Lecture
Large social groups are communities of people that are different from small groups by the presence of weak regular contacts between all their representatives, but not less unified and therefore have a significant impact on public life.
One of the classifications of people in the history of world civilization divides people into races.
According to another people are divided according to belonging to different ethnic groups.
Ethnos is a social community, historically established in a certain territory, aware of its ethnic unity and possessing relatively stable features of culture, including a common language.
The basis of the existence of ethnic groups is the awareness of their integrity.
Two historical forms of the ethnic community of people - the tribe and nation.
The basis of the tribal separation of people on the territory of settlement, culture and language are generic relations.
With the transition from a primitive formation to an economic one based on commodity-money relations, an ethnos in the form of a tribe becomes an ethnos in the form of a nation.
Difference of a nation from a tribe: unites people, is characterized by social inequality; the emergence of the state, clear boundaries of settlement, the presence of public authority and other attributes of the state, the spread of culture, traditions and customs, the introduction of the state language; the formation and development of national pride, the manifestation of nationalism and chauvinism.
A nation is the highest stage in the development of an ethnic community that corresponds to a certain economic formation.
The psychology of an ethnic community (nation) - national psychology - has its own material base, carriers and reflects the common thing that representatives of the whole nation have in the world perception, stable forms of summarizing, psychological features, reactions, speech and language, attitudes towards other people.
The national psyche is an integral part of the public consciousness, its most important component is social psychology.
National psychology is the result of a long and specific development in which factors are involved:
Socio-political and economic development. The national psyche depends on industrial and social relations.
The historical development of an ethnic community is a rigid framework of numerous, but regular, temporary, but qualitative transformations of life and the psyche characteristics of its representatives, the external and internal attributes of which predetermine the originality of the origin, functioning and manifestation of the national psyche.
The age of the ethnic community indicates the duration of the formation of the national psyche of people, the possibilities of its long-term development or degradation.
Interethnic relations , their character and historical traditions influence the character of formation and manifestation of national consciousness and self-consciousness of its representatives, the specificity and dynamics of the manifestation of feelings in relation to other nations.
The cultural development of an ethnic community influences the basic qualitative characteristics of the national psyche of people.
Language and writing determine the originality of the thinking of its representatives, reflect the diversity of their worldview, views on the characteristics of their lives and activities.
The structure of national psychology is a combination of national psychological phenomena that make up its content, including the backbone and dynamic components.
The national identity, national character, national interests, orientations, national feelings and moods, traditions and habits belong to the system-forming entity.
National self-consciousness is people's awareness of their belonging to a certain ethnic community and its position in the system of social relations.
A national character is a historically established set of stable psychological characteristics of representatives of a particular ethnic community, defining a typical course of action.
The national consciousness of ethnic communities is a complex set of social, political, economic, moral, religious, and other attitudes and beliefs that characterize the level of spiritual development of a nation.
National interests and orientations are socio-psychological phenomena, reflecting the motivational priorities of representatives of a particular ethnic community.
National feelings and moods are the emotionally colored attitude of people towards their ethnic community, its interests, other peoples and values.
National traditions and habits - established on the basis of life experience of the nation and well-established in everyday life rules and norms of behavior, compliance with which has become a social need.
The dynamic components of a nation's psychology make it possible to comprehend and most accurately reveal the specifics of the manifestation and functioning of national psychological phenomena.
The structure of dynamic components: motivational-background, intellectual-cognitive, emotional-volitional and communicative-behavioral national-psychological characteristics, manifested as a result of the direct response of the psyche of representatives of specific ethnic communities.
Motivational and background national psychological characteristics characterize the motivating forces of the activities of representatives of a particular ethnic community, show the peculiarity of their motives and goals; intellectual and cognitive - determine the originality of perception and thinking of the carriers of the national psyche.
Emotional-volitional national-psychological characteristics determine the functioning of the representatives of the ethnic community of clearly expressed peculiar emotional and volitional qualities, on which their activity depends in many respects.
Communicative behavioral - determine the information and interpersonal interaction and relationships of representatives of specific nations.
Properties of national psychological features :
1) the ability to determine, at the level of an individual or group, the nature of the functioning of all other psychological phenomena, giving them a special focus;
2) the impossibility of reducing their identity to some common denominator;
3) even more conservativeness and stability compared to other psychological phenomena;
4) their diversity.
Classes in social psychology are large organized groups of people, differing in their place in the historically defined system of social production, in their relation to the means of production (fixed in the right of ownership), in their role in the social organization of labor and in the ways of obtaining and the size of that share of social the wealth they have.
The existence of classes is associated with historically defined modes of production.
Class differences in society arise on the basis of the social division of labor and the emergence of private ownership of the means of production.
The psychology of a social class is a form of spiritual mastering by the class of the conditions of its existence, which includes the consciousness of the class, the needs and interests of the class, its views, beliefs, feelings, moods, traditions and some other elements.
The determinants of the social class psychology are the socioeconomic position of the class, its place in the social system, attitude to the means of production, historical role, level of development, and socioeconomic relations of this formation.
The basis of education of the psychology of a social class is its living conditions, the nature of social practice, relations with other classes and interclass groups, social experience, lifestyle and other subjective and objective characteristics of the life of its representatives.
The nature of class psychology is influenced by the historical situation, the balance of class forces in society, the social base on which this class is replenished, and the psychology of other classes.
The psychology of a class is formed under the influence of its ideology and is influenced by the ideology of other social classes and interclass groups, especially the dominant ones.
In a class society, social consciousness exists and functions in the form of class consciousness.
Class consciousness is a product of a long-term social and historical development, which is based on the dynamics of the needs of people belonging to a given class and the possibilities for their implementation, as well as the related ideas and practical social actions of people.
The different conditions of existence of different social classes give rise to different needs, interests and motives of people’s activities.
In their totality, they add up to specific psychological characteristics common to most members of the class.
Conscious elements of class psychology, transforming in a certain way, constitute the content of class consciousness.
The development of class consciousness includes three levels:
1) typological , in which representatives of the class identify themselves and each other by external signs;
2) identification , when a group self-consciousness appears at the level of the primary community;
3) the level of solidarity , at which there is an awareness of the unity of interests and values of a large community and their belonging to it.
Psychology of a social class acts as an expression of the psychological community of its interests, attitudes, ideas, feelings.
In the idea of the boundaries and structure of social classes, firstly, there is always the existence of a working class (proletariat) , including hired industrial and agricultural workers, as well as lower and middle employees (trade and office workers).
Secondly, the existence of the bourgeois class is noted, which includes large and medium-sized owners of the means of production, including large farmers, as well as the highest layer of managers.
Third, the middle social strata are distinguished, including the petty bourgeoisie in industry and agriculture and the small owners of trade and service enterprises.
Numerous social communities in many countries of the world are representatives of marginalized groups.
Many researchers consider the level of income to be the leading class-forming trait. The most common model in the United States:
1) the highest upper class , which is made up of very rich and noble people, representatives of influential and rich dynasties with very significant resources of power, wealth and prestige throughout the state;
2) the lower upper class , including bankers, prominent politicians, owners of large firms who have achieved the highest status in the course of competition or due to various personal qualities;
3) the upper middle class , which includes successful businessmen, hired managers of firms, major lawyers, doctors, prominent athletes, the scientific elite;
4) the lower middle class , which consists of hired workers - engineers, middle and small officials, teachers, scientists, heads of departments in enterprises, highly skilled workers, etc .;
5) the highest lower class , consisting of hired workers who create surplus value in a given society;
6) the lowest lower class consists of the poor, the unemployed, the homeless, foreign workers and other representatives of marginalized groups of the population.
This model of society has many critics who believe that the level of income cannot be read as the main criterion of class affiliation.
Classes are not only economic, but also socio-psychological entities.
In accordance with the living conditions of people of a particular class, they develop a more or less definite class consciousness, the corresponding features of class psychology are formed.
The psychology of a class acts as a form of spiritual mastering by the class of the conditions of its being and is a combination of psychological traits, processes and states.
The psychology of one class differs from the psychology of the other according to which of the social psychological phenomena dominate in it and what is their content at a given historical moment.
In the class psychology are reflected and the national-psychological characteristics of people.
Social conditions of life of a class do not create the whole set of mental traits of an individual, but they suppress some traits, stimulate the development of others and thereby form personality traits typical for this class.
Therefore, in the community of psychological features typical of representatives of this class, the reality of class psychology is expressed.
The psychology of a class includes its needs, interests, value orientations, role representations, behavioral norms, traditions, and other social and psychological phenomena.
At each stage of the economic, social and cultural development of society, the class position determines the volume and composition of the material and spiritual benefits available to them, the main content of their activities, their real possibilities to possess certain things.
The content of needs depends on what the person has, the representative of the class and what is lacking.
The specifics of his activity develops some needs and suppresses others.
The interests of a class are determined by the position of the class in the system of production relations of a given society.
They can vary in degree of maturity, which depends on the level of development of the objective needs of the class.
There are other factors, such as subjective factors that may affect them (for example, the degree of maturity of other classes).
Class interests cannot be reduced only to economic ones, it affects the entire set of institutions, norms and values operating in a given society.
Particularly acute clash of interests of various classes is manifested in the political sphere, since political interests are a generalized expression of all other interests, including economic ones.
The subjective side of interest is that it is a product of the psyche's activity and therefore is experiencing the influence of other elements of social psychology, in particular values, behavioral norms, etc.
The basis of the formation and development of class values lies in its needs, which determine the basic significance of their entire system — the nature of ownership of the means of production.
Values are objectively determined by the economic conditions of the class activity.
Along with material values, there are also phenomena of social consciousness that express these interests in an ideal form - spiritual values.
An important place in the content of class psychology is occupied by the norms of behavior , functioning in the form of certain requirements, prescriptions and expectations of the corresponding behavior. Class or interclass group using the rules developed by them, regulate, control and evaluate the behavior of their representatives.
Standards of behavior are developed taking into account systems of social relations, interests of classes and its representations about due, admissible, approved, acceptable or undesirable, unacceptable.
According to a number of researchers, class psychology includes a “mental store” —a certain psychological aspect of a social class, manifested in a social character, traditions, morals, habits, etc.
They play the role of important regulators of behavior of members of a class or interclass group, and therefore are of great importance in understanding the features of class psychology.
All components of class psychology are interrelated in a close relationship and interaction.
Its study should be carried out taking into account these interrelations and mutual influences, which will allow a deeper understanding and explanation of its originality.
Among the large, but poorly organized communities is the crowd.
The element of the crowd - the socio-political crises, shaking the lives of people, as well as periods of transition from one state of society to another.
There are different definitions of the crowd.
Common is the opposition of the crowd to all stable social communities, depriving the crowd of clear signs and features, which generally makes it difficult to understand it as a social phenomenon.
From a psychological point of view, a crowd is a collection of people who have certain traits that differ from those that characterize the individuals that make up this meeting (G. Lebon).
The crowd is an unstructured crowd of people who are deprived of a clearly realized commonality of goals, but connected by the similarity of the emotional state and the common object of attention.
The term “crowd” is ambiguous and is used to describe phenomena and processes that are very far from each other in nature.
The presence of a crowd always focuses on the presence of a certain community; some kind of connection between people, which may be secondary, and temporary, and random.
Толпа – это относительно кратковременное, слабо-организованное и бесструктурное скопление (сборище) множества, связанное между собой общим эмоциональным состоянием, осознаваемой или неосознаваемой целью и обладающее огромной (несоизмеримой с индивидуальной) силой воздействия на общество и его жизнь, способное в один миг дезорганизовать их поведение и деятельность.
Толпа, по Г. Тарду, – груда разнородных, незнакомых между собою элементов.
Характерная черта толпы – это ее внезапная организация.
В ней нет никакого предварительного стремления к общей цели, она не обладает коллективным желанием.
Между тем среди разнообразия ее движений наблюдается некоторая целесообразность в поступках и стремлениях.
Само слово «толпа» как имя собирательное указывает на то, что масса отдельных личностей отождествляется с одной личностью.
Среди причин единства мыслей, наблюдаемого в толпе, П. Бордье выделяет способность к подражанию .
Каждый человек расположен к подражанию, и эта способность достигает максимума у людей, собранных вместе.
Многие писатели пытались объяснить это явление, прибегая к гипотезе о нравственной эпидемии Жоли : «Подражание – это настоящая эпидемия, зависящая от примера так же, как возможность заразиться оспой зависит от того яда, при помощи которого последняя распространяется».
На этом основании нравственной эпидемией объяснялись эпидемии преступлений, следовавшие за каким-нибудь преступлением, о котором много писали в прессе.
По Сергии и Г. Тарду, всякая идея, всякое душевное движение индивида не что иное, как рефлекс на полученный извне импульс.
Everyone acts, thinks only thanks to some suggestion.
This suggestion can be extended either to only one individual, or to several, or even to a large number of persons; it can spread like a real epidemic.
“According to the type of dominant emotion and behavior, the researchers identify the following types of crowd.
A random (occasional) crowd arises in connection with some unexpected event.
It is formed by "onlookers", people who feel the need for new impressions.
The main emotion is the curiosity of people.
An occasional crowd can quickly gather and just as quickly disperse. Usually not numerous.
Conventional crowd - a crowd whose behavior is based on explicit or implied norms and rules of conduct - conventions.
Собирается по поводу заранее объявленного мероприятия, людьми обычно движет вполне направленный интерес, и они должны следовать нормам поведения, соответствующим характеру мероприятия.
Экспрессивная толпа отличается особой силой массового проявления эмоций и чувств.
Является результатом трансформации случайной или конвенциональной толпы, когда людьми в связи с определенными событиями, свидетелями которых они стали, и под действием их развития овладевает общий эмоциональный настрой, выражаемый коллективно.
Экспрессивная толпа может трансформироваться в крайнюю форму – экстатическую толпу , т. е. вид толпы, когда люди, ее образующие, доводят себя до исступления в совместных молитвенных, ритуальных или иных действиях.
All three crowd types are passive . D. D. Bessonov proposed to consider the crowd as a waiting (passive) and active (active).
The active (active) crowd is the most important kind of crowd, given the social danger of some of its subspecies.
The most dangerous is the aggressive crowd - a crowd of people seeking to destroy and even kill.
The people who make up the aggressive crowd do not have a rational basis for their actions.
More often it is the result of the transformation of a random, conventional or expressive crowd.
В толпе люди опускаются до примитивного состояния, которое характеризуется иррациональным поведением, доминированием бессознательных мотивов, подчинением индивида коллективному разуму или «расовому бессознательному».
Качества, обнаруживаемые индивидом в толпе, являются проявлением бессознательного, в котором содержится все зло человеческое» (3. Фрейд).
Другим подвидом действующей толпы является паническая толпа – скопление людей, охваченных чувством страха, стремлением избежать некой воображаемой или реальной опасности.
Паника – это социально-психологический феномен проявления группового аффекта страха.
Возникший страх блокирует способность людей рационально оценивать возникшую ситуацию.
Подвидом действующей толпы является стяжательная толпа – скопление людей, находящихся в непосредственном и неупорядоченном конфликте между собой из-за обладания теми или иными ценностями, которых недостаточно для удовлетворения потребностей или желаний всех участников этого конфликта.
Некоторые исследователи феномена толпы выделяют повстанческую толпу как непременный атрибут всех революционных событий.
Действия повстанческой толпы отличаются конкретностью и направленностью на немедленное изменение ситуации, которая каким-то образом не устраивает ее участников.
Вопрос об уголовной ответственности сравнительно прост, если виновником преступления является одно лицо.
Вопрос делается крайне трудным, когда виновниками преступления являются не несколько лиц, а очень большое их число.
Одни, следуя военному закону наказания через десятого, т. е. наказав нескольких человек, с успехом, но часто без всякого смысла прекращают в толпе волнение и внушают ей страх.
Народные судьи часто оставляют всех на свободе, поступая, таким образом, по словам Тацита: «Там, где виновных много, не должно наказывать никого».
Классическая школа уголовного права никогда не задавала себе вопроса, должно ли преступление, совершенное толпой, наказываться так же, как преступление одного человека.
Ей было совершенно достаточно изучить преступление как юридическую субстанцию.
Как бы преступник ни действовал (один или под влиянием толпы), всегда причиной, толкавшей его на преступление, была его свободная воля.
For the same offense the same punishment was always assigned.
Позитивная школа доказала, что свободная воля – иллюзия сознания; она открыла неизвестный до сих пор мир антропологических, физических и социальных факторов преступления и подняла идею о том, что преступление, совершенное толпою, должно судиться отлично от того преступления, которое совершено одним лицом, и это потому, что в первом и во втором случаях участие, принимаемое антропологическимии социальными факторами, различно.
Пюльезе первым изложил доктрину уголовной ответственности за коллективное преступление.
Он допускает полуответственность для всех тех, которые совершили преступление, будучи увлечены толпой.
Он назвал коллективным преступлением странное и сложное явление, когда толпа совершает преступление, увлеченная словами демагога или раздраженная каким-нибудь фактом, который является несправедливостью или обидой по отношению к ней или кажется ей таковым.
Два вида коллективных преступлений : преступления, совершенные вследствие общего природного влечения к ним; преступления, вызванные страстями, выражающиеся самым ясным образом в преступлениях толпы.
Первый случай аналогичен преступлению, совершенному прирожденным преступником, а второй – такому, которое совершено случайным преступником.
Первое всегда может быть предупреждено, второе – никогда. In the first, the anthropological factor wins, in the second, the social factor prevails. The first excites a constant and very strong horror against the persons who committed it; второе – только легкое и кратковременное спасение.
L. Lavergne used the assumption of a man’s natural inclination to kill to explain the crimes of the crowd.
By itself, the crowd is more to evil than to good. Heroism, kindness can be qualities of one individual; but they are almost never the hallmarks of a crowd.
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Social Psychology
Terms: Social Psychology