Social interaction: forms, types and spheres. Social interactions: types, types

Sociologists have long been looking for those simplest social elements with the help of 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 an elementary case of their manifestation, construct and recreate their simplified model, studying which, the sociologist would be able to consider increasingly complex facts as a combination of these simplest cases or as an example of this model complicated to infinity. A sociologist must find, in the words of P.A. Sorokin, the “social cell,” by studying it, 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 about the development of society. The interaction, which will ultimately be 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 simple 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 of sociological research - the micro level and the macro level.

At the micro level, social interaction (interaction) is any behavior of an individual, group, society as a whole, both at the moment and in the future. Note that each action is caused by the previous action and at the same time acts as the cause of the subsequent action. Social interaction is a system of interdependent social actions connected by a cyclical causal dependence, in which the actions of one subject will simultaneously be the cause and consequence of the response actions of other subjects. Interpersonal interaction can be called interaction at the level of two or more units of interpersonal communication (for example, a father praising his son for doing well in school). Based on experiments and observations, sociologists analyze and try to explain certain types of behavior that characterize interactions between individuals.

At the macro level, the study of interaction is carried out using the example of such large structures as classes, layers, army, economy, etc. But elements of both levels of interaction are intertwined. Thus, everyday communication between soldiers of one company is carried out at the micro level. But the army will be 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 study the issue without addressing the state of affairs in the army and in the country as a whole.

A simple, elementary level of interaction would be spatial contacts. We constantly encounter people and shape our behavior in transport, in stores, at work, taking into account their interests and behavior. So, when we see an elderly person, we usually give way to him when entering a store, and give him a seat on public transport. In sociology ϶ᴛᴏ is called “ visual spatial contact"(the individual's behavior changes under the influence of the passive presence of other people)

Concept "suggested spatial contact" used to denote a situation in which a person does not visually encounter other people, but assumes that they are present in some other place. So, if the apartment becomes cold 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 we need the help of the attendant, we need to press a 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 ready to help. Ambulance, fire brigade, police, traffic police, sanitary and epidemiological stations, helplines, rescue services, service departments of mobile operators, computer network technical support departments and other organizations are created in order to ensure and maintain social order in society, to instill confidence in a person security and a sense of social comfort. From the perspective of sociology, everything is a form of manifestation of supposed spatial contacts.

Contacts related to interests people will have a more complex level of interaction. These contacts are determined by the clearly “targeted” needs of individuals. If you, while visiting, meet an outstanding football player, then you may experience a feeling of simple curiosity as you would towards a 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 the need for contact where there is interest immediately arises in your mind. Here the updated motive and interest is caused by the presence of a need - to make acquaintances and, perhaps, find a good job with their help. This contact may continue, but it may also suddenly end if you have lost interest in it.

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

IN exchange contacts social interaction becomes more complex. This is a unique type of contact, in the process of 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 least of all you pay attention to whether the person is old or young, handsome or not so handsome, the main thing is to get an answer to your question. The life of a modern person is filled with such exchange contacts: he buys goods in a store and at the market; pays for tuition, goes to a disco, having previously had her hair done at the hairdresser; the taxi takes him to the specified address. Let us note the fact that in modern society exchange contacts are becoming more and more complicated. For example, wealthy parents send their daughter to study at a prestigious educational institution in Europe, believing that in exchange for the money they pay, the employees of the educational institution will take upon themselves all the worries associated with the socialization, upbringing and education of their daughter.

Based on all of the above, we come to the conclusion that under social contact refers to the short-term initial stage of interaction between individuals or social groups. Social contact traditionally appears in the forms of spatial contact, mental contact and exchange contact. Social contacts will be 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 connections and his group status. By measuring the number and direction of social contacts, a sociologist can determine the structure of social interactions and their nature.

Social Actions

Social actions are the next level of complex social relationships after contacts. The concept of “social action” is considered one of the central ones in sociology and represents the simplest unit of any type of human behavior. The concept of “social action” was introduced into sociology and scientifically substantiated by M. Weber. He considered social action to be “a human action (regardless of whether it is external or internal in nature, whether it is aimed at non-interference 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 was based on the fact that social action is a conscious action and clearly oriented towards others. For example, a collision between two cars may be nothing more than an incident, but an attempt to avoid this collision, abuse that followed the incident, an increasing conflict between drivers or a peaceful resolution of the situation, the involvement of new parties (traffic inspector, emergency commissioner, insurance agent) - ϶ᴛᴏ is already a social action.

It is a well-known difficulty to draw a clear line between social actions and asocial (natural, natural) ones. According to Weber, suicide will not be a social action if its consequences do not influence the behavior of the suicide’s acquaintances or relatives.

Fishing and hunting in themselves do not seem to be social actions if they do not correspond with the behavior of other people. Such an interpretation of actions - some as non-social, and others as social - is not always justified. Thus, suicide, even if we are talking about a lonely person living without social contacts, is a social fact. If you follow the theory of social interaction P.A. Sorokin, then any phenomenon that happens in society cannot be isolated from it and characterizes, first of all, this society (in this case, suicide acts as a social indicator of the ill-being of society). It is very difficult to determine the presence or absence of awareness in a particular action of an individual. According to Weber's theory, actions cannot be considered social if the individual acted under the influence of passion - in a state of anger, irritation, fear. At the same time, 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 feeling of elation), character and mental organization (temperament, optimistic mood choleric or pessimism, phlegmatic), culture and intelligence, etc.

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

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

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 the individual. The outcome of the interaction will be social behavior. A person, joining a certain community, follows the cultural patterns accepted in that community. The mechanism of social action includes need, motivation and action itself. As a rule, the beginning of social action will be the emergence of a need, which has a certain direction.

For example, a young man wants to learn how to water a car. The urge to perform an action is called motivation. The motives for social action can be different: in this case, a young man either wants to distract a girl from a rival who drives a car well, or he likes to take their parents to the dacha, or he wants to earn additional income as a “cab driver.”

When performing social actions, an individual experiences the influence of others and, in turn, wants to influence others. This is how an exchange of actions occurs, which acts as social interaction. In this process, an important role is played by the system of mutual expectations, which makes it possible to evaluate the behavior of a given individual from the position of generally accepted norms.

Let's imagine that, while in a company, a young man met a girl and they agreed to meet. Each of them develops a system of expectations of behavior accepted in society or a given group. A girl may consider a young man as a potential groom, so it is important for her to establish strong relationships, consolidate acquaintances, find out everything about his views on life, interests and affections, his profession, and material capabilities. 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. It is important to note that one will drive up in a foreign car and invite you to a restaurant, followed by a drive to an empty dacha. Another will suggest going to the movies or just walking 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 met, and the relationships that have arisen are destroyed. If mutual expectations are justified and acquire a predictable, and most importantly, stable form, such interactions are called social relations. Sociology distinguishes the three most common types of interactions - cooperation, competition and conflict.

Cooperation- this type of interaction in which people carry out interrelated actions to achieve common goals. As a rule, cooperation will be beneficial for the interacting parties. Common interests unite people, arouse in them feelings of sympathy and 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 give in to a dispute, to endure some inconvenience for oneself personally, if it is extremely important for the business. Collaborative relationships have a lot of advantages and benefits for joint business, fighting competitors, increasing productivity, retaining employees in the organization and preventing staff turnover.

At the same time, over time, interaction based on cooperation begins to acquire a conservative character. People, having studied each other’s capabilities and character traits, imagine what should be expected from each person in a particular situation. Elements of routine arise, the stability of relationships becomes stagnant, giving rise to the need to maintain the status quo. Group members begin to fear change and do not want it. It is worth noting that 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, and know their suppliers of raw materials, informants, designers, and representatives of government agencies. There is no way for newcomers to the group; new ideas do not penetrate into the blocked social space. The group begins to deteriorate.

Interaction based on rivalry(competition) is one of the most general types of interaction, the opposite of cooperation.
It is worth noting that the peculiarity of rivalry is that people have the same goals, but pursue different interests. For example, several companies are vying for an order to build a large bridge across the Volga. They have the same goal - to get an order, but their interests are different. Two young men love the same girl, they have the same goal - to achieve her favor, but their 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 arise, as well as the desire to get ahead of him at all costs. The victory of one often means disaster for the other, loss of prestige, good work, and prosperity. Envy of a successful rival can be so strong that a person commits a crime - hires killers to eliminate a competitor, steals the necessary documents, i.e. goes into conflict. It must be remembered that 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 laws and the proper education of a person. In economics - the adoption of a series of antimonopoly laws; in politics - the principle of separation of powers and the presence of opposition, a free press; in the sphere of spiritual life - the dissemination in society of the ideals of goodness and mercy, universal moral values. At the same time, the spirit of competition will be an incentive in business and in general in any work that does not allow a person to rest on his laurels.

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

At the same time, 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.

Thus, social action will be an action of a person that correlates with the actions of other people and is oriented towards them. Social action is a constitutive element, a “unit” of social reality. The material was published on http://site
Many sociologists (for example, M. Weber, T. Parsons) saw in it the starting point of the entire system of social relations. Sustained and systematic performance of actions that involves feedback is called social interaction. Social interaction is traditionally expressed in the form of cooperation, competition or conflict.

Introduction

1. Genesis of social interaction

1.1 Signs of social action

1.2 Transition to social interaction

1.3 Forms of social interaction

2. Structure of social interaction

2.1 Typology and areas of social interaction

2.2 Goal setting and goal implementation

2.3 Concepts of social interaction

Conclusion

Bibliography

INTRODUCTION

The relevance of the work is the reason that in modern society, importance is attached to the assessment of certain actions of individuals. Each of us performs many actions every day, while giving an internal assessment of our actions. At the same time, any of us, volens-nolens, compares our actions with the scale of moral values ​​of a civilized society. If the criteria for classifying actions as moral/immoral are studied by ethics, then the mutual assessment of the actions and deeds of people is the subject of sociology. What is action and what is social action, we will try to consider in this test.

The object of work is social action and social interaction.

The subject of the work is the structure of social interactions.

The purpose of the work is to become familiar with the theoretical foundations of social interaction, study its structure, and trace the relationship between theory and practice of this aspect of social reality.

1. Describe the genesis of social interaction, highlighting the signs of social action and the transition to social interaction.

2. Structure social interaction, showing the typology and spheres, goal setting and goal implementation of social interaction.

3. Briefly outline the basic concepts of social interaction.

Methods: study of sociological literature, description and observation, analysis and synthesis.

1. GENESIS OF SOCIAL INTERACTION

1.1 Signs of social action

The problem of social action was introduced by Max Weber. He gave the following definition: “Social is an action that, in accordance with its subjective meaning, includes in the actor attitudes about how others will act and is oriented in their direction.”

The most important feature of social action is subjective meaning - personal understanding of possible behavior options. Secondly, the subject’s conscious orientation towards the response of others and the expectation of this reaction is important. For T. Parsons, the problems of social action are associated with the identification of the following features:

Normativity (depends on generally accepted values ​​and norms);

Voluntarism (i.e. connection with the will of the subject, providing some independence from the environment);

The presence of sign regulation mechanisms.

In Parsons's concept, action is considered both as a single act and as a system of action. The analysis of an action as a single act is associated with the identification of an actor (subject of an active action) and an environment consisting of physical objects, cultural images and other individuals. When analyzing action as a system, action is considered as an open system (i.e., supporting exchange with the external environment), the existence of which is associated with the formation of corresponding subsystems that ensure the performance of a number of functions.

Your action is possible only within the framework of a society with a certain level of development of culture and social structure. On the other hand, its description, the description of a single action, is possible because there is a fairly long tradition of research into social action in sociology and philosophy.

In other words, both the action itself and its description become possible only as a result of your involvement in the life of society.

1.2 Transition to social interaction

The fact that an individual action is possible only within the framework of society, that a social subject is always in the physical or mental environment of other subjects and behaves in accordance with this situation, reflects the concept social interaction. Social interaction can be defined as the systematic actions of subjects directed towards each other and aimed at causing a response expected behavior, which involves the resumption of action. The interaction of individual subjects is both the result of the development of society and the condition for its further development.

Sociology, describing, explaining and trying to predict the behavior of people, whether in the educational process, in economic activity or political struggle, before turning to empirical studies of particular problems, turns to the creation theoretical model of this behavior. The creation of such a model begins with developing the concept of social action, clarifying its structure, function and dynamics .

Required components structures actions are subject And an object actions. Subject- is the bearer of purposeful activity, the one who acts with consciousness and will. An object- what the action is aimed at. IN functional aspect stand out action steps: firstly, associated with goal setting, development of goals and, secondly, with their operational implementation. At these stages, organizational connections are established between the subject and the object of action.

A goal is an ideal image of the process and result of an action. The ability to set goals, i.e. to the ideal modeling of upcoming actions is the most important property of a person as a subject of action. Realization of goals involves choosing appropriate funds and organizing efforts to achieve result .

The circumstances of everyday life bring a person into contact with many other people every day. In accordance with his needs and interests, a person selects from this set those with whom he enters into various interactions.

The following types of interactions are distinguished:

- contacts– short-term connections (purchase and sale, exchange of glances on the street, conversation between fellow travelers on the bus);

- social actions- the actions of a person who enters into conscious And rational connections and focuses on the actions of other people, trying to achieve their own goals. This is a more complex form of communication between people than contacts. Any social action is preceded by social contact. Before committing a social action, a stable urge to activity must arise in a person’s mind ( motivation). It is obvious that, when performing social actions, each person experiences the actions of others (conversation, any joint action).

In the broadest sense means is a subject considered in terms of its ability to serve a purpose, be it a thing, a skill, an attitude, or information. Reached result acts as a new state of elements formed during the action - a synthesis of the goal, properties of the object and the efforts of the subject. In this case, the condition for effectiveness is the correspondence of the goal to the needs of the subject, the means to the goal and the nature of the object. IN dynamic aspect, action appears as a moment of self-renewing activity of the subject based on increasing needs.

The mechanism for implementing action helps to describe the so-called “general functional formula of action”: needs -> their reflection in the (collective) consciousness, development of ideal action programs -> their operational implementation in the course of activity coordinated by certain means, creating a product capable of satisfying the needs of subjects and motivating new needs.

Like any theoretical model, this idea of ​​social action helps to see the general nature of infinitely diverse actions and thus already acts as a theoretical tool for sociological research. However, in order to turn to the analysis of particular problems, further division of the elements of this model is necessary. And, first of all, the subject of action needs more detailed characteristics.

Subject actions can be considered as individual or collective. Collective The subjects are various communities (for example, parties). Individual the subject exists within communities, he can identify himself with them or enter into conflict with them.

The contact of the subject with the environment of his existence gives rise to needs- a special state of the subject, generated by the need for a means of subsistence, objects necessary for his life and development, and thus acting as a source of activity of the subject.

There are different classifications of needs. The common features of all classifications are the affirmation of the diversity and increase in needs and the gradual nature of their satisfaction. So, like any living creature, a person needs food and shelter - this refers to physiological needs. But he also needs recognition and self-affirmation - this is already a social need.

Important characteristics of the subject of action also include the total life resource, level of aspirations and value orientations. Total life resource includes resources of energy, time, natural and social benefits.

People have different life resources depending on their social status. All types of resources are manifested and measured differently for individual or collective actors, for example, individual health or group cohesion.

Social status, along with the individual qualities of the subject, determines it level of aspiration, i.e. the complexity of the task and the result that he orients himself towards in his actions. These orientations of the subject regarding any sphere of life activity are also value orientations. Value orientations are a way of distinguishing social phenomena according to the degree of their significance for the subject. They are associated with the individual reflection in the human mind of the values ​​of society. Established value orientations ensure the integrity of the subject’s consciousness and behavior.

To describe the sources of a social object, the concept is also used interest. In a narrow sense, interest implies a selective, emotionally charged attitude to reality (interest in something, being interested in something or someone). The broad meaning of this concept connects the state of the environment, the needs of the subject, as well as the conditions for their satisfaction. Those. interest can be characterized as the subject’s attitude to the necessary means and conditions for satisfying his inherent needs. This relationship is objective and must be realized by the subject. Greater or less clarity of awareness affects the effectiveness of the action. It is also possible to act contrary to one’s interests, i.e. contrary to his real situation. The concept of interest is used in the literature in relation to individual and collective subjects.

Needs, interests and value orientations are factors motivation actions, i.e. the formation of his motives as direct incentives to action. Motive- a conscious urge to action that arises when needs are realized. How does internal motivation differ from external motivation? incentives . Incentives- additional links between need and motive, these are material and moral incentives for certain actions.

The conscious nature of the action does not exclude the role of emotional and volitional factors. The relationship between rational calculation and emotional impulses allows us to talk about different types of motivation. Motivation Research are widely represented in sociology in connection with the study of labor and educational activities. At the same time, they highlight motivation levels depending on the level of needs.

The first group of motives is associated with socio-economic status of the individual. This includes, first of all, motives for providing life benefits. If these motives dominate a person’s actions, then his orientation, first of all, to material reward can be traced. Accordingly, the possibilities of material incentives increase. This group includes motives for vocation. They record a person’s desire for a certain type of occupation. For a person in this case, the content of his professional activity is important. Accordingly, incentives will be associated with material rewards in themselves. Finally, this group includes motives of prestige. They express a person’s desire to occupy a worthy, in his opinion, position in society.

The second group of motives is related to implementation of social norms prescribed and internalized by the individual. This group also corresponds to a wide range of motivations for action, from civic, patriotic to group solidarity or "uniform honor."

The third group consists of motives associated with life cycle optimization. Here, aspirations for accelerated social mobility and overcoming role conflict can replace each other.

Each occupation, even each action, corresponds to not one, but many motives. Even in the particular example we cited above, it can be assumed that the motivation to read could not be reduced only to the desire to get a grade, or only to the desire to avoid trouble, or only to curiosity. It is the plurality of motives that ensures a positive attitude towards action.

Motives of action are organized hierarchically, one of them is dominant. At the same time, researchers have recorded for the learning process, for example, an inverse relationship between the strength of utilitarian motives and academic performance and a direct relationship between scientific-cognitive and professional motives. The motivation system is dynamic. It changes not only when changing occupations, but also within one type. For example, learning motives vary depending on the year of study.

In the study of motivation, various methods are used: surveys, experiments, analysis of statistical data... Thus, the results of laboratory experiments show changes in reaction time in actions that differ in their motives. Each of us probably has analogues of such experiments, although without strict methods, in our life experience. The clearer and stronger the need to do something (coursework by the deadline), the higher the ability to concentrate attention, personal abilities and organizational talents on this matter. If we return to laboratory experiments, it should be noted that a change in reaction speed is a psychological characteristic.

Thus, the most important characteristics of motivation action is plurality and hierarchy motives, as well as their specific strength and stability.

1.3 Forms of social interaction

It is also common to distinguish between three main forms of interaction - cooperation, competition and conflict.

Cooperation- cooperation of several individuals (groups) to solve a common problem. The simplest example is carrying a heavy log. Cooperation arises where and when the advantage of joint efforts over individual efforts becomes obvious. Cooperation implies a division of labor.

Competition- individual or group struggle for the possession of scarce values ​​(benefits). They can be money, property, popularity, prestige, power. They are scarce because, being limited, they cannot be divided equally among everyone. Competition is considered an individual form of struggle not because only individuals participate in it, but because the competing parties (groups, parties) strive to get as much as possible for themselves to the detriment of others. Competition intensifies when individuals realize that they can achieve more alone. It is a social interaction because people negotiate the rules of the game

Conflict- hidden or open clash between competing parties. It can arise in both cooperation and competition. Competition develops into a clash when competitors try to prevent or eliminate each other from the struggle for the possession of scarce goods. When equal rivals, such as industrialized countries, compete peacefully for power, prestige, markets, and resources, this is called competition. And when this does not happen peacefully, an armed conflict arises - war .

The distinctive feature of interaction that distinguishes it from mere action is exchange. Any interaction is an exchange. You can exchange anything, signs of attention, words, meanings, gestures, symbols, material objects.

The exchange structure is quite simple:

Exchange agents - two or more people;

The exchange process is actions performed according to certain rules;

Exchange rules - instructions, assumptions and prohibitions established orally or in writing,

The subject of exchange is goods, gifts, tokens of attention, etc.;

An exchange place is a pre-agreed or spontaneously arisen meeting place.

According to George Homans's exchange theory, a person's current behavior is determined by whether and how his actions in the past were rewarded.

He derived the following principles of exchange:

1) the more often a given type of action is rewarded, the more likely it is to be repeated. If it regularly leads to success, then the motivation to repeat it increases. Conversely, it decreases in case of failure;

2) if the reward (success) for a certain type of action depends on certain conditions, then there is a high probability that a person will strive for them. It doesn’t matter what you make a profit from - whether you act legally or circumvent the law and hide from the tax inspectorate - but profit, like any other reward, will push you to repeat successful behavior;

3) if the reward is great, a person is ready to overcome any difficulties in order to receive it. A profit of 5% is unlikely to stimulate a businessman to heroic deeds, but for the sake of 300%, K. Marx noted at one time, he is ready to commit any crime;

4) when a person’s needs are close to saturation, he makes less and less effort to satisfy them. This means that if an employer pays high wages for several months in a row, then the employee’s motivation to increase productivity decreases.

Homans' principles apply to the actions of one person and to the interaction of several people, because each of them is guided in their relations with another by the same considerations

In general, social interaction is a complex system of exchanges determined by ways of balancing rewards and costs. If perceived costs are higher than expected rewards, people are less likely to interact unless forced to do so. Homans' exchange theory explains social interaction based on free choice.

In social exchange - as we can call the social interaction between rewards and costs - there is no directly proportional relationship. In other words, if the reward is increased by 3 times, then in response the individual will not necessarily increase his efforts by 3 times. It often happened that workers' wages were doubled in the hope that they would increase productivity by the same amount. But there was no real return; they just pretended to try. By nature, a person is inclined to economize his efforts and resort to this in any situation, sometimes resorting to deception.

Thus, under social interaction is understood as a system of interdependent social actions connected by a cyclical causal dependence, in which the actions of one subject are simultaneously the cause and consequence of the response actions of other subjects.

2. STRUCTURE OF SOCIAL INTERACTION

2.1 Typology and areas of social interaction

Interaction differs from action by feedback. An action emanating from an individual may or may not be directed at another individual. Only an action directed at another person (and not at a physical object) that causes a backlash should qualify as social interaction.

Action can be divided into four types

A physical action, such as slapping a person, passing a book, writing on paper;

Verbal, or verbal, action, for example, an insult, an expression of greeting;

Gestures as a type of action: smile, raised finger, handshake;

Mental action is expressed only in inner speech.

Examples to support each type of action correspond to social action criteria Weber's M: they are meaningful, motivated, and other-oriented.

Social interaction includes the first three and does not include the fourth type of action.

As a result, we get the first typology of social interaction (by type):

Physical;

Verbal;

Gesture.

Social interaction is based on social statuses And cast. This is the basis for the second typology of social interaction in spheres of life:

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

- professional field- where individuals participate as drivers, bankers, professors, miners, cooks;

- family and kinship sphere- where people act as fathers, mothers, sons, cousins, grandmothers, uncles, aunts, godfathers, brothers-in-arms, bachelors, widows, newlyweds;

- demographic sphere- contacts between representatives of different genders, ages, nationalities and races (nationality is also included in the concept of interethnic interaction);

- political sphere- where people confront or cooperate as representatives of political parties, popular fronts, social movements, as well as as subjects of state power - judges, police officers, jurors, diplomats, etc.;

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

- territorial-settlement sphere- clashes, cooperation, competition between locals and newcomers, urban and rural, temporary and permanent residents, emigrants, immigrants and migrants.

So, interaction - a bidirectional process of exchange of actions between two or more individuals. That is, action just one-way interaction.

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

The whole variety of types of social interaction and the social relations that develop on their basis are usually divided into two spheres - primary and secondary.

Primary sphere - the area of ​​personal relationships and interactions that exist in small groups among friends, in peer groups, in the family circle.

Secondary- this is the area of ​​​​business, or formal relations and interaction in a school, store, theater, church, bank, at a doctor's or lawyer's appointment. Accordingly, the relationships of people in these areas are not similar.

Secondary relationships- the sphere of social-status relations. They are also called formal, impersonal, anonymous. If a local doctor indifferently looks through you, listens without hearing, automatically writes out a prescription and calls out to the next one, then he is formally performing his official duty, that is, he is limited to the framework of a social role.

On the contrary, your personal doctor, who has long established a trusting relationship with you, will even discover what you did not say, will hear what you did not say. He is attentive and interested. Between you - primary, i.e. personal relationships.

So, we can conclude: all types of social interactions and social relationships are divided into two spheres - primary and secondary. The first describes confidential-personal, and the second - formal-business connections of people.

2.2 Goal setting and goal implementation

Now let's take a closer look goal setting and goal implementation. Target- this is a motivated, conscious anticipation of the result of an action expressed in words. Deciding on the outcome of an action rational, if, within the framework of available information, the subject is capable of calculating goals, means and results of action and strives to maximize them efficiency .

The connection between objective conditions, motivation and goals is established in such a way that from two specific states of elements, usually conditions and motives, the subject draws a conclusion about the state of the third, goal.

It is assumed that it is distinct and achievable, as well as the presence of a hierarchy of goals for the subject, arranged in order of preference. Rational choice object, it is a choice in terms of its availability and suitability for achieving the goal. Means of action are selected based on an assessment of their effectiveness in achieving the goal. They are instrumentally subordinate to it, but are more connected with the situation.

Actions of this type purposeful actions, most easily predicted and managed. The effectiveness of such actions, however, has its downside. First of all, goal-orientedness deprives many periods of a person’s life of meaning. Everything that is considered as a means loses its independent meaning and exists only as an addition to the main thing, the goal. It turns out that the more purposeful a person is, the narrower the scope of the meaning of his life. In addition, the huge role of means in achieving the goal and the technical attitude towards them, evaluating them only by efficiency and not by content, makes it possible to replace goals with means, the loss of the original goals, and then the values ​​of life in general.

However, this type of goal setting is neither universal nor the only one. There are goal-setting mechanisms that are not related to the calculation of efficiency, that do not imply a hierarchy of goals and the division of goals, means and results. Let's look at some of them.

As a result of the work of self-knowledge, the constant dominance of certain motives in which the emotional component predominates, as well as due to a clear internal position regarding the way of life, target may arise as some idea, project, life plan- holistic, folded and potential.

In appropriate situations, it provides instant decision making. This mechanism of purposefulness ensures the formation and production of a holistic, unique personality.

Target can act as a must as a law of actions, derived by a person from his ideas about what should be and associated with his highest values. Following duty acts as an end in itself. It is regardless of the consequences and regardless of the situation. This mechanism of purposefulness presupposes volitional self-regulation of actions. It can guide a person in situations of maximum uncertainty, create strategies of behavior that go far beyond the scope of the existing, rationally comprehended situation.

Focus can be determined system of norms as external guidelines that set the boundaries of what is permitted. This mechanism optimizes behavior using stereotypical decisions. This allows you to save intellectual and other resources. However, in all cases, goal setting is associated with a strategic choice for the subject and always retains the significance of a system-forming element of action.

The goal connects the subject with the objects of the external world and acts as a program for their mutual change. Through a system of needs and interests, situational conditions, the external world takes possession of the subject, and this is reflected in the content of goals. But through a system of values ​​and motives, in a selective attitude towards the world, in the means of achieving goals, the subject strives to establish himself in the world and change it, i.e. "take over the world."

Time can also become a tool for such mastery, if a person skillfully manages this limited resource. A person always correlates his actions with time. At critical moments, the entire situation is divided into hours, minutes, seconds. But time can be used. This presupposes an active attitude towards it, a refusal to perceive time as an independent force that forcibly resolves problems. A person uses the main property of time - to be a sequence of events - by arranging his actions in some arbitrarily unbreakable order, dividing “first - then” in his actions and experiences.

2.3 Concepts of social interaction

There are many microsociological concepts. In general, the concepts of social interaction are a manifestation of the diversity of sociological knowledge. In turn, this is a special case of the system principle of multiplicity of descriptions of complex systems.

Social exchange concept . The main ideas of the concept of social exchange: a rational principle predominates in human behavior, which encourages him to strive for certain conclusions; social interaction is a constant exchange between people of various benefits, and exchange transactions are elementary acts of social life (stimulus-response scheme)

The concept of symbolic interactionism . From the interactionist point of view, human society consists of individuals who have a “personal self,” i.e. they form meanings themselves; individual action is a construction, and not just a commission. It is carried out by the individual through assessment and interpretation of the situation. Personal self means that a person can serve as an object for his actions. Meaning formation is a set of actions in which an individual notices an object, relates it to his values, attaches meaning to it, and decides to act on that meaning. At the same time, interpreting the actions of another is determining for oneself the meanings of certain actions of others. From the point of view of interactionists, an object is not an external stimulus, but something that a person distinguishes from the surrounding world, giving it certain meanings.

Impression management concept . From the point of view of E. Hoffman, a person appears as an artist, a creator of images. His life is about making impressions. The ability to manage and control impressions means being able to manage other people. Such control is carried out using verbal and non-verbal means of communication. A typical example is image creation, advertising, PR.

CONCLUSION

Thus, social interaction can be characterized as a process in which people act and experience interactions on each other. The mechanism of social interaction includes individuals performing certain actions, changes in the social community or society as a whole caused by these actions, the impact of these changes on other individuals making up the social community, and, finally, the reverse reaction of individuals. Interaction leads to the formation of new social relationships.

In sociology, a special term has been adopted to denote social interaction - interaction. However, not everything we do in connection with other people is social interaction. If a car hits a passerby, then this is a normal traffic accident. But it becomes a social interaction when the driver and pedestrian, analyzing the incident, each defend their interests as representatives of two large social groups. The driver insists that the roads are built for cars, and the pedestrian has no right to cross wherever he pleases. The pedestrian, on the contrary, is convinced that the main person in the city is he, not the driver, and cities are created for people, but not cars.

In this case, the driver and pedestrian represent social statuses. Each of them has their own range of rights and responsibilities. Playing the role of driver and pedestrian, two men do not sort out personal relationships based on sympathy or antipathy, but enter into social relations, behave as holders of social statuses that are defined by society. When communicating with each other, they do not talk about family matters, the weather or the prospects for the harvest. Contents their conversations stand out social symbols and meanings: the purpose of such a territorial settlement as a city, standards for crossing the roadway, priorities of people and cars, etc. Concepts in italics constitute attributes of social interaction. It, like social action, is found everywhere. But this does not mean that it replaces all other types of human interaction.

So, social interaction consists of individual acts, called social actions, and includes statuses (range of rights and responsibilities), roles, social relationships, symbols and meanings.

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL LIST

1 Andrushchenko V.P. Sociology: The science of society. Textbook / V. P. Andrushchenko, N. I. Gorlach. – Kharkov: 1996. – 688 p.

2 Volkov Yu.G. Sociology: Reader / Yu.G. Volkov, I.V. Mostovaya – M.: 2003. – 524 p.

3 Dobrenkov V.I. Sociology: Textbook / V.I. Dobrenkov, A.I. Kravchenko. - M.:, 2001. - 624 p.

4 Kasyanov V.V. Sociology: Examination answers / V.V. Kasyanov. - Rostov n/d: 2003. – 320 p.

5 Kozlova O.N. Sociology / O.N. Kozlova. – M.: Omega-L Publishing House, 2006. – 320 p.

6 Kravchenko A.I. Sociology: Textbook for university students / A.I. Kravchenko.- M.: Publishing Corporation “Lotos”, 1999. - 382 p.

7 Lukashevich N.I. Sociology: Textbook / N.I. Lukashevich, N.V. Tulenkov. – K.: 1998. – 276 p.

8 Osipov G.V. Sociology. Fundamentals of general theory: Textbook for universities / G.V. Osipov, L.N. Moskvichev. – M.: 2002. – 912 p.

9 Tanatova D.K. Anthropological approach in sociology: Monograph / D.K. Tanatova. – 2nd ed. – M.: 2006. – 264 p.

10 Frolov S.S. Sociology: Textbook / S.S. Frolov. – 4th ed., stereotypical. – M.: 2003 – 344 p.

11 Edendiev A.G. General sociology: Textbook. Manual/A.G. Efendiev. – M.: 2007. – 654 p.

12 Yadov V. A. Strategy of sociological research. Description, explanation, understanding of social reality / V.A. Yadov. - M.: 2001. - 596 p.

Everyday interaction between people is the very field of real actions on which socialization unfolds and the seeds of human personality sprout. Every now and then we perform many elementary acts social interaction, without even knowing it. When we meet, we shake hands and say hello; When entering the bus, we let women, children and elderly people go ahead. All this - acts of social interaction, consisting of individual social action. However, not everything we do in connection with other people is social interaction. If a car hits a passerby, then this is a normal traffic accident. But it also becomes a social interaction, when the driver and pedestrian, analyzing the incident, each defend their interests as representatives of two large social groups.

The driver insists that the roads are built for cars and the pedestrian does not have the right to cross wherever he pleases. The pedestrian, on the contrary, is convinced that the main person in the city is he, not the driver, and cities are created for people, not for cars. In this case, the driver and pedestrian represent different social statuses. Each of them has their own range of rights and responsibilities. Carrying out role driver and pedestrian, two men do not sort out personal relationships based on sympathy or antipathy, but enter into social relations, behave as holders of social statuses that are defined by society. Role conflict is described in sociology using status-role theory. When communicating with each other, the driver and pedestrian do not talk about family matters, the weather or the prospects for the harvest. Contents their conversations stand out social symbols and meanings: the purpose of such a territorial settlement as a city, standards for crossing the roadway, priorities of people and cars, etc. Concepts in italics constitute attributes of social interaction. It, like social action, is found everywhere, but this does not mean that it replaces all other types of human interaction.

So, social interaction consists of individual acts called social actions, and includes statuses(range of rights and responsibilities), roles, social relationships, symbols And meanings.

Behavior- a set of movements, acts and actions of a person that can be observed by other people, namely those in whose presence these actions are performed. It can be individual and collective (mass). Main elements social behavior speakers: needs, motivation, expectations.

Comparing activity And behavior, it's not hard to notice the difference.

The unit of behavior is an action. Although it is considered conscious, it has no purpose or intention. Thus, the action of an honest person is natural and therefore arbitrary. He simply could not do otherwise. At the same time, the person does not set a goal to demonstrate to others the qualities of an honest person, and in this sense, the act has no purpose. An action, as a rule, is focused on two goals at once: compliance with one’s moral principles and the positive reaction of other people who evaluate the action from the outside.

To save a drowning man, risking his life, is an act oriented towards both goals. Going against the general opinion, defending your own point of view, is an act focused only on the first goal.

Actions, deeds, movements and acts - construction bricks behavior and activity. In turn, activity and behavior are two sides of one phenomenon, namely human activity. Action is possible only if there is freedom of action. If your parents oblige you to tell them the whole truth, even if it is unpleasant for you, then this is not yet an act. An action is only those actions that you perform voluntarily.

When we talk about an action, we unwittingly mean an action focused on other people. But an action emanating from an individual may or may not be directed towards another individual. Only an action that is directed at another person (and not at a physical object) and causes a backlash should be classified as social interaction.

If interaction is a bidirectional process of exchange of actions between two or more individuals, then action is just a unidirectional interaction.

Distinguish four types of action:

• 1) physical action(slap in the face, handing over a book, writing on paper, etc.);
• 2) verbal, or verbal, action(insult, greeting, etc.);
• 3) gestures as a type of action (smile, raised finger, 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 is internal. Examples to support each type of action correspond to social action criteria M. Weber: they are meaningful, motivated, and other-oriented. Social interaction includes the first three and does not include the fourth type of action (no one, except telepaths, interacted using direct thought transmission). As a result we get first typology social interaction (by type): physical; verbal; gestural. Systematization by spheres of society (or status systems) gives us second typology social interaction:

• economic sphere, where individuals act as owners and employees, entrepreneurs, rentiers, capitalists, businessmen, the unemployed, housewives;
• professional sphere, where individuals participate as drivers, bankers, professors, miners, cooks;
• family and kinship sphere, where people act as fathers, mothers, sons, cousins, grandmothers, uncles, aunts, godfathers, brothers-in-arms, bachelors, widows, newlyweds;
• demographic sphere, including contacts between representatives of different genders, ages, nationalities and races (nationality is also included in the concept of interethnic interaction);
• political sphere, where people confront or cooperate as representatives of political parties, popular fronts, social movements, and also as subjects of state power - judges, police officers, jurors, diplomats, etc.;
• religious sphere, implying contacts between representatives of different religions, the same religion, as well as believers and non-believers, if the content of their actions relates to the area of ​​religion;
• territorial-settlement sphere– clashes, cooperation, competition between locals and newcomers, urban and rural, temporary and permanent residents, emigrants, immigrants and migrants.

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

In science it is customary to distinguish three main forms of interaction – cooperation, competition And conflict. In this case, interaction refers to the ways in which partners agree on their goals and means of achieving them, distributing scarce (rare) resources.

Cooperation- This cooperation several individuals (groups) to solve a common problem. The simplest example is carrying a heavy log. Cooperation arises where and when the advantage of joint efforts over individual ones becomes obvious. Cooperation implies division of labor.

Competition– is it individual or group struggle for the possession of scarce values ​​(benefits). They can be money, property, popularity, prestige, power. They are scarce because, being limited, they cannot be divided equally among everyone. Competition is considered individual form of struggle not because only individuals participate in it, but because competing parties (groups, parties) strive to get as much as possible for themselves to the detriment of others. Competition intensifies when individuals realize that they can achieve more alone. It is a social interaction because people negotiate the rules of the game.

Conflict– hidden or open collision competing parties. It can arise in both cooperation and competition. Competition develops into a clash when competitors try to prevent or eliminate each other from the struggle for the possession of scarce goods. When equal rivals, for example industrial countries, compete for power, prestige, markets, resources peacefully, this is a manifestation of competition. Otherwise, an armed conflict arises—war.

Specific trait interaction, which distinguishes it from just action - exchange: every interaction is an exchange. You can exchange anything: signs of attention, words, gestures, symbols, material objects. There is probably nothing that could not serve as a medium of exchange. Thus, money, with which we usually associate the process of exchange, occupies far from the first place. Exchange understood so broadly - universal a process that can be found in any society and in any historical era. Exchange structure quite simple:

• 1) exchange agents – two or more people;
• 2) exchange process– actions performed according to certain rules;
• 3) exchange rules– instructions, assumptions and prohibitions established orally or in writing;
• 4) item of exchange– goods, services, gifts, courtesies, etc.;
• 5) place of exchange- a pre-arranged or spontaneously arisen meeting place.

According to social exchange theories, formulated by the American sociologist George Homans, a person’s current behavior is determined by whether and how his actions were rewarded in the past. Homane deduced the following principles of exchange.

• 1. The more often a given type of action is rewarded, the more likely it is that it will be repeated. If it regularly leads to success, then the motivation to repeat it increases, and vice versa, decreases in case of failure.
• 2. If the reward (success) for a certain type of action depends on certain conditions, then there is a high probability that a person will strive for them. It doesn’t matter whether you make a profit from being legal and increasing productivity, or from circumventing the law and hiding it from the tax inspector, profit, like any other reward, will push you to repeat successful behavior.
• 3. If the reward is great, a person is ready to overcome any difficulties in order to receive it. A profit of 5% is unlikely to stimulate a businessman to achieve heroism, but, as K. Marx noted in his time, for the sake of a profit of 300%, a capitalist is ready to commit any crime.
• 4. When a person’s needs are close to saturation, he makes less and less effort to satisfy them. This means that if an employer pays high wages for several months in a row, the employee’s motivation to increase productivity decreases.

Homans' principles apply both to the actions of one person and to the interaction of several people, because each of them is guided in their relations with the other by the same considerations.

In general, social interaction is a complex system of exchanges determined by ways of balancing rewards and costs. When perceived costs are higher than expected rewards, people are unlikely to interact unless forced to do so. Homans' exchange theory explains social interaction based on free choice. In social exchange - as we can call the social interaction between rewards and costs - there is no directly proportional relationship. In other words, if the reward is tripled, the individual will not necessarily triple his effort in response. It often happened that workers' wages were doubled in the hope that they would increase productivity by the same amount, but there was no real return: the workers only pretended to try.

By nature, a person is inclined to economize his efforts, and he resorts to this in any situation, sometimes resorting to deception. The reason is that expenses And rewards– derived from different needs or biological impulses. Therefore, two factors - the desire to save effort and the desire to receive as much reward as possible - can act simultaneously, in different directions. This creates the most complex pattern of human interaction, where exchange and personal gain, selflessness and fair distribution of rewards, equality of results and inequality of effort are woven into a single whole.

Exchange– the universal basis of interaction. It has its own structure and principles. Ideally, the exchange takes place on an equivalent basis, but in reality there are constant deviations that create the most complex pattern of human interaction.

• In sociology, a special term has been adopted to denote social interaction - interaction.

Isolating individual social actions is very useful in studying social processes. At the same time, even simple observation shows that social action rarely occurs in a single, isolated form. In fact, people are connected to each other by thousands of invisible threads and depend on each other. Dependence arises in cases when each of us can say about ourselves: “Specific objects, values, conditions (and we can talk about both material and moral values) that are required to me, are situated in his disposal." It can be elementary, direct dependence on parents, friends, colleagues, or it can be complex, indirect. The latter include the dependence of our individual life on the level of development of society, the effectiveness of the economic system, the effectiveness of the political system, etc. Social life arises, reproduces and develops precisely due to the presence of dependencies between people, because it is they who create the prerequisites for the interaction of people with each other. In the case when dependence is realized through a specific social action, we can talk about the emergence social connection. Social communication, no matter what form it takes, has a complex structure. But it is always possible to identify the main elements in it: the subjects of communication, the subject of communication and, most importantly, the “rules of the game” by which this connection or the mechanism of conscious regulation of relationships between subjects is carried out.

Social connection appears in the form of social contact and social interaction. Let us take a closer look at these phenomena.

Every day each of us enters into a huge number of social contacts: a random passerby asks us how to get to such and such a street, we go into the store and ask the seller to give us the goods we need. We encounter people at work, in transport, at university. Without thinking, we pass by people, but we constantly remember their existence. This is expressed in a change in our behavior in the presence of other people: talking out loud to ourselves alone is not such a rare occurrence, but on the street we do the same mentally, “to ourselves” and only because there are others next to us.

Contacts can be sporadic (as in a situation with a random passer-by) or regular (with the saleswoman of “your” store). We can join them as individuals or representatives of a team or institution.

Despite all their diversity, social contacts have common features. During contact, the connection is superficial, fleeting. The contact partner is fickle, random, and can be easily replaced (you may also be served by another saleswoman; you can find out what time it is, if not from this person, then from another passerby). The expectation and orientation towards the other in each of the partners does not extend further than this social contact (having satisfied the curiosity of the passer-by regarding the route, we part, without trying to renew contact). In other words, social contact is a fleeting, short-term connection in which there is no system of associated actions in relation to the partner. This does not mean that social contacts are unimportant and insignificant in our lives: a quarrel with another passenger on a tram or a conflict with an inattentive cashier can significantly determine our well-being. But still, they do not constitute the leading basis of our social life, its foundation.

The leading importance is social interaction – systematic, fairly regular social actions of partners, aimed at each other, with the goal of a very specific (expected) response on the part of the partner, which generates a new reaction of the influencer. We are talking about the exchange of actions that are mutually related. It is these moments: the conjugacy of the systems of action of both partners, the recurrence of actions and their coordination, a stable interest in the response actions of one’s partner - that distinguish social interaction from a single social contact

A striking example of interaction is the educational process. Each teacher, preparing for classes, selects material, mentally imagining, predicting the reaction of students: will they be interested in certain questions, will the examples given reveal the essence of the problem posed, etc. During classes, students behave differently depending on how important they consider the subject to be for their professional training, and how interesting, intelligible and convincing the teacher presents his material. Some work with interest, with passion, others are not very interested in the subject, but they also try to work in order to avoid possible troubles, others do not hide their lack of interest in the subject, mind their own business or do not attend classes at all. The teacher records, “catches” the current situation and, preparing for a new meeting with students, adjusts his actions taking into account past experience.

As we can see, in the given example there is a main characteristic feature of social interaction - deep and close coordination of the system of actions of partners regarding the subject of social communication - study.

Social interactions come in three main options: social relations, social institutions and social communities. Let's give a brief description of each of them.

Social relations is a stable system of interaction between partners, which is distinguished by the fact that relationships are established across a wide range of phenomena and have a long-term, systematic, self-renewing nature. This feature applies to both interpersonal and intergroup relations. When we talk, for example, about interethnic relations, we mean an established, recurring connection between ethnic entities across a fairly wide range of interactions (we are, as a rule, talking about political, economic, and cultural ties).

Concept “social institution” captures the fact that the process of satisfying basic human needs is to a greater or lesser extent guaranteed against randomness, sporadicity, that it is predictable, reliable, and regular. Any social institution arises and functions as the interaction of groups of people regarding the implementation of a certain social need. If such a need, due to some circumstances, becomes insignificant or completely disappears, then the existence of the institution turns out to be meaningless. It may still function for some time due to inertia or as a tribute to tradition, but in most cases it disappears.

The birth and death of a social institution is clearly illustrated by the example of the institution of noble duels of honor. The duel was an institutionalized method of settling relations between nobles for three centuries. It arose due to the need to protect the honor of the nobleman and streamline relations between representatives of this social stratum. Initially, quarrels and duels occurred spontaneously, by chance, but gradually a certain system of procedures emerged that regulated the behavior of all participants in duels, distributing roles between them (duelists, manager, seconds, medic). This institution provided for strict adherence to rules and norms in situations of honor protection. But with the development of industrial society, ethical standards also changed, which made it unnecessary to defend noble honor with arms in hand, as a result of which this institution is gradually dying out. An example of its decline is the absurd choice of weapons of a duel by A. Lincoln: he proposed throwing potatoes at the enemy from a distance of twenty meters.1

From the above example it is clear that the institutionalization of social connections presupposes:

· formation of common goals for interacting subjects;

· the emergence of social norms and rules, as well as procedures for their implementation;

· establishing a system of sanctions that stimulate desirable behavior and discourage and deter undesirable behavior;

· clear distribution of functions, rights and responsibilities of participants in interaction, creation of a system of statuses and roles, as a result of which individual behavior within the institution is more predictable;

· impersonality of requirements for those who are involved in the activities of the institute; status and role expectations for each object are presented as instructions for a given institution;

· division of labor and professionalization in the performance of functions.

The above makes it obvious that the more developed, streamlined and effective social institutions are, the more stable and sustainable the development of society will be. Particularly dramatic periods are marked in the development of a particular society, when there is a transformation of the main social institutions, when the rules and norms that underlie the functioning of each institution change. In essence, we are talking about reconsidering basic value systems. For example, in our society the institution of property is being renewed. If yesterday Russians did not own, did not manage property, were controlled, but had a guaranteed minimum standard of living, today many want to own, manage, take risks and at the same time have only a chance to live prosperously and independently. Naturally, not all participants in social interaction regarding property perceive the established institution of property in the same way, hence the inconsistency, severity, and drama of the formation of new stable norms in this area. The same can be said about the institutions of the army, family, education, etc.

A characteristic feature of such social interaction as social communities, is that they arise from the need for solidarity and coordination of joint actions. The basis of social community is the human desire for the benefits that come from combining efforts. Individuals who form united forms of social interaction can qualitatively increase the effectiveness of individual actions, the ability to improve, defend their interests, and survive. Based on the types of communication (social contacts and social interactions), two main types of social communities can be distinguished: social circles, i.e. people between whom there are contacts, communication, and social groups, which are based on the exchange of related, coordinated systems of actions regarding the coordination of joint efforts, unification, and solidarity. Modern society demonstrates a huge diversity of social groups, which is due to the variety of tasks for which these groups were formed. More details about the types, types and methods of functioning of various groups can be found in other sections of this manual. In the meantime, it is important for us to note that the desire for solidarity and joint efforts means the emergence of shared expectations of each member of the community regarding the other: for example, from your neighbor down the street, whom you meet from time to time, you expect one type of behavior, and from your loved ones, members family is different. Violation of these expectations can lead to mismatch, depression, and conflicts.

The variety of social interactions makes it necessary their typology. First of all, social interactions can be divided according to the following criterion: as the nature of the action. In accordance with it, we obtain the following types:

· physical interaction;

· verbal interaction;

· sign or symbolic interaction.

In addition, sociologists distinguish between social interactions by methods, with the help of which partners agree on their goals and means of achieving them. In connection with this criterion, we can distinguish the two most general types of interaction - cooperation and competition (sometimes in the sociological literature you can find another division - cooperation, competition and conflict). Cooperation involves the interrelated actions of individuals aimed at achieving common goals, with benefits for all parties. Interaction based on rivalry is based on attempts to remove and suppress an opponent striving for identical goals.

Finally, interactions can be studied using micro and macro level. In the first case we are dealing with interpersonal interactions, in the second - with the existence of social relations and institutions. It should be noted that in any given social context elements of both levels are combined. Everyday communication between family members occurs at the micro level. At the same time, the family is a social institution studied at the macro level.

So, social interaction is a special type of social connection, which is characterized by the actions of social partners based on mutual expectations of a response. This means that everyone, in their interaction with another, can predict (with varying degrees of probability) his behavior. Consequently, there are certain “rules of the game” that are observed to one degree or another by all participants in social interaction, otherwise it is either impossible at all or ineffective.

Therefore, it is necessary to find out how and by what means people’s relationships are regulated in the process of social interaction.

In order for two or more individuals to constitute a “society”, to give rise to “social phenomena”, it is necessary that they interacted with each other, exchanged mutual actions and reactions.

Social interaction in society

Only in this case will they constitute a social phenomenon; only in this case will their relationships give rise to social processes, only in this case will they create their interactions, not studied by other disciplines.

Hence, the model of a social group should be only two or more individuals interacting with each other. The model of social processes can only be processes of interaction between individuals; Only phenomena of human interaction can be a model of social phenomena

The family can serve as a model for a number of social relationships, but not all; we know that a number of social groups, even the majority of the latter, are not formed on family principles and have nothing to do with the family. An assembly of friends, an assembly of believers, a political party, members of a scientific society and many other associations are non-family associations.

Therefore, the family cannot be taken as a model everyone social groups, interaction between family members - as a model of all social interaction. The family represents only a particular type of generic phenomenon - a group of interacting individuals.

All social life and all social processes can be decomposed into phenomena and processes of interaction between two or more individuals; and vice versa, by combining various interaction processes, we can get any, the most complex of the most complex social process, any social event, from the passion for tango and futurism to world war and revolutions.

All social relations fall into interaction relations, starting with production and economic relations and ending with aesthetic, religious, legal and scientific relations.

In short - the interaction of two or more individuals is a generic concept of social phenomena; it can serve as a model for the latter. By studying the structure of this model, we can understand the structure of all social phenomena. By decomposing interaction into its component parts, we will thereby decompose the most complex social phenomena into parts.

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In their daily life, all people constantly interact with each other. The personality of any person represents the totality of those social qualities that were formed and developed in certain networks of interpersonal interactions. Communicating with peers, acquaintances, relatives, and random fellow travelers, each person carries out certain social interactions.

Give examples of social interactions based on your life experiences.

During the interaction process the following occurs:

1) people’s perception of each other;

2) mutual assessment of each other;

3) joint action - cooperation, competition, conflict, etc.

Social interaction is a system of socially conditioned individual 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.

Main signs of interaction:

· objectivity – the presence of a goal, reason, object, etc., external to the interacting individuals or groups, which encourages them to interact;

· 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;

· explication – accessibility for an outside observer of the external expression of the interaction process, be it studying at college, playing or dancing.

· reflective ambiguity - the opportunity for interaction to be a manifestation of both basic subjective intentions and an unconscious or conscious consequence of the joint participation of people in inter-individual or group activities (for example, joint study).

Parties and types of social interaction

Two sides of the interaction process

The social mechanism of interaction is quite complex.

In the simplest case it includes the following Components:

1) individuals or their groups performing certain actions in relation to each other;

2) changes in the external world caused by these actions;

3) changes in the inner world of the individuals participating in the interaction (in their thoughts, feelings, assessments, aspirations, etc.);

4) the impact of these changes on other individuals;

5) the latter’s backlash to such influence.

Give examples from history where all the components of the social mechanism of interaction are manifested.

In real life there is an extremely wide variety of interactions. But in this diversity stand out two main types of interaction:

1) cooperation,

2) rivalry.

Explain these types of interactions.

The variety of social interactions from the point of view of the subjects of these processes and the scale of the latter are divided into five main types:

I. interpersonal,

II. intragroup,

III. intergroup,

IV. intrasystem,

V. intersystem.

I. B interpersonal interactions processes of perception, expectation, fulfillment of words, promises, actions, roles, etc. are carried out. two, three, four interacting individuals, their mutual assessment, response in the form of appropriate actions.

Give examples from your life experience.

II. The processes are even more complex intragroup interactions. Along with the listed elements of interpersonal interactions, they include five more types of interactions:

1. status-positional,

2. value-normative,

3. cohesion (integration),

4. disintegration,

5. leadership and decision making.

Give examples from your life experience.

Intergroup interaction becomes even more complex and fully includes elements of interpersonal and intragroup interaction. But all these elements are reinforced by other types of assistance or opposition characteristic of relationships between different social groups. This includes the following types of interactions:

1. cooperation,

2. assimilation,

3. device,

4. neutrality,

5. rivalry

6. conflict,

7. suppression.

IV. Intrasystem interactions rise to the next, even more complicated level of versatility. This includes components of interpersonal, intragroup, and intergroup interactions. But they all begin to group around several types of interactions that are specific to the social system. They are:

— emergence (irreducibility of the integrity of a system to the sum of its parts);

— operational closure (the functioning of the system is determined by its internal states);

— self-reflexivity (inclusion of oneself in the subject of consideration);

— integration;

- differentiation,

— disorganization;

— chaos;

— ordering (formation of order from chaos).

V . Intersystem interactions are becoming even more diverse and complex. They include components of all previously discussed types of interactions. However, these processes are complemented and transformed by new transformation processes that are characteristic only of intersystem objects. One of the most significant interactions in this set of interactions is the process of globalization.

Under the influence of what processes of a global nature are intersystem interactions taking shape in the modern world community of states?

Task: complete a syncwine with the words “action” or “interaction”.

Lesson topic No. 12

Social statuses and roles

Questions and tasks for review

1. What is social activity?

2. Name the functions of social activity and give examples.

3. What is social interaction? Why does it play an important role in the development of the individual and society?

4. Name the main signs of interaction.

5. List the types of social interactions.

6. Tell us what elements are included in the structure of intragroup interactions.

7. Give a description of those components, the totality of which is characteristic of intergroup interactions. Name which of these components are specific to this type of interaction.

8. Characterize the structural components of intrasystem interactions. Which of these components are system-forming in this case, i.e. characteristic specifically for the social system?

9. Under the influence of what global processes are intersystem interactions taking shape in the modern world community of states?

Plan

Social interaction

Concept and types of social statuses

2. Social and role identification

Do you agree that each person occupies a certain place or position in society?

Have you heard the expression “this person is not our circle”, or

“she’s not a match for him”?

Are marriages common between a man worker and a woman minister, a man teacher and a woman dishwasher? Why?

Social status - the position occupied by a person in society, associated with certain rights and responsibilities. The concept of social status characterizes the place of an individual in the social structure of society.

Society’s assessment of an individual’s activity is expressed by:

— prestige; - salary;

— privileges; - awards, title, glory

Try to determine how many statuses a person can have?

Status set- a set of statuses that characterize a given personality.

Main status- this is the one that determines the attitude and direction of the individual, the content and nature of its activities.

Name your main status, mine, E. Petrosyan, A. Pugacheva, Beethoven, Maradonna, Aristotle...

Personal status differs from the social one in that the position occupied by a person is determined by the individual qualities of the person (kindness, responsiveness).

Prescribed status – this is the one , which an individual occupies regardless of his desire, will, efforts (gender, nationality, race).

Achieved status is an individual’s reward for his efforts, perseverance, and will to achieve his goal (professor, world champion).

What do you think is better for an individual, low or high self-esteem?

Personal assessment of one's status

Do you consider social status to be constant or dynamic? Explain your point of view.

Each individual in his life strives to maintain or increase his social status, although objectively it may decrease. The more democratic a society is, the less importance prescribed statuses have in it, determined by social origin, nationality or gender, the greater the role played in it by achieved statuses, which are the result of a high level of education, competence, professionalism, purposeful activity of the individual, his successes and merit.

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Social interaction: forms, types and spheres

Interaction is a process of influence of people and groups on each other, in which each action is determined by both the previous action and the expected result from the other

Any social interaction has four characteristics:

§ it substantively, that is, always has a purpose or cause that is external to the interacting groups or people;

§ it outwardly expressed, and therefore accessible to observation; This feature is due to the fact that interaction always involves character exchange, signs that decrypted by the opposite side;

§ it situationally,T. e. usually tied to some specific situations, to the conditions of the course (for example, meeting friends or taking an exam);

§ it expresses subjective intentions of participants.

I would like to emphasize that interaction is always communication. However, interaction should not be equated with ordinary communication, i.e., messaging. This is a much broader concept because it involves not only direct exchange of information, but also an indirect exchange of meanings. Indeed, two people may not say a word and may not seek to communicate anything to each other by other means, but the very fact that one can observe the actions of the other, and the other knows about it, makes any activity of theirs a social interaction. If people perform some actions in front of each other that can (and will certainly be) somehow interpreted by the opposite side, then they are already exchanging meanings. A person who is alone will behave slightly differently than a person who is around other people.

Hence, social interaction characterized by such a feature as Feedback. Feedback assumes presence of reaction. However, this reaction may not follow, but it is always expected, accepted as probable, possible.

Depending on how contact is made between interacting people or groups, there are four main types of social interaction:

§ physical;

§ verbal, or verbal;

§ non-verbal (facial expressions, gestures);

§ mental, which is expressed only in inner speech.

Social interaction is possible in any sphere of social life.

Therefore, we can give the following typology of social interaction by area:

§ economic (individuals act as owners and employees);

§ political (individuals confront or cooperate as representatives of political parties, social movements, and also as subjects of state power);

§ professional (individuals participate as representatives of different professions);

§ demographic (including contacts between representatives of different genders, ages, nationalities and races);

§ family-related;

§ territorial-settlement (there are clashes, cooperation, competition between locals and newcomers, permanent and temporary residents, etc.);

§ religious (implies contacts between representatives of different religions, as well as believers and atheists).

Three main forms of interaction can be distinguished:

§ cooperation - cooperation of individuals to solve a common problem;

§ competition - individual or group struggle for the possession of scarce values ​​(benefits);

§ conflict - a hidden or open clash between competing parties.

Forms of mass behavior

Mass behavior is a spontaneous reaction of people to a social situation that affects their interests. Forms of mass behavior include actions of crowds and masses of people, panic, pogroms, riots, riots, etc.

Sociological research into these issues began with the development of crowd theory. The concept of the French social psychologist and sociologist G. Le Bon (1841–1931) is the most famous in this area.

SOCIAL INTERACTION

In accordance with this concept, the crowd has its own collective psyche, in which the psyche of individual people seems to dissolve.

The crowd often becomes an object of manipulation by extremist parties and organizations that use the unconscious irrational motivational mechanisms of participants in mass actions.

A slightly different type of mass behavior is represented by social movements, which are commonly understood as collective actions that promote or hinder social change.

The diversity of social movements allows them to be classified according to a variety of criteria. Social movements can be progressive or regressive in their orientation. The first are focused on the future, promoting changes in society, the formation of new values, norms, and institutions; the latter appeal to the past and advocate a return to old orders, traditions, and beliefs (for example, monarchical movements, various kinds of religious movements).

According to the scale of the proposed changes, social movements are divided into reformist and revolutionary. Reformist social movements advocate gradual change in the existing social system and do not involve radical transformation of basic institutional structures. Revolutionary social movements strive for a radical transformation of society, its political system and system of ideological values.

Social movements also differ in their level: 1) mass movements with global goals (for example, movements for environmental protection, against nuclear testing, the arms race, etc.); 2) regional movements limited to a certain territory (for example, the movement against the use of the landfill in Semipalatinsk); 3) local movements pursuing specific pragmatic goals (for example, a movement to remove a member of the local administration).

In a broader historical context, sociologists identify utopian movements aimed at building a perfect society. The communes of the English theorist of utopian socialism R. Owen, the phalanx of followers of the French utopian Charles Fourier and other similar experiments lasted a short time and disintegrated due to internal contradictions and conflicts with the external environment. The same fate typically awaits today's communities attempting to implement alternative lifestyle models.

Thus, in modern society there is a wide range of social movements. Their importance is determined by their unique contribution to the development of civil society (6.8). As the famous Polish sociologist P. Sztompka emphasizes, a society that wants to use its full creative potential must not only allow, but also encourage social movements. If society suppresses social movements, then it destroys its own mechanism for self-improvement and self-development.

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The starting point for the formation of a social connection can be the interaction of individuals or groups forming a social community to satisfy certain needs. Interaction is interpreted as any behavior of an individual or group that has significance for other individuals and groups of a social community or society as a whole. Moreover, interaction expresses the nature and content of relations between people and social groups, which, being constant carriers of qualitatively different types of activities, differ in social positions (statuses) and roles.

Social interaction is one of the types of social communication - a mutually directed process of exchange of social actions between two or more individuals. The connection is always mutual, present and feasible (at least in the imagination). There are two types of connections: direct (usually visual, interpersonal) and indirect (when communication is carried out through intermediaries; in this case, the phenomenon of deindividuation arises - the illusion that all social relationships exist independently of the will and desires of people).

There are three main forms of social interaction: 1) cooperation of several individuals to achieve a common goal; 2) competition (individual or group struggle) for the possession of necessary resources; 3) conflict between competing parties. Features of social interaction: 1) conjugation of actions of both partners; 2) renewability of actions; 3) sustained interest in the partner’s response; 4) coordination of partners’ actions.

Types of social interactions: 1) hard exchange (exchange based on certain agreements (most often in the economic sphere, in manager-subordinate relationships, in political life)); 2) diffuse (non-rigid) exchange (mainly in moral and ethical interactions: friendship, neighborhood, relationships between parents and children, partnership); 3) direct-indirect interactions (direct - immediate (two-way) interactions between individuals, indirect - complex, mediated through 3-4 persons (indirect interactions predominate in modern society)); 4) individual-group interactions (individual-individual, individual-group, group-group).

I. Goffman, within the framework of a phenomenological perspective, offers a slightly different view of social interactions. To analyze them, he uses a "dramatic approach", based on the premise that individuals are actors playing social roles. Accordingly, interaction is a “performance,” an “acting performance,” constructed by the actor in order to “make an impression” consistent with his goals. The actions of the actor, according to I. Goffman, correspond to the concept of “self-presentation and impression management.” “Presentation of oneself” includes gestures, intonations, and clothing, with the help of which an individual seeks to make a certain impression on a partner and evoke a particular reaction in him. Moreover, in the process of interaction, an individual, as a rule, provides only selected, partial information about himself, trying to manage the impression he makes on others.

P. Blau, relying on the theory of exchange and structural functionalism, argues that not all social interactions can be considered as exchange processes. The latter include only those that are focused on achieving goals, the implementation of which is possible only in the process of interaction with other people and to achieve which requires means that are also available to other people. That part of human behavior that is governed by the rules of exchange underlies the formation of social structures, but the rules of exchange themselves are insufficient to explain the complex structures of human society.

However, it is social exchange that largely determines the interactions of each individual. The success or failure of our interactions ultimately depends on the knowledge and ability (or ignorance and inability) to practically use the principles of their regulation formulated within the framework of exchange theory.

Social interaction is the mutual influence of various spheres, phenomena and processes of social life, carried out through social activity. It takes place both between isolated objects (external interaction) and within a separate object, between its elements (internal interaction).

Social interaction has objective and subjective sides. The objective side of interaction are connections that are independent of individual people, but mediate and control the content and nature of their interaction. The subjective side is understood as the conscious attitude of individuals towards each other, based on mutual expectations of appropriate behavior. These are, as a rule, interpersonal (or socio-psychological) relationships that develop in specific social communities at a certain point in time. The mechanism of social interaction includes individuals performing certain actions; changes in a social community or society as a whole caused by these actions; the impact of these changes on other individuals who make up the social community, and, finally, the reverse reaction of individuals.

Interaction usually leads to the formation of new social relationships. The latter can be represented as relatively stable and independent connections between individuals and social groups.

In sociology, the concepts of “social structure” and “social system” are closely related. A social system is a set of social phenomena and processes that are in relationships and connections with each other and form some integral social object. Individual phenomena and processes act as elements of the system.

Social interaction and its signs

The concept of “social structure” is part of the concept of a social system and combines two components – social composition and social connections. Social composition is the set of elements that make up a given structure. The second component is a set of connections between these elements. Thus, the concept of social structure includes, on the one hand, the social composition, or the totality of various types of social communities as system-forming social elements of society, on the other hand, the social connections of the constituent elements that differ in the breadth of their action, in their significance in the characteristics of social structure of society at a certain stage of development.

Social structure means the objective division of society into separate layers, groups, different in their social status and in their relation to the mode of production. This is a stable connection of elements in a social system. The main elements of the social structure are such social communities as classes and class-like groups, ethnic, professional, socio-demographic groups, socio-territorial communities (city, village, region). Each of these elements, in turn, is a complex social system with its own subsystems and connections. Social structure reflects the characteristics of social relations of classes, professional, cultural, national-ethnic and demographic groups, which are determined by the place and role of each of them in the system of economic relations. The social aspect of any community is concentrated in its connections and mediations with production and class relations in society.

A social action involving at least two participants influencing each other is calledsocial interaction. The mechanism of social interaction includes the following components:

• a) individuals performing certain actions;
• b) changes in the social community or society as a whole caused by these actions;
• c) the impact of these changes on other individuals making up this community;
• d) reverse reaction of these individuals.

Social interaction is considered by various sociological theories. The problem of social interaction was most deeply developed by D. Homans and T. Parsons. In his study of social interaction, Homans relied on such action exchange terms as “actor” and “other”, and argued that in interactions of this kind, each participant strives to minimize his own costs and obtain the maximum reward for his actions. He considered social approval to be one of the most important rewards. When rewards become mutual in social interaction, the social interaction itself becomes a relationship based on a system of mutual expectations. A situation of non-compliance with the expectations of one of the participants in the interaction can lead to aggressiveness, which itself can become a means of obtaining satisfaction. In social interaction involving many individuals, social norms and values ​​play a regulatory role. An important feature of social interaction between two actors is the desire for a certain ordering of its nature - rewarding or punishing.

Parsons noted the fundamental uncertainty of social interaction, in conditions where each participant in the interaction strives to achieve his own goals. Although uncertainty cannot be completely eliminated, it can be reduced by using an action system. Parsons built the principle of social interaction on such concepts as motivational orientation, satisfaction and dissatisfaction of needs, role expectations, attitudes, sanctions, evaluations, etc. With the help of these concepts, he sought to solve the problem of social order.

Social interaction includes social connection and social relationships. The starting point for the formation of a social connection is social contact, that is, a shallow, superficial social action of a single nature.

Social action expressing the dependence and compatibility of people and social groups is called social connection. Social connections are established to achieve a certain goal, at a certain time and in a certain place. Their establishment is associated with the social conditions in which individuals live and act. In sociology, there are different types of connections:

• - interactions;
• -relationships;
• -control;
• -institutional connections.

The concept of social connection was introduced into sociology by E. Durkheim. By social connection he meant any sociocultural obligations of individuals or groups of individuals in relation to each other. Durkheim believed that social bonds exist in groups, organizations and society as a whole.

The main elements of social connection are:

• - subjects (individuals and groups);
• - subject (travel in transport, going to the theater);
• -mechanism of social connection and its regulation (payment of needs).

The purpose of a social connection is to satisfy some need of an individual or group. As society develops, social connections become more complex.

Quite often, social connections are considered when characterizing small groups. Social connections allow individuals to identify themselves with a given social group and a sense of the significance of belonging to this group.

Social relations- a long-term, systemic, stable form of social interaction with extensive social connections. It requires social motivation.

Social motivation- internal motivation of behavior (activity and activity) of an individual or social group, caused by their needs and determining behavior. The basic needs are physiological (hunger) and emotional (love), but a cognitive assessment of the situation is also possible. Motivation happens internal- aimed at satisfying personal needs, and external- seeking to receive rewards that are not personally necessary. There are motivations that encourage activity and motivations that are caused by the influence of existing stereotypes on individuals.

D.K. McClelland introduced the concept - achievement motivation, which involves assessing individual and cultural differences in the pursuit of achievement. According to his hypothesis, the need for achievement is stimulated by close relationships with relatives who set high standards of behavior.

There are various forms of interaction.

Cooperation - it is the joint activity of individuals, groups and organizations to achieve a goal. Cooperation is closely interconnected with conflict and competition. It is in some sense paradoxical, since the parties to the conflict cooperate to some extent to maintain the conflict. Therefore, the question of what exactly is the decisive social bond of society - cooperation or competition - remains open.

Under competition refers to an activity in which an individual or group competes with another individual or group to achieve a goal. Competition can be direct or indirect. It may be normatively or socially regulated, but it may not be regulated.

Many schools of social thought (eg social Darwinism, utilitarianism) emphasized the social benefits of competition and perceived competition as a universal and productive element in society. Representatives of Marxism, on the contrary, considered competition a specific need of capitalism, in which minor manifestations of justice and efficiency on the surface are refuted by real asymmetries of power, basic contradictions and conflicts.

The existence of different ideas about competition does not make it possible to consider it unambiguously positively or negatively. The most rational approach is M. Weber, who proposed to evaluate competition as a private aspect of social relations, the consequences of which must be individually analyzed in each individual case. The concept of "competition" partially coincides with the concept of "conflict".