Within the framework of sociological knowledge, the study of the position of the individual in society, that is, the social position of the individual, which is defined by the concept of "social status of the individual", is of great importance.
The social status (from Latin 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.
In sociology, the following types of social statuses of the individual are distinguished.
social status
Statuses determined by the position of the individual in the group:
Social status - the position of a person in society, which he occupies as a representative of a large social group in relations with other groups;
Personal status - the position of an individual in a small group, depending on how its members evaluate him in accordance with his personal qualities.
Statuses determined by the time frame, the impact on the life of the individual as a whole:
The main status determines the main thing in a person's life;
Non-core status affects the details of a person's behavior.
Statuses acquired or not acquired as a result of free choice:
Prescribed status - a social position that is prescribed in advance to an individual by society, regardless of the merits of the individual;
Mixed status has features of prescribed and achieved status;
The achieved status is acquired as a result of free choice, personal efforts and is under the control of a person.
Any person occupies several positions, as he participates in many groups and organizations, and, accordingly, he is characterized by a status set1.
Status set - the totality of all statuses occupied by a given individual.
There is a certain hierarchy of statuses: intergroup - takes place between status groups; intragroup - takes place between the statuses of individuals within the same group.
The place in the status hierarchy is called the status rank. There are the following types of status ranks: high, medium, low.
Contradictions in the intergroup and intragroup hierarchies are manifested in the divergence of statuses, which occurs under two circumstances:
When an individual has a high status rank in one group and a low one in another;
When the rights and obligations of one status are incompatible with the rights and obligations of another (for example, the status of a deputy is incompatible with the status of a minister).
When characterizing any social status, the following components are distinguished.
Components of social status:
1) Status rights and obligations - determine what the holder of this status can do and what he must do.
2) Status range - the established framework within which the status rights and obligations of the individual are exercised.
3) Status symbols - external insignia that allow you to distinguish between carriers of different statuses (servicemen wear uniforms, each estate and class has its own style of dress and its own attributes).
4) Status image (image) - a set of ideas about how an individual should look and behave in accordance with his status.
5) Status identification - determination of the degree of compliance of the individual with his status.
The individual not only has a certain social status, he is constantly evaluated by other people, groups and the society in which he lives. This finds its expression in the concepts of "prestige" and "authority".
Prestige - an assessment by society of the significance of certain positions occupied by individuals.
The prestige of this or that status is formed under the influence of two factors: the real usefulness of those social functions that a person performs and the value system characteristic of a given society.
Some features that affect a person's social position are objective in nature, that is, they do not depend on his desires (nationality, gender, origin, etc.). But the main thing that determines the social status, social position, authority and prestige of an individual is education, qualifications and other personal and socially significant qualities.
The significance of social statuses is expressed in the fact that they determine the content and nature of social relations; act as structural elements of the social organization of society, providing social ties between the subjects of public relations.
Society not only forms social statuses, but also creates mechanisms for their reproduction, regulating the distribution of individuals in certain social positions. The ratio of different statuses in the social structure is an essential characteristic of society, its social and political organization.
The social status of a person is an indicator of how high a position in society a person occupies. It's not obligatory job description: A person's status may vary depending on their gender, age, marital status, or profession. This position on the social ladder not only indicates a person's place, but also gives him certain rights and obligations. For each society they can be different.
How to determine social status?
You should not think that everyone is assigned a single social status of a person. Each of us has several positions at the same time, which depend on the system to which they belong. For example, the social status of a woman can be many-sided: for example, she is a wife, and a mother, and a daughter, and a sister, and an employee of a company, and a Christian, and a member of an organization (besides this, there are many more examples of social status). The totality of these provisions is called the status set. The above example shows how social status is determined: it is Family status, and religious views, and professional activities, and personal interests, etc.
As a rule, the person himself determines his main socio-psychological status, but this is also influenced by the group with which he is primarily identified by other people. In addition, a change in the social status of a person is also possible: for example, we change our status when we receive higher education, create a family, find new job etc.
Types of social statuses
There are two main types of a person's position on the social ladder: acquired and prescribed (born) social status. The first of them is characterized by what a person acquires during his life: the level of education, political views, profession, etc. The prescribed social status is what is given to a person by nature: nationality, language, place of birth, etc.
At the same time, not all social statuses of women and men are equally evaluated by others. Some of them are prestigious, and some are vice versa. The hierarchy of prestige depends on such provisions as the real usefulness of a particular social function and the value system operating in this particular society.
In addition, there are several more types of social statuses: personal and group. Personal status is a status at the level of a small group of people with whom a person interacts constantly. For example, this group can be a family, a work team, or a group of friends. As a rule, it is determined by character traits and various personal qualities.
Group status characterizes a person as a member of a large social group. This includes the status of a person as 
a representative of a certain class, profession, nation, gender, age, etc.
Depending on the social status, a person corrects his behavior. For example, at home a man is a father and a husband, and he behaves accordingly. And at work, he is a professor and teacher, and, accordingly, he will behave in a completely different way. Depending on how successfully a person corresponds to one or another of his statuses, they talk about his ability to fulfill his social role. That is why there are such expressions as "good specialist", "bad father", "great friend" - all this characterizes this particular indicator. Moreover, the same person can cope with his social roles in different ways, which is why he can be “bad” from one point of view and “good” from another.
Living in a society, one cannot be free from it. During life, a person comes into contact with a large number of other individuals and groups to which they belong. At the same time, in each of them he occupies a certain place. To analyze the position of a person in each group and society as a whole, they use such concepts as social status and Let's take a closer look at what it is.
The meaning of the term and general characteristics
The very word "status" originates from ancient Rome. Then it had more of a legal connotation, rather than a sociological one, and denoted the legal status of an organization.
Now social status is the position of a person in a particular group and society as a whole, endowing him with certain rights, privileges, and duties in relation to other members.
It helps people communicate better with each other. If a person of a certain social status does not fulfill his duties, then he will be responsible for this. So, an entrepreneur who sews clothes to order, if the deadlines are missed, will pay a penalty. In addition, his reputation will be damaged.
Examples of the social status of one person are a schoolboy, son, grandson, brother, member of a sports club, citizen, and so on.
This is a certain one according to his professional qualities, material and age, education and other criteria.
A person can simultaneously enter several teams at once and, accordingly, play not one, but many different roles. Therefore, they talk about status sets. Each person is unique and individual.
Types of social statuses, examples
Their range is quite wide. There are statuses acquired at birth, and there are statuses acquired during life. Those that society ascribes to a person, or those that he achieves through his own efforts.
Allocate the main and passing social status of a person. Examples: the main and universal, in fact, the person himself, then comes the second - this is a citizen. The list of basic statuses also includes consanguinity, economic, political, religious. The list goes on.
Episodic is a passer-by, a patient, a striker, a buyer, an exhibition visitor. That is, such statuses in the same person can change quite quickly and periodically repeat.
Prescribed social status: examples
This is what a person receives from birth, biologically and geographically given characteristics. Until recently, it was impossible to influence them and change the situation. Examples of social status: gender, nationality, race. These given parameters remain with a person for life. Although in our progressive society they have already threatened to change the sex. So one of the listed statuses to some extent ceases to be prescribed.
Much of what pertains to kinship will also be considered as prescribed father, mother, sister, brother. And husband and wife are already acquired statuses.
Achieved status
This is what a person achieves on his own. Making efforts, making choices, working, studying, each individual eventually comes to certain results. His successes or failures are reflected in the society giving him the status he deserves. Doctor, director, company president, professor, thief, homeless person, vagabond.
Almost every achievement has its own insignia. Examples:
- the military, security officials, employees of the internal troops - uniforms and epaulettes;
- doctors have white coats;
- people who have broken the law have tattoos on their bodies.
Roles in society
To understand how this or that object will behave, the social status of a person will help. We find examples and confirmations of this all the time. Expectations in the behavior and appearance of an individual, depending on his belonging to a certain class, is called a social role.
So, the status of a parent obliges to be strict, but fair to your child, to bear responsibility for him, teach, give advice, prompt, help in difficult situations. The status of a son or daughter is, on the contrary, a certain subordination to parents, legal and material dependence from them.
But, despite some patterns of behavior, each person has a choice of how to act. Examples of social status and its use by a person do not fit one hundred percent into the proposed framework. There is only a scheme, a certain template, which each individual implements according to his abilities and ideas.
It often happens that it is difficult for one person to combine several social roles. For example, the first role of a woman is mother, wife, and her second role is a successful business woman. Both roles involve the investment of effort, time, full return. There is a conflict.
An analysis of the social status of a person, an example of his actions in life, allow us to conclude that it reflects not only the internal position of a person, but also affects the appearance, manner of dressing, speaking.
Consider examples of social status and standards associated with it in appearance. So, the director of a bank or the founder of a reputable company cannot appear at the workplace in sports trousers or rubber boots. And the priest - to come to church in jeans.
The status that a person has achieved makes him pay attention not only to appearance and behavior, but also choose the place of residence, learning.
Prestige
Not the last role in the fate of people is played by such a concept as prestige (and positive, from the point of view of the majority, social status). Examples in the questionnaire that students of all write before entering higher educational establishments, we find with ease. Often they make their choice focusing on the prestige of a particular profession. Now few of the boys dream of becoming an astronaut or a pilot. It used to be a very popular profession. Choose between lawyers and financiers. So the time dictates.
Conclusion: a person develops as a person in the process of mastering different social statuses and roles. The brighter the dynamics, the more adapted to life the individual will become.
What is "society" and what are its main features? The word "society" is often used by us in ordinary life. By it, we mean a certain group of people who are united by a common goal.
This may be a society characterized by a certain nationality or a group of people who at first glance are completely different, but at the same time, the interests of the people who participate in it may coincide. With the advent of democracy, much more different societies have appeared in the world, and here we are not talking about society as the people of a certain country, not at all. Society does not necessarily mean the unification of people on several grounds, such as the concept of "nationality". It is enough for one person to find a group of like-minded people, as a result of which they can be called a small society of interests. Today, the concept has a fairly wide scope of use. In each speech of a politician, you can repeatedly hear how this concept is used in a variety of senses. It acts as a tool that positively influences people.
Society is a developing society. Everything in our world is cyclical, and society can also develop cyclically. With each new day, new factors appear that influence the formation of society and society as a whole. If in ancient world societies were tribal tribes, today the concept of society has a broader meaning. Today, it is quite possible to form a society within a society, which indicates that society is constantly acquiring new qualities. Today, society is not perceived as a single whole - it is primarily a collection of individuals who can be united according to one or more characteristics.
Often people can unite in society in order to achieve together specific purpose- this can be done if, for example, qip 2005 is downloaded for free on a computer and you start gathering people around you from all over the world. Sometimes the strength of one person is not enough, so the leader tries to attract as many supporters as possible, who will go side by side with him towards the goal. It is not uncommon for such societies to grow and become more influential. But if a society has no prospects, it will lose its relevance even at the first stages of its formation. It must be remembered that any society is primarily a collection of people who can change their minds as a result of certain events, so the collapse of the group may be inevitable.
There are many interpretations of the concept of "society":
Durkheim viewed society as a supra-individual spiritual reality based on collective ideas.
According to Weber, society is the interaction of people who are the product of social, i.e. other people-oriented actions.
Parsons defined society as a system of relations between people, the connecting beginning of which are norms and values.
From the point of view of Marx, society is a historically developing set of relations between people, emerging in the process of their joint activities.
Comte tried to present the social structure (statics in his terminology) as a complex organism in which special connections are established from the family to the system of religion and the state.
Spencer, noting that society, as a complex organism, has a specific organ for each need or function, and the development of societies occurs through differentiation or division of existing organs. But development takes place not only by dividing the existing social institutions, but also through the death of some and the emergence of completely new social institutions.
In general, this characterization is true today. Any society, and especially a modern one, is complexly structured, but is an integral system of elements. This approach to the concept of society is called a system approach.
The main task of a systematic approach in the study of society is to combine various knowledge about society into an integral system that could become a theory of society. A system is a set of elements ordered in a certain way, interconnected and forming a certain integral unity. The material basis of any system is its elements, which are a complex hierarchy of subsystems with complex connections and interactions. It is necessary for society that these connections and interactions be stable and reproduced in the historical process, passing from generation to generation, while society as a system acquires systemic qualities: when society is not just a sum of elements, but a stable system. There are several interpretations of the structure of society, depending on the point of view of the relationship of elements and what is taken as the initial elements:
Since the initial element of any society is a person, or rather a certain number of people united by family, economic, ethnic, religious, political and other ties, the structure of society can be represented as a system of groups, classes, communities and status-role units. All these elements do not exist by themselves (separately), but are connected into a social system - an integral formation, the main element of which are people, their connections, interactions and relationships.
In addition, in society as a system, subsystems or spheres are distinguished. These are economic, watered. and social subsystems. There is a tradition of dividing society into the material and spiritual spheres of people's lives. Each subsystem is made up of its own blocks or institutions that perform their functions in the structure of an integral social organism, most often these functions are associated with the implementation of certain social needs.
IN modern society It is customary to single out, following Parsons, 4 areas within which certain public institutions function:
Economic sphere or sphere of economy. Within this sphere there are institutions of money, securities, banks. In economy sphere is the production of material goods, the market. The main content of the economy. sphere is the production, exchange and consumption of material goods.
The political or political sphere within which such policies exist. institutions, such as the institution of parliamentarism, the institution of the presidency, the government, the bureaucracy, local self-government, watered. parties, social organizations and movements. The main content, the meaning of polit. relations is power, i.e. way to influence the behavior of other people in watered. sphere. The condition that ensures the power of some people over others is the law that gives different official categories different rights in the system of state and political. management.
The sphere of public life is culture, the main element of which is education, science, religion, art, morality, values and ideals.
The sphere where family births act, family relationships. The main institutions of this sphere are the institution of marriage and divorce.
In different societies, all these areas have significant differences: power, and the economy, and culture, and the family have a different structure, have different qualities. Marxist theory is close to this, highlighting: economic, political, cultural and social. But regardless of the selected elements, the main thing is that society is an integral system with qualities that none of the elements included in it have.
Based on the theory of social stratification, the social structure is interpreted as a set of hierarchical interconnected social groups, which are characterized by vertical and horizontal decency:
1. they occupy different positions in the system of social inequality of a given society according to the main social criteria (power, income, prestige, property);
2. they are interconnected by economic, political and cultural relations;
3. they are the subjects of the functioning of all social institutions of a given society and, above all, economic ones.
5 Social status(from lat. status - position, state) - the position of a person in society, occupied by him in accordance with age, gender, origin, profession, marital status and other indicators and involving certain rights and obligations. Every person occupies several positions in society.
The word "status" came to sociology from the Latin language. IN Ancient Rome it denoted a state, legal status legal entity. However, at the end of the 19th century, the English historian Main gave it a sociological sound.
status set- the totality of all statuses occupied by a given individual.
social set(Robert Merton) = social status + status set.
13.2
. Types (classifications) of statuses:
13.2.1. Statuses determined by the position of an individual in a group:
1) social status- the position of a person in society, which he occupies as a representative of a large social group (profession, class, nationality, gender, age, religion).
Professionally - official status- the basic status of the individual, fixes the social, economic and production-technical situation of a person (banker, engineer, lawyer, etc.).
2) personal status- the position that a person occupies in a small group, depending on how he is assessed by his individual qualities.
Personal status plays a dominant role among people you know. For familiar people, it is not the characteristics, where you work and your social position that are important, but our personal qualities.
3) Main status- the status by which the individual is distinguished by others determines the lifestyle, the circle of acquaintances, the manner of behavior with which a person is identified by other people or with which he identifies himself. For men, most often - the status associated with work, profession, for women - a housewife, mother. Although other options are possible.
The main status is relative: it is not unambiguously connected with gender, profession, race. The main thing is the status, which determines the style and lifestyle, the circle of acquaintances, the manner of behavior.
13.2.2. Statuses acquired by virtue of the presence or absence of free choice:
Ralph Linton: 1) ascriptive status (prescribed, attributed, inborn status); 2) achieved status (achieved, achieved, acquired status).
Prescribed Status- imposed by society, regardless of the efforts and merits of the individual (ethnic origin, place of birth, etc.).
1) Assigned status- the social status with which a person is born (innate, natural status is determined by race, gender, nationality), or which will be assigned to him over time (inheritance of a title, fortune, etc.).
natural status- the essential and most stable characteristics of a person (men and women, childhood, youth, maturity, etc.).
!!!
Assigned status does not coincide with innate. Only three social statuses are considered innate: sex, nationality, race (i.e. biologically inherited); (Negro - born, characterizing the race; man - born, describing gender; Russian - born, showing nationality).
2) Reachable(acquired) status - social status, which is achieved as a result of a person's own efforts at will, free choice, or acquired through good luck and luck.
3) mixed status has signs of prescribed and achieved, but achieved !!!
not by the will of man: Disabled, Refugee, Unemployed, Emperor, American-Chinese.
Political upheavals, coups d'etat, social revolutions, wars can change or even cancel some statuses of huge masses of people against their will and desire.
The title of academician is at first attainable, but later it turns into ascribed, because. considered to be for life.
13.3
. Status hierarchy:
An intergroup hierarchy takes place between status groups; intragroup - between the statuses of individuals within the same group.
status rank– place in the status hierarchy: high, medium, low.
13.4
. Status mismatch occurs: 1) when an individual occupies a high position in one group and a low position in another; 2) when the rights and obligations of one status contradict or interfere with the exercise of the rights and obligations of another status.
13.5
. Elements (components) of social status:
13.5.1. status role- a behavior model focused on a specific status;
13.5.2. status rights and obligations determine what the holder of this status can do and what he must do;
13.5.3. status range- the boundaries within which status rights and obligations are exercised; free manner of behavior, suggesting options for behavior in the implementation of a status role;
13.5.4. status symbols- external insignia that allow to distinguish between the holders of various statuses: uniform, insignia, style of clothing, housing, language, gestures, demeanor;
13.5.5. status image, image(from English. image - image, image) - a set of ideas that have developed in public opinion about how a person should behave in accordance with his status, how his rights and obligations should correlate;
Image- a widespread or purposefully formed idea about the nature of an object (person, profession, product, etc.).
13.5.6. status identification- identification of oneself with one's status and status image. The higher the status rank, the stronger the identification with it. The lower the personal status, the more often the benefits of social status are emphasized.
13.5.7. status vision of the world- features of the vision of the world, social attitudes that have developed in accordance with the status.
Social status and its types.
The basis of social inequality in psychological terms is the social status of individuals, social groups, and strata.
Social status: 1) congenital and assigned 2) developed 3) earned
P. Sorokin emphasizes that status must be deserved and always proved by the assessment of others, which is very important for a person's self-esteem. Evaluation of others in one way or another confirms the status of a person, or vice versa, destroys.
Sociologists distinguish:
1)prescribed- imposed by society, regardless of the efforts and merits of the individual. It depends on the place of birth, ethnic group.
2) acquired (achieved) - is determined by the efforts of the person himself.
Allocate: - the natural status of a person - implies stable personality traits; - professional official - it fixes the socio-economic and production status of a person (accountant, teacher).
A person can have several statuses at once - integral status. Social status is expressed by complex connections between the subjects of social relations.
| Personality is the object of a number of sciences and, being a complex, multifaceted social phenomenon, requires an integrated interdisciplinary approach. Man is, on the one hand, a biological being, an animal endowed with consciousness, having speech, the ability to work; on the other hand, a person is a social being, he needs to communicate and interact with other people. A person is the same person, but considered only as a social being. Speaking of personality, we digress from its biological natural side. Not every person is a person. Individuality is the personality of a particular person as a unique combination of peculiar mental characteristics. An individual is a person as a unit of society. Human life and activity are determined by the unity and interaction of biological and social factors, with the leading role of the social factor. "Individual" - in the sense of a biological organism, a carrier of common genotypic hereditary properties of a biological species, a single representative of the human race (we are born as an individual). "Personality" - the socio-psychological essence of a person, formed as a result of the assimilation by a person of social forms of consciousness and behavior, the socio-historical experience of mankind (we become a person under the influence of life in society, education, training, communication, interaction). The concept of personality is introduced to determine the social essence of a person. Personality is not only an object of social relations, it not only experiences social influences, but also transforms them, since it gradually begins to act as a set of internal conditions through which the external influences of society are refracted. Thus, a person is not only an object and product of social relations, but also an active subject of activity, communication, consciousness, self-consciousness. To be a person means to make a choice that arises due to internal necessity, to evaluate the consequences of the decision made and to hold accountable for them to yourself and the society in which you live. A personality is characterized by five potentials: 1. cognitive potential - the amount of information, knowledge about the natural and social world that a person has; 2. value potential - ideals, life goals, beliefs, aspirations of the individual; 3. creative potential - independently developed skills, abilities to create a new one, to productive work, organizational activity; 4. communicative potential - forms of sociability, strength of contacts established by a person with other people; 5. artistic potential - the level of artistic, spiritual needs of the individual. A special and unlike other personality in the fullness of its spiritual and physical properties characterized by the concept of "individuality". Individuality is expressed in the presence of different experiences, knowledge, opinions, beliefs, in differences in character and temperament, we prove and confirm our individuality. It is possible to single out the main characteristics of individuality: abilities, temperament, character, worldview, motivation, orientation (main tendencies of behavior). The concept of personality is closely related to the related concepts of man, individual and individuality. What is the essence and difference between these concepts? Man is the highest stage in the development of living organisms on Earth, the subject of socio-historical activity and culture. Researchers note the tripartite nature of man as a biopsychosocial being. It is also important that a person is not only a product (result of influence) of certain social relations, but also the creator of these relations themselves. The individual is separate isolated member social community: people, class, group or the whole society. Individuality is a unique combination of natural and social properties of an individual. |
7 The social role is associated with the status, these are the norms of behavior of a person occupying a certain status.
Role behavior is a specific use of a social role by a person. This reflects his personal characteristics.
The concept of a social role was proposed by George Herbert Mead at the end of the 19th - 20th centuries. A person becomes a person when he acquires the skill to enter the role of another person.
Each role has a structure:
Model of human behavior on the part of society.
A system of representing a person how he should behave.
The actual observable behavior of a person holding this status.
In case of mismatch between these components, a role conflict arises.
1. Inter-role conflict. A person is a performer of many roles, the requirements of which are incompatible or he does not have the strength, time to perform these roles well. At the heart of this conflict lies an illusion.
2. Intra-role conflict. When one role is presented different requirements different representatives of social groups. Staying inside the role conflict is very dangerous for the individual.
The social role is the fixation of a certain position that this or that individual occupies in the system of social relations. A role is understood as "a function, a normatively approved pattern of behavior expected from everyone occupying a given position" (Kon). These expectations do not depend on the consciousness and behavior of a particular individual; their subject is not the individual, but society. What is essential here is not only and not so much the fixation of rights and obligations, but the connection of the social role with certain types of social activity of the individual. The social role is "socially required view social activity and the way of behavior of the individual "(Bueva, 1967, 14). The social role always bears the stamp of public assessment: society can either approve or disapprove of some social roles, sometimes approval or disapproval can be differentiated by different social groups, the assessment of the role can acquire completely different meanings in accordance with the social experience of a particular social group.
In reality, each individual performs not one but several social roles: he can be an accountant, a father, a trade union member, and so on. A number of roles are assigned to a person at birth, others are acquired during lifetime. However, the role itself does not determine the Activity and the behavior of each specific carrier in detail: everything depends on how much the individual learns, internalizes the role. The act of internalization is determined by a number of individual psychological characteristics each specific bearer of this role. Therefore, social relations, although they are essentially role-playing, impersonal relations, in reality, in their concrete manifestation, acquire a certain "personal coloring". Each social role does not mean an absolute predetermination of patterns of behavior, it always leaves a certain "range of possibilities" for its performer, which can be conditionally called a certain "style of playing the role."
Social differentiation is inherent in all forms of human existence. The behavior of the individual is explained by social inequality in society. It is influenced by social background; ethnicity; the level of education; job title; prof. belonging; power; income and wealth; lifestyle, etc.
The performance of the role is individual, but socio-culturally conditioned.
Types of roles:
Psychological or interpersonal (in the system of subjective interpersonal relationships). Categories: leaders, preferred, not accepted, outsiders;
Social (in the system of objective social relations). Categories: professional, demographic.
Active or actual - currently being executed;
Latent (hidden) - a person is potentially a carrier, but not at the moment
Conventional (official);
Spontaneous, spontaneous - arise in a specific situation, not due to requirements.
F. Zimbardo (1971) conducted an experiment (students and prison) and found that the role strongly influences human behavior. Role prescriptions shape human behavior. There may be a phenomenon of deindividualization - the phenomenon of the absorption of a person by a social role. A person loses control over his individuality (example - jailers).
Role behavior is an individual fulfillment of a social role - society sets the standard of behavior, and the fulfillment of a role has a personal coloring. The development of social roles is part of the process of socialization of the individual, an indispensable condition for the "growth" of the individual in a society of his own kind.
Jung identifies the concept of persona and role (ego, shadow, self). During socialization, it is important not to merge with the "persona", so as not to lose the personal core (selfhood).
A social role is a fixation of a certain position that this or that individual occupies in the system of social relations. A number of roles are prescribed from birth (to be a wife/husband). A social role always has a certain range of possibilities for its performer - "role performance style". By assimilating social roles, a person assimilates social standards of behavior, learns to evaluate himself from the outside and exercise self-control. The personality acts (is) the mechanism that allows you to integrate your "I" and your own life, to carry out a moral assessment of your actions, to find your place in life. It is necessary to use role-playing behavior as a tool for adaptation to certain social situations.
9 Socialization- this is the process (and result) of the assimilation and active individual of social experience, carried out in communication, activity and behavior, the experience of social life, the system of social ties and social relations.
Socialization- this is the process of transformation of an initially asocial subject into a social personality, i.e. a person who owns the models of behavior accepted in society, who has accepted social norms and roles. Through socialization, people learn to live in society, to interact effectively with each other, especially in the context of socially significant joint activities.
Socialization involves the active participation of the individual in the development of culture human relations, in the formation of certain social norms, roles and functions, in the acquisition of the skills necessary for their successful implementation. Socialization includes a person's knowledge of social reality, mastering the skills of practical individual and group work. Public education is of decisive importance for the processes of socialization.
There are several sources of socialization of the individual.
Transfer of culture- it is carried out through such social institutions as the family, the system of education, training and upbringing.
Mutual influence of people- It occurs in the process of communication and joint activities.
Primary experience- it is associated with the period of early childhood, with the formation of basic mental functions and elementary forms of social behavior.
Self-regulatory processes- they correlate with the gradual replacement of external control of individual behavior with internal self-control.
The system of self-regulation is also formed and developed in the process of interiorization of social attitudes and values. Internalization is the formation of mental structures in an individual through the assimilation of ways of external social activity and behavior. Internalization is the transformation of interpsychological (interpersonal) relationships into intrapsychological (intrapersonal relationships with oneself). In development, such stages of internalization are distinguished:
1) an adult acts on a child with a word, prompting him to do something;
2) the child adopts the method of address and begins to influence the word on the adult;
3) the child begins to influence himself with the word.
In general, the process of socialization can be characterized as:
Gradual expansion (as the individual acquires social experience) of the sphere of his communication, activity and behavior;
The development of self-regulation and the formation of self-awareness and an active life position.
The institutions of socialization are the family, preschool institutions, schools, labor and other (for example, leisure) groups.
In the process of socialization, a person is enriched with social experience and individualized, becomes a personality, acquires the opportunity and ability to be not only an object, but also a subject of social influences, to influence the socialization of other people.
The fundamental concept in the theory of socialization is the concept of the original asocial person (child). In this case, socialization looks like a process of transformation of a subject, initially asocial, into a social personality.
However, the question of whether a human cub is born social or asocial is not particularly discussed in the literature. In principle, it is considered that asocial. Although there are opposing points of view. It is sometimes said that the child's sociality comes down to the need for communication. That is, the child is initially asocial, but if we assume the presence of some kind of minimal innate sociality, then it is expressed in the need for communication. It seems that this thesis is not correct enough. Nothing is known about the presence or absence of a child's need for communication if there is no communication itself, if the experience of communication does not come to him from outside. After all, such situations are known: when children are fed up to a certain age by wild animals. Yes, to humanize them in a certain sense of the word, despite decades of tireless work of psychologists, it still failed (there is a case of such observation and work for more than twenty years in the literature), but this fact does not say anything about the need for communication as such.
There is reason to believe that in the socio-psychological literature the question of the relationship between the concepts of "socialization", "education", "education", "personal development", etc. has not been resolved. One of the points of view is that the concept of "socialization" does not replace the concepts of “education”, “education”, “personal development”, well-known in pedagogy and pedagogical psychology, in other words, all these concepts are not synonyms.
Assimilation of social norms, skills, stereotypes;
Formation of social attitudes and beliefs;
Entry of the individual into the social environment;
Introduction of the individual to the system of social relations;
Self-actualization I personality;
Assimilation by the individual of social influences;
Social learning of socially accepted forms of behavior and communication, lifestyle options, joining groups and interacting with their members.
Without going into a discussion about the content of the concepts of "education", "education", "personal development", we note that all of the above is included in their scope. It turns out that these three concepts and the concept of "socialization" are still synonyms.
It seems that the relationship between these concepts should be sought not in the plane of their content, but in their connection with each other. And this connection is the same as between the concepts of “end” and “means”. Socialization is the goal. It consists in getting an individual, firstly, adaptive to society, and secondly, adequate to it. Everything else is a means: training, education, formation, development, etc.
Society does not care what the result of socialization will be. If this result is negative, did the socialization of the individual take place in this case or did it not take place? Yes, it took place, but society is not satisfied with the degree of this solvency. It takes additional measures and efforts to achieve from the individual his adaptability and adequacy, and these additional efforts, as it were, continue the process of socialization. If this is not achieved at all, then society localizes the individual for life in a habitat specially created for these purposes, and some societies legitimately physically destroy such an individual.
The individual not only assimilates, but also actively reproduces the system of social ties, therefore, he simultaneously acts in the process of socialization as both its object and its subject.
The process of socialization can take place under conditions of spontaneous impact on a person of various circumstances of life in society, as well as purposeful activity both on the part of society and on the part of the individual.
The essence and content of social status
Definition 1
Social status is the position that an individual occupies in the social environment, in relation to other citizens of society.
Social status is characterized by mobility. This is shown in his role aspect. At the same time, the content and significance of social status is a stable process.
The essence and content of social status is reflected in the following features:
- A social system of relationships in which a specific social subject is succinctly included.
- The location of the social subject in society, distinctive features of this place, its characteristics and the specifics of education.
Public life involves the functioning of individuals and social associations that enter into a system of interaction and building social contacts, depending on their location and role in society, social status. This reflects the content of a person's social status.
Social status and social environment contribute to the formation and development of personal interests, social relationships, between an individual and the social environment in which it develops and functions, the formation of working and living conditions, maintaining health and developing leisure activities.
Social status determines the position of a person in the social environment, which is reflected in the formation of relations of equality and inequality. In fact, social status develops social inequality. It entails the development of relations of cooperation and struggle in society. If the interests of different subjects turn out to be identical, then collaborative relationships begin to develop. And, on the contrary, if the interests turn out to be absolutely different, then relations of struggle begin to develop.
Social status is focused on comparing the positions of individuals in society. Thus, there is a reflection of the location of each person in the hierarchical structure of society. If the social status occupied by a person places him at a higher level, then he is capable of changing society, influencing social development. In addition, he has certain privileges of this society and occupies a special place in it.
Signs of social status
The social position of the individual, his social status is determined by the existing system of social relations that characterize the place of the subject included in this social structure. Such relationships in the course of practical joint activities of people are established for a long time and are of an objective nature.
When determining social status, a multidimensional approach is most often used, which allows taking into account the whole variety of features:
- natural signs (age, gender); ethnic relations;
- a set of rights and obligations;
- place in the hierarchy of political relations;
- relations between individuals in the system of social division of labor;
- economic criterion (property, financial situation, income level, family and living conditions, lifestyle, education, profession, qualification);
- distribution relations;
- consumption relations;
- prestige - an assessment by a social group or society of the social significance of the positions occupied by people, etc.
Different sociologists use their own combination of criteria to determine the status of social groups of the population, and therefore the grouping of individuals can occur in different ways. Often, social status is determined by the social functions performed by an individual when interacting with other people. Social status is divided by education, skills and abilities.
An important indicator of social status in modern society are such features as:
- scope of power,
- level of income and education,
- prestige of the profession in the field of municipal and state administration.
In the sociology of Western countries, a socio-economic index is popular, which includes measurable features: the quality of education, income level, prestige of the profession. Socio-demographic characteristics The social status of an individual is established taking into account objective socio-demographic indicators, including: age, nationality, gender, education, material conditions, occupation, marital status, social status, specialty, social roles, permanent residence, citizenship.
Components of social status
The components characterizing social status include:
- status rights and obligations - determine what the holder of the status can and should do;
- status range - the designated framework within which status rights and obligations are exercised;
- status image - a set of ideas about the proper form and behavior of the status holder;
- status symbols - certain external insignia that allow you to distinguish between holders of different statuses; status identification - finding out the degree of conformity of the individual to the status.
Signs of certain types of social status
There are a large number of different statuses, each of which has its own characteristic features:
- The main status determines the way of life of the individual; in accordance with the status, others identify him;
- The prescribed status is characterized by gender, age, race and nationality.
- The achieved status is described by the following criteria: level of education, qualifications, professional achievements, rank, position, career, successful in social relations marriage, etc. M. Weber identified three main indicators: power, prestige, wealth.
- Socio-administrative status is determined by a set of rights and obligations.
- Personal status is characterized by individual qualities and properties.
- Mixed social statuses are distinguished by signs of both prescribed and achieved statuses, however, achieved as a result of a combination of certain circumstances.
