Social group

The first written appearance of the French word groupe , from which its English and German equivalents later came, dates from 1668. Thanks to Moliere , a year later, this word penetrates the literary language, while still retaining its technical coloring ^[1] . The wide penetration of the term “group” into the most diverse fields of knowledge, its truly commonly used character, creates the appearance of its “ transparency ”, that is, comprehensibility and accessibility. It is most often used in relation to some human communities as sets of people united by a number of signs with a certain spiritual substance (interest, purpose, awareness of their community, etc.). Meanwhile, the sociological category “social group” is one of the most difficult to understand due to a significant discrepancy with ordinary ideas. A social group is not just a collection of people united by formal or informal signs, but a group social position that people occupy. “We cannot identify agents that objectify a position with the position itself, even if the totality of these agents is a practical group mobilized for common actions for the sake of common interest” ^[2] .

The word "group" fell into Russian at the beginning of the 19th century. from Italian (it. groppo , or gruppo - knot) as a technical term for painters, used to refer to several figures that make up the composition ^[3] . This is precisely how his dictionary of foreign words at the beginning of the 19th century explains, where, among other overseas “wonders,” the word “group” is also contained as an ensemble, a composition of “figures that are integral parts and are so adapted that the eye looks at them at once” ^[4] .

1. the presence of an internal organization;
2. general (group) purpose of the activity;
3. group forms of social control;
4. samples (models) of group activity;
5. intense group interactions;
6. a sense of group affiliation or membership;
7. role agreed upon with each other members of the group in a common activity or complicity;
8. role expectations of group members regarding each other.

The content of the concept of “social group” includes a number of points that serve as criteria for distinguishing social groups from practical, nominal, “groups on paper” and groups in general. These properties are:

• social interaction - an active communicative interaction, both intragroup and intergroup;
• stigmatization - “labeling”, which recognizes the membership in a group, formed in social gestalt (recognizable image in the mass consciousness by characteristic signs);
• Signification - communication between group members is carried out using special sign systems, “codes” (slang, common names, clothes, external symbols, special rituals, manners, etc.);
• Habitualization - that is, “tidying up”, the individual's assimilation of a given social position and the formation of his attitudes, stereotypes inherent in a given group (the lifestyle of this group, collective habits, everyday habits);
• identification - an individual identifies himself with a given group through the opposition “we are different” with the establishment of social boundaries and filters at the “input-output”, as well as through the mechanism of social control (qualifications, codes, symbols, codes, etc.);

The signs by which membership in a group is determined and which underlie the identification may or may not coincide. For example, members of an organization distinguish each other by identification, and non-members identify them by their dress.

• collective subjectivity - a social group acts as a collective subject of social action (social activity), the result of which is social change and the construction of a system of multi-level social ties and relations with other entities (social groups, organizations, communities, institutions).

The collective subject, according to the concept proposed by A. V. Petrovsky ^[5] , itself acts as a hierarchically organized, multi-level system of activity, or a social position, consisting of elements (positions) different in the degree of mediation by the process of joint activity. As a leading factor in the formation and development of all forms of intragroup activity, socially significant joint activity is singled out ^[6] .

By the size of the group and the way its members interact , large and small groups are distinguished, as well as contact (primary) and distance (secondary) ones.

Large groups include the totality of people that exist on the scale of the whole society as a whole: these are social strata, professional groups, ethnic communities (nations, nationalities), age groups (youth, pensioners), etc.

Awareness of belonging to a social group and, accordingly, its interests as its own occurs gradually, with the formation of organizations protecting the interests of the group (for example, the struggle of workers for their rights and interests through workers' organizations).

Diverse small groups include groups such as family, friendly companies, and neighboring communities. They are distinguished by the presence of interpersonal relationships and personal contacts with each other. There is no specific number of members - the main criterion is the presence of real contacts and emotional connections between group members.

One of the earliest and most well-known classifications of small groups into primary and secondary was given by the American sociologist C.H. Cooley , where he distinguished between them. “Primary (basic) group” refers to those personal relationships that are direct, face-to-face, relatively constant, and deep, such as relationships in the family, a group of close friends, and the like. “Secondary groups” (a phrase that Cooley did not actually use, but which appeared later) refers to all other face-to-face relationships, but especially to groups or associations such as production, in which a person refers to others through formal , often legal or contractual relationship ^[7] . Community groups are friendships. There are many groups uniting people; each has a common cause and a common goal.

Small groups are classified according to the following criteria. By the method of education , spontaneously arising - not official, specially organized - official, real and conditional are distinguished. By the nature of the joint activity, there are practical (joint labor), Gnostic (joint research), aesthetic (joint satisfaction of aesthetic needs), hedonic (leisure, entertainment and gaming), directly communicative, ideological, socio-political groups. According to the criterion of personal significance , reference and elite groups are distinguished. According to the criterion of social significance , socially positive groups are found, asocial - socially destructive, antisocial - criminal, criminal groups ^[8] .

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

The existing large group has its own internal structure: the “core” (and in some cases the core) and the “periphery” with a gradual weakening as the distance from the core of the essential properties by which individuals identify themselves and this group is nominated, that is, by which it is separated from other groups identified by a specific criterion.

Specific individuals can and have all the essential features of the subjects of this community, they are constantly moving in their status complex (repertoire of roles) from one position to another. The core of any group is relatively stable, it consists of carriers of these essential features - professionals of symbolic representation.

In other words, the core of a group is a collection of typical individuals who most constantly combine the inherent nature of their activity, the structure of needs, norms, attitudes and motivations identified by people with this social group. That is, the agents occupying the position should be formed as a social organization, a social community, or a social corps that has an identity (recognized self-image) and is mobilized around a common interest.

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

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

Composition (lat. Compositio - compilation) - the organization of social space and its perception (social perception). The composition of the group is a combination of its elements forming a harmonious unity, which ensures the integrity of the image of its perception (social gestalt) as a social group. The composition of the group is usually determined through indicators of social status.

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

As for membership in a group of a specific individual as an element of composition, he really encounters the world around him, which surrounds him and positions him as a member of the group, that is, his personality in this situation becomes “inconsequential”, in him as an individual, as a member of a group see primarily the whole group.

There are various approaches to classifying the functions of social groups. The American sociologist N. Smelser identifies the following group functions:

• Socialization: only in a group can a person ensure his survival and upbringing of the younger generations;
• Instrumental: consists in the implementation of a particular activity of people;
• Expressive: it consists in satisfying the needs of people for approval, respect and trust;
• Supportive: it is that people tend to unite in difficult situations for them.

A feature of social groups in advanced economies at present is their mobility, openness of transition from one social group to another. The convergence of the level of culture and education of various social and professional groups leads to the formation of common socio-cultural needs and thereby creates the conditions for the gradual integration of social groups, their value systems, their behavior and motivation. As a result, we can state the updating and expansion of the most characteristic in the modern world - the middle layer (middle class) ^[9] .
According to the predictive assessment of S. Lash and John Urry (Lash S., Urry J.), society discovers and will increasingly detect a certain movement from the "organized", regulated by the state to its "disorganized" form, characterized by cultural fragmentation, greater freedom and less regulation. Group structuring is characterized by “radical pluralism” in the ordering of intra-group structures, as well as the instability and instability of subordinate relationships between them while maintaining the coherence of the main components of the group activity system and maintaining a balance of interests ^[10] . So, Ulrich Beck notes the influence on the development of group identification of the process of individualization, during which a person loses all traditional ties - with family, acquaintances, friends, with the social class. Individuals are becoming more independent in the implementation of choice, the formation of their own identity and group identification ^[11] . W. Beck fully supports the idea of poststructuralism about non-determinism and non-linear development, noting that one who “is still captive to the myth of linearity and shares the thesis of cultural convergence as a direct consequence of economic unification is simply an ignorant person” ^[12] . Network infrastructure, moving towards integrated global complexity in real time, has a significant impact on all social connections and relationships, reconfiguring them every time.

• Social exclusion
• Crowd psychology
• Superorganism
• Party

• Decision of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation No. 564-О-О on the constitutionality of the ban on inciting hatred of social groups in article 282 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation
• Primary and secondary social groups

in Russian

• Andreeva G. M. Social Psychology. 5th ed. M., 2006.
• Andreeva G. M. , Bogomolova N. N. , Petrovskaya L. A. Foreign social psychology of the twentieth century. M., 2002;
• Aronson E. Public animal. M., 1998;
• Social group / Dubovskaya E. M. // Grigoryev - Dynamics. - M .: Great Russian Encyclopedia, 2007. - P. 86. - ( Great Russian Encyclopedia : [in 35 vols.] / Ch. Ed. Yu. S. Osipov ; 2004—2017, vol. 8). - ISBN 978-5-85270-338-5 .
• Krichevsky R. L. , Dubovskaya E. M. Social psychology of a small group. M., 2001;
• Moskovichi S. A machine that creates gods. M., 1998;
• Psychology and Culture / Ed. D. Matsumoto. SPb., 2003;
• Stefanenko T.G. Ethnopsychology. M., 1999;

in other languages

• Classic contributions to social psychology / Ed. TP Hollander, PG Hunt. NY L., 1972;
• Stogdill R. Handbook of leadership. 2nd ed. NY L., 1981;
• Homans G. The human group. New Brunswick, 1992;