The happiness of an individual outside of society is impossible, just as the life of a plant pulled out of the ground and thrown onto barren sand is impossible.
A.N. Tolstoy
1. The concept of a small group. Its strength
2. Classification of small groups
3. Parameters for describing small groups: composition (composition of the group, structure, dynamics of group processes)
4. The position of the individual in a small group: status and role.
5. The main directions of research of small groups in foreign social psychology.
6. The principle of activity in domestic research of a small group
Literature:
1. Andreeva G.M. Social Psychology. M., 2005.
2. Dontsov A.I., Stefanenko T.G. Group - team - team. Models of group development.// Social psychology/ Ed. G.M.Andreeva, A.I. Dontsov. M., 2002.S.96-114.
3. Krysko V.G. Social psychology in diagrams and tables. M., 2003.
4. Parygin B.D. Social Psychology. SPb., 2003.
5. Psychological Dictionary / Ed. A.V. Petrovsky and M.G. Yaroshevsky. M., 1999.
6. Psychological Theory of the Collective, 1979, pp. 204-205
7. Shibutani T. Social psychology. Rostov n / a, 1999.
A person lives in society and builds certain relationships with it. Society itself consists of many large and small groups, within which the psyche of the people who make them up is formed and develops.
The emergence of a small group is due to socio-economic reasons. On the one hand, society and its economy create for themselves those cells in which initial values are formed - economic and social - and on which they themselves are then built as a whole. On the other hand, every person, being and living in society, tends to join some groups (due to their social significance, the prestige of the professional activity they are engaged in) for self-affirmation.
In social psychology, small groups in which people live and work are a popular subject of study. It carefully studies and analyzes also the patterns of emergence, functioning and development of group processes occurring in human communities.
The concept of a small group. Its strength
There are quite a few definitions of a small group. Let's use the definition from the psychological dictionary: " A small group is a relatively small community of people who are in direct personal communication and interaction with each other. (Psychological dictionary / edited by A.V. Petrovsky, M.G. Yaroshevsky).
B.D. Parygin defines a group as a small community of people who are with each other in the most direct (face to face) psychological contact (Parygin B.D. Social psychology. St. Petersburg, 2003).
Krysko presents the following definition of a small group: “A small group is a small community whose members are united by a common goal of activity and are in direct personal contact, which is the basis for the emergence of a group as a whole ».
So, the key features of a small group are its small size and contact.
Small group size. Most researchers limit the size of a small group from 2 to 7 people. The lower limit is recognized as a dyad (rarely a triad). The question of the "upper" limit of a small group is quite acute as well. The ideas formed on the basis of the discovery by J. Miller of the “magic number” 7_+ 2 turned out to be quite stable. In modern management studies, the composition of a group of 5–9, but not more than 12 people, is considered optimal. Quite often it is recognized as the upper limit of a group of 12-14 people (for example, see: Parygin B.D.). However, L.Ya. Kolominsky believes that a school class with, for example, 30 or more students can act as a small group.
Classification of small groups
There are many classifications of groups on various grounds.
Distinguish between primary and secondary groups(for the first time such a distinction was proposed Ch. Cooley ).
Formal groups- this is a social community that has a legally fixed status, whose members, in the conditions of the social division of labor, are connected by socially given activities that organize labor. These groups have an officially defined structure from the outside.
Informal (informal) groups- these are groups that are characterized by all the signs of a group (the established system of interpersonal relations, joint activities, a sense of belonging, etc.) but do not have a legally fixed status. These groups are formed on the basis of personal preferences.
The formal group functions in accordance with predetermined, usually socially fixed goals, regulations, instructions, charters. An informal group is formed on the basis of the personal likes and dislikes of its members.
Groups differ in the degree of influence on a person's value system. This distinction has been proposed G.Hyman .
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Reference (reference groups)- this is a real or imaginary community, on the norms, values and opinions of which the individual is guided in his behavior. The reference group performs a comparative and normative function.
Non-reference groups(membership groups) are groups in which people are actually included and work.
In addition, groups are distinguished by the level of development:
underdeveloped groups These are groups that are at the initial stage of their existence.
Highly evolved groups- these are groups created long ago, distinguished by the presence of unity of goals and common interests, a highly developed system of relations, cohesion, etc.
Diffuse groups- these are random groups in which people are united only by common emotions and experiences.
team- this is the highest form of community, where interpersonal relations are mediated by socially valuable and personally significant content of joint activity. (Psychological Dictionary)
team has characteristic features that distinguish it from other forms of association of people.
Firstly, its activity is aimed at a common object for all members of the collective, and in the process of it they are connected by place of work, time and have common tools of production, production facilities, etc.
Secondly, a team is an organized association of people that has a clear, fixed structure, a common will, which is expressed by trusted persons (leaders).
Thirdly, all members of the team have common ideas and thoughts, common moral and ethical standards, and close relationships.
We will turn to the question of levels of development in the next lecture.
3. Parameters for describing small groups: composition (composition of the group, structure, dynamics of group processes)
The groups in which people live, work, and spend their free time are characterized by a certain orderliness of relationships. This ordering constitutes the structure of the group. A.V. Petrovsky defines the structure of a group as a hierarchy of prestige and status of group members, the top of which is occupied by the leader of the group. (Petrovsky A.V. Personality. Activity. Collective. M., 1982.).
The group structure can be described in different ways:
· from point of view composition (the so-called compositional substructure ),
in terms of the nature of the relationship so-called substructures of interpersonal preferences ,
From the side of information interaction (the so-called communicative substructure ) and
On the part of the roles and functional responsibilities performed by the members of the group (the so-called substructure of functional relations).
Let us characterize these components.
1.Composition substructure(Group members) - a set of socio-psychological characteristics of group members that are extremely significant from the point of view of the composition of the group as a whole. Composition- This is a characteristic that reflects the originality of the individual composition of the group.
As a rule, it is necessary to take into account the quantitative and qualitative composition of the group. In addition, it is very important to have a clear idea of the nationality and social origin of its members, whose psychological characteristics affect the nature of their joint activities, interpersonal relations between them, the originality of the formation of informal microgroups, the status and positions of many people in them; Groups that are made up of similar people are said to have a uniform, or homogeneous, composition. Communities that include individually very different people are said to be heterogeneous or heterogeneous in composition.
Group composition, i.e. the individual composition of the group affects the life of the group, as well as its size and tasks, through a system of relations that characterize the level of its socio-psychological development.
- Substructure of Interpersonal Preferences , i.e. a manifestation of the totality of real interpersonal relations of its members, the likes and dislikes existing between people, which are initially very quickly fixed using the method of sociometry
Sociometry makes it possible to identify the presence of stable mutual preferences of group members, on the basis of which one can build stable assumptions about which of them are focused on specific individuals, how people with different authority and individual personality characteristics coexist in a group, what relationships develop between them, etc. .d.;
- communicative substructure - a set of positions of members of a small group in the systems of information flows that exist both between themselves and between them and the external environment, reflecting, in addition, their concentration of one or another volume of various information and knowledge.
Possession of the latter is an important indicator of the status of group members, since access to receiving and storing information provides him with a special role in it, additional privileges;
The communicative structure of groups can be centralized and decentralized. In a centralized structure - all information flows are concentrated in one - the central participant in group relations. Through it, information is exchanged between others.
In decentralized communicative structures, there is a communicative equality of all participants in the group process. Each of the participants has the same opportunities for processing and transmitting information, entering into open, unlimited communication with colleagues.
Under communication channels is understood as a system of interpersonal relationships that ensure interaction and transmission of information from one group member to another. On fig. the main types of intragroup communication channel structures are presented: centralized (A) and decentralized (B), as well as some of their variants that are most often encountered in practice.
Centralized structures of communication channels are characterized by the fact that in them one of the members of the group is always at the intersection of all areas of communication, in the center of attention plays the main role in organizing group activities. Through such a person in the group, information is exchanged between other members of the group.
On fig. three variants of the centralized structure are shown: frontal, radial and hierarchical. Frontal the structure of communication channels (a) is characterized by the fact that its participants are directly nearby and, without entering into direct cycles, can still see each other. This allows them, to some extent, to take into account the behavior and reactions of each other in joint activities. The most familiar example of a frontal structure for a teacher is the one that is formed in the classroom in a lesson, frontal work.
Radial the variant of the centralized communication structure (b) differs from the frontal one in that the participants in the activity cannot directly perceive, see or hear a friend and exchange information only through the central person. This makes it difficult for an individual member of the group to take into account
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d) chain e) circular e) full
Rice. 1. Types and variants of intragroup communication structures
behavior and reactions of others, but allows him to work quite independently, independently, to the end revealing his own, individual position.
A distinctive feature of the centralized hierarchical structure of communications (c) is that there are several, at least two, levels of subordination of participants, and some of them can directly see each other in the process of joint activity, and some cannot. interpersonal communication
At the same time, each one is limited, and communications can be carried out mainly between two adjacent levels of subordination. On fig. 71c, which shows a diagram of such a communication structure, individual 1, who occupies the top step in the hierarchy of subordination, has a direct assistant 2, to whom, in turn, the other three participants are subordinate. Individual 1 interacts with individual 2, who has the ability to communicate with those who are at Stage 3.
Typical options for decentralized communication structures, the main difference of which from centralized ones lies in the communicative equality of all participants, are shown in the figure under the sign B. The concept of "communicative equality" in this case means that each of the members of the group within these structures has the same with all the opportunities to take , process and communicate information by engaging in open, unrestricted communication with group mates.
The chain version of this communication structure (d) is a communication system within which. interpersonal interaction is carried out as if in a chain. Each of the participants, with the exception of the two extreme ones, interacts with two neighbors here, and those who occupy the extreme positions, only with one. This structure of communication is typical, for example, for assembly line work, which has become widespread in industry.
The circular structure of communications (e) differs from the chain one. Firstly, all members of the group, without exception, have the same opportunities here. Secondly, the information at their disposal can be circulated among the members of the group, supplemented and refined. Thirdly, being face to face, the participants in such a communication structure can directly observe each other's reactions and take them into account in their work.
All the variants of group communication structures discussed by us are limited to one degree or another. In them, each of the participants has either unequal opportunities to enter into direct communication with the others, or equal, but nevertheless limited. Along with the considered communication structures, there is another one, which is called complete or unlimited (e). In it, there are no obstacles to free interpersonal communication of participants, and each of the members of the group can interact completely freely with all others.
The choice in practice of one or another communication structure is determined by the goals and objectives facing the group. If, for example, the practical task is to improve the system of communication in a given group (for example, when using group forms of work in a lesson), then the main attention should be paid to communication channels. If necessary, quickly and efficiently solve the tasks assigned to the group, first of all, determine its optimal composition. Sometimes a teacher may be interested in the position of individual children in the system of interpersonal communication, how they themselves represent their place in relationships with peers. In this case, it may be useful to analyze the structure of the student team or any other children's group from the standpoint of roles and internal attitudes.
4. Substructure of functional relations- a set of manifestations of various interdependencies in a small group, which are a consequence of the ability of its members to play a certain role and perform certain duties.
The group is an extremely complex organism in which people, due to the specifics of the functioning of their individual and socio-psychological qualities, occupy different positions, perform different duties, experiencing a certain relationship to each other in connection with a specific role.
Scheme 4.
| STRUCTURE OF A SMALL GROUP | |
| Substructures | |
| COMPOSITE | |
| INTERPERSONAL PREFERENCES | |
| COMMUNICATIVE | |
| FUNCTIONAL RELATIONSHIPS | |
| Substructures | |
| STRUCTURE OF A SMALL GROUP | |
group norms.
The socio-psychological basis of all relations that develop in a group is the moral values and norms adopted in it. Values are what is most significant, important and valuable in this group. From moral values usually follow the norms that guide the members of the group in their relations. In the management of group activities, norms perform a number of important functions. The most significant of them are regulatory, evaluative, sanctioning and stabilizing.
The regulatory function of norms is that they determine (regulate) the behavior of people in the group and outside it (if we are talking about them as representing their group), set patterns of their interactions and relationships, form the basic requirements for members of this group. by its members themselves.
The conformity of a person's behavior with the norms accepted in the group significantly affects his position in the system of relations of this group. This influence is multifaceted: on the one hand, if a person follows the norms that have developed and are accepted in the group, then his authority in the eyes of others increases; on the other hand, the recognition of the importance of a person, the increase in his status affects other members of the group. To a certain extent, the very set of norms and relations that develop in the group begins to depend on him: he becomes their generator.
The idea of the correctness or incorrectness of group value orientations and norms is, in a certain sense, relative. It is different for people who determine this correctness. What seems, for example, unconditionally correct to the teacher may not seem so to the students, and vice versa. Younger students have their own concept of values, as a rule, different from what is valued by older students, and even more so by adults. Therefore, in each specific case, when determining group norms, their acceptability or unacceptability, it is advisable to first clarify the subject from whose standpoint they are evaluated.
It is important to introduce another distinction. The relativity of the norms is also expressed in the fact that for the same person there may simultaneously exist norms of different levels (degrees) of binding. The group norm of the first level of obligation is understood as a social norm, the violation of which is completely unacceptable. The norm of the average level of obligation can be called one that allows some minor deviations from it. Finally, the norm of a low level of obligation is one, the observance of which is considered a matter of taste, and deviations from it are not subject to any punishment. The norms of the first level include, for example, legal norms, the violation of which is punishable by law; most of the norms of morality that are not formulated in the rigid form of moral imperatives can be attributed to the norms of the second level (for example, the norm “to be honest” in some cases of life allows deviations). A norm of a low level of obligation may be one that a person sets for himself and which the rest of the group does not have to follow at all. Particularly high moral social norms, acting in the form of ideals, can be attributed to this category. The bearers of these norms are usually progressive people of their time. To characterize the behavior of such people, there is a special excess activity.
The position of the individual in a small group: status and role
In small groups, people know each other. They communicate for a long time. Getting, for example, into the production team at random, the worker gradually enters into close relationships with colleagues. Not only business, but also emotional relations are established between them. They share with each other their experiences, hopes, disappointments and sorrows.
Each contact group member evaluates and is evaluated by others. Over time, preferences emerge and stable relationships of likes and dislikes are established. There are relationships of dominance and subordination in groups. Dominance relations in a number of small groups (formal) are set initially. In informal ones, they are established by virtue of the age, degree of influence and authority of individual members of the group.
To describe the position of an individual in the system of relationships of a small group, the concepts of "role" and "status" are used. We will use the material of the “Psychological Dictionary / Edited by A.V. Petrovsky and M.G. Yaolshevsky.
Role(from French role) means "social function personality; a way of behavior of people corresponding to accepted norms, depending on their status or position in society, in the system interpersonal relationships." The concept of R. introduced into social psychology D. Meade(representative interactionism
T. Shibutani defines roles as a prescribed pattern of behavior that is expected and required from a person in a given situation, if the position he takes in joint action is known. A role is a template for certain rights and responsibilities. Duty is what a person feels compelled to do, based on the role he plays; other people expect and demand that he act in a certain way. Playing a role is about fulfilling the duties that come with the role and exercising your rights towards others. Each person has some idea of what constitutes the proper course of action, both for himself and for others. Role learning occurs in groups where people learn from each other by observing the role behavior of others.
The range and number of roles are determined by the variety of social groups, activities and relationships in which the individual is included, his needs and interests. . The individual performance of a role by a person has a certain “personal coloring”, which depends primarily on his knowledge and ability to be in this role, on its significance for him, on the desire to more or less meet the expectations of others.
There are the following types of roles:
· social roles , due to the place of the individual in the system of objective social relations (professional, socio-demographic, etc.), and
· interpersonal roles , determined by the place of the individual in the system interpersonal relationships(leader, outcast, etc.).
Besides,
· active, currently executing, and
· latent, not manifested in this situation.
In addition, distinguish
· institutionalized roles (official, conventional) associated with the official requirements of the organization to which the subject belongs, and
· natural, associated with spontaneously emerging relationships and activities.
In Western sociology and psychology, various role concepts of personality have become widespread. In these concepts, the personality appears as a set of unrelated disparate role masks that determine its external behavior regardless of its inner world, and the originality of the personality, its active principle and integrity are ignored.
Another concept that characterizes the position of an individual in a group is status.
Status is defined as the position of the subject in the system of interpersonal relations, which determines his rights, duties and privileges. In different groups, the same individual may have a different status. Significant discrepancies in the statuses that an individual acquires in groups differ in the level of group development, the content of activity and communication, and often become causes of frustration, conflict, etc. The status is experimentally revealed by applying various socio-psychological methods. Important characteristics of status are prestige and authority as a kind of measure of recognition by others of the merits of an individual.
T. Shibutani, author of Social Psychology, introduces a distinction between social and personal status. Social status, in his opinion, refers to a person's position in society: the respect that he enjoys, and his prestige is based on which category he belongs to and how this category is evaluated in the prevailing system of social stratification. A person retains his status if he lives in accordance with the conventional norms that govern the behavior of people in this category.
Personal status, according to T. Shibutani, is the position that a person occupies in the primary group, depending on how he is evaluated in the group as a member. Personal status, like the position of a person in society, is a social process, and it can only be determined in connection with the relationships that are established between people in primary groups. The maintenance of larval status, therefore, consists in acting like this. To ensure the continuation of these relationships.
Social status affects how a person evaluates himself. His ideas about himself are supported mainly by the reactions of people he knows personally. Feelings of pride, modesty or inferiority depend partly on social status, but even more on the evaluations that he receives from significant others.
Similar information.
Status is the position, the position of a person in a group or society.
Being a leader or an outsider in a small group, such as a group of friends, means having an informal or personal status. To be an engineer, a man, a husband, a Russian, an Orthodox Christian, a conservative, a businessman means to occupy a formal (social) status. In other words, to occupy a certain place in the system of social division of labor.
Status is implemented through a role. Being a husband means having the status of "husband" and fulfilling the role of a husband. Any status consists of a set of rights and obligations, which, by tradition, society assigns to this position. The teacher is obliged to transfer knowledge to students, evaluate their progress, monitor discipline, i.e. play a specific role. True, one person responsibly approaches his duties, and the other does not, one uses soft methods of education, and the other is hard, one is confidential with students, and the other keeps them at a distance. In other words, people behave differently in the same position, i.e. adhere to different models of behavior (roles).
The model of behavior in accordance with the formal rights and obligations assigned to a given status is called a role.
The same duties can be performed in different ways, therefore, One status can have many roles. But a person, being in the same status, as a rule, adheres to one role. Although the same person can have many statuses: a man, Russian, Orthodox, conscript, husband, student, etc. So, one person has many statuses and the same number of roles. A role is a dynamic characteristic of a status. The status can be empty, but the role is not.
The set of empty, i.e. unfilled statuses by people, forms the SOCIAL STRUCTURE of SOCIETY.
There are few statuses in a primitive society: chief, shaman, man, woman, husband, wife, son, daughter, hunter, gatherer, child, adult, old man, and so on. - they can be counted on the fingers. And in modern society there are about 40,000 professional statuses alone, more than 200 family and marriage relations (brother-in-law, daughter-in-law, cousin ... continue the list yourself), many hundreds of political, religious, economic ones. There are 3,000 languages on our planet, behind each of them there is an ethnic group - a nation, a people, a nationality, a tribe. And these are also statuses. They are included in the demographic system along with age and sex.
So, let's make the first generalization: The first building blocks of the subject of sociology are statuses and roles. The first give a static, and the second a dynamic picture of society. The totality of unfilled statuses gives us the social structure of society.
It can be likened to a honeycomb in a beehive: many empty cells are tightly fitted to each other. Social cells are held together by a particularly strong foundation - social functions.
This is also a very simple concept. What is the function of a teacher? Transfer your knowledge, evaluate progress, monitor discipline. Guess what we're talking about? Of course, these are familiar rights and obligations. They are relative. Why? The status of a teacher is relative to the status of a student, but not a city worker, parent, officer, Russian, etc. Relativity means the functional relationship of statuses. That is why the social structure is not just an aggregate, but a functional interconnection of statuses. The word "relativity" is associated not only with functions, but also with relationships. In fulfilling his duties, the teacher enters into a certain relationship with the student, and he - with the teacher, parents, policeman, peers, salesman, taxi driver, etc.
We can safely say that social statuses are connected social relationships, personal statuses are connected interpersonal relationships. Society is entangled in a huge network of social relations, under it, one floor below, there is another network - interpersonal relations.
For sociology, what matters is not what kind of personal relationships people enter into, but how something more fundamental, social relationships, peeps through them. The foreman may treat the worker with great sympathy. Their personal relationship is wonderful. But if the second one does not cope well with his professional role, does not correspond to the status, the first one will be fired. Chief and subordinate - social roles.
So our second conclusion is: statuses are interconnected by social functions, which are manifested through social ones. Functions and relationships, like cement and sand, create a solid mortar that holds the social structure together.
Take a closer look, the latter has grown and become multi-layered: statuses, rights and obligations, functions, social relations. What have we forgotten? Of course, roles. As agreed, roles, unlike statuses, give a dynamic picture of society. The way it is. A role without a person is nothing. The role requires its actor.
Individuals performing social roles enter into social interaction with each other. This is a regular, iterative process.
Only regularly repeated social interactions crystallize into social relationships. And again - dynamics and statics. If a person once taught teenagers something, then what kind of teacher is he? A teacher is a constant function (ie a social position in society), just like teaching is a regular interaction. Only then does it become social. Interaction, action, behavior, role - all these are very close, even related concepts. And we will talk about this more.
To analyze a social role without considering what a human person is is an idle occupation. Throughout our lives, we learn how to properly perform social roles, follow prescribed norms and duties.
Man in a group.
Group – a real-life education in which people are united according to some specific criteria: family, school class, friendly company, intelligentsia, youth, veterans, etc..
It is in groups that a person communicates with another person.
small group – a group of two or more people united by one goal, similar interests and needs for communication and joint activities, in direct contact with each other.
The main features of a small group:
Interaction of group members, their personal acquaintance with each other;
group interests;
Group values;
Group sensations (prohibitive, encouraging).
Status- the position of a person in the system of interpersonal relations, which determines his rights, duties and privileges.
In different groups, the same person may have different status.
In a group, a person always plays a role.
Role- a role is a way of behavior, determined by the status of a person.
Some roles seem to be permanently assigned to a person: the role of a family member, the role of an employee. In a group, a person plays various roles, which are determined by the activities of groups. the most important is the role of the leader.
Group leader- a member of the group, for whom she recognizes the right to make responsible decisions in situations that are significant for her, then, really playing a central role in organizing joint activities and regulating the group.
In the course of activity, the leader may change. A situation is likely in which decisions in the group are made not by a certain person, but by all participants, or in this group there may not be anyone capable of performing the functions of a leader. Then each of the group members is left to himself.
Group norms- a set of rules and requirements that are developed and play the role of the most important means of regulating the behavior of a given group, the nature of their relationships, interaction and communication.
Relationships between people that develop in a group teach a person to comply with existing social norms, carry value orientations that are assimilated by a person.
In addition to the positive impact, a small group can also have a negative impact on a person. It's about group selfishness.
group selfishness- achieving the goals of the group by infringing on the interests of its individual members to the detriment of the interests of the whole society.
Sometimes a person, in order to stay in a group, becomes a conformist.
conformism- a person's susceptibility to real or imaginary group pressure, manifested in a change in his behavior and attitudes in accordance with the position of the majority that he initially did not share.
The conformist consciously disagrees with the people around him, but nevertheless agrees with them, based on any considerations.
There are three ways an individual can respond to group pressure:
1\ suggestibility- a person unconsciously accepts the line of behavior, the opinion of the group.
2\ conformity- conscious external agreement with internal disagreement with the opinion of the group.
3 \ collectivism - conscious agreement with the opinion of the group, acceptance and active upholding of its values, norms, ideals.
Interestingly, the status of a person in a particular group often depends on his position in other groups, the success of his extra-group activities. So, a student who excels in any kind of sport, art, can improve his position in the group due to this. From this point of view, students who have rich experience in social communication in various fields, with various people, have great advantages in achieving a high stable place in the system of group preferences.
So, status is a value striving for stability. At the same time, from the point of view of personality development, it is expedient for a person to periodically “change” his status, since this provides him with greater social flexibility, makes it possible to try on various social masks, to play different intragroup roles. Thus, a person develops more flexible and more productive strategies for his social behavior, learns about people and the meaning of their actions. Regarding the negative pole of the status hierarchy, the need for a change in status seems obvious, but it is equally important for those members of the group who confidently occupy the top of the group status pyramid. Constant walking in "stars", "favorites" makes a person rigid, extremely socially vulnerable and defenseless against inevitable changes. In addition, a person grows as if "socially blind", being deprived of the need to listen and look at different people, unable to take their unenviable place. Undoubtedly, the whole danger of a person's persistent presence in the roles of an outcast and isolated, which colors his experience of interacting with people in an invariably gloomy tone.
The question naturally arises of how it is possible to influence the status of a member of the group, to ensure its positive dynamics. It is possible to suggest several ways, which undoubtedly do not exhaust the entire arsenal of pedagogical means that an experienced leader and mentor can use for this purpose.
The main condition that ensures the dynamics of the statuses of group members is the creation of various forms of group activities that would require from their performers various redistribution of functions and duties, various forms of management, disclosure and implementation of various personal capabilities and resources of group members. This would provide all members of the group with the opportunity to find activities that increase their group role and change the attitude of other participants in group communication towards them.
To raise the status of an outcast or isolated member of the group, a technique can be used, conventionally called "shine from the star." Its essence is that a high-status member of the group is entrusted, in cooperation with a low-status one (under a plausible pretext), to perform work important for the group. Of course, most of the success goes to the "star", but there is no doubt that the reflection of her glory will fall on the assistant, whose role in the group may change.
An increase in the status of a member of the group can be facilitated by his success in any extra-professional activity. The task of the leader is to actively inform the group about the success of its member "outside".
Finally, understanding the reasons for the rejection and isolation of individual members of the group requires a systematic psychological analysis. It is important to understand what the reason is rooted in: in certain personal characteristics of the employee, the characteristics and traditions of the family way of life, low self-esteem caused by negative past communication experiences, etc.
Of practical interest is the question of group members' perception of their status, that is, their objective position in the system of group preferences. As a rule, the extreme status categories perceive and evaluate their group role least adequately: "stars", on the one hand, "outcasts" and isolated ones, on the other. High- and middle-status members of the group, as a rule, do not hesitate to answer autosociometry questions about who, in their opinion, chooses them and who rejects them. Inadequate perception, apparently, is explained by the protection offered by these members of the group in the way of negative information, as well as the low social reflection of those who are consistently in the extreme categories.
Finally, the question of a person's attitude to his status deserves attention. In a number of cases, the belief that a person with a low status is uncomfortable in a group and wants to raise his status is unfounded. In various groups, one can meet "stars" who assess their position in the group as unsatisfactory (such attention is not enough for them) and "outcasts" who are completely satisfied with their position. The latter fact may have different reasons. For example, an "outcast" may not be interested in the group, have another group where he is appreciated and accepted, shares his values. Another reason: he is used to occupying such a place in groups, he does not know another and does not want to spend his strength on conquering it. In any case, one must be very careful when making decisions about the need to influence the status of a member of the group in any direction.
Leadership and guidance.
Krichevsky R. L believes that any enterprise, institution can be considered in two ways: as a formal and informal organization. According to these two organizational structures, he also speaks of two types of people's relations inherent in them: formal and informal. The relation of the first type - official, functional; relations of the second type - psychological, emotional. So, in his opinion, leadership is a phenomenon that takes place in the system of formal relations, and leadership is a phenomenon generated by the system of informal relations. Moreover, the role of the leader is predetermined in the organization, the range of functions of the person implementing it is stipulated. The role of the leader arises spontaneously, it is not in the staff list of the institution, the enterprise.
Leader this is the member of the group who enjoys the greatest sympathy and makes decisions in the most important situations. The leader has the greatest authority and power, he is not appointed, but he is nominated due to his personal qualities.
The difference between a leader and a leader: an informal leader is nominated “from below”, and the leader is appointed officially, from the outside, and he needs official authority to manage people.
Supervisor- "leading by the hand."
The manager performs the main managerial functions (planning, organization, motivation, activity control, etc.)
Management is process control:
1. coordination of various activities of the group;
2. assessment of the dynamics of the process within the group and its management.
Leadership- this is a manifestation by the individual of his ability to exert a decisive influence on other people, to organize and direct their actions.
Characteristics of an individual's position in a group: status, role, group expectations
The elementary parameters of any group are: group composition (composition), group processes, norms, values, system of sanctions, group structure.
The composition (composition), the structure of the group, the dynamics of group life (group processes) are the mandatory parameters for describing a group in social psychology.
There is another part of the conceptual scheme used in studies of social groups. It concerns the position of an individual in a group as a member. The place of the individual in the system of group life is indicated by the concept of "status" or "position". These terms are used as synonyms, but for some authors the concept of "position" has a slightly different meaning. The concept of "status" is widely used in describing the structure of interpersonal relationships, especially in sociometric methods. However, the designation of the individual's status thus obtained cannot be considered satisfactory:
1. What is significant is the extent to which the individual enjoys the affection of other members of the group, as well as how he is perceived in the structure of the activity relations of the group. The place in the group of an individual is determined not only by his sociometric status.
2. The status is the unity of the characteristics objectively inherent in the individual, which determine his place in the group, and the subjective perception of him by other members of the group. In sociometry, only the components of emotional relations are assumed and little account is taken of the communicative and gnostic. Those. there are no objective characteristics.
3. When determining the status of an individual in a group, the sociometric method does not take into account the relations of the broader social system that this group includes - the "status" of the group itself. And this indicator is necessary for the specific position of a member of the group. Only with the theoretical development of this concept can the issue of developing a methodological technique for determining the status of an individual in a group be resolved.
The next characteristic of an individual in a group is his "role". The role is a dynamic aspect of the status, which is revealed through the functions that are given to the personality by the group, the content of the activity of this group. Using the example of such a group as a family, one can consider the relationship between status (position) and role. Each member of the family has different status characteristics. And if we describe a set of functions that are prescribed by the group of each position, then we already get a description of the role. The role can be dynamic, i.e. while maintaining the status, the set of functions corresponding to it can change in the same type of groups and in the course of the development of the group itself, as well as the development of the wider social structure in which the group is included.
An important component of the characteristics of the individual's position in the group is the system of "group expectations". This term denotes the simple fact that each member of the group not only performs its functions in it, but is also necessarily perceived, evaluated by others. In particular, this refers to the fact that each position, as well as each role, is expected to perform certain functions, and not only a simple list of them, but also the quality of the performance of these functions. The group, through a system of expected patterns of behavior corresponding to each role, in a certain way controls the activities of its members. In some cases, there may be a discrepancy between the expectations that the group has regarding any of its members, and his real behavior, the real way he performs his role. In order for this system of expectations to be somehow defined, there are two more extremely important formations in the group: group norms and group sanctions.
All group norms are social norms; are "establishments, models, standards of proper behavior, from the point of view of society as a whole and social groups and their members."
In a narrower sense, group norms are certain rules that are developed by the group, adopted by it, and to which the behavior of its members must obey in order for their joint activities to be possible. Norms perform, thus, a regulatory function in relation to this activity. Group norms are associated with values, since any rules can be formulated only on the basis of acceptance or rejection of some socially significant phenomena. The values of each group are formed on the basis of the development of a certain attitude to social phenomena, dictated by the place of this group in the system of social relations, its experience in organizing certain activities.
Although the problem of values is studied in its entirety in sociology, it is extremely important for social psychology to be guided by certain facts established in sociology. The most important of them is the different significance of various kinds of values for group life, their different correlation with the values of society. When it comes to relatively general and abstract concepts, such as good, evil, happiness, etc., then we can say that at this level the values are common to all social groups and that they can be considered as the values of society. However, in the transition to the evaluation of more specific social phenomena, such as labor, education, culture, groups begin to differ in the accepted estimates. The values of different social groups may not coincide with each other, and in this case it is difficult to talk about the values of society. The specificity of the attitude towards each of these values is determined by the place of the social group in the system of social relations. Norms as rules governing the behavior and activities of group members, of course, are based precisely on group values, although the rules of everyday behavior may not carry any special group specifics. The norms of the group include, therefore, both generally valid norms and specific ones developed by this particular group. All of them, together, act as an important factor in the regulation of social behavior, ensuring the ordering of the position of various groups in the social structure of society. The specificity of the analysis can be ensured only when the ratio of these two types of norms in the life of each group, and in a particular type of society, is revealed.
An important problem is the measure of the acceptance of norms by each member of the group: how the individual accepts group norms, how much each of them deviates from the observance of these norms, how social and “personal” norms correlate. One of the functions of social (including group) norms lies precisely in the fact that, through them, the demands of society "are addressed and presented to a person as an individual and a member of a particular group, community, society." At the same time, it is necessary to analyze sanctions - the mechanisms by which the group "returns" its member to the path of compliance with the norms. Sanctions can be of two types: encouraging and prohibitive, positive and negative. The system of sanctions is not meant to compensate for non-compliance, but to enforce compliance. The study of sanctions makes sense only if specific groups are analyzed, since the content of the sanctions is correlated with the content of the norms, and the latter are determined by the properties of the group.
Thus, the considered set of concepts, with the help of which the socio-psychological description of the group is carried out, is only a certain conceptual network, which has yet to be filled with content.
Such a grid is useful and necessary, but the problem is to clearly understand its functions, not to reduce it to a simple statement, a kind of “adjustment” to this grid of real processes occurring in groups.
