The daily interaction of people is the very field of real actions in which socialization unfolds and the seeds of the human personality germinate. 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 the elderly go ahead. All this - acts of social interaction, consisting of individual social action. However, not everything we do in connection with other people is related to social interaction. If a car hit a passerby, then this is a normal traffic accident. But it also becomes a social interaction, when the driver and the pedestrian, analyzing what happened, each defend their own 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 where he pleases. The pedestrian, on the contrary, is convinced that he is the main person in the city, and 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 circle of rights and obligations. Fulfilling role driver and pedestrian, two men find out not personal relationships based on sympathy or antipathy, but enter into social relations, behave like holders of social statuses that are defined by society. Role conflict is described in sociology with the help of status-role theory. While talking to each other, the driver and the pedestrian talk about family matters, the weather, or crop prospects. content their conversations are social symbols and meanings: the purpose of such a territorial settlement as a city, the norms for crossing the carriageway, the priorities of a person and a car, etc. Italicized concepts constitute the 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 is made up of separate acts, called social action, and includes statuses(range of rights and obligations), roles, social relations, symbols and values.

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

Comparing activity and behavior, it's easy to spot the difference.

The unit of behavior is an act. Though considered conscious, it has no purpose or intention. Thus, the act of an honest person is natural and therefore arbitrary. He just couldn't do otherwise. At the same time, a 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 act, as a rule, is focused on two goals at once: compliance with one's moral principles and a positive reaction from other people who evaluate the act from the outside.

Saving 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 activities. In turn, activity and behavior are two sides of one phenomenon, namely human activity. An act 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 an act. An act is only those actions that you perform voluntarily.

Speaking of an act, we unwittingly implied an action oriented towards other people. But an action emanating from an individual may or may not be directed at another individual. Only an action that is directed at another person (rather than a physical object) and causes a backlash should qualify as social interaction.

If an interaction is a bidirectional exchange of actions between two or more individuals, then an action is just a one-way interaction.

Distinguish four types of action:

1) physical action(a slap in the face, handing over a book, writing on paper, etc.);
2) verbal, or verbal, action(insult, greeting, etc.);
3) gestures as a kind 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 - internal. Examples supporting each kind of action correspond to social action criteria M. Weber: they are meaningful, motivated, focused on the other. Social interaction includes the first three and does not include the fourth kind of action (no one but telepaths interacted through 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 area, where individuals act as owners and employees, entrepreneurs, rentiers, capitalists, businessmen, unemployed, housewives;
professional area, where individuals participate as drivers, bankers, professors, miners, cooks;
family area, where people act as fathers, mothers, sons, cousins, grandmothers, uncles, aunts, godfathers, twin brothers, bachelors, widows, newlyweds;
demographic area, including contacts between representatives of different sexes, ages, nationalities and races (nationality is also included in the concept of interethnic interaction);
political sphere, where people fight or cooperate as representatives of political parties, popular fronts, social movements, and also as subjects of state power - judges, policemen, juries, diplomats, etc.;
religious area, implying contacts between representatives of different religions, one religion, as well as believers and non-believers, if the content of their actions relate to the field of religion;
territorial-settlement sphere- clashes, cooperation, competition between local 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 to achieve them, allocating scarce (rare) resources.

Cooperation- it cooperation several individuals (groups) for the sake of solving a common problem. The simplest example is the transfer of 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 fight for possession of scarce values (goods). They can be money, property, popularity, prestige, power. They are scarce because, being limited, they cannot be divided equally among all. Competition is considered 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 at the expense of others. Competition intensifies when individuals realize that alone they can achieve more. It is a social interaction because people negotiate the rules of the game.

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

specific trait interaction that distinguishes it from mere action, exchange: Every interaction is an exchange. You can exchange anything: signs of attention, words, gestures, symbols, material objects. Perhaps there is nothing that could not serve as a medium of exchange. Thus, money, with which we usually associate the process of exchange, is far from the first place. Understood so broadly, the exchange - universal a process that can be found in any society and in any historical epoch. Exchange structure simple enough:

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) exchange item– goods, services, gifts, tokens of attention, etc.;
5) place of exchange- a predetermined or spontaneously arisen meeting place.

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

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, and vice versa, it decreases in case of failure.
2. If the reward (success) for a certain type of action depends on certain conditions, then it is highly likely that a person will strive for them. Whether you are profiting from acting legally and increasing productivity, or from circumventing the law and hiding it from the tax office, profits, like any other reward, will push you to repeat successful behavior.
3. If the reward is great, the person is ready to overcome any difficulties in order to receive it. A profit of 5% is unlikely to stimulate a businessman to a feat, but, as K. Marx once noted, for the sake of a profit of 300%, a capitalist is ready to commit any crimes.
4. When a person's needs are close to saturation, he makes less and less effort to satisfy them. This means that if the employer pays a high salary for several months in a row, then the employee's motivation to increase productivity decreases.

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

In general terms, social interaction is a complex system of exchanges conditioned by ways of balancing rewards and costs. When the expected costs are greater than the expected rewards, people are less likely to interact unless they are forced to. Homans' exchange theory explains social interaction on the basis of free choice. In social exchange, as we might call the social interaction between reward and cost, there is no direct correlation. In other words, if the reward is tripled, then the individual will not necessarily triple their efforts in response. It often happened that the workers were doubled the salary 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 save his efforts, and he resorts to this in any situation, sometimes going to deceit. The reason is that expenses and remuneration- derived from different needs or biological urges. Therefore, two factors - the desire to save effort and the desire to get as much reward as possible - can act simultaneously, but in different directions. This creates the most complex pattern of human interaction, where exchange and personal gain, disinterestedness and fair distribution of rewards, equality of results and inequality of efforts 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 for social interaction - interaction.

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

Any social interaction has four characteristics:

§ it subject, i.e. always has a purpose or cause that is external to the interacting groups or people;

§ it outwardly expressed, and therefore available for observation; This feature is due to the fact that interaction always involves character exchange, signs that deciphered 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 identified with ordinary communication, i.e., messaging. This is a much broader concept, since it involves not only the direct exchange of information, but also an indirect exchange of meanings. Indeed, two people may not speak a word and 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 of their activity a social interaction. If people perform in front of each other some actions that can be (and will certainly be) somehow interpreted by the opposite side, then they are already exchanging meanings. A person who is alone will behave a little differently than a person who is in the company of other people.

Hence, social interaction characterized by such a feature as Feedback. Feedback suggests the presence of a reaction. However, this reaction may not follow, but it is always expected, admitted 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 society. Therefore, we can give the following typology of social interaction by spheres:

§ economic (individuals act as owners and employees);

§ political (individuals oppose 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 sexes, ages, nationalities and races);

§ family-related;

§ territorial-settlement (there is a clash, cooperation, competition between local and newcomers, permanent and temporary residents, etc.);

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

There are three main forms of interaction:

§ 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 of competing parties.

Forms of mass behavior

Mass behavior is a spontaneous reaction of people to a social situation that affects their interests. The forms of mass behavior include the actions of the crowd and the human masses, panic, pogroms, riots, riots, etc.

Sociological studies of these issues began with the development of the theory of the crowd. The concept of the French social psychologist and sociologist G. Lebon (1841–1931) received the greatest fame in this area. In accordance with this concept, the crowd has its own collective psyche, in which, as it were, the psyche of individual people dissolves.

The crowd often becomes an object of manipulation by extremist parties and organizations that use 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. In their direction, social movements can be progressive and regressive. The former are turned to the future, contribute to changes in society, the formation of new values, norms, institutions; the latter appeal to the past, advocate a return to the old orders, traditions, beliefs (for example, monarchical movements, various religious movements).

According to the scale of the proposed changes, social movements are divided into reformist and revolutionary. Reformist social movements advocate a gradual change in the existing social system and do not provide for a radical transformation of the 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 tests, arms races, 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 one of the members of the local administration).

In a broader historical context, sociologists distinguish utopian movements aimed at building a perfect society. The communes of the English theorist of utopian socialism R. Owen, the phalanxes of the followers of the French utopian C. Fourier and other similar experiments existed for a short time and fell apart due to internal contradictions and conflicts with the external environment. The same fate, as a rule, is destined for today's communes, which are trying to implement alternative lifestyle models.

Thus, in modern society, the widest range of social movements is represented. Their significance 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 all its creative potential must not only allow, but also encourage social movements. If society suppresses social movements, then it destroys its own mechanism of self-improvement and self-development.

Similar information.

The concept of "social interaction" means a process in which individuals and groups in the course of communication, through their behavior, influence other individuals and other groups, causing responses. Social interaction is represented as a process of mutually conditioned influence of social subjects on each other. G.V. Osipov argues that the category of "interaction" expresses the nature and relations between people and social groups as constant carriers of qualitatively different types of activities, and differing in social positions: statuses and roles. Regardless of in which sphere of society's life the interaction takes place, it always has a social character, as it expresses the ties between individuals and groups of individuals, ties mediated by the goals that each of the interacting parties pursues.

Essence

Social interaction is a generalized concept, central to a number of sociological theories. This concept is based on the idea that a social figure, an individual or a society is always in the physical or mental environment of other social figures - b whotors (individual or group) and behaves in accordance with this social situation.

As you know, the structural features of any complex system, whatever the nature of its origin, depend not only on what elements are included in its composition, but also on how they are interconnected, connected, what effect they have on each other. friend. In essence, it is the nature of the connection between the elements that determines both the integrity of the system and the emergence of emergent properties, which is its most characteristic property as a whole. This is true for any systems - both for fairly simple, elementary, and for the most complex systems known to us - social ones.

The very concept of "emergent properties" was formulated by T. Parsons (1937) in his analysis of social systems. In doing so, he had in mind three interconnected conditions. First, social systems have a structure that arises not by itself, but precisely from the processes of social interaction. Secondly, these emergent properties cannot be reduced (reduced) to a simple sum of biological or psychological characteristics of social actors: for example, the characteristics of a particular culture cannot be explained by correlating it with the biological qualities of people who are carriers of this culture. Thirdly, the meaning of any social action cannot be understood in isolation from the social context of the social system within which it is manifested.

Perhaps Pitirim Sorokin considers the problems of social interaction most scrupulously and in detail, devoting a significant part of the first volume of his System of Sociology to them. Let's try, following the classics of Russian and American sociology, to understand the elementary concepts of this most important social process, linking many disparate people into a single whole - society and, moreover, turning purely biological individuals into people - i.e. into rational, thinking and, most importantly, social beings.

Just like Comte in his time, Sorokin is firmly convinced that a single individual cannot be considered as an elementary "social cell" or the simplest social phenomenon:

"... an individual as an individual - can in no way be considered a microcosm of the social macrocosm. It cannot, because only an individual can be obtained from an individual and neither what is called "society" nor what is called "social phenomena" can be obtained ... For the latter, not one, but many individuals, at least two, are required.

However, in order for two or more individuals to constitute something of a single whole that could be considered as a society (or its element), their mere presence is not enough. It is also necessary that they interact with each other, i.e. exchanged some actions and responses to these actions. What is interaction from the point of view of a sociologist? The definition that Sorokin gives to this concept is quite extensive and claims to embrace the almost incomprehensible, i.e. all possible options:

"The phenomenon of human interaction is given when: a) mental experiences or b) external acts, or c) or both of one (some) people represent a function of the existence and state (mental and physical) of another or other individuals."

This definition, perhaps, is truly universal, because it includes both cases of direct, direct contacts between people and variants of indirect interaction. It is not difficult to be convinced of this by considering a wide variety of examples that occur in the daily life of each of us.

If someone (accidentally or intentionally) stepped on your foot in a crowded bus (external act), and this caused you indignation (psychic experience) and an indignant exclamation (external act), then this means that an interaction has occurred between you.

And if you are a sincere admirer of Michael Jackson's work, then each appearance of him on the TV screen in the next clip (and the recording of this clip probably required the singer to perform many external acts and experience many mental experiences) will cause you a storm of emotions (psychic experiences) , or maybe you jump up from the couch and start singing along and "dancing" (thus performing external acts). At the same time, we are no longer dealing with direct, but with indirect interaction: Michael Jackson, of course, cannot observe your reaction to the recording of his song and dance, but there is hardly any doubt that he was counting on such a response from millions of his fans, planning and carrying out their physical actions (external acts). So here we are also dealing with interaction.

Tax department officials developing a new fiscal project, State Duma deputies discussing this project, amending it, and then voting for the adoption of the relevant law, the President signing a decree on the introduction of a new law into force, many entrepreneurs and consumers whose income will be influence of this law - all of them are in a complex intertwined process of interaction with each other, and most importantly - with us. There is no doubt that here there is a very serious influence of both external acts and the mental experiences of some people on the mental experiences and external acts of other people, although in most cases they can see each other, at best, on a TV screen.

It is important to note this point. Interaction always causes some physical changes in our biological organism. We can feel the handshake; cheeks "flash" when looking at a loved one (vessels under the skin expand and experience a rush of blood); an experienced fighter, when a dangerous enemy approaches him, can maintain a "stone" expression on his face, but adrenaline is already injected into his blood, preparing his muscles for a lightning attack; listening to an audio recording of your favorite popular singer, you experience emotional arousal, etc.

What are the basic conditions for the emergence of any social interaction? P. Sorokin introduces and analyzes in detail three such conditions (or, as he calls them, "elements"):

1) the presence of two or more individuals that determine the behavior and experiences of each other; 2) the commission by them of some actions that affect mutual experiences and actions; 3) the presence of conductors that transmit these influences and the effects of individuals on each other. We, in turn, could add a fourth condition here, which Sorokin does not mention: 4) the existence of a common basis for contacts, contact.

Forms of social interactions

The concept of social ties, their types

Obviously, in order to satisfy his needs, a person must interact with other individuals, join social groups, and participate in joint activities.

The central idea of the sociological realism of E. Durkheim, to which, in essence, all his scientific work was devoted, is the idea public solidarity- the question of what is the nature of those ties that unite, attract people to each other. The desire of any person to contact with other people is due to basic human needs. These include: sexual (reproduction); group self-defense; communication with their own kind; intellectual activity; sensory-emotional experiences. Without contacts, the satisfaction of these needs is impossible.

Throughout life, a person is connected with other people through social ties that manifest themselves in various forms and forms.

Social relationships between members of a society or social group are extremely diverse. In the process of communicating with other people, a person constantly selects from a large number of various connections exactly those that he considers necessary to strengthen and develop. In this regard, each individual goes through several stages in the development of social relations before reaching the state of social relations.

In addition, it is social ties that are the basis group-forming processes, the first step in the formation of social groups (Fig. 1).

Fig.1. Types of social connections

So, consider the main types of social connections:

Social contacts. Social contacts should be recognized as the simplest type of connections. These contacts are the most simple, elementary connections between separate individuals.

The first step in building social connections is spatial contacts. They reflect the orientation of people in social space, in which individuals imagine where other people are and how many there are. They may assume the presence of other people or see them. The very assumption of the presence of a certain number of other people can change the behavior of individuals in society. Note that in spatial contact, the individual cannot single out any separate isolated objects from the total number of people around him. He evaluates the people around him as a whole.

Separation from the spatial environment of some special objects can occur only with the contact of interest. With such contact, the individual singles out from his social environment a certain individual or social group to which he pays his attention, which he can use to deepen social ties.

The last type of contacts are exchange contacts. In the course of such contacts, there is a short-term exchange of values between individual individuals. J. Schepansky, describing exchange contacts, notes that they represent a specific type of social relationships in which individuals exchange values without having the desire to change the behavior of other individuals. This means that in the course of such sporadic and short-term exchanges, the attention of the individual is concentrated on the object of exchange, and not on the other individual entering into the exchange. An example of such contact is the purchase of a newspaper, when the buyer, ignoring the seller, gives money and receives a newspaper.

Every time an individual begins to communicate with other people, he must necessarily go through all these three types of contacts in order to move on to more complex social connections.

A more complex type of social connection is social action. Its significance is due to the fact that it is the simplest unit, the simplest element of any kind of social activity of people. For the first time in sociology, the concept of "social action" was introduced and scientifically substantiated by Max Weber.

In the understanding of M. Weber, social action has at least two features: firstly, it must be rational, conscious, and secondly, it must necessarily be oriented towards the behavior of other people.

Social Actions - it is a certain system of actions, means and methods, using which an individual or a social group seeks to change the behavior, views or opinions of other individuals or groups.

Any social action is a system in which the following elements can be distinguished:

ü subject of action influencing individual or community of people;

ü action object, the individual or community on which the action is directed;

ü means (instruments of action) and methods of action, by means of which the necessary change is carried out;

ü action result- the response of the individual or community on which the action was directed.

Two following concepts should be distinguished: "behavior" and "action". If behavior is the body's response to internal or external stimuli (it can be reflex, unconscious or intentional, conscious), then action is only some types of behavior.

When performing social actions, each person experiences the actions of others. There is an exchange of actions or social interaction.

social interaction- this is a systematically stable performance of some actions that are aimed at the partner in order to cause a certain (expected) response from his side, which, in turn, causes a new reaction of the influencer.

P. Sorokin studied social interaction in the most detail. In his opinion, a single individual cannot be considered as an elementary "social cell" or the simplest social phenomenon.

In his work "Systems of Sociology", he noted: "... an individual as an individual - can in no way be considered a microcosm of the social macrocosm. It cannot, because from an individual one can get only an individual and one cannot get what is called “society”, nor what is called “social phenomena” ... For the latter, not one, but many individuals, at least two, are required. However, in order for two or more individuals to be considered as an element of society, it is necessary that they interact with each other.

Sorokin calls the conditions for the emergence of any social interactions:

ü having two or more individuals that determine the behavior and experiences of each other;

ü doing something by them, influencing mutual experiences and actions;

ü presence of conductors, transmitting these influences and the impact of individuals on each other (for example, speech signals or various material carriers).

Human social connections are a set of interactions consisting of actions and responses. A complex network of interactions is formed, covering a different number of individuals. In the process of these interactions, social relations can develop.

Social Relations - this is a system of normalized interactions between partners about something that binds them (subject, interest, etc.). Unlike social interaction, social relations are a stable system limited by certain norms(formal and informal).

Social relations are divided into unilateral and mutual. Unilateral social relations are characterized by the fact that their participants put different meanings into them. For example, love on the part of an individual may stumble upon contempt or hatred on the part of the object of his love.

The reason that sometimes similar interactions differ from each other in content is values. Value in this context can be defined as a desired desired event. The content and meaning of social relations depends on how the need for values and possession of them are combined in interactions. If one individual has resources in the form of wealth, and the other is not interested in acquiring them, then in this case only one type of relationship is possible - the independence of each of the individuals, disinterest and indifference.

For example, the case when Alexander the Great, who had power, wealth and prestige, offered to use these values to the philosopher Diogenes of Sinop. The king asked the philosopher to name a desire, to present any requirement that he would immediately fulfill. But Diogenes had no need for the values offered and expressed his only desire: that the king would move away and not block the sun. The relationship of respect and gratitude, which Macedonsky counted on, did not arise, Diogenes remained independent, as, indeed, the king.

The following elements can be distinguished in the system of relations:

ü subjects of communication- two individuals, two social groups, or an individual and a social group;

ü their link, which may be some object, interest, common value, creating the basis of the relationship;

ü a certain system of duties and obligations or established functions that must be performed by partners in relation to each other.

Among the variety of social relations, there are those that are present in all other relations and are their basis. These are, first of all, relations of social dependence and power.

For example, if we consider the relationship of love, it is obvious that the love of two people for each other implies mutual obligations and the dependence of one person on the motives and actions of the other. The same can be said about friendship, respect, management and leadership, where the relationship of dependence and power is most obvious.

Forms of social interactions

Social interactions in society can be viewed from the point of view of ways to achieve desired values. Here we are dealing with such categories as cooperation, competition and conflict. The first two concepts were developed in detail by American sociologists Robert Park and Ernst Burges.

Word cooperation comes from two Latin words: co"- "together" and " operari"- work. Cooperation can take place in dyads (groups of two individuals), small groups, as well as in large groups (in organizations, social stratum or society).

Cooperation is primarily associated with the desire of people to cooperate, and many sociologists consider this phenomenon based on selflessness (social altruism). However, studies and just experience show that selfish goals serve the cooperation of people to a greater extent than their likes and dislikes, desires or unwillingnesses. Thus, the main meaning of cooperation is, as a rule, in mutual benefit.

Competition(from lat. concurrere- run together) is a struggle between individuals, groups or societies for the acquisition of values, the reserves of which are limited and unequally distributed among individuals or groups (this can be money, power, status, love, appreciation and other values). It can be defined as an attempt to achieve rewards by sidelining or outperforming rivals seeking identical goals.

Competition can be personal (for example, when two leaders compete for influence in an organization) or be impersonal (an entrepreneur competes for markets without knowing his competitors personally).

Experiments conducted in groups show that if the situation develops in such a way that individuals or groups cooperate to pursue common goals, then friendly relations and attitudes are maintained. But as soon as the conditions are created under which there are unshared values that give rise to competition, unfriendly attitudes and unflattering stereotypes immediately arise.

Conflict. Conflict analysis (from lat. conflictus- clash) it is useful to start from an elementary, simplest level, from the origins of conflict relations. Traditionally, it starts with needs structures, a set of which is specific to each individual and social group. All these needs Abraham Maslow(1908 - 1970) divides into five main types: 1) physical needs(food, sex, material well-being, etc.); 2) security needs; 3) social needs(needs for communication, social contacts, interaction); 4) needs to achieve prestige, knowledge, respect, a certain level of competence; 5) higher needs for self-expression, self-affirmation(for example, the need for creativity).

All desires, aspirations of individuals and social groups can be attributed to any type of these needs. Consciously or unconsciously, individuals dream of achieving their goal in accordance with their needs. Consequently, all social interactions of a person can be simplified as a series of elementary acts, each of which begins with an imbalance in connection with an emerging need and the appearance of a goal significant for the individual, and ends with the restoration of balance and the achievement of the goal.

The Sociology of Conflict was developed by Randall Collins as a general theory. Unlike K. Marx and R. Dahrendorf, who focused on the macro theory of conflict, Collins focused on everyday interactions. From his point of view, conflict is the only central process of social life. Collins extended his analysis of stratification (as a phenomenon that generates conflict) to relationships between sexes and age groups.

He took the position that the family is an arena of gender conflict, in which men come out victorious, and women are oppressed by men and subjected to various types of unfair treatment. Collins turned to considering the resources that different age groups have.

Thus, the older generation has a variety of resources, including experience, influence, power and the ability to meet the physical needs of the young. In contrast, one of the few resources of youth is physical attractiveness. This means that adults tend to dominate the young. However, as a person grows older, he acquires more resources and is more able to resist, resulting in increased generational conflict.

From the point of view of conflict, Collins also considered formal organizations. He saw them as networks of interpersonal influences and arenas of conflicting interests.

Social interaction is a system of interdependent social. actions, in which the actions of one subject are simultaneously the cause and effect of the response actions of others. It takes place when people mutually, relatively deeply, steadily and regularly influence each other's behavior, as a result of which there is not only a renewal, but usually a change in social activity. relations.
Social Relationships are one form of social manifestation. interactions, which is characterized by duration, stability and consistency of social. interactions, their self-renewal, breadth of social content. connections.
Social connection is the first and most important condition for the existence of social life. The term "social connection" refers to the whole set of factors that determine the joint activity of people in specific conditions of place, time in the name of achieving specific goals. Social connections are the connections of individuals with each other, as well as their connections with the phenomena and processes of the surrounding world. The starting point for the emergence of a social connection is the interaction of individuals or groups of individuals to meet certain needs.
Social interaction is any behavior of an individual or group of individuals that is significant for other individuals and groups of individuals or society as a whole. The category "interaction" expresses the nature and content of relations between people and social groups as constant carriers of qualitatively different types of activities and differing in social positions (statuses) and roles (functions). No matter in what sphere of the life of society (environmental, economic, spiritual, political, etc.) interaction takes place, it always has a social character, as it expresses the ties between individuals and groups of individuals.
Social interaction has an objective and subjective side. The objective side of interaction is connections that are independent of individuals, but mediate and control the content and nature of their interaction. The subjective side of interaction is the conscious attitude of individuals to each other, based on mutual expectations (expectations) of appropriate behavior. These are interpersonal (or, more broadly, socio-psychological) relations, which are direct connections and relationships between individuals that develop under specific conditions of place and time.
The mechanism of social interaction” includes: individuals who perform certain actions; changes in the outside world caused by these actions; the impact of these changes on other individuals and, finally, the feedback of individuals who were affected. The most important thing in social interaction is the content side, which is revealed through the nature and method of social interaction. They are also determined by the individual properties and qualities of the interacting parties. Basically, they depend on the value orientations of people, existing social norms and everyday experience.
Social relations. Social interaction leads to the establishment of social relationships. Social relations are relatively stable links between individuals (as a result of which they are institutionalized into social groups) and social groups as constant carriers of qualitatively different types of activities, differing in social status and roles in social structures. Social relations are a relatively independent, specific type of social relations, expressing the activities of social actors regarding their unequal position in society and role in public life. Social relations always express the position of people and their communities in society, because these are always relations of equality - inequality, justice - injustice, domination - submission.
- social groups: belonging to historically established territorial associations (city, village-settlement);
- the degree of limitation of the functioning of social groups in a strictly defined system of social norms and values, the belonging of the studied group of interacting individuals to certain social institutions (family, education, science, etc.).

Essence, types, types of social interactions

In order for a social system to exist, at least two people are needed, connected with each other by various social interactions. The simplest case of social interaction is the relationship between two people.

It is possible to decompose the entire social life and all complex communities of people into the simplest cases of social interaction. Whatever social process we take, be it a lawsuit, communication between a teacher and a student, a battle between two armies - all these forms of social activity can be presented as special cases of the general phenomenon of interaction. Modern sociology defines social interaction as a process in which people act and are influenced by other individuals.

While agreeing that the social system is the result of the interaction of people, sociologists of various trends explain the patterns of social interaction in different ways.

Representation of social interactions in various sociological theories Theory Author Main Idea Exchange Theory by J.Homans People interact with each other based on their experience, weighing possible rewards and costs. Symbolic interactionism J. Mead
G. Bloomer The behavior of people in relation to each other and to the objects of the surrounding world is determined by the values that they attach to them. Managing impressions I. Hoffman Social situations resemble dramatic performances in which actors strive to create and maintain favorable impressions Psychoanalytic theory of Z. Freud Interpersonal interaction is deeply influenced by the concepts learned in early childhood and the conflicts experienced during this period.

The classification of types of social interaction is carried out for various reasons.

Depending on the number of participants:

the interaction of two people with each other;
interaction of one and many;
interaction of many and many.

Depending on the similarities and differences in the qualities of the participants in the interaction:

same or different sexes;
one or different nationalities;
similar or different in terms of wealth, etc.

Depending on the nature of the acts of interaction:

unilateral and bilateral;

Clarification

solidary or antagonistic (cooperation, competition, conflict);
template or non-template;
intellectual, sensual or volitional.

Depending on duration:

short term or long term
having short-term and simultaneous consequences.

Depending on the frequency of repetition and stability in sociology, the following types of social interaction are distinguished: social contacts, social relations and social institutions.

Social contact is commonly understood as a type of short-term, easily interrupted social interaction caused by the contact of people in physical and social space.

Social contacts can be divided on various grounds. The types of social contacts are most clearly distinguished by S. Frolov, who structured them in the following order:

spatial contacts;

Clarification

contact of interest;

Clarification

exchange contacts.

Clarification

A more stable form of social interaction is "social relations" - sequences, "chains" of repetitive social interactions, correlated in their meaning with each other and characterized by stable norms and patterns of behavior. Social relations are relatively stable bonds between individuals and social groups.

Clarification

A specific feature of social systems, and hence relations, unlike other systems, is that even being in a state of deep internal conflict, they retain their integrity, since their disintegration can lead individuals to self-preservation. Here the laws of biopsychological self-preservation come into play.

Thus, social interactions are systematic, regular social actions of partners directed at each other, with the goal of evoking a well-defined response from the partner, and the response generates a new reaction of the influencer. And in this regard, the following mechanisms for the implementation of social interactions are distinguished: