SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

Social Psychology- a branch of psychology that studies the psychological characteristics and patterns of behavior and activity of people, determined by their inclusion in social groups, as well as the psychological characteristics of these groups themselves.

She examines the patterns of interaction between the individual and society, the formation and development of groups. Social psychology arose at the “crossroads” of two sciences: sociology and psychology, which caused difficulty in defining the subject and range of its problems.

The patterns studied by social psychology are relevant for all spheres of public life: various areas of education, areas of industrial production, the media, management, science, sports.

Item- psychological phenomena that arise in the system of interaction between individuals and groups (small and large), i.e. mental phenomena (processes, states and properties) that characterize the individual and the group as subjects of social interaction. This:

1. Psychological processes, states and properties of the individual, which manifest themselves as a result of his inclusion in relationships with other people, in various social groups: family, groups, and in general in the system of social relations: economic, political, managerial; The most frequently studied manifestations of personality in groups are sociability, aggressiveness, and conflict potential.

2. The phenomenon of interaction between people, i.e. communication: marital, child-parent, psychotherapeutic. Interaction can be personal, interpersonal, group, intergroup.

3. Mental processes, states and properties of various social groups as integral entities that differ from each other and cannot be reduced to the individual. This is the socio-psychological climate of the group and conflict relations, group states, leadership and group actions, teamwork and conflict.

4. Mass mental phenomena, such as crowd behavior, panic, rumors, fashion, mass emotions, mass enthusiasm, apathy, fears.

An object- activities of small and large groups, as well as individuals in the system of social relations, or social psyche, including:

· Mass, group, intergroup, interpersonal and personal moods.

· Mass, group and individual emotions.

· Mass actions.

· Stereotypes.

· Installations.

· Conscious and unconscious, formal and informal sanctions of human activity.

Subsystem social psyche:

1. Public mood.

2. Public opinion

3. Social will

Revealing social psyche occurs at three levels:

· Social

· Group

· Individual

Structure:

1. Specific patterns of direct communication (relations between the means and methods of mutual influence of people; mechanisms of imitation, suggestion, self-affirmation, infection, persuasion).

2. Group mental phenomena, states, processes arising as a result of communication (collective feelings, moods, group opinion, drives, needs, group orientations, traditions, customs).

3. Stable mental characteristics of various social groups (national, professional, demographic, expressed in attitudes, value orientations, in stable social feelings).

4. Mime-conditioned mental states of an individual in a group, socio-psychic mechanisms of control over his behavior (sanctions, role prescriptions, expectations).

Functions:

1. Integration and transmission of social experience. The social psyche ensures control of the processes of translation of social experience, forming a unified direction of thoughts, will and feelings in a given social group. For this purpose, not only the mechanisms of pedagogical, socio-pedagogical, artistic, mass communication are widely used. A special role here belongs to festive communication and its modification – ritual-game communication. Among all peoples of the world, ritual has always been the most important means of socio-psychological integration and transmission of social experience.

2. Social adaptation. The social psyche is capable of bringing individual consciousness into conformity with the principles and norms prevailing in a social group. Every culture develops forms and rules of communication that correspond to the specific conditions of interaction between people and are designed to ensure the most effective achievement of social and individual goals. The social psyche facilitates the mutual adaptation of people and creates the adaptation of the individual to certain patterns of behavior. Social adaptation of a person occurs in the process of his communication with others.

3. Social correlation. The social psyche correlates the behavior of an individual, bringing it into conformity with the conventional norms accepted in a given society.

4. Social activation. The social psyche is capable of strengthening and activating human activity through the influence of group feelings and will.

5. Social control. The social psyche is the bearer of a system of informal sanctions of society, or social groups, i.e. sanctions regulating individual behavior. The social psyche accumulates and transmits normative sanctions, through which it carries out its control function

6. Projective unloading. The presence of unsatisfied desires gives rise to psychological and socio-psychological tension in people. The social psyche is designed to relieve this tension without violating generally accepted norms. Thus, holidays provide a release of aggressive impulses and negative emotional arousal. People can experience ecstasy, a feeling of exaltation, delight, awe, which provides catharsis for their soul, i.e. cleansing from base feelings, animal anger.

Traditionally, social psychology is divided into three areas of study

· Study of individual social behavior.

· Study of dyadic social interaction and communication processes.

· Study of small groups and psychological study of social problems

Processes:

The most actively developed processes in modern research include:

1. Attribution processes.

2. Group processes.

3. providing assistance.

4. Attraction and affiliation.

5. Aggression.

6. Crimes.

7. Installations and their study.

8. Social cognition.

9. Social development of the individual (socialization).

10. Cross-cultural research.

Main sections:

1. Psychology of communication is a branch of psychology that studies the patterns of communication and interaction between people.

2. Psychology of groups - the psychological characteristics of social groups, both large and small, are studied, phenomena such as cohesion, compatibility, leadership, and the decision-making process are studied.

3. Social psychology of leadership - studies the problems of socialization, the formation of social attitudes of the individual.

Branches of social psychology:

· Ethnic psychology – studies the characteristics of people as representatives of various ethnic communities

· Management psychology – the focus is on the analysis of problems associated with the impact on groups and society as a whole.

· Political psychology – studies phenomena and processes related to the sphere of political life of society and political activity of people.

· Psychology of religion – studies the psychology of people who participate in religious activities.

· Psychology of communication – studies the processes of interaction and exchange of information between people and social groups.

· Psychology of conflict relationships (conflictology) - studies the psychological characteristics of conflicts and the possibilities for their most effective resolution.

Social psychology is associated with a number of other sciences: general psychology, sociology. Interdisciplinaryly it is associated with the following branches of knowledge:

1. Philosophy – provides the opportunity for methodological and theoretical justification in understanding the essence of socio-psychological phenomena.

2. Historical sciences - make it possible to analyze the development of the social psyche and consciousness of people at various stages of the formation of society.

3. Economic sciences - make it possible to reveal the essence and originality of the functioning of the economic processes of society and their influence on social relations and their manifestation in the social psyche and public consciousness of people.

4. Culturology and ethnography - allow social psychology to correctly interpret the influence of culture and nationality on the specific manifestation of socio-psychological phenomena.

5. Pedagogical sciences - provide information about the main directions of training and education of people, thereby allowing social psychology to develop recommendations for the socio-psychological support of these processes.

Difference psychological phenomena from mental ones is that psychological phenomena are formed and develop in the structure of communication between people and they are conditioned (their appearance) - socially. And mental phenomena and their appearance are determined by the biological prerequisites of brain activity.

Methodology and methods of social psychology.

Methodology is a system of principles (fundamental ideas), methods, rules for organizing the regulation and construction of theoretical and practical human activity, as well as the doctrine of this system.

The methodology fulfills two main functions:

1. It allows you to describe and evaluate activities from the perspective of internal organization.

In relation to science there are:

· General methodology - a general philosophical approach, a general way of knowing, recognized by the researcher.

· Special scientific methodology – (the methodology of a specific science) – allows one to formulate internally scientific laws and patterns related to the unique functioning of those phenomena that are studied by this science.

· Special methodology of social psychology adapts general philosophical principles in relation to the needs of social and psychological research.

· Particular methodology is a set of methods, methods, techniques, methods, techniques for studying those phenomena that constitute the subject and object of analysis of this science.

There are a number of classifications of social psychology methods, which are divided into:

1. Research methods: A) methods of collecting information - observation, study of documents, questionnaires, interviews, tests, experiment (ascertaining, formative, control);

B) methods of processing the received information - factor and correlation analysis, modeling methods, computer processing techniques of the received data.

2. Methods of influence - socio-psychological training, which is based on active methods of group work and allows you to solve a wide range of problems: increasing competence in communication, achieving a higher level of group cohesion, mastering the skills of confident behavior.

Among the methods of empirical research, the most widely used are: observation, document analysis, survey, sociometry, GOL, tests, scales for measuring social attitudes and instrumental method, experiment.

Subject field(methodology of social psychology):

· Communication as the basis of the social psyche.

· Personality as a subject of communication.

· Small group as a collective subject of communication.

· A small group as a collection of subjects of communication.

· Communication mechanisms.

· Forms of communication.

· Dynamics of communication.

· Social communication technologies.

History of the formation and development of social psychology

History of social psychology abroad

Western experts define social psychology as a science. Studying the interdependence of people's behavior and the fact of their relationships and interactions. This interdependence means that an individual's behavior is seen as both the result and the cause of the behavior of other people.

In historical terms, the process of development of any scientific discipline and socio-psychological ideas is the emergence of socio-philosophical knowledge, the spin-off of two other disciplines - psychology and sociology, which gave direct life to social psychology.

Historically, social psychology arose at the beginning of the 20th century. The year of its origin is considered to be 1908, when the first two books on social psychology were published - “Introduction to Social Psychology” by the English psychologist W. McDougall and “Social Psychology” by the American sociologist E. Ross.

In the history of social psychology, three periods can be distinguished:

1. The period of accumulation of knowledge in the field of philosophy and general psychology (VI century BC - mid-19th century).

2. The period of separation of descriptive social psychology from philosophy (sociology) into an independent field of knowledge (50-60s of the 9th century - 20s of the 20th century).

3. the period of formation of social psychology into an experimental science (20s of the XX century) and its modern development.

Social psychology was prepared by 4 schools:

1. School of social philosophy (Plato, Montesquieu, Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau).

2. School of Social Anthropology (Lazarus, Steinthal, W. Wund).

3. School of English evolutionism (C. Darwin, G. Spencer).

4. School of early sociology (Comte, Durkheim).

5. Human Sciences:

Anthropology (Taylor)

Archeology (Morgan)

· Ethnography (Levi-Bruhl)

· General psychology (Baldwin, McDougall, Wund, Ribot).

· Psychiatry (Mechnikov)

· Biology (Golzendorf, Petrazhitsky).

Theoretical and methodological development Western social psychology occurred in line with general psychological knowledge - behaviorism and Freudianism, as well as new social-psychological schools and directions, which include:

1. Neobehaviorism (Eyu Bogardus, G. Allport, V. Lamberg, R. Bales, G. Homens, E. Mayo).

2. Neo-Freudianism (K. Horney, E. Fromm, A. Kardiner, E. Shills, A. Adler).

3. Theory of field and group dynamics (K. Levin, R. Lippit, R. White, L. Festinger, G. Kelly).

4. Sociometry (J. Morin, E. Jenninge, J. Criswell, N. Brondenbrenner).

5. Transactive psychology (E. Cantril, F. Kilpatrick, V. Ittelson, A. Eime).

6. Humanistic psychology (K. Rogers).

7. Cognitive theories, as well as interactionism (G. Mead, G. Blumer, M. Kuhn, T. Sarbin, R. Meron).

The origins of social psychology as scientific discipline occurred initially on the basis of philosophy:

· In ancient (ancient Greek) philosophy, socio-psychological ideas were developed by Socrates, Plato, Protagoras, Aristotle,

· In the philosophy of modern times - D. Locke, J.J. Rousseau, Hegel.

In the 9th century, the prerequisites emerged for the separation of social psychology into an independent scientific discipline. But first there was a separation into independent areas of knowledge:

· Sociology - the founder of the French philosopher Auguste Comte_.

· Psychology – the founder of scientific psychology, German physiologist, psychologist and philosopher W. Wund

Prerequisites The following were used to distinguish social psychology into a separate field of knowledge:

1. The need to organize and manage groups of people engaged in joint functions.

2. accumulation of issues that could not be resolved within the framework of other sciences (psychology, sociology, criminology, ethnography, linguistics).

For the second period in the history of social psychology, the philosophy of the French thinker Comte was of great importance, who was one of the first to draw attention to the need for an objective-instrumental study of social phenomena themselves.

Since the end of the 19th century, social psychology has developed in two directions:

1. Individual psychology (individual psychological direction), where the center of attention is the individual. An attempt was made to explain the life of society through his individual qualities.

2. The sociological direction proceeded from the determining role of social factors and considered the psychology of the individual to be a product of society.

After Comte, the bourgeois development of sociology began to attract representatives of many sciences. The supporters expressed themselves most clearly organic direction led by Spencer. His merit was his introduction of the concept “ social development».

At the same time, Spencer's fellow countryman Henry Buckle put forward the idea that everything in the world is changing - the moral state of a particular society. His works on the “history of human civilization” are called the first ethno-psychological studies, and in many ways socio-psychological.

At the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century, the development of social psychology was influenced by sociology and especially the French sociologists: Durkheim and Lévy-Bruhl.

Direct occurrence descriptive social psychology

It dates back to 1859, when the philosopher Steinthal, together with the ethnographer Lazarus, began publishing the journal “Psychology of Peoples and Linguistics.” These scientists were the founders of one of the first forms of socio-psychological theories - the psychology of peoples, which developed in Germany.

Among the first socio-psychological concepts second half of the nineteenth century include:

1. “Psychology of Nations”, authors: German philosopher M. Lazarus (1824-1903), linguist G. Steinthal (1823-1893), W. Wund (1832-1920). In Russia, the ideas of the psychology of peoples were developed by the linguist, psychologist, ethnographer A.A. Potebney (1835-1891). It developed mainly in Germany in the middle of the 9th century.

The main idea of ​​the concept is that psychology is faced with phenomena, the causes of which should be sought not in the individual consciousness, but in the consciousness of the people. The consciousness of a people or the spirit of the whole is expressed in myths, customs, religion, and art. In this direction, a very valuable idea was formulated: that in addition to individual consciousness, there is also something characteristic of group psychology. The main idea is that the main force of history is the people, who express themselves in art, religion, and language. And individual consciousness is only its product. The task of social psychology is to discover the laws by which the spiritual activity of the people proceeds.

Subsequently, the ideas of “psychology of peoples” were developed by V. Wund. He outlined the idea that psychology should consist of two parts:

· Physical Psychology is an experimental discipline, but experiment, according to V. Wund, is not suitable for studying speech and thinking.

· Starts here "psychology of peoples”, in which an analysis of cultural objects, language, and customs should be used. “Psychology of nations” should be a descriptive discipline that does not pretend to discover laws.

· The main “Psychology of Nations” was idealistic in nature, but this concept raised the question that there is something that characterizes individual consciousness, the psychology of a group.

2. Around the same time, another form of socio-psychological theories, “Psychology of the Masses”, developed in France, authors G. Tarde, Italian lawyer S. Sigele (1868-1913), French sociologist G. Lebon (1841-1931). It developed in the Romanesque countries - Italy, France in the second half of the 19th century. It is based on G. Tarde’s ideas about the role imitation in social behavior. From the point of view of representatives of Siegele and Le Bon, this direction focused on the study of large concentrations of people - “mass”, the main feature of which is the loss of the ability to observe and introspection. Characteristic features of human behavior in the masses are depersonalization, expressed in the dominance of instinctive reactions, the predominance of feelings over the intellect, which causes increased suggestibility, loss of personal responsibility. In this direction, the masses and elites of society were opposed. According to G. Lebon, the masses need a leader; the role of leader in society is called upon to be performed by the elite. This conclusion was made on the basis of isolated cases of mass manifestations, and most importantly in a situation of panic.

3. “The theory of instincts of social behavior”, author of the English psychologist W. McDougall (1871-1938). They were formulated in England and the USA at the beginning of the 20th century: V. Mede in Europe, Alpport - in the USA. Originated in 1908 in England. The work “Introduction to Social Psychology” and this year is considered the year of the final establishment of social psychology as an independent science.

The main concept of the theory of instincts of social behavior was the concept of “instinct”. Human behavior, according to Magdougall, is determined by innate instincts. He identified the instinct of fight, flight, reproduction, acquisition, construction, the herd instinct, the instinct of war. Instincts underlie all social life, in particular: the instinct of struggle is the cause of wars, and the instinct of acquisition determines market relations. This idea is the realization of the desire for a goal that is characteristic of animals and humans. McDougall called his theory “target” or “harmonic” (from the Greek word gormē - desire, impulse). In his opinion, “gorme” acts as a driving force of an intuitive nature, explaining social behavior. “Gorme” is realized as instincts. The inner expression of instincts are emotions. The connection between instincts and emotions has a certain character. McDougall listed pairs of related instincts and emotions:

· Fighting instinct and corresponding anger and fear

· Instinct of reproduction – jealousy and female timidity

Acquisition instinct - a sense of ownership

· Building instinct - a sense of creation

· Herd instinct – a sense of belonging

Flight instinct - a sense of self-preservation

War instinct - aggression

All social institutions are derived from instincts: family, trade, various social processes. First of all, it justifies the conduct of wars, because this realizes the instinct of aggression. Despite the great popularity of McDougall's theory, its role in the history of social psychology turned out to be negative, since the consideration of social behavior from the point of view of spontaneous striving for a goal legitimized the importance of unconscious drives as a driving force not only of the individual, but of all humanity.

The positive significance of the first concepts was that they raised questions about the relationship between the consciousness of an individual and the consciousness of a group (psychology of peoples and psychology of masses), about the driving forces of social behavior (the theory of instincts of social behavior). The disadvantage was the descriptive nature and lack of research practice.

The development of social psychology at the beginning of the 20th century revealed two main areas of research into problems:

1. The relationship between the consciousness of the individual and the consciousness of the group was studied.

2. The driving forces of social behavior were studied.

The impetus for the experimental development of social psychology was the First World War. In the USA, European countries, and Japan, the development of socio-psychological problems aimed at the needs of the army, production, and propaganda begins. This is explained by the fact that during the war, issues of preventing such phenomena as fear, panic, and the cohesion of military groups arise. And all these questions are socio-psychological in nature.

Beginning of the experimental stage of development of social psychology is connected with the works of V. Mede (Europe) and F. Allport (USA), V.M. Bekhtereva (Russia). The attention of these scientists was focused on the study of socio-psychological phenomena in the group. The method used was a laboratory experiment.

The essence of the experiments by V. Mede and F. Allport was that each experiment began with one subject, and then the number of participants increased. The purpose of the experiment was to identify the difference between performing an activity individually and in the presence of a group. Researchers have identified features of the course of cognitive processes when performed individually and in a group setting. They formulated demands for the transformation of social psychology into an experimental discipline and moved on to the systematic experimental study of social-psychological phenomena in groups.

In the development of psychology by this time, three theoretical schools had formed - psychoanalysis, behaviorism, Gestalt psychology, on the provisions and ideas of which social psychology began to rely. Particularly attractive were the ideas of the behavioral approach, which most closely corresponded to the ideal of building a strictly experimental discipline.

Influenced by experimental methodology, which social psychology began to use intensively in the period between the two world wars. The original integrative task of “socialization” of psychology was largely reduced to the study of the influence of a controlled social environment on individual behavior in laboratory conditions.

History of social psychology in Russia

In pre-revolutionary Russia, social psychology did not exist as an independent discipline. Russian psychology was part of world science and, in terms of its level of development, ranked third in the world after the USA and Germany.

Socio-psychological problems were developed in the entire complex of social sciences. Knowledge about individual behavior in a group and group processes was accumulated in military practice, in law and medicine, and in the study of national characteristics.

Representatives of the social sciences, in particular sociologists, had a significant influence on the development of socio-psychological ideas in the pre-revolutionary period.

The most developed socio-psychological concept is contained in the works N.K. Mikhailovsky(1842-1904), one of the founders of sociology in Russia. He had a great influence on the development of science, education, literature, and journalism. Mikhailovsky is responsible for the development of the psychology of mass social movements, one of the varieties of which is the revolutionary movement. According to his views, the active forces of social development are heroes and the crowd. The hero must take into account the public mood of the masses so that they follow him, which is still one of the most convincing explanations leadership phenomenon. Exploring the problem of communication between the hero and the crowd, Mikhailovsky identifies the following mechanisms of communication: imitation, infection, suggestion, opposition. He took precedence in the development of problems of imitation, in comparison with G. Tarde.

In jurisprudence, socio-psychological problems are presented in the works of L.I. Petrazhitsky. He is one of the founders of the subjective school in jurisprudence. According to his views, psychology is a fundamental science and the basis for all social sciences. In reality, only mental phenomena exist, and socio-historical formations are their projections. The development of law, morality, ethics, aesthetics is a product of the people's psyche. As a lawyer, Petrazycki was interested in the question of the motives of human actions and social norms of behavior. He believed that the true motive of human behavior was emotions.

A.A. made a significant contribution to the development of socio-psychological ideas. Potebnya (1835-1891). He developed issues of the theory of folklore, ethnography, and linguistics. According to Potebnya, the main feature of any ethnic group that determines the existence of a people is language. The function of language is not the designation of a ready-made thought, but its creation through the transformation of initial elements into linguistic ones. Representatives of different nations form thought through national languages ​​in their own way, different from other nations.

Potebnya’s ideas were further developed in the works of his student and follower D.N. Ovsyaniko-Kulikovsky (1853-1920).

Social psychology gradually absorbed various interpretations of people’s social behavior. In this regard, the works of V.M. are of significant interest. Bekhtereva (1857-1927) - Russian physiologist, psychiatrist and psychologist (founded the first experimental psychological laboratory in Russia, and then a psychoneurological institute), who in his work “Collective Reflexology” (1921) tried to explain social behavior through the physiological laws and principles of living things body. This work is considered as the first textbook on social psychology in Russia, which provides a detailed definition of the subject of social psychology. Such a subject, according to Bekhterev, is the study of the activities of meeting participants in the broad sense of the word. He formulates the “Law of Rhythm”, “Law of Periodicity”, invents such principles of behavior as: variability, inertia, differentiation, cohesion, reproduction, selection, to which the individual and society are supposedly subject in their development. Bekhterev found that the group promotes a change in attitudes towards an action and allows one to withstand stronger stimuli. During the experiment, gender, age, education, and natural differences in the course of mental processes in group activities were studied. Bekhterev identified the system-forming characteristics of a team: the commonality of tasks and interests encourages the team to unity of action. The organic attraction of the individual into the community led the scientist to an understanding of the collective as a collective personality. He identifies as socio-psychological phenomena: interaction, relationship, communication. As collective ones - hereditary reflexes, mood, concentration, observation, creativity, coordination of actions. They unite people into groups: mutual suggestion, mutual imitation, mutual induction. Bekhterev summarized a large amount of empirical material obtained through socio-psychological methods of observation, questioning, and the use of questionnaires. And experimental studies of the influence of communication and joint activity on the formation of the processes of perception and memory were the beginning of experimental social psychology in Russia.

The use of the experimental method in the study of groups allowed social psychology to gain strength as a scientific discipline.

After the October Revolution of 1917, interest in social psychology increased sharply. This was due to a number of reasons: the need to comprehend revolutionary changes in society, an acute ideological struggle, the need to solve problems of restoring the national economy, the fight against homelessness, and the elimination of illiteracy.

A characteristic feature of social psychology in post-revolutionary Russia was the search for its own path. In this process, a significant role was played by the assimilation of Marxist ideas and their application to understanding the essence of socio-psychological phenomena. Representatives of various sciences took part in the discussion on the problems of “psychology and Marxism”: philologist and journalist L.N. Voitlovsky, lawyer M.A. Reisner, psychologists A.B. Zalkind, K.N. Kornilov and P.P. Blonsky, psychologist and philosopher G.I. Chelpanov, zoopsychologist V.A. Wagner, neurologist and psychiatrist V.M. Bekhterev. The essence of this discussion is a discussion of the subject of social psychology, the relationship between individual and social psychology, the relationship between sociology and social psychology. G.I. occupied a special place in this discussion. Chelpanov. He spoke about the need for the existence of social psychology along with industrial and experimental psychology. Social psychology, in his opinion, studies socially determined mental phenomena. They are closely related to the ideology and theory of Marxism.

In 1914, on his initiative, the Psychological Institute named after L.G. Shchukina is the first psychological scientific and educational institution in Russia. He defended the point of view according to which psychology should be divided into two parts:

1. Social psychology, which should be developed on the basis of Marxism

2. Psychology itself must remain an empirical science, independent of any worldview.

Against the proposal of G.I. Chelpanov was made by those scientists who shared the idea of ​​restructuring psychology on the basis of Marxism. P.P. Blonsky (1884-1941), A.B. Zalkind (1888-1936), V.A. Artemov. The essence of the objection was that from the point of view of Marxism, all psychology becomes social and, therefore, there is no need to distinguish any other special psychology. Against G.I. Chelpanov was performed by V.M. Bekhterev. He came up with a proposal to create collective reflexology.

M.A. Reisner believed that the way to build Marxist social psychology is “a direct correlation between the physiological teachings of I.P. Pavlov with historical materialism... social psychology should become the science of social stimuli and their relationships with human actions.”

Ideas of L.N. Voitlovsky (1876-1941) regarding the development of social psychology lay outside the direct polemics with G.I. Chelpanov. Voitlovsky believed that the subject of collective psychology (as social psychology was then called) should be the psychology of the masses. He examined a number of psychological mechanisms that, when implemented in a crowd, provide a special type of emotional tension that arises between participants in a mass action. The method of researching mass psychology is analysis of reports from direct participants and observation of witnesses.

A special place in the construction of Marxist social psychology was occupied by the works of G.V. Plekhanov (1856-1918), who gave a definition of the concept of “social psychology” from the position of historical materialism and showed its place and role in the history of society, based on the principles of social conditioning of public consciousness.

Of particular importance for Russian social psychology were the works of L.S. Vygotsky (1896-1934). He is responsible for the creation of the cultural-historical theory of mental development. Culture – creates special forms of behavior, modifies the activity of mental function. He proved that higher mental functions (voluntary attention, memory, abstract logical thinking, will) are socially determined. They cannot be understood as a function of the brain; to understand their nature, it is necessary to go beyond the body and look for the reasons for their development in the life of society.

The 1930s marked the peak of the development of socio-psychological research in applied industries:

– pedology - research was carried out on the problems of the relationship between the collective and the individual, factors in the formation of children's groups, stages of their development, the phenomenon of leadership, psychological problems of street children

Psychotechnics.

In the second half of the 1930s, the situation in the country and in science changed dramatically. The isolation of domestic science from Western science begins, the strengthening of ideological control over science, and the thickening of the atmosphere of decree and administration. And this is: the uselessness of social psychology, highlighting socio-psychological phenomena; social psychology has become one of the pseudosciences; lack of demand for the results of socio-psychological research; ideological pressure on science.

The period of hiatus in the natural development of social psychology lasted until the second half of the 1950s. there was no clarity regarding the subject of social psychology. However, there has not been a complete lack of social psychological research. The main source and area of ​​application of social psychology during this period was the pedagogical research of A.S. Makarenko (1888-1939), who developed the concept of personality formation in a team, considered the needs of the team.

During this period, scientists were attracted by three blocks of problems:

1. The development of methodological problems continued and existed within the framework of general psychology. Through the works of B.G. Ananyeva, S.L. Rubinstein, who developed the methodological principles of psychology - the principle of determinism, the unity of consciousness and activity, development, cultural and historical concepts, laid the theoretical and methodological foundation of social psychology.

2. Other problems concerned the social psychology of the collective, where the image of social psychology during this period was determined by the views of A.S. Makarenko.

3. Connected with the practical orientations of social psychology: the role of the leader in the pedagogical process and the emergence of practical relationship psychology.

Since the second half of the 50s of the 20th century, a special social and intellectual situation has developed in our country. The reduction of ideological control and relative democratization in all spheres of life led to a revival of the creative activity of scientists. The period of revival of social psychology in our country has begun. The philosophy of dialectical and historical materialism of K. Marx acted as the methodological basis. In the 1950s, psychological science defended its right to independent existence in heated discussions with physiologists. General psychology has become a reliable support for the development of social psychology.

In 1959, an article by A.G. was published in “Bulletin of Leningrad State University” No. 12. Kovalev “On social psychology.”

In 1962, the country's first laboratory of social psychology was organized at Leningrad State University under the leadership of Kuzmin.

In 1963, the Second All-Russian Congress of Psychologists took place, where for the first time a special section was dedicated to issues of social psychology.

Since 1965, the first domestic monographs on social psychology have been published: “Fundamentals of Social Psychology” - Kuzmina; “Questions of man by man” - Bodaleva; “Social psychology as a science” - Parygina.

Since 1967, the publication of textbooks and teaching aids began.

In 1968, the first department of social psychology was opened, the 1st conference of social psychology opened under the leadership of Kuzmin at Leningrad State University.

In 1972, the Department of Social Psychology began working at Moscow State University under the leadership of G.M. Andreeva.

The initiators of the development of domestic social psychology were: Baranov, Kuzmin, Shorokhova, Mansurov, Parygin, Platonov. In general, this stage is characterized by the development of the main problems of social psychology:

· In the field of methodology, the concepts of G.M. are being developed. Andreeva, B.D. Parygiym, E.V. Shorokhova.

· Group studies are reflected in the works of K.K. Platonova, A.V. Petrovsky, L.I. Umansky.

· Research in social psychology of personality is associated with the names of L.I. Bozovic, K.K. Platonova, V.A. Yadova.

· Research into the social psychology of communication was carried out by A.A. Bodalev, L.P. Bueva, A.A., Leontiev, B.F. Lomov, B.D. Parygin.

Currently, social psychology has found its application in various areas of public life: education, industrial production, management, the system of mass media and advertising, politics, and in the field of combating illegal behavior. In recent years, much attention has been paid to the study of social behavior in natural settings, as well as the study of social and cultural context using observational methods and modern correlation techniques.

THE CONCEPT OF GROUPS

A person becomes a person only in the world of people. People in groups behave differently than each individual would behave in a similar situation. A person's membership in a group even influences the course of his physiological reactions. By coming together, people acquire the “quality of integrity,” i.e. a person is a subject of the social world. The social world consists of communities of people united by joint activities. At every moment of time, a person acts in cooperation with other people. Performing various social functions, a person is a member of numerous different social groups, i.e. the point at which various group influences intersect. This is important for personalities, namely:

· Determines the objective place of the individual in the system of social activity.

· Affects the formation of personality consciousness.

To the psychological characteristics of the group refers to: group interests, group opinions, needs, forms, group goals. For a person belonging to a group, the awareness of belonging to it is realized through the acceptance of these characteristics. It is the difference in these psychological phenomena that allows one group to be distinguished from another. Group opinion is the opinion of a small group.

Public opinion is the opinion of a large group.

In social psychology it is customary to distinguish:

1. Conditional groups

2. Real groups

Psychologists mainly focus their attention on real groups. However, among the real ones there are also those that appear in general psychological research as real-laboratory groups. In addition to real laboratory ones, there are real real research groups. Social and psychological research is carried out both in real-laboratory and in real-natural groups.

Kinds. Natural groups number several million (classes, nations, youth, pensioners) and are divided into:

1. Large groups, which are:

A) Organized

B) Unorganized

2. Small groups (American psychologist Moreno studied the sociometry of a small group, believing that the whole world consists of small groups, and the individual himself is in a small group). Numbers from 2 (dyad) to 45 people. This is a fairly established field of social psychology. They are divided:

A) Becoming

B) Teams

The main criterion The existence of a group is not the simple co-presence of people, but their involvement in common activities. An important characteristic of a social group is the presence group norms - these are the rules for the functioning of the group, which all its participants must follow (written and unwritten norms - charter, legislation, religious regulations; not fixed rules).

An important group characteristic is the level group cohesion, reflecting the degree of commitment to a group by its members. With high cohesion in a group, a phenomenon is observed "in-group favoritism", which lies in the fact that, other things being equal, preference is always given to a member of one’s own group (We love any of our children, although there are much more talented and beautiful children....).

In quality indicators of group cohesion are considered two factors are considered:

1. The degree of attractiveness of the group for its members. Moreover, the more in a group there are those who are satisfied with their stay in the group of those who are satisfied with their stay in the group, the more cohesive the group is.

2. The level of mutual sympathy among group members. The greater the number of group members who prefer each other as partners for various forms of activity, the higher the level of cohesion.

Studies of small groups began in the second quarter of the 20th century, constituting the main content of social psychological research in foreign (American and European) psychology.

A small group is a small-sized association of people connected by direct interaction.

In general, social groups can be classified on various grounds:

1. By social status:

A) Formal (official) - have an externally specified structure and legal fixed status, normatively established rights and obligations of its members, appointed or elected leadership. (university).

B) Informal (unofficial) - do not have legal status, are formed on a voluntary basis, personal preferences (the presence of common interests, friendship, sympathy, pragmatic benefit), are characterized by greater structural flexibility (work on a specific problem). As they develop, they can turn into formal ones. They can develop both isolated and within formal groups.

This classification was proposed by Amer. researched by E. Mayo. According to Mayo, formal differs from informal in that it clearly defines all the positions of its members; they are prescribed by group norms. Within formal groups, Mayo discovered informal ones that develop spontaneously, roles are not prescribed in them, and there is no strict power structure. It was not the groups that began to differ, but the type of relationships within them.

2. By level of development:

A) Highly organized (highly developed) - long-existing, characterized by the presence of common interests and goals shared by all participants. Characterized by a high level of cohesion and a developed system of interpersonal relationships.

B) Lowly organized (underdeveloped) - random associations of people who have not yet launched joint activities, and are at the initial stage of their development.

3. By direct contact:

A) Primary groups (contact) - actually co-present in time and space (sports team). Consists of a small number of people between whom relationships are established based on their individual characteristics.

B) Secondary - contacts between participants are maintained through a number of intermediary links (the diplomatic corps of the state: the state’s ambassadors are located in different parts of the globe, but at the same time jointly implement the foreign policy of the state). The emotional connections between them are weakened, their interaction is determined by the desire to achieve a certain goal.

4. By coincidence of values ​​(by value characteristics):

A) Reference groups (standard - on which people are guided in their interests, personal preferences, likes and dislikes. A group that plays the role of a standard for a person. It can be real and conditional, i.e. represented in the human mind (heroes of books, writers - travelers).The reference group can be in opposition to the membership group or as a group emerging within the membership group.

B) Non-referential.

Amer. were first introduced. research Hyman. In his experiments, he showed that some members of certain small groups share the norms of behavior adopted not in this group, but in some other group that they are guided by. Membership groups – in which a person actually belongs. Sometimes membership groups and reference groups coincide.

5. By number –

A) Big ones - people, class, crowd.

B) Small – Family, work collective.

Psychological effects are specific to large and small groups.

6. Natural groups – in which people constantly find themselves in everyday life and activities.

7. Laboratory - created for the purpose of studying certain group processes. They are artificial, since their composition corresponds to the purposes of the study.

8. Real - groups that exist in a common space and time, united by real relationships (school class, family...).

9. Conditional - a set of people united by some common characteristic (gender, age, level of education, nature of activity). Such a community is not a group in the socio-psychological sense, but is called a social category.

10. Open and closed – the basis is the degree of achievement of the group’s influence on the environment and society. When determining the degree of closedness of a group, what is important is how easily a person can become a member of a given group or leave it.

11. Stationary and temporary – the permanence or temporary nature of an existing group is relative. What is important is the perception by group members of the time of its existence.

Connection of social psychology with other sciences.

· Social psychology and sociology. What they have in common is that human behavior is considered in social conditions, in a social context, in a group. But sociologists are more interested in statistically large and theoretically defined groups, and social psychologists are more interested in small ones, with direct contact interaction. Sociology examines behavior and interaction in macrosocial conditions, and social psychology – in conditions of direct communication. The subjects of social action and interaction in sociology are large groups and communities, and if we are talking about a person, then he is understood as a representative of a formal group. In social psychology, a person interacts within socio-psychological groups or informal communities. Social psychologists, unlike sociologists, take into account the individual psychological characteristics of the individual when explaining interaction.

· Social psychology and personality psychology. Psychologists focus on individual internal mechanisms and on differences between individuals, asking questions such as why some individuals are more aggressive than others. Social psychologists focus on the general population of people, how people as a whole evaluate and influence each other. They ask how social situations can cause most people to act humanely or cruelly, to be conformist or independent, to experience sympathy or prejudice.

· Social psychology and general humanities disciplines: philosophy, history, cultural studies, political science. Explaining the behavior and interaction of people is impossible without taking into account their views, their worldview, their values ​​(including ideological ones). History provides a description of the cultural and ideological (including political) context of situations. Philosophy analyzes and interprets the essential content and sign-symbolic forms of various pictures of the world. Under the influence of semiotics, such directions in psychology as psychosemantics and cognitive psychology were formed. Psychosemantics studies the processes of sign (including speech, verbal) construction of the meaning of a situation. Cognitive psychology deals with the acquisition, organization and transmission of knowledge. She is interested in how, with the help of which categories and concepts the production, assimilation, classification, and memorization of knowledge can be explained; how can we explain the connection between the psyche and culture; how schemes of joint actions and behavior scenarios are created.

Political science is aimed at identifying current, topical social and group interests of people and describing technologies for their implementation. General humanities disciplines help to understand the semantic context of interaction. Social psychology as a special theory is aimed at describing and analyzing the mechanisms for realizing the motives and meanings of social actions. The latter brings it closer to sociology. They differ in the levels of analysis of motives and meanings: more social or more individual.

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Main branches of social psychology

According to the views of domestic scientists, the following can be distinguished in the structure of social psychology as a science: main sections.

• 1. Social psychology of personality.
• 2. Social psychology of communication and interpersonal interaction.
• 3. Social psychology of groups.

Social psychology of personality covers issues determined by the nature of the individual, his inclusion in various groups and society as a whole (issues of socialization of the individual, his socio-psychological qualities, motivation of the individual’s behavior, the influence of social norms on behavior).

Social psychology of communication and interpersonal interaction examines various types and means of communication between people (including mass communications), the mechanisms of these communications, types of interaction between people - from cooperation to conflict. Closely related to this issue are issues of social cognition (people’s perception, understanding and assessment of each other).

Social psychology of groups covers a variety of group phenomena and processes, the structure and dynamics of small and large groups, various stages of their life, as well as intergroup relations.

The structure of modern social psychology: differentiation of social psychology, integration processes in social psychology

According to researchers in the field of socio-psychological knowledge, the structure of social psychology in each historical period of its development is the result of the interaction of two opposite, but closely related processes: a) differentiation, i.e. separation, fragmentation of social psychology into its component parts, sections; b) its integration with other and not only psychological branches of science, and the integration of social psychology both as a whole and its individual parts.

Differentiation of science is a progressive result of its internal formation, which occurs objectively and contributes to the development of science. Differentiation is a criterion for the independence of a scientific discipline, its differentia specifica- an aspect of reality that only this science can explore, since it has the necessary means for this: theory and method. Historically, the differentiation of science occurs as a result of more or less long-term development. Thus, over the centuries, psychology developed in the bosom of philosophy, then became an independent science, and only at the end of the 19th - first half of the 20th centuries. began a period of intensive branching of psychological sciences, which continues to this day. “Thanks to the differentiation of psychological science, more and more new aspects of the psyche are identified, the diversity and multi-quality of its manifestations are revealed. In each individual area of ​​psychological science, such specific data are accumulated that cannot be obtained in other areas...”

The processes of division of social psychology occur for many reasons, among the main directions the following are distinguished.

• 1. The leading orientation towards various methods of analysis of socio-psychological phenomena gives rise to theoretical, empirical(including experimental) And practical social psychology.
• 2. As a result of the study of various types of human life and his communities, the corresponding branches of social psychology have emerged: psychology of work, communication, social cognition and creativity, games. In the social psychology of labor, branches have been formed that study certain types of work activity: management, leadership, entrepreneurship, engineering work, etc.
• 3. In accordance with the application of socio-psychological knowledge in various spheres of public life. Social psychology is traditionally differentiated into the following practical branches: industrial, agriculture, trade, education, science, politics, mass communications, sports, art. Currently, they are intensively forming social psychology of economics, advertising, culture, leisure and etc.
• 4. In accordance with the main objects of research, modern social psychology has been differentiated into sections: social psychology of personality, psychology of interpersonal interaction (communication and relationships), psychology of small groups, psychology of intergroup interaction, psychology of large social groups and mass phenomena.

Today, in social psychology, a section is being formed extremely slowly that could be called “psychology of society,” another qualitatively specific object of study. At present, in the study of society, social psychology, in comparison with sociology, does not have specificity in the methods of studying it - this is the main circumstance that complicates the formation of such a section in social psychology.

Integration(from lat. integer– whole) is the consistency, orderliness and stability of the system of internal processes. When considering the processes of integration of social psychology in the system of other sciences, it is important to take into account two main contours of its integration: external and internal.

External psychological contour of integration refers to the unification of social psychology with numerous psychological branches, as a result of which relatively independent sub-branches are formed at the junction - parts of social psychology. For example, social psychology of personality formed as a result of the integration of social psychology with personality psychology, social psychology of work– social psychology with labor psychology, developmental social psychology was the result of the integration of social psychology with developmental psychology, etc. As a result of such integration, by the end of the 90s. XX century About 10 sub-branches of social psychology have already taken shape. Currently, the process of integration of social psychology with other psychological branches continues intensively: socio-economic, socio-ecological, socio-historical and other sub-branches of social psychology are being formed.

Internal socio-psychological circuit of integration refers to the development of social psychology itself, manifests itself in the processes of unification of its component parts that have separated as a result of differentiation. Firstly, internal integration concerns the simultaneous application of theoretical, empirical and practical methods of analysis of socio-psychological phenomena, which inevitably gives rise to complex types of research in social psychology, for example, theoretical-experimental, experimental-applied, etc. Secondly, it is clearly manifested in the simultaneous study of various interrelated objects of social psychology, for example: an individual and small work groups (teams) in an organization, small groups in large social groups, an individual (for example, a leader) in a large social group (for example, a party or social movement), etc. Thirdly, the most obvious direction of internal integration is the unification of those parts of social psychology that were differentiated by the types of people’s life activities and spheres of social life. As a result, many interesting and useful scientific and practical areas have emerged, such as: the psychology of teaching staff leadership (at the intersection of social psychology of management and education, research is being conducted under the leadership of R. X. Shakurov), the social psychology of creativity of engineers (E. S. Chugunova, etc. .), psychology of leadership of a scientific team (A. G. Allahverdyan and others), psychology of social cognition in the processes of work and communication (O. G. Kukosyan and others), etc.

1. Social psychology in the system of scientific knowledge"

1.1. Social psychology as a science.

1 .The relationship of social psychology with other sciences and branches of psychology gii. The relationship between social psychology and other scientific disciplines is due to two circumstances. The first is the logic of the development of science in general through the differentiation of its individual branches. Moreover, each branch of scientific knowledge reflected the specifics of “its” vision and explanation of the surrounding world. The second is the ever-increasing need of society for the need to use integrated knowledge of many branches of science. Thus, the close connection between social psychology and other sciences can be traced taking into account such aspects as: the presence of a common object of research;

Use of general methods in solving theoretical and practical problems;

Mutual use of certain explanatory principles in understanding the nature of socio-psychological phenomena;

Involvement of facts “obtained” by other scientific disciplines, which help to better understand the factors and specifics of the development and manifestations of human social psychology.

2 .The relationship between social psychology and sociology and general psychology. Sociology and social psychology find many common interests in the development of problems related to society and personality, social groups and intergroup relations. Sociology borrows from social psychology methods for studying personality and human relationships. In turn, psychologists widely use traditional sociological methods of collecting primary scientific data - questionnaires and surveys. For example, sociometry, which originally emerged as a psychological theory of society (J. Moreno), is used simultaneously as a socio-psychological test to assess interpersonal emotional connections in a group.

The relative boundary of social psychology with general psychology concerns the problems of determination and manifestation of individual psychological qualities of a person in the conditions of his action in real social groups.

Designating the boundaries of problems studied by social psychology allows us to highlight individual aspects of the subject of this science. They are1:

1) Social and psychological characteristics, patterns, mechanisms of processes of joint activity and communication of people, features of information exchange, mutual perception and understanding, the influence of people on each other in situations of interaction. Under communication

The socio-psychological approach, in contrast to the general psychological one, is characterized by a clear understanding of the conditionality of human behavior, his personal characteristics by a specific interaction situation: the roles played by the participants, the norms of communication and activity, the socio-cultural, historical background, and even spatio-temporal parameters (where when interaction occurs). The most important socio-psychological mechanisms for the emergence of sociality, that is, the properties of community and mutual understanding of people, are the processes of imitation, suggestion, infection, and persuasion.

3 .Types of socio-psychological knowledge.

1) Ordinary, everyday knowledge.

Distinctive features of ordinary socio-psychological knowledge:

a) it reflects the individual experience of a person’s everyday life, is rather individual or group in nature, being the result of an ordinary generalization of the external, superficial, immediate;

b) has an unsystematized nature of the complex, a set of facts, cases, guesses and interpretations from the point of view of “household use”, “common sense” and “generally accepted views” regarding the mechanisms of socio-psychological phenomena. (such as “bald, with glasses and a hat - an intellectual”, etc.);

c) “everyday psychology”, focused on ensuring optimal relationships with people and internal comfort within the framework of the elements of life, without the need for experimental verification of existing ideas;

d) is fixed in the system of everyday spoken language, expressing general ideas and the individual emotional and semantic shell of its words.

2) Artistic knowledge.

Includes aesthetic images that capture typical or unique forms of human psychology of a particular era, social class, etc. in the material of artistic works of literature, poetry, painting, sculpture, music.

3) Philosophical knowledge.

This type of socio-psychological knowledge represents moral and worldview reflexive generalizations and, in addition, performs the function of methodology, that is, a system of fundamental principles of knowledge of the relationship between man and society.

4) Esoteric(from Greek “internal”) knowledge.

Varieties of this type of socio-psychological knowledge are religious, occult-mystical, magical (astrology, palmistry, etc.) knowledge.

5) Practical and methodological knowledge.

Being the result of an experimental generalization for interested users, this type of knowledge acts mainly as procedural and technological knowledge (“Know-how”, or the so-called “Carnegie knowledge”), representing a ready-made recipe (algorithm) for actions in certain life situations .

6) Scientific knowledge.

Its main types are: scientific-theoretical and scientific-experimental knowledge. Scientific knowledge is a logically consistent and experimentally substantiated system of interrelated concepts, judgments, and inferences that describe socio-psychological phenomena, explain their nature and predict dynamics, as well as justify the possibility of managing them

4. Regularities of socio-psychological phenomena associated with the inclusion of individuals in large and small social groups.

Social and psychological characteristics, patterns, mechanisms of processes of joint activity and communication of people, features of information exchange, mutual perception and understanding, the influence of people on each other in situations of interaction. Under communication refers to the exchange of information between people, their interaction.

5. Methodology and methods of social psychology.

In modern scientific knowledge, the term “methodology” refers to three different levels of scientific approach.

1) General methodology - a certain general philosophical approach, a general way of knowing adopted by the researcher. General methodology formulates the most general principles that are applied in research. As a general methodology, different researchers adopt different philosophical systems.

2) Particular (or special) methodology - a set of methodological principles applied in a given field of knowledge. Particular methodology is the implementation of philosophical principles in relation to a specific object of study. This is a way of knowing adapted to a narrower sphere of knowledge.

3) Methodology – a set of specific methodological research techniques; more often referred to as “methodology”. The specific techniques used in social psychological research are not completely independent of more general methodological considerations.

Research methods and methods of influence.

6 .Research methods and methods of influence.

Can be divided into two classes: research methods and influence methods. In turn, research methods are divided into methods for collecting information and methods for processing it. Among the methods of collecting information, it is necessary to mention: observation, study of documents, surveys (questionnaires, interviews), tests (including sociometry), experiment (laboratory, natural).

There are various classifications and typologies of socio-psychological methods. For conceptual and applied problems solved by psychologists in the field of social life, it is more appropriate to use the following typology. Methods:

1) phenomenologization and conceptualization; 2) research and diagnosis; 3) processing and interpretation;

4) correction and therapy; 5) motivation and management; 6) training and development; 7) design and creativity.

There are no hard boundaries between the listed methods of social psychology; they are interconnected, intersect, and complement each other. Rather, we should talk about the emphasis in one or another group of methods on solving a certain range of problems. So, for example, in order to teach the use of psychological methods, it is necessary, in addition to the application of socio-psychological teaching methods themselves, to know the student’s current level of knowledge, his individual psychological characteristics, the dominant style of activity, etc. This requires the use of research and diagnostic methods, processing and interpretation. Knowing the personal characteristics of a person, the degree of their compliance with the goals and objectives of training, we may be forced to somehow adjust these characteristics, which means using methods of therapy and correction, as well as methods of motivation and management. At the same time, it may be necessary to create a communication environment and show creative spontaneity in applying these methods to a real life situation.

The most common type of psychological influence is socio-psychological training. It involves the use of active methods of group psychological work with the aim of developing communication competence. Among the various types of socio-psychological training, the most famous are behavioral training, sensitivity training, role-playing training, video training, etc. The main methods of socio-psychological training are group discussion and role-playing

7 .Objective grounds for the “dual” position of social psychology.

The dual nature of the status of social psychology. This provision, reflecting the features

the subject of social psychology as a science, is enshrined in the USA, for example, also organizationally,

since sections of social psychology exist both within the American Psychological Association and within the American Sociological Association. As an experimental discipline, social psychology is subject to the same standards for testing hypotheses that exist for any experimental sciences, where various models for testing hypotheses have long been developed. However, although it also has features of a humanitarian discipline, social psychology finds itself in difficulties associated with this characteristic. For example, in social psychology there are subject areas (large groups, mass processes) where verification is simply impossible. In this part, social psychology is similar to most of the humanities and, like them, must assert the right to the existence of its deep specificity.

8. Main points of view on the subject of social psychology.

During the discussion on the subject of social psychology, different points of view were expressed about its role and tasks. So, G.I. Chelpanov proposed dividing psychology into two parts: social, which should be developed within the framework of Marxism, and psychology itself, which should remain an experimental science. K.N. Kornilov contrary to G.I. Chelpanov proposed preserving the unity of psychology by extending the reactology method to human behavior in a team. At the same time, the collective was understood as a single reaction of its members to a single stimulus, and the task of social psychology was proposed to be the measurement of the speed, strength and dynamism of these collective reactions.

9. Subject, problems and tasks of social psychology.

The subject of social psychology is the structural-dynamic features and patterns of psychological phenomena that arise in the process of social interaction, that is, in situations of communication and joint activity of people, as well as reasonable ways to manage these phenomena.

G. Tajfel views social psychology as a discipline that studies “the interaction between social change and choice,” and its central problem considered the relationship between a person and changes in the social environment. Interaction with the social environment is a collective process, where individual decisions are mediated by a system of social interaction. Society itself changes through the interaction of groups to which a person belongs, and whose social characteristics he takes into account and embodies in the process of interaction with other people. This manifests decentralization in the perception and thinking of an individual regarding certain events, when he thinks from the point of view of the norms and values ​​of the community to which he is included, to which he belongs.

The main tasks of social psychology are:

Study of the structure, mechanisms, patterns and characteristics of socio-psychological phenomena: communication and interaction of people, psychological characteristics of social groups, personality psychology (problems of social attitudes, socialization, etc.);

Identifying factors in the development of socio-psychological phenomena and predicting the nature of such development;

Direct application of methods of socio-psychological influence aimed at increasing the socio-psychological competence of people and resolving existing psychological problems.

10.Modern ideas about the subject of social psychology.

Social-psychological theories that implement a new approach to understanding the image of social psychology include the cultural concepts of S. Moscovici (“the concept of social representations”), G. Tajfel (“the concept of intergroup relations” and “theory of social identity”), as well as the “ethogenetic approach” by R. Harré.

Thus, according to S. Moscovici, the basis of the social process is the relations of production, exchange and consumption that develop between social subjects, and society acts as a system with special qualities that cannot be reduced to the sum of individual relations, divorced from their objective mediation. He understands society itself quite broadly - as a system of social subjects that self-determine (through the formation and correction of social ideas) in relation to each other. The development of society is associated with the presence of social conflicts, acting as the driving force of the social process

According to G. Tajfel, the logic of human social behavior unfolds taking into account the existence of two poles of inter-individual interaction: a purely interpersonal relationship - a purely intergroup one. Purely interpersonal relations practically do not exist, but intergroup relations are reflected in numerous examples of the undifferentiated division of “us” and “them” (for example, soldiers of two warring sides). The closer the interaction situation is to the intergroup pole of the continuum, the greater the likelihood of more consistent and uniform actions of group members in relation to another group, as well as a greater tendency to perceive members of another group as faceless representatives of it, that is, undifferentiated

The development of society is seen by R. Harré as the structuring of the system of social interaction, the improvement of the expressive system, which ensures the ability of the individual to implement the norms of “decent behavior”. Thus, human behavior is regulated not so much by the main motive stated by R. Harré, but by the rules accepted in society

11. Correlation of psychological and sociological knowledge.

Recently, critical trends have emerged in the development of social psychology. One of the reasons is the availability of a large amount of empirical data, but at the same time their low effectiveness in solving acute social problems. Therefore, interest in theory is growing and the question of the relationship between the theoretical and empirical levels of knowledge arises in a new way. This interest is primarily due to the complexity of the object of study of social psychology and the lack of well-developed models of theoretical knowledge, since psychology has long existed in the depths of philosophy. It is noted, in particular, that “social psychology came late to the business of theory development. None of her theories is a theory in the strict sense of the word. But the theoretical point of view stimulates and guides research, and therefore the development of theories is the most important task of social psychology” (Shaw and Constanzo).

The birth and actual location of social psychology at the intersection of two sciences (psychology and sociology) lead to great attention to the criteria , defining the face of science, and to scientific theories. In this regard, various scientists propose the following criteria: 1) the economy of the theory, that is, its ability to subordinate many observed relationships to one single principle; 2) the ability of the theory to use numerous variables and principles in various combinations to predict phenomena; 3) the theory should be as simple as possible; 4) economy in explaining phenomena; the theory should not contradict other related theories that have a high probability of truth; 5) the theory must give such interpretations that it is possible to establish a “bridge” between them and real life; 6) theory should serve not only the purpose of research, but also the general progress of science.

It is argued that the hypotheses put forward in socio-psychological practice should be relevant not so much to theories as to social practice, and the main method of testing a hypothesis should be a field experiment rather than a laboratory one. The question of the social role of science is also being raised in a new way. In this regard, overcoming the “neutral” position of the researcher will actually be expressed in the direct inclusion of methodological foundations related to understanding the nature of man, society and their relationships in the context of experimental research, which will make it possible to obtain data not “purified” by laboratory conditions, but to explore polydeterministic social -psychological reality .

12 .Social interaction of people as an object of social psychology.

The most important characteristic of human life is that it takes place in the form of social interaction. Social interaction between people is driven by individual, group and social needs. These needs are satisfied within the framework of the main forms of interaction - communication and joint activities. If we take human society as a whole, then it is thanks to communication and joint activity that living conditions and individuals themselves develop and improve, their mutual understanding is ensured and individual actions are coordinated, communities are formed - large and small social groups. A special type of interaction is opposition, struggle, social conflicts.

A person is both a product and an active participant, a subject of social interaction. Therefore, the process of realizing oneself as a member of society or a group is, in fact, a process of social interaction. A person is capable of condemning or praising himself, depending on the situation, forcing him to change his behavior, inducing him to commit social actions - deeds or crimes. In this case, the individual is simultaneously both a subject and an object of interaction, which takes the form of reflection - that is, the individual’s awareness of himself as a social being - a subject of social relations and conscious activity. Reflection, in essence, is a person’s communication with himself (Goncharov A.I.).

The processes of social interaction are accompanied by the emergence of special phenomena - various states, properties and formations, which reflect the characteristics of the human psyche, his consciousness and the unconscious as products of an individual’s life in society. The most common phenomenon is a change in the individual psyche in communication. In one situation a person is bold and aggressive, in another he is cowardly or shy. Sometimes the simple presence of others and their observation of a person’s actions is enough for such a change. Psychologists have long noticed that when interacting with other people, a person can withstand more intense unpleasant sensations, for example, pain. In front of spectators, athletes show better results (the effect of “facilitation” - relief).

13. Social and psychological phenomena.

Socio-psychological phenomena are situational manifestations by a person of certain properties and qualities (unselfishness or cowardice, authoritarian leadership style or social passivity). This same range of phenomena includes both relatively stable and dynamic features of a small social group - moral and psychological climate, level of cohesion, group moods, traditions, etc. At the same time, it turns out that individual contribution to joint activities decreases proportionally as the number of participants increases. Moreover, subjectively this may not be realized by the participants themselves. A group can force its member, who avoids conflicts or the position of a “black sheep,” to change his point of view even on quite obvious things (the “conformity” effect). Similar phenomena that accompany and, what is important to note, regulate social interaction may include: processes of mutual perception, mutual influence, relationships of various types - sympathy, antipathy, leadership, rumors, fashion, traditions, panic, etc. Such phenomena that accompany human life have always been intuitively or consciously taken into account by people for the purpose of more successful communication and joint activities. These phenomena that arise in social interaction are called socio-psychological phenomena.

14 .Structure of social psychology as a science

The structure of social representation includes three elements:

information (the amount of knowledge about the object being represented);

field of representation (characterizes its content from the qualitative side);

the attitude of the subject in relation to the object of representation.

The dynamics of social representations (“objectification”) includes a number of phases:

personification (associating the object of representation with specific people);

the formation of a “figurative scheme” of representation – a visually represented mental structure;

“naturalization” (operating in everyday consciousness with elements of a “figurative scheme” as autonomous entities)

15.Theoretical and practical tasks of social psychology.

Some of the difficult practical tasks facing social psychology are the tasks of: optimizing personal and group interactions aimed at achieving certain goals (for example, educational, industrial); improving planning, organization, motivation and control of joint activities of people; increasing the efficiency of information exchange (communication) and decision making. To solve such problems, social psychologists are developing various methods of motivation and management , allowing to encourage subjects to act and ensure the optimal functioning of individuals and groups in the process of achieving certain goals.

The very combination of the words “social psychology” indicates the specific place it occupies in the system of other sciences. The history of the formation of social psychology is closely connected with the need to explain this class of facts, which themselves can only be studied with the help of the combined efforts of the two sciences. In the course of the development of socio-psychological practice, the subject of science was also clarified. Its understanding by various authors came from an understanding of the place of social psychology in the system of scientific knowledge, as well as the range of practical problems to be solved. The whole variety of debatable views can be presented in the form of the following positions:

social psychology is a part of sociology (the main emphasis is on the need to study mass phenomena, large social communities, individual aspects of social psychology - mores, traditions, customs, etc.);

social psychology is a part of psychology (the main subject of research is the individual, his position in the team, interpersonal relationships, the communication system);

social psychology is a science at the intersection of psychology and sociology, and the border area of ​​social psychology and sociology is the study of problems of mass communication, public opinion, and the sociology of personality.

0 Stages of development of socio-psychological knowledge.

1. Descriptive stage of development of social psychology (until the middle of the 19th century)

At this stage, there is a gradual accumulation of socio-psychological knowledge within the framework of philosophy with attempts to determine the determinants of human behavior and personality development in society. Thus, in the ancient Eastern teachings of Taoism, it was argued that human behavior is predetermined by the law of “Tao”. A person’s path is determined by fate, so the main thing for a person is to develop calmness and honorably submit to fate, realizing personal growth. The works of Confucius, Sun Tzu, and Mo Tzu examine the problems of innateness or acquisition of various socio-psychological properties.

In ancient philosophy, two lines of analysis of the relationship between man and society can be distinguished. The line of sociocentrism and the line of egocentrism. The line of sociocentrism is presented, for example, in the works of Plato (dialogues “State” and “Laws”), where he expressed a “collectivist”, social-centric judgment: society is an independent variable, and the individual is a variable dependent on it. Society, therefore, stands above the individual. Plato's point of view about the irrational behavior of the masses as a phenomenon subsequently became quite widespread in foreign social psychology.

Representatives of the line of egocentrism considered the individual as the source of all social forms, since all the corresponding tendencies are embedded in him. Aristotle, for example, in his treatise “On Politics” said that man by nature is a political animal, and social instinct constitutes the first basis for the origin of a social union.

During the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, individualism developed within the framework of Christianity. At the same time, the questions were studied: what motivates a person, what determines the emergence and formation of the internal structure of society. The continuation of the theme is reflected in the views of representatives of science of the Renaissance. T. Hobbes (“Leviathan”, 1651) sees this driving force in man’s desire for power and personal gain.

Adam Smith called the driving forces of economic and social life “sympathy” and the desire to satisfy one’s own interests. Emphasizing at the same time the role of the social environment, he wrote long before modern researchers (“The Theory of Moral Sentiments,” 1752) that an individual’s attitude toward himself and his self-esteem depend on the mirror, the function of which is performed by society.

Sociocentrism finds expression in the ideas of N. Machiavelli, G. Vico, P.Zh. Proudhon and other authors. Thus, according to the views of N. Machiavelli, society, which subjugates the individual, is considered as a kind of social mechanism (“organism”) that regulates the social activity of the individual. A number of questions concerning the determination of the place and role of personality psychology in the life of society were raised by Helvetius. In his works “On the Mind” and “On Man,” he emphasized the role of the social environment in the upbringing of a person, as well as the role of consciousness and passions, needs, desires of the individual in the development of society.

In the works of the German philosopher Hegel one can find an interesting attempt at a socio-psychological approach to explaining the historical process as a whole and its individual stages. He considered the change in people's characters in connection with changes in the socio-political situation in the country. In turn, the features of such stable formations as religion and the state are the result of certain changes in a special psychological formation - the “spirit of the people.”

2. Accumulation of socio-psychological knowledge in the field of philosophy, sociology and general psychology. Descriptive stage of development of social psychology (until the middle of the 19th century) At this stage, there is a gradual accumulation of socio-psychological knowledge within the framework of philosophy with attempts to determine the determinants of human behavior and personality development in society (see answer first)

3. Social, scientific and ideological prerequisites for the separation of social psychology into an independent science.

The need for the emergence of social psychology manifested itself in the development of two sciences that are considered the direct parents of social psychology - sociology and psychology. It is characteristic that the defining direction of psychology has become the psychology of the individual. However, a new approach was required in explaining human behavior, not reducible to its determination by individual psychological factors. Sociology became an independent science in the middle of the 19th century. Its founder is considered to be the French philosopher Auguste Comte. Sociology from the very beginning sought to build an explanation of social facts, turning to the laws of psychology, seeing a psychological beginning in the specifics of social phenomena, and later a special psychological direction in sociology took shape (Lester Ward, Franklin Giddings), reducing the laws of the social to the laws of the collective psyche. These mutual aspirations were realized in the middle of the 19th century. and gave birth to the first forms of socio-psychological knowledge proper.

Thus, two factors can be identified that contributed to the emergence of the first socio-psychological teachings:

a) development of society (political, economic, social, spiritual spheres);

b) the logic of the development of science.

4. Social and psychological content of the concepts of “psychology of peoples” (M-Lazarus, G. Steinthal, V. Wundt), “psychology of the masses” (G. Lebon, G. Tarde, S. Siegele) and “theory of instincts of social behavior” ( W. McDougall).

60s.xx century - 20s.xx stage of formation of social. psychic knowledge

This stage is characterized by the emergence of the first socio-psychological theories, such as the “psychology of peoples” by M. Lazarus and G. Steinthal, the “psychology of the masses” by G. Lebon and S. Siege, the theory of “instincts of social behavior” by W. McDougall. By this time (mid-19th century) one can observe significant progress in the development of a number of sciences, including those directly related to the social life of society. Linguistics has developed greatly, the need for which was caused by the processes that took place in capitalist Europe - the rapid development of capitalism, the multiplication of economic ties between states, which brought about a huge migration of the population. The problem of linguistic communication and mutual influence of peoples and, accordingly, the problem of the connection of language with various components of the psychology of peoples has become acute. Linguistics could not solve this problem on its own.

Psychology of peoples- a theory that asserts that the main force of history is the people or the “spirit of the whole,” which expresses itself in art, religion, language, myths, etc., and individual consciousness is only its product. This theory developed in the middle of the 19th century. in Germany. The theoretical sources of its emergence were Hegel’s doctrine of the “national spirit” and Herbart’s idealistic psychology.

The direct creators of the psychology of peoples were the philosopher M. Lazarus (1824-1903) and the linguist G. Steinthal (1823-1893). They argued that there is a kind of super-individual soul, subordinate to a super-individual integrity. This integrity is represented by the people or nation. The soul of an individual is its dependent part, that is, it is involved in the soul of the people. As a program and task for the psychology of peoples, in their article “Introductory Discourses on the Psychology of Peoples” (1859), the authors proposed “to understand psychologically the essence of the spirit of the people and their actions, to discover the laws according to which... the spiritual activity of the people flows... as well as the basis for the emergence, development and disappearance of specific features characteristic of a people.”

Psychology of the masses– a theory that explains the reasons for changes in human behavior in the masses, his irrational behavior through the action of psychological mechanisms of imitation and infection. This theory resolved the issue of the relationship between the individual and society from an “individualistic” position. The theory was born in France in the second half of the 19th century. Its origins were laid in the concept of imitation by G. Tarde. Tarde, while researching various phenomena, came across the following difficulty: these phenomena could not be satisfactorily explained within the framework of the intellectualistic views of academic psychology. Therefore, he paid attention to the affective (irrational) elements of people's social behavior, which until that time had not been the subject of study. The creators of “mass psychology” were influenced by two provisions of Tarde’s work (“The Laws of Imitation,” 1890), namely the idea of ​​\u200b\u200bthe role of imitation and suggestion and irrationalism in explaining social behavior. The phenomena observed by Tarde concerned mainly the behavior of a person in a crowd, in a mass. In psychology under crowd is understood as an unstructured accumulation of people devoid of a clearly recognized commonality of goals, but connected by similarities in their emotional state and a common object of attention.

Instinct theory of social behavior(or “hormic theory”). The founder of the theory is the English psychologist William McDougall (1871-1938). McDougall's work “Introduction to Social Psychology” was published in 1908 - this year is considered the year of the final establishment of social psychology in independent existence. It should be noted that in the same year the book by sociologist E. Ross “Social Psychology” was published in the USA. However, eleven years earlier, “Studies in Social Psychology” (1897) by J. Baldwin was published, which could also lay claim to the “title” of the first systematic guide to social psychology.

McDougall in his “Introduction” aimed to systematically study the driving forces to which human behavior, especially his social behavior, should be subject. In his opinion, the common cause of social behavior is a person’s desire for a goal (“gorme”), which is realized as “instincts” that have an innate character.

The repertoire of instincts in each person arises as a result of a certain psychophysical predisposition - the presence of hereditarily fixed channels for the discharge of nervous energy. They consist of an afferent (receptive, perceiving) part, responsible for how objects and phenomena are perceived, a central part (emotional), thanks to which we experience emotional arousal during perception, and an efferent (motor) part, which determines the nature of our reaction to these objects and phenomena.

Thus, everything that happens in the area of ​​consciousness is directly dependent on the unconscious principle. The internal expression of instincts is mainly emotions. The connection between instincts and emotions is systematic and definite. McDougall listed six pairs of related instincts and emotions:

the instinct of fight and the corresponding anger and fear; the instinct of flight and the sense of self-preservation; the instinct of reproduction and jealousy, female timidity; the instinct of acquisition and a sense of ownership; the instinct of construction and the sense of creation; the herd instinct and a sense of belonging.

From instincts, in his opinion, all social institutions are derived: family, trade, social processes (primarily war)

5. Experimental stage of development of social psychology (late 20th - early 20th centuries)

This stage is characterized by attempts to clarify the relationship of socio-psychological phenomena to the experiment and the accumulation of a large number of facts. In turn, the following periods can be distinguished:

1) the undivided dominance of experiment (20-40s);

2) attempts at proportional development of theoretical and experimental knowledge (50s to the present).

First period. At the beginning of the twentieth century. social psychology is gradually turning into an experimental science. The official milestone was the program proposed in Europe by V. Mede and in the USA by F. Allport, which formulated the requirements for transforming social psychology into an experimental discipline. It receives its main development in the USA, where from the very beginning it was focused on applied knowledge, on solving certain social problems, as a result of which it directly linked its fate with the interests of such institutions as business, administration, army, and propaganda. The recommendations of social psychology regarding the “human factor”, which were in demand in each of these areas, stimulated the pragmatic orientation of this science.

Second period The considered stage of development of social psychology coincides with the period that began after the end of the Second World War. The general trend is characterized by attempts by social psychologists to find the optimal balance between theory and experiment. At the same time, most of the theories that arose in social psychology after K. Lewin are fairly unanimously called theories of “middle rank.” If in the classical period of the development of science the school practically coincided with the theory, then the rejection of general theories by social psychologists raises the question of the traditional division of social psychology into “schools” in a new way.

6. Discussion on the subject of social psychology in the 20s of the XX century

In the 20-30s. The development of domestic social psychology was accompanied by the development of theoretical problems of psychology as a whole, based on the restructuring of its philosophical foundations. During the discussion on the subject of social psychology, different points of view were expressed about its role and tasks. So, G.I. Chelpanov proposed dividing psychology into two parts: social, which should be developed within the framework of Marxism, and psychology itself, which should remain an experimental science. K.N. Kornilov contrary to G.I. Chelpanov proposed preserving the unity of psychology by extending the reactology method to human behavior in a team. At the same time, the collective was understood as a single reaction of its members to a single stimulus, and the task of social psychology was proposed to be the measurement of the speed, strength and dynamism of these collective reactions.

Another prominent Russian psychologist P.P. Blonsky was one of the first to raise the question of the need to analyze the role of the social environment in characterizing the human psyche. “Sociality” was considered by him as a special activity of people associated with other people. Animal activity also fits this understanding of sociality, so the proposal of P.P. Blonsky's idea was to include psychology as a biological science in the circle of social problems.

7. History of the development of socio-psychological ideas in Russia.

In the development of domestic social psychology at the end of the 19th century. a big role belongs to N.K. Mikhailovsky. His undeniable merit is in posing the problem of the need to develop a special science (collective, mass psychology), designed to study mass psychology, its role and place in social movements. Mikhailovsky strongly emphasized the role of the psychological factor in the historical process, and in connection with this, the role of collective psychology in the study of mass movements (primarily the peasant movement). One of the problems considered by N.K. Mikhailovsky, there was a problem of the relationship between the crowd and the hero (leader). Naturally, this issue also had a very specific social context for its consideration. In the reproduction of certain forms of social behavior, a significant place, according to N.K. Mikhailovsky, belongs to imitation as a mechanism of mass behavior. He distinguished between external factors of imitation (behavior, example of another person) and internal ones (scarcity, poverty of the individual’s inner world, suggestibility, weakness of will, inability of conscious self-control).

8. The first experiments to study the influence of the group on the activity of the individual.

The first milestones in the development of experimental social psychology include:

the first step of social psychology in the laboratory is N. Tripplett’s study of dynamogenic factors in cooperation (1897);

the first step in the “field” is E. Starbuck’s study “Psychology of Religion” (1899);

the first work of an applied nature is the work of G. Jayle on the psychology of advertising (1900).

He conducted a series of brilliant experimental studies in the 30-40s. with his collaborators Kurt Lewin, who emigrated from Germany in 1933, at the Center for the Study of Group Dynamics at the University of Massachusetts, which he founded.

9. Problems of social psychology in “collective reflexology” by V.M. Bekhterev. L.S. Vygotsky on the relationship between “social” and “collective” psychology.

The proposal to create a special science of reflexology was made by the outstanding physiologist V.M. Bekhterev. Reflexology- a natural scientific direction in psychology, which developed in the period 1900-1930, mainly in Russia, associated with the activities of V.M. Bekhterev and his colleagues and is close in essence to behaviorism. The solution to socio-psychological problems, according to V.M. Bekhterev, a certain branch of reflexology should be engaged. He called this branch “collective reflexology,” and the subject of its study was the behavior of groups, the behavior of individuals in a group, the conditions for the emergence of social associations, the characteristics of their activities, and the relationships of their members. He saw the overcoming of subjectivist social psychology in the fact that all the problems of groups were understood as the relationship of external influences with the motor and facial-somatic reactions of their members. The socio-psychological approach had to be ensured by combining the principles of reflexology (mechanisms for uniting people into groups) and sociology (features of groups and their relationship with living conditions and class struggle in society). In a number of his experimental studies, V.M. Bekhterev established (together with M.V. Lange and V.N. Myasishchev) that the group promotes more productive activity by influencing the individual psyche of its members. However, in this approach, although the idea of ​​the emergence of qualitatively different phenomena in a collective was affirmed, and the individual was declared a product of society, the consideration of this individual and his behavior was still based on biological characteristics, and group psychology was considered a derivative of individual psychology.

In the course of the further development of domestic psychology, ideas about the cultural and historical determination of the psyche, the mediation of the individual psyche by the conditions of being in a team (L.S. Vygotsky), the unity of consciousness and activity (S.L. Rubinstein, A.N. Leontyev). However, the real implementation of these principles into research practice was complicated by the peculiarities of the socio-political situation of those years

10. Current state and problems of social psychology in Russia.

Currently, the peculiarities of domestic social psychology is the consideration of problems of the individual, group, and communication based on the principle of activity, which means the study of socio-psychological phenomena in real social groups united by joint activities, provided that this activity mediates the entire system of intragroup processes.

1. Dynamic theory of group functioning (V. Bayon).

The theory is an attempt to interpret the parameters of a group and the mechanisms of its functioning by analogy with the psychological characteristics of an individual. The material for observation was the therapeutic groups. It is argued that a group is a macro-variant of an individual, therefore socio-psychological analysis is possible according to the same criteria as the study of an individual (needs, motives, goals, etc.).

The group, according to Bayon, is presented in two plans:

a) the group performs a task (conscious actions of group members);

b) group culture (norms, sanctions, opinions, attitudes, etc.) as a result of unconscious contributions of group members. Between these two levels of group life - rational (or conscious) and irrational (unconscious) - conflicts are inevitable, leading to “ collective defense mechanisms”, which are again interpreted by analogy with individual defense mechanisms in psychoanalytic interpretation.

2. Interactionist orientation in social psychology.

General characteristics of the direction:

a) the main starting point for analysis is not the individual, but the process of social interaction between people, the means of its implementation and regulation; b) close connection with cognitivist theories and sociology; c) key concepts – “interaction” and “role”; e) the main theoretical source is the socio-psychological concepts of George Mead, an American philosopher, sociologist and social psychologist.

Main directions: 1) symbolic interactionism; 2) role theories; 3) reference group theories.

3. Cognitivist orientation in social psychology.

Main problems and theoretical foundations of the cognitive approach in social psychology. Cognitive psychology emerged in the mid-60s. in the USA and was directed against the behaviorist interpretation of human behavior, which ignores the role of cognitive processes and cognitive development.

Cognitive psychology– one of the modern areas of research in psychology, explaining human behavior on the basis of knowledge and studying the process and dynamics of its formation. The essence of the cognitivist approach comes down to the desire to explain social behavior through a system of cognitive processes and establishing a balance of cognitive structures. These structures (attitudes, ideas, expectations, etc.) act as regulators of social behavior. On their basis, the perceived object or phenomenon is assigned to a certain class of phenomena (categorization). Within the framework of the cognitivist approach, the following problems are studied:

a) social perception;

b) attractions (emotional experience of another);

c) formation and change of attitudes. Attitude- a social attitude that presupposes the subject’s readiness for a particular image and type of action, which is actualized when he anticipates the appearance of a certain social object, phenomenon and bears the features of the holistic structure of the personality, its dependence on the orientation towards the values ​​of the group.

The theoretical sources of cognitive psychology are Gestalt psychology and K. Lewin's field theory. The following ideas are accepted from Gestalt psychology:

a) a holistic image - affirmation of the initially holistic nature of perception;

b) categorization of images - assigning an object to a certain class of phenomena based on the characteristics of existing cognitive structures, reflecting the specifics of individual knowledge of the world and a person’s personal experience;

c) isomorphism - a statement of the existence of structural similarity between physical and psychological processes;

d) the dominance of “good figures” - the “desire” of perception to close, to complete individual elements into a complete (or symmetrical) figure;

e) assimilation and contrast - perception of an image based on categorization, that is, assignment to a certain class and comparison of its qualities from the point of view of difference or similarity with the typical qualities of objects of a given community (category);

f) immanent dynamics of Gestalt - the statement that the restructuring of cognitive structures occurs in connection with a change in the perceived situation, which leads to their mutual correspondence

4. Cognitive approach by S. Asch, D. Krech, R. Crutchfield.

This approach does not rely on the principle of correspondence, which is fundamental to the theories discussed above. The main ideas of the authors, which serve as a methodological setting for experimental research, boil down to the following provisions:

a) a person’s behavior can only be examined on the basis of recognition of his integrity;

b) the most important element of the holistic organization of behavior is cognition;

c) perception is considered as the relation of incoming data to the cognitive structure, and learning is considered as a process of cognitive reorganization.

S. Asch, focusing his efforts on the study of problems of social perception, argues that a person’s perception of the surrounding social reality selectively depends on previous knowledge. That is, the tendency towards “perceptual integration” (combining new and old knowledge) is realized taking into account the possibility of ensuring the consistency of the cognitive organization. Moreover, when a person constructs an image of an object, identical data are not the same in different contexts. This conclusion was made on the basis of an experiment in which two groups of subjects were offered 7 adjectives allegedly referring to the same person, and the last adjectives were different for the two groups: “warm” and “cold”. Then the group participants were offered 18 character traits, from which they had to choose those that, in their opinion, would characterize this person. As a result, the set of these traits turned out to be completely different depending on belonging to a particular group and indicated a tendency to build a configuration of traits around the words “warm” or “cold”. These characteristics determined the very context of perception in which they occupied a central place, generally setting a certain tendency to combine the perceived characteristics into an organized semantic system.

In another experiment, the phenomenon of “social support” was revealed, when in a conflict situation for the subject, expressing only one judgment in his support sharply increased his stability in defending his opinion.

In general, the following is characteristic of the cognitive approach in social psychology:

the main source of data and determining factor of human behavior are cognitive processes and formations (knowledge, understanding, judgment, etc.);

based on the understanding of human behavior and cognition as integral (molar) processes, general schemes for studying these phenomena are oriented;

qualitative interpretation of dissonant states and prognosis of an individual’s behavior in most cases is interpreted based on human psychology, which acts as both an explanatory principle and a kind of norm for comparing the actual behavior of the subjects with it

5. Neo-behaviourist orientation in social psychology.

The neobehaviorist orientation in social psychology is an extrapolation of the principles of traditional behaviorism and neobehaviorism to a new range of objects. Behaviorism– one of the leading directions in psychology, the main subject of study of which is behavior, understood as a set of “stimulus-response” relationships. Neobehaviorism- a direction in psychology that replaced behaviorism in the 30s. XX century Characterized by recognition of the active role of mental states in controlling behavior. Presented in the teachings of American psychologists E. Tolman, K. Hull, B. Skinner.

The neo-behaviourist orientation in social psychology is based on a neo-positivist methodological complex, which includes the following principles: 1) absolutization of the standard of scientific research established in the natural sciences; 2) the principles of verification (or falsification) and operationalism; 3) naturalism as ignoring the specifics of human behavior; 4) a negative attitude towards theory and absolutization of empirical description; 5) a fundamental severance of ties with philosophy. The main problem of the behaviorist orientation is learning. It is through learning that the entire repertoire of observable behavior is acquired. Learning is conceptualized as the establishment or change of associations between the learner's responses and the stimuli that stimulate or reinforce it.

There are two trends in the field of neo-behaviorist approach in social psychology: the operant approach, which emphasizes the reinforcement of the most successful actions (Operant conditioning) as the main mechanism for the formation and modification of behavior, and the mediator approach, which continues the line of traditional behaviorism, which sees the learning mechanism in strengthening the necessary connection between stimuli and reactions (Table 3). Operant conditioning- a type of learning carried out by reinforcing the body’s most successful reactions to certain stimuli. The concept of operant conditioning was proposed by the American psychologist E. Thorndike and developed by B. Skinner.

Important categories for neobehaviorism in social psychology that explain the mechanisms of human behavior are: 1) generalization (generalization) - the tendency of a reaction received to one specific stimulus to be associated with another, new, but similar stimulus; 2) discrimination (differentiation) - the ability of an individual to distinguish the desired stimulus among others and respond specifically to it; 3) reinforcement (positive and negative) - actions of the experimenter (other people), leading to observable changes in the external reactions of the individual.

The main theories of neobehaviorism in social psychology are: the theory of aggression and imitation, the theory of dyadic interaction, the theory of social exchange

6. Role theories.

Representatives of role theory: T. Sarbin, E. Goffman, R. Linton, R. Rommetveit, N. Gross and others.

Main category – “social role”, that is, a set of norms, rules and forms of behavior that characterize the typical actions of a person occupying a certain position in society. A role is defined as a dynamic aspect of status. Status is a “set of role expectations” in relation to a group member, which are divided into “expectations-rights” and “expectations-responsibilities” of the individual when performing his role. When an individual exercises his rights and obligations arising from his status, he fulfills the corresponding role (R. Linton).

In understanding the role, the following aspects are highlighted: a) a role as a system of expectations in society regarding the behavior of an individual; b) a role as a system of specific expectations of an individual in relation to his behavior in interaction with others; c) a role as the observed behavior of an individual.

There are types of roles: a) conventional, formal (in relation to them in society there are clear generally accepted ideas) and interpersonal, informal (in relation to them there are no common ideas); b) prescribed (externally given, independent of the efforts of the individual) and achieved through efforts individual; c) active (currently being executed) and latent (potential).

In addition, roles may differ depending on the intensity of their performance by a person, on the degree of his involvement in the role (from zero to maximum involvement). An individual’s perception and performance of a role depends on the following conditions: a) knowledge of the role; b) ability to perform the role; c ) internalization of the role being performed. When an individual is unable to fulfill the demands made by the role, a situation of role conflict arises. There are two types of conflicts:

1) inter-role conflicts- a conflict that arises when an individual is forced to perform several roles, but is not able to meet all the requirements of these roles; 2) intra-role conflicts– conflict, when the requirements for the bearers of one role come into conflict in different social groups.

The severity of role conflict is determined by two factors: a) the more common demands two roles make, the less significant the role conflict they can cause; b) the degree of severity of the requirements imposed by the roles: the more strictly the role requirements are defined and the stricter their compliance is required, the more difficult it is for their performer to evade fulfilling these requirements and the more likely it is that these roles can cause role conflict.

The nature of a person’s actions to overcome role tension – that is, the individual’s state in a situation of inter-role conflict – depends on the following circumstances:

a) subjective attitude to the role of its performer; b) sanctions applied for performance or non-performance of the role;

c) type of orientation of the role holder (orientation towards moral values; pragmatic orientation).

Based on these factors, it is possible to predict which method of resolving the conflict the role performer will prefer.

A representative of the “role-playing” direction, E. Goffman in his work “Man in Everyday Behavior” (1959), put forward the concept of “social dramaturgy,” where he draws an almost complete analogy between real life situations and theatrical performances. The author proceeds from the fact that a person is able not only to look at himself through the eyes of a partner, but also to adjust his behavior in accordance with the expectations of another in order to create a more favorable impression of himself. For effective interaction, partners must have information about each other, the means of which are: appearance; previous interaction experience; words and deeds of a partner (can manage them, creating his own image).

7. Symbolic interactionism.

Symbolic interactionist theory– theoretical views on the significance of symbols, gestures, and facial expressions in communication.

Representatives of symbolic interactionism: J. Mead, G. Bloomer, N. Denzin, M. Kuhn, A. Rose, A. Rose, A. Strauss, T. Shibutani and others - pay special attention to the problems of “symbolic communication” (communication, interaction carried out using symbols).

The most significant work in the field of symbolic interactionism is George Herbert Mead's (1863-1931) work “Mind, Personality and Society” (1934). J. Mead- American philosopher, sociologist, social psychologist, expressed the ideas of pragmatism, believed that the human “I” has a social nature and is formed in the course of social interaction.

The main positions defining the theoretical essence of symbolic interactionism, set out by J. Mead: A) personality is a product of social interaction. In the process of interaction, facial expressions, individual movements, and gestures, called “symbols” by Mead, evoke certain reactions in the interlocutor. Consequently, the meaning of a symbol or significant gesture should be sought in the reaction of the person to whom this symbol is addressed ;b) to conduct successful communication, a person must have the ability to take on the role of another (interlocutor). Role is associated with the ability to see oneself through the eyes of another; V) the accumulation of interaction experience leads to the formation in a person of an image of a “generalized other.” “Generalized other” is a concept that means the integration of an individual’s attitudes in relation to those people who see him (the individual) from the outside; G) An individual's behavior is determined mainly by three components: personality structure, role and reference group.

Personality structure includes three components:

“I” (I) is the impulsive, creative, driving principle of the personality, which is the cause of variations within role behavior and deviations from it;

“Me” (me) is a normative “I”, a kind of internal social control based on taking into account the requirements of those significant for other people and, above all, the “generalized other” and directing the actions of the individual to achieve successful social interaction;

“Self” (self) is a set of impulsive and normative “I”, their active interaction. In symbolic interactionism, two schools stand out - Chicago (G. Blumer) and Iowa (M. Kuhn).

G. Bloomer– representative of the Chicago school of symbolic interactionism. He opposed the empirical confirmation of D. Mead’s conclusions, arguing that only descriptive methods are suitable for identifying socio-psychological phenomena and personality characteristics, since a person’s expression of his relationships and states develops in a different way each time. He believed that the personality is in a continuous process of change, the essence of which is the unique and continuous interaction between the impulsive “I” and the normative “I”, the constant dialogue of the individual with himself, as well as the interpretation and assessment of the situation and behavior of other people. Due to the fact that human social attitudes are constantly changing, it is concluded that behavior can be explained, but cannot be predicted. Role behavior is a searching, dynamic and creative process (playing a role).

M. Kuhn(Iowa School) - author of the “personality self-esteem theory.” He argued that behavior is determined by how an individual perceives and interprets the surrounding reality, including himself. That is, knowing the self-esteem of an individual, we can predict the behavior of this individual. Role behavior is interpreted as “performing,” “playing,” “accepting” a role, which excludes its creative nature.

M. Kuhn introduces the following operational definition of personality: “Operationally, the essence of personality can be defined... as the answers that an individual gives to the question: “Who am I?” addressed to himself, or to the question: “Who are you?” addressed to him by another person.” The respondents’ answers to this question received during the study were divided into two categories:

a) characterizing social status and role (student, daughter, citizen);

b) related to an individual characteristic (fat, unlucky, happy).

Of the responses received, the overwhelming majority belonged to the first category, which means the greater importance of role positions for the individual.

8. Social and psychological aspects of psychoanalytic interpretations of personality and group processes.

Psychoanalysis has not become as widespread in social psychology as other areas, in particular behaviorism and interactionism.

Psychoanalysis fulfills the function of the general theoretical basis of this direction only partially. We are most likely talking about the use of certain provisions of psychoanalysis in the course of socio-psychological research, which involves transferring the scheme of individual human development to the social context.

Psychoanalysis– a doctrine that recognizes the special role of the unconscious in the dynamics of personality development. Contains a system of ideas and methods for interpreting dreams and other unconscious mental phenomena, as well as diagnosing and treating various mental illnesses. Freudianism- a doctrine associated with the name of the Austrian psychiatrist and psychologist 3. Freud, in addition to psychoanalysis, contains a theory of personality, a system of views on the relationship between man and society, a set of ideas about the stages and stages of human psychosexual development.

Subsequently, on the basis of psychoanalysis, there arises neo-Freudianism, the views of whose representatives, in contrast to S. Freud, are associated with the recognition of the essential role of society in the formation of personality and with the refusal to consider organic needs as the only basis for social human behavior.

Examples of theories that directly use the ideas of classical psychoanalysis are the theories of L. Bayon, W. Bennis and G. Shepard, L. Schutz. They attempt to consider the processes occurring in the group, which expands the area of ​​research

Social Psychology - a branch of psychology that studies human behavior in society (society), mental phenomena that occur during the interaction of different groups of people. That is, it examines the patterns of behavior of people who are part of various groups, their thoughts about each other, how they influence each other, and how they relate to each other. This direction appeared in the middle of the 19th century. Before this, it was presented only as a social philosophy.

The uniqueness of this direction is that it lies between sociology and psychology. It cannot be attributed to any of these areas. It is rather unifying. The fact is that psychology considers more intrapersonal aspects and social situations, while sociology considers extrapersonal and social processes that determine human behavior. The object of study of social psychology is both intrapersonal and extrapersonal aspects.

A person spends most of his life in society among other people, uniting with them in various groups: family, work team, friends, sports clubs, etc. At the same time, these groups interact with other groups of people, both small and large. Understanding how this interaction occurs is important for resolving family and national conflicts, in the system of people management, etc.

Wherein A group is defined as several people united by one action. For example, if people witnessed an accident and gathered to watch, then such a gathering of people is not considered a group. If they began to help the participants in the accident, then they formed a temporary group united by one action.

Groups provide satisfaction of certain needs of society as a whole and each of its members individually.

Due to this Social psychology divides groups into the following categories:

1. Primary groups (family), which a person comes to first, and secondary groups (work team), where a person comes after primary groups.
2. Large groups (nations, peoples) and small groups (family, friends).
3. Formal and informal. A formal structure is created to carry out official tasks. Informal connections arise spontaneously as individuals interact.

Groups perform 4 functions:

1. Socialization is the process of including an individual in a certain social environment and assimilating its norms and values. Thus, the family serves to acquire certain life skills in a social environment.
2. Instrumental - the implementation of one or another joint activity of people. Participation in such groups, as a rule, provides a person with material means of living and provides him with opportunities for self-realization.
3. Expressive - meeting people's needs for approval, respect and trust. This role is usually performed by primary informal groups.
4. Supportive - Bringing people together in groups during difficult situations. As experiments have shown, in the face of danger, people strive to get psychologically closer to each other.

The properties of groups are influenced by size and number. Some sociologists believe that a group begins with the union of 2 people, but a number of scientists argue that the minimum composition of a group is 3 people. This is due to the fragility of the dyad. In the triad, interaction already occurs in two directions, which makes the structure more durable. The maximum small group size is 10 people. As a rule, in social psychology the terms small group and primary group are equivalent.

The structure of the group depends on its goals, and is also influenced by socio-demographic, social and psychological factors. They can cause the group to break up into several smaller groups.

Social psychology pays a lot of attention to psychological compatibility in groups, since its members have to come into contact with each other. And here, clashes and misunderstandings are possible. It is also possible to create an entire group.

Scientists have discovered 4 types of communicative behavior:

1. People who strive for leadership, trying to subordinate other people to accomplish a given task.
2. People who strive to complete a task alone.
3. People who adapt to the group and easily obey the orders of others.
4. Collectivists who strive to complete a given task through joint efforts.

Therefore, one of the important tasks is to build relationships between these groups of people in a team.

Social psychologists study the effectiveness of individual and group decision making. At development of group decisions sociologists also noticed dividing people into 5 categories:

1. Individuals tend to talk more than others.
2. Individuals with high status have more influence on decisions than individuals with low status.
3. Groups often spend a significant proportion of their time resolving interpersonal differences.
4. Groups can lose sight of their purpose and end up with incongruous conclusions.
5. Group members often experience exceptionally strong pressure to conform.

Recently, sociologists have begun to pay much attention to issues of management and leadership, noting their differences. They highlighted 3 types of leadership:

1. Autocratic. The leader makes decisions alone, determining all the activities of his subordinates and not giving them the opportunity to take the initiative.
2. Democratic. The leader involves subordinates in the decision-making process based on group discussion, stimulating their activity and sharing with them all decision-making powers.
3. Free. The leader avoids any personal participation in decision making, giving subordinates complete freedom to make decisions on their own.

Thus, one can see the importance of scientific research in the field of social psychology, the importance of the practical use of this knowledge in people's everyday lives.