Our life presents a picture of active people: some work, others study, others get married, etc. Various types of action (behavior, activity) represent a conscious sequence of operations aimed at satisfying certain needs. is a specific system of human actions in the natural and social environment. The analysis of social actions that arise on their basis of social connections and systems is the main problem of sociology.
The action of the subject is characterized by the following features:
- it is determined by the relationship between the subject and the situation;
- includes three types motives- orientations - cathectic (need), cognitive (cognitive), evaluative (comparative, moral);
- normatively (implements norms that are in memory);
- purposefully (directed by the idea of the expected result of the action);
- includes the choice of objects, means, operations, etc.;
- ends with a result that meets or does not meet the goal and need.
For example, you are walking down the street; suddenly it started to rain; there is a need not to get wet; you have an umbrella, there is a roof nearby, etc.; there are a lot of people around; you decide to carefully take out the umbrella, raise it above your head and open it so as not to hurt others; protect yourself from the rain and experience a state of satisfaction.
The dialectic of the needs of the subject and the situation in which the object of consumption enters forms essence social action. Among people’s motives, one usually becomes the main one, and the rest play a subordinate role. Predominantly need-based, cognitive, evaluative types of people’s actions arise that are related to their needs. In the first type of action, the leading ones are needs orientations related to the satisfaction of some need. For example, a student experiences hunger and satisfies it with the available item (food). In the second type of action, the leading ones are educational motives, and the need and evaluative motives are relegated to the background. For example, a student, without feeling hungry, learns, evaluates, and selects available consumer goods. The third type of action is dominated by evaluative motive, when an assessment of various items occurs from the point of view of existing needs. For example, a student chooses among various writings the one that suits him best.
The most important element of human action is the situation. It includes: 1) consumer goods (bread, textbooks, etc.); consumer goods (dishes, table lamp, etc.); conditions of consumption (room, light, heat, etc.); 2) the values of society (economic, political, spiritual), which an active person is forced to take into account; 3) other people with their characters and actions, etc., influencing (positive or negative) the actions of people. The situation in which a person is included specifies his needs and abilities, as well as statuses - roles that a person realizes in actions. It needs to be analyzed (understood) in order to create a program of action leading to the realization of the need. The action involves people for whom the situation matters, i.e. they know its items and know how handle them.
There is a set of norms (patterns and rules of behavior, roles) with the help of which the need can be satisfied in accordance with existing values. They constitute a person’s experience accumulated during socialization. These are programs for morning exercises, travel to school, the study process, etc. There are many such programs in which the social status and roles of a person at this stage of his development are manifested. The task is to choose one that corresponds to the need, value, and situation. It is obvious that the same norms can be used for the sake of different needs and values. For example, a trip by transport can be caused either by the desire to help a friend or by the intention to rob someone.
Analysis of the situation in connection with the current need occurs with the help of mentality. With its help, the following happens:
- recognition of objects in a situation, their assessment as useful, neutral, harmful, formation of interests;
- updating existing knowledge, values, and norms of behavior;
- formation of a goal and program of action, including the beginning, sequence, etc. of operations that make up the action;
- adaptation of cash to achieve the intended goal;
- implementation of the developed program in a given situation and its adjustment based on feedback;
- obtaining some result in the form of a change in the situation and the acquisition of an item of need.
Interest represents an intermediate goal-aspiration on the path to need (the idea of some kind of consumer item and the desire to obtain it), which becomes a criterion for assessing the situation (objects, conditions, people, etc.) and forming a program that produces a consumer item of human activity . For example, you have a need for an apartment. This need can be expressed: a) in the choice of apartments available on the market; b) construction of the required apartment. In the first case we have cognitive and evaluative interest, and in the second - cognitive-evaluative-productive.
Need and interest are interconnected mechanisms for regulating different stages of activity. Interest can become a need in relation to another interest, that is, an incentive for relatively independent action if human activity consists of a multi-link system of actions. For example, a person has a need for housing, which causes interests in credit, construction companies, a building site, etc. Each of them can become a need in relation to subsequent interest and the action associated with it.
Target(action), which arises as a result of understanding the need and the situation, is the result of a need (for satisfaction), cognitive (analysis of the situation), evaluative (comparison of needs and situation), moral (in relation to others) orientation. She assumes program actions developed taking into account the listed motives. In the simplest case, the goal is a need (an idea of an item of consumption), which serves as a motive for activity. In a more complex case, the goal becomes the idea of an intermediate result of an activity leading to some need. For example, the motive may be the idea of protection from rain and the program of using an umbrella in a crowd that quickly arose in the person’s mind and behavior.
Thus, need, interest, value, goal are different socio-psychological knowledge and mechanisms of different stages of action: consuming something, obtaining it, taking into account the needs of other people, etc. A need is a deep psychological urge, an orientation for action. Interest is a less deep psychological and more informational, rational motivation, action orientation. Value is an even less deep psychological drive, an orientation for action. And the most unemotional motive is simply the goal of the action, the idea of some kind of result.
Internal, subjective factors (needs, interests, values, goals, etc. motives), as well as actions for their recognition, evaluation, choice, etc., form a person motivation mechanism actions. External, objective factors (objects, tools, other people, etc. incentives) form incentive mechanism actions. Human action is determined by the dialectic of motives and incentives and includes:
- need or interest is the source of human activity;
- updating in memory values and norms of behavior;
- formation of goals and action programs in the current situation;
- adaptation to the goal in the mind of the available physical and material resources of the situation;
- implementation of a goal based on feedback during action in a specific situation;
- changing the situation and achieving (or not achieving) the object of need, and therefore satisfaction (or dissatisfaction).
In the most general terms social action model includes the following main parts. Firstly, a person’s worldview, mentality, and motivation can be called original(subjective) part, which contains the subject’s accumulated experience, needs, interests, values, goals. Secondly, the situation of action, including an object, tools, other people, etc., which serves as a prerequisite for the formation and satisfaction of a need. The situation can be called auxiliary part of social action. Thirdly, the sequence of practical operations can be called basic part of social action, because it represents the unity of the original and the auxiliary, the objective and the subjective, and leads to the production of consumer goods and the satisfaction of needs.
We will apply this model of social action in the future to all structural elements of society: social systems, formations, civilizations. It is associated with the concept of a self-governing system. This methodological approach will allow us to see in the activities of people, social systems, formations, civilizations, and types of societies a certain invariant that helps to understand these complex, developing and interconnected systems.
Motivational mechanism
Social needs, interests, goals are divided into individual, group, public (institutional) depending on the social subject acting as their bearer. Individual are demosocial, economic, political, spiritual needs, interests, goals inherent in a given individual. Massive are the typical and characteristic needs, interests, goals of a given social group (educational, military, etc.), social class, ethnic group, etc. Public are the needs, interests, goals of a given social system, formation, civilization, regulated by the corresponding social institution: family, bank, market, state, etc. They include the needs of this institution as a social whole within the framework of the social division of labor. For example, the need of the army as a social system and institution is discipline, military power, victory, etc.
A person combines individual needs and public interests, which manifest themselves in him as social values. For example, in Soviet society, the focus on virtually free work (nominal social value) came into conflict with demosocial needs for food, clothing, etc. Individual needs and social values are closely interconnected, forming a mental mechanism, controlling human action. Conflicts often arise between people's needs and values. He performs the simplest types of actions (washing, traveling in public transport, etc.) almost automatically, but in complex actions (marriage, work, etc.) needs and values usually become subjects of independent mental analysis and demands for their coordination.
People's needs have a largely psychological basis, while their values have a spiritual basis and represent some kind of cultural tradition (in Russia, for example, an orientation toward social equality). Social value relates a person to some community. It generates public interest, representing a cognitive-evaluative-moral mechanism for regulating people’s actions, based on economic, political, spiritual values existing in a given society. This interest forms a prerequisite for the realization of economic, political, spiritual needs that represent mechanisms of activity of social systems, formations, civilizations, which we will look at below.
Benefits and values serve as guidelines in the world around us, helping to avoid the harmful, evil, ugly, and false. They are of a social class nature and differ among different social communities: ethnic, professional, economic, territorial, age, etc. For example, much of what is good and valuable for young people is of no interest to old people. Some universal human benefits and values have been formulated in the world: life, freedom, justice, creativity, etc. In democratic, legal, social states, they take the form of legal norms.
He identified a system of basic social and individual needs (and interests) - orientations that the subject uses in the process of choosing an action option. They represent pairs—opportunities to choose, in particular, between:
- focusing only on one's own needs or the need to take into account the interests of the collective in one’s behavior (“self-orientation – collective orientation”);
- focus on satisfying immediate, momentary needs or to abandon them for the sake of promising and important needs;
- orientation towards the social characteristics of another individual (position, wealth, education, etc.) or on inherent qualities (gender, age, appearance);
- orientation towards some general rule (selflessness, commercialism, etc.) or on the specifics of the situation (robbery, helping the weak, etc.).
The struggle of needs (and interests) in a person is an acute and most often invisible side of his life to others. It occurs at different levels of his psyche: unconscious, conscious, spiritual. It is important to pay attention to the variety of options in which the subject’s motivation and interest are formed. A person’s choice of motive for behavior is influenced by a number of general circumstances: the situation, moral culture, the system of values accepted in society (spiritual culture). It is impossible to develop any formula for choosing a motive for a given person in a specific situation.
The spiritual culture of a society, class, social circle, etc. differs and they influence a person’s motivation and interests in different ways: for example, Muslim and Orthodox culture, rural and urban, working class and intellectual. They largely determine typical for a given society, social stratum, group, individual choice. In the course of the historical development of different cultures, social selection (selection), extreme variants of orientations “towards oneself” (capitalism) and “towards the collective” (socialism) were discarded. They led to either chaos or totalitarianism in society.
Depending on their values, people's actions can be divided into (1) neutral; (2) social; (3) asocial (deviant). Neutral is such human behavior that is not motivated by an orientation towards others, i.e. towards public interests. For example, you are walking across a field; Rain is coming; you opened your umbrella and protected yourself from getting wet.
Social is other-oriented behavior that takes into account social needs. The expression of such needs are religious, moral and legal norms, customs, traditions. They enshrine the experience of humanity, and a person, accustomed to observe them, follows them without thinking about their meaning. For example, you are walking in a crowd; Rain is coming; you looked around and carefully open the umbrella so as not to harm others. Orientation towards others, fulfilling expectations and obligations is a kind of payment that people pay for calm, reliable conditions for satisfying their needs.
Antisocial(deviant) is an action in which you knowingly or unintentionally ignore and undermine the needs of another person as a result of your behavior. For example, you are walking in a crowd; Rain is coming; Without looking back, you opened your umbrella and injured the person walking next to you.
Types of Social Action
In a state of need, a person has a system expectations, which relate to the present situation and its objects. These expectations are organized by need, cognitive, evaluative motivation in relation to the situation. For example, the need to protect yourself from rain depends on a person’s location, the presence of an umbrella, etc. If other people enter the situation, then expectation—readiness to action—depends on their possible reactions-actions. Elements of the situation have meanings (signs) of expectations for people, which affect our actions.
In society and in humans, the following motives of behavior and orientation are distinguished: 1) cognitive(cognitive), which involves obtaining a variety of knowledge in the learning process; 2) needy - orientations in situations that arise in the process of socialization (demosocial, economic, political, spiritual needs); 3) evaluative, which coordinates the need and cognitive motives of a person in a specific situation - for example, the coordination of knowledge about getting a job and the need to work in the profession acquired at the university based on the criteria of salary, prestige, professional knowledge, etc.
People's actions can be differentiated depending on the ratio of cognitive, need and evaluative components in them. First of all, you can give up immediate needs for future ones. For example, a person focused on graduating from a university abandons other goals, interests, and needs. Further, when setting a goal, a person can give preference to the choice of conditions for its implementation, temporarily distracting from the possibility of satisfying it. Cognitive and evaluative interests prevail here. A person can also concentrate on ordering—prioritizing his motives. In this case, he learns and evaluates not the situation, but his needs and interests. The result of such self-analysis is the ordering of one’s own needs and interests in time and space. And finally, a person can concentrate on moral motives, then the evaluation criterion becomes good and evil, honor and conscience, duty and responsibility, etc. values.
Weber identified goal-rational, value-rational, affective and traditional types of action. They differ in the content and correlation of subjective elements of behavior - they were discussed above. When analyzing these types of action, we abstract from the situation in which the individual acts: it seems to “remain behind the scenes” or is taken into account in the most general form.
"Purposefully The individual acts, writes M. Weber, whose behavior is focused on the goal, means and side results of his action, who is rational is considering the relationship of means to ends according to by-products, that is, it acts, in any case, not affectively (primarily not emotionally) and not traditionally,” that is, not on the basis of one or another tradition or habit. This action is characterized clear understanding, firstly, the goal: for example, a student wants to acquire a managerial profession during his studies. Secondly, it is characterized by the choice of ways and means, adequate set goal. If a student does not attend lectures and prepare for seminars, but plays sports or earns extra money, then such an action is not purposeful. Thirdly, it is important here price the obtained result, possible negative consequences. If the profession of a manager costs a student a loss of health, then such an action cannot be considered purposeful. In this regard, the enormous price paid for victory (Pyrrhic victory) reduces the latter’s purposeful rationality.
Thus, in purposeful In actions, the goal, its means, and expected results (positive and negative) are calculated (mentally modeled). There is no affect, attachment to tradition, etc., but there is freedom of thinking and behavior. That is why the Protestant ethic, and not private property, according to M. Weber, created capitalism: at the beginning, goal-oriented behavior arose; then it acquired a leading position in the agrarian market formation; finally, capitalist action emerged, oriented towards profit and capital accumulation. There were many goal-oriented people everywhere, but only in Western Europe did they receive the opportunity for self-expression and development as a result of the confluence of many advantages.
Prices whine irrational actions implement people's beliefs and convictions, regardless of the harm they cause. This action is not free in relation to beliefs, traditions and customs, and therefore to the situation in which the actor finds himself. Due to a number of natural (size of territory and climate), historical (despotism, etc.) and social (dominance of the community) circumstances, it was this type of social action that became predominant in Russia. Together with them, a kind of patriarchal-authoritarian system arose and began to reproduce itself. mentality, including certain beliefs - beliefs, values, types of thinking. This type of mentality and behavior arose in slowly changing (and constantly reproduced) natural and social conditions.
A value-rational action is subject to (regulated) by certain requirements (values) accepted in a given society: religious norm, moral duty, aesthetic principle, etc. For the individual in this case there is no rational goal. He is strictly focused on his beliefs about duty, dignity, and beauty. Value-rational action, according to Weber, is always subordinate to “commandments” or “demands”, in obedience to which a given person sees his duty. For example, a Muslim should marry only a Muslim woman; the Bolsheviks considered mainly proletarians to be real people, etc. In this case, the consciousness of the activist is not completely liberated; When making decisions, he is guided by the values accepted in society.
IN traditional action the actor focuses on others in the form of custom, tradition, ritual that exists in a given social environment and society. For example, a girl gets married because she has reached a certain age. In Soviet times, subbotniks, Komsomol meetings, etc. were traditional. People don’t think about such actions, why they do them, they are performed out of habit.
Affective the action is caused by a purely emotional state, carried out in a state of passion. It is characterized by minimal values of reflection of consciousness, it is distinguished by the desire for immediate satisfaction of needs, thirst for revenge, and attraction. Examples of such actions are crimes of passion.
In real life, all of the listed types of social actions occur. As for the individual, in his life there is a place for both passion and strict calculation, as well as the usual orientation toward duty to comrades, parents, and fatherland. Despite all the attractiveness and even somewhat romantic sublimity of goal-oriented action, it can never and should not become overly widespread - otherwise the charm and diversity, the sensual fullness of social life will be largely lost. But the more often a person is goal-oriented and rational when solving complex problems of life, the higher the likelihood that he himself and society will develop effectively.
We have defined it as studying the behavior of people in a certain natural and social environment. Worldview, mentality, motivation of a person in unity with the conditions (environment) of his life form a person's way of life, being the direct subject of sociological analysis. It represents a set of types of human activity in a certain natural and social environment, revealing what actions and deeds people perform, how they are connected and in the name of what they are performed. A person’s lifestyle includes: 1) worldview, mentality, motivational mechanism that motivates and orients him in the world (auxiliary system); 2) system of statuses and roles (basic); 3) a set of different forms of life activity typical for a given society (demosocial, professional, educational, political, scientific, etc.), among them some occupies a leading place (as the initial system). Thus, worldview, mentality, motivation, lifestyle are the most important concepts of sociology.
Social action is a system of interconnected acts and behavior focused on the past, present or expected future behavior of other people and influencing them.
In the most general form, the structure of human activity (see.
Activity) can be divided into single acts, repeated acts (actions) and the actions themselves (the creative implementation of individual acts and actions directed in a specific direction). Thus, human actions contain components (for example, making a decision, implementing an action, monitoring its implementation), which are combined into a conscious process.
Human actions are: 1)
deliberate, i.e. always have a certain meaning for the one who reproduces them; 2) depending on previously set tasks; 3) dependent on the resources available to the subject. The presence of such internal logic means that people’s actions and actions are amenable to both ordinary interpretation and scientific research, including within the framework of sociological science.
The need to highlight the concept of “social action” can be explained as follows. Since many human actions become the object of sociological analysis, the illusion may arise that all human actions are social actions. However, it is not. If an individual’s actions are caused by needs associated with any inanimate objects or natural phenomena, or with needs, the implementation of which does not imply any participation of other people, then it cannot be called a social action. People's actions become social only when they are in connection with the actions of other people and can be influenced by the behavior of others. This implies that for these actions it is possible to identify a certain motivation of an individual or group, i.e. social action is conscious on the part of the actor and its implementation is caused by certain needs and interests. Thus, the subject of social action is the active subject (actor), and the object of social action is the one to whom the activity is directed.
The concept of “social action” is directly related to the concepts of motivation, needs, value orientations (as regulators of actions), norms and social control.
This concept was introduced into scientific circulation by M. Weber (1864-1920) to denote the actions of an individual aimed at solving life problems and consciously oriented towards other people.
In his “understanding” sociology, he says that the subject of sociological research should be an action associated with a subjectively implied meaning and oriented towards other people. At the same time, social institutions and social groups can only be considered as ways of organizing the actions of individual individuals, but not as subjects of action, since only the motives and attitudes of the individual can be interpreted unambiguously.
M. Weber identified four ideal types of social actions: goal-rational, value-rational, affective and traditional.
Purposeful rational action implies a high degree of clarity and awareness of its goal on the part of the acting subject; at the same time, the means to achieve the goal are chosen rationally, from the point of view of expediency and orientation towards success, as well as taking into account the attitude of society towards this type of activity. This, according to Weber, is the most important type of social action, since it serves as a model with which all his other actions are correlated. From a methodological point of view, goal-oriented action is the most understandable, it is the easiest to interpret, its motives are the most obvious. As rationality decreases, the action becomes less and less understandable, its immediate obviousness becomes less and less.
Value-rational action implies that the acting subject is guided not by possible consequences, but primarily by his conscious beliefs, and does what, as it seems to him, his values require of him: ethical, aesthetic, religious. In other words, a value-rational action may not be success-oriented, but it is always carried out in accordance with the norms or requirements that the actor considers to be imposed on himself. That is, the goal and result of such an action is the action itself, which implies the fulfillment of the “commandments.”
Affective action implies that the actor is guided by feelings and affective perception of reality. Since such actions are filled with meaning through emotions, it is difficult to detect a rational calculation in such an action.
Traditional action means focusing on compliance with established norms, rules, habits, i.e. the actor may not think about its meaning. Traditional actions may lack immediate practicality. The purpose of this type of social action is to symbolize certain social relations, to serve as a form of their visual expression and consolidation.
F. Znaniecki (1882-1958), developing the ideas of M. Weber, turned to developing the structure of social action. According to Znaniecki, in social action, self-aware and consciously acting individuals or groups of people act as objects and subjects. At the same time, social actions are divided into adaptation (changes occur without threats and the use of violence) and opposition (changes occur under the influence of threats and repression).
Znaniecki also came to the conclusion that the basis for the formation and evaluation of social actions are values, but stipulates that this is only true for a stable social system.
T. Parsons (1902-1979), working on the typology of social systems, addressed both the problems of classifying social actions and the further development of their structure. Parsons identified three initial subsystems of action, cultural, personal and social, and introduced the concept of elementary action. An elementary action is the basic unit of an action system and includes the following components: actor, goal, situation and normative orientation. In Parsons' theory of social action, action is considered as it appears to the actor himself, i.e. subjectively. The action is performed under certain conditions; Moreover, as in M. Weber’s concept, it can differ in the type of goal setting: the goals of social action can be arbitrary, random, or chosen on the basis of some knowledge.
American sociologist J. Alexander, considering social action at the macro level, comes to the conclusion that it depends on three key components: culture, individuality, and social system. This echoes the ideas of T. Parsons.
A number of authors, including M. Weber himself, separate social action and social interaction. Social interaction can be defined as the exchange of actions between two or more actors, while social action, although oriented towards the external environment, can in some cases remain one-sided. Thus, social interaction consists of individual social actions directed at each other.
Moreover, the social structure itself, social relations and social institutions are the result of various types and forms of social interaction. Thus, according to P. Sorokin, social interaction is a sociocultural process, i.e. such a mutual exchange of collective experience and knowledge, the highest result of which is the emergence of culture.
The theory of social action and social interaction has received the greatest development within the framework of such approaches as the concept of social exchange (J. Homane), symbolic interactionism (J. Mead), phenomenology (A Schügz), ethnomethodology (G. Garfinkel).
In the concept of social exchange, social interaction is viewed as a situation in which each party seeks to obtain the maximum possible rewards for its actions and minimize costs. For representatives of symbolic interactionism in interaction, it is not so much the action itself that acquires special significance, but rather its interpretation through the symbols associated with this action. Within the framework of the phenomenological approach, turning to the meaning of an action is directly related to the study of the life world of the actor, and, consequently, the subjective motivation of certain actions. For ethnomethodologists, the disclosure of the “true meanings” of certain social actions is of particular importance.
Among modern concepts of analysis of social actions, the concept of habitus developed by P. Bourdieu is of particular interest. According to this concept, habitus is the social predisposition of agents (active subjects) to act in a certain way. This is a kind of “response pattern” to life events, which is formed as a result of previous life experiences. Thus, social action is located in the local coordinate system of habitus. Bourdieu says that habitus is a stable structure and protects itself from crises, i.e. he denies that new information that can cast doubt on what has already been accumulated. Consequently, a person makes choices of places, people and events that support the stable environment to which the habitus is adapted. A person, performing a social action, has certain needs. And he chooses which social institutions from the entire variety of those operating in the sphere of satisfying this need are suitable within the framework of his habitus, i.e. the process of “social recognition” is activated. We feel how something allows us to make contact or interferes, gives us the opportunity to perform a one-time social interaction or participate in it regularly, as well as position ourselves in one role or another.
In the modern era, for the formation and assessment of social actions, value orientations and attitudes, as Znaniecki believed, are not enough - in a constantly changing society, such a basis cannot be considered stable. Received information flows require a flexible and dynamic response, focusing on direct experience “here and now.” Therefore, from the position of modern sociological theory, along with value orientations and traditional regulators of social actions, come social practices - programs in conditions of uncertainty, flexible scenarios of agreed actions and actions.
Here it is appropriate to draw attention to E. Giddens’ theory of structuration, which denies Parson’s interpretation of action. He proposes to use the concept of “agency”, which is close to the ideas of Western European Marxists of the 1970s, according to which a person is always a subject, and he is free to act one way or another or not act at all. According to Giddens, agency is not a series of discrete acts strung together, but a continuous stream of behavior, “a stream of actual or intended interventions by bodily beings in the ongoing process of events-in-the-world.” Agency is a conscious, purposeful process, accompanied by “monitoring” of the subject of action of his behavior, situation, etc. (E. Giddens, 1979).
Social action is one of the basic sociological concepts. The specificity of the sociological approach to the use of this concept lies in the ways of classifying human actions, as well as in the ways. bang their operationalization.
The operational definition of social action consists of a description of the directed process (What is it aimed at? By whom is it directed? Under what conditions is it directed? What is the choice of program of action? How is the action implemented? How is the results monitored?).
Consequently, the classification of human actions in sociology can be made on the following grounds: mode of functioning (voluntary and involuntary); degree of involvement of emotional-volitional components (volitional, impulsive); pragmatic basis (controlling, mnemonic, executive, utilitarian-adaptive, perceptual, mental, communicative); degrees of rationality (goal-rational, value-rational, affective, traditional).
The variety of social actions can be reduced to four main groups: 1)
action aimed at stabilization (normative behavior); 2)
purposeful action associated with a change in a given social system or operating conditions (innovation); 3)
an action pursuing the goal of adaptation to a given social system and operating conditions (social adaptation); 4)
a deviant action that involves the exclusion of an individual, group or any other community from normatively approved norms of law and morality (social deviation).
Thus, the modern interpretation of social action enriches and surpasses the ideas and argumentation of T. Parsons and J. Mead, which remain a kind of ideal examples showing polar approaches to justifying action. Receiving its development from a modern perspective, the theory of social action creates new models that increasingly gravitate towards an individualistic interpretation of action as a process, as opposed to its holistic single-order approach.
Main literature
Weber M. Basic sociological concepts // Izb. prod. M., 1990. P. 613-630
Davydov Yu.N. The action is social. The action is purposeful. Action is value-rational // Encyclopedic sociological dictionary. M., 1995.
Davydov Yu.N. Social action // Sociological Encyclopedia. T. 1. M., 2003. P. 255-257.
Action // Great Psychological Encyclopedia. M., 2007. P. 128.
additional literature
Berger P.L. Invitation to Sociology. M., 1996.
Bourdieu L. Beginnings. M.: Aspect Press, 1995. Weber M. Favorites. The image of society. M., 1994. Volkov V.V. On the concepts of practice(s) in social sciences // SOCIS. 1997. No. 6.
Ionia L.G. Sociology of culture: Textbook. 2nd ed. M.: Logos, 1998.
Kagen M.S. Human activity. Experience in systems analysis. M., 1974.
Parsons T. On the structure of social action. M.: Academic project, 2002.
Smelser N.D. Sociology // SOCIS. 1991. N° 8. P. 89-98.
Sorokin P.A. Human. Civilization. Society. M., 1992. A.
In the structure of social activity, social action is highlighted as one of the conditions for its implementation. According to M. Weber, social action is carried out thanks to individuals and their interactions with other people (the basic principle of M. Weber’s “understanding sociology”). “Understanding sociology” seeks to understand social behavior based on the typical motives and their typical understanding that guide the acting individual. Social action- an action that correlates with the actions of other people and is aimed at them in accordance with the necessary means to achieve their goals. An action becomes social if it meets three criteria: 1) it is meaningful, i.e. aimed at achieving goals realized by the individual; 2) it is consciously motivated and a certain semantic unity acts as a motive, which seems to a person to be the cause of an action; 3) it is socially meaningful and socially oriented towards interaction with other people. In accordance with these criteria, M. Weber identifies types of social action that differ in the degree of rationality and motivation.
Motivation– a set of motivations that cause social activity and determine its direction. An essential place in determining human actions is occupied by motive(lat. motiv- reason for action) is the internal reason for a person’s behavior and actions. Unlike motivation, motive is not directly the cause of social action, therefore, in relation to it, we should speak not about motive, but about motivation. In the course of social action, socially conditioned attitudes and internal motivations are transferred to each other. M. Weber highlights four types of social action:
purposeful action– behavior focused on achieving a rationally chosen goal. It comprehends the relationship of means to ends and by-products of action, and also comprehends the relationship of various goals to each other. His motivation is to achieve a goal and identify the reactions of people around him;
value-rational action- orientation of behavior, the direction of which is based on the individual’s personal beliefs about duty, conscience, dignity, beauty, goodness and other values. It is motivated by socially determined and individually rethought values:
traditional action– behavior based on habit and performed by individuals without reflection. His motivation is habits, traditions, customs. Their meaning is not always realized or is lost;
affective action- behavior caused and guided by the unconscious passions and feelings of the individual. The motivation for such an action is a person’s emotions, feelings, and desires.
The last two types of action are not social in the strict sense of the word: they lack conscious meaning. Only purposeful and value-rational actions are social, since they have a certain significance in the development of man and society.
Social action is any manifestation of social activity (activity, behavior, reaction, position, etc.) aimed at other people. This is the simplest unit (single act) of social activity, presupposing (taking into account) certain expectations and reactions of other people.
In classical sociology, researchers identify two main approaches, two points of view on the motivation of social action.
Thus, according to E. Durkheim, human activity and behavior are strictly determined by external objective factors (social structure, social relations, culture, etc.). M. Weber, on the contrary, gave subjective meaning to social action. He believed that in any social conditions a person1 has a certain opportunity to express his individuality.
The concept of “social action” was introduced into sociology by M. Weber to denote the action of an individual(separate isolated individuals), aimed at solving life problems and consciously oriented towards other people. The main features of social action (according to M. Weber) are conscious motivation and orientation towards others. M. Weber identifies four types of social action:
- 1) goal-oriented action - a conscious action aimed at achieving a specific goal. In this action, the goal is the main motive;
- 2) value-rational action - an action based on the belief that the action being performed has a certain value. Consequently, in this type of social action the main motive is value (ethical, religious, ideological, cultural, etc.);
- 3) traditional action - an action performed due to habit, tradition, as if automatically, for example, we walk down the street and do not think about how we need to move our feet. Thinking “connects” only when any difficulties arise in movement. According to M. Weber, traditional action is performed subconsciously, and for this reason it is the subject of research in psychology, ethnology and other sciences, but not in sociology;
- 4) affective action - an action determined by emotions and for this reason also not conscious, i.e., not subject to sociological analysis.
T. Parsons proposed his general system of human action, which includes social system, personality system, cultural system. Each of the listed systems (subsystems) has its own functional significance in the overall system of social action. The social system solves the problems of social interaction and integration of society; cultural system - preservation and reproduction of images; personal system - fulfillment of goal-achieving functions.
The structural-functional theory of social action proposed by T. Parsons largely “limites” (predetermines) the activity of an individual by the existing institutional system, for which it (the theory) has been repeatedly subjected to reasoned criticism.
The theory of social action was further developed in the works of such sociologists as A. Touraine, F. Znaniecki, J. Habermas, J. Alexander, P. L. Berger and others. Modern researchers in their concepts strive to take into account both objective facts and subjective motives of social actions, as well as the latest scientific and technological achievements and changes that have occurred in recent years in civil society, in world cultures and civilizations. In this case, priority is given to the motivational and activity component of social action.
Thus, an active supporter of the concept of post-industrial society, the French sociologist A. Touraine introduces the concept of “ social subject", by which at the social level he means social movements. P. L. Berger believes that there is essentially no contradiction between Durkheim’s objective determination of social action and Weber’s subjective motivation of social action. It’s just that both of these phenomena exist simultaneously, conditioning and explaining each other: “society determines us, and we, in turn, determine society.” According to J. Alexander, social action is determined by three main components: culture, individuality and social system.
PUBLIC OPINION AS AN INSTITUTION OF CIVIL SOCIETY.
COLLECTIVE BEHAVIOR.
THE CONCEPT AND ESSENCE OF SOCIAL ACTION.
SOCIAL INTERACTION AND SOCIAL RELATIONSHIPS
LECTURE TOPIC
“Sociology... is a science that strives
interpreting, understanding social
action and thereby causal
explain its process and effects."
Max Weber
The concept of “social action” is one of the fundamental concepts of sociology. Social action is the simplest element of any type of social activity of people. Initially, it contains all the main features, contradictions, and driving forces inherent in social processes. It is no coincidence that many famous sociologists (M. Weber, T. Parsons) highlight social action as the fundamental basis of social life.
The concept of “social action” was first scientifically substantiated by Max Weber.
According to Weber, social action is an action that, Firstly, conscious, has a motive and purpose, and, Secondly, focused on the behavior of other people (past, present or future). If an action does not meet at least one of these conditions, it is not social.
Thus, social action is any manifestation of social activity aimed at other people.
Weber identified four types of actions:
1) purposeful– conscious action aimed at achieving a specific goal;
2) value-rational– an action based on the belief that the act being performed has a specific purpose, the main motive being value;
3) traditional- an action performed due to habit, tradition;
4) affective– action determined by emotions.
Weber considered only the first two types of action to be social.
Talcott Parsons, in his work The Structure of Social Action (1937), developed a general theory of action, believing that it should become a universal theory for all social sciences.
Social action is an elementary unit of social reality and has a number of features:
· the presence of another actor;
· mutual orientation of the actors;
· integration based on common values;
· presence of a situation, goal, normative orientation.
In a simplified form, the structure of social action can be represented as follows: individual need – formation of motivation and interest – social action – goal achievement.
The starting point of social action is the emergence of a need in the individual. These may be needs for security, communication, self-affirmation, achieving a high position in society, etc. A fundamental theory recognized by experts around the world is Abraham Maslow's theory of hierarchy of needs, sometimes called Maslow's “pyramid” or “ladder.” In his theory, Maslow divided human needs into five main levels according to a hierarchical principle, which means that when satisfying his needs, a person moves like a ladder, moving from a low level to a higher one (Fig. 4).
Rice. 4. Hierarchy of needs (Maslow's pyramid)
The need is correlated by the individual with the conditions of the external environment, updating strictly defined motives. A social object in combination with an actualized motive arouses interest. The gradual development of interest leads to the emergence of goals in the individual in relation to specific social objects. The moment the goal appears means the individual’s awareness of the situation and the possibility of further development of activity, which leads to the formation of a motivational attitude, meaning readiness to commit social action.
Social actions that express people's dependence form a social bond. The following elements can be distinguished in the structure of social communication:
· subjects of social connection (can be any number of people);
· the subject of the social connection (i.e. what the connection is about);
· mechanism for regulating social connection (“rules of the game”).
Social connection can be in the form of both social contact and social interaction. Social contacts are, as usual, external, superficial, shallow connections between people. A much more important role is played by social interactions, which determine the main content of social life.
2. SOCIAL INTERACTION AND SOCIAL RELATIONSHIPS.
Social action in practice rarely occurs as a single act. In reality, we are faced with a whole series of interdependent social actions connected by a cause-and-effect relationship.
Social interactionis a process of direct or indirect influence of social subjects (actors) on each other.
All social phenomena, processes, relationships arise as a result of interaction. In the process of interaction, information, knowledge, experience, material, spiritual and other values are exchanged; the individual determines his position relative to other people, his place in the social structure. According to P.A. Sorokin, social interaction is a mutual exchange of collective experience, knowledge, concepts, the highest result of which is the emergence of culture.
The most important component of social interaction is predictability of mutual expectations. A significant influence on the understanding of the essence of social interaction was exerted by exchange theory of George Homans. According to this theory, each of the parties to the exchange strives to obtain the maximum possible rewards for their actions and minimize costs.
Exchange, according to Homans, is determined by four basic principles:
· success principle: the more often a given type of action is rewarded, the higher the likelihood of its repetition;
· incentive principle: if a stimulus led to a successful action, then if this stimulus is repeated, this type of action will be reproduced;
· value principle: the higher the value of the probable result, the more effort is made to achieve it;
· "saturation" principle: When needs are close to saturation, less effort is made to satisfy them.
Homans cites social approval as one of the most important rewards. Mutually rewarded interactions tend to become regular and develop into interactions based on mutual expectations. If expectations are not confirmed, then the motivation to interact and exchange will decrease. But there is no direct proportional relationship between remuneration and costs, since in addition to economic and other benefits, people’s actions are determined (conditioned) by many other factors. For example, the desire to receive the maximum possible reward without the necessary costs; or, on the contrary, the desire to do good without expecting reward.
One of the scientific directions in the study of social interaction is symbolic interactionism(from interaction- interaction). According to George Herbert Mead (1863-1931), the most important role in interaction is not this or that action, but its interpretation. In other words, how this action is perceived, what meaning (symbol) is given to it. For example, such a minor gesture (action) as winking in one situation can be considered as flirting or courtship, in another - as support, approval, etc.
Social interaction is divided into three types: physical impact(handshake, handing over lecture notes); verbal(verbal); nonverbal(gestures, facial expressions, body movements).
Based on the identification of spheres of society, interaction is distinguished economic, political, religious, family and so on.
Interaction can be direct And indirect. The first arise in the course of interpersonal communication; the second - as a result of the joint participation of people in complex systems.
There are also three main forms of interaction: cooperation(cooperation), competition(rivalry) and conflict(collision). Cooperation presupposes the existence of common, joint goals. It manifests itself in many specific relationships between people (business partnership, political alliance, trade alliance, solidarity movement, etc.). Rivalry presupposes the presence of a single indivisible object of claims of the subjects of interaction (voters, territory, powers, etc.). It is characterized by the desire to get ahead of, remove, subjugate or destroy an opponent.
The diverse connections that arise between people in the process of interaction are called public (social) relations.
Social relationship is a stable system of social interactions that presupposes certain mutual obligations of partners.
Social relationships are distinguished by their duration, systematicity, and self-renewing nature. Social relations are extremely diverse in content. Types of social relations: economic, political, national, class, spiritual, etc.
Among social relations, relationships of dependence occupy a special place, since they permeate all systems of social connections and relationships. Social addiction can take the forms of structural and latent (hidden) dependence. The first is related to the difference in status in a group or organization. The second arises from the possession of socially significant values, regardless of official status.
3. COLLECTIVE BEHAVIOR.
Some forms of group behavior cannot be called organized from the point of view of existing norms. This primarily concerns collective behavior - a way of thinking, feeling and acting that develops among a large number of people, which remains relatively spontaneous and unorganized. Since ancient times, people have engaged in a wide variety of collective behavior, including social unrest, riots, psychoses, communal crazes, panics, massacres, lynchings, religious orgies, and riots. These behaviors are more likely to occur during periods of dramatic social change.
Collective behavior can be expressed in a huge variety of forms. Let us take a closer look at some manifestations of collective behavior.
Gossipis information that is difficult to verify and relatively quickly transmitted by people to each other. Rumors act as substitutes for official news; they are a collective attempt by people to obtain information about events that are important to them, but about which they know nothing.
In modern social psychology it is customary to distinguish two fundamental conditions for the occurrence of hearing. The first is the interest of a significant part of society in a certain problem. The second is the lack of reliable information. An additional condition that contributes to the faster spread of rumors is a state of emotional tension, expressed in a state of constant anxious anticipation of negative news and requiring some kind of emotional release.
According to the type of reaction caused, rumors are distinguished:
When transmitting rumors, we can observe the effect of the so-called “damaged phone”. Distortion of information occurs in the direction of smoothing or sharpening. Both mechanisms reflect the general tendency operating in the conditions of interpersonal communication - the tendency to adapt, i.e. adaptation of the content of hearing to the dominant picture of the world in society.
Fashion and hobbies. Fashion is predominantly an affective and meaningless form of regulation. Fashion is mores and preferences that last for a short time and become widespread in society. Fashion reflects the dominant interests and motives existing in society at a given time. Fashion arises, develops and spreads thanks to its influence on the unconscious.
Fashion usually spreads from the top down. Even in the early days of the development of sociological science, G. Spencer, based on an analysis of large ethnographic and cultural-historical material, identified two types of imitative actions: (1) motivated by the desire to express respect for persons with a higher status and (2) stimulated by the desire to emphasize one’s equality with them . These motives are the basis for the emergence of fashion. G. Simmel, who made a particularly notable contribution to the sociological understanding of the phenomenon of fashion, noted that fashion satisfies a dual human need: to be different from others and to be like others. Fashion, therefore, educates and forms a community, a standard of perception and taste.
Hobbies are morals or preferences that persist for a short time and become widespread only among a certain part of society. Hobbies are often observed in the field of entertainment, new games, popular tunes, treatments, silver screen idols and slang. Teenagers are the most susceptible to new hobbies. Hobbies become the engine by which young people identify themselves with a particular community, and clothing attributes and behavior patterns serve as signs of belonging to a related or alien group. Most often, hobbies have only an occasional impact on people's lives, but sometimes they turn into an all-consuming passion.
Mass hysteria associated with the rapid spread of behavior patterns characterized by transmitted feelings of anxiety. Examples, medieval “witch hunts”; epidemics of “conveyor line syndrome” are a mass disease of psychogenic origin.
Panic – these are irrational and uncontrollable collective actions of people caused by the presence of some immediate terrible threat. Panic is collective because social interaction increases the feeling of fear.
Crowd – is a temporary, relatively unorganized gathering of people in close physical contact with each other, one of the most famous forms of collective behavior.
The first researcher of the crowd phenomenon was a French sociologist and social psychologist Gustave Le Bon(1844-1931). His main work, “Psychology of the Masses,” is the most complete study of the psychological patterns of mass consciousness and behavior. In modern science, the most interesting studies of the crowd phenomenon belong to the French scientist Serju Moscovici(work “The Age of Crowds”).
The most important mechanisms contributing to the emergence and development of crowd behavior are:
· mechanism of suggestion;
mechanism of emotional contagion;
· imitation mechanism.
Serge Moscovici notes that “the people who make up the crowd are driven by a boundless imagination, excited by strong emotions that have no relation to a clear goal. They have an amazing predisposition to believe what they are told. The only language they understand is a language that bypasses reason and is addressed to feeling.”
Based on the nature of behavior and the type of dominant emotions, the crowd can be divided into several types.
Types of passive crowd:
· random crowd- a crowd that arises in connection with some unexpected event;
· conventional crowd- a crowd gathering on the occasion of an event announced in advance, driven by the same interests and ready to comply with the norms of behavior and expression of emotions accepted in such situations;
· expressive crowd- a crowd formed, as a rule, on the basis of a random or conventional one, when crowd participants jointly express their attitude to what is happening.
Types of active crowd:
· aggressive crowd- a crowd driven by hatred, manifested in destruction, destruction, murder;
· panic crowd- a crowd driven by fear, the desire to avoid real or imagined danger;
· money-grubbing crowd- a crowd driven by the desire to possess certain objects, whose participants come into conflict with each other.
The common characteristics of all crowds are:
suggestibility;
· deindividuation;
· invulnerability.
4. PUBLIC OPINION AS AN INSTITUTE OF CIVIL SOCIETY.
It is believed that the term “public opinion” was introduced into political use by the English writer and public figure J. Salisbury. The author appealed to public opinion as evidence of the population's approval of the activities of parliament. The category “public opinion” in its modern meaning is substantiated in the work of the French sociologist Jean Gabriel Tarde (1843-1904) "Public Opinion and the Crowd". In this work, Tarde explored the influence of mass-market daily and weekly newspapers.
Public opinion– this is a collective value judgment of a social subject regarding an object of public interest; a state of social consciousness that contains the attitude (hidden or explicit) of various groups of people to events and facts of social reality.
The formation of public opinion is characterized by an intensive exchange of individual and group opinions, during which a collective opinion is developed, which then acts as the judgment of the majority. The structural components of public opinion are public judgment And public will. Public opinion influences assessments of social reality by specific individuals. It also influences the formation of their social qualities, instilling in them the norms and rules of existence in society. Public opinion can act as one of the mechanisms for transmitting norms, values, traditions, rituals and other components of culture from generation to generation. Public opinion has a formative influence on social actors. In its regulatory function, public opinion ensures the implementation of certain (developed independently or introduced from outside) norms of social relations. It is no coincidence that J. Stuart Mill considered the prevailing opinion in society as “moral violence” against the personality, the individual.
Experts identify the following necessary and sufficient conditions for the emergence and functioning of public opinion:
· social significance, vital relevance of the problem (issue, topic, event);
· debatability of opinions and assessments;
· required level of competence(availability of awareness of the content of the problem, topic, issue being discussed).
We can agree with the point of view of the famous German public opinion researcher Elizabeth Noel-Neumann about the presence of two main sources generating public opinion. First- this is direct observation of others, approval or censure of certain actions, decisions or statements. Second the source is the media, which generate the so-called “spirit of the times”.
Public opinion is a social institution that has a certain structure and performs certain functions in society, and is a certain social force. The central issue in the functioning of public opinion is the problem of its effectiveness. There are three main functions of public opinion:
· expressive– expression of public sentiment;
· advisory– expression of socially approved ways to solve problems;
· directive- acts as an expression of the will of the people.
The importance of public opinion as an institution of civil society is especially evident in the conditions of modern Russia. Currently, there are more than two dozen public opinion research centers operating in the country. The most famous among them are the All-Russian Center for the Study of Public Opinion (VTsIOM), the Public Opinion Foundation (FOM), Russian Public Opinion and Market Research (ROMIR), Levada Center, etc.