he will still be connected to it by culture, origin and language.

Autonomy of society

The laws of society are gradually changing. This indicates that the system is self-regulating. If new social ideas emerge and claim to become universal norms, they must be tested.

The course of history itself weeds out unnecessary and ineffective principles of human relations. Society norms are flexible - they adapt to changing conditions. In the process of social evolution, people gain historical experience, which they can then use to improve their own lives.

Human dependence on society

Modern life in society is such that society provides conditions for self-realization to its most diverse members. This characteristic multifunctionality did not appear immediately. It was born as a result of centuries-old evolution of society. Today, a resident of every developed country has the opportunity to take the “social elevator” and make his dream come true.

But a person not only receives certain prospects from life in society. The individual depends on society. Only within it can a person satisfy his needs and acquire everything necessary for his own comfortable life. The society provides young man or a girl has all the conditions to get an education and acquire new skills that will be useful to them in the future. Relations in society are structured in such a way that the system itself helps its members achieve their goals.

Society development

Can every modern society boast a perfect and efficient way of life? Of course, not all countries and nations can pass such a test. Society as a form of human life is in constant development. This system simply cannot be static and stand still, because the people of whom it consists carry out some kind of activity.

However, humanity has developed at different times at different rates. There is such a thing as progress. Such a process is characterized by forward development, a transition from simple to complex, improvement of science, technology, etc. The opposite phenomenon is regression. It consists in the transition from higher to lower, degradation. Society as a whole has never regressed. For example, scientific inventions Once they appeared, they were never forgotten again.

But it may also happen that if it does not reverse, it will at least slow down. This process is called stagnation. In particularly acute forms, it leads to arrest of development. For example, European society stagnated for several centuries during the Dark Ages after the collapse of the Roman Empire.

Paths of social progress

The development of society depends only on the people themselves. The French philosopher and scientist Jean-Antoine Condorcet believed that the main criterion of progress is the increase in knowledge. Today this point of view remains the most popular and widespread. On the other hand, one cannot fail to mention the moral criterion of progress, the supporters of which were the utopian socialists. Such a theory assumed that people would eventually organize themselves on the basis of the brotherly attitude of people towards each other. In socialist teaching, this state of society was called communism - a certain point to which humanity should strive.

The German philosopher Schelling in his works proved the theory that the main factor of social progress is not the development of science, but the improvement of the legal system. Hegel emphasized the presence of freedom. Only a society freed from slavery and class prejudice can move forward, the famous thinker believed. In the 20th century, the development of society was associated primarily with industrialization and modernization of production.

They focus primarily on humanistic ideals. If people's average life expectancy increases, their health improves and their level of education increases, then society will begin to live more productively and happier.

Abrupt and gradual changes

If people are dissatisfied with the state of society, then the danger of revolution inevitably arises. This term denotes a sharp change in social guidelines and norms. As a rule, society and the people in it develop gradually, that is, in an evolutionary way. Sharp changes caused by popular discontent can only appear if there are deep contradictions in society.

To avoid revolutions and bloodshed, society must carry out reforms on time. Reorganizations and transformations are factors of painless and effective development humanity. If people go this way, they don't have to destroy the whole foundation social structure of your society.

Gradual development is sometimes referred to as “modernization.” It is also associated with progress in science and technology. The development of both society as a whole and the people who make it up in particular depends on them today. With the help of innovations, humanity improves its standard of living and makes society happier.

For the full development of personality, a person needs communication with other people. Otherwise, social norms and value orientations established in society will not be perceived or will be perceived distorted. In a democratic society, individual rights are sacred. The group allows a person to build correct self-esteem, because only with the help of an outside view can one correctly perceive and evaluate oneself. The influence of the group does not end with the assessment of the individual; with its help you can change yourself - remove negative qualities and develop positive ones. The group reacts to personality changes, and a person can, with the help of feedback, receive information about the correct direction of his development.

A group is not a homogeneous mass; it contains people of different levels of development, possessing different knowledge, skills, and abilities. By communicating with a group, a person gets the opportunity to communicate with those from whom he can learn something. Communication with those who are more developed forces one to reach a higher standard, sets a higher standard than that of a loner, and a person in a group strives for the best - after all, he knows that the best exists, but a loner has no idea about it suspects. The upbringing of a person can only be carried out by a group of people. Only direct communication in a group, personal contacts and achieving openness with other people give a person the opportunity to perceive someone else’s and convey his life experience. These include basic skills (for example, you need to wash your hands before eating), the use of speech, moral values, and even the ability to perform various types of activities. The variety of groups in which a person participates during his life provides a variety of opportunities and directions in development. Moreover, other group members are not only role models or a source of learning, but also an incentive for further development, the elimination of childhood complexes and the full formation of beliefs. The value of some groups lies precisely in the fact that they provide the necessary positive emotions, positive feedback, which stimulates the further development of a person in the chosen direction. It has long been noted that a group has a significant influence on the behavior of an individual. Some of the changes generated by the influence of the group disappear as soon as a person leaves the sphere of influence of the group, others continue to exist, leaving a noticeable mark on the personality and, under certain conditions, turning into personality traits.

Each of the groups makes its own contribution to the psychology and behavior of the individual, and this contribution is by no means clearly positive or negative. It is different, and this is primarily evidenced by the presence of many advantages and disadvantages in people, most of which they acquired while in groups. Only constant communication of an individual with individuals more developed than himself, possessing valuable knowledge, skills and abilities, provides him with the opportunity to become familiar with the corresponding spiritual values. Almost every person has something to learn from other people, and in almost every group he meets such people. If a human child were born and raised not in society, among other people, but in isolation from them, he would never psychologically and behaviorally develop into a human being. This is evidenced by many facts described in scientific and popular literature, when, due to tragic life circumstances, human children found themselves from an early age deprived of the opportunity to communicate with developed, cultured people, living in physical or psychological isolation from them, in animal communities. In almost all of these cases, serious delays were noted in both the psychological and behavioral development of the children. In addition, society helps a person accumulate his life experience.

It has been noticed that the more life experience a person has, the more correctly he perceives and understands people. Is it true, we're talking about not about the quantitative expression of life experience, not just about a person’s age, but about how often this person had to communicate with different people, on different occasions in different life situations. When we talk about knowledge of human psychology, we mean the following. There are people who, due to their abilities, due to their accumulated life experience, and because of their profession, know and understand people better than others. This is typical for those people who know how to empathize, sympathize with people, put themselves in their position, accept people as they are, and understand the motives of their behavior. These are people who, due to current life circumstances, often have to not only communicate with people, but influence them, convince them, attract them to their side, and encourage them to certain actions.

There are types of professional activity that require not only constant and active communication between a person and different people, but also developed perception and correct personal assessment. These are, for example, doctors, teachers, psychologists, politicians, actors, directors and others.

When communicating with a person, a situation may arise in which he will show himself best. This will allow people watching him to more accurately and correctly perceive and understand him. You can consciously create situations in which a person will express himself in many ways, and carefully observe his reactions in precisely these situations. Such situations can, for example, be created directly in the process of communicating with a person, by addressing him with some premeditated words or by taking a conscious, purposeful action in relation to him, calculated for a certain reaction on his part.

Relationships between people that develop in groups teach a person to comply with existing social norms; they carry value guidelines that are internalized by the individual; the group is the place where a person practices his communication skills; From group members, a person receives information that allows him to correctly perceive and evaluate himself, preserve and strengthen everything positive in his personality, and get rid of the negative and shortcomings. The group gives a person self-confidence and supplies him with a system of positive emotions necessary for his development.

In addition to the positive impact, a group can also have a negative impact on a person. This happens, for example, when the goals of a group are achieved by infringing on the interests of individual members to the detriment of the interests of the whole society. In psychology this is called group egoism.

Another possible negative consequence of group influence may be the impact that usually occurs on gifted creative personalities. Famous scientist V.M. Bekhterev, having conducted a series of individual and group experiments in which the indicators were compared creative work group and individual, found out that in creativity a group can be inferior to especially gifted individuals. Their original ideas were rejected by the majority because they were incomprehensible, and such individuals, being under strong psychological pressure from the majority, are restrained and suppressed in their development. History of Russia in the 20th century. I knew many examples when outstanding composers, artists, scientists, and writers were excluded from trade unions and even persecuted. Sometimes a person, in order to remain in a group, goes to internal conflict and behaves conformally, becomes a conformist. Conformal is the behavior of a person in which he, consciously disagreeing with the people around him, nevertheless agrees with them, based on some considerations. Also, because of the group, a person can acquire many bad habits. For example, under pressure from people he can start smoking, he can change himself and his character in a negative direction.

There are three ways a person can respond to group pressure. The first is suggestibility, when a person unconsciously accepts a line of behavior, the opinion of a group. The second is conformism, i.e. conscious external agreement with internal disagreement with the opinion of the group. The third way to respond to a group’s demand is conscious agreement with the group’s opinion, acceptance and active defense of its values, norms and ideals.