1. The concept of communication

For all group actions, participants act simultaneously in two qualities: as performers of conventional roles and as unique human personalities.

When conventional roles are played, people act as units of a social structure.

There is agreement on the contribution that each performer of the role must make.

The behavior of each participant is limited to expositions due to cultural norms.

Being involved in such enterprises, people remain unique living beings.

The reactions of each of them are dependent on certain qualities of those with whom they come into contact.

The nature of mutual attraction or repulsion in each case is different.

The pattern of interpersonal relationships that develops between people included in a joint action creates another matrix, which imposes further restrictions on what everyone can or cannot do.

Even in the most fleeting interactions interpersonal reactions take place.

In most of the contacts that take place, such reactions do not matter much and are soon forgotten.

When people continue to communicate with each other, there are more sustainable orientation.

The nature of this relationship in each case will depend on the personality traits involved in the interaction of individuals.

Since a person expects special attention from his closest friends and is not inclined to expect a good attitude from those whom he does not like, each party in the interpersonal relationship system is associated with a number of special rights and obligations.

Conventional roles are standardized and impersonal.

But the rights and obligations that are established in interpersonal roles, are entirely dependent on the individual characteristics of the participants, their preferences.

Unlike conventional roles, most interpersonal roles are not specifically trained.

Everyone develops their own type of treatment.

Although there are no completely identical systems of interpersonal relationships, there are recurring situations, and similar individuals respond equally to the same kind of treatment.

There are typical patterns of interpersonal relationships and typical interpersonal roles can be named.

Among the interpersonal roles that arise when people compete because of similar interests may be a rival, an enemy, a conspirator, and an ally.

In each organized group, there is a common understanding of how participants feel about experiencing each other.

In a family, for example, the relationship between mother and sons is conventionally defined.

The people involved in the concerted action simultaneously interact in the language of the two sign systems.

As performers of conventional roles, they use conventional symbols that are the object of social control.

At the same time, the particular personal orientation of each actor is manifested in the style of his performance, in what he does when the situation is not sufficiently defined and he has some freedom of choice.

The manifestation of personality traits in turn causes responses, often unconscious.

These two forms of interaction go seamlessly into one another.

Communication is a process of interconnection and interaction between public actors (individuals, groups), characterized by the exchange of activities, information, experience, abilities, skills and abilities, as well as the results of activities, which is one of the necessary and universal conditions for the formation and development of society and the individual.

At the social level, communication is a prerequisite for the transfer of social experience and cultural heritage from one generation to another.

In the psychological sense, communication is understood as a process and result of establishing contacts between people or interaction of subjects through various sign systems.

There are three aspects of communication, such as the transfer of information (the communicative aspect of communication ); interaction ( interactive aspect of communication ); people's understanding and knowledge of each other (the perceptual aspect of communication ).

The key words in understanding the essence of communication are: contact, communication, interaction, exchange, method of association.

There are various types of communication, which are often determined by the specifics of feedback.

Communication can be direct and indirect, interpersonal and mass.

Direct communication is direct face-to-face natural communication, when the subjects of interaction are close together and not only verbal communication occurs, but also non-verbal communication.

Direct communication is the most valuable type of interaction, because individuals receive the maximum information.

Direct communication can be formal and interpersonal .

It can also be carried out between subjects and simultaneously between several subjects in a group.

However, direct communication is real only for a small group, that is, one in which all subjects of interaction know each other personally.

Direct direct communication is two-way and is characterized by complete and prompt feedback.

Indirect or indirect communication occurs in situations where individuals are distant from each other by time or distance, for example, if subjects talk on the phone or write letters to each other.

A special type of communication is mass communication , which determines social communication processes.

Mass communication is the multiple contacts of strangers, as well as communication mediated by various types of media.

Mass communication can be direct and indirect.

Direct mass communication takes place at various meetings, in all large social groups: the crowd, the public, the audience.

Indirect mass communication is often one-sided in nature and is associated with mass culture and the media of mass communication.

Since many mass media transmit information to a large number of people at the same time, feedback is very difficult, but still exists.

People under the influence of the content of information transmitted by such sources form the motives and attitudes that further determine their social actions.

The levels of communication are determined by the general culture of interacting subjects, their individual and personal characteristics, the characteristics of the situation, social control and many other factors.

The dominant values ​​are those who communicate and their relationship to each other.

The most primitive level of communication is phatic (from the Latin. Fatuus - “stupid”), suggesting a simple exchange of cues to maintain a conversation in a situation where the communicators are not particularly interested in interaction, but are forced to communicate.

Its primitiveness is not that the replicas are simple, but that there is no deep meaning or content behind them.

Sometimes this level is designated as conventional (convention - “agreement”).

The next level of communication is informational .

There is an exchange of interesting information for the interlocutors, which is the source of any kinds of human activity (mental, emotional, behavioral).

The information level of communication is usually stimulating in nature and prevails in terms of joint activities or when meeting old friends.

The personal level of communication characterizes such interaction in which subjects are capable of the deepest self-disclosure and comprehension of the essence of another person.

The personal, or spiritual, level characterizes only such communication, which is aimed at activating a positive attitude of the subjects of interaction themselves to themselves, other people and the world as a whole.

The functions of communication are determined by various criteria: emotional, informational, socializing, connecting, self-knowledge ( A.V. Mudrik ); establishing community, instrumental, awareness, self-determination ( A. B. Dobrovich ); cohesion, instrumental, translational, self-expression ( A. A. Brudny ); contact, information, incentive, coordination, understanding, emotive, establishing relationships, exerting influence ( L. A. Karpenko ) and others.

If we consider communication in a certain system of relations, we can single out a set of groups of functions.

1. Psychological functions determine the development of a person as an individual and personality.

In terms of communication, many mental processes proceed differently than in conditions of isolated individual activity.

Communication stimulates the development of thinking processes (cognitive activity), volitional processes (activity), emotional processes (efficiency).

2. Social functions determine the development of society as a social system and the development of groups as constituent units of this system.

The integration of society is possible only if there is communication in all its forms, types and forms.

3. Instrumental functions define numerous connections between man and the world in the widest sense of the word; between different social groups.

The conceptual idea of ​​such a division of functions lies in the idea of ​​the relationship of man with society and the world in accordance with a simple model of relations: man-activity-society.

2. Varieties of perception and interaction of objects of communication

The concept of "communication" is associated with information exchanges that occur between people in the process of joint activities and communication.

Communication is an act and process of establishing contacts between the subjects of interaction through the development of a common sense of the transmitted and perceived information.

Actions whose purpose is semantic perception, called communicative.

The main task of communication is the achievement of social community.

The individuality and uniqueness of each subject of interaction are preserved.

In a broader philosophical sense, communication is considered as a social process associated either with communication, the exchange of information, ideas, and so on, or with the transfer of content from one consciousness to another through sign systems.

The sociological aspect of understanding communication reveals the specifics of the means of communication of any objects of the material and spiritual world.

This concept is often used in relation to various mass media ( mass communication ).

Their wide distribution and influence on almost every person gave rise to the concept of a common information field in which modern people live.

As a mass communication process, it represents the continuous dissemination of information through technical means of communication among the vast dispersed audiences, influencing the assessments, opinions and behavior of people.

Communication acts as a special function of communication, manifested in the transmission and reception of information.

This function plays an important role in interpersonal relations, since information processes in the modern world determine a significant part of human life.

The person transmitting information is the communicator , the person receiving it is the recipient .

In the process of interaction, the communicator and the recipient change places, because the functions of information transmission and perception pass from one to another.

However, there are such interaction situations when these functions are rigidly assigned to the subjects for a certain time.

Information exchange is a global phenomenon that goes beyond simple human communication.

However, the specificity of interpersonal information exchange is significant.

It is determined by the presence of a process of psychological feedback, the emergence of communication barriers, the emergence of interpersonal influence phenomena, the existence of various levels of information transfer, the influence of space and time on the transfer of information content.

The essence of the process of psychological feedback is the need for the subjects to develop a single sign system and a common understanding of the issues discussed during communication.

When a person receives information, he first perceives it, that is, interprets it.

Interpretation depends not only on the information itself, but also on the individual experience of the perceiver, his knowledge, general level of development, etc.

Communication is, first of all, communication, i.e. the exchange of information relevant to the participants in communication.

All means of communication are divided into two groups: verbal (verbal) and non-verbal . A. Pease cites data according to which the transfer of information occurs at the expense of verbal means (only words) by 7%, sound means (including tone of voice, intonation of sound) - by 38%, and due to non-verbal means - by 55%.

There is a separation of functions between verbal and non-verbal means of communication: pure information is transmitted through the verbal channel, and non-verbal communication is related to the communication partner.

Non-verbal behavior of a person is inextricably linked with his mental states and serves as a means of their expression.

People quickly learn to adapt their verbal behavior to changing circumstances, but body language turns out to be less plastic.

Various classifications of non-verbal means of communication have been developed, which include all body movements, intonational characteristics of the voice, tactile impact, and spatial organization of communication.

The most significant kinesic means - visually perceptible movements of another person, performing an expressive regulatory function in communication.

Kinesics include expressive movements, manifested in facial expressions, posture, gaze, gait.

The following types of non-verbal means of communication associated with the voice, the characteristics of which create an image of a person, contribute to the recognition of his states, identifying mental personality.

Voice characteristics refer to prosodic and extra linguistic phenomena .

Prosodica is the common name for such rhythmic-intonation aspects of speech as pitch, loudness of voice tone, timbre of voice, and the force of stress.

The extralinguistic system is the inclusion of pauses, various kinds of psycho-physiological manifestations of a person: crying, coughing, laughing, sigh, etc.

The takesic means of communication are dynamic touches in the form of a handshake, a clapping, a kiss.

Dynamic touches are a biologically necessary form of stimulation, and not just a sentimental detail of human communication.

Communication is always spatially organized .

One of the first spatial structure of communication was the study of the American anthropologist E. Hall , who coined the term “proxemics”, the translation of which means “proximity”.

Proxemic characteristics include the orientation of partners at the time of communication and the distance between them.

E. Hall described the norms of approaching a person to a person - the distances characteristic of North American culture.

These standards are defined by four distances:

1) intimate distance (from 0 to 45 cm) - communication of the closest people;

2) personal (from 45 to 120 cm) - communication with familiar people;

3) social (from 120 to 400 cm) - preferably when communicating with strangers and in official communication;

4) public (from 400 to 750 cm) - when speaking to various audiences.

Violation of the optimal communication distance is perceived negatively.

The essence of interaction is that in the process of joint activities and communication between people, contact arises, due to the individual characteristics of the subjects, the social situation, the dominant behavioral strategies, the goals of the interaction participants and possible contradictions.

The concept of interaction gave the name to the direction of social psychology - interactionism, which is characterized by the study of the life activity of the individual in the context of social interaction .

According to the theory of interactionism, the development of personality is carried out in the process of communication of an individual with members of a particular social group in the course of joint activities .

The actions of each individual are always focused on another person and depend on him.

Psychological compatibility is an important factor in the successful communication of interaction subjects.

Psychological compatibility in a social group is understood as the interaction effect, consisting in such a combination of people, which allows them to achieve the greatest possible interchangeability and complementarity.

A. B. Dobrovich singled out the social qualities of a person, which are most pronounced when interacting with other people and affect the psychological characteristics of communication: introversion - extroversion, mobility - rigidity, dominance - non-dominance.

K. Jung was the first to describe extraversion and introversion as the main focus or attitudes of a person.

An extroverted type of personality is characterized by orientation towards others, flexibility of behavior, sociability.

The introverted type of personality is inherent in the desire for solitude, interest in their own inner world.

Mobility and rigidity are qualities determined by typological properties of higher nervous activity and temperament. Mobile people are dynamic and expressive.

Rigid people prefer stability and stability in everything.

The interaction of dominant and non-dominant interlocutors raises the problem of the psychological suppression of one person by another.

The process of interaction of people consists of functional units of interaction - acts , or actions .

The act as a unit of human behavior was first studied by J. Mead . Each action can be considered as a unit of communication.

An action consists of four phases: the drive phase, the situation clarification phase, the immediate action phase and the completion phase .

Any interaction involves a large number of actions taking shape in the system of behavior.

Two indicators of the specifics of behavior have been identified, taking into account the nature of interaction in the process of communication: a person’s attention to the interests of other people; attention to their own interests .

By the ratio of self-direction and focus on a partner, one can judge about the development of the strategy of human interaction - the totality of the dominant features of human behavior in relations with other people, manifested in a particular social situation.

Allocate the main strategies of interaction: rivalry, compromise, cooperation, adaptation and avoidance ( R. Blake , D. Mouton , K. Thomas ).

The concept of social perception is largely determined by the concept of image, since the essence of social perception consists in a person’s perception of himself, other people, and social phenomena of the world around him.

Perception is the process and result of a person’s perception of the phenomena of the surrounding world and of himself.

Социальная перцепция – восприятие, понимание и оценка людьми социальных объектов: других людей, самих себя, групп, социальных общностей и т. д.

Социальное восприятие включает восприятие межличностное, самовосприятие и восприятие межгрупповое.

В более узком смысле социальную перцепцию рассматривают как межличностное восприятие: процесс восприятия внешних признаков человека, соотнесение их с его личностными характеристиками, интерпретация и прогнозирование на этой основе его поступков.

Социальный перцептивный процесс имеет две стороны: субъективную и объективную.

Процессы социального восприятия существенно отличаются от восприятия не социальных объектов тем, что социальные объекты не являются пассивными и безразличными по отношению к субъекту восприятия.

In a sense, perception is an interpretation . But the interpretation of another person or group always depends on the previous social experience of the perceiver, on the behavior of the object of perception at the given moment, on the system of value orientations of the perceiver and on many factors of both subjective and objective order.

The mechanisms of social perception are the ways in which people interpret and evaluate another person. The most common mechanisms are:

1) empathy - comprehension of the emotional state of another person, understanding of his emotions, feelings and experiences. Often empathy is identified with sympathy, empathy, sympathy.

Это не совсем так, поскольку можно понимать эмоциональное состояние другого человека, но не относиться к нему с симпатией и сочувствием;

2) аттракция – особая форма восприятия и познания другого человека, основанная на формировании по отношению к нему устойчивого позитивного чувства.

Благодаря положительным чувствам симпатии, привязанности, дружбы, любви и так далее, между людьми возникают определенные отношения, позволяющие более глубоко познать друг друга.

Аттракция как механизм социальной перцепции рассматривается обычно в трех аспектах: процесс формирования привлекательности другого человека; результат данного процесса; качество отношений;

3) механизм каузальной атрибуции связан с приписыванием человеку причин поведения.

Each person has their own assumptions about why the perceived individual behaves in a certain way.

Attribution of the causes of behavior can occur taking into account externalities and internality of both the one who ascribes and the one to whom he is ascribed.

If the observer is primarily an external, then the reasons for the behavior of the individual, which he perceives, will be seen by him in external circumstances.

If it is internal, then the interpretation of the behavior of others will be associated with internal, individual and personal reasons.