Personal behavior and socialization. Fundamentals of personality socialization. Unique personalized experience

1. Personality and society. Theories of personality development.

2. The purpose and meaning of human life.

3. Socialization of personality: the meaning of the term and purpose. Agents and institutions of socialization.

4. Social roles and personality.

    Personality and Society. Personality development theories... If we imagine society as a living organism, then its simplest "cell" is a person. But upon closer examination, it turns out that a person is a rather complex and sometimes mysterious entity, whose behavior does not always correspond to elementary norms, and is unpredictable.

Since the Industrial Revolution and the Enlightenment, there has been an interest in the study of human behavior. Scientific disciplines appeared - economics, sociology, psychology, anthropology, which formed the sphere of social and humanitarian sciences, or human sciences. With varying success, human sciences use a variety of scientific methods to explain human actions. The economy is trying to discover the laws that govern the processes of pricing, value and market, the growth of national wealth. Anthropology seeks to systematize the diverse world of cultures, languages, social institutions, and sociology tries to correlate these structures with individual behavior. The youngest of the human sciences, psychology, explores the human mind.

Human in sociology it is considered as the highest stage in the development of living organisms on Earth, the subject of social and historical activity and culture. In contrast to other living beings, man is ultimately the product of his own material and spiritual activities.

If we are talking about an individual as a representative of a society, people, social stratum or class, a given social group, then the term "individual" is used. Social individual Is a separate, isolated member of a social community. This concept is also used in cases when individual representatives of a sample population are considered, which are described contextually by belonging to a given population.

Individuality can be defined as a set of features that distinguish one individual from another, and the differences are made at various levels - biochemical, neurophysiological, psychological, social, etc.

Personality- This is the integrity of the social properties of a person, a product of social development and the inclusion of the individual in the system of social relations through active objective activity and communication.

For a more complete understanding of the personality, it is necessary to consider the nature of its interaction with the environment. Speaking about the environment, we mean the social environment, namely those people among whom a person rotates, on whom he depends or who depend on him, on whom he is guided or who are guided by him.

Social environment Is a set of social factors that influence the formation and behavior of an individual. The macroenvironment (the nature of the social division of labor, the resulting social structure of society, the system of education, upbringing, etc.) and the microenvironment (labor collective, school, family, etc.) are distinguished. The social environment of an individual is determined by relations at the level of society as a whole. The interaction of the individual and society is an interconnected process, on the one hand, of the active actions of the individual, capable of changing and changing both the social environment and the living environment, and on the other hand, the impact on the individual of the social system and the environment itself.

Relationships that are formed and realized in the process of such interaction are called social. Social relations are a certain stable system of connections between individuals, which has developed in the process of their interaction with each other in the conditions of a given society.

The relationship between the individual and society can also be viewed as the activity of an individual who satisfies his needs and pursues certain goals in specific social conditions. These relationships can be described by the formula: search (personality) - proposals (society) - choice (from the proposed). Connections and interactions between people are established because people in the process of satisfying their needs depend on something specific from each other.

The question of the factors of human development is still controversial. Biological advocates approaches reduce human nature to the animal principle, based on the fact that he has the same sense organs, circulatory, muscular, hormonal, bone, nervous systems, etc. Human behavior, in their opinion, is conditioned by his instincts. Representatives of this approach are Herbert Spencer, Sigmund Freud, Cesare Lombroso, William Sheldon. A significant drawback of biological theories in explaining human nature is one-sidedness, ignorance of the cultural principle in the behavior of an individual.

The opposite approach to man, which is developed by sociological concepts, consists in the recognition of the biological mechanisms of his life as insignificant. So, Marxism considered personality as a product, the result of existing social relations, where material (economic) relations are the main ones. Supporters of the role theory of personality (J. Mead, M. Kuhn, T. Parsons, R. Dahrendorf) understand personality as an "actor" who plays various roles in relation to a specific situation. Society prescribes to the individual a certain standard of behavior in accordance with the status held in the group.

The truth is usually in the middle. It is impossible to ignore the biological foundations of human life, but it is unreasonable to neglect the significance of the social principle. In other words, human nature is dual.

The special role of biological mechanisms in human life is most evident in the phenomenon of heredity, which provides the possibility of reproduction and development of biological properties of people.

However, the social conditions of his existence and the culture of society are of decisive importance in human development. Personal development is impossible outside of social ties, since through social interactions the social experience of mankind is transmitted, its culture is assimilated, self-assessment and self-knowledge of the individual takes place.

    The purpose and meaning of human life... The question of the purpose and meaning of life belongs to the eternal, it arose from time immemorial and still excites the minds of mankind. The fact is that human behavior is purposefully rational and conditioned by those values, ideals that make up the content of his moral and spiritual essence. The individual attaches certain meanings to his actions and the actions of other people, thanks to which he can interact with them. The question of why and for what a person lives has found a variety of answers in science.

Representatives of theology (religious philosophy) saw the meaning of a person's earthly life in preparation for the afterlife through faith in God, in his comprehension. Aurelius Augustine(354 - 430) believed that the liberation of man from his sinful nature is possible through faith in God, which is the result of divine revelation. A well-known medieval theologian spoke out against such a tradition Thomas Aquinas(1225 - 1274). In his opinion, belief in the possibility of comprehending the existence of God is possible with the help of not divine revelation, but rational processes. The main argument proving the existence of God, for F. Aquinas, was the need for the existence of a "root cause" of the creation of the world.

Renaissance(XIX-XXI centuries) tries to rehabilitate the natural joys of earthly existence as the meaning of human life. Now happiness and bliss is attainable not in the afterlife, but in the rational knowledge of the world around us. The Renaissance era nurtured individualism as a worldview according to which a person sees the purpose of life in himself, and its meaning is to get pleasure.

Age of Enlightenment(XXIII - XIX centuries) in many ways developed the humanistic ideas of the Renaissance. The German philosopher I. Kant (1724 - 1804) saw the meaning of human life in its development as an end in itself, for man "has in himself the highest goal, to which, as far as it is in his power, he can subordinate the whole of nature." However, a person can achieve his own happiness only in accordance with universal moral laws. I. Kant believed that action is moral if it can be given a universal character. In his opinion, people perform moral deeds rationally, coordinating them with the "categorical imperative" (moral law). Its meaning is that it is necessary "to always treat everything human in oneself and in others as an end in itself and never see in it only a means." I. Kant insisted that a person should never be used as a means to achieve someone else's happiness.

In the 19th century, English philosophers I. Bentham and D. Stuart Mill developed an ethical theory known as utilitarianism. According to her, the purpose and meaning of life was determined by "as much happiness as possible for as many people as possible." I. Bentham proposed the principle of "calculating happiness", which was derived from the relationship between pleasure and pain. On the basis of this principle, he proposed to develop laws in the state.

D. Mill divided all pleasures into higher and lower ones. At the same time, D. Mill gave preference to the higher ones, since these are intellectual pleasures, and the lower ones are carnal. "Better to be a dissatisfied Socrates than a satisfied fool." - remarked the philosopher.

Unlike Western concepts, Russian philosophical thought saw the goal of life in the spiritual improvement of a person, and the meaning in love for people.

From the search for the global meaning and purpose of life, science in the face of existentialism in the middle of the twentieth century moves to substantiating the need to develop a subjective goal based on individual experience. Since there is no God, J.P. Sartre, each individual for himself determines the purpose and meaning of life. It consists in existence, i.e. everyone chooses their own existence and bears responsibility for choosing their future, since true actions are an expression of freedom.

    Socialization of personality: the meaning of the term and purpose. Agents and Institutions socialization... Socialization is the process of assimilation by an individual of a certain system of knowledge, norms and values ​​necessary for him to effectively fulfill social roles in a particular society.

As a result of socialization, a person becomes a person, he develops self-awareness or an image of his own “I”, which is different from other people. Other people act as a kind of mirror for him, in which he looks.

American sociologist Charles Cooley believed that a person's awareness of his “I”, which he called “Mirror I,” is made up of three components: 1) how, in our opinion, we are perceived by others (for example, “I think that people convert attention to my clothes "); 2) how they react to what they see (for example, “they see my clothes and they like them”); 3) how we respond to the reaction we perceived ("since they like my clothes, I will continue to dress this way").

Socialization as a process of assimilating cultural values ​​and assimilating social roles is carried out as a result of interpersonal interaction. Outside of social ties, it makes no sense to talk about the self-esteem of the individual and the assessment of it by society. In the process of interpersonal interaction, the meaning and meaning of certain actions, social norms and values, the development of social roles, rights and responsibilities are transmitted. In other words, a person is taught the elementary rules of human interaction.

As a result of social interaction, internalization is carried out, that is, the transformation of external norms and regulations into internal rules and beliefs. In this regard, it is impossible not only, but also self-knowledge of an isolated individual, like Mowgli or Robinson Crusoe. They are called feral people, that is, who have not become full-fledged members of society due to their isolation from society, their formation outside of communication with people (family, loved ones, social group).

The main purpose of socialization is the transition of a person from a biological being to a social one, in gaining independence by a person and determining his social place in society. This process is extended in time: it starts from the moment of birth and ends with death. Throughout his life, a person performs a significant number of social roles, the development of which is caused by specific circumstances: age, career movement, marriage or marriage, etc. And every time he is forced to assimilate experience and attitudes that correspond to his social roles.

The formation of a personality occurs in the process of influencing it by various social groups, institutions that are interested in a person assimilating certain values ​​and mastering specific social roles. These are agents and institutions of socialization. Among them stand out:

      individuals - agents of socialization that affect the individual in the process of education and upbringing (for example, a teacher, parents, etc.);

b. institutions - institutions of socialization that direct socialization, control its course (for example, school, university, etc.).

By the nature of the impact of socialization agents (direct or indirect), primary and secondary socialization and their agents are distinguished. The agents of primary socialization are parents, relatives, family, friends, peers, teachers, doctors, etc. Secondary socialization agents are administrations of schools, universities, enterprises, state institutions: the army, police, courts, as well as the church, the media, political parties, etc.

Sometimes we can see a boy playing with dolls, a degraded adult who has lost his job. All these are cases of failed socialization caused by disturbances in its process.

One of the reasons for these disorders is derivation, that is, lack of parental care, which affects the emotional and mental health and cognitive abilities of the child.

The consequences of socialization disorders can be mental disorders, for example, schizophrenia, various types of anxiety (phobias), personality degradation, marginalization, and criminality. They are especially acute in extreme situations.

    Social roles and personality... The term "structure" in translation from lat. Means structure, location, order. In a general sense, the social structure is a set of stable and ordered connections between the elements of the social system, which give the society stability, stability and distinguish it from other phenomena. The constituent elements of society as a whole are individuals, social connections and actions, social relations, social institutions and organizations, social norms and values, etc. Each of these elements is in a certain relationship with others. Thanks to the social structure, a seemingly chaotic totality of individuals and groups acquires a qualitative definiteness.

The elements of the social structure are social statuses, social roles, social institutions, social communities, social norms and values, social interactions, social action, social relations.

The most elementary cell of the social structure are social statuses and social roles. Their number, order of arrangement and the nature of their dependence on each other determine the content of the social structure of a particular society.

Social status represents the social position of a person in a society or group, endowed with certain rights and responsibilities and associated through them with other positions. The status of a "doctor" is meaningful only in relation to the status of a "patient", but not a "student", "president", etc. The doctor and the patient enter into social relations as carriers of social statuses: the doctor is obliged to treat the patient, and the patient is obliged to follow the doctor's recommendations in order to recover.

Consequently, each social position corresponds to certain rights and obligations. Responsibilities prescribe what the performer of this role or the bearer of this status must certainly do in relation to other performers or bearers of other statuses. Rights talk about what a person can freely afford or admit in relation to other people. Responsibilities are strictly regulated, they limit behavior to certain boundaries, make it predictable. At the same time, rights and obligations are rigidly interconnected, so that one presupposes the other.

Each person occupies several positions as they participate in many groups and organizations. Thus, he has several statuses. The totality of all statuses occupied by a given individual constitutes a status set. The main status is the status most characteristic of a given individual, according to which others identify him or with which they identify him, by which they determine his position in society. Social status is the position of a person in society, which he occupies as a representative of a large social group (profession, class, nationality, gender, age, religion).

Personal status- This is the position that a person occupies in a small, or primary, group, depending on how he is assessed by his individual qualities. Natural status- this is the position that is biologically inherited by a person from birth. (gender, nationality, race). The attributed status is a position that a person acquires from birth or which later will necessarily be recognized as such by a society or group. The ascribed status very often resembles a born one, but it has differences, the main one of which is that the ascribed status is socially acquired. Achieved status is a position that a person receives through his own efforts, free choice, his own efforts, or through luck or luck. The achieved status is strictly under the control of a person and is not associated with the fact of his birth.

In the set of status, one can distinguish the main statuses, that is, those social positions that determine the social position of its bearer, the main thing in his life; and non-basic statuses, that is, temporary social positions, the rights and obligations of the carriers of which are difficult to determine (statuses of a crowd member, reader, TV viewer, etc.).

In public opinion, a hierarchy of statuses and social groups is being developed, according to which some are valued and respected more than others. A place in such an invisible hierarchy is called rank. They talk about high, medium and low ranks. Hierarchy can exist between groups within the same society, in this case it is called intergroup; and between individuals within the same group

(intragroup). And here the place of a person is expressed by the same term "rank".

Social role Is the expected behavior due to a specific status. It is a model, a status-oriented standard of behavior. If status is a set of rights, privileges and obligations, then a role is actions within this set of rights and obligations.

A status-oriented behavior model includes a set of status rights and responsibilities. Rights mean the ability to perform certain actions due to status. Status rights are inextricably linked to responsibilities. The higher the status, the more rights are vested in its owner and the greater the range of responsibilities assigned to him.

Taken together, status rights, duties, symbols and role constitute a status image - a set of ideas that have developed in public opinion about how a person should behave in accordance with his status, how rights and responsibilities in this status should relate to each other. Each status includes many roles. The collection of all roles assigned to one status is called a role set. Each role in a role-playing set requires a special demeanor and forms its own type of social relationship.

The most common characteristic of modern post-Soviet society is the value and practical reorientation. The constant violation of the balance of interests creates in the individual the feeling that his social security is decreasing, and the three reactions of a person to such a violation come to the fore. The first is the strengthening of the orientation towards individual vertical mobility, towards individual survival ("every man for himself"). The second is the strengthening of the so-called group egoism, i.e. attempts to protect individual interests through group interests, and by any means: from informal to violent, criminal. The third is the strengthening of the spontaneous process of social comparison, as a result of which especially aggressive types of behavior arise. They are based not so much on the absolute deterioration of one's own position as on the perceived unfair, undeserved improvement in the position of others.

The rapidly changing situation presents a person with tasks for the solution of which he was not prepared either by the existing system of education, or by the entire experience of his previous life. He can function successfully in it only if he possesses certain personality traits and behavioral skills, among which, first of all, efficiency, energy, activity, the ability to build alternatives to life choices and readiness for the greatest number of options for the development of events, cognitive pluralism, responsibility, professionalism should be highlighted. and competence. The lack of expression of these features ensured the stability of the previous system and gave rise to those social deformations that we face today.

Remember the story about Mowgli? The human cub was raised by nature and lived according to the laws of the pack. Now look at the playground outside the window: children, playing in the sandbox, build castles, communicate, share culturally toys - this is what it is. social behavior... When a person learns from childhood to behave culturally.

How to understand what is human social behavior?

Social behavior in one phrase is explained as a person's actions within the norms of the whole society. A person adapts to the world around him by following the customs and rules accepted in this environment.

In general, human behavior is a complex thing. Psychologists know that it is impossible to understand a person's inner world if you study it without referring to other people. Similarly, it is impossible to understand a single bee if its beehives are not nearby.

Now let's look at the types of behavior. But in the first place, behavior is either adequate or not.

Adequate behavior, in turn, happens:

Conformal behavior - corresponds to generally accepted norms;

Responsible behavior - fulfillment of obligations;

Helpful behavior;

Correct behavior;

Syntonic behavior - harmonious behavior.

Types of inappropriate behavior include:

Victimenoe - provoking others by its actions;

Deviant - immoral behavior; behavior that is contrary to the mentality of the society;

Delinquent - criminal, requiring punishment;

Demonstrative - behavior that attracts attention;

Conflict -behavior

Erroneous behavior, this behavior is the opposite of conformal behavior.

When does the process of personality socialization take place?

Socialization of personality - This is an individual process of a person's entry into society, taking place under the watchful eye of the collective. The main task of social control is to maintain social stability and move towards progress.

Socialization of the individual occurs along two intertwining lines:

1. Assimilation of cultural values ​​and norms of society.

2. Finding your place in society.

The socialization of each of us begins in early childhood and does not stop until very old age. In other words, the stages of the socialization process coincide with life cycles.

From an early age we learn to play together. Learning to define what is good and what is bad; what can and cannot be done, in the future this skill will be useful to us already in the work collective.

When we reach the age of 6, we go to school, then some of us go to university, and some go to college, in a word, we learn. Read more: the law of the rise of needs.

After high school graduation, we revise our path in life, prioritizing desires and prospects. We master the profession we like, have a family and children. Further, already in adulthood, we communicate confidently, earn respect and authority in society. Our life - these are the constituent parts of socialization.

Socialization of personality it is also interesting in that a person's views change throughout life. In childhood and adolescence, people are more mobile, active and energetic; their views are more flexible. In maturity and old age, people become more conservative, they no longer like changes so much, they become capricious.

Ultimately, it is important to note that the socialization of an individual depends on the world and national cultures of the place of residence and the mentality of the people around him.

The concept of "behavior" came to sociology from psychology. The meaning of the term "behavior" is different, different from the meaning of such traditional philosophical concepts as action and activity. If action is understood as a rationally substantiated act with a clear goal, a strategy, carried out with the involvement of specific conscious methods and means, then behavior is just a reaction of a living being to external and internal changes. Such a reaction can be both conscious and unconscious. So, purely emotional reactions - laughter, crying - are also behavior.

Social behavior - it is a set of human behavioral processes associated with the satisfaction of physical and social needs and arising as a reaction to the surrounding social environment. The subject of social behavior can be an individual or a group.

If we abstract from purely psychological factors and reason at the social level, then the behavior of the individual is determined primarily by socialization. The minimum of innate instincts that a person possesses as a biological being is the same for all people. Behavioral differences depend on the qualities acquired in the process of socialization and, to some extent, on innate and acquired psychological individual characteristics.

In addition, the social behavior of individuals is regulated by the social structure, in particular the role structure of society.

Social norm of behavior- this is the kind of behavior that fully corresponds to the status expectations. Due to the existence of status expectations, society with sufficient probability can predict the actions of the individual in advance, and the individual himself can coordinate his behavior with the ideal model or model adopted by society. Social behavior corresponding to status expectations is defined by the American sociologist R. Linton as social role. This interpretation of social behavior is closest to functionalism, since it explains behavior as a phenomenon determined by social structure. R. Merton introduced the category of the "role complex" - a system of role expectations determined by a given status, as well as the concept of role conflict that occurs when the role expectations of the status occupied by the subject are incompatible and cannot be realized in some single socially acceptable behavior.

The functionalist understanding of social behavior was subjected to fierce criticism from, first of all, representatives of social behaviorism, who believed that it was necessary to build the study of behavioral processes on the basis of the achievements of modern psychology. How much psychological moments were really overlooked by the role interpretation of the command follows from the fact that N. Cameron tried to substantiate the idea of ​​the role determination of mental disorders, believing that mental illness is the incorrect performance of his social roles and the result of the patient's inability to perform them as it is. society needs. Behaviorists argued that in the time of E. Durkheim, the successes of psychology were insignificant and therefore the functionality of the expiring paradigm met the requirements of the time, but in the XX century, when psychology reached a high level of development, one cannot ignore its data, considering human behavior.

Forms of human social behavior

People behave differently in a particular social situation, in a particular social environment. For example, some demonstrators march peacefully along the declared route, others seek to organize riots, and still others provoke mass clashes. These various actions of actors of social interaction can be defined as social behavior. Hence, social behavior is the form and method of manifestation by social actors of their preferences and attitudes, capabilities and abilities in social action or interaction. Therefore, social behavior can be viewed as a qualitative characteristic of social action and interaction.

In sociology, social behavior is interpreted as: about behavior, which is expressed in the totality of actions and actions of an individual or a group in society and depends on socio-economic factors and prevailing norms; about the external manifestation of activity, the form of transformation of activity into real actions in relation to socially significant objects; about the adaptation of a person to the social conditions of his existence.

To achieve life goals and in the implementation of individual tasks, a person can use two types of social behavior - natural and ritual, the differences between which are of a fundamental nature.

"Natural" behavior, individually significant and egocentric, is always aimed at achieving individual goals and is adequate to these goals. Therefore, the individual is not faced with the question of the correspondence of the goals and means of social behavior: the goal can and must be achieved by any means. The "natural" behavior of an individual is not socially regulated, therefore it is usually immoral or "unceremonious". This social behavior is "natural", natural in nature, since it is addressed to the provision of organic needs. In society, "natural" egocentric behavior is "forbidden", therefore it is always based on social conventions and mutual concessions on the part of all individuals.

Ritual behavior("Ceremonial") - individually unnatural behavior; it is precisely this behavior that makes society exist and reproduce. Ritual in all its variety of forms - from etiquette to ceremony - so deeply penetrates the entire social life that people do not notice that they are living in the field of ritual interactions. Ritual social behavior is a means of ensuring the stability of the social system, and an individual who implements various forms of such behavior participates in ensuring the social stability of social structures and interactions. Thanks to ritual behavior, a person achieves social well-being, constantly convinced of the inviolability of his social status and the preservation of the usual set of social roles.

Society is interested in the social behavior of individuals to be of a ritual nature, but society cannot abolish the "natural" egocentric social behavior, which, being adequate in goals and indiscriminate in means, always turns out to be more beneficial for the individual than "ritual" behavior. Therefore, society seeks to transform the forms of "natural" social behavior into various forms of ritual social behavior, including through socialization mechanisms using social support, control and punishment.

Such forms of social behavior as:

  • cooperative behavior, which includes all forms of altruistic behavior - helping each other during natural disasters and technological disasters, helping young children and the elderly, helping future generations through the transfer of knowledge and experience;
  • parental behavior - the behavior of parents in relation to their offspring.

Aggressive behavior is presented in all its manifestations, both group and individual - from verbal abuse of another person to mass extermination during wars.

Human Behavior Concepts

Human behavior is studied in many areas of psychology - in behaviorism, psychoanalysis, cognitive psychology, etc. The term "behavior" is one of the key terms in existential philosophy and is used in the study of a person's relationship to the world. The methodological possibilities of this concept are due to the fact that it makes it possible to identify unconscious stable structures of personality or human existence in the world. Among the psychological concepts of human behavior that have had a great influence on sociology and social psychology, it is necessary to name, first of all, the psychoanalytic directions developed by Z. Freud, C. G. Jung, A. Adler.

Freud's representations are based on the fact that the behavior of an individual is formed as a result of a complex interaction of the levels of his personality. Freud identifies three such levels: the lower level is formed by unconscious impulses and impulses determined by innate biological needs and complexes formed under the influence of the individual history of the subject. This level Freud calls It (Id) to show its separation from the conscious I of the individual, which forms the second level of his psyche. The Conscious Self includes rational goal-setting and responsibility for one's actions. The highest level is the superego - what we would call the result of socialization. This is a set of social norms and values ​​internalized by an individual, exerting internal pressure on him in order to displace from consciousness undesirable (forbidden) impulses and drives from society and prevent them from being realized. According to Freud, the personality of any person is an incessant struggle between the Id and the Super-I, shaking the psyche and leading to neuroses. Individual behavior is entirely due to this struggle and is fully explained by it, since it is only a symbolic reflection of it. Such symbols can be images of dreams, slips of the tongue, slips of the tongue, obsessions and fears.

C.G. Jung's concept expands and modifies Freud's doctrine, including in the sphere of the unconscious not only individual complexes and drives, but also the collective unconscious - the level of key images common to all people and peoples - archetypes. The archetypes contain archaic fears and value ideas, the interaction of which determines the behavior and attitude of the individual. Archetypal images appear in basic narratives - folk tales and legends, mythology, epics - in historically specific societies. The socially regulating role of such narratives in traditional societies is very great. They contain ideal behaviors that shape role expectations. For example, a male warrior should behave like Achilles or Hector, a wife like Penelope, etc. Regular recitation (ritual replay) of archetic narratives continually remind members of society of these ideal behaviors.

Psychoanalytic concept of Adler is based on an unconscious will to power, which, in his opinion, is an innate personality structure and determines behavior. It is especially strong in those who, for one reason or another, suffer from an inferiority complex. In an effort to compensate for their inferiority, they are able to achieve great success.

The further splitting of the psychoanalytic direction led to the emergence of many schools, disciplinary relations occupying a borderline position between psychology, social philosophy, sociology. Let us dwell in detail on the work of E. Fromm.

Fromm's positions are representative of neo-Freudianism in and - more precisely can be defined as Freylom-Marxism, since, along with the influence of Freud, he was equally strongly influenced by the social philosophy of Marx. The peculiarity of neo-Freudianism in comparison with orthodox Freudianism is due to the fact that, strictly speaking, neo-Freudianism is more of a sociology, while Freud is certainly a pure psychologist. If Freud explains the behavior of the individual by complexes and impulses hidden in the individual unconscious, in short, by internal biopsychic factors, then for Fromm and Freylomarxism as a whole, the behavior of the individual is determined by the surrounding social environment. This is his similarity with Marx, who explained the social behavior of individuals in the final analysis by their class origin. Nevertheless, Fromm seeks to find a place for the psychological in social processes. According to the Freudian tradition, referring to the unconscious, he introduces the term "social unconscious", implying that psychic experience is common to all members of a given society, but for most of them it does not fall on the level of consciousness, because it is supplanted by a special social mechanism by its nature. belonging not to an individual, but to society. Thanks to this mechanism of displacement, society maintains a stable existence. The mechanism of social repression includes language, the logic of everyday thinking, a system of social prohibitions and taboos. The structures of language and thinking are formed under the influence of society and act as an instrument of social pressure on the psyche of the individual. For example, the coarse, anti-aesthetic, ridiculous abbreviations and abbreviations of "Newspeak" from Orwell's dystopia actively disfigure the minds of people who use them. To one degree or another, the monstrous logic of formulas like: "The dictatorship of the proletariat is the most democratic form of power" has become the property of everyone in Soviet society.

The main component of the mechanism of social repression is social taboos that act like Freud's censorship. That in the social experience of individuals that threatens the preservation of the existing society, if realized, is not allowed into consciousness with the help of a “social filter”. Society manipulates the consciousness of its members, introducing ideological clichés that, due to their frequent use, become inaccessible to critical analysis, withhold certain information, exert direct pressure and cause fear of social isolation. Therefore, everything that contradicts the socially approved ideological cliché is excluded from consciousness.

This kind of taboos, ideologemes, logical and linguistic experiments form, according to Fromm, the "social character" of a person. People belonging to the same society, against their will, are, as it were, marked with the seal of a "common incubator". For example, we can unmistakably recognize foreigners on the street, even if we don't hear their speech, by their behavior, appearance, and attitude towards each other; these are people from another society, and when they find themselves in a mass environment that is alien to them, they stand out sharply from it due to their similarities. Social character - it is a style of behavior brought up by society and unrecognized by the individual - from social to everyday life. For example, Soviet and former Soviet people are distinguished by collectivism and responsiveness, social passivity and undemandingness, obedience to the power personified in the person of the “leader”, a developed fear of being different from everyone else, and credulity.

Fromm directed his criticism against modern capitalist society, although he also devoted much attention to describing the social character generated by totalitarian societies. Like Freud, he developed a program to restore the undistorted social behavior of individuals through the awareness of what was repressed. “By transforming the unconscious into consciousness, we thereby transform the simple concept of the universality of man into the vital reality of such universality. This is nothing more than the practical realization of humanism. " The process of derepression - the release of a socially oppressed consciousness consists in the elimination of fear of the realization of the forbidden, the development of the ability for critical thinking, the humanization of social life in general.

A different interpretation is offered by behaviorism (B. Skinner, J. Homans), which considers behavior as a system of reactions to various stimuli.

Skinner's concept in fact, it is biologizing, since it completely removes the differences between the behavior of humans and animals. Skinner identifies three types of behavior: unconditional reflex, conditioned reflex, and operant. The first two types of reactions are caused by the action of the corresponding stimuli, and operant reactions are a form of adaptation of the organism to the environment. They are active and voluntary. The body, as it were, by trial and error, searches for the most acceptable way of adaptation, and if successful, the find is fixed in the form of a stable reaction. Thus, the main factor in the formation of behavior is reinforcement, and learning turns into "guidance to the desired response."

In Skinner's concept, a person appears as a being, whose entire inner life is reduced to reactions to external circumstances. Reinforcement changes mechanically induce behavioral changes. Thinking, the higher mental functions of a person, the whole culture, morality, art turn into a complex system of reinforcements designed to evoke certain behavioral reactions. Hence follows the conclusion about the possibility of manipulating people's behavior by means of a carefully developed "technology of behavior". With this term Skinner denotes the purposeful manipulative control of some groups of people over others, associated with the establishment of an optimal reinforcement regime for certain social goals.

The ideas of behaviorism in sociology were developed by J. and J. Baldwin, J. Homans.

J. iJ. Baldwin is based on the concept of reinforcement, borrowed from psychological behaviorism. Reinforcement, in a social sense, is a reward whose value is determined by subjective needs. For example, for a hungry person, food acts as reinforcement, but if a person is full, it is not reinforcement.

The effectiveness of the reward depends on the degree of deprivation in a given individual. Subdeprivation is understood as the deprivation of something for which the individual has a constant need. As far as the subject is deprived in any respect, his behavior depends on this reinforcement. The so-called generalized reinforcers (for example, money), acting on all individuals without exception, do not depend on deprivation due to the fact that they concentrate in themselves access to many types of reinforcements at once.

Reinforcers are categorized as positive and negative. Positive reinforcers are anything that is perceived by the subject as a reward. For example, if certain contact with the environment has been rewarding, there is a high likelihood that the subject will seek to repeat the experience. Negative reinforcers are factors that determine behavior through giving up some experience. For example, if the subject denies himself some kind of pleasure and saves money on it, and subsequently benefits from this savings, then this experience can serve as a negative reinforcement and the subject will behave as always.

The effect of punishment is the opposite of reinforcement. Punishment is an experience that makes you want to no longer repeat it. Punishment can also be positive or negative, but here, compared to reinforcement, everything is reversed. Positive punishment is punishment with a repressive stimulus, such as a blow. Negative punishment affects behavior through deprivation of something of value. For example, depriving a child of sweets at dinner is a typical negative punishment.

The formation of operant reactions has a probabilistic character. Unambiguity is characteristic of reactions of the simplest level, for example, a child cries, demanding the attention of his parents, because the parents always approach him in such cases. The reactions of adults are much more complex. For example, a person selling newspapers in train cars does not find a buyer in every carriage, but he knows from experience that a buyer will eventually be found, and this makes him persistently walk from car to car. In the last decade, the receipt of wages at some Russian enterprises has assumed the same probabilistic character, but nevertheless, people continue to go to work, hoping to receive it.

Homans' behaviorist exchange concept appeared in the middle of the XX century. Arguing against representatives of many areas of sociology, Homans argued that a sociological explanation of behavior must necessarily be based on a psychological approach. The interpretation of historical facts should also be based on a psychological approach. Homans motivates this by the fact that behavior is always individual, while sociology operates with categories applicable to groups and societies, therefore, the study of behavior is the prerogative of psychology, and sociology in this matter should follow it.

According to Homans, when studying behavioral reactions, one should abstract from the nature of the factors that caused these reactions: they are caused by the influence of the surrounding physical environment or other people. Social behavior is just the exchange of socially valuable activities between people. Homans believes that social behavior can be interpreted using Skinner's behavioral paradigm, if we supplement it with the idea of ​​the mutual nature of stimulation in relationships between people. The relationship of individuals with each other is always a mutually beneficial exchange of activities, services, in short, it is the mutual use of reinforcements.

Homans summarized exchange theory in several postulates:

  • the postulate of success - those actions that most often meet social approval are most likely reproduced;
  • stimulus postulate - similar incentives associated with reward are likely to cause similar behavior;
  • value postulate - the likelihood of reproducing an action depends on how valuable the result of this action seems to a person;
  • the postulate of deprivapia - the more regularly a person's act is rewarded, the less he appreciates the subsequent reward;
  • the double postulate of aggression-approval - the absence of an expected reward or unexpected punishment makes aggressive behavior likely, and an unexpected reward or the absence of an expected punishment leads to an increase in the value of the rewarded act and contributes to its more likely reproduction.

The most important concepts of the exchange theory are:

  • the cost of behavior is the cost to the individual of this or that action, - the negative consequences caused by past actions. In everyday life, it is a payback for the past;
  • benefit - arises when the quality and size of the remuneration exceed the cost of the given act.

Thus, exchange theory portrays human social behavior as a rational search for gain. This concept looks simplistic, and it is not surprising that it drew criticism from a wide variety of sociological trends. For example, Parsons, who advocated a fundamental difference between the mechanisms of behavior of humans and animals, criticized Homans for the inability of his theory to explain social facts on the basis of psychological mechanisms.

In its exchange theory I AM. Blau attempted a kind of synthesis of social behaviorism and sociologism. Realizing the limitations of a purely behaviourist interpretation of social behavior, he set the goal of moving from the level of psychology to explaining on this basis the existence of social structures as a special reality that cannot be reduced to psychology. Blau's concept is an enriched theory of exchange, in which four successive stages of the transition from individual exchange to social structures are distinguished: 1) the stage of interpersonal exchange; 2) the stage of power-status differentiation; 3) the level of legitimation and organization; 4) the stage of opposition and change.

Blau shows that, starting from the level of interpersonal exchange, the exchange may not always be equal. In cases where individuals cannot offer each other sufficient reward, the social bonds formed between them tend to disintegrate. In such situations, attempts arise to strengthen the disintegrating ties in other ways - through coercion, through the search for another source of reward, through submission of oneself to the exchange partner in the manner of generalized credit. The latter path means a transition to the stage of status differentiation, when a group of persons capable of giving the required reward becomes more privileged in terms of status than other groups. In the future, the legitimization and consolidation of the situation and the separation of opposition groups take place. In analyzing complex social structures, Blau goes far beyond the paradigm of behaviorism. He argues that the complex structures of society are organized around social values ​​and norms, which serve as a mediating link between individuals in the process of social exchange. Thanks to this link, it is possible to exchange rewards not only between individuals, but also between an individual and a group. For example, considering the phenomenon of organized charity, Blau defines what distinguishes charity as a social institution from simply helping a rich individual to a poorer one. The difference is that organized charity is socially oriented behavior, which is based on the desire of a rich individual to comply with the norms of the wealthy class and share social values; through norms and values, the relationship of exchange between the donating individual and the social group to which he belongs is established.

Blau identifies four categories of social values ​​on the basis of which exchange is possible:

  • particularistic values ​​that unite individuals on the basis of interpersonal relationships;
  • universalist values ​​that act as a yardstick for assessing individual merits;
  • legitimate authority is a system of values ​​that ensures the power and privileges of a certain category of people in comparison with all others:
  • opposition values ​​- ideas about the need for social changes, allowing the opposition to exist at the level of social facts, and not only at the level of interpersonal relations of individual oppositionists.

We can say that Blau's theory of exchange is a compromise variant, combining elements of the theory of Homans and sociologism in the interpretation of the exchange of rewards.

Role concept by J. Mead is a symbolic interactionism approach to the study of social behavior. Its name reminds of the functionalist approach: it is also called role-based. Mead views role behavior as the activity of individuals interacting with each other in freely accepted and played roles. According to Mead, the role interaction of individuals requires them to be able to put themselves in the place of another, to evaluate themselves from the position of the other.

Synthesis of exchange theory with symbolic interactionism also tried to implement P. Zingelman. Symbolic inter-actionism has a number of intersections with social behaviorism and exchange theories. Both of these concepts emphasize the active interaction of individuals and view their subject from a microsociological perspective. According to Singelman, interpersonal exchange relationships require the ability to put oneself in the position of another in order to better understand his needs and desires. Therefore, he believes that there is reason for the merger of both directions into one. However, social behaviorists were critical of the emergence of the new theory.

Socialization of the individual as a process of integrating a person into the general social system of society provides the necessary skill of communication with the environment. And there is only one answer to the question "what is this" - it is the process of assimilation by a human of models of behavior, psychological attitudes, social norms and values, knowledge, skills that allow him to function successfully in society.

When a person is born, a person immediately enters into socialization with the people around him, finds himself in a kind of environment, formed at first by parents, medical staff of the clinic, relatives and close friends of the family. In the future, the role of socialization of the individual only intensifies: with the expansion of the boundaries of the world, the number of connections and people with whom one has to interact increases, and it is extremely important that the process proceeds smoothly, is not disturbed.

In the process of growing up, children not only acquire personality, self-awareness, learn communication skills, but also expand their sphere of interests and become more and more involved in the process of interaction with family members, neighbors, other children, learn to communicate, find compromises, yield and defend their point of view ...

The main age stages of socialization

Psychologists distinguish the following stages of personality socialization:

  • primary socialization - the process of socialization, proceeding from the birth of a person to the final;
  • secondary socialization is the process of a formed personality entering society.

Primary socialization involves a person's assimilation of social norms and rules in the early stages of life, from birth to adolescence; the secondary stage begins gradually with the expansion of the adolescent's social circle, the appearance in his life of a larger number of hobbies and groups formed in society under the influence of these hobbies.

The stages of personality socialization are clearly distinguished, but there is no rigid border between them. It cannot be said that before the age of 14, for example, a person exclusively forms himself, and after that he learns to fit himself into society. On the contrary, in essence, both stages are characteristic of us throughout life, just at an early stage of development, the psychological characteristics of a child are aimed at knowing himself, and later redirected outward, to fit himself into society, but even at retirement age one should not think, as if the personality is finally formed, and it cannot be changed.

Features of socialization in childhood

It is in childhood, thanks to family influence, that the child forms those patterns that he considers generally accepted, and which are further guided in subsequent socialization.

At this stage, the child learns the basic rules and norms exclusively from family members, since his inner world is extremely small, and the environment is limited. And if a certain set of prejudices is adopted in the family, then the individual will come to the next stage of socialization with an opinion already formed in his head that takes into account the main family “party line”.

One of the problems of socialization of a person associated with the upbringing of a child is the concept of the norm of family violence. If violence in the family is considered an indispensable attribute, if the father raises his hand against the mother, and the mother endures and does not try to leave home, the child begins to take this situation for granted, and domestic violence as a variant of the norm for the whole society as a whole. And in the future, he goes out into the world with the confidence that all his friends in the house have the same thing, they just, like him, are forbidden to talk about it.

Such a child may in the future get a whole bunch of problems when he is faced with the fact that he will be scolded and ostracized in every possible way for an attempt to raise his hand against a girl, and he will not be able to understand that the problem lies in his behavior, since for him personally this is absolute norm.

Socialization of the school period

Socialization of the individual at the stage of school education gradually transfers the child from the stage of primary socialization to secondary.

At school, the individual's social circle expands dramatically: after a couple of dozen people with whom he constantly communicated or occasionally met in a kindergarten or clinic, the child finds himself in a big world full of classmates and children from parallel streams.

The attention of adults is not as carefully controlled as it was before, and the child gradually learns to establish relationships with other small personalities, gains likes and dislikes, learns to behave in accordance with the new rules adopted in a group of students, gets used to the new environment and develops qualities in himself, which in the future will help him to establish contact with colleagues at work and representatives of other social groups.

At this stage, the habits and typical reactions that are formed in him in response to the influence of others act as the problem of socialization.

If a child was brought up in a family like a little prince, was surrounded by the love of grandmothers and mothers, if he grew up confident that all his actions are correct and no one has the right to be dissatisfied with him, he will most likely not fit into the team of classmates, since the habit demanding submission is unlikely to be appreciated by other children as a pleasant character trait.

Teens and the search for yourself

A teenager is a stage of development at which the child begins to spend more time with peers, and not with family members, and thus makes his transition from the primary stage of socialization to the secondary - the formation of not only the personality, but also to the search for his place in the world ...

At this stage, an active group socialization of a person begins - he is looking for groups in which he could feel comfortable, be approved, significant, where he could share experiences and thoughts; the active phase includes gender socialization - awareness of oneself as a representative of a certain gender and assessment of the social roles of representatives of the same gender in society, acceptance or rejection of these roles in relation to oneself; the launch of the process of resocialization begins - a reassessment of previously mastered skills and values ​​in view of gaining new experience and expanding horizons.

One of the common problems of the socialization of the personality of a teenager is the situation when he finds himself in an environment that accepts other, unusual standards of behavior as the norm and is left with a choice: to overestimate his own judgments or to defend his opinion and get rejection of the group members.

Group socialization

The assimilation of norms accepted as basic in society, rules of behavior, restrictions and unacceptable actions is a process of upbringing and instilling in a child a clear understanding of the boundaries within which he must move in order not to be rejected by others.

Our society is built in such a way that an individual needs to receive social approval, belong to a group, and feel the support of members of this group. And for this we are forced to behave in a certain way, to follow certain rules of behavior and fall into the pattern set by the group to which we want to join.

The behavior patterns of groups can be different and even diametrically opposite: for some groups, commonness is important on the basis of financial solvency, while others, on the contrary, are formed by uniting poor members of society and declare themselves to be opposed to wealthy circles.

It is important to understand that it is impossible to socialize universally one hundred percent in such a way as to ideally fit into absolutely all segments of the population and groups, precisely because they value different qualities and opposite values. It is not for nothing that the people say: "You are not a gold piece so that everyone will like it!" - one cannot please everyone, and in the process of socialization a person has to choose which particular group to join, as well as oppose himself to some other group of persons.

Mindfulness of group choice

The choice of the social group with which you interact is not always up to you. We make an informed choice when we decide to go in for a sport, go to a certain university, or move to another neighborhood. In this case, we can prepare ourselves for those norms that are most likely to be characteristic of the environment in which we find ourselves, since we will have time to study the issue, work out our reactions and socialization skills.

But sometimes, due to circumstances beyond our control, we find ourselves in an environment that cannot be called successful, and this is especially dangerous for not fully formed individuals - children and adolescents.

In the event of a forced move to an unfavorable area, adult family members are able to distance themselves as much as possible from their neighbors, to establish contact with them, which does not include the adoption of their social standards of behavior. But a child or teenager, communicating with classmates and neighbors, still does not know how to resist someone else's authoritative opinion, and unconsciously absorbs and adopts those norms of behavior that he should not include in his picture of the world as correct.

Such a problem of personality socialization cannot always be solved by prohibiting parents from communicating with a child with "bad" friends, and the environment in which your child grows up is a very important factor in growing up and shaping his personality.

Gender socialization

Socialization of the individual cannot be fully realized without the individual assimilating the cultural system of relationships between men and women, characteristic of the society in which he lives, as well as awareness of gender roles and his place in this system.

Society begins to instill certain stereotypes of behavior in children literally from the cradle: in stores, most of them offer a choice of only pink or blue baby care items, boys' clothes are done mainly in blue, and girls - in red tones, boys are given cars and pistols, and girls - dolls and jewelry.

In the future, looking at the parents and guests of the family, the child absorbs the standards that pass before his eyes in the process of growing up: if the mother and her friends are mostly housewives and are engaged in cooking, cleaning and home, and the father and his friends earn money, drive cars and playing football, the individual is likely to adopt such a traditional system of values, and in the future will apply it to himself according to his gender: a boy will strive to become a “breadwinner,” and a girl will aim to find a husband who meets certain criteria, and dream of marriage and children.

If it is accepted in the family that mom works on a par with his father, and dad cleans up on weekends with mom, in the future the girl will not understand if her husband starts demanding from her to stay at home and cook soups, and the boy does not appreciate his wife's desire to become a housewife and study exclusively by family matters.

Re-socialization

The concept of personality resocialization is closely related to the stages of growing up. In essence, this term denotes the secondary socialization of the individual, which continues throughout life and includes a constant reassessment of previously accepted values.

Resocialization begins with the child's exit to the outside world and observation of people with different cultural, social and gender stereotypes. The more such observations a child accumulates, the more work happens in his head: he begins to understand that not all the words of dad and mom are axioms, that there are different points of view and a different view of the world. And under the influence of these factors in adolescence, the individual completes the formation of his personality, leaving part of the previous, family attitudes, and replacing the remaining attitudes with others, accepted from the outside and regarded by him as more suitable for him personally.

Over time, the individual's social circle expands more and more, goes beyond the school and university, includes colleagues, friends in the gym, acquaintances from different segments of the population, therefore, resocialization as an important element of personality formation is an endless process.

Legal socialization

Legal socialization of an individual is the development of a person's certain ideas about their place in society, as well as about their social role and about the culture of society as a whole.

The main feature of the legal socialization of an individual is the process of assigning to a person certain typical (predictable) reactions, ways of perceiving information and forms of activity adopted in this particular society.

Perceiving the norms and rules accepted in the society around a person as the main and only true ones, the individual subsequently reacts negatively to any deviations from this norm, often evaluates them as an attempt to disrupt public order in general, and even actively opposes those who show unusual for the given reaction societies.

Legal socialization of the individual is a necessary and important process, at the same time closely related to the attempts of society to discard any progressive ideas unusual for it, which seem to the successfully socialized members of society as a violation of the very foundations of the existence of a social group or nation as a whole.

Legal socialization of the individual allows you to build a clear hierarchical structure of the group, within which the subjects who most clearly adhere to the standards of behavior approved by society easily increase their status and are fixed on the upper tiers of the pyramid, and individuals with non-standard outlooks on life are rejected.

Desocialization

The concept of desocialization of a person is closely related to resocialization, and means the destruction of previously mastered and accepted norms and rules of behavior, the destruction of previous attitudes. What is it and why is this process needed?

This process is used by psychologists if the norms of behavior learned by a person prevent him from successfully integrating into society. In this case, the person must desocialize - abandon the previous attitudes, and then resocialize - accept the new rules of behavior adopted in the group.

Desocialization is necessary for victims of domestic violence, people who have gone through wars and lived in war zones, as well as those who have moved to other countries with a different cultural heritage or when re-educating individuals suffering from deviant behavior - alcoholics, drug addicts, criminals. A "readjustment" of the head in such cases is necessary, and the plan of the process usually begins with an assessment of attitudes that the individual sees as unshakable, and proving that this inviolability is apparent.

Deviant behavior

Deviant behavior is behavior that deviates from the norms, principles and standards accepted in society.

Deviant behavior is not always a sign of something bad: for a patriarchal society, in which it is accepted, for example, that a woman does not have the right to vote, is obliged to hide her face, wear a skirt and be silent, the behavior of an ordinary European will be regarded as extremely deviant, while in Europe they simply will not pay attention to it, since it fits into the standards of behavior adopted there.

The socialization of individuals can be impaired, and then psychologists also talk about deviant behavior - it is because of improper socialization that people become criminals, they show a tendency to violence, cruelty, and illegal actions.
Teenagers trying to stand out from the crowd, to declare their "I", also have signs of deviant behavior.

Deviant behavior is always the result of problems with the socialization of a person, but, unfortunately, the process of socialization cannot be written down as a plan and strictly followed.

Organizational socialization

Organizational, or professional socialization is the process of mastering by an individual the skills and attitudes adopted in the organization for the successful performance of basic functions, as well as for building relationships with colleagues.

The first time, having entered a job, newcomers get acquainted with the generally accepted standards of behavior in the organization, master the jargon, communication style, learn to comply with the dress code and perceive the balance of power between people. This is also the socialization of the personality, and it is very important - often we have problems with work not because we are bad professionals, but only because even an excellent professional who is unable to establish relationships with people will do nothing but harm to the organization.

To improve organizational socialization in firms, it is customary to arrange various joint holidays, field trips, games and classes to improve communication between colleagues.

Socialization of a person is a complex process, stretched out throughout life, associated with endless knowledge of the external world and self-knowledge, developing the ability to establish relationships with people around them in any social environment.

The ability to successfully fit into any system will be useful to everyone, and one should not think that socialization is important only for those who are not successful and do not fit into the framework. Since any framework has its values ​​exclusively in a given period of time, and there is no guarantee that tomorrow the concept of the norm will not change, and that yesterday's successful person will not be on the sidelines of life with his mossy concepts of the norm.

To designate human behavior in society, one of the founders of scientific sociology - M. Weber (1864-1920) introduced the concept of "social action". M. Weber wrote: “Not all types of human relationships are social in nature; socially only that action, which in its meaning is oriented to the behavior of others. A collision between two cyclists, for example, is nothing more than a natural occurrence.

However, an attempt by one of them to avoid this clash - the abuse that followed the clash, a scuffle or a peaceful settlement of the conflict - is already a "social action." In other words, we can say that social action, like social behavior, manifests itself in purposeful activity in relation to other people. At the same time, social behavior often proceeds under the influence of external conditions.

Analyzing the types of social behavior, M. Weber found that they are based on the patterns accepted in society. These patterns include manners and customs.

Morals- such attitudes of behavior in society, which are formed within a certain circle of people under the influence of habits. These are a kind of socially prescribed stereotypes of behavior. In the process of personality formation, the development of social mores takes place through identification of oneself with other people. Following the morals, a person is guided by the consideration that "everyone does this." As a rule, morals are mass models of actions that are especially protected and revered in society.

If morals have actually taken root for a long time, then they can be defined as customs. Custom consists in unswerving adherence to prescriptions taken from the past. The custom acts as a means of socialization of a person, the transfer of social and cultural experience from generation to generation, performing the functions of maintaining and strengthening intragroup cohesion.

Mores and customs, being unwritten rules, nevertheless determine the conditions of social behavior.

The process of mastering the knowledge and skills, methods of behavior necessary for a person to become a member of society, to act correctly and interact with his social environment, is called socialization. It covers all the processes of cultural initiation, communication and learning, through which a person acquires a social nature and the ability to participate in social life. Some of these factors operate throughout life, creating and changing the attitudes of the individual, for example, the media, others at certain stages of life.

In social psychology, socialization is understood as a process of social learning, for which the approval of the group is necessary. At the same time, a person develops the qualities necessary for effective functioning in society. Many social psychologists identify two main stages of socialization. The first stage is typical for early childhood. At this stage, external conditions for the regulation of social behavior prevail. The second stage of socialization is characterized by the replacement of external sanctions by internal control.

The expansion and deepening of the individual's socialization occurs in three main areas: activity, communication and self-awareness. In the field of activity, both the expansion of its types and orientation in the system of each type of activity are carried out, that is, the allocation of the main thing in it, its comprehension, etc. ... In the sphere of self-awareness, the formation of the image of one's own "I" as an active subject of activity, understanding of one's social belonging, social role, the formation of self-esteem, etc. is carried out.