Social attitude and social situation. Social attitudes and behavior. Hierarchical structure of personality dispositions

3. Personality and social attitudes.

Personality is a set of socially significant qualities that are formed in interaction with other people. In sociology, the concept of personality means a stable system of socially significant features that determine the biosocial nature of a person and characterize an individual as a member of a particular community; it shows the transitions from the individual to the social and from the social structure to interpersonal relationships and individual behavior.

Sociological approaches are that the problem of personality is considered from different points of view, in particular, how a person is socialized under the influence of society. Sociological concepts of personality unite a number of different theories that recognize the human personality as a specific formation, directly derived from certain social factors.

A social attitude (attitude) is a certain state of consciousness based on previous experience that regulates a person's attitude and behavior. The concept was proposed in 1918 by Thomas and Znaniecki. The concept of attitude was defined as “the psychological experience by an individual of value, meaning, meaning social object”, or as “the state of consciousness of an individual regarding some social value”.

Attitude functions:

Adaptive (utilitarian, adaptive)- Attitude directs the subject to those objects that serve to achieve his goals.

Knowledge function- Attitude gives simplified indications of the way of behavior in relation to a particular object.

Expression function (values, self-regulation)- Attitude acts as a means of liberating the subject from internal tension, expressing oneself as a person.

Protection function - Attitude contributes to the resolution of internal conflicts of the Personality.

Signs of a social attitude:

1) the social nature of the objects with which the attitude and behavior of a person are associated;

2) awareness of these relationships and behavior;

3) the emotional component of these relationships and behavior;

4) the regulatory role of the social attitude.

The structure of the social attitude:

1) cognitive, containing knowledge, representation of a social object;

2) affective, reflecting the emotional and evaluative attitude towards the object;

3) behavioral, expressing the potential readiness of the individual to implement a certain behavior in relation to the object.

Setting levels:

1) simply installations that regulate behavior at the simplest, mostly everyday level;

2) social attitudes;

3) basic social attitudes, reflecting the attitude of the individual to his main spheres of life (profession, social activities, hobbies, etc.);

4) instrumental function, (attaching the individual to the system of norms and values of the given social environment.

Changing attitudes aims to add knowledge, change attitudes, views. Attitudes are more successfully changed through a change in attitude, which can be achieved by suggestion, persuasion of parents, authority figures, the media

A social attitude is a state of a person's psychological readiness to behave in a certain way, based on past social experience and regulating the social behavior of the individual. (Allport). In Western social psychology, the term "attitude" is used to denote social attitudes.

The social attitude has 3 components:

1. Cognitive, involving rational activity;

2. Affective ( emotional evaluation object, manifestation of feelings of sympathy or antipathy);

3. Conative (behavioral) implies consistent behavior in relation to the object.

1. Instrumental (adaptive, utilitarian) function: expresses the adaptive tendencies of human behavior, helps to increase rewards and reduce losses. Attitude directs the subject to those objects that serve to achieve his goals. In addition, social attitude helps a person evaluate how other people relate to a social object. Supporting certain social attitudes makes it possible for a person to earn approval and be accepted by other people, since they are more likely to be attracted to someone who has attitudes similar to their own. Thus, an attitude can help identify a person with a group (allows him to interact with people, accepting their attitudes) or leads him to oppose himself to a group (in case of disagreement with the social attitudes of other members of the group).

2. Self-protective function: social attitude contributes to the solution of internal conflicts of the individual, protects people from unpleasant information about themselves or about social objects that are significant to them. People often act and think in ways that protect themselves from unpleasant information. So, for example, in order to increase their own importance or the importance of their group, a person often resorts to the formation of a negative attitude towards members of the outgroup.

3. The function of expressing values(self-actualization function): Attitudes enable a person to express what is important to him and organize his behavior accordingly. By carrying out certain actions in accordance with his attitudes, the individual realizes himself in relation to social objects. This function helps a person to self-determine, to understand what he is.

4. Knowledge organization function: is based on the desire of a person to semantic ordering of the surrounding world. With the help of the attitude, it is possible to evaluate the information coming from the outside world and correlate it with the motives, goals, values and interests that a person has. Installation simplifies the task of learning new information. Through the performance of this function, the attitude is included in the process of social cognition.

Types of social attitudes:

1. Social attitude to the object - the willingness of the individual to behave in a specific way.

2. Situational attitude - the willingness to behave in a certain way in relation to the same object in different ways in different situations.

3. Perceptual attitude - readiness to see what a person wants to see.

4. Partial or particular attitudes and general or generalized attitudes.

An attitude toward an object is always a private attitude; a perceptual attitude becomes general when a large number of objects become objects of social attitudes. The process from particular to general goes as it increases.

In 1918, researchers W. Thomas and F. Znaniecki studied the letters of emigrants from Poland (in the USA). They found that if a person assessed his stay in America as temporary for the purpose of earning money, then adaptation was very painful, and speech and culture were assimilated extremely slowly. But if he thought that he had moved to a new country forever, then he adapted much faster and more efficiently. As a result, scientists came to the conclusion that each person forms a certain internal attitude towards his stay in the country, which radically affects his existence and. They called this phenomenon attitude.

Social attitude (in the article we will also use the term "attitude" from the English "attitude" - "attitude") - a person's tendency to commit a certain social behavior. It is assumed that it has a complex structure and includes a number of components: the ability to perceive, realize, evaluate and, as a result, act in relation to a social object (or phenomenon) in some way.

The social attitude performs four main functions:

Protection function: promotes resolution.
Function of expression: attitude acts as a means of liberating a person from internal stress as well as expressing oneself as a person.
Function of knowledge: social attitude gives simplified instructions about the way of behavior in relation to a particular object.
Adaptive: directs a person to those objects that serve to achieve his goals.

Well, and most importantly: with the help of attitude, socialization occurs.

It should be noted that the social attitude is formed gradually, sometimes even imperceptibly. What we generalize today becomes a firm belief in three weeks.

A certain algorithm (program) operates inside human thinking, which is formed on the basis of generalizations and assessments. It facilitates the work of the brain: it does not have to spend energy every time to evaluate and analyze the phenomenon, it already has a certain scheme (verdict, setting) that allows you to act quickly - without wasting time and resources.

In this regard, it is worth understanding that such social attitudes can both help and hinder. We make decisions faster, focus on the main thing. On the other hand, patterns of behavior can lead a person to the wrong path.

An important feature of social attitudes is their versatility. They can simultaneously represent knowledge and opinions, emotions and feelings, behavioral responses and intentions to act in a certain way.

Formation of social attitudes

Of course, such a complex concept as “social attitude” cannot be considered from one point of view. Therefore, it is quite logical that different currents of psychological science have their own definition and understanding.

Behavioral approach

Here the social attitude is understood as an intermediate variable between some objective stimulus and the external environment. Its formation is carried out practically without human participation and can occur due to:

Positive reinforcement (when a certain behavior is rewarded in one way or another, a social attitude appears).
A person's observation of the behavior of other people and the consequences of their actions.
Forming associations between stimuli or pre-existing attitudes (for example, conspiracy theorists hold similar views in many other areas).

cognitive approach

This approach was formed under the influence of a number of theories (theories of L. Festinger, the theory of congruence by Ch. Osgood and P. Tannenbaum, the theory of communicative acts by T. Newcomb), the general postulate of which is the human desire for internal consistency.

In other words, the formation of social attitudes occurs as a result of a person's desire to resolve the internal contradictions that have arisen in him due to the inconsistency of social attitudes with each other.

Motivational Approach

Proponents of this approach deny the behaviorist one, believing that a person is not a passive, but an active participant in the process. He is able to create, change and modify his own social attitudes. And he does this by weighing all the pros and cons.

There are two theories describing the formation of social attitudes:

The theory of expected benefits: the formation of social attitudes occurs with the help of human evaluation maximum benefit from accepting or not accepting the new installation.
Cognitive response theory: formation occurs as a result of a person's positive or negative response to a new setting.

genetic approach

Supporters of this approach believe that the formation of a social attitude is due to genetic characteristics:

Intellectual ability
Congenital differences in temperament
Biochemical reactions

At the same time, supporters of the method believe that in addition to innate ones, there are also acquired social attitudes. However, the former are much stronger.

Structural approach

This approach is based on the idea that social attitude is a function of the structure of interpersonal relations. A person compares his attitudes with those of other people, trying to figure out how to change his own in order to better socialize.

The structure of the social attitude

In 1942, M. Smith proposed his structure of social attitude:

Behavioral component (behavior in relation to the object).
Affective component (emotional assessment of the object).
Cognitive component (awareness of the object of attitude).

These components intersect with each other, so a change in one entails a change in the other two.

In 1934, the psychologist Richard Lapierre conducted a study, as a result of which the concept of the Lapierre Paradox appeared. This is a phenomenon that occurs when a person does not behave in accordance with his social attitudes. You can read more about this in the Wikipedia article.

However, a few years later, J. Bem disputed this phenomenon, opining that it is not the social attitude that influences behavior, but quite the opposite - at first a person behaves in a certain way and only then does the attitude change. Perhaps we are dealing with classic cognitive dissonance. In order to avoid internal contradictions, a person tries to explain his new behavior by the fact that "I am just like that."

Can social attitudes be changed?

This question cannot be answered unequivocally, because it is still not clear how exactly social attitudes are formed. As we wrote above, there are several theories on this subject: someone believes that they are formed genetically, someone that they are acquired.

If we proceed from the fact that everything can be learned, then perhaps the answer is yes, social attitudes can be changed. But in order to change yourself completely, you need to focus on a deep level - the level of values, moral and religious beliefs.

The sight of a cake reminds someone of a bad birthday in childhood, and someone remembers having a great time with their family. After some time, the opinions of these two people may change under the influence of future experience. A person also likes to imitate the behavior of other people, even if he does not always admit it. Therefore, social attitudes are born and die constantly.

Full awareness and self-reflection is needed in order to change destructive attitudes and replace them with productive ones. This process is quite lengthy, so you will need patience.

And the last. Ask yourself three questions as often as possible:

Why do I act this way and not otherwise?
Why do I think this way and not otherwise?
Why do I feel in this situation the way I do and not the other way?

The answers to these questions, reflection and self-reflection will help to identify the roots of many deep attitudes and change them if necessary.

We wish you good luck!

4.3. social attitude

Social attitude is one of the main categories social psychology. The social attitude is designed to explain all social behavior of a person. IN English language social attitude corresponds to the concept of "attitude", and introduced it into scientific use in 1918-1920. W. Thomas and F. Znaniecki. Thomas and Znaniecki also described four functions of attitudes: 1) adaptive (sometimes called utilitarian, adaptive) - the attitude directs the subject to those objects that serve to achieve his goals; 2) the function of knowledge - the attitude gives simplified instructions on the way of behavior in relation to a particular object; 3) the function of expression (sometimes called the function of value, self-regulation) - the attitude acts as a means of releasing the subject from internal tension, expressing oneself as a person; 4) the function of protection - the attitude contributes to the resolution of internal conflicts of the individual. They also gave the first and one of the most successful definitions of attitude, which they understood as "... a state of consciousness that regulates a person's attitude and behavior in connection with a certain object under certain conditions, and his psychological experience of social value, the meaning of the object." Here, the most important signs of an attitude, or social attitude, are brought to the fore, namely the social nature of the objects with which the attitude and behavior of a person is associated, the awareness of these attitudes and behavior, their emotional component, as well as the regulatory role of the social attitude. Social objects are understood in this case in the broadest sense: they can be institutions of society and the state, phenomena, events, norms, groups, individuals, etc. attitude (according to the theory of D.N. Uznadze), which is devoid of sociality, awareness and emotionality and reflects, first of all, the psychophysiological readiness of the individual for certain actions.

IN domestic psychology There are a number of concepts and concepts that are close to the idea of a social attitude, although they have arisen outside the framework of this problem. These include the category of relations in the concept of V.N. Myasishchev, which he understood as a system of connections between the individual and reality; the concept of personal meaning in A.N. Leontiev, who singled out, first of all, the personal nature of a person's perception of objects real world and his relationship to them; the orientation of the personality in the works of L.I. Bozovic. All these concepts reflect, to one degree or another, individual properties of a social attitude.

The system of social attitudes

The inconsistency of social reality inevitably gives rise to contradictions in the system of social attitudes and even a struggle between them. This fact makes it possible to explain, in particular, the problem of discrepancy between the social attitude expressed verbally and the real behavior of a person, which has long been discussed in social psychology.

In confirmation, Lapierre's classic experiment, conducted in 1934, is usually cited, in which it turned out that over two hundred managers and hotel owners who implicitly accepted and served Lapierre and his two companions, Chinese by nationality, during their trip to the United States (real behavior), six months later, Lapierre's written request to accept them was again refused (a verbal expression of attitude towards the Chinese). The "Lapierre Paradox" generated a long discussion and even called into question the general usefulness of the theory of social attitude.

In fact, the contradiction took place not between attitudes and behavior, but between the very social attitudes of managers, which was reflected in their actions.

The structure of the social attitude

In 1942, M. Smith clarified the structure of the social attitude, highlighting three well-known components: cognitive, containing knowledge, the idea of a social object; affective, reflecting the emotional and evaluative attitude to the object; and behavioral, expressing the potential readiness of the individual to implement a certain behavior in relation to the object. Whether or not the behavior corresponding to the cognitive and affective components of a given attitude will be realized depends on the situation, that is, the interaction with other attitudes.

Stereotypes and prejudices

The clear structure of the social attitude allows us to distinguish two of its important varieties - stereotype and prejudice. They differ from the usual social attitude primarily in the content of their cognitive component.

A stereotype is a social attitude with a frozen, often depleted content of the cognitive component.

Stereotypes are useful and necessary as a form of economy of thinking and acting in relation to rather simple and stable objects and situations, adequate interaction with which is possible on the basis of habitual and experience-confirmed ideas. Where the object requires creative reflection or has changed, and ideas about it have remained the same, the stereotype becomes a brake on the processes of interaction between the individual and reality.

Prejudice is a social attitude with a distorted content of its cognitive component, as a result of which the individual perceives some social objects in an inadequate, distorted form. Often, a strong, that is, emotionally saturated affective component, is associated with such a cognitive component. As a result, prejudice causes not only an uncritical perception of individual elements of reality, but also actions in relation to them that are inadequate under certain conditions. The most common type of such perverted social attitudes are racial and national prejudices.

The main reason for the formation of prejudices lies in the underdevelopment of the cognitive sphere of the individual, due to which the individual uncritically perceives the influence of the corresponding environment. Therefore, most often prejudices arise in childhood, when the child does not yet have or almost does not have adequate knowledge about a particular social object, but under the influence of parents and the immediate environment, a certain emotional and evaluative attitude towards it is already formed. In the future, this attitude has a corresponding effect on the content of the developing cognitive component, acting as a filter that allows perception only that information about the object that corresponds to the already established affective assessment of it. The corresponding life experience of the individual, emotionally experienced, but insufficiently critically interpreted, can also influence the formation or consolidation of prejudice. For example, some Russians who are faced with criminal groups organized along ethnic lines transfer a negative attitude to the entire people, of which this or that group consists of representatives.

Hierarchical structure of the system of social attitudes

From the point of view of significance for society and for the individual, individual social attitudes occupy an “unequal” position in the system and form a kind of hierarchy. This fact is reflected in the well-known dispositional concept of the regulation of the social behavior of a person by V.A. Yadova (1975). It identifies four levels of dispositions as formations that regulate the behavior and activities of the individual. The first level includes simply attitudes (in the understanding of D.N. Uznadze) that regulate behavior at the simplest, mostly everyday level; to the second - social attitudes, which, according to V. A. Yadov, come into effect at the level of small groups; the third level includes the general orientation of the interests of the individual (or basic social attitudes), reflecting the attitude of the individual to his main spheres of life (profession, social activities, hobbies, etc.); on the fourth, highest level, there is a system of value orientations of the individual.

Despite the fact that V. A. Yadov uses such concepts as disposition, orientation of the interests of the individual and value orientations, his concept does not conflict with the theory of social attitude. It is only the restriction of the role of the social attitude to the second and third levels that raises doubts. The fact is that in terms of their psychological functions and structure, value orientations are also social attitudes. They include knowledge and appreciation of the values of a particular society and the behavior corresponding to them. They really differ from other social attitudes, but only by the highest social and personal significance of their objects, and by their psychological nature they do not stand out in any way from the general system of social attitudes.

Each individual also has his own, subjective hierarchy of social attitudes according to the criterion of their psychological significance only for him, which does not always coincide with the socially recognized hierarchy.

For some person, the meaning of life and the highest value is the creation of a family and the upbringing of children; and for the other in the foreground - building a career at any cost, which is for him the main value orientation in life.

According to the concept of V. A. Yadov, such dispositions rightly belong to the second and third levels, and according to subjective personal criteria, they turn out to be the highest in their value for the individual. An explanation and confirmation of this approach to the problem of the hierarchy of social attitudes can be found in the concept common values and personal meanings of social objects A.N. Leontiev (1972).

This concept shows that the same social object (event, process, phenomenon, etc.), which has an unambiguous interpretation from the standpoint of the values and norms of society, acquires a different personal meaning for individual individuals.

Consequently, in addition to the dispositional concept of V. A. Yadov, the criterion of which is the social significance of objects of social attitudes of various levels, one can recognize the existence of subjective hierarchies of social attitudes built according to the criterion of their psychological and personal significance for each specific individual.

Thus, the social attitude, being itself a systemic formation, is included in other, more complex systems that are formed according to different characteristics, and the interaction of these complex systems is the ultimate regulator of the behavior and activity of the individual.

From the book Stop raising children [Help them grow] author Nekrasova Zaryana

Positive mindset So, with a positive mindset, our advice goes something like this: Let your child think for himself. Respect his personality. Leave the initiative to the child. Pause before helping. Try suggestive

From the book Psychological Types author Jung Carl Gustav

b) The Unconscious Attitude It may seem strange that I speak of the "unconscious attitude." As I have sufficiently explained, I conceive of the relation of the unconscious to the conscious as compensatory. With such a view, the unconscious would also have

From the book Social Psychology: Lecture Notes author Melnikova Nadezhda Anatolyevna

b) Unconscious attitude The predominance of the subjective factor in consciousness means an underestimation of the objective factor. The object does not have the meaning that it, in fact, should have. Just as in an extraverted attitude the object plays too much

From the book History of Psychology. Crib author Anokhin N V

LECTURE No. 16. Social attitude. Definition and classification 1. Research into the concept and dynamics of social attitudes

From the book Psychology and Psychoanalysis of Character author Raigorodsky Daniil Yakovlevich

70 PSYCHOLOGICAL SETTING Determines the readiness for psychological activity and can be different, it is a dependent concept: from the individual and the period of time, spiritual motivation, expectations, beliefs, inclinations, which affects not only a specific attitude

From the book Psychology of Installation author Uznadze Dmitry Nikolaevich

Social attitude The temperament of the cycloids determines the nature of their social attitude, as has already been pointed out. They have a need to speak out, to laugh and cry, in the closest natural way they strive for what sets their soul in adequate motion,

From the book Legal Psychology. cheat sheets author Solovieva Maria Alexandrovna

From the book Safe Communication, or How to Become Invulnerable! the author Kovpak Dmitry

II. Installation in animals

From the book Difficult Teen Through the Eyes of a Sexologist [Practical Guide for Parents] author Poleev Alexander Moiseevich

Installation in monkeys 1. Setting up experiments. There are currently no anthropoids in the zoological garden in Tbilisi. Therefore, we had to confine ourselves to installation experiments only with lower monkeys. Our colleague N. G. Adamashvili conducted these experiments on two specimens

From the book Pledge of the Possibility of Existence author Pokrass Mikhail Lvovich

16. Social setting of the individual One of the most important concepts of legal psychology is the social setting, or attitude. The term was introduced into scientific use by Thomas and Zvanetsky and was defined by them as a state of consciousness that regulates the attitude and behavior of a person.

From the book Cheat Sheet on Social Psychology author Cheldyshova Nadezhda Borisovna

Personalization setting Manifests itself as a tendency to interpret events in terms of personal meanings, to associate events with oneself when there is no reason for this. “Everyone is looking at me”, “Surely these two are now judging me”, etc. Marker words:

From the book Thank you for your feedback. How to properly respond to feedback by Hin Sheila

From the author's book

Setting on impunity With such a character trait, the lack of a cell phone of the latest model or a super fashionable jacket is often perceived by a boy as a universal tragedy - and he steals a phone or a jacket, usually not far from his own house, in

From the author's book

ATTITUDE TO RECOVERY Only when the individually significant losses that threaten recovery have already been experienced and can no longer cause suffering, when recovery becomes a signal of “encouragement”, that is, it promises an increase in opportunities for satisfaction

From the author's book

26. The social attitude of the individual, its formation and change Social attitude (attitude) is a certain state of consciousness based on previous experience that regulates the attitude and behavior of a person.

From the author's book

The Fixed Mindset and the Growth Mindset If you have a fixed mindset, every situation you find yourself in is a referendum on whether you have the qualities and abilities that you ascribe to yourself? Children with installation

Social attitude is the predisposition of a person to perceive something in a certain way and act in one way or another. Installation encourages a person to a certain activity. If the process of socialization explains how a person assimilates social experience and at the same time actively reproduces it, then the formation of a person’s social attitudes answers the question: how the learned social experience is refracted by a person and concretely manifests itself in his actions and deeds.

D. Uznadze defined installation as a holistic dynamic state of readiness for a certain activity. This state is determined by the factors of the subject's needs and the corresponding objective situation. Attunement to behavior to meet this need and in this situation can be fixed in the event of a repetition of the situation. D. Uznadze believed that attitudes underlie the electoral activity of a person, and therefore are an indicator of possible areas of activity. Knowing the social attitudes of a person, it is possible to predict his actions.

At the everyday level, the concept of social attitude is used in a sense close to the concept of "attitude". V. N. Myasishchev in his concept of human relations notes that the relationship is understood "as a system of temporary connections of a person as a personality-subject with all reality or with its individual aspects", the relationship determines the direction of the future behavior of the individual. L. I. Bozhovich in the study of the formation of personality in childhood established that the orientation develops as an internal position of the individual in relation to the social environment, to individual objects of the social environment. Although these positions may be different in relation to diverse situations and objects, it is possible to fix in them some general tendency that dominates, as a result, it is possible to predict the behavior of a person in previously unknown situations in relation to previously unknown objects. The orientation of the personality is a predisposition to act in a certain way, covering the entire sphere of its life activity. The concept of "orientation of the personality" acts as a single-order concept with the concept of social attitude. In the theory of activity, a social attitude is interpreted as a personal meaning "generated by the relationship of motive and purpose" (A. G. Asmolov, A. B. Kovalchuk).

In Western social psychology, the term is used to refer to social attitudes. "attitude". For the first time in 1918 W. Thomas And F. Znanetsky introduced into socio-psychological terminology the concept of attitude, which was defined as " psychological experience by an individual of the value, meaning, meaning of a social object", or as a state of consciousness of an individual that regulates the attitude and normative (exemplary) behavior of a person in relation to a particular social object, which causes a person's psychological experience of social value, the meaning of this social object. Individuals, groups, social norms, social phenomena, organizations, social institutions (law, economics, marriage, politics), countries, etc. can act as a social object. Attitude was understood as a certain state of consciousness and nervous system expressing readiness to respond, organized on the basis of previous experience, providing a guiding and dynamic influence on behavior. Thus, the dependence of attitude on previous experience and its important regulatory role in behavior were established. Attitudes are a latent (hidden) attitude to social situations and objects, characterized by modality (therefore, they can be judged by a set of statements). Four attitude functions.

1) adaptive(utilitarian, adaptive) - the attitude directs the subject to those objects that serve to achieve his goals;
2) knowledge function- the attitude gives simplified instructions regarding the way of behavior in relation to a particular object;
3) expression function (function of value, self-regulation)– attitude acts as a means of freeing the subject from internal tension, expressing oneself as a person;
4) protection function- Attitude contributes to the resolution of internal conflicts of the individual.

In 1942 M. Smith a three-component structure of attitude was determined, in which the following stand out:

– cognitive component(comprehension of the object of social attitude);
– affective component(emotional assessment of the object, a feeling of sympathy or antipathy towards it);
– behavioral (conative) component(habitual behavior towards the object).

Social attitude was defined as awareness, evaluation, readiness to act. Settings are formed:

a) under the influence of other people (parents, media) and "crystallize" by the age between 20 and 30 years, and then change with difficulty;
b) on the basis of personal experience in repeatedly repeated situations.

Settings – they are beliefs or feelings that can influence our reactions. If we convinced that a certain person threatens us, we can feel for him dislike and therefore act unfriendly. But dozens of studies conducted in the 1960s showed that what people think and feel often has very little to do with their actual behavior. In particular, it was found that the attitude of students to cheat sheets is very weakly related to how often they resort to them. Experiments R. Lapierre showed that attitudes (a person's attitude to some object) may not coincide or contradict the real behavior of a person. M. Rokeach expressed the idea that a person has two attitudes at the same time: to an object and to a situation. "Turn on" can be one or the other attitude. In different situations, either the cognitive or the affective components of the attitude can manifest itself, and the result of a person's behavior will therefore be different (D. Katz And E. Stotland). Subsequent studies in the 1970s and 80s found that our installations really affect our actions under the following conditions: When other influences external influences on our words and actions are minimal when installation is specifically related to specific actions and When it becomes potentially active because it has been brought to our consciousness. In such cases we we will stick to what we believe in.

The installation regulates activity at three hierarchical levels: semantic, target and operational. At the semantic level, attitudes determine the attitude of a person to objects that have personal significance for a person. Target settings determine the relatively stable nature of the course of activity, are associated with specific actions and the desire of a person to bring the work begun to the end. If the action is interrupted, then the motivational tension is still preserved, providing the person with an appropriate readiness to continue it. The effect of unfinished action was discovered by K. Levin and thoroughly studied by V. Zeigarnik. At the operational level, the attitude determines the decision-making in a particular situation, promotes the perception and interpretation of circumstances based on past experience of human behavior in a similar situation and predicting the possibilities of adequate and effective behavior.

social attitude- the predisposition of a person to perceive something in a certain way and act in one way or another. Installation encourages a person to a certain activity. The formation of social attitudes of the individual answers the question: how the acquired social experience is refracted by the individual and concretely manifests itself in his actions and deeds.

Domestic psychologist, engaged in the study of attitudes, D. Uznadze defined installation as a holistic dynamic state of readiness for a certain activity. This state is determined by the factors of the subject's needs and the corresponding objective situation. Attunement to behavior to meet a specific need in a specific situation can be fixed in the event of a repetition of the situation. Uznadze believed that attitudes underlie the selective activity of a person, and therefore are an indicator of possible areas of activity. Knowing the social attitudes of a person, it is possible to predict his actions.

At the everyday level, the concept of social attitude is used in a sense close to the concept of "attitude". I.N. Myasishchev, in his concept of human relations, noted that the relationship is understood "as a system of temporary connections of a person as a personality-subject with all reality or with its individual aspects", the relationship determines the direction of the future behavior of the individual. L.I. Bozhovich, in the study of the formation of personality in childhood, found that the orientation develops as an internal position of the individual in relation to the social environment, to individual objects of the social environment. Although these positions may be different in relation to diverse situations and objects, it is possible to fix in them some general tendency that dominates, as a result, it is possible to predict the behavior of a person in previously unknown situations in relation to previously unknown objects. Personal orientation- a predisposition to act in a certain way, covering the entire sphere of her life. The concept of “orientation of the personality” acts as a single-order concept with the concept of a social attitude. Within the framework of the activity approach, the social attitude is interpreted as a personal meaning “generated by the relationship of motive and purpose” (A.G. Asmolov, M.A. Kovalchuk).

In Western social psychology, the term is used to refer to social attitudes. "attitude". For the first time this concept was introduced into socio-psychological terminology in 1918 by W. Thomas and F. Znanetsky, to denote "the psychological experience by an individual of the value, meaning, meaning of a social object", or the state of consciousness of an individual that regulates attitudes and normative (exemplary) behavior a person in relation to a certain social object, which causes a psychological experience by a person of social value, the meaning of this social object. Individuals, groups, social norms, social phenomena, organizations, social institutions (law, economics, marriage, politics), countries, etc. can act as a social object. Attitude was understood as a certain state of consciousness and nervous system, expressing readiness for a reaction, organized on the basis of previous experience, providing a directing and dynamic influence on behavior. Thus, the dependence of attitude on previous experience and its important regulatory role in behavior were established. Attitudes are a latent (hidden) attitude to social situations and objects, characterized by modality (therefore, they can be judged by a set of statements). Four functions of attitudes were singled out: 1) adaptive (utilitarian, adaptive) - the attitude directs the subject to those objects that serve to achieve his goals; 2) the function of knowledge - the attitude gives simplified instructions on the way of behavior in relation to a particular object;

3) the function of expression (the function of value, self-regulation) - the attitude acts as a means of releasing the subject from internal tension, expressing oneself as a person; 4) the function of protection - the attitude contributes to the resolution of internal conflicts of the individual.

In 1942, M. Smith defined a three-component structure of attitude, which includes: a) a cognitive component (comprehension of the object of a social attitude); b) affective component (emotional assessment of the object, a feeling of sympathy or antipathy towards it); c) behavioral (conative) component (habitual behavior in relation to the object). The social attitude was defined as awareness, evaluation, readiness to act. Attitudes are formed: 1) under the influence of other people (parents, the media) and "crystallize" by the age between 20 and 30 years, and then change with difficulty; 2) on the basis of personal experience in repeatedly repeated situations.

Attitudes are beliefs or feelings that can influence our reactions. If we are convinced that a certain person threatens us, then we can feel hostility towards him and therefore act unfriendly. But dozens of studies conducted in the 1960s showed that what people think and feel often has very little to do with their actual behavior. In particular, it was found that the attitude of students to cheat sheets is very weakly related to how often they resort to them. R. Lapierre's experiments showed that attitudes (a person's attitude to any object) may not coincide or contradict the real behavior of a person. M. Rokeach expressed the idea that a person has two attitudes at the same time: to an object and to a situation. “Turn on” can either one or the other. In different situations, either the cognitive or the affective components of the attitude may appear, and therefore the result of human behavior may be different (D. Katz and E. Stotland). Subsequent research in the 1970s and 1980s found that our attitudes do influence our actions under the following conditions: when other influences, external influences on our words and actions are minimal, when the attitude is specifically related to specific actions, and when it is becomes potentially effective because it is brought to our consciousness. In such cases, we will stand firm in what we believe.

The installation regulates activity at three hierarchical levels: semantic, target and operational. At the semantic level, attitudes determine the attitude of a person to objects that have personal significance for a person. Target settings determine the relatively stable nature of the course of activity, are associated with specific actions and the desire of a person to bring the work begun to the end. If the action is interrupted, then the motivational tension will still be preserved, providing the person with an appropriate readiness to continue it. The effect of unfinished action was discovered by K. Levin and thoroughly studied by V. Zeigarnik. At the operational level, the attitude determines the decision-making in a particular situation, promotes the perception and interpretation of circumstances based on past experience of human behavior in a similar situation and predicting the possibilities of adequate and effective behavior.

Socio-psychological attitudes are a state of psychological readiness that develops on the basis of experience and influences a person's reactions to those objects and situations with which he is associated and which are socially significant. The function of adjusting attitudes is associated with the need to ensure the most favorable position of a person in the social environment, and therefore a person acquires positive attitudes towards useful, positive, favorable stimuli, situations, and negative attitudes towards sources of unpleasant negative incentives.

The ego-protective function of the attitude is associated with the need to maintain the internal stability of the personality, as a result of which a person acquires a negative attitude towards those persons, actions that can serve as a source of danger to the integrity of the personality. If some significant person evaluates us negatively, then this can lead to a decrease in self-esteem, so we tend to develop a negative attitude towards this person. At the same time, the source of a negative attitude can be not the qualities of a person in themselves, but his attitude towards us. The value-expressive function of attitude is associated with the need for personal stability and lies in the fact that positive attitudes are usually developed in relation to representatives of our personality type (if we evaluate our personality type positively enough). If a person considers himself a strong, independent person, he will have a positive attitude towards the same people and rather “cool” or even negatively towards the opposite.

The function of organizing the worldview: attitudes are developed in relation to certain knowledge about the world; each person has a certain idea about the world, some of them are scientific ideas, some are ordinary. All this knowledge forms a system of attitudes - this is a set of emotionally colored elements of knowledge about the world, about people. But a person can meet with such facts and information that contradict the established attitudes. And the function of such attitudes is to distrust or reject such "dangerous facts"; a negative emotional attitude, distrust, skepticism is developed towards such “dangerous” information. For this reason, new scientific theories, innovations initially meet resistance, misunderstanding, distrust.

In the process of human communication, social interaction, attitudes are transformed, since in communication there is always an element of a conscious or unconscious desire to influence another person, to change his attitudes. But since attitudes are interconnected and form a system, they cannot change quickly. In this system (Fig. 5.1) there are installations that are located in the center with big amount ties are the central focal points. And there are settings that are on the periphery and have little interrelationship, so they lend themselves to easier and faster change. The focal attitudes are attitudes towards knowledge, which are associated with the worldview of the individual, with her moral credo.

Rice. 5.1.

The main central setting is the setting to one’s own “I”, around which the entire system of settings is built, since in the process of socialization we always correlate all phenomena that are significant for us with the thought of ourselves, therefore the setting of self-esteem of our own “I” turns out to be at the intersection of all the connections of the system ( see figure 5.1). In order to change the focal setting, one must actually tear it out, and this is sometimes impossible without destroying the entire integrity of the personality. Therefore, changing the central setting is extremely rare and painful. An intensive change from positive to negative self-esteem is impossible without violating the integrity of the personality. The concept of one's "I" is most often quite positive in people, a strongly negative attitude towards oneself is observed mainly in extremely neurotic people.

When any setting changes, the following situations are possible: 1) neighboring settings change in direction, i.e. by emotional sign (from positive to negative) and by intensity, but this is mainly characteristic of peripheral attitudes; 2) the degree of importance, significance of the installation may change; 3) the principle of communication between neighboring installations may change, i.e. restructuring to take place.

Social pressure takes a person very far away from behavior dictated by his own attitudes, forcing, on the one hand, to adapt to the opinion of the listeners, expressing his position (the initial distortion is that people tend to adapt to the opinions of their interlocutors, and having done this, they themselves begin to believe that what they say), and on the other hand, social pressure can significantly distort our behavior contrary to our personal attitudes, for example, even make us be cruel towards those for whom, in fact, we do not feel any hostility. In addition, our opinions, attitudes about something can be distorted for internal reasons, due to inaccurate information, voluntary or involuntary deceit. Information distorted in the presentation can influence the speaker: people who are forced to give oral or written testimony about something they are not completely sure about often feel uncomfortable, fearing unwitting deception. However, they soon begin to believe what they say, provided they are not bribed or forced to do so. When the speaker is not pressured from outside, his statements become his beliefs, but this does not mean that they will be implemented in his real activity.

Opinions, attitudes of a person are based on something, therefore, in the past, he inevitably experienced the propaganda or educational influence of others. In this regard, social psychologists are trying to understand what makes a message effective, what factors make a person change his mind. Direct and indirect ways of persuasion can be used. For example, computer advertising uses a direct route of persuasion; it is assumed that buyers are ready for a systematic comparison of prices and features. And in advertising for soft drinks, they usually use an indirect way of persuasion, simply by associating the product with something attractive, for example, with pleasure and good mood. Social psychologists have also found that who makes the message matters a lot. Confident speakers appear to be both experts (having knowledge in a given field) and trustworthy. They speak without hesitation in their voice and are not guided by selfish motives. Sympathy for a person who is trying to convince us of something makes us open to his arguments (the direct path of persuasion). Arguments, especially emotional ones, are often more powerful when they are spoken out. beautiful people. People respond better to a message if it comes from a member of their own group. People are more likely to be persuaded when the position being expressed is close to their own. But the influence of persuasive information from a reliable source wanes as the image of the speaker is forgotten or ceases to be associated with the message. Information presented earlier often has more potential, especially when it can influence the interpretation of information presented later. However, if there is a time gap between the expression of two opposing points of view, the influence of the previously presented information weakens; if the decision is made immediately after the second point of view is expressed, then, of course, the advantage will be on the side of the speaker last, since his arguments will be fresh in the memory of the listeners.

People with high level formations with an analytical mindset are more receptive to the arguments of reason, to logical evidence - a direct path to persuasive influence (Fig. 5.2).

Usually people are more convinced by the arguments they have discovered themselves than by those found by others. If the appeal causes pleasant thoughts for a person, then it convinces. If it makes you think about counterarguments, the person remains with his former opinion. People tend to be more willing to trust a person they consider competent on a given issue, because by trusting the source, we are more benevolent and less likely to look for counterarguments. Not considering the source of information reliable, a person, as a rule, tries to protect his own concepts, simply ignoring information that is not suitable for him. When someone attacks one of our favorite points of view, we tend to feel a little annoyed and come up with counterarguments. If people are convinced of something, then after an attack strong enough to provoke a response, but still not strong enough to convince them, they will become even more strengthened in their own opinion. The persuasiveness of a verbal message increases when it is possible to distract the attention of the audience so much that people simply do not think about possible objections.

Rice.

All people more actively resist external influence when it comes to things that are important to them, while they are ready to judge less significant things superficially.

A disinterested audience reacts more to emotional and indirect influences, the effect also depends on whether they like the communicator or not. Information becomes more persuasive when it is associated with positive feelings, such as when listeners were introduced to it by feasting on nuts and Pepsi-Cola. Even at a business meeting in a restaurant, where the music sounds unobtrusively, it turns out to be much easier to convince thanks to this. A good mood increases the chances of achieving the desired result when persuading: good mood people see the world through rose-colored glasses, they make quicker, more impulsive decisions, rely more on indirect hints. People in a bad mood think longer before deciding on something new; weak arguments are unlikely to convince them. Information can also be persuasive when it appeals to negative emotions. Convincing people to quit smoking, brush their teeth more often, get a tetanus shot, or drive more carefully can be done with fear-inducing messages. Often, the stronger the fear, the more pronounced the reaction. But if you don't tell your audience how to avoid the danger, the intimidating information may simply not be perceived by them.

Social and political attitudes of people differ greatly depending on age. These differences can be explained by two reasons. First, the consequences of the change life cycles: attitudes change with age (often becoming more conservative). Secondly, the consequences of generational change: the attitudes of older people, assimilated by them in their youth, practically do not change, therefore they are seriously different from those that are assimilated by young people today; there is a generation gap.

The Canadian psychologist J. Godfroy identified three stages in the formation of social attitudes in a person in the process of his socialization: the first stage of childhood up to 12 years is characterized by the fact that the attitudes that develop during this period correspond to parental models. From 12 to 20 years of age, attitudes are formed on the basis of life experience and the assimilation of social roles. Adolescence and the initial period of maturity are very important for the formation of life attitudes. Attitudes and attitudes formed during this period of life tend to remain unchanged. Therefore, I would like to advise young people to be more careful in choosing the circle of social influence - the group to which they join; the media they listen to; the roles they play. The third stage from 20 to 30 years is characterized by the crystallization of social attitudes, the formation of a system of beliefs based on them, which remain stable, so it is already difficult to change attitudes at this age. But changes in cultural and social norms in society partially change attitudes and mature people: most of today's fifties and sixties have more liberal sexual and racial attitudes than they had in their thirties or forties. But it is not enough to reveal only the totality of social changes that precede the change in attitudes, it is important to analyze the changes in the active position of the individual, caused not simply “in response” to the situation, but due to circumstances generated by the development of the individual himself. If a social attitude arises in a certain area of human activity, then its development can be understood by analyzing changes in the activity itself, a change in the relationship between the motive and purpose of the activity, because only in this case does the personal meaning of activity change for a person, and hence the social attitude (A. G. Asmolov).