A psychological analysis of the management activities of each organization (in the broad sense of the word) requires considering each employee in close connection with the groups and organizations of which he is a member. Each employee, being a member of some social group or organization, occupies one or another position in managerial relations. The social position of an employee is determined primarily by his professional qualification characteristics and functional responsibilities.
In each organization (for example, an enterprise), the positions of a director, a shop manager, a foreman, an accountant, an employee of the technical control department and a simple worker are clearly distinguished.
Depending on what kind of participation the individual worker takes in public life, depending on the functions performed in public organizations, corresponding specific positions can also be identified.
The concept of “personal position” was proposed by the famous Austrian psychologist A. Adler, the founder of individual psychology. He calls his teaching "positional psychology."
The concept of “personal position” is used in Russian and Western literature, however, it is described in different ways.
Very often this concept is identified with the concept of “role”, “status”, “attitude”, “attitude”, “value orientation”.
There are two most general approaches to understanding a position.
In accordance with the first approach (sociological), position is understood as something external to the individual, the place that it occupies in the system of relations of a certain social structure.
Czech psychologist F. Jakubczak writes that position characterizes the place of an individual, class or category of people in the social structure relative to other people.
I. Kon considers position as the social position of an individual, its place in the social structure (V. Selivanov, A. Glotochkin use the concept of position in the meaning of role).
In the second approach (psychological), position is considered as an internal component that is related to the structure of the personality. In particular, B. Ananyev proceeds from the fact that the position of an individual is a complex system of relationships of the individual, attitudes and motives, goals and values.
V. Myasishchev connects the concept of “position” with the system of personality relationships, pointing out that a psychological attitude expresses the active selective position of the individual, which determines the individual nature of activities and individual actions.
According to L. Bozhovich, a position is a system of internal motives, needs, aspirations (“internal position”) that predetermine a certain structure of a person’s relationship to reality, to the environment and to himself.
It is from the position, B. Parigin believes, that the structural layer of the psyche begins, which characterizes the personality no longer as an object, but as a subject of social relations (one’s own life).
Each position of an individual in one or another production team of the organization is always analyzed according to other positions. That is, there is a corresponding relationship between people who are in interconnected positions (for example, there is no position of a general without an army, a director without an enterprise, etc.).
The concept of “position” is closely related to the concept of “social role”. In the process of their analysis, it is necessary to turn to the role theory, which was developed by O. Bodalev, I. Kon, E. Kuzmin, B. Parigin.
Let us define what a “social role” is. In the psychological literature one can find many interpretations of this concept.
We will consider a social role as a normative system of actions that can be expected from an individual according to his social position (position), place in a specific system of social relations.
As R. Shakurov notes, the expectation or pattern of behavior is predetermined by both organizational-technical and social factors of production: “Organizational-technical claims are directly dictated by equipment, technology and the final product of the organization in which the employee is located. Social claims come from people who "surround the individual. They are, as it were, a reflection in the public consciousness of the organizational and technical conditions of activity and represent an ideal model of a social role."
For example, an employee of a certain team or department, being a member of this team, must perform certain duties, that is, he must act in accordance with the rights and responsibilities that constitute his behavior. These role claims come not only from the primary team (team, department), but from the entire team of the enterprise and from society as a whole.
Let us note that the role aspirations that come from specific people, groups or communities clearly reveal their socio-psychological characteristics. For example, at the group level, these claims will depend on the corresponding group values, traditions, interests and may differ even within the boundaries of one enterprise. Accordingly, role interaction is carried out in the system of informal relations in the team.
In a system of formal relations, an employee must not violate production technology, safety rules, or labor discipline. If his activities meet the expected patterns, then they are considered successful and the employee fulfills his professional and functional role. Let us consider in more detail the official functional role of the individual in the team.
As V. Afanasyev notes, managing people means solving the following problems:
Correct definition of the social role of each employee and his place in production and the team;
Assimilation by each employee of his assigned social role;
Ensuring that each employee fulfills his social role.
The functional role of each member of the work collective is determined by job descriptions, which indicate the task and purpose of a particular job, the duties and rights of workers, and the types of their official interactions with other members of the team (foreman, director).
A clear and precise job description provides the basis for each employee to understand their functional role. And unclear instructions lead to negative consequences in the activities of workers.
At the same time, according to the job description, some independence should be assumed in order to ensure the creative process of work.
In general, scientists focus on optimally equal detailing of different job descriptions, since the quality of these instructions determines the performance of employees and interpersonal relationships.
According to G. Predvechny and Yu. Sherkovin, the role behavior of an individual can be considered as a function of two variables - the social role and the “self-image”.
The quality of fulfillment of one or another social role depends on how much a person understands its specifics and to what extent he accepts and assimilates this role, that is, internalizes it. As I. Kon noted, “an internalized role is an individual’s internal study of his social position and his attitude towards this position in accordance with his responsibilities.”
In a similar understanding, B. Parigin uses the concept of “involvement in activity.” He notes that this attraction “is characterized by a certain degree of compliance or inconsistency of the internal mental state, the disposition of the spirit of the individual as a whole, with the claims that are made of him.” Internalization by employees of their official roles in the production team involves, first of all, understanding and acceptance of the goals of a certain team; coordinating your own goals with these goals.
The effectiveness of an employee’s fulfillment of a social role is also determined by the peculiarities of self-assessment of his own role behavior in the management system. There are situations when a person’s subjective understanding and assessment of individual elements of his functional role do not fully meet the claims of his colleagues (that is, they do not coincide).
S. Bezsonov conducted research comparing two estimates:
Employees’ subjective understanding of the personality traits they need to successfully perform their job role;
Corresponding role “standards” (standard of a manager, department head, etc. and their characteristics).
As a result of research, it was revealed that the difference between these two estimates ranges from 60-30%. Analysis of features, an individual’s understanding of his job role and its correction can be used to optimize management.
The problem of the influence of the role on psychological characteristics is also important. In accordance with the main principles of psychology about the unity of consciousness and activity, the psychological properties of a person are simultaneously discovered and developed in the process of its activity. Human social activity is the core, leading characteristic of personality. Peculiarities of work activity and individual work style, influencing personality traits, can lead to so-called professional deformation.
As experimental data show, sometimes certain professional roles become so ingrained in people’s consciousness that they become an obstacle to accepting other roles, even in a mental situation. In particular, in G. Gomelauri’s experiments, the subjects (prosecutors and lawyers, that is, persons with opposite professional roles) first had to evaluate offenses from the position of their role, and then from the opposite one. It turned out that some of the subjects could not cope with the task, which consisted of evaluating actions from the position of the opposite role.
To successfully perform professional roles, not only knowledge and understanding of job descriptions are required, but also moral readiness to accept a certain role and activity regarding its implementation is important. Then the official role claims are supported by the corresponding claims of the person to himself. It is necessary to especially focus on the importance of responsibility as a personality trait that determines its attitude towards its functional responsibilities.
The responsibility of an individual always has a social character, since it represents an orientation towards the fulfillment of certain social claims, norms and patterns of behavior in accordance with its place in the system of social relations.
Responsibility is a means of internal control (self-control) and internal regulation (self-regulation) of the activity of an individual, who performs what is necessary at his own discretion, “consciously and voluntarily,” noted K. Muzdibaev.
K. Muzdibaev conducted interesting research. Using a special scale, “more responsible workers” (196 people) and “less responsible” (161 people) were selected. It turned out that “more responsible workers” are more aware of the fulfillment of production duties than “less responsible” ones. This also affects their behavior. In particular, cases of failure to fulfill their duties are typical for “less responsible” people. They show less willingness to help colleagues, do not show interest in the affairs of the team, and more often violate discipline.
Overall, there was a positive correlation between social responsibility and their behavior both in production and in everyday life.
K. Muzdibaev's research also found different levels of awareness among employees of certain types of job responsibilities. The subject recognizes some of these responsibilities as inseparable from their social role and their own “I,” while others are perceived as peripheral, which do not affect their “I.” Hence the different degrees of implementation of responsibilities: what is better understood is better fulfilled.
From here we can distinguish different models of employee responsibility (from high awareness and implementation of production functions to awareness and implementation of only part of them).
Let us point out that the foundations of responsibility are laid and formed in childhood (adolescence).
The research materials of N. Bakhareva and E. Shiryaev confirm how family characteristics (work norms, role structure, leadership style, nature of relationships) influence the formation of different types of attitudes towards work in schoolchildren.
And to summarize, we note that in order to form a new type of employee (responsible, disciplined, creative), it is necessary, first of all, to create opportunities for the effective performance of their roles, which are determined by the characteristics of production and social activities. Solving the problems of optimizing the interaction between the individual and these roles begins with career guidance and selection. Next is the management of the processes of labor adaptation of the individual. At all these stages, appropriate management incentives are needed that would promote the production and social activity of workers.
Let's draw conclusions. The word "role" is taken from the theater. Here it means a peculiar routine of actions characteristic of those who occupy a certain social position. In this case, we use the concept of “position” in a sociological meaning, as something external to the individual; this is the place that a person occupies in the system of relations of a certain social structure (this is the social position of the person, his place in the social structure).
There is also a psychological approach to defining the concept of “position”. This is an internal component that relates to the structure of the personality; it is selectivity, which determines the individual nature of activity in individual cases.
Thus, a social role is a set of norms that mean how a person of a certain social status or occupying a certain social position should behave.
The social role must be understood as a way of implementing social activity through certain actions of the individual, her behavior (answers the question “how does she do it?”).
A role is a characteristic of an individual as a member of a team, social organization, or society in the process of communication. First of all, it reflects the involvement of an individual in the activities of a particular organization, the performance of certain functions and responsibilities in it.
Taking this into account, we are talking about the importance of mastering functional roles, which is carried out in the process of mastering job descriptions. Also very important for the effectiveness of performing a particular role is its assimilation, that is, internalization. The effectiveness of employees’ fulfillment of social roles is also determined by the peculiarities of their self-assessment of their own role behavior in the management system. This self-esteem does not always meet the claims of colleagues. Also important is the problem of the influence of professional roles on the psychological characteristics of the individual (can lead to professional deformation). For the successful fulfillment of professional roles, moral readiness to accept a certain role and its activity is also important, if the corresponding role claims are supported by the corresponding claims of the person to himself.
Of particular importance, according to researchers, is the personality trait of responsibility.
Social status- the position occupied by an individual in the system of interpersonal relations (in the social structure of a group/society), which determine his responsibilities, rights and privileges. The hierarchy of social statuses is fixed by the concept of prestige, which reflects the significance of certain individual positions.
Social status characterizes a person’s position in a social community, his position in the system of interpersonal relations and the rights, responsibilities, powers and privileges that he receives due to his position.
A person’s social status is preserved as long as he lives in accordance with established (conventional) rules and norms that govern the behavior of people in this category.
Levels of a person’s status position:
1. personal status– the position of an individual in a small group (family, school class, student group, community of peers, etc.), which is determined by the individual qualities of the individual and depends on how it is assessed and perceived by members of the small group;
2. social group status- this is the position of an individual in society, which he occupies as a representative of a large social group (race, nation, gender, class, stratum, religion, profession, etc.). It depends on the position of a social group in the social stratification of society.
Types of social statuses:
1. innate and ascribed status - acquired by a person automatically at birth and does not depend on the efforts and aspirations of the person (nationality, gender, race, membership in the royal family, etc., as well as statuses according to the kinship system - son, daughter, brother, sister.);
2. ascribed, but not innate, statuses are acquired due to a combination of certain circumstances, and not by the personal will of the individual, for example, due to marriage (mother-in-law, son-in-law, daughter-in-law, sister-in-law, etc.);
3. achieved status - acquired through the efforts of the person himself with the help of various social groups.
Achieved statuses are divided into defined ones:
a) position (for example, director, manager);
b) titles (general, people's artist, honored teacher, etc.);
c) scientific degree (Doctor of Science, Professor);
d) professional affiliation (People's Artist of Russia or Honored Master of Sports);
4) basic statuses are fairly permanent statuses (innate, ascribed, achieved, personal);
5) non-main statuses due to a short-term situation (passerby, patient, witness, spectator).
A person cannot be completely deprived of social status or several statuses; if he leaves one of them, he necessarily finds himself in another.
Each person has several statuses relative to different groups (director (by position), husband (for his wife), father (for children), son (for parents), etc.). These statuses are not equal. The main social status is usually a position in society, which is based on position and profession. Thanks to this status, a person’s “value resources” are usually determined, such as wealth, prestige, power.
The initial status of an individual influences his assessment in society, forms a point of view on the world, which largely determines his further behavior. People with different initial social statuses have unequal conditions of socialization.
Social statuses are reflected in clothing, jargon, manners, as well as in attitudes, value orientations, and motives.
Social status can increase or decrease, which implies an adequate change in behavior. If this does not happen, intrapersonal conflict arises.
Social role - This is a model of individual behavior aimed at fulfilling rights and responsibilities that correspond to accepted norms and is determined by status (expected behavior determined by social status).
A social role is a status in motion, i.e. a set of real functions and expected behavioral stereotypes. Expectations can be fixed in certain institutionalized social norms: legal documents, instructions, regulations, charters, etc., or they can be in the nature of customs, mores, and in both cases they are determined by status.
Role expectations are primarily related to functional expediency. Time and culture have selected the most appropriate typical personality traits for each given status and consolidated them in the form of samples, standards, and norms of personal behavior.
However, each individual, in the course of socialization, develops his own idea of how he should act in interaction with the world of other social statuses. In this regard, a complete coincidence between role expectations and role performance is impossible, which causes the development of role conflicts.
Types of role conflicts:
1) intrapersonal – arises in connection with conflicting demands placed on the behavior of an individual in different or in the same social role;
2) intra-role – arises on the basis of a contradiction in the requirements for the fulfillment of a social role by different participants in the interaction;
3) personal-role – the reason is the discrepancy between a person’s ideas about himself and his role functions;
4) innovative - arises as a result of the divergence between pre-existing value orientations and the requirements of the new social situation.
Main characteristics of the role (according to Paranson):
1) emotionality - roles differ in the degree of manifestation of emotionality;
3) the method of obtaining - some roles can be prescribed, others can be won;
4) structuredness - some roles are formed and strictly limited, others are blurred;
5) formalization - some roles are implemented in strictly established templates and algorithms, others are implemented arbitrarily;
6) motivation - a system of personal needs that are satisfied by playing a role.
Types of social roles depending on norms and expectations:
1) represented roles – a system of expectations of the individual and certain groups;
2) subjective roles – a person’s subjective ideas about how he should act in relation to persons with other statuses;
3) roles played - the observable behavior of a person having a given status in relation to another person with a different status.
Normative structure for fulfilling a social role:
1) descriptions of behavior characteristic of this role;
2) instructions – requirements for behavior;
3) assessing the performance of the prescribed role;
4) sanctions for violation of prescribed requirements.
To realize social status, a person plays many roles, which together constitute a role set, individual for each person. That is, a person can be considered as a complex social system, consisting of a set of social roles and its individual characteristics.
The significance of a role for a person and identification of oneself with the role being played is determined by the individual characteristics of the individual and its internal structure.
A person can strongly “get used to” his role, which is called role identification, or, on the contrary, strongly distance himself from it, moving from the actual part of the sphere of consciousness to the periphery or even displacing it from the sphere of consciousness completely. If an objectively relevant social role is not recognized as such by the subject, then this results in the development of internal and external conflict.
Internal position of the individual- these are the individual values and meanings of a person, his views and attitude towards the world, norms, attitudes and motives. Everything that is formed in the conditions of family and social upbringing, because the internal needs or motives of a person include part of social motives and needs. However, in the process of communication, each person shows his own individual internal position, his own view of the situation or attitude towards someone.
A person’s own position is formed through a system of personal meanings. Personal meanings are the individual value orientations of a person, which he assimilates and creates from the first years of life. Plus, personal meanings can include a certain line of behavior that a person chooses independently to defend his values.
So, from early childhood, a person learns the norms and values of society in general and his family in particular. Based on what has been learned, one’s own motives, views and attitude towards the world are formed, i.e. some information is accepted, some is rejected, and some is transformed and modified. This is how we get our own personal position.
A person’s needs also constitute his internal position, because motives for behavior and the formation of value orientations are closely related to them. Satisfied needs become only a condition for personal development, and not a source of development.
It is believed that a person cannot become an individual without the conditions of the social environment, since it is through society that a person appropriates spiritual experience, historical values, norms and morals. In addition, without communication, a person cannot develop such aspects of personality as emotional, volitional and rational, and it is through the development of aspects of personality that personal growth occurs.
Thus, the internal position of the individual, as well as its development, occurs in conditions of social interaction, which allows a person to use the accumulated collective experience and form his own values, motives and attitude towards the world. In addition, under these same conditions, the formation of self-attitude, understanding of oneself and one’s place in the world occurs.
Question 7. Social and psychological approaches to the study of personality in foreign psychology.
Psychoanalytic approach. According to the psychoanalytic theory of S. Freud, many types of behavior, including dreams and slips of the tongue, are caused by unconscious motives. Personality is mainly determined by biological needs. According to Freud, the beginning and basis of human mental life are various instincts, drives and desires that were originally inherent in the human body. According to Freud's theory of personality structure, personality consists of the id, ego, and superego, which often come into conflict. “It” operates on the pleasure principle, seeking immediate gratification of biological impulses. The ego obeys the reality principle, postponing the satisfaction of needs until such time as it can be achieved in socially acceptable ways. The superego (conscience) imposes moral standards on the individual. In a well-integrated personality, the ego maintains a strong but flexible control over the id and superego.
Behaviorist approach. American psychologist Skinner emphasized intensive analysis of the characteristics of a person's past experiences and unique innate abilities. According to Skinner, the study of personality involves finding the distinctive nature of the relationship between an organism's behavior and the outcomes that reinforce it. According to this view, individual differences between people should be understood in terms of behavior-environment interactions over time. Studying the supposed properties and effects of some hypothetical structures inside a person is only a waste of time.
Humanistic approach. Focuses on the subjective experience of the individual, and was created as an alternative to psychoanalytic and behaviorist approaches. Humanistic psychologists believe that a person’s concept of himself determines his desire for growth and self-actualization. There are two main directions in the humanistic theory of personality. The first, “clinical” (focused primarily on the clinic), is presented in the views of the American psychologist C. Rogers. The founder of the second, “motivational” direction is the American researcher A. Maslow. Representatives of humanistic psychology consider innate tendencies towards self-actualization to be the main source of personality development. Personal development is the development of these innate tendencies. According to K. Rogers, there are two innate tendencies in the human psyche. The first, which he called a “self-actualizing tendency,” initially contains in a compressed form the future properties of a person’s personality. The second, the “organismic tracking process,” is a mechanism for monitoring personality development. Based on these tendencies, in the process of development a person develops a special personal structure of the “I”, which includes the “ideal I” and the “real I”. These substructures of the “I” structure are in complex relationships - from complete harmony (congruence) to complete disharmony. A. Maslow identified two types of needs that underlie personal development: “deficit” needs, which cease after their satisfaction, and “growth”, which, on the contrary, only intensify after their implementation. In total, according to Maslow, there are five levels of motivation:
1) physiological (needs for food, sleep);
2) security needs (need for an apartment, work);
3) affiliation needs, reflecting the needs of one person for another person, for example, to create a family;
4) level of self-esteem (need for self-esteem, competence, dignity);
5) the need for self-actualization (meta-needs for creativity, beauty, integrity, etc.).
Existential approach. In general terms, existentialism can be defined as the desire to understand a person without splitting him into subject and object. Its basic concept is that man exists, emerges from reality, actively and freely acting in the world. This term emphasizes the opposite of those theories that perceive man as a highly structured object or box overflowing with instincts. which would always react to the corresponding stimulus with the same natural reaction. Thus, existentialism means the primacy of spiritual substance, and personality for it is subject-object.
Interactionist approach. This name traditionally combines a whole “palette” of theoretical models of socialization, which have in common an emphasis on the analysis of a person’s interaction with his social environment. personality is formed on the basis of many interactions between people and the world around them. In the process of these interactions, people create their “mirror self.” The Mirror Self consists of three elements:
1) how we think others perceive us;
2) how we think they react to what they see;
3) how we respond to the reactions we perceive from others
According to J. Mead, the process of personality formation includes three different stages. First - imitation. At this stage, children copy the behavior of adults without understanding it. Then follows game stage when children understand behavior as the performance of certain roles: doctor, fireman, race driver, etc. The third stage, according to J. Mead, stage of collective games when children learn to be aware of the expectations of not only one person, but also the entire group. At this stage, a sense of social identity is acquired. Consequently, within the framework of this theoretical direction, the driving force of social development of the individual is social interaction, and not internal mental states and not factors of the social environment. The focus of researchers is on an active, intelligent, active subject.
QUESTION 8. Concept, stages, factors and mechanisms of personality socialization.(by lectures)
Socialization of a personality is a two-way process of an individual assimilating the social experience of the society to which he belongs, on the one hand, and the active reproduction and expansion by him of the systems of social connections and relationships in which he develops, on the other. The first side of the socialization process - the assimilation of social experience - is a characteristic of how the environment affects a person; its second side characterizes the moment of a person’s influence on the environment through activity. The assimilation of various social roles is the most important component of the process of socialization of the individual.
Stages (stages) of socialization:
1. Pre-work:
· Early socialization (from birth to school)
· Stage of training (school, university)
2. Labor (from the beginning to the end of work activity)
3. Post-work.
Socialization factors:
1. Social:
1. Macro factors (country, its culture)
2. Meso-factors (terrain, regional conditions, type of population, media)
3. Micro factors (family, school, team)
2. Individual: personal factors (character)
Social status is the place in the social system that a particular person occupies; This is a set of roles that a person is forced to perform when occupying a certain position in society.
There are two main meanings of the term "status":
- 1. Social status can be considered as a kind of brick, that is, an important element of any social system, since the latter is necessarily a set of statuses that are in certain relationships with each other. This understanding of status was proposed by R. Linton.
- 2. The concept of “status” can be associated with ideas about authority, honor and prestige. In this case, it may underlie the stratification of society (stratification within society), based on the concept of class. This use of this concept was proposed by M. Weber.
- 3. Usually a person has several statuses, but there is only one that really determines a person's position in society; as a rule, this is a person’s profession, or more precisely, the position he holds (for example, teacher, professor, banker, courier). This status is called integral.
The following types of statuses are distinguished:
- 1. Acquired status is a status that a person has thanks to his own efforts made to achieve it. So, no one can be born the same professor - for this you need to acquire certain knowledge, defend a dissertation, gain authority in a professional environment, have certain social interaction skills, etc.
- 2. Prescribed status is the status that a person acquires by birth. A striking example of a prescribed status is the title of nobleman, which, as a rule, is inherited. In addition, the prescribed status is nationality, origin, place of birth, etc.
- 3. Natural status is a status that is based on a relatively constant, usually biological, characteristic of a person (for example, the status of a “man”). It is contrasted with professional legal statuses, that is, proper social statuses that exist only in the form of an agreement, as a convention, and do not have any “measurable” biological and, more broadly, natural basis.
Inconsistency of status
If a person has statuses that are difficult to reconcile with each other, they speak of status inconsistency. J. Linsky proposed to distinguish four main dimensions of status:
- 1) income;
- 2) education;
- 3) professional prestige;
- 4) ethnicity.
Status inconsistency occurs when dimensions of status do not correspond to each other. This leads to a feeling of dissatisfaction, which a person seeks to overcome in two ways: either by trying to bring the dimensions of status into line, or by trying to influence the status system itself.
Social role.
A social role is a way of behavior that corresponds to the norms accepted in a given society, expressed in the expectations of the environment, and depends on the social status of a person; it is a pattern of behavior according to which a person should act in certain situations. A role can also be considered as a set of requirements (norms) that are put forward in relation to a person occupying a particular social position.
A role cannot exist outside a social institution (since a social institution is a set of roles and statuses), and therefore presupposes a relationship with other roles. So, for example, the role of “father” cannot exist outside of its relationship to the role of “child”, since it is in relation to the child that it is mainly realized (the father is the educator and breadwinner in relation to the child).
Social roles are learned during the process of socialization (the process of personality formation). First by observing those around him, and then by imitating them, the child learns to act as is customary in a given society or the group to which he belongs. As a person grows older, the number of roles that a person knows increases.
Social roles and social institutions
Society needs certain needs to be satisfied. However, the satisfaction of these needs does not happen on its own: for it to take place, it is necessary that certain responsibilities be assigned to certain people and that people fulfill these responsibilities. This is done with the help of roles, which represent sets of responsibilities, as well as expectations aimed at the bearers of these roles.
The distribution of social roles is often associated with objective non-social characteristics. For example, a child within a family acts as an object of care due to his age and limited capabilities; parents can perform appropriate functions in relation to the child due to the fact that they are more independent people.
At the same time, the distribution of roles is determined by social factors themselves. So, a child ceases to be a child when he reaches a certain age, or rather, when he learns to take care of himself and be responsible for his actions. From the point of view of society, a person becomes a full-fledged member only after receiving the appropriate education. Therefore, he is forced to study for a long time and be dependent on his parents during his studies. Consequently, a person’s position in the social structure depends not only on objective factors: it is motivated by internal norms that regulate the life of society.
You can also indicate other typical roles that make up a social institution: seller, teacher, businessman, etc.
Characteristics of the social role
The social role can be characterized by the following important aspects:
- 1) way of behavior: a role as a set of expectations of others presupposes not only goals, but also very specific ways to achieve goals;
- 2) formalization: some roles involve communication according to formal rules, others are more based on informal interactions;
- 3) role acquisition: roles can be prescribed or acquired. For example, boys and girls usually play different games in childhood, whereas in adolescence their choice becomes more free;
- 4) scale of connections: the social role of the individual is connected with other roles; however, some roles involve interaction with many people (for example, the role of a teacher), while others involve a limited number of them (for example, the role of a father);
- 5) emotions: for example, some roles require unemotional, restrained behavior (judge, priest), while others require expressiveness (actor, singer, agitator, advertising agent);
- 6) motivation: in principle, the same role can allow for multiple motivations (the motive for doing work can be both interest and material interest, and there can also be both motives). At the same time, the lack of motives leads to the fact that the subject does not take on a particular role.
Role behavior and role expectations
A social role is divided into role behavior, that is, those specific actions that a person performs, and role expectations - what others expect from the role holder. Naturally, there is not always a coincidence between behavior and role expectations, and therefore society creates a system of social control, an important part of which is a set of sanctions - punishments for deviation from role expectations.
At the same time, role expectations allow for some fluctuations in role behavior: the main thing is that they do not upset the balance and, therefore, do not threaten the normal functioning of the system. The difference in the size of this gap between role expectations and role behavior is an important indicator of the characteristics of society. Often all acceptable options are prescribed by culture, which creates some freedom (or the illusion of freedom) for the individual.
THEMATIC COMMUNICATIONS AND PUBLICATIONS
SUPERNORMATIVE ACTIVITY AS AN EXPRESSION OF THE ACTIVE SOCIAL POSITION OF THE COLLECTIVE AND THE INDIVIDUAL
R.S. NEMOV
The current school reform requires the intensification of psychological research on the formation of an active social position among schoolchildren, expressed in a vested interest in state and public affairs, an initiative, creative attitude to work: “The whole atmosphere of learning and education in the family and school, in the work collective, Pioneer and Komsomol organizations must be imbued with the spirit of collectivism, ideology, intransigence towards dependency, towards indifference... . Meanwhile, it is in psychology that the problem of the active social position of the individual still remains poorly developed. In other scientific disciplines - philosophy, sociology and pedagogy - there are works devoted to an active social position (see, for example,), however, due to the lack of proper support from psychologists, its research has not yet advanced enough to provide solutions to practical problems in formation and development of such a position among schoolchildren. For their part, psychologists are unlikely to be able to solve the problem without relying on fundamental philosophical, sociological and pedagogical knowledge. The problem of an active social position, neither as a whole nor mainly, can be solved only by means of psychology.
In psychological research, an active social position acts as a special form of activity of a team or individual, and issues of studying the mechanisms of its formation, diagnosis and development are addressed. The psychological expression of an active social position is motives, value orientations, moral expectations, moral attitudes, attitudes, actions and results of socially useful activities of a subject - a collective or an individual, corresponding to what cannot be presented to them as mandatory, officially prescribed, i.e. e. normative in the legal sense of the word. We are talking about such motives, value orientations, attitudes, relationships and results of activities that meet the interests of society, for the sake of whose progressive development this activity is carried out. We call these highest manifestations of socially useful activity above-standard.
Excessive activity is a socio-psychological expression of the active social position of the team and the individual. In the theoretical and experimental study of excess activity, we will proceed from the fact that its psychological study cannot replace or replace the study of the ideological and social foundations of an active social position. The priority and “last word” in understanding and explaining excess activity as an expression of an active social position belongs to the entire complex of social sciences.
The starting point for determining excess activity and establishing ways for its experimental and diagnostic research is
social practice itself. This applies to psychology and other sciences for which the subject of study is an active social position. The search for a strictly psychological theoretical, experimental and methodological approach to solving the problem requires a preliminary consideration of real life manifestations of the active social position of the individual and the collective in the history of the formation and development of socialist social relations. Such consideration will make it possible to clarify the definition of excess activity and develop research methods that correspond to its nature.
One of the first and most striking manifestations of an active social position by the collective and the individual in our country were the communist subbotniks. Emphasizing the social and political significance of the new attitude to work that manifested itself in communist subbotniks, V.I. Lenin said: “Communism is the highest stage of development of socialism, when people work out of the consciousness of the need to work for the common benefit.” Genuinely communist labor “is free labor for the benefit of society, not performed to serve a certain duty, not to obtain the right to certain products, not according to pre-established and legalized norms(emphasis added - R. N.), given without expectation of remuneration, without conditions for remuneration, labor out of the habit of working for the common benefit and out of a conscious (turned into habit) attitude towards the need to work for the common benefit...”
In addition to communist subbotniks, striking manifestations of excess activity in the first years of Soviet power were the patronage of advanced workers over those lagging behind, the creation and spread of production communes, shock brigades, collective forms of industrial self-government, the adoption of reciprocal socialist obligations and plans, voluntary increases in production standards and the Stakhanov movement. During the Great Patriotic War, such new forms of excess activity arose as the movement of “thousanders”, “front-line brigades”, and voluntary mass contributions from wages to the defense fund. Immediately after the end of the war, a movement developed to increase labor productivity based on the introduction of scientific and technological achievements into production. In the 60s The communist labor movement became widespread.
Forms of socially useful social activity, in which the excess activity of Soviet people is manifested, currently continue to develop. All of them convincingly indicate that with the further improvement of a developed socialist society, the excess labor activity of teams and individuals not only does not disappear, but acquires new forms that are more consistent with the requirements of modernity.
A generalization of the social practice of the formation and development of the communist attitude towards work were works devoted to theoretical issues of an active social position and socially useful activities of schoolchildren. A.A. Guseinov, for example, writes that an active social position presupposes such an internal attitude towards the work of a Soviet person when, based on his civic duty, he is not only able to be critical of what has been achieved, but to choose and follow a more perfect social ideal, a higher , following the same value orientation goals. The same idea - that manifestations of excess activity characterize a higher level of socio-psychological development of the individual - is emphasized by D.I. Feldstein: “Qualitatively new historical
the level of personal development becomes possible precisely at the stage of developed socialism... The main thing here is a new type of social activity, a new level of consciousness..., the need for self-realization not of oneself in society, but of oneself for society.”
Let us consider some fundamental issues related to the problem of excess activity, the solution of which determines the methodological framework for its theoretical and experimental study. One of them is the question of the existence of qualitatively different levels of regulation of the social activity of the team and the individual. From his decision follows one of the grounds for identifying excess activity as a special form of socially useful work that is not reducible to others.
Specialists in the field of moral philosophy and law distinguish two types of social norms, corresponding to two different levels of social regulation of socially useful activities of a group or individual: legal and moral. Legal norms in their deontic content express mandatory requirements that groups and individuals belonging to a given society must satisfy in their social activities. Legal norms are considered as the basis of relations normatively associated with certain legal acts. Norms of this type are developed and approved by the relevant authorities and exist in the form of laws, regulations, charters, codes, instructions, orders, etc. Deviation from them is usually punishable and leads to the application of certain sanctions to the violator. Moral norms, in contrast to legal norms, are characterized by less categoricality, less expressed formal certainty, less imperativeness and “sanctionability”. Value-wise, they are usually associated with a higher level of social, namely moral regulation of behavior and correspond, rather, not to norms as such, but to moral expectations.
As a criterion for assessing the activities of a team or an individual, moral expectations are ahead of “legal reality.” Their characteristic feature is that the groups and individuals following them base their actions not on the law, but on their own consciousness, sense of duty, high citizenship, responsibility and exactingness. “The morality of mature socialism is not a “code” that has the qualities of absolute completeness, but a process of development and improvement of the elements of true human morality...”.
The idea that several levels should be distinguished in the regulation of social behavior has been expressed and discussed repeatedly by many scientists dealing with problems of personality and morality. The substantive characteristics of the corresponding levels of regulation included the attitude of the subject of activity to existing, legalized norms. Exceeding them was considered as a manifestation of social activity of a higher level than simply following, without violating these norms. P.A. Landesman and Yu.V. Sogomonov, for example, called the highest level of social regulation of behavior “a supernormative tier or sector of moral consciousness.” The author of the famous book “Soviet Man: The Formation of a Socialist Type of Personality” G.L. Smirnov also writes about the insufficiency of the concept of a norm for solving the problem of multi-level regulation of social activity and identifying higher and lower levels in it: “A norm expresses real relations in a specific form - in the form of society’s requirements for people... But we must not lose sight of the fact that real relationships are incomparably richer than moral and legal requirements and norms, and for this reason alone it is impossible to limit ourselves to normative characteristics.”
To more accurately designate different levels of regulation of social activity, corresponding to legal norms and moral expectations, we decided to use different
terms. We, as is customary in most works, designated that form of regulation of activity that is associated with the operation of legal norms as normative, and the one that is associated with the functioning and influence of moral expectations on behavior as supernormative.
The use of the term “excessive” in this case requires clarification. All types of social activity of an individual or a group in their regulatory aspect are in one way or another connected with some “norms” that serve as a standard or model for them. In this regard, the use of the term “excessive norm” somewhat violates the tradition of widespread use of the concept “social norm” that has developed in social psychology (see, for example, M.I. Bobneva) and, naturally, gives rise to certain terminological difficulties. However, there would be more of them if the type of social activity to which this article is devoted was called something other than “excessive.”
Let us give some additional arguments to substantiate this point of view. Firstly, the developing social reality leads to the emergence of new forms of social activity for which there are no already established, “legalized”, mandatory social norms. This is exactly what the Stakhanov movement was like in its time and many other examples of the labor enthusiasm shown by Soviet people mentioned above that arose earlier or later.
Secondly, the concept of “norm” characterizes the accepted standards of activity of various subjects: society as a whole, organizations, groups, individuals. What has already become the norm for an individual or group may not yet be the norm for an organization and society, as is, for example, characteristic of the above-mentioned manifestations of labor enthusiasm by individual groups and individuals. Higher norms and standards of social activity of individuals, groups, collectives and organizations in relation to those accepted by other people and communities may look like excess. In this regard, the distinction between the normative and the supernormative is necessary in order to terminologically capture the more progressive nature of the activities of some individuals and social groups compared to others.
Thirdly, in the course of the socio-psychological study of the regulation of activity, the need arises to distinguish between two forms of deviation of behavior from accepted norms that are opposite in moral content. To characterize one of them, social psychology has long and widely used the phrase “deviant behavior”, which in the established tradition of its use has a clearly negative connotation, denoting actions and actions that do not correspond to the norm, i.e. pre-normative. In this regard, it is advisable to identify and designate as an excess type of activity, which is directly opposite in its social meaning to deviant behavior. Logic demands that it be called above-standard.
The general, initial theoretical provisions of the socio-psychological study of excess activity as an expression of the active social position of an individual or a group can be formulated as follows:
1. Only the system of social relations characteristic of a developing socialist society and based on the principles of communist morality gives rise to the phenomenon of excess activity on a massive scale. It is in this system of relationships that one should look for the key to a deep understanding of the origin, social and psychological essence of this form of social activity of individuals and groups.
2. A necessary socio-psychological condition for the development and manifestation of excess activity of an individual or a team is their participation in the activities of broader social communities - large social groups or organizations where these relationships have already been built
on the values and norms of communist morality, or at least there are good examples of such relations.
3. Excessive activity is a complex phenomenon that has its own external and internal signs - manifestations and is formed as a result of the simultaneous development of the general properties of the subject that determine his activity, and specific features associated with the maturity of his moral consciousness.
Let us consider, based on these provisions, the main manifestations and possible ways of studying excess activity. Let's turn to the drawing for this. It presents the types, levels of regulation, forms and manifestations of social activity, and among them the area of definition of excess activity, its place among other types of social activity, and the main empirical manifestations are schematically specified. The shaded part of this diagram includes a system of basic concepts in which excess activity is defined rationally (the upper part of the diagram) and operationally (its lower part). The diagram shows the place occupied by excess activities among other types of social activities. To this end, it presents possible types, levels of regulation and forms of social activity.
Note that not all types and forms of social activity can be called above-standard. It does not include, for example, socially useful forms of social activity that are focused only on compliance with legal norms, and includes those that are associated with the moral level of regulation. This is another argument in favor of designating the type of social activity we are discussing as above-standard.
Excessive activity can empirically manifest itself in the internal psychological characteristics of the subject and outside it - in communication and results of activity. These manifestations of excess activity, in turn, can be called subjective, intersubjective and object. Subjective manifestations of excess activity include characteristics of the motivational-need sphere that stimulate the subject to increased socially useful activity, value orientations and moral attitudes, taken in relation to existing legal norms and expectations. Intersubjective manifestations of excess activity represent various forms of communication generated and supported by the initiative of the subject - a collective or an individual - with other subjects: a collective with a collective, a collective with an individual, an individual with a collective, an individual with an individual. Objective manifestations of excess activity are the practical results of the subject, the real results of his socially useful activities, taken in their objective expression and in relation to the goals of social progress.
Rice.Types, levels of regulation, forms and manifestations of social activity
Various manifestations of excess activity in the same subject may coincide and diverge. A subject who has already developed an internal attitude towards the manifestation of above-standard activity may not reveal it in real intersubjective connections and in practical affairs due to the lack of suitable conditions for this. Intersubjective and object manifestations of social activity, for their part, can outwardly go beyond existing norms, i.e. seem above the norm, but in reality are motivated by motives that do not at all correspond to high moral ideals. The possibility of the existence of such discrepancies is the basis for identifying and studying the considered manifestations of excess activity as analytically different.
Their activity acts as a full-fledged socio-psychological referent of the active social position of an individual or a group when there is coexistence and harmony of all three above-standard manifestations: subjective, intersubjective and objective. Hence the following requirements that a study aimed at diagnosing excess activity must meet:
1. As a phenomenon, the excess activity of a team or individual should always be assessed comprehensively, taking into account all three of its possible manifestations: subjective, intersubjective and objective.
2. Various techniques can be used to differentiate each of these manifestations. But they should make it possible to evaluate not so much individual manifestations of excess activity as the entire phenomenon as a whole. For this purpose, in a set of private methods designed to study and evaluate individual manifestations of excess activity, it should be possible to integrate the resulting indices of individual manifestations into a single indicator that allows one to judge the extent to which a given subject has formed excess activity as an expression of his active social positions.
3. The set of diagnostic techniques intended for the study of excess activity should include expert assessments, experimental techniques and analysis of performance results. Each of them has its own advantages, which complement each other and mutually compensate for the disadvantages that each of these methods has, taken separately.
4. When diagnosing excess activity, existing standards must be taken into account, since without them the very concept of excess activity loses its meaning. A preliminary definition of the norm therefore acts as a necessary and basic condition for the correct diagnosis of activity as above the norm.
In the process of identifying the norms of activity of the subject being studied - a team or an individual - a number of complex questions arise, none of which has yet had a completely satisfactory solution. Among them are the following two: 1. Which definition of norm among those available in the socio-psychological literature should be used in this case? 2. How to understand and define the norm in relation to different subjects and various manifestations of excess activity? Recognizing the fundamental need to solve these and many other questions related to the diagnosis of norms, to find a satisfactory, theoretically sound and empirically implementable answer to each of them, in this article we will express only some thoughts on this matter, leaving the final solution to the problem for the future.
The norm for subjective manifestations of excess activity could, for example, be statistically weighted results of a study of the usual value orientations, motives and needs, attitudes and beliefs of many subjects -
groups or individuals whose excess activities are of interest to the researcher. When identifying norms for assessing activities as above-standard, it will probably be necessary to take into account two types of existing norms: institutional and conventional. The former are usually defined and formally fixed (for example, planned targets and production standards at industrial enterprises or institutions), the latter are accepted by the general consent of the people making up a given community. For each of the manifestations of excess activity, there can thus be two different indicators, one of which is based on an institutional norm, and the other on a conventional norm.
As for the empirical procedure for clarifying and methods of practical assessment of norms, they must be established in each specific case depending on the characteristics of the subject of activity and the conditions of its existence. A detailed answer to the question of how to practically clarify and evaluate the norm in each specific case can only be obtained as a result of special research.
The diagram shown in the figure shows that socially useful activities are associated with two levels of social regulation: legal and moral. Social activity, which corresponds to deviant behavior, correlates with the pre-normative level of regulation.
Let us make several assumptions that can be used as the basis for experimental diagnostic studies of excess activity. Apparently, there are internal conditions that, in addition to the external situation, predispose the subject to excess activity. They probably represent a specific combination of positive stable psychological qualities of the subject of activity. It can be assumed, for example, that a person’s manifestation of excess activity will correlate with the presence of such advantages as a developed sense of duty, conscience, responsibility, collectivism, and hard work. A developed achievement motive, adequate self-esteem, internal locus of control and other motivational and dynamic characteristics that encourage the subject to increased social activity can contribute to the subjective manifestation of excess activity. At the same time, there must be strong internal moral control of the relevant activity. The same can be expected in relation to the collective as a subject of activity; here, the internal prerequisite for above-standard activity could be the development of specific interpersonal relationships that characterize the level of socio-psychological maturity of the team.
When studying the intersubjective manifestation of excess activity, it is necessary to include the subject in real interaction with others - communication in which he is given the opportunity to make an independent moral choice: whether to limit his actions in relation to another subject to observing only officially established norms, or by taking on additional responsibility , implement above-standard activities. Since we are talking about real actions and actions, a natural experiment may be best suited for this purpose.
Objective manifestations of excess activity can be studied through the analysis of the results of socially useful work of a team or individual. If, for example, production teams are studied, then it is relatively easy to study this manifestation of excess activity, since production activity is usually precisely standardized. For such teams
There are almost always qualitative, quantitative and nomenclature standards established by law.
Let us discuss another important theoretical issue. It concerns the differences between the concept of supra-normative activity and the related concepts of supra-situational activity, supra-normative activity and responsibility. The concept of supra-situational activity was introduced and operationally presented in the works of V.A. Petrovsky (see, for example,), and the concepts of supra-normative activity and responsibility are disclosed in the publications of A.K. Dusavitsky and K. Muzdybaev. We will keep them in mind when starting a comparative analysis.
Trans-situational activity was experimentally studied by V.A. Petrovsky as a manifestation of the individual creative activity of the subject when solving intellectual sensorimotor tasks of a game type. Her motive in the corresponding experiment was a specific risk motive, stimulated by direct interest in the subject of the activity - the task. The author considered the motivation of supra-situational activity in abstraction from the influences of the immediate social environment and the significance of the task performed by the individual for the people around him, the team and society as a whole. When studying the manifestations of excess activity, its subject will be understood by us as necessarily included in interaction with other subjects. The motivational basis for above-standard activity is not the risk motive or direct interest in the subject of the activity, but a sense of duty to people, the significance of the activity performed for the team and society as a whole. Understanding the mechanisms of origin, formation and development of excess activity is impossible without taking into account the influences of the social environment. It seems to us that what has been said is enough for us to consider super-normative activity and supra-situational activity as two different phenomena, irreducible to each other and irreducible from each other.
Considering the concept of supra-normative activity, A.K. Dusavitsky writes that “the existence of supra-normative activity reflects the contradiction between two different entities: the individual and the collective.” He understands supra-normative activity as manifesting itself “beyond the limits of necessity determined by the goals of joint cooperative activity” [ibid.]. From a comparison of the above statements related to supra-normative activity with the above definition of supra-normative activity, it follows that these phenomena are different. Excessive activity, by definition, cannot go beyond the limits of necessity determined by the goals of cooperation, since it is focused on the more effective implementation of precisely these goals. The social source of excess activity cannot be contradictions between the team and the individual, and the consequence is a violation of the system of cooperation. Excessive activity does not violate, but creates, does not separate or separate, but connects and unites the individual with the collective, since it is in it that truly collectivist principles of human relationships are affirmed, corresponding to the interests of both the collective and the individual.
Analyzing the concept of responsibility, K. Muzdybaev writes: “All types of responsibility are united by the fact that they are forms of control over the activities of the subject” on the part of society or himself. “In the first case, responsibility reflects the accountability of the subject in terms of implementing the requirements of society or its institutions with the subsequent application of sanctions depending on the degree of his guilt or merit” [ibid.]. “In the second case, responsibility reflects the attitude of the subject himself to what is due...” [ibid.]. Characterizing social responsibility as a personality trait, K. Muzdybaev believes that it includes the individual’s fulfillment of certain
responsibilities; “types of duties, in turn, make it possible to identify responsibility, i.e. expose its social essence...” [ibid.; 25]. Correlating socially responsible behavior with established norms, K. Muzdybaev clarifies his position as follows: “We will talk about social responsibility, meaning the tendency of an individual to adhere in his behavior to generally accepted social norms in a given society, to fulfill role responsibilities” [ibid.].
So, we have before us a fairly clear socio-psychological definition of social responsibility, given through the concept of control, accountability of the subject, orientation to the requirements and norms of society, the application of sanctions, the proper range of responsibilities, the tendency to adhere to accepted social norms. Comparing this definition with the definition of excess activity, we see the following differences between them. Firstly, excess activity does not imply either external control, or accountability of the subject, or the application of sanctions to him in the event of his lack of corresponding activity. Secondly, excess activity is expressed not so much in the tendency to adhere to generally accepted social norms, but in following them, accompanied by compulsory the desire to exceed existing norms, to set and achieve morally higher goals.
At present, a methodology has already been created for the study and diagnosis of excess activity, and work continues to improve it. Its description and the results of work on it will be the subject of our further publications.
1. V. I. Lenin. Full collection op. T. 40.
2. V. I. Lenin. Speech on I Congress of agricultural communes and agricultural artels. December 4, 1919. - Full. collection op. T. 39.
3. On the reform of secondary and vocational schools: Collection of documents and materials. - M., 1984.
5. Anufriev E. A. Social status and activity of the individual. - M., 1984. - 286 p.
14. Nemov R. S. Social and psychological analysis of effective team activities. - M., 1984. - 201 p.
15. Petrovsky V. A. On the psychology of personality activity. - Question. psychol. 1975. No. 3. P. 26-38.
16. Smirnov G. L. Soviet man: the formation of a socialist personality type. 3rd ed. - M., 1980. - 464 p.
17 Feldshtein D.I. Psychological patterns of personality development and solving current problems of education. - Question. psychol. 1984. No. 2. P. 43-51.
Received by editor 6. VII1984
Social status
Social status (from lat. status- position, state) of a person is the position of a person in society, which he occupies in accordance with his age, gender, origin, profession, marital status.
Social status - it is a certain position in the social structure of a group or society, connected to other positions through a system of rights and responsibilities.
Sociologists distinguish several types of social statuses:
1) Statuses determined by the position of an individual in a group are personal and social.
Personal status is the position of a person that he occupies in the so-called small, or primary, group, depending on how his individual qualities are assessed in it.
On the other hand, in the process of interaction with other individuals, each person performs certain social functions that determine his social status.
2) Statuses determined by time frames, influence on the life of the individual as a whole - main and non-main (episodic).
Basic status determines the main thing in a person’s life (most often this is a status associated with the main place of work and family, for example, a good family man and an irreplaceable worker).
Episodic (non-main) social statuses influence the details of human behavior (for example, pedestrian, passenger, passerby, patient, participant in a demonstration or strike, reader, listener, television viewer, etc.).
3) Statuses acquired or not acquired as a result of free choice.
Prescribed (assigned) status - a social position that is pre-prescribed to an individual by society regardless of the individual’s merits (for example, nationality, place of birth, social origin, etc.).
Mixed status has the features of a prescribed and achieved status (a person who has become disabled, the title of academician, Olympic champion, etc.).
Reachable ( acquired) acquired as a result of free choice, personal efforts and is under the control of a person (education, profession, material wealth, business connections, etc.).
In any society there is a certain hierarchy of statuses, which represents the basis of its stratification. Certain statuses are prestigious, others are the opposite. This hierarchy is formed under the influence of two factors:
a) the real usefulness of the social functions that a person performs;
b) a value system characteristic of a given society.
If the prestige of any statuses is unreasonably overestimated or, conversely, underestimated, it is usually said that there is a loss of status balance. A society in which there is a similar tendency to lose this balance is unable to ensure its normal functioning.
Prestige - This is society’s assessment of the social significance of a particular status, enshrined in culture and public opinion.
Each individual can have a large number of statuses. The social status of an individual primarily influences his behavior. Knowing the social status of a person, you can easily determine most of the qualities that he possesses, as well as predict the actions that he will carry out. Such expected behavior of a person, associated with the status that he has, is usually called a social role.
Social role - This is a model of behavior focused on a certain status.
Social role - it is a pattern of behavior recognized as appropriate for people of a given status in a given society.
Roles are determined by people's expectations (for example, the idea that parents should take care of their children, that an employee should conscientiously carry out the work assigned to him, has taken root in the public consciousness). But each person, depending on specific circumstances, accumulated life experience and other factors, fulfills a social role in his own way.
When claiming this status, a person must fulfill all the role requirements assigned to this social position. Each person has not one, but a whole set of social roles that he plays in society. The totality of all human roles in society is called role system or role set.
Role set (role system)
Role set - a set of roles (role complex) associated with one status.
Each role in the role set requires a special manner of behavior and communication with people and is, therefore, a set of relationships that are unlike others. In the role-playing set one can highlight basic (typical) And situational social roles.
Examples of basic social roles:
1) hard worker;
2) owner;
3) consumer;
4) citizen;
5) family member (husband, wife, son, daughter).
Social roles can be institutionalized And conventional.
Institutionalized roles: institution of marriage, family (social roles of mother, daughter, wife).
Conventional roles accepted by agreement (a person may refuse to accept them).
Social roles are associated with social status, profession or type of activity (teacher, student, student, salesperson).
Man and woman are also social roles, biologically predetermined and presupposing specific modes of behavior, enshrined in social norms or customs.
Interpersonal roles are associated with interpersonal relationships that are regulated at the emotional level (leader, offended, family idol, loved one, etc.).
Role behavior
The real role must be distinguished from the social role as a model of behavior. role behavior, which means not socially expected, but actual behavior of the performer of a specific role. And here a lot depends on the personal qualities of the individual, on the degree to which he has assimilated social norms, on his beliefs, attitudes, and value orientations.
Factors determining the process of realizing social roles:
1) biopsychological capabilities of a person, which may facilitate or hinder the fulfillment of a particular social role;
2) the nature of the role accepted in the group and features of social control, designed to monitor the fulfillment of role behavior;
3) personal sample, defining a set of behavioral characteristics necessary for successful performance of the role;
4) group structure, its cohesion and the degree of identification of the individual with the group.
In the process of implementing social roles, certain difficulties may arise due to the need for a person to perform many roles in various situations. → in some cases, there is a discrepancy between social roles, the emergence of contradictions and conflict relations between them.
Role conflict and its types
Role conflict is a situation in which a person is faced with the need to satisfy the demands of two or more incompatible roles.
Types of role conflicts:
|
Type name |
Its essence |
|
Intra-role |
A conflict in which the requirements of the same role contradict each other (for example, the role of parents involves not only kind, affectionate treatment of children, but also demandingness and severity towards them). |
|
Interrole |
Conflict that arises in situations where the demands of one role conflict with the requirements of another (for example, the demands of a woman’s main job may conflict with her household duties). |
|
Personal-role |
A conflict situation when the requirements of a social role contradict the interests and life aspirations of the individual (for example, professional activity does not allow a person to reveal and demonstrate his abilities). |
QUESTIONS:
1. Establish a correspondence between the types of status and their examples: for each position given in the first column, select the corresponding position in the second column.
|
TYPES OF STATUS |
|||
|
heir to the throne |
prescribed |
||
|
world champion |
achievable |
||
|
head of a department in a company |
Answer
2. When applying for a job, Citizen A. filled out a questionnaire in which she indicated that she was a specialist with a higher education, came from a family of employees, was married, and had two children. Name one prescribed and two achieved statuses of citizen A., which she noted in the questionnaire. Using the example of one of the named achieved statuses, indicate the status rights and responsibilities.
Answer
1. Prescribed status - woman.
2. Achieved statuses - specialist with higher education, married lady and mother of two children.
3. As the mother of her children, she is obliged to bear moral and legal responsibility for them and to ensure a decent standard of living. Just as the mother of her children, she has the right to choose an educational institution for them, with whom they communicate, etc.
3. Name three types of role conflicts and illustrate each with an appropriate example.
Answer
1. Intra-role (example: the role of parents involves not only kind, affectionate treatment of children, but also demandingness and strictness towards them).
2. Inter-role (example: the demands of a woman’s main job conflict with her household duties).
3. Personal-role (example: work does not allow a person to open up and show his abilities).
4. Establish a correspondence between examples of social roles and their types. For each position given in the first column, match the position from the second column. Write down the resulting sequence of numbers.
|
EXAMPLES OF SOCIAL ROLES |
TYPES OF SOCIAL ROLES |
||
|
main |
|||
|
situational |
|||
|
researcher |
