Environment as a development factor. Social environment and its main characteristics

Social rehabilitation of children with disabilities

The most important factor and condition for the development of a child is the social environment. The social environment is everything that surrounds us in social life and, above all, the people with whom each individual has specific relationships. The social environment has a complex structure, which is a multi-level formation, including numerous social groups that have a joint impact on the mental development and behavior of the individual.

These include:

1. Microenvironment.

2. Indirect social formations affecting the individual.

3. Macrosocial structures - macroenvironment.

The microenvironment is the immediate environment, everything that directly affects a person. In it he is formed and realizes himself as a person. This is a family, a kindergarten group, a school class, a production team, various informal communication groups and many other associations that a person constantly encounters in everyday life.

Indirect social formations affecting the individual. These are formations that are not directly related to the individual. For example, the production team where his parents work is directly connected with them, but only indirectly - through the parents - with the child.

Macroenvironment is a system of social relations in society. Its structure and content include a combination of many factors, among which in the first place are economic, legal, political, ideological and other relations. The named components of the macroenvironment influence individuals both directly - through laws, social policy, values, norms, traditions, mass media, and indirectly, through influence on small groups in which the individual is included.

Relationships between people have a wide range. Both on the scale of the macroenvironment and in the microenvironment, they are multiply mediated. For example, a grandfather or grandmother may not always be with the child. But a father’s story about his grandfather and his qualities as a person can have no less impact on the child than direct contact with him.

In addition to the above classification, there are types of social environment that differ according to the principle of the location of the group in the structure of social relations. Based on this, they distinguish the working, student, school social environment, etc. Each of the listed types of social environment is characterized by certain psychological characteristics that leave an imprint on the personality of a person, as well as groups of people.

There are also a number of other features that can be used to distinguish the type of social environment. For example, according to the division of labor, they distinguish between urban and rural environments, environments characterized by physical or mental labor. For various types of activities - production, political, scientific, artistic, pedagogical, etc.

A specific social environment is, in socio-psychological terms, a set of relationships between an individual and a group.

The social environment into which a child finds himself acts as a determining factor in the realization of his needs and requests, and is the most important condition for the disclosure of his social essence as a person. However, a child acquires socio-psychological qualities only through his own experience, communication, through direct contact with peers and adults in the family, in kindergarten, school, on the street due to his own activity.

The social environment in relation to the individual is of a relatively random nature. For example, parents, when choosing an educational institution for their child, may choose not the one that is located close to home, but the one that is located near the grandmother’s house, since due to their employment they cannot pick up the child from school. But this accident plays an extremely important role in the socio-psychological plan, since the character and characteristics of certain individuals and the characteristics of groups leave an imprint on their relationships, since the child finds himself in the socio-psychological atmosphere inherent in a given group.

The social environment is active; it influences a person, captivates him, and infects him with appropriate behavior patterns. It can encourage, and sometimes force, certain actions. However, this influence of the social environment on the individual is not always directed in the right direction and, often, does not meet the goals of the child’s upbringing and development. To reduce its unpredictability and negative impact on the child’s personality, attempts are being made to make it manageable. Recently, the concept of “developing social environment” or abbreviated “developmental environment” has appeared in the psychological and pedagogical literature.

What is meant by this concept?

In broad terms, a developing social environment is understood as a certain community of people or an organization created for the purpose of implementing specific educational and developmental tasks and providing an opportunity for children, adolescents and young men to reveal their personal potential. Based on this understanding, any educational institution or organization can be classified as a developing social environment. This social environment can be called educational, school, kindergarten, etc. The developing social environment is complexly organized. It can have different organizational forms and differ in its content and focus.

According to the form of organization, these can be kindergarten groups, a class in a general education or special school, groups of children in out-of-school institutions: music, art, sports and other schools, sections, studios, various centers, etc.

The content of the developing social environment is determined by the system of various relationships of the child with peers, older children and adolescents, teachers, educators, parents of other children, adults who interact with them, and many other factors. The content of these relationships can be of a different nature: moral (ethical), intellectual (cognitive), aesthetic, everyday.

The direction of communication and the established relationships between interacting individuals also represents significant variability, which is based on their need-motivational sphere. In one case, this may be a pronounced desire to satisfy one’s cognitive need, in others - to compensate for an existing defect, in others - the child may be attracted not by what adults are trying to give, but by various pranks, aimless pastime, etc.

The named characteristics of the developing social environment are set from the outside and are determined by the goals and objectives of training, education and development. A child or adolescent who finds himself in such a developing social environment is presented with a wide choice of paths of intellectual, physical, aesthetic, and moral development. However, the child himself is not able to decide what to do and what to prefer. In order for him to develop a stable motivation for a particular type of activity, he needs the intelligent help of an adult, and happiness falls to the child who happens to have a person nearby who can interest and captivate him in the right direction.

Along with a broad understanding of the developmental social environment, there is a narrower definition that can be designated by the term “special developmental social environment.”

A special developmental social environment is an organization of children’s life activities in which, through a certain system-forming component, a special socio-psychological atmosphere is created that promotes the manifestation of a harmonious combination of relationships between the child and the social environment, and which encourages children to be active and purposeful.

An example of such a special developmental social environment is the experience of developing a child’s personality accumulated by A.S. Makarenko in organizing the training and education of street children in a children's colony. One of the most important system-forming components of the special social environment created by him is, in our opinion, the phenomenon of “responsible dependence”.

To understand some of the features of the process of social rehabilitation of children with disabilities, it is of interest that proposed in the 60s by L.I. Umansky such a form of organizing the life activities of schoolchildren during extracurricular time as “multi-age groups”. The idea and creation of these teams was based on the assumption that through communication and interaction between children of different ages, favorable conditions are created for the accelerated development of younger schoolchildren and the formation of positive moral qualities in adolescents.

Around the same time, L.I. Umansky proposed another form of a special developmental social environment for training school leaders, which was implemented in the organization of the “Komsorg” camp for high school students. Ideas about creating a special developmental environment were developed and continued by his students A.S. Chernyshev, L.I. Akatov, E.A. Shanin and others. Currently, in Kursk, where this form of special developmental social environment first appeared, such associations of youth and schoolchildren as “Vertical”, “Monolith”, a camp for children with mental retardation, etc. have been created and are functioning.

Their functioning is based on the optimal combination of meaningful and exciting recreation for children with the simultaneous solution of a program of special training, developmental and educational tasks developed for each camp.

Forms of special developmental social environment can also include institutions and centers designed to carry out social rehabilitation of children and adolescents with disabilities. The same purpose is served by various training sessions, where both developmental and correctional tasks are solved; specially organized play activities, during which actions and deeds that are useful for the child’s entry into real life come first; meetings that serve to develop the necessary communicative qualities in children.

Another form of organizing a special developmental social environment, which has recently gained recognition in working with adolescents and high school students, is educational psychodiagnostics. This form of work is based on the principle of self-knowledge and self-development based on the analysis and use of data obtained through psychodiagnostic procedures.

So, the social environment is a complex multi-level formation, a concrete manifestation of social relations that have developed in society, in which a specific person lives and develops. But in order for the social environment to influence the child purposefully and contribute to the formation of personality traits necessary for effective entry and successful interaction with it, the creation of special, specially oriented conditions is required. Such conditions for organizing social rehabilitation of children with developmental disabilities are a special developmental social environment.

Attitudes towards children with disabilities in society

The concept of “disabled” at all times meant “unfit for work,” and for the state, which was forced to spend certain funds on them, they became dependents. Peculiar difficulties in communication and interaction with them also arose among the people around them. History shows that the view of children with disabilities has changed as scientific knowledge and society as a whole have developed. In this regard, the condition is divided into three stages: mystical, naive biological and scientific, the comparison of which allows us to better understand the trend in the development of society’s relations towards people with disabilities.

The first stage includes the period from ancient times until the 18th century. We find information about this period in legends, myths, proverbs, fairy tales, and other oral and written sources. People saw this or that defect, first of all, as a great misfortune of a person, whom they treated with superstitious fear and compassion. Along with a similar attitude towards abnormal people, there was a belief that people with defects, for example, the blind, have mystical powers, they allegedly have access to special spiritual knowledge and vision.

The second stage begins with the era of enlightenment (XVIII century). During this period, medieval mystical ideas and prejudices became a thing of the past, giving way to rapidly developing science, the accumulation of knowledge in various fields obtained on the basis of experience and experiment. In theoretical terms, the new view was realized in the doctrine of the vicariate of the senses. According to this view, the loss of one of the functions of perception, the deficiency of one organ is compensated by an increase in the functioning and development of others. However, research in this area has found this theory to be untenable. At the same time, a significant step forward was made in the view of a child with life limitations. The empirical approach to the study of human physical disabilities has led to significant discoveries. The practical consequence of these views was the appearance of a special alphabet for the blind (Braille alphabet), which allowed the blind to open access to culture and social life.

The third, scientific stage in understanding the psychology of an abnormal person began with the work of the Austrian psychologist A. Adler and his school. They substantiated the significance and psychological role of an organic defect in the process of development and personality formation. According to his views, if any organ, due to morphological or functional inferiority, cannot cope with its work, then the central nervous system and mental apparatus take on the task of compensating for the difficult functioning of the organ. A mental superstructure is created over a defective organ or function, striving to ensure the vital activity of the organism in this or a threatening link. When in contact with the external environment, a conflict arises caused by the inadequacy of an organ or function with its tasks, which leads to increased morbidity and mortality. This conflict also creates additional incentives for overcompensation. The defect thus becomes the starting point and the main driving force of the mental development of the individual. If the struggle ends in victory for the organism, then it not only copes with the difficulties created by the defect, but rises in its development to a higher level, creating giftedness from insufficiency, ability from a defect, strength from weakness, super value from low value.

A significant contribution to understanding the developmental features of abnormal children was made by V.M. Bekhterev, L.S. Vygotsky, A.R. Luria, B.N. Zeigarnik and many others. Currently, the main directions for studying children with one or another defect have been determined. Special schools and rehabilitation centers for mentally retarded children, children with loss of vision, hearing, speech, and musculoskeletal disorders have been created and operate everywhere.

However, in general, society’s attitude towards children with developmental disabilities cannot be considered optimal. The degree of rejection of abnormal children is influenced mainly by two factors: demographics and the defect itself. For example, according to a number of studies, city residents are more negatively disposed towards abnormal children and adolescents than residents of small villages. Villagers more often show selflessness and altruism towards them.

As for specific defects, according to L. Pozhar, mental retardation is considered the least acceptable in society, then blindness is indicated in the available literature, deafness is in third place, musculoskeletal disorders are in fourth place, and speech disorders are in fifth place.

The results of a study conducted under our direction largely confirmed these data. Thus, 68 percent of schoolchildren stated that it was impossible to be friends with a mentally retarded peer. At the same time, 73 percent of respondents could make friends with a blind person, 72 percent with a cripple, 78 percent with a person with poor speech, and 70 percent with a deaf person. Moreover, the opinions of girls and boys are somewhat different. Girls in grades 7 and 9 and all students in grades 11 put mental retardation first in their reluctance to communicate with abnormal peers. Then there are hearing defects, speech, vision and musculoskeletal disorders. But boys in grades 7 and 9, respectively, put hearing impairment in first place. All other defects are approximately the same for them.

From the data obtained, we can conclude that for adolescents and high school students, the first place in a negative assessment is given to those qualities of a defective peer that most interfere with communication and the establishment of certain interpersonal interactions.

The negative attitude of society towards children and adolescents with physical defects, as well as increased doses of pity and attention, not only create life inconveniences for them, but also negatively affect the formation of their personality. Their development is inextricably linked with the need for self-affirmation in the appropriate social environment. Unfortunately, normal children often reject a child with a defect and this most important social need is thus not realized.

A state of unsatisfied self-affirmation leads, as a rule, to deformation of the personality, to the emergence of moral instability and emptiness. If this need is satisfied, then the path opens to the realization of the individual’s capabilities in various decisive areas of life and work.

The critical point in the life of an anomalous child, regardless of what defect he suffers from, is the period when he begins to realize that his external characteristics are different from other people and, in this regard, tries to anticipate the consequences for him of these differences. If people around the child do not in any way focus attention on the defect and the inconveniences it brings to the child, moral and mental tension gradually subsides. If a child becomes an object of ridicule and bullying from peers and others, a severe internal conflict arises, the consequences of which can be difficult to predict.

Thus, the social status of people with disabilities is still very low. Their actual inclusion in social life will require a lot of time, financial resources, and additional efforts. One of these areas is social rehabilitation as the process of returning and introducing people to social life.

No less important is the problem associated with changing public opinion towards persons with disabilities. The press, radio, television, and other media must join forces to instill in the population a respectful attitude towards all people who find themselves in a difficult situation due to a physical or mental defect. The feeling of inferiority that arises in them due to a lack of understanding of their problems prevents them from living, taking advantage of the opportunities of human life, and children develop qualities that do not allow them to effectively interact with the social environment.

Adaptation of children and adolescents in the social environment

The concept of “adaptation” (from the Latin word adapto - adapt) is the adaptation of the body to external conditions. In modern social psychology, this concept is interpreted broadly. The individual, according to A.V. Petrovsky, initially has a desire for an internal goal, in accordance with which all manifestations of his activity without exception are activated. This internal goal is revealed in the concept of the adaptive orientation of all mental processes and behavioral acts. This includes the processes of an individual’s adaptation to the natural and social environment, the processes of self-adaptation (self-regulation, subordination of higher interests to lower ones) and others.

Depending on the interpretation of the individual’s life goals, the following options for the possible direction of adaptation are distinguished:

1) homeostatic option - the adaptive outcome is to achieve equilibrium;

2) hedonic option - the adaptive outcome consists of pleasure and avoidance of suffering;

3) pragmatic option - the adaptive outcome consists of practical benefits and success.

All particular aspirations in relation to the general internal pre-established goal are assessed as adaptive and non-adaptive. The concepts of “adaptability - non-adaptation” are revealed as tendencies in the functioning of a purposeful system and are determined by the correspondence - discrepancy between its goals and achieved results.

Adaptability is expressed in the coordination of the goal and the results of efforts to achieve it.

Non-adaptiveness consists in the fact that opposite relationships develop between the goal and the result of an individual’s activity: the intention does not coincide with the action, the plan with the execution, the incentive to action with its results. The idea of ​​a discrepancy between goal and outcome is the defining characteristic of maladaptation.

The named contradictions in the problem of non-adaptation are inevitable and irremovable, but they manifest not only negative tendencies, but also progressive ones: this is the source of the dynamic existence of the individual, his development. So, if the goal is not achieved, then this encourages continued activity in this direction. Non-adaptiveness can also act as maladaptation: in case of constant failure when trying to realize a goal or in the presence of two or more equally significant goals.

In connection with the broad interpretation of the concept of “adaptation”, several types are distinguished: physiological, psychophysiological, mental, social. In relation to the process of social rehabilitation, mental, socio-psychological and social adaptation are of greatest interest.

Mental adaptation is expressed in the restructuring of the dynamic personality stereotype in accordance with the new environmental requirements.

Socio-psychological adaptation is the optimization of the relationship between an individual and a group, the convergence of the goals of their activities, value orientations, the individual’s assimilation of the norms and traditions of groups, and entry into their role structure.

Social adaptation is a constant process of an individual’s active adaptation to the conditions of the social environment.

The named types of adaptation, although they have their own specific characteristics, manifest themselves as a single whole, in a single process of the child’s adaptation to new life situations. The process of adaptation to the surrounding social environment is continuous. However, it is usually associated with dramatic changes that occur in an individual’s life path.

The child receives his first lessons in adapting to interacting with people in the family, in the circle of friendly, well-meaning relatives and friends close to him. But social life is not limited to the family. Important steps for entering social life are preschool, school, formal and informal communication groups, inclusion in the workforce, starting a family, and much more. And each time, in each new association, the individual has to maintain or acquire anew his socio-psychological status.

Among the main factors that determine the degree of success of a child’s entry into the social environment are the characteristics of the child himself and the characteristics of the microsocial environment in which he is included. The individual characteristics of the child, on which the effectiveness of his adaptation depends, include his need-motivational sphere (needs, goals, motives, attitudes, etc.), emotional and intellectual properties, as well as some characterological and typological features.

Depending on the structure of the child’s need-motivational sphere, two main types of adaptation process are distinguished: active and passive.

Active type of adaptation. It is characterized by the child or adolescent’s determination to establish contacts with peers or other people, and an active search for comrades based on common interests. Children of this type are not disappointed by temporary setbacks, but are encouraged to be more active.

The passive type of adaptation is characterized by uncritical, conformal acceptance of the goals and value orientations of the group.

The type of adaptation significantly affects the child’s socialization and his assimilation of social experience. Based on the typological approach to the study of personal characteristics, the following types of personality formation and its interaction with the environment are distinguished: harmonious, dominant, sensitive, conformal, anxious, introverted and infantile. They determine selective sensitivity to various pathogenic influences and determine the effectiveness of the child’s adaptation to the environment (E.M. Aleksandrovskaya, 1987).

1. Harmonious type of personality formation. In children of this type, all personal properties are equally formed. They are sociable, self-confident, successfully control their behavior, and have low levels of anxiety and tension. However, despite all the stability of their personal structures

The environment has a formative influence on a person. The wisdom has long been known: a person is formed by his entire life. Of particular importance is social environment - spiritual and material living conditions. They have a special type of pedagogical cause-and-effect relationships, patterns, called social-pedagogical. The action of these cause-and-effect relationships brings broad and significant Personality-forming pedagogical results:

- educational: affect citizens’ understanding of the surrounding world, events and processes occurring in society and its spheres, understanding of their place in the world and society, broaden their horizons, increase awareness in various fields of knowledge, create conditions for self-education, etc.;

- educational: form political and moral beliefs, attitudes towards the Motherland, its history, prospects, people, government bodies, politics, certain state and public institutions, events, professions, labor, religions, social groups, nationalities, activate and change motives of behavior, form moral views and behavioral habits, commitment to universal human values, certain traditions, customs, ways of spending leisure time, push to decisions and actions, form cultural and aesthetic views and tastes, etc.;

- educational: enrich with knowledge on various issues of life, activity and behavior, as well as everyday and professional skills and abilities, etc.;

- developing: socialize needs, interests, inclinations, improve physical qualities, affect the level of development of intelligence, culture, morality, professional and business abilities, etc.

Human upbringing is especially susceptible to social and pedagogical influences.

A characteristic feature of socio-pedagogical influences on the individual is their predominant spontaneity, uncontrollability, and randomness. In addition, if in specially organized pedagogical institutions the solution of pedagogical problems is carried out by professional teachers, properly trained educators, then social and pedagogical influences are exerted by people who usually do not have pedagogical training (managers, officials, government officials, economic workers, workers of means mass media, parents, members of various social groups, etc.). These influences are such that they turn everything upside down in a person, erasing much of the positive that was formed in him at school and institute through the efforts of many good teachers and educators. If judges judged people, and doctors treated them with the same degree of subjectivity and pedagogical illiteracy with which they are often treated in life, at work, in various institutions, then all the innocent would have been convicted long ago, and the sick would have died. Raising the question of overcoming spontaneity and pedagogical incompetence still sounds weak and is drowned in the roar of life and the difficulties of society.


The practice of real life of a person in a certain social environment is school of life(“school of family”, “school of professional activity”, “school of leisure”, etc.). Its influence on the formation of personality interacts with what special pedagogical institutions of society and its spheres do and achieve and often competes with them. The strength and results of the influences of the “school of life” and targeted pedagogical influences often do not coincide. Thus, schoolchildren receiving general education within the walls of a comprehensive school simultaneously undergo “family school”, “street school”, “disco school”, “school of informal peer associations”, “school of information technology” (Internet, computer games), “school television and video production”, etc. Their education, upbringing, training and development are usually not the arithmetic sum of all these schools, but the dominant influence of one of them.

The natural environment also has a certain pedagogical impact. In the pedagogical literature it is rightly noted that one can conditionally speak of “pedagogy of the mountains”, “pedagogy of the Volga”, “pedagogy of the sea”, “pedagogy of the steppes”, because childhood and life spent in the peculiarities of such an environment have a unique educational, educational and developmental effect. influence on people.

Human development in interaction and under the influence of the environment in the most general form can be defined as a process and the result of it socialization, i.e. the assimilation and reproduction of cultural values ​​and social norms, as well as self-development and self-realization in the society in which he lives. Socialization has an interdisciplinary status and is widely used in pedagogy, but its content is not stable and unambiguous.

Socialization occurs: 1) in the process of spontaneous interaction between a person and society and the spontaneous influence on him of various, sometimes multidirectional, circumstances of life; 2) in the process of influence by the state on certain categories of people; 3) in the process of purposefully creating conditions for human development, i.e. education; 4) in the process of self-development, self-education of a person.

An analysis of numerous concepts of socialization shows that they all, in one way or another, gravitate towards one of two approaches that diverge from each other in understanding the role of the person himself in the process of socialization (although, of course, such a division, firstly, is very conditional, and secondly , quite coarse).

The first approach affirms or assumes a person’s passive position in the process of socialization, and considers socialization itself as a process of his adaptation to society, which shapes each of its members in accordance with its inherent culture. This approach can be called subject-object (society is the subject of influence, and man is its object). The origins of this approach were the French scientist Emile Durkheim and American - Talcott Parsons.

Proponents of the second approach proceed from the fact that a person actively participates in the process of socialization and not only adapts to society, but also influences his life circumstances and himself. This approach can be defined as subject-subjective. The Americans can be considered the founders of this approach. Charles Cooley And George Herbert Mead.

Based on the subject-subject approach, socialization can be interpreted as development and self-change of a person in the process of assimilation and reproduction of culture, which occurs in the interaction of a person with spontaneous, relatively guided and purposefully created living conditions at all age stages. The essence of socialization is combination adaptation (adaptation) and isolation of a person in the conditions of a particular society.

Adaptation (social adaptation) is the process and result of the counter-activity of the subject and the social environment (J. Piaget, R. Merton). Adaptation involves coordinating the requirements and expectations of the social environment in relation to a person with his attitudes and social behavior; coordination of a person’s self-esteem and aspirations with his capabilities and with the realities of the social environment. Thus, adaptation is the process and result of an individual becoming a social being.

Separation is the process of autonomization of a person in society. The result of this process is a person’s need to have his own views and the presence of such (value autonomy), the need to have one's own attachments (emotional autonomy), the need to independently resolve issues that concern him personally, the ability to resist those life situations that interfere with his self-change, self-determination, self-realization, self-affirmation (behavioral autonomy). Thus, isolation is the process and result of the formation of human individuality.

From the above it follows that the process of socialization contains an internal, not completely resolvable conflict between the degree of adaptation of a person in society and the degree of his isolation in society. In other words, effective socialization requires a certain balance of adaptation and differentiation.

Socialization of man in the modern world , having more or less obvious features in a particular society, in each of them it has a number of common or similar characteristics.

In any society, human socialization has features at various stages . In the most general form, the stages of socialization can be correlated with the age periodization of a person’s life. There are different periodizations, and the one given below is not generally accepted. It is very conventional (especially after the stage of adolescence), but quite convenient from a socio-pedagogical point of view.

We will assume that a person in the process of socialization goes through the following stages: infancy (from birth to 1 year), early childhood (1-3 years), preschool childhood (3-6 years), primary school age (6-10 years) , junior adolescence (10-12 years), senior adolescence (12-14 years), early adolescence (15-17 years), adolescence (18-23 years), youth (23-30 years), early maturity (30- 40 years), late maturity (40-55 years), old age (55-65 years), old age (65-70 years), longevity (over 70 years).

Socialization, as already noted, is carried out in various situations that arise as a result of the interaction of many circumstances. It is the cumulative influence of these circumstances on a person that requires him to behave and be active. Factors of socialization are those circumstances under which conditions are created for the processes of socialization to take place. As there are many circumstances and options for their combination, there are also many factors (conditions) of socialization. A.V. Mudrik identified the main factors of socialization, combining them into four groups:

First - megafactors (mega - very large, universal) - space, planet, world, which to one degree or another through other groups of factors influence the socialization of all inhabitants of the Earth.

Second - macro factors (macro - large) - a country, ethnic group, society, state that influence the socialization of everyone living in certain countries (this influence is mediated by two other groups of factors).

Third - mesofactors (meso - average, intermediate), conditions of socialization of large groups of people, distinguished: by area and type of settlement in which they live (region, village, city, town); by belonging to the audience of certain mass communication networks (radio, television, etc.); according to belonging to certain subcultures.

Mesofactors influence socialization both directly and indirectly through the fourth group - microfactors . These include factors that directly influence specific people who interact with them - family, peer groups, educational organizations, various public, state, religious and private organizations, microsociety.

Microfactors, as sociologists note, influence human development through the so-called agents of socialization, i.e. persons in direct interaction with whom his life takes place. At different age stages, the composition of agents is specific. Thus, in relation to children and adolescents, these are parents, brothers and sisters, relatives, peers, neighbors, and teachers. In adolescence or early adulthood, the number of agents also includes a spouse, colleagues at work, study and military service. In adulthood, one’s own children are added, and in old age, members of their families are added.

Socialization is carried out using a wide range of funds, specific to a particular society, social stratum, age of a person. These include, for example, methods of feeding and caring for a baby; methods of reward and punishment in the family, in peer groups, in educational and professional groups; various types and types of relationships in the main spheres of human life (communication, play, sports), etc.

The better organized social groups are, the greater the opportunities to have a socializing influence on the individual. However, social groups are unequal in their ability to influence a person at various stages of his ontogenetic development. Thus, in early and preschool age, the family has the greatest influence. In adolescence and young adulthood, the influence of peer groups increases and is most effective; in adulthood, the class, work or professional collective, and individuals take first place in importance. There are socialization factors whose value remains throughout a person’s life. This is a nation, mentality, ethnicity.

In recent years, scientists have been attaching increasing importance to macrofactors of socialization, including natural and geographical conditions, since it has been established that they influence the formation of personality in both direct and indirect ways. Knowledge of macrofactors of socialization allows us to understand the specific manifestation of the general laws of development of an individual as a representative of Homo sapiens.

Socialization factors are a developmental environment that must be designed, well organized and even built. The main requirement for a developmental environment is to create an atmosphere in which humane relations, trust, safety, and the opportunity for personal growth will prevail.

Socialization of a person is carried out in the process of his interaction with diverse and numerous factors, organizations, agents, using various means and mechanisms.

The self-change of a person throughout his life, and in general, his socialization.

In line with the subject-object approach to understanding socialization socialization is generally understood as the formation of traits specified by status and required by a given society. Socialization is determined as the individual’s effective conformity to social regulations.

Other researchers have a different view of socialization, but also in line with the subject-object approach to socialization. The essence of their position is that, since a person cannot be prepared in advance for the various demands that he will encounter in life, socialization should be based on his assimilation not just of the sum of various role expectations, but of the very essence of these requirements.

From this point of view, the key to successful socialization can be considered the formation of behavioral models in a person, including the main elements of institutional requirements and regulations. American psychologist and teacher L. Kohlberg emphasized that this type of socialization prevents role conflicts in the future, while conformal adaptation to one’s environment in the event of a change makes them inevitable.

In numerous studies, more and more attention is paid to identifying not those circumstances and characteristics that ensure a person’s compliance with the requirements imposed at this stage of his development, but those that ensure successful socialization in the future. For example, socialization is considered as the assimilation by an individual of attitudes, values, ways of thinking and other personal and social qualities that will characterize him at the next stage of development. This approach, which the American researcher A. Inkels called “looking ahead” (studying what a child should be like now in order for him to be successful as an adult), is very characteristic of the development of empirical research today.

It has become quite common to believe that socialization will be successful if an individual learns to navigate unforeseen social situations. Various mechanisms of such orientation are considered. One of them is based on the concept of “situational adaptation” - “when entering a new situation, an individual connects the new expectations of others with his “I” and thus adapts to the situation.” However, this approach turns a person into a kind of weather vane (which happens, but not always).

Within subject-subject approach is considered , that a socialized person is not only adapted to society, but is also able to be the subject of his own development and, to some extent, of society as a whole.

Thus, American scientists M. Riley and E. Thomas pay special attention to the presence of a person’s own value orientations. They believe that difficulties in socialization arise when role expectations do not coincide with the individual’s self-expectations. In these cases, a person must carry out role replacements or restructuring of value orientations, strive to change self-expectations and be able to leave previous roles.

In line with the subject-subject approach, the personality characteristics that ensure successful socialization are: the ability to change one’s value orientations; the ability to find a balance between one’s values ​​and role requirements (being selective about one’s social roles); orientation not towards specific requirements, but towards an understanding of universal moral human values.

Thus, a mature personality can be considered a socialized personality. The main criteria for maturity and socialization of an individual: self-respect (self-esteem), respect for people, respect for nature, the ability to predict, the ability to approach life creatively (flexibility and at the same time stability in changing situations, as well as creativity).

From the point of view of social pedagogy socialization in general terms can be interpreted as follows: in the process and as a result of socialization, a person masters a set of role expectations and prescriptions in various spheres of life (family, professional, social, etc.) and develops as an individual, acquiring and developing a number of social attitudes and value orientations, satisfying and developing your needs and interests. The socialization of a person is manifested in the balance between his adaptation and isolation in society.

Within the framework of the problem of socialization as a result of socialization in general, the question of education as a result of relatively socially controlled socialization stands apart.

At the everyday level, good manners are understood quite unambiguously and one-sidedly, as evidenced by dictionaries: “A well-mannered person, raised in the usual rules of secular decency, educated” (V.I. Dal). “Good breeding is the ability to behave; good manners" (Dictionary of the Russian language. - M., 1957). “Educated - someone who has received a good upbringing and knows how to behave” (ibid.).

Characterizing education at a theoretical level is very problematic due to the variety of interpretations of the concept of “upbringing.” All known attempts to characterize good manners using empirical indicators raise one or another objection. More or less correctly, this is done in relation to certain aspects of education (for example, education, professional training, attitudes and value orientations in various spheres of life, etc.). However, the identified level of a person’s education or his social attitudes, for example, in the field of interethnic interaction, etc., do not always correspond to his real social behavior.

Socialization has a “mobile character”, i.e. the formed socialization may become ineffective due to a variety of circumstances.

Fundamental or very significant changes occurring in society, leading to the breakdown or transformation of social and (or) professional structures, which entails changes in the status of large groups of the population, turn their socialization into ineffective for the new conditions. Moving a person from country to country, from region to region, from village to city and vice versa also makes socialization problematic.

Changing roles, expectations and self-expectations in connection with a person’s transition from one age stage to another can also make the formed socialization ineffective in children, adolescents, and young men.

The socialization of children, adolescents, and young men in any society takes place under different conditions. The conditions of socialization are characterized by the presence of certain numerous dangers that have a negative impact on human development. Therefore, objectively, entire categories of children, adolescents, and young men appear who become or may become victims of unfavorable conditions of socialization.

A.V. Mudrik conventionally identifies real, potential and latent types of victims of unfavorable conditions, which are represented by different types and categories of people.

Real victims disabled people have unfavorable socialization conditions; children, adolescents, young men with psychosomatic defects and deviations; orphans and a number of categories of children under the care of the state or public organizations.

Potential but very real victims can be considered children, adolescents, young men with borderline mental states and with character accentuations; children of migrants from country to country, from region to region, from village to city and from city to village; children born in families with low economic, moral, educational levels; mestizos and representatives of foreign national groups in places of compact residence of another ethnic group.

Latent victims unfavorable conditions of socialization can be considered those who were unable to realize the inclinations inherent in them due to the objective circumstances of their socialization. Thus, a number of experts believe that high talent and even genius “falls” on the lot of approximately one person out of a thousand born. Depending on the degree of favorable conditions of socialization, especially in the early stages of life, this predisposition develops to the extent that makes its carriers highly gifted people, in approximately one person out of a million births. But in fact, only one out of ten million becomes a genius, that is, the majority of Einsteins and Tchaikovskys are lost along the path of life, because the conditions of their socialization (even quite favorable) turn out to be insufficient for the development and realization of the high talent inherent in them. Since neither they themselves nor their loved ones even suspect this, they can be classified as a latent type of victims of unfavorable conditions of socialization.

The named types of real victims are not always presented “in their pure form.” Quite often, a primary defect, a deviation from the norm, or some objective life circumstance (for example, a dysfunctional family) causes secondary changes in a person’s development, leading to a restructuring of life position, and forming inadequate or defective attitudes towards the world and oneself. Often, one characteristic or circumstance overlaps with others (for example, a first-generation migrant becomes an alcoholic). An even more tragic example is the fate of graduates of orphanages (most of them are social orphans, that is, those who have parents or close relatives). Among them, up to 30% become “homeless,” up to 20% become criminals, and up to 10% commit suicide.

Some signs and circumstances that make it possible to classify a person as a victim of unfavorable conditions of socialization are permanent (orphanhood, disability), others appear at a certain age stage (social maladjustment, alcoholism, drug addiction); some are irremovable (disability), others can be prevented or changed (various social deviations, illegal behavior, etc.).


1 The concept of raising children and students in the Republic of Belarus // Problems of education. – 2000. - No. 2.

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Abstract: Human social environment

  • Introduction

Introduction

Social environment is the social, material and spiritual conditions surrounding a person’s existence, formation and activity. In a broad sense (macroenvironment) covers society. - produces the economic system as a whole. forces, the totality of social relations and institutions, social consciousness, the culture of a given society; In the narrow sense (microenvironment), being an element of the social environment as a whole, it includes the immediate social environment of a person - family, work, educational and other teams and groups. The social environment has a decisive influence on the formation and development of personality. At the same time, under the influence of creative activity and human activity, it changes, transforms, and in the process of these transformations, people themselves change.

Socio-psychological phenomena arise from the interaction of the social environment, the individual and the group. Therefore, when studying them, it is necessary, first of all, to form a fairly clear idea of ​​the social environment, of the individual and the group as subjects of these phenomena, and of the general conditions of their mutual influence and interaction.

The social environment is everything that surrounds a person in his social life, serves as the object of his mental reflection - either direct or mediated by the results of the work of other people. A person experiences the influence of a wide range of social factors throughout his life. All of them, taken together, make up the social environment of the individual. But to designate the social factors that determine social life, Marxism uses the concept of “socio-economic formation”; why else the concept of “social environment”? Let's consider the relationship between these concepts.

Social environment and socio-economic formation

The concept of social environment denotes the specific uniqueness of social relations at a certain stage of their development. In this way it differs from the concept of socio-economic formation and complements it. The concept of social environment characterizes not the essence of social relations, but their specific manifestation. Capitalism as a socio-economic formation is subject to the same socio-economic laws. But, manifesting itself in specifically special forms, the action of these laws creates a specific social environment that differs from other social environments. It is in this specific social environment that individuals and groups operate. Moreover, if historical figures and large groups (classes, nations) act in a broad social environment, then the sphere of action of small groups and the individuals included in them is the microenvironment, the immediate social environment.

A specific social environment appears in the psychological aspect as a set of relationships between individuals and groups. The relationship between the social environment and the individual has a rather significant element of subjectivity. If a class cannot change its place in the socio-economic formation without destroying itself as a class, then a person can change his place in the social environment, can move from one social environment to another and thereby construct, to a certain extent, his own social environment.

Of course, the mobility of an individual in the social environment is not absolute; it is limited by the objective framework of socio-economic relations and the class structure of society. Nevertheless, the activity of the individual, especially in relation to the microenvironment he chooses, cannot be underestimated. The practical significance of this issue is revealed, in particular, when analyzing the causes of crime.

The social environment in relation to the individual is of a relatively random nature. This randomness is especially great in psychological terms, since the character and characteristics of certain individuals leave their mark on their relationships. But even this randomness manifests itself only to certain limits. It is limited by the necessity of relations determined by a certain socio-economic system.

It should be taken into account that the socio-economic formation is the highest abstraction of the system of social relations, where only global features are recorded. In the social environment, these elements of socio-economic formations are enlivened by a variety of aspects: demographic, ethnic, psychological, individual. Therefore, the structure of the social environment seems more confusing and more complicated than the strictly logical structure of the socio-economic formation.

The structure of the social environment cannot be a complete analogue of the structure of the socio-economic formation, its mirror image. Factors of an ethnic order, for example, belonging to a nationality, a nation, a particular ethnic group, as well as derived factors of ethnic consciousness, acting together, constitute integral elements of the social environment. At the same time, elements directly related to the socio-economic formation have a decisive influence on the social environment. The system of objective social relations constitutes, as it were, a framework on which small groups and individuals are located. The place of the group on this framework mainly determines the social environment of the individual.

Thus, the social environment, to a first approximation, can be determined by the type of socio-economic formation. This is how the social environment characteristic of the primitive communal, slave, feudal, capitalist and socialist systems differs. The nature of the influence of the social environment defined in this way on the individual and the group also differs. We speak with indignation, for example, about feudal-bai remnants in socialist reality. We angrily denounce the modern facts of the slave trade and slavery, realizing that they do not pass without leaving a trace on the minds of those who live in a similar social environment in some foreign countries.

The class character of the social environment

Within the types of social environment, distinguished by the type of socio-economic formation, the types should be distinguished depending on the place of the group in the structure of the formation. Here, first of all, the class social environment is distinguished by its place in the historically determined system of social production. Thus, we distinguish between the bourgeois social environment, the proletarian social environment, etc. Since any social class is heterogeneous in its composition and is divided into certain layers, each layer has its own characteristic features of the social environment. This gives intra-class divisions of the social environment. In addition, there is a social environment of so-called declassed elements. Each of the noted types of social environment is characterized by certain psychological traits that leave their mark on individuals and groups of people.

Finally, there is a group of characteristics that help to identify the type of social environment according to the division of labor. There is a more or less clear distinction between the urban environment and the rural environment; a social environment characterized by physical and mental labor, various types of activity - industrial, political, legal, scientific, artistic, with all the ensuing features of people's existence.

social environment division of labor

All these signs constitute specific characteristics of the social environment that affect the individual qualities of a person, leaving their mark on their relationships.

The problem of the lifestyle of an individual or a small group is closely related to the problem of the social environment. The social environment is a complex set of relationships. However, the individual can be involved with varying degrees of activity in these relationships. The totality of practical relations to the social environment constitutes the individual’s way of life. More details about lifestyle will be discussed below. Now let's sum it up.

So, the socio-economic formation in its historical, demographic, geographical and ethnic specificity forms a given social environment, giving rise to a particular way of life and, subsequently, a way of thinking and feeling.

Consequently, socio-economic formation - social environment - lifestyle - personality - this is the fundamental diagram of the process of penetration of social relations into a person’s relationship with other people, the social into the individual, the path of socialization of the individual.

It is not enough to say that the social environment shapes personality, as the French materialists of the 18th century said. It is necessary to carry this connection further - to the socio-economic formation, the method of production, as Marxism does. “We,” wrote G.V. Plekhanov, “not only say that a person with all his thoughts and feelings is a product of the social environment; we try to understand the genesis of this environment.” Concluding that, ultimately, “the properties of the social environment are determined by the state of the productive forces at any given time,” Plekhanov explains: “Any given stage of development of the productive forces necessarily leads to a certain grouping of people in the social productive process, i.e., certain relations of production , i.e., a certain structure of the entire society. And once the structure of society is given, it is not difficult to understand that its character will be reflected in the entire psychology of people, in all their habits, morals, feelings, views, aspirations and ideals."

The concept of social environment is widely used by modern bourgeois sociology and social psychology. However, the social environment is predominantly understood by them as a cultural environment, without connecting it with the productive activities of people, with the social-class structure of society, which ultimately leads to an idealistic interpretation of the role of the social environment in the formation of personality.

As a result:

The social environment is everything that surrounds a person in his social (public) life. This is, first of all, family, classmates, peers in the yard, and so on. Throughout his life, a person experiences the influence of social factors. In relation to human health, individual factors may be indifferent, may have a beneficial effect, or may cause harm - even death.

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  • Analysis of the enterprise operating environment and its elements
  • Analysis of factors of the external and internal environment of the enterprise
  • Budget surplus and budget deficit and their impact on the economy.
  • B 4. Vibration, physical characteristics, regulation and effect on the human body. Types of vibration protection.
  • B 4. Harmful substances, their classification, regulation, impact on the human body. MPC. Means and methods of protection against exposure to harmful substances on humans.
  • B 4. Microclimate of industrial premises, microclimate parameters and their impact on the human body. Methods for normalizing the microclimate.
  • In the field of land relations and environmental protection, municipal property management
  • Interaction of social service institutions with other institutions in the prevention of neglect and crime
  • The relationship between social intelligence and social competence
  • Social environment- these are, first of all, people united in various groups, with whom each individual is in specific relationships, in a complex and diverse system of communication.

    The social environment surrounding a person is active, influences a person, exerts pressure, regulates, subjects him to social control, captivates him, infects him with corresponding “models” of behavior, encourages, and often forces him to a certain direction of social behavior.

    A person draws a complex of scientific knowledge, rich life experience, and motives for his actions from a direct source, which is the social environment. Those opportunities objectively existing in society that allow an individual to express himself as a person are brought to the fore. The content of this impact is that the realization of the rights, freedoms and responsibilities of the individual should occur on the basis of a combination of the interests of the entire society as a whole and each individual individually. This is possible only in a society where the free development of everyone is a condition for the free development of all. In addition to the state-social environment, social in the broad sense of the word, we should also highlight the microenvironment, which includes relationships that arise in a small social group, in a work collective of which the individual is a member, and a set of interpersonal relationships. Each personality has its own specific traits that distinguish it.

    Social orientations and attitudes

    Social behavior is focused on public values ​​and its results are of public importance. The incentives for this kind of behavior should be sought in social reality, although phenomenologically they are given in the aspirations and goals of the individual.

    Social behavior, like any other activity, begins with readiness, an attitude, which, along with all others, reflects social aspirations, goals, requirements and expectations. When analyzing a person’s social activity, this circumstance manifests itself in the presence of social tendencies in the individual. To understand the nature of personality, it is completely insufficient to know what information an individual has about culture, traditions, ideology and social relations. It is also necessary to take into account what orientations and attitudes he has in relation to these phenomena.

    The orientations and knowledge represented in the consciousness of the individual are closely related to each other. If knowledge reflects objects and phenomena of reality, then orientations express a person’s relationship to it. They set the tendency of human actions regarding these phenomena.

    Personal orientations are created in a person under the influence of individual needs and wants, while social orientations are determined by the demands of other people.

    Social attitudes defined as the mental experience of meaning, meaning, and value of a social object.

    The installation consists of three components:

    · descriptive knowledge;

    · attitude;

    · plans, behavior programs.

    Functions of the attitude: adaptive, protective, expressive (expresses the individual significance of cultural values), cognitive and the function of coordinating the entire cognitive system of mental processes.

    Changing an attitude usually has the goal of adding knowledge, changing attitudes, showing the consequences of changing views, opinions, etc.

    Stereotypes are one of the types of social attitudes. Knowledge about people, accumulated both in personal communication experience and from other sources, is generalized and consolidated in people’s minds in the form of stable ideas - stereotypes. They are very widely used by people when assessing people, because they simplify and facilitate the process of cognition.

    Stereotypes are regulators of behavior. National stereotypes are the most studied. They record relations between ethnic groups, are part of national identity, and have a clear connection with national character. Stereotypes are spiritual formations that have developed in the minds of people, emotionally charged images that convey meanings, in which there are elements of description, evaluation and prescription.

    Thus, it is in the process of interaction between a person and the social environment that they influence each other, thereby each of them becomes a bearer and exponent of some social qualities. Thus, social connections, social interaction, social relationships and the way they are organized are the objects of modern research.


    The book is given with some abbreviations

    Socio-psychological phenomena arise from the interaction of the social environment, the individual and the group. Therefore, when studying them, it is necessary, first of all, to form a fairly clear idea of ​​the social environment, of the individual and the group as subjects of these phenomena, and of the general conditions of their mutual influence and interaction.
    The social environment is everything that surrounds a person in his social life, serves as the object of his mental reflection - either direct or mediated by the results of the work of other people. A person experiences the influence of a wide range of social factors throughout his life. All of them, taken together, make up the social environment of the individual. But to designate the social factors that determine social life, they can tell us that in Marxism the concept of “socio-economic formation” is used, why else the concept of “social environment”? Let's consider the relationship between these concepts.

    Social environment and socio-economic formation

    The concept of social environment denotes the specific uniqueness of social relations at a certain stage of their development. In this way it differs from the concept of socio-economic formation and complements it. The concept of social environment characterizes not the essence of social relations, but their specific manifestation. Capitalism as a socio-economic formation is subject to the same socio-economic laws. But, manifesting itself in specifically special forms, the action of these laws creates a specific social environment that differs from other social environments. It is in this specific social environment that individuals and groups operate. Moreover, if historical figures and large groups (classes, nations) act in a broad social environment, then the sphere of action of small groups and the individuals included in them is the microenvironment, the immediate social environment.
    A specific social environment appears in the psychological aspect as a set of relationships between individuals and groups. The relationship between the social environment and the individual has a rather significant element of subjectivity. If a class cannot change its place in the socio-economic formation without destroying itself as a class, then a person can change his place in the social environment, can move from one social environment to another and thereby construct, to a certain extent, his own social environment.
    Of course, the mobility of an individual in the social environment is not absolute; it is limited by the objective framework of socio-economic relations and the class structure of society. Nevertheless, the activity of the individual, especially in relation to the microenvironment he chooses, cannot be underestimated. The practical significance of this issue is revealed, in particular, when analyzing the causes of crime.
    The social environment in relation to the individual is of a relatively random nature. This randomness is especially great in psychological terms, since the character and characteristics of certain individuals leave their mark on their relationships. But even this randomness manifests itself only to certain limits. It is limited by the necessity of relations determined by a certain socio-economic system.
    It should be taken into account that the socio-economic formation is the highest abstraction of the system of social relations, where only global features are recorded. In the social environment, these elements of socio-economic formations are enlivened by a variety of aspects: demographic, ethnic, psychological, individual. Therefore, the structure of the social environment seems more confusing and more complicated than the strictly logical structure of the socio-economic formation.
    The structure of the social environment cannot be a complete analogue of the structure of the socio-economic formation, its mirror image. Factors of an ethnic order, for example, belonging to a nationality, a nation, a particular ethnic group, as well as derived factors of ethnic consciousness, acting together, constitute integral elements of the social environment. At the same time, elements directly related to the socio-economic formation have a decisive influence on the social environment. The system of objective social relations constitutes, as it were, a framework on which small groups and individuals are located. The place of the group on this framework mainly determines the social environment of the individual.
    Thus, the social environment, to a first approximation, can be determined by the type of socio-economic formation. This is how the social environment characteristic of the primitive communal, slave, feudal, capitalist and socialist systems differs. The nature of the influence of the social environment defined in this way on the individual and the group also differs. We speak with indignation, for example, about feudal-bai remnants in socialist reality. We angrily denounce the modern facts of the slave trade and slavery, realizing that they do not pass without leaving a trace on the minds of those who live in a similar social environment in some foreign countries.

    The class character of the social environment

    Within the types of social environment, distinguished by the type of socio-economic formation, the types should be distinguished depending on the place of the group in the structure of the formation. Here, first of all, the class social environment is distinguished by its place in the historically determined system of social production. Thus, we distinguish between the bourgeois social environment, the proletarian social environment, etc. Since any social class is heterogeneous in its composition and is divided into certain layers, each layer has its own characteristic features of the social environment. This gives intra-class divisions of the social environment. In addition, there is a social environment of so-called declassed elements. Each of the noted types of social environment is characterized by certain psychological traits that leave their mark on individuals and groups of people.
    Finally, there is a group of characteristics that help to identify the type of social environment according to the division of labor. There is a more or less clear distinction between the urban environment and the rural environment; a social environment characterized by physical and mental labor, various types of activity - industrial, political, legal, scientific, artistic, with all the ensuing features of people's existence.
    All these signs constitute specific characteristics of the social environment that affect the individual qualities of a person, leaving their mark on their relationships.
    The problem of the lifestyle of an individual or a small group is closely related to the problem of the social environment. The social environment is a complex set of relationships. However, the individual can be involved with varying degrees of activity in these relationships. The totality of practical relations to the social environment constitutes the individual’s way of life. More details about lifestyle will be discussed below. Now let's sum it up.
    So, the socio-economic formation in its historical, demographic, geographical and ethnic specificity forms a given social environment, giving rise to a particular way of life and, subsequently, a way of thinking and feeling.
    Consequently, socio-economic formation - social environment - lifestyle - personality - this is the fundamental diagram of the process of penetration of social relations into a person’s relationship with other people, the social into the individual, the path of socialization of the individual.
    It is not enough to say that the social environment shapes personality, as the French materialists of the 18th century said. It is necessary to carry this connection further - to the socio-economic formation, the method of production, as Marxism does. “We,” wrote G. V. Plekhanov, “not only say that a person with all his thoughts and feelings is a product of the social environment; we are trying to understand the genesis of this environment.” Concluding that ultimately “the properties of the social environment are determined by the state of the productive forces at any given time,” Plekhanov explains: “Any given stage of development of the productive forces necessarily leads to a certain grouping of people in the social productive process, i.e., certain relations of production , i.e. a certain structure of the entire society. And once the structure of society is given, it is not difficult to understand that its character will be reflected in general on the entire psychology of people, on all their habits, morals, feelings, views, aspirations and ideals.”
    The concept of social environment is widely used by modern bourgeois sociology and social psychology. However, the social environment is predominantly understood by them as a cultural environment, without connecting it with the productive activities of people, with the social-class structure of society, which ultimately leads to an idealistic interpretation of the role of the social environment in the formation of personality.

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