Social interactions and relationships. Social interaction 3 social connections and interactions

Sociologists have long been looking for those simplest social elements with which they could describe and study social life as a set of infinitely diverse events, actions, facts, phenomena and relationships. It was necessary to find the phenomena of social life in their simplest form, indicate the elementary case of their manifestation, construct and recreate their simplified model, studying which the sociologist would be able to consider more and more complex facts as a combination of these simplest cases or as an example of this model complicated to infinity. The sociologist must find, in the words of P.A. Sorokin, the "social cell", by studying which he would gain knowledge of the basic properties of social phenomena. Such the simplest "social cell" is the concept of "interaction", or "interaction", which refers to the basic concepts of sociology as a science of the development of society. The interaction, which ultimately manifests itself as the social behavior of individuals in society, became the subject of analysis in the works of such outstanding sociologists of the 20th century as P.A. Sorokin, G. Simmel, E. Durkheim, T. Parsons, R. Merton, D. Homans and others.

Social interactions of people in society

Social contacts

The problems of forming relationships in society from the simplest to the most complex, the mechanism of social action, the specifics of social interaction, the very concept of "social system" are developed in detail and studied at two main levels. sociological research- micro level and macro level.

At the micro level, social interaction (interaction) is any behavior of an individual, group, society as a whole, as in this moment, as well as in the future. Each action is caused by the previous action and at the same time acts as the cause of the subsequent action. It is a system of interdependent social actions connected by a cyclic causal dependence, in which the actions of one subject are both the cause and effect of the response actions of other subjects. Interpersonal interaction can be called interaction at the level of two or more units. interpersonal communication(for example, a father praising his son for a good study). On the basis of experiments and observations, sociologists analyze and try to explain certain types of behavior that characterize the interaction between individuals.

At the macro level, the study of interaction is carried out on the example of such large structures as classes, layers, the army, the economy, etc. But the elements of both levels of interaction are intertwined. So, the daily communication of soldiers of one company is carried out at the micro level. But the army is a social institution that is studied at the macro level. For example, if a sociologist studies the reasons for the existence of hazing in a company, then he cannot adequately investigate the issue without referring to the state of affairs in the army, in the country as a whole.

A simple, elementary level of interaction are spatial contacts. We constantly encounter people and build our behavior in transport, shops, at work, taking into account their interests and behavior. So, when we see an elderly person, we usually give way to him at the entrance to the store, make room for him in public transport. In sociology, this is called visual spatial contact"(the individual's behavior changes under the influence of the passive presence of other people).

concept "intended spatial contact" used to refer to a situation in which a person does not visually encounter other people, but suggests that they are present in some other place. So, if it becomes cold in the apartment in winter, we call the housing office and ask them to check the hot water supply; entering the elevator, we know for sure that if the help of the attendant is needed, we must press the button on the control panel and our voice will be heard, although we do not see the attendant.

As civilization develops, society shows more and more attention to a person, so that in any situation he feels the presence of other people who are ready to help. Ambulance, fire brigade, police, traffic police, sanitary and epidemiological stations, helplines, rescue services, mobile operator service departments, computer network technical support departments and other organizations are created in order to ensure and maintain social order in society, in order to instill in a person confidence in safety and sense of social comfort. All this, from the point of view of sociology, is a form of manifestation of supposed spatial contacts.

Contacts related to interests people are a more complex level of interaction. These contacts are determined by the clearly "targeted" needs of individuals. If you, while visiting, get acquainted with an outstanding football player, then you may experience a feeling of simple curiosity as to famous person. But if there is a business representative in the company, and you are looking for a job with a diploma in economics, then in your mind there is immediately a need for contact where there is interest. Here, the actualized motive and interest is caused by the presence of a need - to make an acquaintance and, perhaps, to find with its help Good work. This contact may continue, but it may also end abruptly if you lose interest in it.

If motive - this is a direct impulse to activity associated with the need to satisfy a need, then interest - it is a conscious form of manifestation of need, which ensures the orientation of the individual to a certain activity. Before you went to visit, you asked a friend to help you find a job: introduce you to a businessman, give good performance, vouch for your reputation, etc. It is possible that in the future this friend will in turn ask you to help him with something.

V exchange contacts social interaction becomes more difficult. This is a kind of contact, during which individuals are interested not so much in people as in the objects of exchange - information, money, etc. For example, when you buy a movie ticket, you are not interested in the cashier, you are interested in the ticket. On the street, you stop the first person you meet to find out how to get to the station, and the last thing you pay attention to is whether this person is old or young, handsome or not, the main thing is to get an answer to your question. The life of a modern person is filled with such contacts of exchange: he buys goods in a store and in the market; pays for tuition, goes to a disco, having preliminarily done a haircut at a hairdresser; a taxi is taking him specified address. V modern society exchange contacts are becoming more and more complicated. For example, wealthy parents send their daughter to a prestigious educational institution in Europe, believing that in exchange for the money they pay, workers educational institution will take care of all the concerns associated with the socialization, upbringing and education of their daughter.

Thus, under social contact is understood as short-term First stage interactions between individuals or social groups. Social contact, as a rule, takes the form of spatial contact, psychic contact, and exchange contact. Social contacts are the first step in the formation of social groups. The study of social contacts makes it possible to find out the place of each individual in the system of social ties, his group status. By measuring the number and direction of social contacts, the sociologist can determine the structure social interactions and their character.

social actions

- the next level of complex social relationships after contacts. The concept of "social action" is considered one of the central in sociology and is the simplest unit of any kind of human behavior. The concept of "social action" was introduced into sociology and scientifically substantiated by M. Weber. He considered social action “the action of a person (regardless of whether it is external or internal, whether it comes down to non-intervention or patient acceptance) ... which, according to the meaning assumed by the actor or actors, correlates with the action others people and focuses on it.

Weber proceeded from the fact that social action is a conscious action and is clearly focused on others. For example, a collision between two cars may be nothing more than an accident, but an attempt to avoid this collision, scolding that followed the incident, a growing conflict between drivers or a peaceful settlement of the situation, attracting new parties (traffic inspectorate, accident commissioner, insurance agent) is already a social act.

A well-known difficulty is the drawing of a clear boundary between social actions and asocial (natural, natural). According to Weber, suicide will not be a social act unless its consequences affect the behavior of acquaintances or relatives of the suicide.

Fishing and hunting do not in themselves appear to be social activities if they do not correlate with the behavior of other people. Such an interpretation of actions - some as non-social, and others as social - is not always justified. So, suicide, even if we are talking about a lonely person living outside social contacts, is a social fact. If we follow the theory of social interaction P.A. Sorokin, then any phenomenon that happens in a society cannot be isolated from it and characterizes, first of all, this society (in this case, suicide acts as a social indicator of the society's troubles). It is also very difficult to determine the presence or absence of awareness in a particular act of an individual. According to Weber's theory, actions cannot be considered social if the individual acted under the influence of affect - in a state of anger, irritation, fear. However, as studies by psychologists show, a person never acts fully consciously, his behavior is influenced by various emotions (likes, dislikes), physical condition (fatigue or, conversely, a sense of elation), character and mental organization (temperament, optimistic mood of a choleric person). or phlegmatic pessimism), culture and intelligence, etc.

Unlike social contacts, social action is a complex phenomenon. The following components are distinguished in the structure of social action:

• individual who acts
• an individual's need for a specific action
• purpose of action
• action method,
• another individual to whom the action is directed
• action result.

The mechanism of social action was most fully developed by the American sociologist T. Parsons (“The Structure of Social Action”). Like Sorokin, Parsons considered interaction to be the basic process that makes possible the development of culture at the level of an individual. The result of interaction is social behavior. A person, being included in a certain community, follows the cultural patterns accepted in this community. The mechanism of social action includes need, motivation, and action itself. As a rule, the beginning of social action is the emergence of a need that has a certain direction.

For example, a young man wants to learn how to water a car. The urge to take action is called motivation. The motives of social action can be different: in this case, a young man either wants to distract his girlfriend from a rival who drives a good car, or he likes to take his parents to the country, or he wants to get additional income by “carriage”.

By performing social actions, the individual experiences the influence of others and himself, in turn, wants to influence others. This is how an exchange of actions takes place, which acts as a social interaction. In this process, an important role belongs to the system of mutual expectations, which makes it possible to evaluate the behavior of a given individual in terms of generally accepted norms.

Imagine that, while in a company, a young man met a girl and they agreed to meet. Each of them has a system of expectations of behavior accepted in society or a given group. A girl can consider a young man as a potential groom, so it is important for her to establish a strong relationship, consolidate an acquaintance, find out everything about his views on life, interests and affections, his profession, material opportunities. The young man, in turn, also thinks about the upcoming meeting, either seriously or as another adventure.

The meeting can take place in different ways. One will drive up in a foreign car and invite you to a restaurant with a subsequent drive to an empty cottage. Another will offer to go to the movies or just walk in the park. But it is possible that the first young man will soon disappear, and the timid young man will receive a diploma, enter the service, and become a respectable husband.

Forms of social interactions

Mutual expectations are often not justified, and the relationships that have arisen are destroyed. If mutual expectations are justified, they acquire a predictable, and most importantly, stable form, such interactions are called social relations. Sociology distinguishes between the three most common types of interactions - cooperation, rivalry and conflict.

Cooperation- a type of interaction in which people perform interconnected actions to achieve common goals. As a rule, cooperation is beneficial for the interacting parties. Common interests unite people, cause them feelings of sympathy, gratitude. Mutual benefit encourages people to communicate in an informal setting, contributes to the emergence of an atmosphere of trust, moral comfort, the desire to yield in an argument, to suffer some inconvenience for oneself personally, if necessary for business. Collaborative relationships have many advantages and benefits for doing business together, fighting competitors, increasing productivity, retaining employees in the organization, and preventing employee turnover.

However, over time, cooperation based on cooperation begins to acquire a conservative character. People, having studied each other's capabilities, character traits, imagine what should be expected in a particular situation from each. Elements of routine arise, the stability of relations becomes stagnation, gives rise to the need to maintain the status quo. Group members become afraid of change and do not want it. They already have a set of standard, time-tested solutions in almost any situation, have established relationships with the entire system of multilateral relations in society, know their suppliers of raw materials, informants, designers, and representatives of power structures. There is no road for newcomers to the group, new ideas do not penetrate this blocked social space. The group begins to degrade.

Interaction based on rivalry(competition) is one of the most common types of interaction, opposite to cooperation. The peculiarity of rivalry is that people have the same goals, but pursue different interests. For example, several companies are applying for an order to build a large bridge across the Volga. Their goal is the same - to get an order, but their interests are different. Two young people love the same girl, they have the same goal - to achieve her favor, but the interests are opposite.

Rivalry, or competition, is the basis of market relations. In this struggle for income, feelings of hostility, anger towards the opponent, hatred, fear, as well as the desire to get ahead of him at all costs arise. The victory of one often means a catastrophe for another, loss of prestige, good work, well-being. Envy of a successful rival can be so strong that a person commits a crime - hires killers to eliminate a competitor, steals Required documents, i.e. goes into conflict. Such cases are a fairly common phenomenon, they are widely represented in the literature (T. Dreiser, J. Galsworthy, V.Ya. Shishkov and other writers), they are written about in newspapers, they are discussed on television. The most effective means of limiting this kind of competition is the adoption and implementation of appropriate laws and the appropriate education of a person. In economics, this is the adoption of a series of antitrust laws; in politics - the principle of separation of powers and the presence of opposition, a free press; in the sphere of spiritual life - the spread in society of the ideals of goodness and mercy, universal moral values. However, the spirit of competition is an incentive in business and in general in any work, which does not allow a person to rest on his laurels.

- open, direct confrontation, sometimes armed. In the latter case, we can talk about a revolution, an armed uprising, a riot, riots. For example, after the riots that engulfed Chisinau in 2009 and Bishkek in 2010, there was a change of government in Moldova and Kyrgyzstan. The prevention of violent conflicts, struggles that harm people and violate public order, is the task of the state. Studying the problem of social interaction, sociologists, in particular T. Parsons, developed the doctrine of equilibrium social system , which is a decisive condition for the preservation of the system, its viability. A system is stable or is in relative equilibrium if the relations between its structure and the processes occurring inside it, and between it and the environment are such that the properties and relations are unchanged.

However, there is another view that contains an explanation of the conflict not only as a negative, but also as a positive element of social life.

In this way, social action is such an action of a person that correlates with the actions of other people and focuses on them. Social action is a constitutive element, a "unit" social reality. Many sociologists (for example, M. Weber, T. Parsons) saw in it the starting point of the entire system public relations. Steady and systematic performance of actions, implying feedback, is called social interaction. Social interaction, as a rule, is expressed in the form of cooperation, rivalry or conflict.

social connection is a set of conscious or unconscious, necessary and random, stable and spontaneous dependencies of some social subjects on others. To the greatest extent social connections are manifested in various kinds of adaptive behavior of people, taking into account the norms and values ​​​​recognized by the group. A high degree of manifestation of social ties is an activity undertaken by people taking into account the needs of others, especially when it does not correspond to the personal interests of the acting people.

Now we will move on to further analysis and raise questions about what is happening between people, between individuals, how connections and dependencies arise between them, how associations appear that unite people into stable communities. Communicating with peers, relatives, acquaintances, with random fellow travelers, each person carries out certain social interactions.

Spatial contact- this is the initial and necessary link in the formation of social relationships. Knowing where people are and how many there are, and even more so by observing them visually, a person can choose an object for further development of relationships based on their needs and interests.

Contacts can be:

v transient or persistent, depending on their frequency and duration;

v personal and material;

v direct and indirect.

In the process of social interaction is produced:

ü perception each other's people;

ü mutual evaluation each other;

ü joint action - cooperation, rivalry, conflict, etc.

Let's give a definition of social interaction: social interaction is a system of socially conditioned individual and/or group actions connected by mutual causal dependence, in which the behavior of one of the participants is both a stimulus and a reaction to the behavior of the others.

There are four main features of interaction:

1) objectivity- the presence of an external in relation to interacting individuals or groups of goals, reasons, objects, etc., which encourage them to interact;

2) situationality- a fairly strict regulation of interaction with the specific conditions of the situation in which this process takes place: the behavior of friends at work, in the theater, at the stadium, at a country picnic is significantly different;

3) explication- availability for an outside observer of the external expression of the interaction process, whether it is work at a factory, a game or dancing;

4) Reflective polysemy- the possibility for interaction to be a manifestation of both the main subjective intentions, and an unconscious or conscious consequence of the joint participation of people in interindividual or group activities (for example, joint work).

Big role in the implementation of interactions the system plays mutual expectations presented by individuals and social groups to each other before performing social actions. Such expectations can be episodic and vague in the case of short-term interactions, say, with a single date, a casual and non-recurring meeting, but can also be stable in frequently repeated or role-playing interactions.

If an interaction is a bidirectional exchange of actions between two or more individuals, then an action is just a one-way interaction. Action can be divided into four types:

1. physical action, for example: a slap in the face, handing over a book, writing on paper;

2. verbal or verbal action, for example: insult, greeting - "hello";

3. gestures as a kind of action: a smile, a raised finger, a handshake;

4. mental action, which is expressed only in inner speech.

Of the four types of action, the first three are external, and the fourth - internal. Examples that reinforce each type of action correspond to the criteria of social action by M. Weber: they are meaningful, motivated, oriented towards the other.

Social interaction is based on social statuses and roles. Hence the second typology of social interaction (by spheres):

The economic sphere, where individuals act as owners and employees, entrepreneurs, rentiers, capitalists, businessmen, unemployed, housewives;

Professional area where individuals participate as drivers, bankers, professors, miners, cooks;

Family-related sphere, where people act as fathers, mothers, sons, cousins, grandmothers, uncles, aunts, godfathers, sworn brothers, bachelors, widows, newlyweds;

Demographic sphere, including contacts between representatives of different sexes, ages, nationalities and races (nationality is also included in the concept of interethnic interaction);

The political sphere, where people oppose or cooperate as representatives of political parties, popular fronts, social movements, and also as subjects of state power: judges, policemen, juries, diplomats, etc.;

The religious sphere implies contacts between representatives of different religions, one religion, as well as believers and non-believers, if the content of their actions relate to the area of ​​religion;

Territorial-settlement sphere - clashes, cooperation, competition between local and newcomers, urban and rural, temporarily and permanently residing emigrants, immigrants and migrants.

Thus, the first typology of social interaction is based on types of action, the second - on status systems.

Any interaction is exchange. You can exchange anything: signs of attention, words, gestures, symbols, material objects. Perhaps you will not find anything that could not serve as a medium of exchange. Thus, money, with which we usually have an exchange process, is far from the first place.

According to the exchange theory George Homans (1910-1989), the behavior of a person at the present moment is determined by whether and how exactly his actions were rewarded in the past. He brought out the following exchange principles: 1) the higher the act is rewarded, the more often it is repeated; 2) if in the past in a certain situation there was a reward, people tend to create such a situation again; 3) the higher the reward, the better more people are willing to put in the effort to get it; 4) when a person's needs are almost completely satisfied, he tends to make efforts to satisfy them to a lesser extent. social behavior is an exchange of activities, tangible or intangible, more or less rewarding or costly, between at least two persons. Subinstitutional behavior is real behavior in institutional structures, elementary social behavior is the actual behavior of people in direct contact with each other, where each directly and directly rewards or punishes the other.

Elementary social behavior:

§ socially (orientation to another person);

§ directly (face-to-face);

§ really (this is real behavior, not the norm of behavior);

§ implies social norms, which, however, cannot cover all situations of interaction (role and role performance).

1) What is religion in the broad and narrow sense of the word? Is it possible, in your opinion, to give such a definition of it, which will equally suit both people of faith and faith?

atheists? Why?

2) Describe the role of religion in the life of a person, society, state. What is the moral force of religion?

3) What is a world religion? What is the essence of the discussion about the number of world religions? What do you think, what criteria are used by those experts who name more than three world religions?

4) What role have world religions played and are playing in the history of mankind?

5) What role does the religious factor play in contemporary conflicts? Is it possible to say that often it is only a pretext for starting an armed confrontation?

Please check the understanding of the problem and the theoretical argumentation, and also help with the arguments) What is a society? Talking about

to this problem, Émile Durkheim says: "Society is not a simple sum of individuals, but a system formed by their association."

This statement by Emile Durkheim means that society is a systematized, regular community of people, and not just a sum of individuals.

We all know from textbooks that society is a part of the material world isolated from nature, which includes the ways in which people interact. This is a kind of integrity of people, which has a collective character. However, is society necessarily systematized?

I think so: originally people existed outside of society, united in small groups, just like animals. However, in the process of anthroposociogenesis, man became a social being. Sociums were formed: at first they were tribes, then peoples and nations. In them, a person has a set of social roles that determine his place (son, student, Russian, and so on). Society, gradually becoming more complex, was divided into strata, classes, spheres, which are also divided within themselves. All this together forms a complex dynamic natural system - society.

1. What is the spiritual life of society? What components does it include?

2. What is culture? Tell us about the origin of this concept.

3. How do traditions and innovation interact in culture?

4. Describe the main functions of culture. On the example of one of the phenomena of culture, reveal its functions in society.

5. What kind of “cultures within a culture” do you know? Describe a situation in which the interaction of several cultures would manifest itself.

6. What is the dialogue of cultures? Give examples of interaction and
interpenetration of various national cultures, using knowledge,
obtained in the courses of history and geography.

7. What is the internationalization of culture? What are her problems?

8. Describe the manifestations of folk culture.

9. What is Mass culture? Tell us about its symptoms.

10. What is the role of funds mass media in modern society?
What problems and threats can be associated with their spread?

11. What is an elite culture? How is its dialogue with the masses?

Social contacts.

social actions.

Social interactions.

social relations

1. Social ties - connections between the interaction of individuals and groups of individuals pursuing certain social goals in specific conditions of place and time.

Social ties can express the relationship between two or more social phenomena and features of these phenomena.

The starting point for the emergence of social ties is the interaction of individuals or their groups to meet certain needs. The social connections of individuals and their groups, based on a system of social statuses and social roles, social norms and values, form a social organization.

Social connections are different: from fleeting short-term contacts to persistent long-term relationships.

Circumstances confront each person with many individuals. In accordance with his needs and interests, a person selects from this set those with whom he then enters into complex interactions. This breeding work is a special type of fleeting short-term connections, which are called contacts. There are several types of contacts:

Spatial contacts. In order to interact with other individuals, each member of a society or social group must first determine where these individuals are and how many there are. Each of us daily encounters many people in transport, at the stadium, at work.

N.N. Obozov identified 2 types of spatial contacts:

supposed spatial contact, when a person's behavior changes due to the assumption of the presence of individuals in some place.

visual spatial contact, when the individual's behavior changes under the influence of visual observation of other people.

Contacts of interest. Their essence lies in the choice of a social object that has certain values ​​or features that correspond to the needs of a given individual. The contact of interest can be interrupted or prolonged depending on many factors, but, first of all, on the strength and importance for the personality of the actualized motive and, accordingly, the strength of interest; the degree of reciprocity of interests, the degree of awareness of one's interest; environment. In contacts of interest, unique individual personality traits are manifested, as well as features of the social groups to which it belongs.

Exchange contact. Continuing to deepen and develop social ties, individuals begin to enter into short-term contacts, during which they exchange some values. Exchange contacts are a specific type of social relationship in which individuals exchange values ​​without having the desire to change the behavior of other individuals. Every day a person has many contacts of exchange: he buys tickets for transport, exchanges remarks with passengers in the subway, asks how to find any institution, etc. Social contacts are the basis of group-forming processes, the first step in the formation of social groups.

3. The concept of "social action" is one of the central ones in sociology. For the first time in sociology, the concept of "social action" was introduced and substantiated by Max Weber. He called social action “the action of a person (regardless of whether it is external or internal, whether it comes down to non-intervention or patient acceptance), which, according to the meaning assumed by the actor, correlates with the action of other people or is oriented towards him.” In Weber's understanding, social action has 2 features: it must be, firstly, rational, conscious, and, secondly, focused on the behavior of other people.

Any social action is preceded by social contacts, but unlike them, social action is a rather complex phenomenon, which includes:

actor;

the need to activate behavior;

the purpose of the action;

action method;

other actor to which the action is directed;

action result.

Social actions, unlike reflexive, impulsive actions, are never instantaneous. Before they are committed, a fairly stable impulse to activity must arise in the mind of any acting individual. This drive is called motivation. Motivation is a set of factors, mechanisms and processes that ensure the emergence of an incentive to achieve the goals necessary for an individual, in other words, motivation is a force that pushes an individual to perform certain actions. Any social action begins with the emergence of a need in an individual. Each social action is performed as a result of some subjective activity that forms motivation.

4. The starting point for the emergence of a social connection is the interaction of individuals or groups of individuals to meet certain needs.

What is social interaction? Obviously, when performing social actions, each person experiences the action of others. There is an exchange of actions, or social interaction. Social interaction is understood as a system of interdependent social actions connected by a cyclic causal dependence, in which the actions of one subject are both the cause and effect of the response actions of other subjects. This means that each social action is caused by the previous social action and at the same time is the cause of subsequent actions. Thus, social actions are links in an inextricable chain called interaction.

The mechanism of social interaction includes: individuals performing certain actions; changes in the outside world caused by these actions; the impact of these changes on other individuals and, finally, the feedback of individuals who were affected.

Interaction is a certain system of actions of one party in relation to the other and vice versa. The purpose of these actions is to somehow influence the behavior of the other side, which in turn responds in kind, otherwise it would not be an interaction. Interaction is the real content of the life of the group, the basis of all group phenomena and processes. Interaction between individuals is one of the ways of manifestation of the functioning of society, the result of these interactions is society.

One of the models of interaction between individuals is social exchange. In the social field, as it were, they exchange behavior. Behavioral events contain certain values ​​that provide participants in social interaction with a gain or loss in achieving desired material goals or desired status. In a divided society, people exchange the results of their labor among themselves and thus enter into a lively social exchange.

With a view to a winning social exchange, people are happy to come into contact with those individuals or groups who can be useful in achieving their goals. According to the theory of social exchange, attraction to a person or group increases to the extent that this contributes to the achievement of the goal. An important motive for interaction can also be the phenomenon of social comparability: a person tries to analyze and evaluate his abilities and successes in comparison with others. The motives of interaction, of course, can be both attraction and sympathy for another.

For social exchange, good prerequisites are created by competence, which means the possession of resources, i.e., power reserves. In this aspect, interaction can be understood as a social ability determined by social intelligence and social competence. Observation of the situation and response is an important part of the interaction: the analysis of the previous situation determines the subsequent stages of progress in the process of interaction.

The most obvious form of social interaction is communication by means of a socially accepted system of symbols. One of the most important symbol systems that provides the possibility of communication is, of course, language. There is an opinion that people do not react to each other's actions and deeds as such, but only to their meaning, just as a person in the course of communication weighs the statements of the interlocutor regarding his own activities, qualities, etc., and regards them in the light of his expectations.

5. Social relations - various interactions regulated by social norms between two or more people, each of whom has social position and plays a social role.

Sociologists consider social relations to be the highest form of social phenomena compared to behavior, action, social behavior, social action, and social interaction.

It can be argued that social relations arise:

Between people as part of a social group;

Between groups of people;

Between individuals and groups of people.

Despite the fact that the term "social relations" is widely used, but scientists have not yet come to a common conclusion about the concept of social relations. There are such definitions:

Public relations (social relations) - the relationship of people to each other, developing in historically defined social forms, in specific conditions of place and time.

Public relations (social relations) - relations between social subjects regarding their equality and social justice in the distribution of life's benefits, the conditions for the formation and development of the individual, the satisfaction of material, social and spiritual needs.

There are several classifications of social relations. In particular, there are:

class relations;

National relations;

ethnic relations;

Group relations;

Personal social relations;

Social relations develop in all spheres of public life.

"

Social connections- this is the dependence of people, realized through social actions, carried out with a focus on other people, with the expectation of an appropriate response from the partner. M. Weber identified the following types of social action: 1) purposeful rational action - a person's clear idea of ​​\u200b\u200bhis goal and the means to achieve it, taking into account the reaction of others. Rationality is usually always oriented towards success;

2) value-rational action is performed through faith;

3) affective action occurs in the state of the unconscious, on a sensual level;

4) traditional action - habit, inertia.

In the theory of T. Parsons, social action is considered as a system in which the following elements are distinguished: the actor; object (individual or community on which the action is directed); the purpose of the action; mode of action; the result of the action (the reaction of the object).

In sociology, the following varieties of social connections: social contact and social interactions. If the connection between people is superficial and the subject of communication can be easily replaced by another person, then they speak of social contact. Social interaction (interaction), in turn, implies a regular systematic influence of individuals on each other, as a result of which new social ties are renewed and created within the community or between its elements. Social interaction involves at least two subjects, which are called interactants. Their interactive actions must certainly be directed at each other, the purpose of which is to evoke a certain response from the partner.

Interaction can be of the following types:

- direct (interpersonal) with a variety of modifications associated with the social status of the subjects and performed by them social roles;

- indirect (through intermediaries) - involves the distribution of roles between the participants, the existence of agreed norms, a system of values ​​that regulate this interaction.

Social interaction can be classified:

By the number of participating entities: bilateral, multilateral;

Type of contacts: solidary or antagonistic;

Level of organization: organized or unorganized;

The nature of assessments: emotional, volitional or intellectual;

Level: interpersonal, group, societal.

Theories of social interaction(interactions) developed mainly within the framework of American sociological thought, in which the ideas of utilitarianism, pragmatism and behaviorism were strong. The behaviorist principle of "stimulus-response" was given a broad sociological meaning. Stimulus and reaction began to be considered in the aspect of human action and interaction, when one person (or group), acting on another, expects a certain positive reaction from the latter.

The classical theories of this direction include the theories of the “mirror self”, symbolic interactionism, and the “exchange theory”.

The concept of "mirror self": In the process of socialization, the transformation of individual consciousness into a collective mind takes place with the assimilation of social norms and a reassessment of one's personality from the position of perception by others, i.e. carried out

transition from intuitive "self-perception" to "social feelings". A person looks at another person, as if in a special mirror, and sees his own reflection in it. Moreover, this reflection does not always coincide with own assessment person. Socialization, according to Ch. Cooley, means the need to harmonize assessment and self-esteem, the transformation of the "individual I" into the "collective I".

Theories of symbolic interactionism. Symbolic interactionism (from Latin interaction - interaction) is a direction in sociology that focuses on the analysis of social interactions mainly in their symbolic content.

Representatives of symbolic interactionism are G. Bloomer, J. Mead,

A. Rose, G. Stone, A. Strauss and others.

Meade George Herbert(1863-1931) - American psychologist, sociologist, philosopher, creator of the theory of symbolic interactionism, considers personality as a social product, discovering the mechanism of its formation in role interaction. Roles set boundaries for the appropriate behavior of an individual in a particular situation. What is necessary in role interaction is the acceptance of the role of another, which ensures the transformation of external social control into self-control and the formation of the human "I". The main characteristic of human action, according to Mead, is the use of symbols. The scientist distinguishes between two forms or two steps

social action: communication through gestures and symbolically mediated communication. Mead explains the emergence of symbolically mediated interaction functionally - by the need to coordinate the behavior of people, since they do not have reliable instincts, and anthropologically - by the ability of a person to create and use symbols.

The general ideas of symbolic interactionism were further developed in the works of the American researcher G. Bloomer ( 1900 - 1967), who in his work "Symbolic Interactionism: Perspectives and Method" proceeded from the definition of the meaning of an object, based not on its properties, but on its role in people's lives. An object is what it means in expected and actual interaction. Moreover, the stability of meanings makes interaction habitual, allows it to be institutionalized. In the interaction itself, two levels can be distinguished: non-symbolic (uniting all living things) and symbolic (peculiar to humans only). Through sign system a person sets distances, i.e. structures external world. By developing and changing meanings, people thereby change the world itself.

The original version of symbolic interactionism was developed in the works

E. Hoffman(1922 - 1982), who is called the author of the "dramatic approach", since he expressed the manifestations of personal and social life in theatrical terminology. At the same time, a person simultaneously acts as an author, director, actor, spectator and critic, as if trying on different social roles.

Social exchange theory- a direction in modern sociology that considers the exchange of various social benefits (in the broad sense of the word) as the fundamental basis of social relations, on which various structural formations (power, status, etc.) grow. Representatives of the theory of social exchange (action theory) - J. Homans and P. Blau. Homans George Kaspar(1910 - 1989) - American sociologist, according to whose views, people interacting with each other on the basis of their experience, weigh possible rewards and costs. Social action, according to Homans, is a process of exchange, which is based on the principle of rationality: participants seek to obtain maximum benefit at minimum cost.

Unlike simple interaction, social relations differ in that they are perceived by individuals as long-term, repetitive, and, therefore, stable. Thus, social relations are a stable system of normalized interactions between two or more partners based on a certain interest.