Summary of a lesson in social studies “The position of man in society” outline of a lesson in social studies (grade 5) on the topic

Man's place in society

Society consists of numerous groups of people, public organizations, and individuals connected by relationships. These relationships are regulated by social norms - rules of behavior accepted in society. But these rules are not the same for everyone; what is possible for some people is prohibited for others.

A police officer can carry a weapon and use force against violators of public order, but this does not mean that all other members of society have such rights. Social statuses and social roles help people understand their diverse rights and responsibilities. They depend on the age, financial and marital status of the individual, level of education, and profession. Social statuses and roles change as a person grows up, his career grows, and he gains access to power.

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Social status is the position occupied by an individual in society. This provision imposes on the individual a number of responsibilities, rights, and privileges.

Example.

• Alexandra Ivanovna is a seller, this is one of her social statuses. It imposes certain responsibilities on a woman: to be in the store from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., sell people various products, advise customers on the quality or other characteristics of products. Along with her responsibilities, Alexandra Ivanovna has the rights to receive wages, take paid leave once a year, and go on sick leave in case of health problems.
• Sasha Ivanov is a seven-year-old child, this characteristic is the social status of a person. Sasha has the rights: to the care of his parents, their love, to provide him with clothes, food, toys, books and everything that Sasha needs. But along with rights, Sasha has some responsibilities: obey his parents, study at school.
• Vladimir Alekseevich is a grandfather - this is one of his social statuses. Vladimir Alekseevich has the right to see his grandchildren, buy them gifts, and share his life experience with them. His responsibilities include taking care of his grandchildren when their parents are not around.

The same individual may have several dozen social statuses, which impose on him certain rights and responsibilities. Each social status has its own manner of behavior, which is called a social role. Even by the clothes an individual is wearing, one can understand his social role and expect certain behavior from him in society. Seeing a military uniform, a doctor's robe, or a formal business suit, one can guess about the social status of a given individual.

This is interesting! In the recent past, about 200 years ago, one could understand from women’s clothing whether a woman was married or not, what her family’s income was, what social class she was from, where she was from. Time has changed and today the rules for wearing clothes are no longer so strict, but a person’s appearance can still tell about several social roles of an individual.

Varieties of position in society

When trying to recognize what social status is, you should familiarize yourself with its classification. Any position of an individual in the life of society can be classified into two fundamental types. The first type is performances prescribed to a person regardless of his desires, capabilities and financial components. These include gender, place of birth, national characteristics, ethnic origin. The second type is achieved social status or acquired, as they often talk about it. The achievement of his goals and peaks directly depends on the desire and abilities of a person. After all, husbands, leaders, doctors of science, football players, writers or engineers are not born, they are made.

What is social status

The concept of social status determines the position occupied and also reflects the hierarchical structure of the entire group. Status characteristics do not entirely depend on the efforts made by the individual; they are determined by the surrounding society, endowing or depriving them of certain functions based on not always objective factors. It is worth noting that the social status occupied is not a static concept and changes in accordance with external circumstances or by a decision made by the person himself. Also, the status may cease to exist completely if a person leaves a given social group or ceases to build his activities on the basis of the rules that govern the behavioral manifestations of people.

Increasing social status is possible with a person’s independent efforts and aspirations (obtaining additional education, creating a social movement, increasing the number of orders carried out), as well as due to social processes (military conflicts, change and seizure of power, death of superiors).

The statuses of one person are divided into personal and social-public, which is determined by the person’s inclusion simultaneously in social groups of various sizes. Personal status includes the place a person occupies in a small group (family, immediate peer group, team, etc.). The position held here is regulated by personal qualities and the ability to build strong and productive interpersonal connections. The better a person is perceived by others, the more positive emotions they experience in his direction, the higher his status. It is quite simple to adjust your place in a small group; it is characterized by frequent changes in positions, which is largely determined by the emotionality of perception and reflects relationships and their processes.

The social status of a person refers to the place he occupies in a large group of people, distinguished on the basis of certain categories (gender, nation, religion, profession, place of residence, etc.). The perception of personality qualities and characteristics at this level is regulated not by the group of people themselves and their influence, but by the global position of this social category in society. It is the lack of flexibility in this matter and the scale of perception that explains the derogatory attitude based on their race, the oppression of rights and freedoms based on gender characteristics and religious preferences.

Types and examples

In general, there are a lot of varieties, so it is better to present it as the following classification:

1. Prescribed . This includes biologically defined characteristics (eg gender, nationality, age). That is, a person receives it regardless of desire and effort. The main difference is that they cannot be chosen and they are not adjusted in any way throughout life. To some extent, the prescribed status even determines a person’s behavior and his worldview.
2. Purchased . An individual receives it as a result of some events, but not by personal will (for example, grandmother, father-in-law, brother, mother-in-law, etc.). That is, he does not make any effort for this.
3. Achieved . It is a type of acquired. The main distinguishing feature is that it is obtained as a result of conscious desire and invested effort. To a greater extent, this type reflects professional categories (director, psychologist, doctor of sciences, teacher, professor, etc.). To increase or decrease this type, you need to react in a timely manner and change your behavior in accordance with the situation.
4. Main .
   Most often, in this case, a person’s profession is considered, due to the fact that it is of great importance and has a direct impact on his capabilities and environment. You also need to focus on the characteristics of a person’s cultural environment and the reality around him. For example, in countries with a patriarchal system, gender becomes the main status for women.
5. Minor . This includes the fact that a person can change several times per season or even per day. Most often they differ in insignificance for him. An example would be a buyer in a store, a spectator in a theater, or a passenger on a tram.

There is another classification, which is no less important and stands apart from the one discussed above. Sociologists distinguish the following types:

1. High . It is a good position in society that is valued by a social group. In the modern world, high status meets the following requirements: possession of property, citizenship in a developed or developing country, higher education, a good level of stable income, and financial reserves. Most often it is also distinguished by connections with authoritative people and power.
2. Short .
   In this case, a person’s position in society is insignificant; both the person himself and the social group are aware of this. As a rule, this includes the absence of any property and place of residence, lack of education or its low level, low income or unemployment. Most often, this also includes people who break the law or have obvious problems with alcohol and drugs.

What three social statuses are considered natural? Only the following three prescribed statuses can be called natural-born

• floor,
• race,
• nationality.

So, for example, Asian characterizes a race.

Woman reflects a person's gender.

Russian , determines nationality.

All of the listed categories are given biologically; a person cannot choose or adjust them; he does not inherit them of his own free will.

Read about the strengths and weaknesses of the everyday worldview here.

Reasons for the generation gap

Young people and teenagers are often offended by the older generation for the many prohibitions and restrictions imposed on them. Psychologists call this a breakdown of connections between generations. But when parents forbid teenagers from watching TV, playing computer games, drinking alcohol, or staying in the company of friends, they are simply fulfilling their social roles. Parents are strict not out of harshness or lack of love towards their children, but out of duty towards them.

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Teenagers dream of growing up faster, they promise themselves never to act in the same way towards their future children, they dream that when they become adults, they will allow their children to do whatever they want. But having matured, teenagers change their view of the world and, having become parents, also show some severity towards their children. The problem of a breakdown in communication between generations leads to a lack of mutual understanding between older and younger ones. To fix this, everyone needs to try to put themselves in the other’s place.

Meaning of the term and general characteristics

The word “status” itself dates back to Ancient Rome. Then it had more of a legal connotation, rather than a sociological one, and denoted the legal status of an organization.

Nowadays, social status is a person’s position in a particular group and society as a whole, giving him certain rights, privileges, as well as responsibilities in relation to other members.

It helps people interact better with each other. If a person of a certain social status does not fulfill his duties, then he will be held responsible for it. Thus, an entrepreneur who sews clothes to order will pay a penalty if the deadlines are missed. In addition, his reputation will be ruined.

Examples of the social status of one person are a schoolboy, son, grandson, brother, member of a sports club, citizen, and so on.

This is a certain characteristic of a person according to his professional qualities, financial and marital status, age, education and other criteria.

A person can simultaneously belong to several groups at once and, accordingly, play not one, but many different roles. That's why they talk about status sets. It is unique and individual for each person.

↑ Concepts “Man, individual, individuality, personality.” Correlation of concepts.

Human

- an integral biopsychosocial being associated with other forms of life, but separated from them, capable of producing tools, possessing articulate speech and consciousness, and moral qualities.
Man is a subject of socio-historical development, the creator of material and spiritual values. The biological and social principles in a person are in complex interaction and determine the mental development and uniqueness of the human personality. The social in a person is born and develops in the course of his conscious activity and communication. If heredity is called a prerequisite for human development, then the social environment is considered the source of its development. An individual
(from Latin individuum - indivisible, individual) is a single representative of the entire human race.
Individuality
(from the Latin individuum - indivisible, individual) is the unique identity of a person, a set of his unique properties.
If, using the word individual, we are trying to note the connection of a person with other representatives of the human race, then the concept of “individuality,” on the contrary, distinguishes a person from the community of other people. Personality
(English personality; from Latin persona – actor’s mask, role) – 1) special qualities of a person acquired by him in the sociocultural environment in joint activities and communication;
2) a person with his own socially conditioned and individually expressed qualities (intellectual, emotional, volitional, moral, etc.) The relationship between the concepts of “individual”, “individuality”, “personality”
can be expressed by the formula:
“One is born an individual.
They become a person. Individuality is defended." A particularly significant period in personality development is adolescence and early youth. At this time, the developing personality begins to distinguish himself as an object of self-knowledge and self-education.

Test on the topic “Man, individual, individuality, personality.”

TASK 1. TASK 2. TASK 3. TASK 4.
TASK 5. TASK 6. TASK 7. TASK 8. TASK 9. TASK 10. TASK 11. TASK 12. Human needs

TASK 13.
TASK 14. TASK 15. TASK 16. TASK 17. TASK 18. TASK 19. TASK 20.

Social roles and age

Each age group has its own social status and social roles. The main age groups are:

• Infancy;
• Preschool age;
• Junior school age;
• Adolescence;
• Youth;
• Maturity;
• Average age;
• Elderly age;
• Old age.

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Depending on a person's age, society expects appropriate behavior from an individual. For example, teenagers would look ridiculous crying loudly in a store and asking their parents to buy them a toy.

Of all ages, the transitional age is special, falling on the period from 12 to 15 years. During these years, the child is already leaving childhood behind and is just beginning to master the social roles of a teenager. A teenager acquires new social statuses in a group of peers, family, sports clubs and interest groups, and a group of friends. Along with the acquisition of new statuses, there is a rapid development of social roles in adolescence.

In addition, during adolescence, young people begin to learn gender roles in society. Girls learn to cook, sew, take care of younger family members, begin to use cosmetics, and acquire their first communication skills with the opposite sex. Boys learn to handle various household tools and master self-defense skills.

Diversity of social roles in adolescence:

• Son daughter;
• Leader/outcast;
• Brother/sister;
• Housewife/host;
• Pupil/student;
• Athlete/athlete;
• Boyfriend/girlfriend;
• Reader/Writer;
• Video blogger;
• Excellent student/good student/C student;
• Boy/girl;
• Conscript (for the military registration and enlistment office);
• Artist;
• Musician;
• Dancer.

For deviation from the role expectations prescribed by society for a teenager in connection with his social status, society can punish him with disapproval, the introduction of prohibitions and additional requirements.

Example. Marina Nikolaeva is the class leader. This social status of a teenager prescribes a certain type of behavior for Marina: she must set an example for her classmates, be responsible, not skip school, and be responsible for the safety of the school magazine. Recently, Marina persuaded her classmates to skip a physics test. The whole class immediately agreed. It turned out that they skipped not an ordinary test, but an important section of knowledge for the 8th grade. The class teacher found out about this incident and Marina’s misconduct and appointed another head teacher in her place as punishment for what she had done.

Types of roles. Classification of social roles

T. Parsons tried to systematize social roles . He believed that any role could be described using five basic characteristics:

1. Emotionality.

Some roles (for example, nurse, doctor or police officer) require emotional restraint in situations that are usually accompanied by violent expression of feelings (we are talking about illness, suffering, death).

Family members and friends are expected to show less reserved expressions of feelings.

2. Method of receipt.

Some roles are conditioned by prescribed statuses - for example, child, youth or adult citizen; they are determined by the age of the person playing the role. Other roles are won; When we talk about a professor, we mean a role that is not achieved automatically, but as a result of the individual’s efforts.

Scale.

Some roles are limited to strictly defined aspects of human interaction. For example, the doctor and patient roles are limited to issues that directly relate to the patient's health.

A deeper and more comprehensive relationship is established between a young child and his mother or father; Each parent is concerned about many aspects of the child’s life.

4. Formalization.

Some roles involve interacting with people according to set rules.

For example, a librarian is obliged to issue books for a certain period of time and demand a fine for each day of overdue from those who delay the books. In other roles, you may receive special treatment from those with whom you have a personal relationship.

For example, we do not expect a brother or sister to pay us for a service rendered to them, although we might accept payment from a stranger.

5. Motivation.

Different roles are driven by different motives. It is expected, say, that an enterprising person is absorbed in his own interests - his actions are determined by the desire to obtain maximum profit. But the priest is supposed to work primarily for the public good and not for personal gain. According to Parsons, any role includes some combination of these characteristics.

A person performs many different roles, and each time he needs to be somehow different in order to receive approval and recognition. T. Parsons and his followers consider personality as a function of the many social roles that are inherent in any individual in a particular society.

Classification of roles . Currently, there are quite a lot of classifications of types of roles. social roles are distinguished

conditioned by the individual’s place in the system of objective social relations (roles professional, gender, sex, age, socio-demographic, etc.), and
interpersonal roles
, determined by the individual’s place in the system of interpersonal relations (leader, rejected, preferred, etc.).

Unlike social roles, the rights and responsibilities that are established in interpersonal roles depend only on the individual characteristics of people, their feelings and preferences. T. Shibutani points out that, depending on the conditions of activity, a person can perform different roles. So, in situations of cooperation, these can be the following roles - colleague, partner, assistant, client, ally.

When distributing authority and power in a group - leader, hero, follower; in competitive situations - rival, ally, arbiter. There are also institutionalized

(official, conventional), associated with the official requirements of the organization of which the subject is a member, and
spontaneous
, associated with spontaneously arising relationships and activities.

Often the roles of different people are closely interrelated and coordinated (for example, mother-daughter, teacher-student, seller-customer, doctor-patient, priest-parishioner); such roles are called reciprocal.

What is status?

By definition, social status is the position occupied by a person (or social group) in society

At the everyday level, social status is considered an important part of a person’s self-determination. An idea of ​​the situation in society at certain stages of personal development helps set goals and identify the range of tasks necessary to achieve them

The philosophical encyclopedia interprets status as a person’s position in the social system. The position is determined according to a system of economic, professional and ethical characteristics. Depending on whether a trait is inherited (for example, gender, race) or acquired during life (for example, professional experience, personal achievements), prescribed and achieved statuses are distinguished. Accordingly, a person receives prescribed statuses by birth - belonging to a certain gender, nationality, race, given biologically beyond human will and consciousness. Achieved statuses are acquired by a person thanks to certain efforts - qualifications, education, position, etc. It is believed that the freer the society, the more important the achieved statuses play, and the less important the prescribed ones.

Position in society is closely related to social role, in other words, to work performed for the benefit of people. It is worth noting that the concept of status and the above characteristics are constantly changing.

Thus, the status of a military officer in the Russian imperial army a century ago was associated with above-average income, comprehensive education according to stricter world standards, and a strict code of honor. By the mid-1980s, a significant part of the USSR army officers served far from large cities, but were provided with housing. The size of the salary depended on the type of military service and place of service, but the income was significantly above average. Education was still considered the best. Although the code of honor was observed, it was considered a relic.

Now military officers are financially secure at an average level, and in some places even lower. Education is at an average level, and the notorious code of honor is being restored.

Russian veterinarians, who 100 years ago were part of the elite along with officers, are now completely self-sufficient. But this was not always the case. Thus, at the beginning of the last century, Russian veterinarians, upon entering government positions, received housing and funds for independent equipment of the hospital. Previously, they studied at the best higher educational institutions and received moral training. After all, I had to work literally “in the middle of nowhere.” After the First World War, veterinarians had to be found throughout the country. There was such a shortage of specialists that a livestock catastrophe began, and in the late 1920s. The veterinary service was transferred to the NKVD. Veterinarians were awarded officer ranks and provided with appropriate salaries and even rations. The level of education has fallen.

By the middle of the last century, the level of official income of veterinarians decreased, as did education. All that was left was moral toughening. Recently, the level of education of veterinarians has been rising, but unevenly. Moral strength has almost disappeared, and official incomes are below average.

Representatives of other specialties face a similar situation. Thus, engineers a century ago were far from the state elite. They received a varied education, which determined their income level. And, alas, they were deprived of both ethical community and the concept of a workshop code. Therefore, some took into the air the largest aircraft at that time, the Ilya Muromets, while others puzzled over increasing the efficiency of presses for squeezing out oil. With pay corresponding to the task.

The social or labor task assigned to representatives of the profession ultimately determines prestige. It is one of the main criteria of social status.

However, the status is not limited to all of the above

It is important for a person to show his position in society not only in his immediate environment. Since people are beings, including social ones, manifestations of status are aimed primarily outward, at other members of society

So that they appreciate it.

Basic characteristics of social roles

The basic characteristics of social roles were identified in the mid-20th century by American sociologist Talcott Parsons.

They were offered four characteristics that are common to all roles:

o Scope of role

o How to get a role

o Degree of formalization of the role

o Type of role motivation

Let's touch on these characteristics in a little more detail.

Scope of the role

The scope of the role depends on the range of interpersonal interactions. If it is large, then the scale of the role is also large.

For example, marital social roles are of enormous scale, because There is a wide range of interaction between spouses. From one point of view, their relationships are interpersonal and based on emotional and sensory diversity, but on the other hand, their relationships are regulated by normative acts, and to some extent they are formalized.

Both parties to such social interaction are interested in all sorts of areas of each other’s lives, and their relationship is practically unlimited. In other situations, where relationships are strictly determined by social roles (client-employee, buyer-seller, etc.), interaction is carried out exclusively for a specific reason, and the scale of the role is reduced to a small range of issues relevant to the situation, which means it is very very limited.

How to get a role

The method of obtaining a role depends on the general degree of inevitability for a person of a particular role.

For example, the role of a young man, a man or an old man will be automatically determined by age and gender, and no effort is required to acquire it, although the problem may lie in the person's conformity to his role, which is a given. And if we talk about other roles, then sometimes they need to be achieved and even conquered in the process of life, making specific, targeted efforts for this. For example, the role of a professor, specialist or even student needs to be achieved. Most social roles are associated with people's achievements in professional and other areas.

Degree of formalization of the role

Formalization is a descriptive characteristic of a social role and is determined by the specifics of interpersonal interaction

when one person interacts with others.

Some roles may involve the establishment of only formal relationships between people, and are distinguished by specific rules of behavior; others may be based on informal relationships; and the third ones will generally be a combination of the features of the first two.

Agree that the interaction between a law enforcement officer and a police officer should be determined by a set of formal rules, and the relationship between lovers, having messed up, should be based on feelings.

This is an indicator of the formalization of social roles.

Type of role motivation

What motivates a social role will depend on each individual's motivations and needs.

Different roles will always have different motivations. Thus, when parents care about the welfare of their child, they are guided by feelings of care and love; when a seller seeks to sell a product to a client, his actions may be determined by the desire to increase the organization’s profits and earn his percentage; the role of a person who selflessly helps another will be based on the motives of altruism and performing good deeds, etc.

Social roles are not rigid models of behavior!

People can perceive and perform their social roles differently.

If a person perceives a social role as a rigid mask, the image of which he must conform to always and everywhere, he can completely break his personality and turn his life into suffering. And this should not be done under any circumstances, besides, a person almost always has the opportunity to choose (unless the role, of course, is determined by natural reasons, such as gender, age, etc., although these “problems” are now faced by many people successfully resolved).

Any of us can always learn a new role, which will affect both the person himself and his life.

There is even a special technique for this called image therapy. It means a person “trying on” a new image. However, a person must have the desire to enter a new role. But the most interesting thing is that responsibility for behavior lies not with the person, but with the role that sets new behavioral patterns.

Thus, a person who wants to change begins to act in a new way

even in the most familiar and ordinary situations, revealing your hidden potential and achieving new results. All this suggests that people are capable of “making” themselves and building their lives the way they want, regardless of social roles.

Communication style significantly determines a person’s behavior when interacting with other people.

The specific choice of communication style is determined by many factors: a person’s personal characteristics, his worldview and position in society, the characteristics of this society, and much more.

How many communication styles are there? This question is difficult to answer. However, if we proceed from the fact that a communication style is simply a person’s greater readiness for a particular situation, then we can talk about three main styles. They can be conventionally called ritual, manipulative and humanistic.

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The ritual style is generated by intergroup situations, the manipulative style by business situations, and the humanistic style by interpersonal situations.
In the future, we will proceed from the fact that communication style is rather a predisposition to a certain communication, direction, readiness for it, which manifests itself in how a person tends to approach most situations.

However, style does not completely determine a person’s communication; he can also communicate in someone else’s style. For example, if a person has a primarily manipulative style, this does not mean that his communication with his closest friend will also be businesslike.

Ritual communication.

Here, the main task of the partners is to maintain connections with society, to reinforce the idea of ​​themselves as a member of society. It is important that the partner in such communication is, as it were, a necessary attribute of the ritual.

In real life, there are a huge number of rituals, sometimes very different situations, in which everyone participates as a kind of “mask” with predetermined properties. These rituals require only one thing from the participants - knowledge of the rules of the game. In this style, many contacts are carried out, which from the outside, and sometimes from the inside, seem meaningless, meaningless, since at first glance they are completely uninformative, do not and cannot have any result.

For example, a birthday.

All those present have known each other for twenty years, get together 3-4 times a year, sit for several hours and talk about the same thing. And not only do the topics of conversation essentially do not change, but in addition, everyone can certainly predict the point of view of anyone on any issue. It would seem that this is an absolutely pointless waste of time, which should only cause irritation.

This also happens, but much more often we enjoy these types of meetings. Why do we need this?

The situation described is a typical case of ritual communication, in which the main thing is to strengthen the connection with one’s group, reinforce one’s attitudes, values, opinions, and increase self-esteem and self-esteem. In ritual communication, a partner is only a necessary attribute, and his individual characteristics are unimportant.

This is true both when we know a person well and when we see him for the first time. Only one thing is important - his competence regarding a specific ritual.

Let us remember the well-known expression that a bore is a person who answers a question. “How do you live9” begins to tell in detail how he lives. In other words, we understand or perceive a person as a bore only when he goes beyond the ritual. If he does not go beyond them (for example, he answers a sacramental question “normally”), then we cannot say anything specific about him, and we don’t need this.

In ritual communication, it is important for us to follow a role - social, professional or interpersonal.

For example, to the question: “How are you living?” you have to answer something like: “normal”, “wonderful”, “excellent”, etc., but the answer is: “disgusting”, suggesting the further question: “What’s so?” and a subsequent conversation on this topic is already a way out of the greeting ritual and a transition to another communication.

A person who answers that he lives disgustingly goes beyond his ritual role.

For ritual communication, it is very important, on the one hand, to correctly recognize the communication situation, and to imagine how to behave in it, on the other.

For example, someone leaves the guests. He is already dressed, standing in the doorway, but still doesn’t leave, he says something, he says

-
ten minutes, half an hour.
The person does not recognize the situation in which the farewell ritual should take place, but continues to exist in a “table conversation” situation. The guest does not fulfill role expectations and begins to be perceived as an annoying, intrusive person.

In many cases we take part in ritual communication with pleasure, in even more situations we participate in it automatically, fulfilling the demands of the situation, with little or no awareness of what we are doing.

We say hello many times to acquaintances and strangers in the same organization, on the landing, on the street, we ask them “How are you?”, we find out what is normal, we talk about the weather, we scold public transport that “does not run well,” and we laugh.

And such communication is also necessary for a person - imagine what your reaction would be if suddenly everyone stopped greeting you. It is clear that the reaction would be far from optimistic, since depriving a person of this ritual directly indicates social isolation and is perceived by him as such.

It follows from this how much importance a person attaches to ritual communication. But ritual communication rarely prevails in life.

It is only a prologue to another communication - manipulative.

Manipulative communication.

This is communication in which the partner is treated as a means of achieving goals external to him.

What is important to demonstrate to your interlocutor in manipulative communication? Only what will help you achieve your goal. In manipulative communication, we “slip” into our partner a stereotype that we consider most beneficial at the moment.

And even if both partners have their own goals of changing the interlocutor’s point of view, the one who turns out to be a more skillful manipulator, i.e., will win. the one who knows the partner better, understands the goals better, and has a better command of communication techniques.

One should not conclude that manipulation is a negative phenomenon.

A huge number of professional tasks involve manipulative communication. In fact, any training (the subject needs to be given new knowledge about the world), persuasion, control always includes manipulative communication.

That is why the effectiveness of these processes largely depends on the degree of mastery of the laws and techniques of manipulative communication.

Manipulative communication is an extremely common type of communication that occurs mainly where there is joint activity. It is important to remember one essential point - a person’s attitude towards manipulative communication and the reverse impact of the manipulative style.

Imagine that you are sitting in the office of a mid-level executive who receives frequent phone calls.

The style of conversation changes all the time. If the opponent's status is higher - one tone, if lower - another. This is a typical example of manipulative communication, and everyone will explain to themselves that “this is how it should be, otherwise you won’t do anything.” However, this is unpleasant for many.

And finally, there is a reverse influence of manipulative communication on the person who uses it.

There is a manipulative deformation of personality in cases where, due to the frequent professional use of manipulative communication, good techniques for its use and, accordingly, constant success in this field, a person begins to consider manipulative communication the only correct one. In this case, all human communication comes down to manipulation (both when it is necessary and when it is completely unjustified).

Humanistic communication.

This is the most personal communication, allowing you to satisfy such human needs as the need for understanding, sympathy, and empathy.

Neither ritual nor manipulative communication can fully satisfy this vital need. The goals of humanistic communication are not fixed or planned initially. Its important feature is that the expected result of communication is not the maintenance of social connections, as in ritual communication, or a change in the partner’s point of view, as in manipulative communication, but a joint change in the ideas of both partners, determined by the depth of communication.

The situations of humanistic communication are known to everyone - these are intimate, confessional, psychotherapeutic communication.

It is connected with the mood and goals of the partners. But here we should point out situations where this communication and even its individual elements are inappropriate.

For example, help desk telephone operators get annoyed with those clients who, instead of quickly asking a question, try to first enter into confidential communication with them: introduce themselves, get to know each other, talk about their problems, reasons for contacting the help desk, etc.

Humanistic communication is determined not so much from the outside (by goal, conditions, situation, stereotypes) as from the inside (by individuality, mood, attitude towards a partner).

This does not mean that humanistic communication does not imply social determination. It is obvious that a person, no matter how he communicates, still remains social (that is, connected with the life and relationships of people in society). However, in this communication (more than in other types) there is a dependence on individuality. In humanistic communication, the partner is perceived holistically, without division into necessary and unnecessary functions, into qualities that are important and unimportant at the moment.

For example, in two hours of conversation we can get to know a random fellow traveler on a train well and be sure that we understood him correctly.

At the same time, we may have little or no understanding of what our manager’s secretary, with whom we “communicate” almost every day for many years in a row, is like as a person.

Our fellow traveler, with whom we spoke openly, trying to understand each other and not pursuing any other goals (what kind of “business” there might be with a stranger), “opened up” to us, we “felt” him.

And communication with a secretary is always of a manipulative nature to one degree or another, therefore, we perceive her very limitedly - only in relation to the functions that she must perform in our affairs.

The main mechanism of influence in humanistic communication is suggestion; suggestion is the most effective of all possible mechanisms.

It is important to remember that this is a mutual suggestion, since both partners trust each other, and therefore the result is not a change in the point of view of one of them, but a mutual joint change in the ideas of both partners.

Hierarchy of statuses

Statuses in the social structure are unequal. In the public consciousness, individuals and groups are compared according to their status characteristics and are arranged in a hierarchical order. The social prestige of statuses and their hierarchy are formed under the influence of the following factors:

• the real significance of a particular status for society;
• system of values ​​historically developed in a given culture.

Hierarchy types:

• intergroup – covers different groups within society;
• intragroup – ranks individuals within one group.

The position of a status in a hierarchy is called status rank. It determines the level of this status - high, medium or low. The plurality of individual statuses often gives rise to their discrepancy (inconsistency). It manifests itself in cases where a person occupies different status positions in different social groups and he has to perform conflicting functions, rights and responsibilities.

The concept of social status is related to the concept of social role. However, there are significant differences between them. If social status determines the place a person occupies in society, then the role characterizes social expectations based on this status. In situations of discrepancy, inconsistency of statuses, a role conflict may arise.

Prestige

Not the least role in the destinies of people is played by such a concept as prestige (and positive, from the point of view of the majority, social status). We can easily find examples in the questionnaire that students of all high schools write before entering higher education institutions. They often make their choice based on the prestige of a particular profession. Nowadays, few boys dream of becoming an astronaut or pilot. And once upon a time it was a very popular profession. They choose between lawyers and financiers. This is how time dictates.

Conclusion: a person develops as an individual in the process of mastering different social statuses and roles. The brighter the dynamics, the more adapted to life the individual will become.

Examples from life

People have different statuses - this is easy to illustrate with simple examples.

Example 1

When a child is born, he acquires a nationality, citizenship, and is assigned the permanent status of son, daughter, girl, boy. In the school class he acquires the position of a student, in the university - a student. Having received a profession, he becomes a scientist, lawyer, economist, builder. The number of positions achieved is constantly increasing. By using political resources, willpower, and experience, a person can rise to the top of the social ladder or, conversely, slide down, reducing the level of acquired status.

Example 2

A person's position determines his status set. For example, a man of Russian nationality, forty years old, working as a teacher at a university, has a wife, mother and son. In addition, he is an Orthodox Christian and a member of the editorial board. Every day he enters into various relationships, performs duties and defends the rights that preserve his position.

The attitude towards him is based on how he plays his social role and is reflected in the characteristics:

• good parent;
• excellent family man;
• devoted friend;
• loving son;
• strict teacher.

A person’s status set determines his position in society

The prestige and authority of a person depends on these indicators, but the main status—position—is most often decisive for determining one’s place in society.

Distribution in society by social status

For the successful functioning of the social system, a sufficient level of mobility of labor resources is required, which leads to a priority expression of orientation towards the personal characteristics of individuals, to the replacement of one status by another through the efforts made. Meanwhile, movement up the status ladder is under the constant control of the entire society in order to comply with the principles of justice, which allow only those people who have been able to truly prove themselves to acquire a high position in society. Those who could not find their successful “environment” will have to pay with uncompetitiveness and failure in new roles.

This implies a huge number of people who, being in the current situation, do not feel a sense of satisfaction.

What is status incompatibility?

Status incompatibility is the different position of an individual in social groups. In one society he is in good standing, occupying high positions, enjoying respect and power. Among members of another social group, he is located at the lowest level of the hierarchy. An example is a banker whose social position obliges him to manage thousands of subordinates. They respect him, appreciate him and even fear him. At home, his wife humiliates him in every possible way and does not rely on his opinion. A similar attitude develops in children towards their father.

Spouse disrespect

Additional Information. If a person is stuck in an intermediate position, a prerequisite for the development of marginality arises. This happens when an individual is conditionally in a certain group, but does not accept its values, and exists on the edge. Or he left one society, refusing to obey its orders, but never chose the right one. He lives based on his own norms and rules, trying to combine them with the existing structure of society. This situation is fraught with the development of mental disorders.

Lumpens are another type of people who unsuccessfully left a social group. They lost their position and did not find a new one, finding themselves left behind in life. These are people who are outside of classes and strata of society.

Status incompatibility often arises when a person tries to move up the hierarchy created in society. He breaks away from his friends, changes his social circle, but is not necessarily accepted and appreciated, despite his achievements in the profession. A person grows up the career ladder, while the team does not respect him, but despises him in every possible way. He gets irritated, suffers from this, quarrels with his wife. The spouse, in turn, can also change her attitude towards her partner, based on his behavior: she begins to avoid him, ignores comments, and shows less attention. Thus, the high status provided by the position held is combined with a low position in the team and in the role of husband.

With status incompatibility, an individual does not enjoy the rights given to him in one society while being in another social group. They come into conflict. Deputies, called upon to represent the interests of the people, cannot engage in business and make a profit. Or a short example when a woman wants to combine work and motherhood and cannot perform equally well in both roles. The stereotypical opinion imposes on her the image of a housewife, which she tries to fight. She becomes a successful worker at the expense of time taken away from her family. Accordingly, children and husband experience a lack of attention and care, seeing a tired and exhausted mother and wife in the evenings. The assigned responsibilities cannot be fulfilled at the proper level in both areas. Increasing status in the profession leads to the infringement of household responsibilities, for which there is too little time and energy left, because you have to be at work more and more often.

Tired mom

It is considered incompatible when a person does not live up to the expectations placed on him by society. For example, a goalkeeper is seen drinking alcoholic beverages and smoking. An athlete is perceived as a person who leads a healthy lifestyle, who will not let you down and lives by training.

Note! Incompatibility of statuses causes the individual to suffer. He feels disadvantaged, unable to fully realize himself

Experiences disappointment in his own life, blaming himself or the environment for it.

A state of inadequacy and uncertainty leads to depressive thoughts and social tension that can develop into large-scale conflict. Similar problems are addressed by psychology, aimed at eliminating contradictions, intrapersonal and interpersonal conflicts.