Social control: types and functions. Social control

Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation
Federal Agency for Education
St. Petersburg State
University of Service and Economics.

Test
in Sociology
on the topic: Forms of social control

Completed:
2nd year correspondence student
group 080507
Lineytsev Mikhail Ilyich
Checked:

2011

Content:

Introduction.

Social control and deviant behavior.

Forms of social control.

Formal social control.

Informal social control.

Conclusion.

Introduction

Nowadays, more and more often on TV screens, as well as on the Internet, you can come across the phrase “social control”. And many ask themselves the question: “What is it and why is it needed at all?”
In the modern world, social control is understood as the supervision of human behavior in society in order to prevent conflicts, restore order and maintain the existing social order. The presence of social control is one of the most important conditions for the normal functioning of the state, as well as compliance with its laws. An ideal society is considered to be one in which each member does what he wants, but at the same time this is what is expected of him and what is required by the state at the moment. Of course, it is not always easy to force a person to do what society wants him to do. Mechanisms of social control have long stood the test of time, and the most common among them, of course, are group pressure and human socialization. For example, in order for a state to experience population growth, it is necessary to convince families that having children is good and beneficial for their health. More primitive societies seek to control human behavior through coercion, but this method does not always work. In addition, with a large population in the state, it is practically impossible to use this measure of social control.
The study of forms and types of social control is fundamentally important for today's society. Nowadays the population is given more and more freedoms, however, responsibility also increases. Methods of controlling deviant behavior are changing, becoming more sophisticated and invisible, and sometimes not every person realizes that everything he does was programmed by the state and placed in his head from birth. This work reveals the most popular and effective forms and types of social control, most often used in society. Knowing them is useful for every educated person, since for normal existence it is fundamentally important to know all those mechanisms that influence human consciousness.

Social control and deviant behavior

Now in the world there is no such ideal society in which each of its members behaves in accordance with accepted requirements. Very often, so-called social deviations can arise, which do not always reflect well on the structure of society. Forms of social deviations can be very different: from harmless to very, very dangerous. Some have deviations in personal organization, some in social behavior, some in both. These include all kinds of criminals, hermits, geniuses, ascetics, representatives of sexual minorities, otherwise called deviants.
“The most innocent at first glance act, associated with a violation of the traditional distribution of roles, may turn out to be deviant. For example, a higher salary for a wife may seem an abnormal phenomenon, since from time immemorial the husband has been the main producer of material assets. In a traditional society, such a distribution of roles could not arise in principle.
So, any behavior that causes disapproval of public opinion is called deviant.” Typically, sociologists distinguish between 2 main types of deviation: primary and secondary. Moreover, if the primary deviation is not particularly dangerous for society, since it is regarded as a kind of prank, then secondary deviations stick the label of a deviant on the individual. Secondary deviations include criminal offenses, drug use, homosexuality and much more. Criminal behavior, sexual deviations, alcoholism or drug addiction cannot lead to the emergence of new cultural patterns useful to society. It should be recognized that the overwhelming number of social deviations play a destructive role in the development of society. Therefore, society simply needs a mechanism that will allow it to control unwanted deviant behavior. A similar mechanism is social control. Thus, social control is a set of means by which a society or social group guarantees conformal behavior of its members in relation to role requirements and expectations. In this regard, with the help of social control, all the necessary conditions are created for the sustainability of each social system, it contributes to the preservation of social stability, and at the same time does not interfere with positive changes in the social system. Therefore, social control requires greater flexibility and the ability to correctly assess various deviations from social norms of activity that occur in society in order to encourage useful deviations and punish destructive ones.
A person begins to feel the influence of social control already in childhood, in the process of socialization, when a person is explained who he is and why he lives in the world. From infancy, a person develops a sense of self-control, he takes on various social roles that impose the need to meet expectations. At the same time, most children grow up and become respectable citizens of their country who respect the law and do not seek to violate the norms accepted in society. Social control is diverse and ubiquitous: it occurs whenever at least two people interact.

Forms of social control

Over the long years of its existence, humanity has developed a number of different forms of social control. They can be both tangible and completely invisible. The most effective and traditional form can be called self-control. It appears immediately after a person is born and accompanies him throughout his adult life. Moreover, each individual himself, without coercion, controls his behavior in accordance with the norms of the society to which he belongs. In the process of socialization, norms are very firmly established in a person’s consciousness, so firmly that having violated them, a person begins to experience the so-called pangs of conscience. Approximately 70% of social control is achieved through self-control. The more self-control the members of a society develop, the less that society has to resort to external control. And vice versa. The less self-control people have, the more often institutions of social control, in particular the army, courts, and the state, have to come into action. However, strict external control and petty supervision of citizens inhibit the development of self-awareness and expression of will, and muffle internal volitional efforts. This creates a vicious circle into which more than one society has fallen throughout world history. The name of this circle is dictatorship.
Often a dictatorship is established for a time, for the benefit of citizens and in order to restore order. But it lingers for a long time, to the detriment of people and leads to even greater arbitrariness. Citizens accustomed to submitting to coercive control do not develop internal control. Gradually they degrade as social beings, capable of taking responsibility and doing without external coercion (i.e. dictatorship). In other words, under a dictatorship, no one teaches them to behave in accordance with rational norms. Thus, self-control is a purely sociological problem, because the degree of its development characterizes the prevailing social type of people in society and the emerging form of the state. Group pressure is another common form of social control. Of course, no matter how strong a person’s self-control, belonging to any group or community has a huge influence on the personality. When an individual is included in one of the primary groups, he begins to conform to basic norms and follow a formal and informal code of conduct. The slightest deviation usually results in disapproval from group members and the risk of expulsion. “Variations in group behavior resulting from group pressure can be seen in the example of a production team. Each team member must adhere to certain standards of behavior not only at work, but also after work. And if, say, disobedience to the foreman can result in harsh remarks from the workers for the violator, then absenteeism and drunkenness often end in his boycott and rejection from the team.” However, depending on the group, the strength of group pressure may vary. If the group is very cohesive, then, accordingly, the strength of group pressure increases. For example, in a group where a person spends his free time, it is more difficult to exercise social control than in a place where joint activities are regularly carried out, for example in the family or at work. Group control can be formal or informal. Official meetings include all sorts of work meetings, deliberative meetings, shareholder councils, etc. Informal control refers to the influence on group members by participants in the form of approval, ridicule, condemnation, isolation and refusal to communicate.
Another form of social control is propaganda, which is considered a very powerful tool that influences human consciousness. Propaganda is a way of influencing people, which in some respect interferes with the rational education of a person, in which the individual draws his own conclusions. The main task of propaganda is to influence groups of people in such a way as to shape the behavior of society in the desired direction. Propaganda should influence those forms of social behavior that are closely related to the system of moral values in society. Everything is subject to propaganda processing, from people’s actions in typical situations to beliefs and orientations. Propaganda is used as a kind of technical means suitable for achieving their goals. There are 3 main types of propaganda. The first type includes the so-called revolutionary propaganda, which is needed in order to force people to accept a value system, as well as a situation that is in conflict with the generally accepted one. An example of such propaganda is the propaganda of communism and socialism in Russia at the beginning of the 20th century. The second type is destructive propaganda. Its main goal is to destroy the existing value system. The clearest example of such propaganda was Hitler’s, which did not try to force people to accept the ideals of Nazism, but did their best to undermine trust in traditional values. And finally, the third type of propaganda is reinforcing. It is designed to consolidate people's attachments to certain values and orientations. This type of propaganda is typical for the United States, where the existing value system is reinforced in a similar way. According to sociologists, this type of propaganda is the most effective; it serves very well to maintain established value orientations. In addition, it reflects established, traditional stereotypes. This type of propaganda is mainly aimed at instilling conformism in people, which presupposes agreement with the dominant ideological and theoretical organizations.
Currently, the concept of propaganda in the public consciousness is associated mainly with the military sphere or politics. Slogans are considered one of the ways to implement propaganda in society. A slogan is a short saying, usually expressing a main goal or guiding idea. The correctness of such a statement is usually not in doubt, since it is only of a general nature.
During a period of crisis or conflict in a country, demagogues may throw out, for example, slogans such as “My country is always right,” “Motherland, faith, family,” or “Freedom or death.” But do most people analyze the true causes of this crisis and conflict? Or do they just go along with what they are told?
In his work on the First World War, Winston Churchill wrote: “With only one draft, crowds of peaceful peasants and workers turn into mighty armies, ready to tear the enemy to pieces.” He also noted that most people, without hesitation, carry out the order given to them.
The propagandist also has at his disposal many symbols and signs that carry the ideological charge he needs. For example, a flag can serve as a similar symbol, and ceremonies such as the firing of twenty-one guns and saluting are also symbolic. Love for parents can also be used as leverage. It is obvious that such concepts - symbols as fatherland, motherland or the faith of ancestors, can become a powerful weapon in the hands of clever manipulators of other people's opinions.
Of course, propaganda and all its derivatives are not necessarily evil. The question is who is doing it and for what purpose. And also about who this propaganda is being directed at. And if we talk about propaganda in a negative sense, then it is possible to resist it. And it's not that difficult. It is enough for a person to understand what propaganda is and learn to identify it in the general flow of information. And having learned, it is much easier for a person to decide for himself how compatible the ideas instilled in him are with his own ideas about what is good and what is bad.
Social control through coercion is also another common form of it. It is usually practiced in the most primitive as well as traditional societies, although it may be present in smaller quantities even in the most developed states. In the presence of a high population of a complex culture, so-called secondary group control begins to be used - laws, various violent regulators, formalized procedures. When an individual does not want to follow these regulations, the group or society resorts to coercion to force him to do the same as everyone else. In modern societies, there are strictly developed rules, or a system of control through coercion, which is a set of effective sanctions applied in accordance with various types of deviations from the norms.
Social control through coercion is characteristic of any government, but its place, role, and character in different systems are not the same. In a developed society, coercion is brought in mainly for crimes committed against society. The decisive role in the fight against crime belongs to the state. It has a special coercive apparatus. Legal norms determine why government agencies can use coercion. The means of coercion are physical and mental violence, i.e. threat. There is also no reason to believe that a threat can only be a means of coercion when it is punishable in itself. The state must also protect its citizens from coercion by threats, which in themselves are not punishable if the content of the threat is an illegal act, otherwise many cases of serious mental violence would go unpunished. The element of coercion, attached to the threat, gives it a different and greater meaning. It goes without saying that the threat must contain an indication of a significant, in the eyes of the threatened, illegal evil, otherwise it will be unable to influence the will of the threatened person.
In addition to the above, there are many other forms of social control, such as encouragement, pressure from authority, and punishment. A person begins to feel each of them from birth, even if he does not understand that he is being influenced.
All forms of social control are covered by two main types: formal and informal.

Formal social control

Etc.............

Return to Social Control

In sociology, there are different types and forms of social control.

Internal and external control.

A person who has mastered social norms is able to independently regulate his actions, coordinating them with the generally accepted system of values and approved patterns of behavior. This is internal control (self-control), the basis of which is a person’s moral principles. External control is a set of social institutions that regulate people's behavior and ensure compliance with generally accepted norms and laws.

Informal and formal control.

Informal (intra-group) control is carried out by participants in any social process and is based on the approval or condemnation of an individual’s actions by the immediate environment (colleagues, acquaintances, friends, family members), and public opinion.

Formal (institutional) control is carried out by special public institutions, control bodies, government organizations and institutions (army, court, municipal institutions, media, political parties, etc.).

Depending on who exercises social control, the following types are distinguished:

1. Administrative social control. To implement it, higher authorities vest the administration of the enterprise and its divisions with appropriate powers. Administrative control is based on a pre-prescribed, legalized procedure, on existing regulatory documents and uses the means of influence clearly fixed in them.
2. Control of public organizations. It is carried out mainly by trade union organizations and various commissions formed in accordance with the Charter of trade unions.
3. Group social control, which refers to the influence of the team and individual groups on workers. Group social control has two varieties: official (meetings of the work collective, production meetings, etc.) and informal, socio-psychological, expressed in spontaneous mutual reactions of team members to behavior. The last type of social control includes refusal of contacts, ridicule, approval, friendship, etc. Often such informal influence of the team turns out to be more effective than administrative influence.
4. Employee self-control over his behavior, i.e. internal control associated with employees’ assimilation of values and norms of behavior accepted in society and the team. The more individual values and norms coincide with collective values, the more effective self-control turns out to be. With an increase in the level of employee motivation, the importance of internal control based on a sense of duty, professional honor, and conscience will increase.

The most effective interventions are those that combine external control and self-control. The combination of external control with self-control also determines the advantages of switching to a flexible (sliding) work schedule. In this case, intra-shift losses of working time due to the fault of the employee are eliminated, tardiness and premature departures from work are eliminated, and time losses due to administrative leave are sharply reduced.

The expansion of the role of group control and self-control of socially significant actions in the world of work is associated with an increase in the amount of responsibility of the team and the employee for the final results of work. Responsibility as a significant behavioral characteristic acts as a means of self-control.

Strengthening in modern conditions the importance of such subjects of social control as the primary labor collective and the employee himself implies the expansion of their powers, rights and responsibilities, which contributes to their implementation in practical work activities. Participation in social control means that the primary team and each employee becomes the subject of responsibility, including legal, economic, and moral. After all, responsibility arises only when a participant in labor relations is endowed with rights, responsibilities, and independence.

Responsibility as the most important sociological category characterizes the employee’s attitude to society, work, fellow workers and reflects the fulfillment of legal and moral norms and role responsibilities. The set of role responsibilities of an employee, primarily production-functional, depending on the positions he occupies in the system of social relations, characterizes the scope of his responsibility. By becoming an active participant in social control, the employee is responsible for his actions and actions primarily to himself.

The responsibility of each employee is closely related to the degree of his independence in the world of work. The higher the production independence of the employee, expressed, in particular, in the ability to choose the methods of performing the assigned work and keeping records of the results of work, the higher his initiative and sense of labor responsibility, the more responsible his behavior.

Further development of the problem of responsibility is associated with specifying the types, conditions, limits, mechanism for implementing responsibility, as well as the combination of collective and personal responsibility in the world of work.

The influence of social control significantly determines the higher economic results of the work of teams compared to those working individually. Group mutual control in teams makes it possible to evaluate the discipline and conscientiousness of each team member and to form a responsible attitude towards the work performed. In the new type of brigades, the number of violations of discipline is significantly reduced.

For the effectiveness of group mutual control, it is important to establish the optimal size of the primary team. It should not exceed an average of 7-15 employees. The large number of the primary workforce leads to a lack of information about everyone’s contribution to the common cause. Under these conditions, relationships of mutual responsibility and interchangeability cause tension in interpersonal relationships, anxiety, and dissatisfaction. Mutual social control stops working. In practice, however, when forming teams, the sociological aspects of their functioning are underestimated and due importance is not attached to the creation of conditions for the operation of a mechanism of mutual social control.

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Social role
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Control in all professions goes through the same stages of development.

§ 3. Types of social and legal control.

Leaders decide

the issue of admitting new members, regulate powers, establish practical standards

work and professional ethics, negotiate different levels of monopoly on the solution. However

However, control in social work exhibits its own distinctive, characteristic features.

Social work distinguished by its special connections with other professions and social

institutions. Traditionally, social workers implement bridging, mediating and

protective social functions, while simultaneously fulfilling its main function of providing

individuals and families of practical social services services, expanding the scope of which

started after 1991. Social workers today have a wide range of activities.

The strengthening of social work is reflected in the expansion of its scope and ambiguity

professional functions.

Modern professional social work managers not only accept, but

and exploit this ambiguity.

It is probably impossible to achieve absolute clarity about

functions of employees of organizations social services. Wide range of species

activities and situations covered may partly explain why control

consider how the educational process, how the management process, how the mixture of both

As social services are organized and expanded, as work on

studying the living conditions of disadvantaged families and helping them in the sphere of control arose

individual mentoring approach corresponding to an individual approach to each

occasion. The emphasis placed on the learning function of control has also been influenced by the development

university training of professionals. Control is perceived as a means of transmission

knowledge and skills from an experienced, trained worker to an inexperienced one. And in the region

professional education - from the teacher and practice manager to the student.

Social workers often express dissatisfaction with monitoring and controlling their

work, especially regarding over-dependence in the use of traditional forms. They

want to be seen as practicing professionals and not be controlled.

At the early stages of professional development based on the “mentor-student” model

knowledge is determined and principles of practical work are formed. Until knowledge

acquire transferable, generalized forms, trainees learn by following the example of the mentor, and

B.45 Social control: forms and types.

The efforts of society aimed at preventing deviant behavior, punishing and correcting deviants are defined by the concept of “social control”.

Social control- a mechanism for regulating relations between the individual and society in order to strengthen order and stability in society. IN narrow In the sense, social control is the control of public opinion, the publicity of results and assessments of people’s activities and behavior.

Social control includes two main elements: social norms and sanctions. Sanctions- any reaction on the part of others to the behavior of a person or group.

Types:Informal(intra-group) - based on approval or condemnation from a group of relatives, friends, colleagues, acquaintances, as well as from public opinion, which is expressed through traditions and customs or through the media.

Formal(institutional) - based on the support of existing social institutions (army, court, education, etc.)

In sociological science it is known 4 fundamental forms of social control:

External control (A set of institutions and mechanisms that guarantee compliance with generally accepted norms of behavior and laws)

Internal control (self-control);

Control through identification with a reference group;

Control through the creation of opportunities to achieve socially significant goals by means that are most suitable for a given person and approved by society (the so-called “multiple opportunities”).

In the process of socialization, norms are internalized so firmly that people, violating them, experience a feeling of awkwardness or guilt, pangs of conscience.

Generally accepted norms, being rational prescriptions, remain in the sphere of consciousness, below which lies the sphere of the subconscious, or unconscious, consisting of spontaneous impulses. Self-control means restraining the natural elements; it is based on volitional effort. The following are distinguished: social control mechanisms:

isolation - isolation of the deviant from society (for example, imprisonment);

isolation - limiting the deviant’s contacts with others (for example, placement in a psychiatric clinic);

rehabilitation is a set of measures aimed at returning the deviant to normal life.

B.46 Civil society and the state.

Civil society- this is a set of social relations, formal and informal structures that provide the conditions for human political activity, the satisfaction and implementation of various needs and interests of the individual and social groups and associations. A developed civil society is the most important prerequisite for building a rule of law state and its equal partner. Signs of civil society: the presence in society of free owners of the means of production; developed democracy; legal protection of citizens; a certain level of civic culture, high educational level of the population; the most complete provision of human rights and freedoms;

self-government; competition between the structures that form it and various groups of people; freely formed public opinions and pluralism; strong social policy of the state; mixed economy; a large share of the middle class in society. The state of civil society, his needs and goals define the main features And social purpose of the state. Qualitative changes in the structure of civil society and the content of the main spheres of its activity inevitably lead to changes in the nature and forms of state power. At the same time, the state, having relative independence in relation to civil society, can significantly influence its condition. This influence is usually positive, aimed at maintaining stability and progressive development of civil society. Although history also knows opposite examples. The state as a special phenomenon of social power has qualitative characteristics. It is organized in the form of a state apparatus; carries out management of society through a system of functions and certain methods. Externally, the state is presented in various forms. Signs of the state— its qualitative features, expressing the characteristics of the state in comparison with other organizations exercising power and management functions in society. The main features of the state include: sovereignty, the territorial principle of the exercise of power, special public power, inextricable connection with law

B. 47 Mass consciousness and mass action. Forms of mass behavior.

Mass consciousness- the basis of mass actions and behavior. Mass actions can be poorly organized (panic, pogroms) or sufficiently prepared (demonstration, revolution, war). Much depends on whether the situation is realized or not, and whether leaders have been found capable of leading the rest.

Mass behavior(including spontaneous) is a term of political psychology that denotes various forms of behavior of large groups of people, crowds, circulation of rumors, panic and other mass phenomena.

Forms of mass behavior include: mass hysteria, rumors, gossip, panic, pogrom, riot.

mass hysteria- a state of general nervousness, increased excitability and fear caused by unfounded rumors (the medieval “witch hunt”, the post-war “Cold War”, trials of “enemies of the people” in the era of Stalinism, the media’s whipping up of the threat of a “third world war” in the 60s). 70 years, mass intolerance towards representatives of other nationalities.)

rumors- a set of information that arises from anonymous sources and is distributed through informal channels.

panic- this form of mass behavior when people faced with danger exhibit uncoordinated reactions. They act independently, usually interfering with and injuring each other.

pogrom- a collective act of violence undertaken by an uncontrolled and emotionally agitated crowd against property or a person.

riot- a collective concept denoting a number of spontaneous forms of collective protest: rebellion, unrest, unrest, uprising.

B. 48. Culture as a value system

culture is a system of values accumulated by humanity over the long history of its development.

Concept, structure and types of social control

including all forms and methods of human self-expression and self-knowledge. Culture also appears as a manifestation of human subjectivity and objectivity (character, competencies, skills, abilities and knowledge). Basic elements of culture: language, customs, traditions, morals, laws, values.

Values- these are socially approved and shared by most people ideas about what goodness, justice, love, and friendship are. No society can exist without values. It is values that are the defining element of culture, its core. They act like a) the desired, preferred state for a given social subject (individual, social community, society) of social connections, content of ideas, artistic form, etc.; b) a criterion for assessing real phenomena; c) they determine the meaning of purposeful activity; d) regulate social interactions; e) internally encourage activity. IN value system social subject may include different values:

1 ) life meaning (ideas about good and evil, happiness, purpose and meaning of life);

2 ) universal: a) vital (life, health, personal safety, welfare, family, education, qualifications, law and order, etc.); b) social recognition (hard work, social status, etc.); c) interpersonal communication (honesty, selflessness, goodwill);

d) democratic (freedom of speech, conscience, parties, national sovereignty, etc.);

3 ) particular: a) attachment to the small homeland, family; b) fetishisms (belief in God, striving for the absolute).

Main types of social control.

Social control- a system of methods and strategies by which society directs the behavior of individuals. In the ordinary sense, social control comes down to a system of laws and sanctions with the help of which an individual coordinates his behavior with the expectations of his neighbors and his own expectations from the surrounding social world.

Social control includes:

· expectations – expectations of others in relation to a given person;

· social norms are patterns that prescribe what people should do in specific situations;

· social sanction is a measure of influence.

Forms of social control– ways of regulating human life in society, determined by various social processes.

The most common forms of social control are:

v law – a set of normative acts that have legal force;

v taboo – a system of prohibitions on performing any actions;

v customs - ways of behavior of people common in a given society;

v traditions – such customs that have developed historically in connection with the culture of a given ethnic group;

v morality - customs associated with the understanding of good and evil in a given social group;

v morals - customs that characterize the forms of behavior of people in a particular social stratum;

v manners - a set of behavioral habits of a given person or social group;

v habit – an unconscious action that is automated in nature;

v etiquette is a set of rules of behavior relating to the external manifestation of attitude towards people.

Social norms– these are established standards of behavior from the point of view of society and specific social groups.

Most social norms are unwritten rules.

Signs of social norms:

1) general significance;

2) the possibility of applying sanctions (rewards or punishments);

3) the presence of a subjective side (freedom to comply with norms);

4) interdependence (systems of norms regulating the actions of people);

5) scale is divided into social (customs, traditions, laws) and group (mores, manners, habits).

Social sanction– a measure of influence, the most important means of social control.

Types of sanctions: negative and positive, formal and informal.

Negative sanctions are directed against a person who has deviated from social norms.

Positive sanctions are aimed at supporting and approving a person who follows these norms.

Formal sanctions are imposed by an official, public or government body or their representative.

Informal ones usually involve the reaction of group members, friends, colleagues, relatives, etc.

Positive sanctions are usually more influential than negative ones. The impact of sanctions depends on many circumstances, the most important of which is agreement on their application.

The concept of social deviation.

Social deviation - social behavior that deviates from accepted, socially acceptable behavior in a particular society. It can be both negative (alcoholism) and positive. Negative deviant behavior leads to the application by society of certain formal and informal sanctions (isolation, treatment, correction or punishment of the offender).

Causes of deviant behavior

· The basic premise of all theories of physical types is that certain physical traits of a person predetermine the various deviations from the norm that he commits.

· In accordance with sociological or cultural theories, individuals become deviants because the processes of socialization they undergo in a group are unsuccessful in relation to certain well-defined norms, and these failures affect the internal structure of the individual.

· deviant behavior is one of the ways of adapting culture to social changes. There is no modern society that has remained for a long time

Types of social deviations

Cultural and mental deviations.

Social control - types and main functions

Sociologists are primarily interested in cultural deviations, that is, deviations of a given social community from cultural norms.

Individual and group deviations.

Individual, when an individual rejects the norms of his subculture;

Group, considered as conformal behavior of a member of a deviant group in relation to its subculture

Primary and secondary deviations. Primary deviation refers to deviant behavior of an individual, which generally corresponds to cultural norms accepted in society. Secondary deviation is a deviation from existing norms in a group, which is socially defined as deviant.

Culturally approved deviance. Deviant behavior is always assessed from the point of view of the culture accepted in a given society:

Superintelligence.

Supermotivated.

Great achievements are not only a pronounced talent and desire, but also their manifestation in a certain place and at a certain time.

Culturally condemned deviations. Most societies support and reward social deviance in the form of extraordinary achievements and activities aimed at developing the generally accepted values of the culture.

The function of primary social control is the moral regulation of the behavior of family members in various spheres of life, as well as responsibility and obligation in relations between spouses, parents and children, and representatives of the older generation. This function is also performed primarily by women. It carries out the formation and support of legal and moral sanctions in case of violation of the norms of relationships between family members. With the successful reproduction of the social structure of society in a small social group that meets general requirements, the provision of social status to each family member is ensured, and conditions are created to satisfy individual needs for social advancement.

Leisure function - its main goal is communication, maintaining harmony in the family between its members.

This function involves the organization of rational leisure with simultaneous social control and mutual enrichment. Carrying out holidays, relaxation evenings, hiking trips, reading fiction and scientific literature, watching TV shows, listening to the radio, visiting cinemas, theaters, museums, etc.

Leisure is a change of activity that excludes idle pastime. Unfortunately, parents, especially fathers, pay little attention to this function. A woman is more aware of this, imagining that organizing leisure time is a social function, a moral duty to society, since it contributes to the moral strengthening of the family. It is especially important to support children’s desire to communicate in clubs, hikes, etc. Awakening a love for nature, a sensitive attitude towards it, and the ability to see beauty is an extremely important point in the educational activities of the family.

Sexual function is the appropriate control over the moral side of intimate relationships between family members (spouses) while educating the individual about real ideas about intimate relationships. From the point of view of appropriate upbringing, parents cope poorly with this function. Prostitution, trafficking and exploitation of women are widespread in the country. Family education is opposed by the media, which actually supports this alarming social phenomenon.

The multifunctional role of a woman in a modern family cannot be justified either theoretically or practically.

It is necessary to develop a national mechanism for managing social processes that determine the position of women in a small social group, and creating conditions for the practical application in life of the theory of equality of family rights and responsibilities.

Ways to strengthen the family.

One of the manifestations of a family crisis is divorce. According to statistics, divorce proceedings are initiated mainly at the request of a woman, because... A woman in our time has become independent, she works, can support her family herself and does not want to put up with her husband’s shortcomings. In sociological surveys, more than half of men and women would like to remarry. Only a small part preferred solitude. In divorces, in addition to the spouses, there are also interested parties - children. The more divorces, the fewer children. This is the social harm of divorce. Divorce reduces the family's educational capabilities in relation to children. Children suffer great psychological trauma, which parents often do not think about. Many people know that they cause suffering to their children, but not many understand what they can lead to, how this will affect the child in his future life.

Divorce is assessed as a benefit only if it changes for the better the conditions for the formation of the child’s personality and puts an end to the negative impact of marital conflicts on the child’s psyche.

According to some psychologists, the cause of most family problems and divorces is the lack of love between spouses and peace of mind.

Social control

In other words, the cause of such social problems as violence, betrayal, drug or alcohol addiction, etc. Among married men and married women one must look for emotional poverty. That is why many modern thinkers are looking for ways to strengthen love between spouses.

At the state level, in order to prevent divorces, they are creating and expanding a system of preparing young people for marriage, as well as a socio-psychological service to help families and single people.

Back in the early 70s, sociological and demographic studies and population surveys revealed a shift in personal values towards “material fetishism.” At that time, questions about family and children caused endless complaints about housing and financial difficulties. But children are not born solely for economic reasons. The intensive use of references to material obstacles to having children, called the “concept of obstacles” in sociological demography and family sociology, indicates the universality of alienation in this area.

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Social control- this is a set of means by which a society or social community (group) ensures the behavior of its members in accordance with accepted norms (moral, legal, aesthetic, etc.), and also prevents deviant actions, punishes deviants or corrects them.

The main means of social control are as follows:

1. Socialization, ensuring the individual’s perception, assimilation and fulfillment of social norms accepted in society.

2. Upbringing- the process of systematic influence on the social development of an individual in order to form his need and habit of complying with the prevailing norms in society.

3. Group pressure characteristic of any social group and expressed in the fact that each individual included in the group must fulfill a certain set of requirements and instructions emanating from the group, corresponding to the norms accepted in it.

4. Compulsion- application of certain sanctions (threat, punishment, etc.) forcing individuals and their groups to comply with the norms and rules of behavior prescribed by society (community).

Among the methods of social control, the most used, as T. Parsons established, are:

1. Insulation, those. separating the deviant from other people (for example, imprisonment).

2. Separation- limiting the deviant’s contacts with other people, but not completely isolating him from society (for example, a written undertaking not to leave the place, house arrest, placement in a psychiatric hospital).

3. Rehabilitation, those. preparing deviants for normal life (for example, in Alcoholics Anonymous groups).

Social control over deviation is divided into two main types. Informal social control includes social reward, punishment, persuasion or revaluation of existing norms, replacing them with new norms that are more consistent with changed social institutions. Formal control is carried out by social institutions and organizations specially created by society. Among them, the main role is played by the police, the prosecutor's office, the court, and the prison.

Social control, with all the variety of means, methods and types, is called upon to be guided in a democratic society by several fundamental principles.

Firstly, the implementation of legal and other norms functioning in society should stimulate socially useful behavior and prevent socially harmful, and even more so socially dangerous, actions.

Secondly, sanctions must correspond to the gravity and social danger of the crime, without in any case closing the path to social rehabilitation of the individual.

Thirdly, Whatever sanction is applied to a deviant, it should in no case humiliate the dignity of the individual; coercion should be combined with persuasion; individuals who have committed deviant behavior should be educated to have a positive attitude towards the law and the moral norms of society.

Thus, social control- this is a specific activity aimed at maintaining the behavior of an individual, group or society in accordance with accepted norms through social influence.

Such activity is of a superstructural nature, but is objectively inevitable for the organization of the life of society, in particular production (it does not directly create a product, but without it, ultimately, this product would be impossible).

Specific functions of social control in the world of work are:

Stabilization and development of production (employee behavior is controlled in terms of labor results, interaction with others, productivity, etc.);

Economic rationality and responsibility (control over the use of resources, conservation of property and optimization of labor costs);

Moral and legal regulation (organizational and labor discipline - compliance with morality and law in the relationships of subjects of labor activity);

Physical protection of a person (compliance with safety regulations, working time standards, etc.);

Moral and psychological protection of the employee, etc.

Thus, in the sphere of labor, social control pursues both production-economic and social-humanitarian goals.

Social control has a complex structure, which consists of three interrelated processes: observation of behavior, assessment of behavior from the point of view of social norms, response to behavior in the form of sanctions.

These processes indicate the presence of social control functions in labor organizations. Depending on the nature of the sanctions or rewards used, social control is of two types: economic(benefits, incentives, penalties) and moral(demonstration of respect, contempt, sympathy). Depending on the controlled subject, various types of social control can be distinguished - external, mutual and self-control.

At external control its subject is outside the controlled system of relations and activities: this is control exercised by the administration in the labor organization.

Administrative control has a number of advantages. First of all, it is a special and independent activity. This, on the one hand, frees personnel directly involved in the main production tasks from control functions, and on the other hand, it facilitates the implementation of control functions at a professional level.

Administrative control has its own specific motivation, reflecting the particular attitude of the administration to issues of discipline in the world of work. It is based on both the material and moral interests inherent in managers.

Firstly, organizational and labor order is considered as a prerequisite for the socio-economic existence and well-being of the organization. In the event of the collapse or bankruptcy of a labor organization, an ordinary employee loses only his job, while the managerial layer, the owners, lose their capital, authority, prestigious occupation and social position.

Secondly, each manager, as a representative of the administration institution, is morally responsible for the staff, requires subordinates to comply with established standards in their own interests, while showing a kind of paternalistic attitude towards people.

Thirdly, the moral interest on the part of the administration in organizational labor discipline lies in the fact that the very construction of order is the creative side of managerial work, which enhances its attractiveness.

Fourthly, any control is a way of maintaining power, subordination: as control weakens, the influence on people weakens.

Mutual control arises in a situation in which the bearers of social control functions are the subjects of organizational and labor relations themselves, who have the same status. This either complements or replaces administrative control. Not only individual individuals are capable of controlling each other from the point of view of discipline in the world of work (this experience is quite widespread in the West), but also entire groups, if they are sufficiently united on the basis of material and moral interest. There are various forms of mutual control - collegial, group, public.

Self-control- this is a specific way of behavior of a subject in which he independently (without external coercion) exercises supervision over his own actions and behaves in accordance with socially accepted norms. The main advantage of self-control is the reduction of control activities on the part of the administration. In addition, it gives the employee a sense of freedom, independence, and personal significance. In some cases, self-control is more competent.

The disadvantages of self-control are mainly two circumstances: each employee, in assessing his own behavior, tends to underestimate social and normative requirements and be liberal towards himself; in addition, self-control is poorly predictable and controllable, dependent on the subject, and manifests itself only with such personal qualities as consciousness, morality, decency, etc.

Within the framework of the classification of social control, we can distinguish not only its types, but also its types. The latter distinguish social control from the point of view not of subjects, but of the nature of its implementation.

1. Continuous and selective. Social control may be different in such important characteristics as intensity, object, content of behavior. With continuous social control, the entire process of organizational and labor relations and activities is subject to constant observation and evaluation; the object of attention is equally focused on all individuals and microgroups that make up the labor organization.

With selective control, its functions are relatively limited, extending only to the most important things. For example, only the final results, the most critical tasks and functions or periods of their implementation, the most “sore points” in the discipline according to enterprise statistics, only a certain (questionable) part of the personnel, etc. are observed and evaluated. The choice of the type of social control is determined by many factors: the individual characteristics of the subject of control, fashion, traditions in management style, the quality and condition of personnel, the objective specifics of controlled behavior (for example, the specifics of work and its organization).

The degree and scale of social control are influenced by actual statistics of organizational and labor violations, as well as an assessment of their likelihood. If serious violations are not observed for a sufficiently long time, this contributes to the liberalization of control and its selectivity; if, against a relatively normal background, disturbances suddenly occur, then the control functions awaken again, taking on a continuous character “just in case.”

The concept of “substantive” reflects the depth, seriousness, and effectiveness of control, and the concept of “formal” reflects its superficiality, visibility, and unprincipledness. In the case of formal control, it is not the quality of organizational-labor relations and activities (their meaning) that is subject to observation and evaluation, but external signs that can create the effect of credibility and normality. The most obvious signs of formal control in a labor organization: staying at the workplace, rather than actually participating in the work process; external activity rather than actual results; efficiency, not quality of execution.

Formal control stimulates the so-called imitative (quite common in life) behavior, when a person, as an employee and economic figure, does not comply with the requirements of discipline, but imitates such compliance; With certain actions, he only reproduces the external signs of relationships and activities to the extent that this satisfies those around him and himself. With sufficient analysis of the problem, it turns out that in the organizational and labor sphere there are potentially great opportunities for simulating activity, conscientiousness, adherence to principles, diligence, deliberation and other components of the discipline.

3. Open and hidden. Despite their apparent simplicity and specificity, these types reflect rather complex phenomena in the organizational and labor sphere. The choice of an open or hidden form of social control is determined by the degree of awareness, awareness of the social control functions of those who are the object of these functions. Hidden control in labor organizations is ensured by surveillance using technical means, the unexpected appearance of formal or informal controllers, and the collection of information through intermediaries.

An important aspect of social control is the certainty of requirements and sanctions. Having such certainty prevents social control from being unexpected, which contributes to its open nature.

To summarize what has been said, it should be noted that the rules of conduct governing the interaction of employees are social norms- a set of expectations and requirements of a labor organization for its members regarding labor behavior, - regulating their interaction in the process of work. Standards, as a rule, set out typical, mandatory and acceptable options for labor behavior. Social norms serve two functions: prescriptive when they set the proper behavior, act as a measure of its acceptable options, and evaluative, when they are the standard against which actual behavior is compared.

The effect of social control comes down mainly to the application of sanctions. Sanction- a protective measure applied to a violator of social restrictions and having certain adverse consequences for him. There are sanctions formal— applied by the administration in accordance with established criteria and legislation, and informal-spontaneous reaction of members of the labor organization (collective condemnation, refusal of contacts, etc.). Sanctions and incentives, counteracting undesirable behavioral acts and encouraging employees to appropriate work behavior, help to shape their awareness of the need to comply with certain norms and regulations.

Often a dictatorship is established for a time, for the benefit of citizens and in order to restore order. But it lingers for a long time, to the detriment of people and leads to even greater arbitrariness. Citizens accustomed to submitting to coercive control do not develop internal control. Gradually they degrade as social beings, capable of taking responsibility and doing without external coercion (i.e. dictatorship). In other words, under a dictatorship, no one teaches them to behave in accordance with rational norms. Thus, self-control is a purely sociological problem, because the degree of its development characterizes the prevailing social type of people in society and the emerging form of the state. Group pressure is another common form of social control. Of course, no matter how strong a person’s self-control, belonging to any group or community has a huge influence on the personality. When an individual is included in one of the primary groups, he begins to conform to basic norms and follow a formal and informal code of conduct. The slightest deviation usually results in disapproval from group members and the risk of expulsion. “Variations in group behavior resulting from group pressure can be seen in the example of a production team. Each team member must adhere to certain standards of behavior not only at work, but also after work. And if, say, disobedience to the foreman can result in harsh remarks from the workers for the violator, then absenteeism and drunkenness often end in his boycott and rejection from the team.” However, depending on the group, the strength of group pressure may vary. If the group is very cohesive, then, accordingly, the strength of group pressure increases. For example, in a group where a person spends his free time, it is more difficult to exercise social control than in a place where joint activities are regularly carried out, for example in the family or at work. Group control can be formal or informal. Official meetings include all sorts of work meetings, deliberative meetings, shareholder councils, etc. Informal control refers to the influence on group members by participants in the form of approval, ridicule, condemnation, isolation and refusal to communicate.

Another form of social control is propaganda, which is considered a very powerful tool that influences human consciousness. Propaganda is a way of influencing people, which in some respect interferes with the rational education of a person, in which the individual draws his own conclusions. The main task of propaganda is to influence groups of people in such a way as to shape the behavior of society in the desired direction. Propaganda should influence those forms of social behavior that are closely related to the system of moral values in society. Everything is subject to propaganda processing, from people’s actions in typical situations to beliefs and orientations. Propaganda is used as a kind of technical means suitable for achieving their goals. There are 3 main types of propaganda. The first type includes the so-called revolutionary propaganda, which is needed in order to force people to accept a value system, as well as a situation that is in conflict with the generally accepted one. An example of such propaganda is the propaganda of communism and socialism in Russia at the beginning of the 20th century. The second type is destructive propaganda. Its main goal is to destroy the existing value system. The clearest example of such propaganda was Hitler’s, which did not try to force people to accept the ideals of Nazism, but did their best to undermine trust in traditional values. And finally, the third type of propaganda is reinforcing. It is designed to consolidate people's attachments to certain values and orientations. This type of propaganda is typical for the United States, where the existing value system is reinforced in a similar way. According to sociologists, this type of propaganda is the most effective; it serves very well to maintain established value orientations. In addition, it reflects established, traditional stereotypes. This type of propaganda is mainly aimed at instilling conformism in people, which presupposes agreement with the dominant ideological and theoretical organizations.

Currently, the concept of propaganda in the public consciousness is associated mainly with the military sphere or politics. Slogans are considered one of the ways to implement propaganda in society. A slogan is a short saying, usually expressing a main goal or guiding idea. The correctness of such a statement is usually not in doubt, since it is only of a general nature.

During a period of crisis or conflict in a country, demagogues may throw out, for example, slogans such as “My country is always right,” “Motherland, faith, family,” or “Freedom or death.” But do most people analyze the true causes of this crisis and conflict? Or do they just go along with what they are told?

In his work on the First World War, Winston Churchill wrote: “With only one draft, crowds of peaceful peasants and workers turn into mighty armies, ready to tear the enemy to pieces.” He also noted that most people, without hesitation, carry out the order given to them.

The propagandist also has at his disposal many symbols and signs that carry the ideological charge he needs. For example, a flag can serve as a similar symbol, and ceremonies such as the firing of twenty-one guns and saluting are also symbolic. Love for parents can also be used as leverage. It is obvious that such concepts - symbols as fatherland, motherland or the faith of ancestors, can become a powerful weapon in the hands of clever manipulators of other people's opinions.

Of course, propaganda and all its derivatives are not necessarily evil. The question is who is doing it and for what purpose. And also about who this propaganda is being directed at. And if we talk about propaganda in a negative sense, then it is possible to resist it. And it's not that difficult. It is enough for a person to understand what propaganda is and learn to identify it in the general flow of information. And having learned, it is much easier for a person to decide for himself how compatible the ideas instilled in him are with his own ideas about what is good and what is bad.

Social control through coercion is also another common form of it. It is usually practiced in the most primitive as well as traditional societies, although it may be present in smaller quantities even in the most developed states. In the presence of a high population of a complex culture, so-called secondary group control begins to be used - laws, various violent regulators, formalized procedures. When an individual does not want to follow these regulations, the group or society resorts to coercion to force him to do the same as everyone else. In modern societies, there are strictly developed rules, or a system of control through coercion, which is a set of effective sanctions applied in accordance with various types of deviations from the norms.

Social control through coercion is characteristic of any government, but its place, role, and character in different systems are not the same. In a developed society, coercion is brought in mainly for crimes committed against society. The decisive role in the fight against crime belongs to the state. It has a special coercive apparatus. Legal norms determine why government agencies can use coercion. The means of coercion are physical and mental violence, i.e. threat. There is also no reason to believe that a threat can only be a means of coercion when it is punishable in itself. The state must also protect its citizens from coercion by threats, which in themselves are not punishable if the content of the threat is an illegal act, otherwise many cases of serious mental violence would go unpunished. The element of coercion, attached to the threat, gives it a different and greater meaning. It goes without saying that the threat must contain an indication of a significant, in the eyes of the threatened, illegal evil, otherwise it will be unable to influence the will of the threatened person.

In addition to the above, there are many other forms of social control, such as encouragement, pressure from authority, and punishment. A person begins to feel each of them from birth, even if he does not understand that he is being influenced.

All forms of social control are covered by two main types: formal and informal.

In sociological science, 4 fundamental forms of social control are known:

· external control;

· internal control;

· control through identification with the reference group;

· control through the creation of opportunities to achieve socially significant goals by means that are most suitable for a given person and approved by society (the so-called “multiple opportunities”).

1) The first form of control - external social control- is a set of social mechanisms that regulate the activities of an individual. External control can be formal or informal. Formal control is based on instructions, regulations, norms and regulations, while informal control is based on the reactions of the environment.

This form is the most well-known and understandable, but in modern conditions it seems ineffective, since it involves constant monitoring of the actions of an individual person or a social community, therefore, a whole army of controllers is required, and someone must also monitor them.

2) The second form of control - internal social control- this is self-control exercised by a person, aimed at coordinating his own behavior with the norms. Regulation in this case is carried out not within the framework of interaction, but as a result of feelings of guilt or shame that arise when learned norms are violated. For this form of control to function successfully, society must have an established system of norms and values.

3) Third form - control through identification with a reference group- allows you to show the actor possible and desirable models of behavior for society, seemingly without limiting the freedom of choice of the actor;

4) The fourth form - the so-called “multiple possibilities” - assumes that by showing the actor various possible options for achieving the goal, society will thereby protect itself from the actor choosing those forms that are undesirable for society.

Kasyanov V.V. considers a slightly different classification. His social control is carried out in the following forms:

· Compulsion, the so-called elementary form. Many primitive or traditional societies successfully control the behavior of individuals through moral standards

· Influence of public opinion. People in a society are also controlled by public opinion or by socialization in such a way that they perform their roles unconsciously, naturally, due to the customs, habits and preferences accepted in a given society.

· Regulation in social institutions and organizations. Social control is provided by various institutions and organizations. Among them are organizations specifically created to perform a supervisory function, and those for which social control is not the main function (for example, school, family, media, institutional administration).

· Group pressure. A person cannot participate in public life based only on internal control. His behavior is also influenced by his involvement in social life, which is expressed in the fact that the individual is a member of many primary groups (family, production team, class, student group, etc.). Each of the primary groups has an established system of customs, mores and institutional norms that are specific both to this group and to society as a whole.

37. Deviant behavior, its causes.

The process of socialization (the process of an individual’s assimilation of patterns of behavior, social norms and values necessary for his successful functioning in a given society) reaches a certain degree of completion when the individual reaches social maturity, which is characterized by the individual acquiring an integral social status (the status that determines a person’s position in society). However, in the process of socialization, failures and failures are possible. A manifestation of the shortcomings of socialization is deviant behavior - these are various forms of negative behavior of individuals, the sphere of moral vices, deviations from principles, norms of morality and law. The main forms of deviant behavior include delinquency, including crime, drunkenness, drug addiction, prostitution, and suicide. Numerous forms of deviant behavior indicate a state of conflict between personal and social interests. However, deviant behavior is not always negative. It may be associated with the individual’s desire for something new, an attempt to overcome the conservative that prevents him from moving forward.

Let's consider different types of social deviations.

1. Cultural and mental deviations. Sociologists are primarily interested in cultural deviations, that is, deviations of a given social community from cultural norms. Psychologists are interested in mental deviations from the norms of personal organization: psychoses, neuroses, and so on. People often try to associate cultural deviations with mental ones. For example, sexual deviations, alcoholism, drug addiction and many other deviations in social behavior are associated with personal disorganization, in other words, with mental disorders. However, personal disorganization is far from the only cause of deviant behavior. Typically, mentally abnormal individuals fully comply with all the rules and norms accepted in society, and, conversely, individuals who are mentally completely normal are characterized by very serious deviations. The question of why this happens interests both sociologists and psychologists.

2. Individual and group deviations.

o individual, when an individual rejects the norms of his subculture;

o group, considered as conformal behavior of a member of a deviant group in relation to its subculture (for example, teenagers from difficult families who spend most of their lives in basements. “Basement life” seems normal to them, they have their own “basement” moral code, their own laws and cultural complexes. In this case, there is a group deviation from the dominant culture, since adolescents live in accordance with the norms of their own subculture).

3. Primary and secondary deviations. Primary deviation refers to deviant behavior of an individual, which generally corresponds to cultural norms accepted in society. In this case, the deviations committed by the individual are so insignificant and tolerable that he is not socially classified as a deviant and does not consider himself such. For him and for those around him, deviation looks like just a little prank, eccentricity, or at worst a mistake. Secondary deviation is a deviation from existing norms in a group, which is socially defined as deviant.

4. Culturally approved deviance. Deviant behavior is always assessed from the point of view of the culture accepted in a given society. It is necessary to highlight the necessary qualities and modes of behavior that can lead to socially approved deviations:

o superintelligence. Increased intelligence can be considered as a way of behavior that leads to socially approved deviations only when a limited number of social statuses are achieved.;

o special inclinations. They allow you to demonstrate unique qualities in very narrow, specific areas of activity.

o overmotivation. Many sociologists believe that intense motivation often serves as compensation for deprivations or experiences experienced in childhood or adolescence. For example, it is believed that Napoleon was highly motivated to achieve success and power as a result of the loneliness he experienced in childhood, or Niccolo Paganini constantly strived for fame and honor as a result of the poverty and ridicule of his peers endured in childhood;

There are three types of theories in the study of the causes of deviant behavior: physical type theories, psychoanalytic theories, and sociological or cultural theories. Let's look at each of them.

1. The basic premise of all theories of physical types is that certain physical traits of a person predetermine the various deviations from the norm that he commits. Among the followers of theories of physical types one can name C. Lombroso, E. Kretschmer, W. Sheldon. There is one basic idea in the works of these authors: people with a certain physical constitution are prone to commit social deviations that are condemned by society. However, practice has shown the inconsistency of theories of physical types. Everyone knows of cases when individuals with the faces of cherubs committed the most serious crimes, and an individual with coarse, “criminal” facial features could not offend a fly.

2. The basis of psychoanalytic theories of deviant behavior is the study of conflicts occurring in the consciousness of the individual. According to the theory of S. Freud, each person, under a layer of active consciousness, has an area of the unconscious - this is our mental energy, in which everything natural and primitive is concentrated. A person is able to protect himself from his own natural “lawless” state by forming his own self, as well as the so-called super-ego, determined exclusively by the culture of society. However, a state may arise when internal conflicts between the ego and the unconscious, as well as between the super-ego and the unconscious, destroy the defense and our inner, culturally ignorant content breaks through. In this case, a deviation from the cultural norms developed by the individual’s social environment may occur.

3. In accordance with sociological or cultural theories, individuals become deviants because the processes of socialization they undergo in a group are unsuccessful in relation to certain well-defined norms, and these failures affect the internal structure of the individual. When socialization processes are successful, the individual first adapts to the cultural norms surrounding him, then perceives them so that the approved norms and values of the society or group become his emotional need, and the prohibitions of the culture become part of his consciousness. He perceives the norms of the culture in such a way that he automatically acts in the expected manner of behavior most of the time. The presence in everyday practice of a large number of conflicting norms, the uncertainty in connection with this possible choice of course of behavior can lead to a phenomenon called anomie by E. Durkheim (a state of absence of norms). According to Durkheim, anomie is a state in which a person does not have a strong sense of belonging, no reliability and stability in choosing a line of normative behavior. Robert K. Merton made some changes to Durkheim's concept of anomie. He believes that the cause of deviance is the gap between the cultural goals of society and the socially approved (legal or institutional) means of achieving them. For example, while society supports the efforts of its members to achieve greater wealth and high social status, the legal means of members of society to achieve such a state are very limited: when a person cannot achieve wealth through talent and ability (legal means), he can resort to deception, forgery or theft, which is not approved by society.

38. Socialization. Main agents and stages of socialization.

Socialization- personality formation is the process of an individual’s assimilation of patterns of behavior, psychological attitudes, social norms and values, knowledge, and skills that allow him to function successfully in society. Human socialization begins at birth and continues throughout life. In its process, he assimilates the social experience accumulated by humanity in various spheres of life, which allows him to perform certain, vitally important social roles.

Agents of Socialization

The most important role in how a person grows up and how his development goes is played by the people in direct interaction with whom his life takes place. They are usually called agents of socialization. At different age stages, the composition of agents is specific. Thus, in relation to children and adolescents, these are parents, brothers and sisters, relatives, peers, neighbors, and teachers. In adolescence or young adulthood, the number of agents also includes a spouse, work colleagues, etc. In their role in socialization, agents differ depending on how significant they are for a person, how interaction with them is structured, in what direction and by what means they exert their influence.

Levels of Socialization

In sociology, there are two levels of socialization: the level of primary socialization and the level of secondary socialization. Primary socialization occurs in the sphere of interpersonal relationships in small groups. The primary agents of socialization are the individual’s immediate environment: parents, close and distant relatives, family friends, peers, teachers, doctors, etc. Secondary socialization occurs at the level of large social groups and institutions. Secondary agents are formal organizations, official institutions: representatives of the administration and school, army, state, etc.

39. Public opinion: methods of study, functions, problems of truth.

Public opinion- an averaged and majority-supported point of view of various social groups on any problem, taking into account the development of mass consciousness and the role ideas of a social group about behavior and thinking within society.

public relations In most cases, they can use data from public opinion polls, constantly published in the media, and, if necessary, obtain such information from commercial organizations conducting sociological research. In Russia, for example, this is professionally done by the All-Russian Center for the Study of Public Opinion (VTsIOM), the Russian Internet resource “Public Library”,

The main method on which the study of society is based is observation. There are three most common types of PR research:

Sociological research. Their task is to find out the attitudes and opinions of people, that is, their thoughts about certain subjects.

Communication audit, carried out to analyze inconsistencies that arise in communication between the management of organizations and target groups of the public.

Informal research. These include the accumulation of facts, analysis of various information materials, etc., that is, methods that do not require direct intervention in the work of research objects.

Let's consider sociological research. There are two general types of sociological research:

1. Descriptive research. They provide the opportunity to take a snapshot of a specific situation or existing conditions. A typical example of these is public opinion polls.

2. Problem-based research. Their goal is to explain how this or that situation has developed, why certain opinions and attitudes prevail.

Sociological research consists of four elements: sampling, questionnaire (questionnaire), interview, analysis of results.

Sampling is the selection of a group of survey units, which should represent a population of people (object of research), whose opinion the researcher seeks to know. There are two factors to consider in the sample selection process:

Determination of the method of probabilistic sample selection;

Compliance with the principle of objectivity.

Taking these factors into account, two main methods of selecting respondents can be used: random and non-random. The first method is more scientific, the second is less formal. Random sampling gives every member of the population the opportunity to be included in the sample. There are four types of random samples.

1. Simple random sampling. A general list of the population is compiled, and then the required number of units for the survey is selected from it based on the principle of randomness. The size of the random sample depends on the size of the population and its homogeneity.

2. Systematic random sampling. It is similar to a simple random sample. But here there is a random starting point in the general population list and a certain counting step. The reliability of this type of sampling is somewhat lower.

3. Stratified random sampling. It is used to study different segments of population groups (strata).

4. Sample formed by cluster selection. Cluster sampling involves first dividing the population into small homogeneous subgroups (clusters), and then correspondingly representative selecting potential respondents from each of them.

Non-random selection. Such samples are divided into two types - suitable and quota.

1. Suitable samples are formed according to the principle of “taking advantage of the opportunity.” These are predominantly unstructured, unsystematized samples designed to clarify an opinion or point of view (for example, journalistic interviews on the street).

2. Quota (targeted) samples provide the public opinion researcher with the opportunity to select respondents according to certain characteristics (women, men, representatives of certain races, national minorities, property status, etc.). The quota is set in proportion to the share of each group in the total population. The advantage is the homogeneity of the study sample, the reliability of the study.

Questionnaire. Rules for constructing a questionnaire:

1. The questionnaire should include only those questions that will help you achieve your goal.

2. When starting to develop a questionnaire, you should first of all write an introduction, indicating who is contacting him and for what purpose, and emphasize the confidentiality of the information.

3. Use structured, closed questions in the questionnaire. Such questions provide similar answers such as “very satisfied”, “satisfied”, “not satisfied”, “not at all satisfied”.

4. Questions must be written in such a way that they are accessible and specific.

5. Prejudicial questions should not be formulated.

6. You should not combine two different questions into one.

7. Questions should be asked that cover the entire problem.

8. The questionnaire must always be tested. You need to show the developed questionnaire to your colleagues and listen carefully to their comments and suggestions.

Interview. There are several types of interviews: personal, telephone, group (focus groups).

Group interviews are the most common form of research work in PR practice.

Functions of public opinion:

The functions of public opinion vary depending on the nature of the interaction between the opinions of certain social institutions or individuals, primarily on the nature of the influence, the impact of the former on the latter, on the content of the expressed opinion, on its form. Public opinion is characterized by the following functions: expressive (in a narrower sense, control); advisory; directive.

The expressive function is the broadest in its meaning. Public opinion always takes a certain position in relation to any facts and events in the life of society, the actions of various institutions, and state leaders. This feature gives this phenomenon the character of a force standing above the institutions of power, evaluating and controlling the activities of institutions and leaders of parties and the state.

The second function is advisory. Public opinion gives advice on ways to resolve certain social, economic, political, ideological, and interstate problems. This opinion will be fair, if, of course, the institutions of power are interested in such answers. Listening to this advice, “leading leaders”, groups, clans are forced to adjust decisions and management methods.

And finally, the directive function of public opinion is manifested in the fact that the public makes decisions on certain problems of social life that are imperative in nature, for example, the expression of the will of the people during elections and referendums. In these cases, the people not only give a mandate of trust to this or that leader, but also express their opinion. Imperative statements occupy a very significant place in politics.

Depending on the content of judgments formed by the public, opinions can be evaluative, analytical, constructive and regulatory. An evaluative opinion expresses an attitude towards certain problems or facts. There are more emotions in it than analytical conclusions and conclusions. Analytical and constructive public opinion are closely related: making any decision requires a deep and comprehensive analysis, which requires elements of theoretical thinking, and sometimes hard work of thought. But in their content, analytical and instructive opinions do not coincide. The meaning of regulatory public opinion is that it develops and implements certain norms of social relations and operates with a whole set of norms, principles, traditions, customs, mores, etc. not written by law. Usually it implements the code of rules that is enshrined in the moral consciousness people, groups, teams. Public opinion can also appear in the form of positive or negative judgments.

truth and falsity of statements public depend primarily on the reasoning subject himself, as well as the sources from which he draws knowledge.

degree of truth of an opinion based on personal experience(passed through the prism of personal experience), depends on the speaker's judgment. In life, quite often one encounters highly mature reasoning “youths” and completely “green” elders, just as there are “theorists” who are far from direct practice, but nevertheless possess the truth, and “from the plow” leaders who have fallen into the gravest mistakes. " The nature of this phenomenon is simple: people, regardless of direct experience, are more and less literate, educated, more and less competent, and capable of analysis.

40. The essence and concept of culture. Commonalities and differences in cultures.

Culture is understood as...

· the totality of material and spiritual values created and being created by humanity and constituting its spiritual and social existence.

· a historically determined level of development of society and man, expressed in the types and forms of organization of people’s lives and activities, as well as in the material and spiritual values they create. (TSB)

· the total volume of human creativity (Daniil Andreev)

· a complex, multi-level sign system that models the picture of the world in every society and determines a person’s place in it.

Culture shapes the personalities of members of society, thereby it largely regulates their behavior.

According to anthropologists, culture consists of four elements.

1. Concepts. They are contained mainly in the language. Thanks to them, it becomes possible to organize people's experiences.

2. Relationships. Cultures not only distinguish certain parts of the world with the help of concepts, but also reveal how these components are interconnected - in space and time, by meaning (for example, black is opposite to white), on the basis of causality (“spare the rod - spoil child"). Our language has words for earth and sun, and we are sure that the earth revolves around the sun. But before Copernicus, people believed that the opposite was true. Cultures often interpret relationships differently.

Each culture forms certain ideas about the relationships between concepts related to the sphere of the real world and the sphere of the supernatural.

3. Values. Values are generally accepted beliefs about the goals to which a person should strive. They form the basis of moral principles.

Different cultures may favor different values (heroism on the battlefield, artistic creativity, asceticism), and each social system establishes what is and is not a value.

4. Rules. These elements (including norms) regulate people's behavior in accordance with the values of a particular culture. For example, our legal system includes many laws that prohibit killing, injuring, or threatening others. These laws reflect how highly we value individual life and well-being. Likewise, we have dozens of laws prohibiting burglary, embezzlement, property damage, etc. They reflect our desire to protect personal property.

How important culture is for the functioning of the individual and society can be judged by the behavior of people who have not been socialized. The uncontrolled, or infantile, behavior of the so-called jungle children, who were completely deprived of communication with people, indicates that without socialization people are not able to adopt an orderly way of life, master a language and learn how to earn a living.

Each society carried out its own selection of cultural forms. Each society, from the point of view of the other, neglects the main thing and engages in unimportant matters. In one culture, material values are barely recognized, in another they have a decisive influence on people's behavior. In one society, technology is treated with incredible disdain, even in areas essential to human survival; in another similar society, ever-improving technology meets the needs of the times. But every society creates a huge cultural superstructure that covers a person’s entire life - youth, death, and the memory of him after death.

As a result of this selection, past and present cultures are completely different. Some societies considered war to be the noblest human activity. Others hated her, and representatives of still others had no idea about her. According to the norms of one culture, a woman had the right to marry her relative. The norms of another culture strongly prohibit this.

Even a cursory contact with two or more cultures convinces us that the differences between them are endless. We and They travel in different directions, They speak a different language. We have different opinions about what behavior is crazy and what is normal, we have different concepts of a virtuous life. It is much more difficult to determine the common features common to all cultures - cultural universals.

Sociologists identify more than 60 cultural universals. These include sports, body decoration, communal labor, dancing, education, funeral rituals, gift-giving, hospitality, incest prohibitions, jokes, language, religious practices, tool making, and attempts to influence the weather.

However, different cultures may have different types of sports, jewelry, etc. Environment is one of the factors causing these differences. In addition, all cultural characteristics are determined by the history of a particular society and are formed as a result of unique developments. Based on different types of cultures, different sports, prohibitions on consanguineous marriages and languages arose, but the main thing is that in one form or another they exist in every culture.

There is a tendency in society to judge other cultures from a position of superiority to our own. This tendency is called entocentrism. The principles of ethnocentrism find clear expression in the activities of missionaries who seek to convert the “barbarians” to their faith. Ethnocentrism is associated with xenophobia - fear and hostility towards other people's views and customs.

41. Interaction of culture and economy.

Traditionally, culture has been the subject of research in philosophy, sociology, art history, history, literary criticism and other disciplines, and the economic sphere of culture has been practically not studied.

At the initial stages of the development of human society, the term “culture” was identified with the main type of economic activity of that time - agriculture.

At the initial stages of studying economic culture, it can be defined through the most general economic category “mode of production”,

Economic culture should include not only production relations, but also the entire set of social relations that influence the technological method of production, material production, and man as its main agent. Thus, in a broad sense, economic culture is a set of material and spiritual socially developed means of activity with the help of which the material and production life of people is carried out.

In the structure of economic culture, it is necessary to highlight the main structure-forming factor. Such a factor is human labor activity.

any work activity is associated with the disclosure of the creative abilities of the manufacturer, but the degree of development of creative moments in the labor process is different. The more creative the work, the richer the cultural activity of a person, the higher the level of work culture.

Work culture includes skills in using tools of labor, conscious management of the process of creating material and spiritual wealth, free use of one’s abilities, and the use of scientific and technological achievements in work activities.

There is a general tendency to increase the economic cultural level. This is expressed in the use of the latest technology and technological processes, advanced techniques and forms of labor organization, the introduction of progressive forms of management and planning, development, science, knowledge in improving the education of workers.

For a long time, the state of economic culture was “described” in the strict framework of the praise of socialism. However, as the main tendency of all economic indicators to decrease (the rate of growth of production and capital investment, labor productivity, budget deficit, etc.) was revealed, the inoperability of the economic system of socialism became obvious. This forced us to rethink our reality and begin searching for answers to many questions. Practical steps are being taken towards the market, the democratization of property relations, and the development of entrepreneurship, which, undoubtedly, is evidence of the emergence of qualitatively new features of the economic culture of modern society.

42. Forms of culture. Problems of mass culture.

Culture - the totality of material and spiritual values created and being created by humanity and constituting its spiritual and social existence.

In most modern societies, culture exists in
the following basic forms:

1) high or elite culture - fine art,
classical music and literature produced and consumed by the elite;

2) folk culture - fairy tales, songs, folklore, myths, traditions,
customs;

3) mass culture - a culture that has developed with the development of means
mass information created for the masses and consumed by the masses.

There is a point of view that mass culture is a product of the masses themselves. Media owners only study the needs of the masses and give what the masses want.

Another point of view is that popular culture
product of the intelligentsia hired by the owners of the media
information. This is a means of manipulating the masses, imposing on them
their values and living standards.

World culture is a synthesis of the best achievements of all national cultures of the peoples inhabiting our planet.
National culture – the highest form of development of ethnic culture, which is characterized not only by the presence of a unique cultural system based on social solidarity and the experience of living together in a certain territory, but also by the presence of a high professional level of culture and global significance

Mass culture can be international and national. As a rule, it has less artistic value than elite or folk art. But unlike elitist, mass culture has a larger audience, and in comparison with folk culture, it is always original.

43. Types of sociological research. Stages of sociological research.

sociological research can be defined as a system of logically consistent methodological, methodological, organizational and technical procedures interconnected by a single goal: to obtain reliable data about the phenomenon or process being studied, about the trends and contradictions of their development, so that these data can be used in the practice of managing public life .

Sociological research includes four successive stages: preparation of the study; collection of primary sociological information; preparation of collected information for processing and its processing; analysis of the information received, summing up the results of the study, formulating conclusions and recommendations.

The specific type of sociological research is determined by the nature of the goals and objectives set in it. It is in accordance with them that three main types of sociological research are distinguished: exploratory, descriptive and analytical.

Intelligence research solves problems that are very limited in content. It covers, as a rule, small survey populations and is based on a simplified program and condensed instruments.

Exploratory research is used to conduct a preliminary investigation of a particular process or phenomenon. The need for such a preliminary stage, as a rule, arises when the problem is either little or not studied at all.

Descriptive research is a more complex type of sociological analysis, which allows one to form a relatively holistic picture of the phenomenon being studied and its structural elements. Understanding and taking into account such comprehensive information helps to better understand the situation and more deeply justify the choice of means, forms and methods of managing social processes.

Descriptive research is carried out according to a complete, sufficiently detailed program and on the basis of methodically tested tools. Its methodological and methodological equipment makes it possible to group and classify elements according to those characteristics that are identified as significant in connection with the problem being studied.

Descriptive research is usually used when the subject is a relatively large community of people with different characteristics. This could be a team of a large enterprise, where people of different professions and age categories work, having different work experience, level of education, marital status, etc., or the population of a city, district, region, region. In such situations, identifying relatively homogeneous groups in the structure of an object makes it possible to alternately evaluate, compare and contrast the characteristics of interest to the researcher, and, in addition, to identify the presence or absence of connections between them.