The features that determine the social status of a person are. Types of statuses. Types of social statuses

Types of social statuses

Remark 1

Considering social status, it is necessary to abstract from the qualitative assessment of the individual and his behavior. Social status is a social formal and structural characteristic of a subject.

Any social status presupposes a corresponding social role.

1. The main, or main status. It is the main one among the other statuses of the individual. Determines the social position of a person and his role in society (family, professional). Dictates the manner of behavior, acts as a decisive factor in the level and way of life. They can be personal, innate, achievable, attributable.
2. Natural and prescribed status. It is given to a person at birth automatically, does not depend on the aspirations and efforts of a person (gender, nationality, race, daughter, brother, son).
3. Prescribed status. It is acquired not on the personal initiative of an individual, but as a result of a combination of certain circumstances (son-in-law, mother-in-law, daughter-in-law).
4. Achieved status. It is acquired as a result of the efforts of the individual himself and with the help of social groups.
5. Not the main statuses predetermined by a short-term situation (patient, passer-by, spectator, witness).
6. Personal status. It manifests itself at the level of small social groups (work collective, family, circle of close people). Determined by personal traits and qualities.
7. Group status. It manifests itself at the level of large social groups - representatives of the profession, confession, nation.

The achieved statuses can be determined by:

• rank (People's Artist, Lieutenant Colonel, Honored Teacher, etc.);
• position (manager, manager, director);
• professional affiliation (honored master of sports or people's artist);
• scientific degree (professor, candidate of science, doctor of science).

It is impossible to live in a society completely devoid of statuses. If you lose one status, another will appear.

Each person is characterized by several statuses of various social groups (by position - director, in family - wife, children - mother, parents - daughter). These statuses are not equivalent. The main social status determines the position in society, it is based on the profession and position.

The achieved and prescribed statuses are closely interrelated: as a rule, the acquisition of the achieved statuses occurs in a competitive struggle, some of which are determined by the assigned statuses. For example, family background determines the possibility of obtaining a prestigious education. Having a high achieved status compensates for a low prescribed status, since real social achievements and values \u200b\u200bare valued in any society.

Status hierarchy

Social status can be viewed in two dimensions (R. Budon):

• a horizontal dimension formed by a set of social contacts, real and possible, established between the bearer of the status and other individuals who are at the same social level;
• the vertical dimension, formed by the complex of social contacts and interchange that appears between status carriers and individuals with a higher or lower social level.

Remark 2

The status hierarchy is typical for any social group, the interaction of the members of which is possible only due to the fact that the members of the group know each other. However, the formal structure of the organization may not coincide with the informal structure. The real social status largely depends on qualifications, personal qualities, charm, etc.

Functional dissonance can arise between functional and hierarchical status. Confusion of statuses is a criterion of social disorganization, sometimes it is considered as the cause of deviant behavior.

Disorganization of honey by statuses can take two forms (E. Durkheim):

• in connection with the position of the individual in society, his expectations and counter-expectations of other people become uncertain;
• status instability affects the level of individual satisfaction with life and the structure of social reward.

Status is a certain position in the social structure of a group or society, linked to other positions through a system of rights and obligations. Sociologists distinguish two types of status: personal and acquired. Personal status is the position that a person occupies in the so-called small, or primary, group, depending on how his individual qualities are assessed in it. On the other hand, in the process of interacting with other individuals, each person performs certain social functions that determine his social status. Social status is the general position of an individual or social group in society, associated with a certain set of rights and obligations. Social statuses are prescribed and acquired (achieved). The first category includes nationality, place of birth, social origin, etc., the second - profession, education, etc. In any society there is a certain hierarchy of status, which is the basis of its stratification. Certain statuses are prestigious, while others are the opposite. Prestige is the assessment by society of the social significance of a particular status, enshrined in culture and public opinion. This hierarchy is formed under the influence of two factors: a) the real usefulness of those social functions that a person performs; b) the value system characteristic of a given society. If the prestige of any statuses is unreasonably high or, on the contrary, low, it is usually said that there is a loss of the balance of statuses. A society in which there is a similar tendency to the loss of this balance is unable to ensure its normal functioning. It is necessary to distinguish authority from prestige. Authority is the degree of recognition by society of the dignity of an individual, a particular person. The social status of a person primarily influences his behavior. Knowing the social status of a person, one can easily determine most of the qualities that he possesses, as well as predict the actions that he will carry out. Such expected behavior of a person, associated with the status that he has, is usually called a social role. A social role is actually a certain pattern of behavior recognized as appropriate for people of a given status in a given society. In fact, the role provides a model showing how an individual should act in a given situation. Roles vary in their degree of formalization: some are very clearly defined, for example, in military organizations, others are very vague. A social role can be assigned to a person both formally (for example, in a legislative act), and also be informal. Any individual is a reflection of the totality of social relations of his era. Therefore, each person has not one but a whole set of social roles that he plays in society. Their combination is called the role system. Such a variety of social roles can cause an internal conflict of the individual (in the event that some of the social roles contradict each other). Scientists offer various classifications of social roles. Among the latter, as a rule, the so-called basic (basic) social roles are distinguished. These include: a) the role of the worker; b) the role of the owner; c) the role of the consumer; d) the role of the citizen; e) the role of a family member. However, despite the fact that the behavior of a person is largely determined by the status that she occupies and the roles that she plays in society, she (the person) nevertheless retains her autonomy and has a certain freedom of choice. And although in modern society there is a tendency towards the unification and standardization of the individual, its complete leveling, fortunately, does not occur. An individual has the opportunity to choose from a variety of social statuses and roles offered to him by society, those that allow him to better realize his plans, to use his abilities as efficiently as possible. A person's acceptance of a particular social role is influenced by both social conditions and his biological and personal characteristics (health status, gender, age, temperament, etc.). Any role-playing prescription only outlines a general scheme of human behavior, offering to make a choice of ways to fulfill it by the personality itself. In the process of achieving a certain status and performing the corresponding social role, a so-called role conflict may arise. A role conflict is a situation in which a person is faced with the need to satisfy the requirements of two or more incompatible roles.

Living in society, one cannot be free from it. Throughout life, a person comes into contact with a large number of other individuals and groups to which they belong. Moreover, in each of them, he occupies his own definite place. To analyze the position of a person in each group and society as a whole, they use concepts such as social status and Let us consider in more detail what it is.

The meaning of the term and general characteristics

The word "status" itself dates back to ancient Rome. Then it bore more of a legal connotation, rather than sociological, and denoted the legal status of any organization.

Now social status is the position of a person in a particular group and society as a whole, giving him certain rights, privileges, and responsibilities in relation to other members.

It helps people to interact better with each other. If a person of a certain social status does not fulfill his duties, then he will be responsible for this. So, an entrepreneur who sews clothes to order, if the deadline is missed, will pay a penalty. In addition, his reputation will be damaged.

Examples of the social status of one person are schoolchildren, son, grandson, brother, sports club member, citizen, and so on.

This is some kind of his professional qualities, material and age, education and other criteria.

A person can simultaneously enter several groups at once and, accordingly, play not one, but many different roles. Therefore, they talk about status sets. Each person is unique and individual.

Types of social statuses, examples

Their range is wide enough. There are statuses obtained at birth, and there are statuses acquired during life. Those that society attributes to a person, or those that he achieves through his own efforts.

Allocate the main and passing social status of a person. Examples: the main and universal, in fact, the person himself, then comes the second - this is the citizen. The list of main statuses also includes consanguineous, economic, political, and religious. The list goes on.

Episodic ones are a passer-by, a patient, a participant in a strike, a buyer, a visitor to an exhibition. That is, such statuses for the same person can change quickly enough and repeat periodically.

Prescribed social status: examples

This is what a person receives from birth, biologically and geographically given characteristics. Until recently, it was impossible to influence them and change the situation. Examples of social status: gender, nationality, race. These preset parameters remain with a person for life. Although in our progressive society they have already swung themselves at changing sex. So, one of the listed statuses to some extent ceases to be prescribed.

Much of what is related to kinship will also be considered as prescribed father, mother, sister, brother. And husband and wife are already acquired statuses.

Achieved status

This is what a person achieves for himself. By making efforts, making choices, working, learning, each individual eventually comes to certain results. His successes or failures are reflected in the attribution of his well-deserved status by society. Doctor, director, company president, professor, thief, homeless person, vagrant.

Almost every achievable has its own insignia. Examples:

• the military, security officials, employees of the internal troops - uniform and shoulder straps;
• the doctors have white coats;
• people who broke the law have tattoos on their bodies.

Roles in society

The social status of a person will help to understand how this or that object will behave. We constantly find examples and confirmation of this. Expectations in the behavior and appearance of an individual, depending on his belonging to a particular class, are called a social role.

So, the status of a parent obliges you to be strict, but fair to your child, be responsible for him, teach, give advice, prompt, help in difficult situations. The status of a son or daughter is, on the contrary, a certain subordination to parents, legal and material dependence on them.

But, despite some patterns of behavior, each person has a choice of how to act. Examples of social status and its use by a person do not fit one hundred percent into the proposed framework. There is only a scheme, a certain template, which each individual implements according to his abilities and ideas.

It often happens that it is difficult for one person to combine several social roles. For example, the first role of a woman is mom, wife, and her second role is a successful business woman. Both roles involve an investment of effort, time, full dedication. A conflict arises.

Analysis of the social status of a person, an example of his actions in life allow us to conclude that it reflects not only the inner position of a person, but also affects the appearance, manner of dressing, speaking.

Consider examples of social status and standards attached to it in appearance. Thus, the director of a bank or the founder of a reputable company cannot appear at the workplace in sweat pants or rubber boots. And the priest - come to church in jeans.

The status that a person has achieved makes him pay attention not only to his appearance and behavior, but also to choose a place of residence and study.

Prestige

Not the least role in the destinies of people is played by such a concept as prestige (and a positive, from the point of view of the majority, social status). We can easily find examples in the questionnaire that all students write before entering higher educational institutions. Often they make their choice based on the prestige of a particular profession. Nowadays, few boys dream of becoming an astronaut or pilot. And once it was a very popular profession. They choose between lawyers and financiers. So the time dictates.

Conclusion: a person develops as a person in the process of mastering different social statuses and roles. The brighter the dynamics, the more adapted to life the individual will become.

Social status

Social status is an indicator of the position occupied by an individual in society. Each person has several statuses (son, he is a geologist, he is a goalkeeper).

There are different statuses attributed (born) and achieved (acquired). The assigned status is automatically obtained - by ethnic origin, place of birth, family status - regardless of personal efforts (daughter, Buryat woman, Volzhanka, aristocrat). The achieved status - writer, student, spouse , officer, laureate, director, deputy - are acquired by the efforts of the person himself with the help of certain social groups - family, brigade, party.

However, the statuses are not equal. The position in the society predetermines the main status, which, as a rule, is based on the position, profession. The profession serves as the most used, cumulative, integrative indicator of the status position - the type of work determines such "status resources" of a person as authority, prestige, power.

In the 90s, a person's wealth, ownership of property and financial resources, the ability to "live beautifully" began to be promoted among the leading status. In this situation, not qualification, not skill, not creativity, but the possession of real estate and a bank account became the goal of a significant part of young people, who began to consider getting a specialty as an element or step in achieving significant material wealth.

In this regard, it should be noted the value of the real starting position of the individual, which affects his assessment of society, gives a certain point of view on the world, which largely determines further behavior. People from families with different social statuses have unequal conditions for socialization, unequal opportunities for education. Some people have great opportunities, while others are closed from the very birth. For example, a child from a middle-class family (assigned status) has more opportunities to become a doctor or scientist (achieved status) than a child from the lower strata of society. In this regard, there is growing resistance in society to the creation of elite educational institutions, where the quality of education is bought for money, depriving a significant part of young people of the opportunity to have equal starting positions in life.

An important characteristic of each of the statuses is the spectrum and freedom of other statuses. Any individual decision regarding one's own destiny lies in the constant choice of ways to overcome specific social inequality and in the desire to have the appropriate conditions that ensure its competitiveness in life.

Social status, providing certain rights and opportunities, obliges a lot. With the help of statuses, relations between people are ordered, regulated. Social statuses are reflected both in external behavior and appearance - clothing, jargon, manners, and in the internal position of the individual - attitudes, value orientations, motives. Each status requires and gives people the opportunity to achieve people's social expectations or their modification, if it does not create conditions for the realization of these expectations. In this sense, the famous Polish sociologist F. Znanetsky (1882-1958) is right, who believed that a sociologist should take a human individual not only as he "really is" organically and psychologically, but as he is "made" by others and by himself in them and his own experience of social life. From a sociological point of view, in an individual, his social position and function are primary. The organic and psychological characteristics of the individual, according to Znanetsky, are simply the material from which a social personality is formed in the process of education and self-education.

Role theory of personality

Role is a type of personality behavior, conditioned by its status. The set of roles corresponding to this status is defined as a role set. The role is objectively set by the social position, regardless of the individual characteristics of the person holding this position. The performance of a role is associated with the desire of a person to comply with accepted social norms and the expectations of others.

The development of roles occurs in the process of socialization, and their number is constantly increasing. In early childhood, a person performs one role - a child who is taught certain rules of the game. Then the role of a kindergarten pupil and a member of the primary social group for joint play, pastime, rest, etc. is added to it. In the future, the child plays the role of a student, a member of a youth group, a participant in social activities, a member of various interest groups.

Since each person plays several roles, a role conflict is possible: parents and peers expect different behavior from a teenager, and he, fulfilling the roles of a son and a friend, cannot simultaneously meet their expectations. Even more often, this conflict - the mismatch of roles - accompanies the life of an adult.

There is never a complete overlap between role-playing and role-playing. The quality of the role performance depends on many conditions, among which the correspondence of the role to the needs and interests of the individual is of decisive importance. The one who does not fulfill the role in accordance with the expectation enters into conflict with society, incurs social and group sanctions.

Considering the properties of the role, T. Parsons formulated the following characteristics and dependencies. So, some of the roles are clearly limited in space and time (schoolchild, student), the other is vague, indefinite (membership in public organizations, in interest groups), the third part is long-term (the role of the employee throughout his working life, fatherhood , motherhood, etc.).

Equally important is the fact that some of the roles require compliance with strictly established rules (soldier, a member of a production organization), for the other part, these requirements are set rather arbitrarily (a member of a music club or public organization).

The fulfillment of a role is also associated with its motivational characteristics: in one case, the role is oriented towards obtaining personal benefit (the owner of private property), in the other - towards public, social interests (a member of a political party, a member of a cooperative, etc.).

Finally, it is also important that the performance of some roles is strictly regulated (the role of security guard, firefighter, duty officer), while other roles can be enriched or lose some features, which most clearly occurs in the process of moving up the career or professional ladder.

Social roles and their meaning for a person are interpreted in different ways in the scientific literature. The behavioral concept of social role limits the subject of research to directly observable behavior of people, the interaction of individuals: the action of one turns out to be a stimulus that causes a response from the other. This allows you to describe the process of interaction, but does not reveal the inner side of the personality, the nature of social relations, roles and social expectations. The internal structure of the personality (ideas, desires, attitudes) disposes to one, but does not contribute to the choice of other roles. Role expectations are also non-random situational factors: they arise from the demands of the social environment.

The social role that a person plays is very significant in his life, in his ability to function effectively within the framework of society. “A person sells not only goods, but sells himself and feels himself a commodity ... And as with any commodity, the market decides how much it costs certain human qualities, and even determines their very existence. If the qualities that a person can offer are not in demand, then he has no qualities at all ... "(E. Fromm, 1969).

That is why activity should be viewed from social positions, manifested in the desire of a person to realize himself as a person, both in accordance with his social status and with his social role.

Resolving role conflicts

Organizational methods for resolving role conflicts

To make sure that it is the role conflict that takes place, you can observe the employees and highlight a number of signs: limitation of relations, an emphasized official form of communication, critical statements about the opponent, and others. The individual psychological characteristics of employees make it possible to analyze the early symptoms of a latent conflict at the stage of a conflict situation.

When resolving various types of role conflicts, in the first place, it can be very useful to implement a number of management decisions.

By resolving (overcoming) an intrapersonal conflict, including a role conflict, is meant the restoration of the coherence of the inner world of the individual, the establishment of the unity of consciousness, a decrease in the severity of contradictions in life relations, the achievement of a new life quality. Resolving role conflict can be constructive and destructive. With the constructive overcoming of the conflict, peace of mind is achieved, the understanding of life deepens, a new value consciousness arises. The resolution of the role conflict is realized through: the absence of painful conditions associated with the existing conflict; reducing the manifestation of negative psychological and socio-psychological factors of intrapersonal conflict; improving the quality and efficiency of professional activities.

Depending on individual characteristics, people treat internal contradictions in different ways, choose their own strategies for getting out of conflict situations. Some are immersed in thought, others immediately begin to act, and still others plunge into overwhelming emotions. It is important that a person be aware of his own individual characteristics, develop his own style of resolving internal contradictions, a constructive attitude towards them. The ways of resolving the conflict, the time it takes for people with different types of temperament, are different. Choleric decides everything quickly, preferring defeat to uncertainty. The melancholic ponders for a long time, weighs, estimates, not daring to take any action. However, such a painful reflexive process does not exclude the possibility of radically changing the current situation. The properties of temperament affect the dynamic side of the solution of intrapersonal contradictions: the speed of experiences, their stability, the individual rhythm of flow, intensity, outward or inward orientation.

There are different ways of getting out of conflicts for men and women. Men are more rational, they enrich their set of means of resolving the situation with each new intrapersonal experience. Every time women rejoice and suffer in a new way. They are more diverse in personal characteristics, and men - in role-playing. Women have more time to update and, as it were, re-edit the accumulated experience, men are less inclined to return to their experiences, but they know how to get out of the conflict in a timely manner.

Conflict regulation is an ordered set of actions of the parties to the conflict, as well as third parties (mediators) to overcome the conflict using various means and methods, interconnected in space and time, taking into account the conditions and dynamics of the conflict situation. The main elements of the technology: means; methods; actions.

Good ways to prevent role conflicts are conversation, clarification, and the formation of a culture of interpersonal relationships; psychological measures to build relationships according to the type of extension, refusal to use behavioral conflicts of superiority, aggression, egoism; administrative measures: changing working conditions; transfer of potential conflicts to different divisions, shifts, etc.

There is a close organic connection between sanitary and hygienic, psychophysical and aesthetic working conditions and the emergence of intrapersonal relationships. What will cause deviations, disruptions in the normal activity of the human body, will necessarily - directly or indirectly, sooner or later - affect the mood of a person, his perception of his own role and, therefore, the effectiveness of his work. Noise and vibrations at the workplace, gas pollution and pollution, inadequate ambient temperature and humidity standards, insufficient or uneven illumination of workplaces will cause fatigue and irritation among workers, the reasons and source of which they are not aware of. This condition negatively affects work, reduces the perception of aesthetic measures. A typical example would be the relationship between workplace lighting and painted equipment. It is known that illumination refers to sanitary and hygienic working conditions, and color - to aesthetic ones. However, when the production space is poorly lit, even the color matching is not happy. In poor light, paints fade: blue appears gray, green appears to be dirty gray.

Psychotherapeutic methods for resolving role conflicts

In some cases, it is advisable to use psychotherapeutic methods for resolving role conflict. Employees are sent to undergo a psychotherapeutic course. The main type of role-based psychotherapy as a means of solving psychological problems associated with role-based personality development is psychodrama. This method makes it possible to simulate human life, to experience the events of the past, present and future, both existing and those that did not exist and could not be, to recreate any, even the most fantastic, roles. By means of psychodramas, it is possible to correct life roles and scenarios, to determine such personal roles that, due to role socialization, turned out to be blocked, repressed or undeveloped. For this there is a specific psychodramatic technique of "anti-role", which helps not only to analyze the role repertoire, but also to develop it, releasing those areas of the personality that were repressed.

Psychodrama belongs to the methods of action. This means that situations related to personal choice, decision-making, rehearsal of the future can be wonderfully modeled and processed in such a way that a person himself finds solutions or makes a choice, sees the advantages and disadvantages of different options, realizes the psychological difficulties that accompany the choice ( internal barriers, erroneous stereotypes, fears or unconscious reluctance, etc.). This approach makes it possible to look differently at human value systems, revise them, abandon erroneous values, pay attention to those values \u200b\u200bthat were not noticed before, or were considered insignificant. Techniques of psychodrama help to reveal the spontaneity and creativity of the individual, as well as the development of role competence, that is, the ability of the individual to quickly master his psychological roles, act as a full subject of these roles, include role behavior in the process of his own life and work, which makes it possible to solve various life problems, including those related to role conflicts.

There are many variants and approaches of psychodrama, depending on the nature of the psychological problems, the composition of the psychotherapeutic group and other psychological and clinical indications.

To overcome role conflicts, mutual correction of the role expectations of the individual and the group or partners with communication is often needed. This leads to mutual acceptance of the other person's roles, that is, acceptance of the person as he is. The last condition is especially important, since rejection of a person and his roles is one of the main reasons for the occurrence of all role conflicts. Mutual correction of role expectations can be accomplished using the psychodramatic technique of "role exchange". Partners in communication alternately play the role of themselves and their partner, having the opportunity to "look" at themselves from the outside and be in the image of another person.

Each person, as a rule, has not one, but several social statuses. Sociologists distinguish between:

inborn status - the status received by a person at birth (gender, race, nationality). In some cases, innate status may change: the status of a member of the royal family - from birth until the monarchy exists.

acquired (achieved) status - the status that a person achieves by his own efforts (position, post).

prescribed (assigned) status - the status that a person acquires, regardless of his desire (age, status in the family), over the course of life it can change. Prescribed status is either innate or acquired.

Status incompatibility

The incompatibility of statuses occurs under two circumstances:

when an individual occupies a high rank in one group, and a low one in the second;

when the rights and obligations of the status of one person contradict or interfere with the fulfillment of the rights and obligations of another.

Examples: a scientist had to leave to work as a salesman in a commercial kiosk, an elderly man was used as an errand boy, a police officer had to become a racketeer, a minister had to participate in negotiations with terrorists. A high-paid official (high professional rank) will most likely also have a high family rank as a person who ensures the material well-being of the family. But from this it does not automatically follow that he will have high ranks in other groups - among friends, relatives, colleagues.

13.1 . Social status (from lat... status - position, state) - the position of a person in society, occupied by him in accordance with age, sex, origin, profession, marital status and other indicators and implying certain rights and obligations. Any person occupies several positions in society. The word "status" came to sociology from the Latin language. In ancient Rome, it meant the state, the legal status of a legal entity. However, at the end of the 19th century, the English historian Maine gave it a sociological sound. Status set - the totality of all statuses occupied by a given individual. Social recruitment (Robert Merton) \u003d social status + status set. 13.2 . Types (classification) of statuses: 13.2.1. Statuses determined by the position of the individual in the group: 1) social status - the position of a person in society, which he occupies as a representative of a large social group (profession, class, nationality, gender, age, religion). Professional and official status - the basic status of the individual, fixes the social, economic and production-technical position of a person (banker, engineer, lawyer, etc.). 2) Personal status - the position that a person occupies in a small group, depending on how he is assessed by his individual qualities. Personal status plays a leading role among acquaintances. For familiar people, it is not the characteristics of where you work and your social status are important, but our personal qualities. 3) Main status - the status, according to which the individual is distinguished by those around him, determines the lifestyle, circle of acquaintances, the manner of behavior with which a person is identified by other people or with which he identifies himself. For men, most often it is a status associated with work, profession, for women - a housewife, mother. Although other options are possible.

The main status is relative: it is not unambiguously associated with gender, profession, or race. The main thing is the status, which determines the style and way of life, circle of acquaintances, demeanor. 13.2.2. Statuses acquired due to the presence or absence of free choice: Ralph Linton: 1) ascriptive status (prescribed, attributed, innate status); 2) achieved status (achieved, achieved, acquired status).

Prescribed status - imposed by society, regardless of the efforts and merit of the individual (ethnic origin, place of birth, etc.). 1) Attributed status - the social status with which a person is born (born, natural status is determined by race, sex, nationality), or which will be assigned to him over time (inheritance of a title, state, etc.). Natural status - essential and most stable characteristics of a person (men and women, childhood, adolescence, maturity, etc.). !!! The attributed status does not match the innate status. Only three social statuses are considered to be born: gender, nationality, race (ie biologically inherited); (Negro - born, characterizing the race; man - born, describing gender; Russian - born, showing nationality). 2) Achievable (acquired) status is a social status that is achieved as a result of a person's own efforts to desire, free choice, or is acquired through luck and luck. 3) Mixed status has signs of prescribed and achieved, but achievable !!! not at the request of the person: disabled, refugee, unemployed, emperor, American Chinese. Political upheavals, coups d'état, social revolutions, wars can change or even abolish some of the statuses of huge masses of people against their will and desire. The title of academician is at first achievable, but later it turns into an attributed one, since is considered life-long. 13.3 . Hierarchy of statuses: Intergroup hierarchy takes place between status groups; intragroup - between the statuses of individuals within one group. Status rank - place in the hierarchy of statuses: high, medium, low. 13.4 . Mismatch of statuses arises: 1) when an individual occupies a high position in one group and a low position in another; 2) when the rights and obligations of one status contradict or interfere with the exercise of rights and the performance of obligations of another status. 13.5 . Elements (components) of social status: 13.5.1. status role - a behavior model focused on a specific status; 13.5.2. status rights and obligations determine what the holder of this status can do and what he must do; 13.5.3. status range - the boundaries within which status rights and obligations are exercised; free demeanor, suggesting options for behavior in the implementation of a status role; 13.5.4. status symbols - external insignia, allowing to distinguish between the owners of different statuses: uniforms, insignia, clothing style, housing, language, gestures, demeanor; 13.5.5. status image, image (from english... image - image, image) - a set of ideas that have developed in public opinion about how a person should behave in accordance with his status, how his rights and obligations should be correlated; Image - a widespread or purposefully formed idea of \u200b\u200bthe nature of an object (person, profession, product, etc.). 13.5.6. status identification - identification of oneself with one's status and status image. The higher the rank of the status, the stronger the identification with it. The lower the personal status, the more often the advantages of social status are emphasized. 13.5.7. status vision of the world - features of the vision of the world, social attitudes that have developed in accordance with the status. 13.6 . Prestige and authority. Prestige (franz... prestige, initially - charm, charm) - the assessment by society or a social group of the social significance of certain positions taken by people. Authority (it... Autoritat, from lat. auctoritas - power, influence), in a broad sense - the generally recognized influence of a person or organization in various spheres of social life, based on knowledge, moral merit, experience. Prestigious can be a profession, position, pitch of activity, authoritative - a very specific, specific person.

23) The choice of methods of sociological research, the development of procedures, the size and calculation of the sample largely depend on theoretical ideas about the nature of the elements of social structure, their foundations. Let's try to highlight the main characteristics of the main elements of the social structure.

Public classes

These are large groups of people, differing in their place in a historically defined system of social production, in their relation (mostly fixed and formalized in laws) to the means of production, in their role in the social organization of labor, and, consequently, in the methods of obtaining and the size of that share. social wealth that they have. In conditions of antagonistic formations, one class can appropriate the labor of the exploited, subordinate class. In addition to these basic, socio-economic characteristics, classes are also characterized by secondary, derivatives: conditions, way of life and way of life; interests; their socio-political role in society, social behavior, activity; the degree of social and political organization, education, culture, vocational training; consciousness, ideology, outlook, their spiritual image, social psychology. These indicators are used in the study of other elements of the social structure. When characterizing the working class and the peasantry as a class, it must be borne in mind that these are workers, in contrast to the intelligentsia, who directly or indirectly (through a system of machines and mechanisms) affect the tools and objects of labor. It is relevant to study the process of overcoming the alienation of workers and peasants from property, their real access to management at all levels.

In modern conditions of our country, a sociological study of the nature, the main features and characteristics of the newly emerging class of entrepreneurs, a new layer of cooperators, rural tenants and farmers, employees of joint ventures, other groups and strata caused by the socio-economic and political transformations. Social groups

These are objectively existing stable categories of people that occupy a certain place and play a certain inherent role in social production. Unlike social classes, they have no specific relation to the means of production. Such groups as the intelligentsia, employees, people of mental and physical labor, the population of cities and villages can be considered social.

The intelligentsia is a social group of people professionally engaged in skilled mental work that requires high professional education (higher or secondary specialized). In the literature, there is also a broad interpretation of the intelligentsia, including all mental workers, both intellectuals, specialists and non-specialists1 who are engaged in unskilled, simple mental work that does not require high education (bookkeepers, bookkeepers, cashiers, secretaries-typists, supervisors of savings banks, etc. .d.).

The role, place and structure of the intelligentsia in society is determined by the performance of the following main functions: scientific, technical and economic support of material production; professional management of production, society as a whole and its individual substructures; development of spiritual culture; educating people; ensuring the mental and physical health of the country. The intelligentsia are distinguished as scientific, industrial, pedagogical, cultural and artistic, medical, administrative and military. The intelligentsia is also divided into strata according to qualifications, place of residence, relation to the means of production, as well as socio-demographic characteristics.

For sociological practice, it is important to note that people of mental and physical labor as social groups differ among themselves: 1) according to the different content of the work they perform, the ratio of the costs of physical and intellectual forces, according to the degree of complexity of labor, according to the conditions in which their labor proceeds; 2) according to the cultural and technical level of manual and mental workers (education of qualifications, professional composition); 3) according to the level of cultural and material well-being, cultural and everyday living conditions. The difference between them is: the attitude (often dismissive) to one or another type of labor. These social differences in sociological research can be used as social indicators.

In the practice of sociological research, it is important to take into account that at the present stage, people of mental labor are represented by four subgroups: intellectuals, civil servants, non-specialists, partly workers, peasants, and other cooperators. It should also be borne in mind that social differences between people of mental and physical labor, which, depending on the type of social structure, assume the nature of the opposite of complexity or significant differences, not identical to the differences between mental and physical labor. However, these concepts, like the phenomena themselves, are interrelated and interdependent. The former find their manifestation in the socially unequal, unequal position in society of people of mental physical labor (expressed in the differences noted above), the latter have their basis and express the social heterogeneity of labor, that is, it requires different training, different costs from society, and therefore differently and priced.

The subject of sociological research can be changes in the nature, conditions and content of labor, which in favorable social conditions and under the influence of scientific and technological progress manifests itself in the intellectualization of physical and technicalization of mental labor. The consequence of this is changes in the social status of these workers, their rapprochement with each other. In unfavorable social conditions, in crisis and pre-crisis situations, there is stagnation of these processes, impoverishment of the content of labor, deterioration of its conditions, and, consequently, the social status of workers of mental and physical labor, conservation, inhibition of the global trend of labor transformation.

Population of town and village

how social groups differ by place of residence. The city and the countryside remain the main settlements of people, despite the existence of a whole system of transitional forms of settlement, which in modern conditions are becoming more numerous and widespread.

The problem of the city and the countryside cannot be reduced, as has often been the case, to the problem of classes or to the problem of a city and a collective farm village (at best, a state farm village), agricultural industry, state and cooperative forms of ownership. This is a complex problem that affects all aspects and spheres of public life. All elements of the integral structure of society exist in the city and in the countryside, albeit to varying degrees and in different proportions.

In sociological research, when analyzing the unity and significant differences between town and country, it is necessary to take into account their nature (production, technical and social) and types. First, one should bear in mind the differences between the city and the countryside as types of settlements (their size, population concentration, level of development of productive forces, combination of industrial and agricultural production, saturation with cultural and household facilities, improvement, development of transport, communications, etc.) , etc.). Secondly, to take into account the differences between the population of the city and the countryside as social groups that differ from each other in terms of the entire position in society (place of residence, content of work, differences in educational and cultural levels, in the level of well-being, everyday life, lifestyle, etc.) .).

The rural and urban population can also be considered as one of the types of socio-territorial communities of people.

The problem of typologization of settlements is very important for conducting sociological research. Its reasons may be the above-mentioned differences between town and country as types of settlements. When typologizing cities, they mainly use indicators such as the concentration of the population in them, its size, as well as the administrative role of a city. A richer typology was applied in our study of the problems of the countryside: by types of economy (collective farm, state farm, collective farm-state farm, collective farm-industrial village); by the share of employed in certain sectors of the national economy (purely rural, agrarian; predominantly rural; agrarian-industrial, etc.).

Social layers

These are parts of a certain class, social group. Their allocation and social appearance depend on the maturity of the existing mode of production. Thus, under capitalism, intra-class strata are distinguished primarily depending on the size of property: the big, middle and small bourgeoisie. In the transitional period to socialism, especially at the initial stage, the structure of the working class, for example, is represented, firstly, by cadre workers, secondly, by workers who still retain economic ties with the small-property economy, and thirdly, by the labor aristocracy, that is, people bound with the capitalist classes. In pre-revolutionary conditions and before the establishment of cooperative forms of ownership, the peasantry was divided into: 1) the poor, farm laborers; 2) middle peasants and 3) rich peasants. Under socialism, other characteristics begin to play a major role, and above all the nature of labor, its quality and the associated qualifications of workers, their cultural and technical level, their contribution to social production and the resulting incomes.

In sociological studies, when studying the problems of the working class, it is more often than not that strata of workers of low, medium and high qualifications are distinguished in its composition. The collective farm peasantry and other groups of cooperative workers are divided into four strata: 1) workers of unskilled and low-skilled labor who do not have special professional training; 2) workers engaged in non-mechanized skilled labor (builders, gardeners, etc.); 3) workers of skilled labor with machines and mechanisms (livestock breeders on mechanized farms, poultry farmers, etc.); 4) machine operators (drivers, tractor drivers, combine operators). The division of the peasantry is also possible by industry: livestock breeders, plant breeders, etc. As part of the intelligentsia, one can distinguish strata according to the level of education (secondary specialized, higher, having an academic degree and title), as well as "practitioners", persons engaged in mentally skilled labor and not having the appropriate diploma. The intelligentsia and non-specialist employees are also divided into layers, using criteria such as place of residence (urban and rural intelligentsia), place in social production (industrial and non-industrial intelligentsia), etc.

Layer division according to the nature and content of labor leads to the professional division of people, the formation social and professional

structure as a kind of social-class structure along the "vertical". On this basis (the state of social labor), a distinction is made between groups of people engaged in mental and physical labor, managerial and executive labor, industrial and agricultural (distribution and division of labor); able-bodied population and two groups of people not employed in social production: 1) before being included in socially necessary labor and 2) retired people who have left active socially productive labor - not employed in social production.

The social and professional structure is based on the professional division of labor, its sectoral structure. The presence of highly developed, moderately developed and underdeveloped branches of production predetermines the unequal social status of workers. This specifically depends on the level of technical development of industries, the degree of complexity of labor, the level of qualifications, working conditions (severity, harmfulness, etc.).

Community or socio-demographic groups.

These are young people, women and men, pensioners, schoolchildren, etc. The criteria for identifying socio-demographic groups are gender and age differences. Not being, in themselves, in the strict sense of the word, social differences, these natural-natural differences in class societies can, acquire and do acquire the character of social differences. This is evidenced by the unequal, unequal position in society of men and women, representatives of different generations, the difficult, as a rule, social situation of the elderly, labor veterans, etc.

The age-sex structure is usually examined either by one (sex and age), or by both. Demographers pay special attention to the importance of dividing the population into three age groups: children (0-14 years old), young and middle ages (15-49 years old), seniors (elderly) - 50 years and older. This is explained by the need to know the labor potential of the population, the dynamics of its development. This is natural, because the criterion of involvement in labor activity is taken as the basis for such a division: pre-labor, labor and post-labor

age. It is known that a modern city has a progressive structure (in it the proportion of people under 15 is more than the proportion of people 50 and older). The village is inherent in "aging". This is already

installed. How this process will develop further, how it looks meaningfully in different regions, districts, villages, this can be found out using sociological methods using the proposed typology of the population. Sociologists (together with demographers and other specialists) can propose the optimal structure of age and gender groups both on a regional and intraregional scale. The importance of highlighting youth

as a specific, socio-demographic group. This is what makes it a community of age, socio-psychological and physiological characteristics, the presence of specific interests and needs. Taking this into account, the main attention in sociological research is drawn to the study of the social and professional orientation of young people, their needs and interests, the degree to which they correspond to the interests and needs of society, adaptation of young people in different teams, their social activity, participation in informal associations, attitude to the process of social reforms etc.

An important element of the social structure of society is a family

Most often in population censuses, it is understood as a group of people living together, related by kinship or marriage and having a common budget. At the same time, the family is considered by some scientists as several groups of relatives living together, although they do not have a common budget. Some understand the family as a group of separately living relatives. The first approach to understanding the family

seems to be the most justified, for sociological research it is important to keep in mind (especially when drawing up a "passport", that is, socio-demographic parts

questionnaire, other tools) selection in composition of the population

not only families, but also separately living family members and loners.

To analyze social processes, various aspects of social life, it is necessary to take into account marital status

population. On this basis, one distinguishes between married (married), single (unmarried), widowed, divorced and divorced. In a number of countries (Germany, Hungary, etc.), the nature of the marriage is taken into account, regardless of whether it is registered or not.

Sociological research should also take into account the average family size. This is especially important when studying the urban and rural population, certain processes in different regions of the country.

Of fundamental importance in the sociological study of the social structure and other problems is the accounting of the composition of families, carried out on various grounds: the number of generations in the family; the number and completeness of married couples; the number and age of minor children; the degree of kinship between representatives of one or two adjacent generations, etc. These indicators of the demographic composition of families are especially important in the study of social problems, incomes of the population, consumption levels, housing conditions, etc.

The division of families by social composition is also used. Taking into account social belonging, the following groups of families are distinguished: homogeneous (homogeneous) in social terms, in which all family members belong to one social group, class, stratum (families of workers, peasants, employees; families of skilled workers; families of peasants of unskilled labor, etc.) .d.); heterogeneous (heterogeneous, mixed) families, whose members belong to different classes, social groups, strata (families of workers and peasants; families of workers and employees; families of skilled and unskilled workers, etc.) Such a division is necessary, first of all, when studying processes of development of elements of the social structure of society.

When studying national processes, the division of families along ethnic lines is used.

Investigating migration processes, they use the genetic structure of the family, taking into account those born in a given area and who came here.

An important element of the social structure is collective

(unit of society) -

it is an organized, relatively compact group of people united by a specific type of socially useful activity carried out within the framework of a particular form of ownership, as well as relations of cooperation, mutual assistance and mutual responsibility, interests, value orientations, attitudes and norms of behavior that develop in the course of this activity. The team combines public interests ,

group and individual.

In the practice of sociological research, it is necessary to take into account the types of collectives: labor, socio-political, educational, sports, cultural, etc. The main place in the system of collectives belongs to labor collectives. In our country at the end of the 80s. there were about 2.5 million labor collectives, including: more than 150 thousand production; over 1450 thousand teams in the service sector; over 850 thousand collectives in the field of culture, education, medicine.

At the present stage, sociological studies of the problems associated with the transition to a new economic mechanism, the processes of democratization and publicity, the solution of social problems, the issues of education and other aspects of the life of collectives are especially relevant.

The most important element of the social structure of society are socio-ethnic

community of people. They included (taking into account the evolution of human society) clan, tribe, nationality, nation. The generic concept here is ethnos,

meaning a stable set of people historically formed in a certain territory, possessing common features, stable features of culture (including language) and a psychological make-up, aware of their unity and difference from similar formations (i.e., possessing self-awareness). Signs of an ethnos: language, folk art, customs, rituals, traditions, norms of behavior, habits, that is, such components of culture that are passed down from generation to generation, form the so-called ethnic culture.

Ethnic groups, while maintaining ethnic traits, at the same time, as society developed, underwent changes, especially in the social sphere, forming certain stable socio-ethnic communities. The first such community was a clan, which is a group of blood relatives, leading their origin on the maternal or paternal side. He came to replace the primitive human herd. Due to exogamy (the prohibition of marriages within the clan), he united into tribes. The characteristic features of the genus were primitive collectivism, the absence of private property, class division, and a monogamous family. It disintegrated with the rise of class society. But the remnants of tribal division have survived to this day among many peoples. And this must be taken into account when regulating relations between socio-ethnic groups.

The main distinguishing feature of a clan of tribal associations is the consanguineous ties of its members.

Nationality is a form of socio-ethnic community of people, historically following the tribal community. The beginning of its emergence refers to the period of decay of primitive communal relations. If tribal associations are characterized by blood and family ties, then for the nationality - territorial. Nationality is characteristic primarily of slavery and feudalism. Under capitalism, with the strengthening of economic and cultural ties, it turns into a nation. However, nationalities also exist under capitalism, under socialism, since for a number of reasons (lagging behind in development, small numbers, etc.) they did not form a nation.

A nation is a historically emerging type of ethnos, a historical community of people, characterized by a stable integrity (community) of economic life (the main feature), language, territory, some features of culture and life, psychological makeup and ethnic (national) self-awareness. The nation is replacing the nationality. This is a broader form of community than the nationality, evolving with the emergence and formation of the bourgeois formation. The socialist nations that emerge in the process of socialist transformations differ from the bourgeois nations in their economic and political basis, social-class structure and spiritual image. There are also transitional nations.

Along with the considered socio-ethnic communities in science, the concept of people is also used as an integrative concept that arises in the course of the development and convergence of social-class and socio-ethnic groups. In this case, the concept of people is used only in the noted context. Along with the considered grounds (forms of ownership, social labor, territorial settlement, demographic, family, ethnic grounds), the literature also suggests taking into account the so-called normative basis. This refers to the distribution of members of society regarding the adoption and implementation of the norms and principles of the existing social system. This is due not so much to the social position of the individual, social stratum, group, but to their position. As life shows, social status and social position are not always directly related.

In addition to the considered social (classes, intelligentsia, office workers, people of mental and physical labor, the population of cities and villages) and socio-demographic groups (youth, women, pensioners, etc.), sociological and especially sociological and psychological research uses other qualifications of groups of people, both intersecting and not intersecting with the above grounds. Below are the names of these groups and a brief description of them.

This is primarily large group

By which is meant a group with a large number of members, in contrast to a small group, it is characterized by different types of connections and does not imply obligatory personal contacts. Its main types are:

a) conditional, statistical; b) formed by some behavioral signs (audience, public); c) class, national and other groups; d) territorial (city, state).

TO small group

(contact) refers to groups of people who have direct contacts.

Group nominal

This is a kind of large group; a set of people, distinguished according to some criterion that is important for the purposes of the study (by age, way of thinking, place of residence, etc.).

Primary group

refers to a type of small group (family, peer group, friends, neighborhood group, brigade; etc.), which is characterized by a high degree of emotionality of relations and identification of members with the group. It provides mainly the process of primary socialization and mediating entry into other groups, called, in contrast to primary, secondary (large and formal groups).

Under the reference group

is understood as a real or imagined social (socio-psychological) group, community, with the values, norms and attitudes of which the individual correlates his behavior in order to accept or compare them.

Formal group

(official, target) is a social (public) group that has a legal status, is part of a social institution, organization, has the goal of achieving a certain result based on the division of labor and specialization of functions, delegation of power, establishment of permanent lines of communication, systems of coordination of actions within the framework of a particular social institution, organization. Functions, goals, rules of conduct, as well as membership in formal groups, are formalized, the so-called. are fixed in the regulations, statutes, instructions and other normative documents. Formal groups also include informal groups, whose members are among themselves in special socio-psychological, unofficial relations (friendly, comradely, relations of leadership, prestige, sympathy, etc.).

Ethnic group

This is part of an ethnos (tribe, nationality, nation), the core of which is located in another social organism (country, republic, etc.). Ethnic groups can be either in a compact or dispersed (dispersed) state.

Let's point to the declassed elements,

which are understood as persons who have lost stable ties with social groups, who have sunk to the "bottom" of social life. Their usual occupations are theft, petty speculation, fraud, prostitution, and short-term employment. The reasons for the appearance and growth of declassed elements are economic and socio-political crises, massive unemployment, and the impoverishment of the lower strata of the population.

The complexity of a truly scientific study of the problems of social structure lies in the fact that one cannot restrict oneself to any one basis when studying a particular object, but take into account other grounds, other signs.