Object Social psychology consists of specific social communities (groups of people) and their individual representatives.

Subject are the patterns of emergence and functioning of socio-psychological phenomena and processes (socio-psychological phenomena), which are the result of the interaction of people as representatives of various social communities.

Socio-psychological phenomena and processes can be classified according to: belonging to various social communities and subjects, belonging to different classes of psychological phenomena, stability, degree of awareness, etc.

Fundamental and methodologically more significant is the classification of socio-psychological phenomena according to their belonging to various communities and subjects, since it is this criterion that determines most of the patterns and features of their occurrence and functioning.

Firstly, we distinguish between socio-psychological phenomena that arise in organized communities people, which include large and small groups.

IN large groups– ethnic groups (nations), classes, religious denominations, political and public organizations (parties, social movements, etc. – specific socio-psychological phenomena operate, which have received general names – “psychology of the nation”, “class psychology”, “religious psychology", "psychology of politics". They are distinguished by complex content, ambiguously interpreted by many scientists, and various forms of manifestation. They are studied by the corresponding branches of social psychology: ethnic psychology, class psychology, psychology of religion, political psychology.

IN small groups functioning mainly of such socio-psychological phenomena as interpersonal relationships, group aspirations, moods, opinions and traditions. It should be remembered that it is in small groups that direct and close contacts are made between all the people who make them up. Whereas in large groups such comprehensive contacts between all members are impossible. The branch of social psychology that studies social-psychological phenomena and processes in small groups is called “small group psychology.”

Secondly, in addition to organized communities, there are also unorganized communities, by which we usually understand masses of people (crowds and their other varieties). The socio-psychological phenomena that arise here are usually called massive, and people’s behavior is spontaneous. These usually include crowd psychology, psychology of panic and fear, psychology of rumors, psychology of mass communications, psychology of propaganda (influence), psychology of advertising, psychology public relations etc. The branch of social psychology that studies these phenomena is called the psychology of mass socio-psychological phenomena.

Third, social psychology also studies personality, since the latter, in the process of interaction and communication with other individuals, represents a completely different phenomenon than an individual who is not included in various social groups and interpersonal relationships. Moreover, under the influence of these relationships the personality is often transformed. All this is taken into account by a special branch - social psychology of personality.

According to their attribution to different classes of psychological phenomena, socio-psychological phenomena can be divided into rationally meaningful(social views, ideas, opinions, beliefs, interests and value orientations, traditions of people and their groups), emotionally ordered(social feelings and moods, psychological climate and atmosphere) and massive(spontaneous).

In addition, according to this criterion, socio-psychological phenomena can be considered as phenomena, processes, states and formations.

Socio-psychological processes– any changes in socio-psychological reality: everything that arises, develops, fades away, turns into something else.

Socio-psychological conditions – features of the dynamics of socio-psychological reality and its most important components at a given moment or over a certain period of time.

Socio-psychological education(stereotypes, properties) – socio-psychological phenomena that have formed and become steadily inherent in the psychology of groups and individuals. These include, for example, social values, norms, habits, skills, customs, traditions in groups, socio-psychological properties of the individual, personality type, community type.

However, this classification cannot be absolute, since psychological science considers it possible to study the same phenomenon both as a phenomenon, and as a process, and as a complex formation. It all depends on what goals a particular researcher pursues.

According to stability, socio-psychological phenomena are divided into: dynamic(for example, different types of communication), dynamic-static(such as opinions and sentiments) and static(e.g. customs, traditions) (Social Psychology, 2007).

And finally, according to the degree of awareness, socio-psychological phenomena can be conscious And unconscious.

Tasks social psychology are:

• 1. Identification or clarification, together with other social sciences: a) the specificity and originality of the phenomena that make up the psychological essence and content of the social consciousness of people and the psychology of their large and small groups; b) relationships between their various components; c) the influence of the latter on the development of social life and social relations.
• 2. Comprehensive understanding and synthesis of data: a) on the sources and conditions of the emergence, formation, development and functioning of socio-psychological phenomena and processes; b) about their impact on the behavior and actions of people as representatives of various social communities.
• 3. Study of the most significant features and differences between socio-psychological phenomena and processes from other psychological and social phenomena in various groups.
• 4. Identification of patterns of emergence, formation, development and functioning of socio-psychological phenomena and processes in society.
• 5. Socio-psychological analysis of the interaction of intergroup and interpersonal relations, communication, perception and knowledge of each other by people, as well as factors determining the specificity and effectiveness of the influence of these basic socio-psychological phenomena on their joint activities and behavior.
• 6. A comprehensive study of the socio-psychological characteristics of the individual and the uniqueness of his socialization in various social conditions.
• 7. Understanding the specifics of the functioning of socio-psychological phenomena and processes in a small group and their influence on the emergence of conflicts, the formation of the psychological climate and atmosphere in it.
• 8. Generalization of existing ideas about the motivational, intellectual-cognitive, emotional-volitional, communicative-behavioral and other characteristics of representatives of various nations and classes.
• 9. Identification of the role and significance of religious psychology in the life of society, its socio-psychological content and forms of functioning, as well as the characteristics of its influence on the interaction and communication of both believers and non-believers.
• 10. A comprehensive study of the psychological content of political life and political activity of people and their groups, the uniqueness of the transformation of the consciousness of society under the influence of political processes developing in it.
• 11. Study of various mass socio-psychological phenomena and processes, their significance in social life, as well as identifying their influence on the actions and behavior of people in normal, extreme and other conditions.
• 12. Socio-psychological interpretation of the essence, content, forms and methods of intergroup and interpersonal influence of people on each other.
• 13. Forecasting political, national and other processes in the development of the state (society) based on taking into account socio-psychological factors and patterns of their formation and development.

Solving the problems of social psychology can be achieved in various ways. Firstly, a thorough and comprehensive development of the theoretical and methodological foundations of this branch of knowledge must be carried out. Secondly, a broad field for research activity is the comparative study of socio-psychological phenomena and processes occurring in our country and abroad. Thirdly, social psychology is obliged to cooperate with representatives of other sciences - sociologists, political scientists, teachers, ethnographers, anthropologists, etc.

• It is necessary to distinguish between the concepts of “social psychology” as a phenomenon (lower level) of public consciousness and “social psychology” – a science that studies the phenomena of social psychology. In practice, the term “social-psychological” rather than “social-psychological” phenomena is more often used.
• One can also include in this group of socio-psychological phenomena phenomena determined by the gender, age and professional background of people, since gender, age and professional groups are actually present in society and influence its life. However, traditionally it has happened that they are studied by independent branches of psychological science (for example, developmental psychology, management psychology, etc.). Social psychology, naturally, does not leave them out of sight, but at the same time distributes its efforts equally with representatives of these areas of knowledge. In addition, this should include the psychology of society as a whole, but this branch of social psychology has not yet been practically developed by domestic and foreign psychologists.

Subject and object of social psychology

Social psychology as a science

Social psychology is a science that studies the patterns of behavior and activity of people determined by their inclusion in social groups, as well as the psychological characteristics of these groups themselves [G.M. Andreeva].

Like any science, social psychology is characterized by a certain structure of elements from which a certain system is formed. According to B.D. Parygin, such a system can be presented as follows.

1. Theory, including:

· methodology – conceptual apparatus (principles, laws, categories);

· phenomenology – conceptual models;

· praxeology – conceptual models.

2. Practice consisting of:

· methodology – instrumental apparatus (methods, procedures and research techniques);

· phenomenology – factual (empirical) material;

· praxeology – experience in the practical application of socio-psychological theory.

From this diagram it is clear that social psychology as a science can be considered from three sides - methodological, phenomenological and praxeological.

The methodology of social psychology can be characterized as a set of research techniques, a set of tools necessary for organizing and conducting the processes of cognition of socio-psychological phenomena.

Phenomenology of social psychology is interested in social-psychological phenomena, i.e. mental states and behavior of an individual in a group and in aggregate group activities.

The praxeological side of social psychology is the specific individual and group behavior of people, i.e. applied social psychology.

The development of particular problems of social psychology is very significant for a deeper understanding of a number of issues related to the phenomenological foundations of science. The structure of socio-psychological theory can thus be presented as follows (Table 2).

Table 2

The structure of socio-psychological theory (according to Parygin)

Tasks social psychology as a science V.G. Krysko designated it as follows.

1. Study:

· specificity and originality of the phenomena that make up the social consciousness of people;

· relationships between its components;

· the influence of the latter on the development and life of society.

2. Comprehensive understanding and synthesis of data on:

· sources and conditions of emergence, formation, development and functioning of socio-psychological phenomena and processes;

· the impact of these phenomena on the behavior and actions of people within numerous communities.

3. Study of the most significant features and differences of socio-psychological phenomena and processes from other psychological and social phenomena that arise as a result of interaction, communication and relationships between people in various communities.

4. Identification of patterns of functioning of socio-psychological phenomena and processes in various social conditions.

5. Social and psychological analysis of interaction, communication and relationships between people, as well as factors that determine the specificity and effectiveness of their influence on joint activities.

6. A comprehensive study of the socio-psychological characteristics of the individual and the uniqueness of his socialization in various communities and conditions.

7. Understanding the peculiarities of the functioning of socio-psychological phenomena and processes that arise in a small group, and their influence on the behavior, communication and interaction of people in it.

8. Study of the uniqueness of the psychology of large social groups and the specificity of the manifestation of motivational, intellectual-cognitive, emotional-volitional and communicative-behavioral characteristics of the people in them.

9. Identification of the role and significance of religious psychology in the life and activities of people, its socio-psychological content and forms of manifestation, as well as the specifics of its influence on the communication and interaction of an individual.

10. A comprehensive study of the socio-psychological characteristics of people’s political activity, the uniqueness of the transformation of the human psyche and groups of people who are directly influenced by political processes occurring in society.

11. Identification and assessment of psychological problems in managing people and groups, regulating conflicts and other relationships between people.

12. Study of mass socio-psychological phenomena and processes, their role and significance in public life, influence on the actions and behavior of people in extreme situations.

Usually the following are distinguished functions social psychology:

· methodological – defining the subject and object, identifying the principles and methods of cognition of the phenomena under study, forming a conceptual and instrumental apparatus;

· theoretical-cognitive – knowledge of socio-psychological patterns and mechanisms, their determinants, revealing the essence of socio-psychological phenomena and processes, determining methods for managing them;

· ideological – development of a certain vision of the socio-psychological picture of the world;

· regulatory – studying the impact of socio-psychological phenomena on the functioning of other phenomena;

· prognostic – revealing the dynamics of the relationship and relationship between ideology and social psychology in the future, determining the optimal relationship between the individual and the collective;

· axiological – determination of real and imaginary socio-psychological values ​​in people’s lives and activities.

To the main industries social psychology include:

· ethnic psychology studies the psychological characteristics of people as representatives of various ethnic communities;

· psychology of religion studies the psychology of people involved in various religious communities, as well as their religious activities;

· political psychology studies various aspects of psychological phenomena and processes related to the sphere of political life of society and political activity of people;

· management psychology pays main attention to the analysis of problems associated with the impact on groups, society as a whole or its individual links with the aim of streamlining them, preserving their qualitative specificity, improvement and development;

· the psychology of social influence, a still poorly developed branch of social psychology, studies the characteristics, patterns and methods of influencing people and groups in various conditions of their life;

· the psychology of communication reveals the uniqueness of the processes of interaction and exchange of information between people and social groups;

· psychology of the family (family relationships) sets itself the task of comprehensively studying the specifics of relationships between family members;

· psychology of conflict relationships (conflictology), a rapidly progressing branch of social psychology, is aimed at studying the psychological characteristics of various conflicts and identifying ways to most effectively resolve them.

Subject and object of social psychology

Social psychology was formed at the intersection of two
sciences: general psychology and general sociology. By integrating two scientific disciplines, which have become its unique theoretical foundation, social psychology is currently actively absorbing everything new that accumulates in related humanities. However, it was precisely its integrativeness that created significant difficulties in defining the subject of this science.

Undoubtedly, object social psychology are specific social communities (groups) or their individual representatives (people).

The definition of the subject of social psychology has long caused controversy among scientists.

Thus, sociologists have always sought to study the patterns of formation, strengthening and disintegration of human groups, therefore almost from the very beginning they accepted social psychology as an integral part of their science, designed to study groups specifically. Psychologists drew attention to the fact that social psychology, being a part of psychological science, should study stable and recurring individual behavior, respectively, its subject is human (individual) behavior. Obviously, the presented polar points of view on the subject of social psychology significantly complicated its formulation and further empirical development.

And today there is no generally accepted understanding of the subject of social psychology. This is due to the high complexity, systemic and integral nature of socio-psychological phenomena, facts and patterns. Therefore, each psychological direction produces a cross-section of the indicated phenomenology “at an angle” of the problems dominant for this direction and, naturally, resolves the issue of the content of the subject of social psychology. So, for example, some researchers see changes in people’s behavior as such a subject, others – interaction, others – the content of consciousness, etc.

B.D. Parygin believed that social psychology studies:

1) social psychology of personality - manifestations and formation of personality characteristics in various communities, when personality is considered as a systemic quality acquired by an individual when interacting with the social environment;

2) social psychology of communities and communication - psychological facts, patterns and mechanisms of communication and interaction of people in groups, as well as psychological processes of the emergence, development and functioning of various communities of people;

3) social relationships - various psychological relationships (liking, workability, compatibility, etc.) that are established between individuals in the process of their interaction;

4) forms of spiritual activity.

V.N. Myasishchevo defined the subject of social psychology as the study of:

1) changes in the psychological activity of people in a group under the influence of interaction;

2) characteristics of groups;

3) the psychological side of social processes.

Thus, despite all the particular discrepancies, we can say that the subject of social psychology is quite broad and it necessarily includes both personality and mass mental phenomena.

Social psychology is a scientific discipline born at the intersection of two sciences (psychology and sociology), which introduces certain difficulties in formulating the subject of social psychology research and in determining the range of problems being studied.

Sociology (from Latin socius - social + other Greek Xbuos; - science) is the science of society, the systems that make it up, the patterns of its functioning and development, social institutions, relationships and communities.

Social psychology is a science that studies psychological phenomena (processes, states and properties) that characterize the individual and group as subjects of social interaction.

The subject of social psychology is a system of socio-psychological phenomena based on the mental interaction of people, in connection with which social psychology studies:
psychological processes, states and properties of an individual that manifest themselves as a result of his inclusion in relationships with other people, in various social groups (family, educational and work groups, etc.) and in general in the system of social relations (economic, political, managerial , legal, etc.), the most frequently studied are sociability, aggressiveness, compatibility with other people, conflict potential, etc.;
the phenomenon of interaction between people, for example, marital, child-parent, pedagogical, psychotherapeutic, etc.; Moreover, interaction can be not only interpersonal, but also between an individual and a group, as well as intergroup;
psychological processes, states and properties of various social groups as integral entities that differ from each other and cannot be reduced to any individual; The greatest interest of social psychologists is in studies of the socio-psychological climate of the group and conflict relations (group states), leadership and group actions (group processes), cohesion, teamwork and conflict (group properties), etc.;
mass mental phenomena such as crowd behavior, panic, rumors, fashion, mass enthusiasm, jubilation, apathy, fears, etc.

The object of social psychology is various social communities of people; psychology of the individual as a member of these communities:
personality in a group (system of relations),
interaction in the “person - personality” system (parent - child, manager - performer, doctor - patient, psychologist - client, etc.),
small group (family, school class, work team, military crew, group of friends, etc.),
interaction in the “person - group” system (leader - followers, leader - work collective, commander - platoon, newcomer - school class, etc.),
interaction in the “group - group” system (team competition, group negotiations, intergroup conflicts, etc.),
a large social group (ethnicity, party, social movement, social strata, territorial, religious groups, etc.).

In accordance with the main objects of research, modern social psychology has been differentiated into such sections as:
social psychology of personality,
psychology of interpersonal interaction (communication and relationships),
small group psychology,
psychology of intergroup interaction,
psychology of large social groups and mass phenomena.

Within the framework of social psychology, several psychological schools can be distinguished: functionalism, behaviorism, humanistic psychology, cognitivism and interactionism.

Functionalism (or functional psychology) arose under the influence of the evolutionary theory in biology of Charles Darwin and the evolutionary theory of social Darwinism of G. Spencer, who believed that the basic law of social development is the law of survival of the fittest societies and social groups. Representatives of functionalism (D. Dewey, D. Angell, G. Carr, etc.) studied people and social groups from the point of view of their social adaptation - adaptation to difficult living conditions. The main socio-psychological problem of functionalism is the problem of the most optimal conditions for social adaptation of subjects of public life.

Behaviorism (later neobehaviorism) is behavioral psychology that studies the problems of patterns of human and animal behavior (I.V. Pavlov, V.M. Bekhterev, D. Watson, B. Skinner, etc.). Behavior was viewed as an objective, observable reality that could be studied under experimental conditions. The central problem of behaviorism is the problem of learning, i.e. gaining individual experience through trial and error. Four laws of learning have been identified: the law of effect, the law of exercise, the law of readiness and the law of associative shift.

The psychoanalytic direction is associated with the name of S. Freud, who studied the problems of unconscious, irrational processes in the individual and in his behavior. He believed that the central driving force of a person is a set of drives. Some of the aspects of this direction were developed in the works of K. Jung and A. Adler. Social and psychological problems of the direction: the conflict between man and society, manifested in the clash of human drives with social prohibitions; the problem of sources of social activity of the individual.

Humanistic psychology (G. Allport, A. Maslow, K. Rogers, etc.) studied a person as a fully developing personality who strives to realize his potential and achieve self-actualization and personal growth. Every normal person has a tendency towards self-expression and self-realization.

Cognitivism interprets human social behavior as a set of predominantly cognitive processes and places emphasis on the process of a person’s cognition of the world, his comprehension of the essence of phenomena through basic cognitive mental processes (memory, attention, etc.). In the course of this cognition, his impressions of the world are transformed into a system of images, on the basis of which various ideas, beliefs, expectations and attitudes are formed, which ultimately determine his actions and actions. Representatives of these directions S. Asch, K. Levin, T. Newcomb, F. Heider, L. Festinger and others made a serious contribution to social psychology. The problem of cognitivism is human decision making. Representatives of the cognitive school (J. Piaget, J. Bruner, R. Atkinson, etc.) paid special attention to human knowledge and methods of its formation.

Interactionism (later symbolic interactionism) explored the problems of the social aspect of interaction between people in the process of activity and communication. The main idea of ​​interactionism: personality is always social and cannot be formed outside of society. Particular importance was attached to communication as the exchange of symbols and the development of common meanings and meanings.

Reduces socio-psychological phenomena to interpersonal interaction, seeing in it the source of explanation of the essence, origin and dynamics of these phenomena. He explains the formation of personality by situations of communication and interaction of people with each other, which should be understood as systems of mutually oriented actions and reactions unfolded over time. The state of society, relationships and personality, according to its ideologists (E. Hoffman, R. Linton, T. Newcomb, M. Sherif, etc.), are nothing more than a product of communication between people, the result of their adaptation to each other.

The entire set of methods of socio-psychological research can be divided into two large groups: research methods and methods of influence. The latter belong to a specific area of ​​social psychology, the “psychology of influence.”

Among the research methods, a distinction is made between methods of collecting information and methods of processing it. Data processing methods are often not allocated to a special block, since most of them are not specific to social psychological research.

Methods of collecting information: observation, reading documents (content analysis), surveys (questionnaires, interviews), tests (the most common sociometric test), experiment (laboratory, natural).

Let us consider the leading methods of socio-psychological research.

Observation in social psychology is a method of collecting information through direct, targeted and systematic perception and recording of socio-psychological phenomena (facts of behavior and activity) in natural conditions. The observation method can be used as one of the central, independent research methods.

The object of observation is individuals, small groups and large social communities (for example, a crowd) and the social processes occurring in them, for example, panic.

The subject of observation is usually the verbal and nonverbal acts of behavior of an individual or a group as a whole in a certain social situation. To the most typical verbal and non-verbal characteristics of A.L. Zhuravlev includes speech acts (their content, direction and sequence, frequency, duration and intensity, as well as expressiveness); expressive movements (expression of the eyes, face, body, etc.); physical actions, i.e. touching, pushing, hitting, joint actions, etc.

The main disadvantages of this method include:
high subjectivity in data collection introduced by the observer (halo, contrast, leniency, modeling, etc. effects) and the observed (observer presence effect);
the predominantly qualitative nature of observational findings;
relative limitations in generalizing study results.

Ways to increase the reliability of observation results are associated with the use of reliable observation schemes, technical means of recording data, training the observer, and minimizing the effect of the presence of the observer.

The document analysis method is a type of method for analyzing the products of human activity. A document is any information recorded in printed or handwritten text, on magnetic or photo media.

All methods of document analysis are divided into traditional (qualitative) and formalized (qualitative-quantitative). Any method is based on the mechanisms of the text understanding process, i.e. the researcher's interpretation of the information contained in the document.

Content analysis (content analysis) is a method of translating textual information into quantitative indicators with its subsequent statistical processing. The quantitative characteristics of the text obtained using content analysis make it possible to draw conclusions about the qualitative, including latent (not explicit) content of the text. In this regard, the content analysis method is often referred to as qualitative-quantitative analysis of documents.

The survey method is a very common method in social psychological research. The essence of the method is to obtain information about objective or subjective (opinions, moods, motives, relationships, etc.) facts from the words of the respondents.

Among the numerous types of surveys, two main types are most common:
a) direct survey (“face to face”) - an interview, a face-to-face survey conducted by a researcher in the form of questions and answers with the interviewee (respondent);
b) correspondence survey - questioning using a questionnaire (questionnaire) designed for self-completion by the respondents themselves.

The source of information during a survey is the verbal or written judgment of the person being interviewed. The depth, completeness of answers, and their reliability depend on the researcher’s ability to correctly construct the questionnaire design. There are special techniques and rules for conducting a survey.

An interview is a type of survey. There are two types: standardized and non-standardized interviews. In the first case, the interview assumes the presence of standard formulations of questions and their sequence, determined in advance.

The non-standardized interview technique is characterized by flexibility and variation over a wide range. The interviewer is guided only by the general plan of the survey, formulating questions in accordance with the specific situation and the respondent’s answers.

It is customary to identify key phases: establishing contact, the main part and completion of the interview. Criteria for the effectiveness of the interview: completeness (breadth) - it should allow the interviewee to cover, as fully as possible, various aspects of the problem being discussed; specificity (concreteness) - it must provide accurate answers for each aspect of the problem that is significant for the respondent; depth (personal meaning) - it must reveal the emotional, cognitive and value aspects of the respondent’s attitude to the situation under discussion; personal context - the interview is designed to reveal characteristics of the interviewee’s personality and life experiences.

Types of surveys are divided by the number of respondents (individual and group), by location, and by the method of distribution of questionnaires (handout, postal, press). Among the most significant disadvantages of handout, and especially postal and press surveys are the low percentage of questionnaires returned, lack of control over the quality of filling out questionnaires, and the use of only questionnaires that are very simple in structure and volume.

The preference for the type of survey is determined by the goals of the study, its program, and the level of knowledge of the issue. The main advantage of questionnaires is associated with the possibility of mass coverage of a large number of respondents and its professional accessibility. The information obtained in an interview is more meaningful and in-depth compared to a questionnaire. However, the disadvantage is, first of all, the difficult-to-control influence of the personality and professional level of the interviewer on the interviewee, which can lead to a distortion of the objectivity and reliability of the information.

The group assessment method (GAL) is a method of obtaining characteristics of a person in a specific group based on mutual questioning of its members about each other.

This method allows you to assess the presence and degree of expression (development) of a person’s psychological qualities, which are manifested in behavior and activity, in interaction with other people. The widespread use of GOL for applied and research purposes is associated with its simplicity and accessibility for users, the ability to diagnose those human qualities for which there are no reliable tools (tests, questionnaires), etc. The psychological basis of GOL is the socio-psychological phenomenon of group ideas about each member groups as a result of mutual knowledge of people with each other in the process of communication.

A test is a short, standardized, usually time-limited test. With the help of tests in social psychology, inter-individual and inter-group differences are determined. On the one hand, it is believed that tests are not a specific socio-psychological method, and all methodological standards accepted in general psychology are also valid for social psychology.

On the other hand, the wide range of used socio-psychological methods for diagnosing individuals and groups, intergroup interaction allows us to talk about tests as an independent means of empirical research.

Areas of application of tests in social psychology:
group diagnostics,
the study of interpersonal and intergroup relations and social perception,
socio-psychological properties of the individual (social intelligence, social competence, leadership style, etc.).

The testing procedure involves the subject (a group of subjects) performing a special task or receiving answers to a number of questions that are indirect in nature in the tests. The point of subsequent processing is to use a “key” to correlate the received data with certain assessment parameters, for example, with personality characteristics. The final measurement result is expressed in a test indicator.

The term “experiment” has two meanings in social psychology:
experience and testing, as is customary in the natural sciences;
research in the logic of identifying cause-and-effect relationships. One of the existing definitions of the experimental method indicates that it involves interaction organized by the researcher between the subject (or group) and the experimental situation in order to establish the patterns of this interaction. Among the specific features of an experiment are the modeling of phenomena and research conditions (experimental situation); active influence of the researcher on the phenomena (variation of variables); measuring the reactions of subjects to this influence; reproducibility of results.

The experiment is criticized primarily for its low ecological validity, that is, the impossibility of transferring conclusions obtained in an experimental situation beyond its boundaries (into natural conditions).

Nevertheless, there is a point of view that the problem of the validity of an experiment is not that the facts obtained in the experiment have no scientific value, but in their adequate theoretical interpretation.

Despite many critical assessments of this method, the experiment remains an important means of obtaining reliable information in social psychological research.

The sociometry method refers to the tools for socio-psychological research into the structure of small groups, as well as the individual as a member of the group. The area of ​​measurement using sociometric technology is the diagnosis of interpersonal and intragroup relationships. Using the sociometric method, they study the typology of social behavior in group activities, evaluate the cohesion and compatibility of group members.

A sociometric procedure may aim to:
a) measuring the degree of cohesion-disunity in the group;
b) identification of “sociometric positions”, i.e. the relative authority of group members on the basis of sympathy and antipathy, where the “leader” of the group and the “rejected” are at the extreme poles;
c) detection of intragroup subsystems, cohesive formations, which may be headed by their own informal leaders.

The use of sociometry makes it possible to measure the authority of formal and informal leaders to regroup people in teams so as to reduce tension in the team that arises due to the mutual hostility of some group members. The sociometric technique is carried out using a group method; its implementation does not require much time (up to 15 minutes). It is very useful in applied research, especially in work to improve relationships in a team. But it is not a radical way to resolve intra-group problems, the causes of which should be sought not in the likes and dislikes of group members, but in deeper sources.

The measurement involves surveying each member of a small group in order to identify those group members with whom he would prefer (choose) or, on the contrary, would not want to participate in a certain type of activity or situation. The measurement procedure includes the following elements:
determination of the option (number) of elections (deviations);
selection of survey criteria (questions);
organizing and conducting a survey;
processing and interpretation of results using quantitative (sociometric indices) and graphic (sociogram) analysis methods.

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Different understandings of the subject of social psychology are a prerequisite for the creation of different images of social reality, different visions of human connections and relationships, which indicates the existence, to a certain extent, of different social psychologies.

Subject of social psychology. The subject of social psychology has matured for a long time. The following periods are distinguished in this process:

1. Accumulation of socio-psychological knowledge in the field of social and natural sciences (from ancient times to the middle of the 19th century).

2. Separation of social psychology from sociology and psychology and its formation as an independent branch of knowledge (second half of the 19th century - beginning of the 20th centuries).

3. Formation of social psychology as an independent science (20s of the XX century).

At all stages of the development of social psychology, there were different, even alternative interpretations of its subject. Thus, the American scientist Gordon Willard Allport (1897-1967) saw the purpose of social psychology in explaining the influence of the real, imaginary or perceived presence of other people on the thoughts, feelings and behavior of individuals. The modern American social psychologist David Myers adheres to the same position, arguing that social psychology is the science of how people think about each other, how they influence each other and how they relate to each other.

A fundamentally different view of the subject of social psychology is that of the French scientist Serge Moscovici, who views social psychology as the science of groups and individuals who create their own reality (it is, in fact, their only reality), manage each other and form the connections that unite them or disconnect.

For a long time there was no unity of views on the subject of social psychology in the former Soviet Union. For example, the Russian psychologist, founder and director of the Moscow Psychological Institute Georgy Chelpanov (1862-1936) proposed dividing psychological science into social psychology and psychology proper. Disagreeing with this approach, the famous physiologist, founder of reflexology Vladimir Bekhterev (1857-1927) in his fundamental work “Collective Reflexology” argued that the subject of social psychology is the study of the activities of meeting participants in the broad sense of the word. Actually, socio-psychological problems, in his opinion, should be solved by a special branch of psychological knowledge - collective reflexology. He viewed the team as a collective personality, and considered its main feature to be a commonality of tasks and interests, which encourages unity of action. Among the socio-psychological mechanisms, Bekhterev singled out interaction, communication, and among the collective ones - hereditary reflexes, mood, observations, creativity, coordination of actions, concentration. According to him, people unite into teams as a result of mutual understanding, mutual sharing, and mutual induction. Through experimental studies of the influence of communication and joint activity on the formation of processes of perception and memory, Bekhterev founded experimental social psychology.

In the 50-60s of the XX century. Another discussion was launched, during which three approaches to views on the subject of social psychology crystallized. Sociological scientists interpreted social psychology as the science of “mass-like phenomena of the psyche.” Representatives of the psychological approach considered the subject of social psychology research to be personality. The third approach consisted of attempts to synthesize both previous ones, based on the vision of social psychology as a science that studies both mass mental processes and the position of the individual in the group. This desire to “psychologize” sociology and “sociologize” psychology often led to the identification of the objects and subjects of their research. Sometimes it is noticeable even now, primarily in attempts to define the subject of social psychology through a list of objects that it should study. In addition, this list (far from complete) does not yet indicate the specifics of the socio-psychological approach, because the psychological characteristics of groups, patterns of behavior and activity in the process of interaction with other people, cooperation, forms of communication, mass mental phenomena, etc. can be the object of research in many sciences - sociology, labor psychology, management psychology, political science and the like.

In various periods of development of social psychology, its subject was considered:

Causal conditioning of the mental by the social. Scientists discussed this issue in the 20s of the 20th century, which stimulated the development of socio-psychological research within the framework of general psychology and pedagogy;

The relationship between social (public) psychology and ideology, the psychology of social groups and individuals (traditions, public opinion, customs, other mass mental phenomena of social consciousness);

Patterns of human behavior determined by their joint activities, interactions and mutual influences. This view of social psychology, which combined psychological and sociological approaches, was formed as a result of discussions on the subject of social psychology in the 20s and 60s of the 20th century. He showed that the subject of social psychology can be defined taking as a basis both individuals and mass mental phenomena. Using these criteria, modern Russian social psychologist Galina Andreeva considers the subject of social psychology to be the study of patterns of behavior and activity of people determined by their inclusion in social groups, as well as the psychological characteristics of these groups.

In connection with the first two approaches, the subject of social psychology was defined from the point of view of psychology or sociology. The sociological approach outlined the subject of social psychology from “external” to “internal”, that is, from society, social environment, group to individual. Proponents of the psychological approach consider personality, its psychological characteristics, and interpersonal relationships to be the basis of the subject of social psychology.

The recognition that social psychology is based, on the one hand, on sociology, and on the other, on psychology, did not contribute to its establishment as an independent science. The search for a new paradigm in defining the subject of research continues today. The understanding of social psychology as an intermediate link between sociology and psychology has led to the fact that, for example, in the USA it functions as a section of the American Sociological Association and a section of the American Psychological Association. A similar situation has developed in other countries. Thus, in Russian and domestic social psychology, most researchers consider it as a science with a double subject (psychological properties of a person, manifested in interaction with other people; features of socio-psychological processes and phenomena that give rise to these psychological properties).

This understanding of the subject of social psychology requires clarification. Therefore, these problems are actively discussed by domestic and foreign scientists. The statement of the modern Russian social psychologist P. Shikhirev is quite rational that, regardless of the direction in which social psychology was formed from sciences, it is based on the following leading ideas: value attitude (assessment) as a regulator of behavior; the form of its existence and methods of functioning; social interaction (communication) as the environment for the emergence and existence of a value relationship. And it is in the value sense that people’s idea of ​​what exists, or what they strive for in relationships with other people, groups, and society, is fixed.

The crisis phenomena in the development of social psychology that struck it in the 60-70s of the 20th century were caused by the fact that for too long it was individualistic, unable to explain the social behavior of people in large social groups. Thus, one of the most consistent critics of the “laboratory culture” of American social psychology, S. Moscovici, accuses it of its inability to predict student riots and demonstrations in the 70s of the 20th century, to reveal the problems of social inequality, political violence, national and racial conflicts, and social tension. We are talking about filling social psychology with adequate social content, its “sociologization,” which is stimulated not so much by the development of theory as by objective life needs, the need to take into account the human factor in solving social problems and outlining prospects for the development of society. Therefore, more and more scientists consider the social (social process) as a general change by people in their society, as a special space of thinking and reality. And social psychology actively uses the categories “socio-psychological space”, “socio-psychological reality”.

Socio-psychological space is an objective form of subjective perception, represented by a system of certain assessments, ideas and images; social activities of people or groups, relationships and interactions between them, their intentions, positions and goals, relationships and interdependence.

The socio-psychological space directly influences people's activities. It is mediated by the objective, physical environment, the materialized space of community, its systemic properties (integrity, structure, functional homogeneity, etc.).

Socio-psychological reality is a qualitatively new formation that arises on the boundaries of the social and mental, has essential features of each of them and in which the patterns and mechanisms of the relationship between the social and mental, their interaction, interdependence and mutual influence are important.

Some social psychologists consider the social psyche to be a socio-psychological reality as a set of views, intentions, feelings, thoughts that express readiness for certain actions. It, in their opinion, arises in the process of communication, interaction between people, connects into a single whole the elements of the individual and social behind the internal laws of society, and therefore has a coercive force regarding individuals. Influencing the behavior of an individual, the social psyche brings it in accordance with the requirements of a particular community. Moreover, it is not a bearer of “truth” or “norms of value”, but only approval or disapproval by a group, acceptance or rejection of a certain action, trust or distrust of the subject - the carrier or consumer of information.

Other scientists argue that to define the subject of a science it is necessary to isolate from the reality it studies what is essential and essential, distinctive, which distinguishes it from other science. From these positions, social psychology is defined as the science of the patterns of formation of socio-psychological reality, its structure, mechanisms of development and functioning. This raises questions: Does such a reality exist? If it exists, what is its content? What is common and different between it and social or mental (psychological) realities, what place does it occupy in the general structure of existence?

Social psychology is characterized as a science that studies specific mechanisms of the relationship between the social and mental, their interaction and interdependence. Each social phenomenon has its own psychological aspect, which is refracted through the psychological characteristics of specific individuals and social groups. At the same time, mental reflection is a generation and consequence of human activity, which is possible only in the process of real activity, communication, interaction with other people. It is also known that the psyche exists in the form of a specific subjective world of man. Its specificity lies in the fact that the images of mental reality for an individual differ from the phenomena of external reality, but at the same time they are quite real formations for him. It is thanks to this reality, its ability to manifest itself in the dynamics of mental processes, motives, objective actions, personality states, that the influence of the psyche on a person’s life, on the regulation of its activities and relationships becomes possible. The mental is not only a form of reflection of the social, but also a means of its regulation and existence. Awareness of this makes it possible to consider socio-psychological reflection as a mental reflection. The point is that all socio-psychological phenomena arise in the form of mental (subjective) images, experiences, states.

Socio-psychological phenomena are phenomena that arise as a result of the interaction of subjects of the communicative process (individuals and communities) under certain conditions, reproduce socio-psychological reality, encourage and regulate people’s behavior, contribute to the organization of various forms of activity and communication, and exchange Information and experiences.

The main socio-psychological phenomena are: community, lifestyle, stereotype, communication, conflict, mood, etc. They arise and spread as a result of the action of deliberately created (rumors, various associations, etc.) and those that arose and developed spontaneously (fashion, etc.) mechanisms. The universal mechanisms of socio-psychological phenomena are imitation, suggestion, infection, persuasion, and the like. Socio-psychological phenomena are classified by content (normal and deformed), degree of stability (dynamic - for example, various types of communication, dynamic-static - for example, moods; static - for example, traditions, customs), etc.

The object of socio-psychological reflection is not everything around us, but only what is associated with the interaction of people and their joint activities. So, socio-psychological reflection is due to the emergence of a qualitatively new formation - a group subject of activity (social group, community, etc.), which significantly changes the nature of regulation between people, since interaction between them, their joint activity is impossible only on the basis of intersubjective relations. As a result of the subjective reflection of objective reality, social behavior of people arises, which always needs coordination, distribution of functions, control, that is, it must function on the basis of certain socially (jointly developed) norms. Social action based on norms and values ​​is realized through feelings, experiences, ideas of specific people. Socio-psychological reflection is social in content and mental in form and method of regulation.

So, to clarify the subject of social psychology and its place in the system of scientific knowledge, it is of fundamental importance to clarify the relationship between the social and the individual, since their integration and identification of a new reality is decisive in the development of social psychology as an independent branch of knowledge (Fig. 3).

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The subject of social psychology is the study of the patterns and mechanisms of the emergence, functioning and manifestation of reality, which is formed in the process of a person’s subjective reflection of objective social relations and social communities.

This definition covers the most important essential features of social psychology:

Personal mechanisms for regulating the social process;

The value attitude of the individual to the social, which allows social psychology to explain human behavior in a social environment, a specific group; how its behavior, which arose as a result of the individual’s subjective reproduction of the objective world, activity influences the functioning of the social community, which is the individual contribution of each person to the work of the group;

Social and psychological factors that determine the development of individual and group activity;

Social communities, mass phenomena that influence a person and his behavior.

So, the modern understanding of the subject of social psychology is not limited to the study of traditional spheres, but reveals the mechanisms of relationships at the level of “group - society”, “individual - society”. This indicates that the subject of social psychology covers an increasingly broader socio-psychological reality associated with mass consciousness and mass behavior of people.

Tasks of social psychology

Developing in the unity of theoretical and practical aspects, social psychology constantly deepens and expands its subject, while simultaneously solving specific socio-psychological problems, thereby fulfilling a variety of theoretical and applied tasks:

Solutions to common scientific problems related to. formation of knowledge about socio-psychological reality, explanation of the process of subjective reflection of objective reality, development of socio-psychological concepts about the interaction between people and social groups, methodology, methods, methods of socio-psychological research (socio-psychological manifestations of personality, the sphere of communication, interpersonal relationships and group processes, socio-psychological phenomena in the macroenvironment, etc.);

Study of problems associated with changes in socio-psychological reality, analysis of ways and means of influencing the mechanisms of its formation, development and functioning;

Theoretical understanding of the place and role of man, developing in a society that is also changing; identification of specific socio-psychological characteristics of the individual, its most common socio-psychological types, communicative behavior programs;

Study of relationships and communication, including in extreme and conflict conditions, as well as in connection with the establishment of a new system of values ​​and forms of ownership in society;

Development of theoretical foundations for socio-psychological diagnostics, counseling and assistance.

Whatever problems social psychology solves, it must correctly relate both to the achievements of domestic science and practice, and to the theoretical and applied achievements of foreign scientists.