Lesson summary "Social groups (large and small)." Main types of social groups in society

Each person, regardless of his age and type of activity, belongs to several small groups - a family, a school class, a sports team. The relationship of an individual with other members of the team plays a key role in the formation of his personality. The variety of types of associations is demonstrated by the classification of small ones, which makes it particularly important to study the characteristics of small groups and their role in society.

What is a small social group

On the basis of small groups, it is possible to study in detail the connection of an individual with his environment, the influence of society on its members. Therefore, in sociological research, the concepts of “group”, “small group”, “classification of groups” occupy an important place. The fact is that a person spends most of his life in small groups, which have a strong influence on the formation of his values.

A social group is an association of people connected by joint activities and systems interpersonal relationships. Such groups are classified by size, that is, by the number of participants.

A small group is a small association of people connected by joint activities and in direct communication with each other. The peculiarity of such a team is that the number of its members does not exceed twenty, and therefore they can easily contact each other and establish an emotional connection.

Signs

There are a number of provisions, the presence of which may indicate that the association is a small social group:

• co-presence of people in the same territory at a certain time;
• emotional contact between team members, the presence of stable relationships;
• joint activities aimed at achieving a common goal;
• division of group roles between members;
• presence of organizational and management structure;
• formation of one’s own norms and values.

The concept and classification of small groups is based on these characteristics and the nature of their manifestation. The establishment of emotional relationships between individual members can lead to the emergence of sub-blocks and internal structure.

Types of associations

There are several aspects regarding which the classification of small groups is formed. The table below shows the types of small social associations.

The nature of internal connections

The determining factor is the classification of small social groups regarding the method of its occurrence. Formal associations are created by management and have legal status. Their activities are regulated by certain documentation. Such a group is governed from the top down, and its members are determined by the organization.

Informal groups arise spontaneously based on the emotional connections of the participants. Such societies do not have official status, and their activities are directed from the bottom up. However, they also form some norms and values ​​that are shared by all members of the group and predetermine their behavior. If in formal organizations the leader has official authority, then in contact organizations he acts through the recognition of other participants.

Reference team

Another small group, the norms of which play an important role for a person, is called a reference (standard) group. A member of the team goes through her value system and forms the appropriate standards. This group is divided into two subspecies:

• Perfect. An individual is not a member of an association, but in his behavior he is guided by its norms.
• Presence group. A person is a member of this collective and shares values.

Small communities play a decisive role in the formation of the child sees the norms accepted in the family and among friends. At the same time, small social groups can also exert Negative influence on the individual - to suppress his personal qualities (inhibition), to impose incorrect ideals.

Social significance

Small organizations can play different roles in society, depending on the values ​​and goals that the small group pursues. The classification of small groups, based on the criterion of social significance, assumes the existence of three types of associations: socially oriented, asocial and antisocial. Accordingly, they play positive, neutral and negative role. Socially oriented small groups include educational, public, and productive organizations. People do not accept various criminal associations, which nevertheless retain authority for their members.

Group leadership

Management includes a number of actions necessary to organize the activities of the association. This concept includes decision making, goal setting, plan development, control, coordination, etc. There is a conditional classification of small groups regarding the method of management. The following types of relationships are distinguished:

• subordination (from above);
• coordination (horizontal system);
• reordination (bottom).

Successful organization of activities is based on the combination of these principles and the search for the optimal option for building internal relationships.

Head of the team

A feature of organizing small groups is the identification of a leader. This is a member of the association who has a strong influence on its activities. He is respected among other members due to his personal qualities and plays an important role in the management of the group. A leader's activities extend to both internal and external communication. He ensures the involvement of team members in joint activities and exercises control over decision making. There is a classification of small groups based on the level of intervention of the leader in the activities of the association and the degree of involvement of each member in the community management process. In the most successful organizations (both contact and formal), a balance is maintained between the two extremes.

Management styles

The conditional classification of small groups, based on the involvement of members of the association in the process of its management, includes three positions presented in the table below.

There is also theory X and Y. In the first case, a person initially avoids work and prefers to be directed. Theory Y assumes that an individual has a high level of self-control and strives for responsibility. Accordingly, two apply here different ways management.

Team pressure

The norms adopted in the association influence the lifestyle of its individual member. Everyone knows the experiment conducted with a group of children, where prearranged participants incorrectly answered the question posed, and the last subject repeated the words of his peers. This phenomenon is called conformism. Opinion of the majority of members small group affects the individual. The opposite of this phenomenon can be independence, that is, the independence of a person’s attitudes from the opinions of his environment.

At the same time, the classification of small groups regarding the role it plays for an individual is important. The higher the referentiality of the association, the stronger the conformism.

Formation of a small social group

Each team goes through several stages of development. Psychologists G. Stanford and A. Roark developed a theory that includes 7 stages of social group formation. The study is based on a two-factor model of team development, where there are contradictions between business and emotional activity.

1. Acquaintance, first attempts at interpersonal interaction.
2. Creation
3. Conflict stage.
4. A state of balance, a sense of cohesion.
5. Formation of unity - business activity increases, common goals are set.
6. The dominance is not of workers, but of interpersonal relations of individual members of the association.
7. Actualization, balance of business and emotional activity.

Social roles in a small group

Members of the association may be assigned certain ways Behaviors related to problem solving or communication with other participants. Roles manifest themselves in both the business and emotional activities of the group. For example, in the process of solving problems, the “initiator” offers new ideas, and the “critic” evaluates the work of the entire group and finds it weak sides. Roles also manifest themselves in the sphere of interpersonal relations of the team. Thus, the inspirer actively supports the ideas of other members, and the conciliator gives up his opinion and resolves conflict situations.

A social group (community) is a really existing, empirically recorded set of people, which is characterized by integrity and acts as an independent subject of social and historical action.

The emergence of various social groups is primarily associated with such phenomena as the social division of labor and specialization of activities, and secondly, with historically established living conditions, and

So, a particular set of people can be considered a social group if its members have:

1. Similarity of living conditions.

2. The presence of jointly carried out activities.

3. Commonality of needs.

4. Own culture.

5. Self-ascribing oneself to a given community.

Social groups and their types and forms are distinguished by extraordinary diversity. So, they can vary according to quantitative composition(small and numerous), and by the duration of their existence (short-term - from a few minutes, and stable, existing for thousands of years), and by the degree of connection between participants (stable and random, amorphous formations).

Types of social groups depending on size

1. Small. They are characterized by a small number of participants (from 2 to 30 people), who are very familiar with each other and are engaged in some common cause. Relationships in such a group are direct. This includes such types of elementary units of society as a family, a group of friends, a school class, an airplane crew, etc.

2. Big ones. They represent numerous collections of people who occupy social structure the same position and therefore have common interests. Types of large social groups: stratum, class, nation, etc. Moreover, connections in such populations are increasingly indirect, since their numbers are enormous.

Types of social groups depending on the nature of interaction

1. Primary, in which the interaction of participants with each other is interpersonal, direct, implying the support of a group of peers, friends, and neighbors.

2. Secondary, interaction in which is determined by the achievement of a common goal and is formal in nature. Examples: trade unions, production parties.

Types of social groups depending on the fact of existence

1. Nominal, which are artificially constructed sets of people who are specially allocated for Examples: passengers commuter trains, buyers of a certain brand washing powder.

2. Real groups, the criterion of existence of which is real characteristics (income, gender, age, profession, nationality, place of residence). Examples: women, men, children, Russians, townspeople, teachers, doctors.

Types of social groups depending on the method of organization

1. Formal groups that are created and exist only within officially recognized organizations. Examples: school class, Dynamo football club.

2. Informal, usually arising and existing on the basis of the personal interests of participants, which either coincide or diverge from the goals of formal groups. Examples: a circle of poetry lovers, a club of fans of bard songs.

In addition to such a concept as a social group, there are also so-called “quasi-groups”. They are unstable informal collections of people who, as a rule, have an uncertain structure, norms and values. Examples: audience ( concert hall, theatrical performance), fan clubs, crowd (rally, flash mob).

Thus, we can say that the true subjects of relations in society are not real people, separate individuals, but a collection of various social groups that interact with each other and whose goals and interests intersect with each other in one way or another.

Different schools and researchers have identified many private classifications of groups, mostly of a dichotomous nature. Thus, there are groups: laboratory and natural, formal official and informal unofficial (according to the method of occurrence), organized and unorganized (according to the degree of regulation of relationships and life activities), reference groups and membership groups (from the point of view of their value significance for the participant), primary and secondary (from the point of view of immediacy - indirectness of contacts), large and small.

Let us especially dwell on the last dichotomy.

At first glance, behind this simple typology is the number of group members. A small number of participants is a small group, many participants are a large group. However, in the domestic tradition, the separation of these two types of groups has more compelling reasons. Large and small social groups do not just differ in the number of members, it is fundamentally different types groups.

Small include various social associations of people with a small and finite number of participants, which in one form or another are included in existing system social production and control (we will turn to the formal definition of a small group below).

Small groups are working teams, scientific laboratories, educational associations, sports teams, etc. Small groups really exist: they are accessible to direct perception, observable in their size and time of existence. Their study can be carried out through specific methods of working with all members of the group (observation of interaction in the group, surveys, tests on the characteristics of group dynamics, experiment). And what is very important: it is possible to isolate the specific purpose of the existence of such groups (pattern of activity), since they are organized around some kind of activity, material or spiritual.

Large groups include large groups of participants and changing human communities, whose members are not in direct contact and may not even know about each other’s existence. Members large group combine certain signs of a non-psychological property: living in the same territory, belonging to a certain social stratum (economic status), being in a certain place at a certain hour, and more. Large groups are in turn divided into two subtypes.

The first includes ethnic groups, classes, professional groups. They are distinguished by the duration of their existence, the pattern of emergence and development from the point of view of social history.

The second includes the public, the crowd, the audience - communities that arose by chance and exist for a short time. However, in them people are included for some time in a common emotional space. It is difficult to imagine an ethnos in the form of a large group of people located on some giant platform, just like everyone circus performers or all middle class even if only of a certain state.

There are, of course, interesting examples. Let's say, in Cuba, during the heyday of Fidel Castro's reign, once a year a rally of incredible size was held, to which everyone flocked adult population islands (hundreds of thousands of people!). It is difficult to say what this collection of people represented at that moment - a crowd or a large group called "the people of the Republic of Cuba."

The fundamental difference between large groups of the first and second subtypes is in the mechanisms regulating intragroup processes.

So-called organized large groups are governed by specific social mechanisms: traditions, customs, mores. It is possible to isolate and describe the typical lifestyle, character traits, and self-awareness of a representative of such groups.

Unorganized large groups are controlled by socio-psychological mechanisms of an emotional nature: imitation, suggestion, infection. They are characterized by a commonality of feelings and moods in certain moment time, which, however, does not indicate a deeper psychological community of participants in this kind of social formations.

For almost 100 years, the small group has remained the subject of keen interest of various socio-psychological schools and trends, a huge number of theorists, researchers and practitioners in America, Eurasia, and Australia. There are many approaches, definitions, formulations of the problem, and even more criticism towards opponents. It is difficult to imagine a definition that would suit everyone without exception and at the same time have at least some specific content.

We will turn to the approach proposed by the Moscow socio-psychological school. Following G.M. Andreeva, we define a small group as a small group in composition, whose members are united by common activities and are in direct personal contact, which is the basis for the emergence of group norms, processes and interpersonal relationships.

So, in accordance with this definition, two characteristics create the basis for the emergence of a small group as a psychological phenomenon: joint activity in its psychological aspect(values, goals, objectives and methods of interaction) and direct contact, that is, the possibility of organizing interpersonal communication. On this basis, the small group itself emerges and develops as a socio-psychological phenomenon.

Researchers are studying its various properties and characteristics. So, A.I. Dontsov, developing this definition, identifies eight signs that characterize the behavior of people in a small group.

• 1. Regularly and continuously communicate face to face, without intermediaries.
• 2. They have a common goal, the implementation of which allows them to satisfy their significant needs and interests.
• 3. Participate in common system distribution of functions and roles in intragroup interaction.
• 4. They share general norms and rules of interaction within the group and in intergroup situations.
• 5. Satisfied with membership in the group and therefore experience feelings of solidarity with each other and gratitude to the group.
• 6. Have a clear and differentiated understanding of each other.
• 7. Connected by stable emotional relationships.
• 8. They present themselves as members of the same group and are perceived similarly from the outside.

Thus, a small social group is an integral independent subject of functioning and development, possessing the following properties.

• · Consists of a limited, small number of people.
• · Occurs when participants unite with a common goal and interpersonal communication.
• · Endows its members with some cognitive and emotional content.
• · Determines the characteristics of their behavior in intra- and intergroup situations.

“Small in composition”, “small number of people”... How many people make up a small group? Is it possible to name a specific number or at least a formula for determining it?

Interest in these issues arose a little later than intensive research began in the field of small groups. As a result, the following can be stated: most of Small group research has been conducted in dyads, that is, pairs, but there is every reason to believe that a “true small group” begins with a triad.

A dyad is a very specific small group; many structures and processes unfold and do not occur in it in full and take on a “truncated” form. It turns out that “de jure” a small group starts with three people, and “de facto” - with two. Attempts to establish an unambiguous “upper limit” for a small group can also be considered unsatisfactory. It is clear that it is no higher than the level of two or three dozen, but where exactly? For study group- one limit, for training - another, for sports team- third...

The most successful can be considered a functional approach to determining the upper limit of a small group. Its essence is this: a group can have as many people as can be effectively united to achieve a given specific goal. Psychological content joint activities specifies the possible number of participants in this group.

Story

The word “group” entered the Russian language at the beginning of the 19th century. from Italian (It. groppo, or gruppo- node) as technical term painters, used to designate several figures that make up a composition. . This is exactly how the dictionary explains it foreign words the beginning of the 19th century, which, among other overseas “curiosities,” contains the word “group” as an ensemble, a composition of “figures, whole components, and so adjusted that the eye looks at them at once.”

First written appearance of a French word groupe, from which its English and German equivalents later originated, dates back to 1668. Thanks to Moliere, a year later, this word penetrates into literary speech, still retaining its technical connotation. The wide penetration of the term “group” into a variety of fields of knowledge, its truly commonly used nature, creates the appearance of its “ transparency", that is, understandability and accessibility. It is most often used in relation to certain human communities as collections of people united according to a number of characteristics by a certain spiritual substance (interest, purpose, awareness of their community, etc.). Meanwhile, the sociological category “social group” is one of the most difficult for understanding due to significant discrepancies with everyday ideas. A social group is not just a collection of people united along formal or informal grounds, but a group social position that people occupy. “We cannot identify the agents who objectify a position with the position itself, even if the totality of these agents is a practical group mobilized for united action for the sake of a common interest.”

Signs

Types of groups

There are large, medium and small groups.

Large groups include aggregates of people that exist on the scale of society as a whole: these are social strata, professional groups, ethnic communities (nations, nationalities), age groups(youth, pensioners), etc. Awareness of belonging to a social group and, accordingly, its interests as one’s own occurs gradually, as organizations are formed that protect the interests of the group (for example, the struggle of workers for their rights and interests through workers’ organizations).

The middle groups include production associations of enterprise workers, territorial communities (residents of the same village, city, district, etc.).

Diverse small groups include groups such as family, friendly companies, neighborhood communities. They are distinguished by the presence of interpersonal relationships and personal contacts with each other.

One of the earliest and most famous classifications of small groups into primary and secondary was given by the American sociologist C.H. Cooley, where he made a distinction between the two. "Primary (core) group" refers to those personal relationships that are direct, face-to-face, relatively permanent, and deep, such as relationships within a family, a group of close friends, and the like. "Secondary groups" (a phrase that Cooley did not actually use, but which came later) refers to all other face-to-face relationships, but especially to groups or associations such as industrial ones, in which a person relates to others through formal , often legal or contractual relationships.

Structure of social groups

Structure is a structure, arrangement, organization. The structure of a group is a way of interconnection, its relative position components, elements of the group (carried out through group interests, group norms and values), forming a stable social construct, or configuration of social relations.

The current large group has its own internal structure: "core"(and in some cases - kernels) and "periphery" with a gradual weakening as we move away from the core of the essential properties by which individuals identify themselves and are nominated this group, that is, by which it is separated from other groups distinguished according to a certain criterion.

Specific individuals may not possess all the essential features of the subjects of a given community; they constantly move in their status complex (repertoire of roles) from one position to another. The core of any group is relatively stable, it consists of carriers of these essential features- professionals of symbolic representation.

In other words, the core of a group is a set of typical individuals who most consistently combine the inherent nature of activity, structure of needs, norms, attitudes and motivations identified by people with a given social group. That is, the agents occupying the position must emerge as social organization, social community, or social corps, possessing an identity (recognized ideas about oneself) and mobilized around a common interest.

Therefore, the core is a concentrated exponent of all the social properties of a group that determine its qualitative difference from all others. There is no such core - there is no group itself. At the same time, the composition of the individuals included in the “tail” of the group is constantly changing due to the fact that each individual occupies many social positions and can move from one position to another situationally, due to demographic movements (age, death, illness, etc.). etc.) or as a result of social mobility.

A real group has not only its own structure or construction, but also its own composition (as well as decomposition).

Composition(Latin compositio – compilation) – organization social space and its perception (social perception). The composition of a group is a combination of its elements that form a harmonious unity, which ensures the integrity of the image of its perception (social gestalt) as a social group. Group composition is usually determined through indicators of social status.

Decomposition- the opposite operation or process of dividing a composition into elements, parts, indicators. The decomposition of a social group is carried out through projection onto various social fields and positions. Often the composition (decomposition) of a group is identified with a set of demographic and professional parameters, which is not entirely true. What is important here is not the parameters themselves, but to the extent that they characterize the status-role position of the group and act as social filters that allow it to carry out social distancing so as not to merge, be “blurred” or absorbed by other positions.

As for membership in the group of a particular individual as an element of the composition, he actually encounters the surrounding world, which surrounds him and positions him as a member of the group, i.e. his individuality in this situation becomes “insignificant”; he, as an individual, as a member of a group, is seen primarily as a whole group.

Functions of social groups

There are different approaches to classifying the functions of social groups. American sociologist N. Smelser highlights following functions groups:

Social groups nowadays

A feature of social groups in countries with developed economies currently is their mobility, the openness of transition from one social group to another. The convergence of the level of culture and education of various socio-professional groups leads to the formation of common socio-cultural needs and thereby creates conditions for the gradual integration of social groups, their value systems, their behavior and motivation. As a result, we can state the renewal and expansion of the most characteristic modern world- middle layer (middle class).

Notes

see also

• Party

Links

• Determination of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation No. 564-О-О on the constitutionality of the prohibition of inciting hatred towards social groups in Article 282 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation

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See what a “Social group” is in other dictionaries:

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Social group- a group of people united according to some psychological or socio-demographic characteristics... encyclopedic Dictionary in psychology and pedagogy

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Social group - an association of people connected by common relations, which are regulated by special social institutions, and who have common norms, values ​​and traditions. A social group is one of the main components of social structure. The bonding factor for a group is a common interest, that is, spiritual, economic or political needs.

Belonging to a group presupposes that a person possesses certain characteristics that, from the point of view of the group, are valuable and significant. From this point of view, the “core” of the group is identified - those of its members who possess these characteristics to the greatest extent. The remaining members of the group form its periphery.

A specific personality cannot be reduced to membership in one group, since it certainly belongs to a sufficiently large number of groups at once. Indeed, we can classify people into groups in many different ways: by religious affiliation; by income level; from the point of view of their attitude to sports, to art, etc.

Groups are:

Formal (formalized) and informal.

In formal groups, relationships and interactions are established and regulated by special legal acts (laws, regulations, instructions, etc.). The formality of groups is manifested not only in the presence of a more or less rigid hierarchy; it usually manifests itself in a clear specialization of members performing their special functions.

Informal groups develop spontaneously and do not have regulating legal acts; their consolidation is carried out mainly due to authority, as well as the figure of the leader.

At the same time, in any formal group, informal relationships arise between members, and such a group breaks up into several informal groups. This factor plays an important role in holding the group together.

Small, medium and large.

Small groups (family, group of friends, sports team) are characterized by the fact that their members are in direct contact with each other, have common goals and interests: the connection between group members is so strong that a change in one of its parts will certainly entail a change in the group in in general. The lower limit for a small group is 2 people. There are different opinions about what figure should be considered the upper limit for a small group: 5-7 or approximately 20 people; Statistical studies show that the size of most small groups does not exceed 7 people. If this limit is exceeded, the group splits into subgroups (“factions”). Obviously, this is caused by the following dependence: than smaller group, the closer connections are established between its members, and therefore, the less likely it is that it will fall apart. There are also two main types of small groups: dyad (two people) and triad (three people).

Medium groups are relatively stable groups of people who also have common goals and interests, connected by one activity, but at the same time not in close contact with each other. An example of medium groups can be a work collective, a collection of residents of a yard, street, district, or settlement.

Large groups are collections of people who are usually united by one socially significant feature (for example, religion, professional affiliation, nationality, etc.).

Primary and secondary.

Primary groups are usually small groups characterized by close ties between members and, as a result, have a great influence on the individual. The last feature plays a decisive role in determining the primary group. Primary groups are necessarily small groups.

In secondary groups, there are practically no close relationships between individuals, and the integrity of the group is ensured by the presence of common goals and interests. Close contacts between members of the secondary group are also not observed, although such a group - provided that the individual has assimilated group values ​​- can have a strong influence on him. Secondary groups usually include medium and large groups.

Real and social.

Real groups are distinguished according to some characteristic that actually exists in reality and is recognized by the bearer of this characteristic. So, a real indicator can be income level, age, gender, etc.

Three types are sometimes distinguished into an independent subclass of real groups and they are called main:

Stratification - slavery, castes, estates, classes;

Ethnic – races, nations, peoples, nationalities, tribes, classes;

Territorial - people from the same area (countrymen), city dwellers, villagers.

Social groups (social categories) are groups that are allocated, as a rule, for the purposes of sociological research based on random signs that have no particular social significance. For example, a social group would be the entire set of people who know how to use a computer; the entire population of public transport passengers, etc.

Interactive and nominal.

Interactive groups are those whose members interact directly and take part in collective decision-making. Examples of interactive groups are groups of friends, formations such as commissions, etc.

A nominal group is one in which each member acts independently of the others. Indirect interaction is more typical for them.

Particular attention should be paid to the concept of a reference group. A reference group is a group that, due to its authority for an individual, is capable of exerting a strong influence on him. In other words, this group can be called a reference group. An individual may strive to become a member of this group, and his activities are usually aimed at becoming more like its representative. This phenomenon is called anticipatory socialization. In the usual case, socialization occurs in the process of direct interaction within the primary group. In this case, the individual adopts the characteristics and methods of action characteristic of the group even before interacting with its members.

Particularly in social communication are the so-called aggregates (quasi-groups) - a collection of people who unite on the basis of a behavioral characteristic. An aggregate, for example, is the audience of a television program (that is, people who watch this television program), the audience of a newspaper (that is, people who buy and read this newspaper), etc. Typically, aggregates include the audience, the public, as well as a crowd of onlookers.

Social structure is often viewed as a set of relations between social groups. From this point of view, the elements of society are not social statuses, but small and large social groups. The totality of social relations between all social groups, or more precisely, the overall result of all relations determines the general state of society, that is, what atmosphere reigns in it - agreement, trust and tolerance or distrust and intolerance.