A person lives in society from birth, so he constantly interacts with others. As we grow up, our circle of communication expands significantly: at first we contact only our parents, a little later - with our peers, then - classmates, classmates, and work colleagues. Sharing information is an important part of our daily lives. With the help of words and non-verbal means, we convey important messages, share our feelings and emotions with others, and also receive the necessary information. Communication is one of the main ways to gain new knowledge about the world.
Communication deficit
The researchers came to the conclusion that every person has a certain vocabulary that he must spend every day.
Otherwise, people begin to feel psychological discomfort. Many members of modern society, despite the large number of means of communication (mobile communications, Internet, etc.), feel lonely. The consequences of a lack of communication are varied:
- unstable emotional state,
- nervous breakdowns,
- psychoses,
- depression,
- and etc.
At the same time, lonely people are not necessarily hermits who live far from civilization; as it turns out, it is not so easy for the population of large cities with a population of millions to establish truly high-quality and strong social connections.
Subject “Psychology of communication” Topic 1.2 Psychological features of the communication process
Topic 1.2
Psychological features of the communication process
Contents of educational material:
· The communication process and its aspects: communicative, interactive, perceptual.
· Structure, goals and functions of communication.
· Classification of types of communication.
· Means of communication: verbal and non-verbal.
Communication is one of the most important tools for a person’s socialization, a way of his existence, satisfaction and regulation of basic needs, the main channel of interaction between people.
In everyday life, a person learns to communicate from childhood and masters its different types depending on his environment and the people with whom he interacts. This happens spontaneously, in everyday experience. For professional activities, especially those related to people and the transfer of information, knowledge, this experience is not enough; it is necessary to master theoretical knowledge.
The communication process and its aspects: communicative, interactive, perceptual.
In the psychological dictionary (edited by A.V. Petrovsky and M.G. Yaroshevsky, 1990), communication is considered as a complex, multifaceted process of establishing and developing contacts between people, generated by the need for joint activities and including the exchange of information, the development of a unified strategy interactions, perception and understanding of people of each other.
G. M. Andreeva (1990) identifies three interconnected sides in communication: communicative, perceptual and interactive.
Communicative
the side of communication (communication) consists of the exchange of information between those communicating, the transfer and reception of knowledge, opinions, feelings, etc.
Characterized by:
- the ability to establish psychological contact;
— taking into account the characteristics of communicative influence;
— reasoning, logic and adequacy of the communication situation;
— the effectiveness of using verbal (words) and non-verbal means of communication.
Perceptual
The side of communication lies in the perception, understanding and evaluation of each other by people and the establishment of mutual understanding on this basis.
The perceptual side (perception, cognition and mutual understanding) includes:
- self-knowledge in the process of communication;
- knowledge and understanding of the interlocutor;
— predicting the behavior of a communication partner.
Interactive
side is the organization of interpersonal interaction between communicating, i.e. the exchange of not only knowledge, ideas, but also actions. The goals of communication reflect the needs of joint activities of people. The reasons why people interact may vary. Let us list the types of motives for which a person interacts with other people:
— motive for maximizing the overall gain (motive for cooperation);
— motive for maximizing one’s own gain (individualism);
— motive for maximizing relative gain (competition);
— motive of maximizing the gain of another (altruism);
— the motive of minimizing the gain of another (aggression).
Each of these sides in real communication does not exist in isolation from the others, but appears together with them to a greater or lesser extent.
Structure, goals and functions of communication
.
There is practically no period in a person’s life when he is out of communication. Communication is classified according to content, goals, functions, types and forms. Experts identify the following forms of communication.
Direct communication
is historically the first form of communication between people; it is carried out with the help of organs given to man by nature (head, hands, vocal cords, etc.). On the basis of direct communication, in the later stages of the development of civilization, various forms and types of communication arose. For example, indirect communication associated with the use of special means and tools (a stick, a footprint on the ground, etc.), writing, television, radio, telephone and more modern means for organizing communication and exchanging information.
Direct communication
- this is a natural “face to face” contact, in which information is transferred personally from one interlocutor to another according to the principle: “you - to me, I - to you.”
Indirect communication
involves the participation in the communication process of an “intermediary” through whom information is transmitted.
Interpersonal communication
associated with direct contacts of people in groups or pairs. It implies knowledge of the individual characteristics of the partner and the presence of joint experience in activities, empathy and understanding.
Mass communication
- these are multiple connections and contacts of strangers in society, as well as communication through the media (television, radio, magazines, newspapers, etc.).
In psychology, there are three main types of interpersonal communication: imperative, manipulative and dialogical.
1. Imperative communication
- This is an authoritarian (directive) form of influence on a communication partner. Its main goal is to subjugate one of the partners to the other, to achieve control over his behavior, thoughts, as well as coercion to certain actions and decisions. In this case, the communication partner is viewed as a soulless object of influence, as a mechanism that must be controlled; he acts as the passive, “passive” side. The peculiarity of imperative communication is that forcing a partner to do something is not hidden. Orders, instructions, demands, threats, regulations, etc. are used as means of influence.
2. Manipulative communication
similar to imperative. The main goal of manipulative communication is to influence the communication partner, but at the same time achieving one’s intentions is carried out secretly. Manipulation and imperative are united by the desire to achieve control over the behavior and thoughts of another person. The difference is that with the manipulative type, the communication partner does not inform about his true goals, the goals are hidden or replaced by others.
3. Dialogical communication
is an alternative to imperative and manipulative types of interpersonal communication. It is based on the equality of partners and allows you to move from a focus on yourself to a focus on your interlocutor, a real communication partner.
The goals of communication can be functional and objective.
Functional goals of communication:
• providing assistance to another person;
• receiving help;
• searching for a partner for conversation, joint games, activities, etc. (i.e., a partner for interaction);
• searching for a person from whom you can get understanding, sympathy, emotional response, praise;
• self-expression (communication with those who give the opportunity to show strength, intelligence, abilities, skills);
• introducing another (others) to one’s own or universal values (education, training);
• changing the opinion, intentions, behavior of another person.
Object goals are associated with the choice of a communication partner.
As shown by O. A. Tyrnova, the leading motives for communication are: for girls - the desire to share various thoughts and experiences, as well as curiosity; among young men there is a commonality of interests and activities.
Communication has always been viewed as a multifunctional process. Five main functions can be distinguished: pragmatic, formative, confirming, organizing and maintaining interpersonal relationships, intrapersonal.
In pragmatic function
communication is the most important condition for uniting people in the process of any joint activity. The devastating consequences for human activity if this condition is not met is described in the famous biblical story about the construction of the Tower of Babel.
A large role belongs to the formative function of communication
. Communication between a child and an adult is not just a process of transferring to the former a sum of skills, abilities and knowledge that he mechanically assimilates, but a complex process of mutual influence, enrichment and change. The vital role of communication is clearly demonstrated in the following example. In the 30s XX century In the USA, an experiment was conducted in two clinics in which children were treated for serious, difficult-to-treat diseases. The conditions in both clinics were the same, but with some differences: in one hospital, relatives were not allowed to see the babies for fear of infection, while in the other, at certain hours, parents could talk and play with the child in a specially designated room. After a few months, the treatment effectiveness rates were compared. In the first department, the mortality rate approached one third, despite the efforts of doctors. In the second department, where babies were treated with the same means and methods, not a single child died.
Confirmation function during communication
gives the opportunity to know and assert oneself. Wanting to establish himself in his existence and his value, a person seeks a foothold in another person. Everyday experience of human communication is replete with procedures organized according to the principle of confirmation: rituals of acquaintance, greeting, naming, providing various signs of attention.
Interpersonal
for any person is associated with evaluating people and establishing certain emotional relationships - either positive or negative. Therefore, an emotional attitude towards another person can be expressed in terms of “sympathy - antipathy”, which leaves its mark not only on personal, but also on business communication.
Intrapersonal function
is considered as a universal way of human thinking. L. S. Vygotsky noted in this regard that “a person even when alone with himself retains the function of communication.”
In accordance with the content of communication, the following communication functions are distinguished:
• information (transmission, reception of information, knowledge and skills);
• expressive (understanding each other’s experiences and emotional state; changing it: after all, a person’s need for communication very often arises in connection with the need to change one’s emotional state);
• regulatory (mutual influence on a communication partner with the aim of changing or maintaining his behavior, activity, state, attitude towards each other);
• social control (regulation of behavior and activity using group and social norms through the use of positive - approval, praise or negative - disapproval, censure - sanctions);
• socialization (developing among team members the ability to act in the interests of the team, understand the interests of other people, and express goodwill).
Classification of types of communication.
In addition, several types of communication are distinguished, among which the following can be noted.
1. “Mask contact.” In the process of communication, there is no desire to understand a person, his individual characteristics are not taken into account, therefore this type of communication is usually called formal.
During communication, a standard set of masks is used that have already become familiar (severity, politeness, indifference, etc.), as well as a corresponding set of facial expressions and gestures. During a conversation, “common” phrases are often used to hide emotions and attitudes towards the interlocutor.
2. Primitive communication. This type of communication is characterized by “need”, i.e. a person evaluates another as a necessary or unnecessary (interfering) object. If a person is needed, they actively come into contact with him; if he is not needed, he is in the way—they are “pushed away” with harsh remarks. After receiving what they want from a communication partner, they lose further interest in him and, moreover, do not hide it.
3. Formal-role communication. In such communication, instead of understanding the personality of the interlocutor, they make do with knowledge of his social role. In life, each of us plays many roles. A role is a way of behavior that is set by society, so it is not typical for a salesman or a savings bank teller to behave like a military leader. It happens that during one day a person has to “play” several roles: a competent specialist, colleague, manager, subordinate, passenger, loving daughter, granddaughter, mother, wife, etc.
4. Business communication. In this type of communication, the personality characteristics, age, and mood of the interlocutor are taken into account, but the interests of the case are more important.
5. Social communication. Communication is pointless, people say not what they think, but what is supposed to be said in such cases. Politeness, tact, approval, expression of sympathy are the basis of this type of communication.
Depending on the goal, the following communication styles are distinguished: ritual, manipulative and humanistic.
Their characteristics were given by Yu. S. Krizhanskaya and V. P. Tretyakov (1990).
Ritual communication
has the goal of maintaining connections with society, reinforcing the idea of oneself as a member of society. Its characteristic features are lack of direction, lack of information, lack of content, lack of involvement or low involvement of partners in communication. With such communication, the partner becomes a necessary attribute of the ritual. With the help of ritual communication, “many contacts and conversations are carried out, which from the outside, and sometimes from the inside, seem meaningless, meaningless, since at first glance they are completely uninformative, unfocused, do not and cannot have any result. Well, really, what would seem to be the point in communicating, let’s say, at a certain birthday party. All those present have known each other for 20 years, get together 3-4 times a year, sit for several hours and talk about the same thing. And not only do the topics of conversation essentially do not change, but, in addition, everyone can certainly predict the point of view of anyone on any issue. It would seem like an absolutely pointless waste of time, which should only cause irritation. This sometimes happens, but rarely - much more often we get pleasure from these kinds of meetings. Moreover, the more “aggravating” circumstances - the more experience of acquaintance, the fewer new people, the fewer unexpected points of view - the greater the pleasure. Why do we need this?
The described communication is a typical case of ritual communication, where the main thing is to reinforce one’s attitudes, values, opinions, etc., increasing self-esteem and self-esteem.” Therefore, participants in such communication try to avoid any clash of opinions. Ritual communication does not affect the most important problems and interests of a person.
The second style of communication is manipulative.
This is a communication style that aims to use the communication partner for one’s own purposes.
The third style is humanistic communication
. This is personal communication that allows you to satisfy the need for understanding, sympathy, and empathy. The difference between humanistic communication and the two above is that the expected result of communication is a joint change in the ideas of both partners, and not maintaining social connections, as in ritual communication, and not changing the partner’s behavior, as in manipulative communication. Humanistic communication includes trusting communication. This is intimate, confessional communication, carried out not only between friends, but also between the patient and the doctor, often giving a psychotherapeutic effect.
A. A. Leontiev (1974) distinguishes three types of communication: socially-oriented, subject-oriented and personality-oriented
. The first type of communication is aimed at changing the psychological characteristics of a group of people towards either their unification or mismatch. This is communication between representatives of social groups, speaking in front of an audience. Subject-oriented communication is aimed at regulating the joint activities of people, and person-oriented communication is aimed at changing an individual personality.
Means of communication: verbal and non-verbal.
Depending on the means used, they speak of verbal and non-verbal communication.
In the communicative process, verbal (speech is used as a sign system) and non-verbal (non-speech sign systems) communication is usually distinguished.
Nonverbal communication is structurally represented by the following systems:
• visual – these are gestures, facial expressions, postures;
• skin reactions (redness, paleness, sweating),
• spatiotemporal organizations of communication;
• the nature of movements reflects a person’s emotional reactions;
• acoustic - these are such features of speech as pace, laughter, crying, coughing, pauses;
• tactile - this is touching, shaking hands, hugging, kissing.
Self-test questions
1. Which parties are included in the communication structure?
2. What forms of communication do you know?
3. Name the professions in which the imperative type of communication is used effectively.
4. Name the areas of human relations where the use of the imperative is inappropriate.
5. Name the functions that manifest themselves in communication.
6. What are the different goals in communication?
7. What types of communication do you know?
8. Name the means of non-verbal communication.
Need for support
Communication for most people, first of all, is a tool for realizing certain needs.
Over the course of his entire life, a person builds a whole system of social connections: family, friends, work colleagues, acquaintances, etc. Psychologists believe that through communication people feel that they belong to society.
Communication provides several types of social support:
- Informational
- by communicating with other people, we receive new information about the reality around us. - Emotional
- with the help of words we express our feelings and experiences. - Instrumental
- in the process of communication, people may ask for certain assistance (material or moral). - Evaluative
- during communication, our attitude towards certain events and people is compared
Under the motive
activity, we understand, according to the concept of A. N. Leontyev, what the activity is undertaken for. This means that the motive for the communication activity is the communication partner. Consequently, for a child, the motive for communication activities is an adult. Man as a motive for communication is a complex, multifaceted object. During the first seven years of life, the child gradually becomes familiar with its various qualities and properties. An adult always remains the motive of communication for a child, but what naturally changes in this person all the time is what most motivates the child to activity.
Communication with an adult in most cases is only part of a broader interaction between a child and an adult, prompted by other needs of children. Therefore, the development of communication motives occurs in close connection with the basic needs of the child, to which we include the need for new impressions, active activity, recognition and support. On this basis, we identify three main categories of motives for communication - cognitive, business and personal.
Cognitive
motives for communication arise in children in the process of satisfying the need for new impressions, at the same time the child has reasons to turn to an adult.
Business
motives for communication are born in children in the course of satisfying the need for active activity as a result of the need for help from adults.
And finally, personal
motives for communication are specific to that sphere of interaction between a child and an adult, which constitutes the communication activity itself. If cognitive and business motives of communication play a service role and mediate the achievement of more distant, final motives, then personal motives receive their ultimate satisfaction in the activity of communication.
Communication takes place in the form of actions,
constituting a unit of an integral process.
An action is characterized by the goal it is aimed at achieving and the task it solves. Action is a rather complex formation, which includes several even smaller units, which we call means of communication.
The latter, apparently, are equivalent to operations, according to the terminology of A. N. Leontyev. The study of communication between children and adults led us to the identification of three main categories of means of communication: 1) expressive-facial, 2) object-active and 3) speech operations. The first express, the second depict, and the third indicate the content that the child seeks to convey to an adult and receive from him.
Unlimited Knowledge
Researchers have concluded that in many cases the main purpose of communication is to gain experience.
The knowledge of each individual person is quite limited, so often we cannot even imagine the full picture of what is happening. The process of communication opens the door to a treasury of world experience. Reading books, searching for information on the Internet, and live communication with experienced professionals are all valuable sources of information.
In addition, as we know, truth is born in a dispute: many new ideas and ideas are the result of productive communication.
Those who know how to listen to their opponents are much more far-sighted than those who fiercely try to defend their point of view.
By listening to the opinions of another person, you get the opportunity to look at what is happening from the outside and draw the right conclusions.
The concept of communication motives and methods of their research
Chapter Five
Development of communication motives
with peers
The concept of communication motives and methods of their research
Motives are the driving forces behind the activity and behavior of a subject. There is no single view in understanding their nature in psychology. The initial concept for us was proposed by A. N. Leontiev (1975). It naturally follows from the concept of the psyche as an activity that he developed. The latter is the starting point of our understanding of the nature of communication as a communicative activity. The concept of motive is closely related to the concepts of subject of activity and need. “Only as a result of its discovery, the need acquires its objectivity, and the perceived (imagined, conceivable) object - its motivating, activity-directing function, that is, it becomes a motive” (A. N. Leontiev, 1975, p. 190).
The proposed concept makes it possible to rely on an object (or an idea of it), in which the motive is “objectified,” which makes it possible to judge the motives of the subject on the basis of objectively observable facts. This is especially important when studying the motives of young children.
Motives for communication are those qualities of a partner that, when revealed in the process, satisfy the need for communication. Since the motives for communication are inextricably linked with the need for it, understanding them requires revealing the content of the need. The best way to judge the content of a need is through the products of communication, which, according to the concept of M. I. Lisina, represent images of oneself and another person. The essence of the need for communication is self-knowledge and self-esteem of the subject through knowledge of the communication partner. It follows that the subject is encouraged to interact with a partner, that is, they become the motives for communicating with him; it is precisely those qualities of the latter that reveal his own self to the subject and contribute to his self-awareness.
The metaphorical concept of “partner as a mirror” is divided into two functions: 1) identifying the similarity of partners, which allows you to know yourself through knowing the other and comparing yourself with him;
2) identifying your partner’s assessment of your qualities and clarifying them for yourself. The first path involves the perception and assessment of the partner’s qualities; the second is to encourage the partner to respond to the initiative, to capture and take it into account. Hence, the motives of communication should be sought in two types of qualities that are different in function: 1) in the general (similar) properties of the partner and 2) in the ability \
partners to give a response (evaluation) to the manifestations of other participants
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nicks of communication. The named types of qualities correspond to two main types of communicative motives (partner is a similarity to the subject, partner is an appreciator of the subject).
When analyzing the motives of children’s communication with each other, it is important to take into account the fact that communication is not always an independent activity: it is often only a component of practical or cognitive activity. The child fulfills his basic needs for knowledge of the world and activity. As children develop various types of activities, primarily the leading one - games, they have a need for collective action and pooling of efforts. Therefore, the most important quality that encourages them to joint activity, and therefore to communicate in it, is the ability to coordinate actions, to be consistent. This ability constitutes the third main type of children’s communicative motives (a partner is an equal participant in a common cause).
Communicative motives are closely related to the content of the need for communication. The content of the need for communication expresses the type of objects (manifestations of human qualities) capable of satisfying it. At each level of development of this need, communicative motives represent different options for qualities that can satisfy children’s need for communication. Thus, the need for respect can be satisfied by various manifestations of peers: verbal approval or involvement in the activities of a peer and its creative development.
Preschool age is the initial phase of the development of children’s communication with peers, which rarely appears in its independent capacity and is mainly included as a component in other types of activities, and mainly in the leading one - play. Therefore, the motives of such activities as play, self-service, and initial forms of labor really encourage children to communicate. The motives of communication are subordinated to other motives or act in unity with them.
To study the development of motives for communication between a preschooler and a peer, it is first necessary to examine the objects that encourage him to communicate, that is, to determine and characterize the qualities of a peer as a subject and personality. According to the concept of A. N. Leontiev, as well as the theory of J. Nuttin (J. Nuttin, 1980a), which largely coincides with it in this regard, in order to characterize motivating objects, it is necessary to highlight those actions of the subject that express his desire for motivating objects . These are the actions of a child by which he encourages his peer to reveal some of his qualities (and above all - mirrors, as well as the desire for consistency in actions).
It is necessary to evaluate the driving force of different motives, isolate the leading ones, determine the comparative importance of additional ones, and identify the decisive factor in the development of motives.
There is still no clear picture of the development of a child’s motives for communicating with peers. The works of foreign researchers of the neo-Freudian school emphasize the hostile manifestations of children in relation to each other (N. Feshbach et al., 1972), which the authors explain based on instincts that are only gradually overcome during “socialization” (N. Feshbach et al., 1972; F. Dodson, 1970—cited from: M. Lewis, L. Rosenblum, 1975). Representatives of behavioral psychology see the hope of reward in encouraging children to contact their peers: more often - a gift (pictures, candy), less often - spiritual values (affection, support) (J. Bryan, 1975).
M. I. Lisina (1974 b), A. G. Ruzskaya (1974) identified types of motives for children to enter into communication with adults, called business, cognitive and personal. To study the motives of a child’s communication with an adult, two types of methods were used. In the first of them, situations were created that were close to the natural conditions of communication between a child and an adult, in which the adult addressed the child with his friendly attention, willingness to participate in a common game, and his qualities as an interesting storyteller, after which he provided a choice of several alternative communication opportunities (A.G. Ruzskaya, 1974). With the second type of methods in a play situation, the adult remained passive, expecting the child to take the initiative in making contacts, which were recorded and then analyzed (Z. M. Boguslavskaya, 1974; D. B. Godovikova, 1974; A. I. Silvestru, 1978 ).
The motives for children’s communication with peers were studied differently. The authors analyzed children’s justifications for their attachments to peers (V. A. Abramenkova, 1981; V. K. Kotyrlo, 1979; A. V. Zaporozhets,
T. A. Markova, 1980; T. I. Komissarenko, 1979 a, b; B.S. Mukhina, 1975; T.A. Repina, 1978). However, it is known that even adults, as a rule, are not aware of the motives of their actions (A. Maslow, 1954); This is even more common in children. Therefore, when studying the motives of communication, it is necessary to rely on objective facts of children’s behavior and through facts to establish what motivates preschoolers to communicate.
This chapter uses materials from four studies (D. B. Godovikova, M. N. Mahamanova, 1985; D. B. Godovikova, 1984; R. A. Smirnova, 1981; R. I. Derevyanko, 1983), in which modified the two above-mentioned methods for studying the motives of a child’s communication with adults. The first study (D.B. Godovikova, M.N. Makhamanova, 1985) analyzed the communication of each of 50 children from 2 to 7 years old for 2 hours with each other in the natural setting of a kindergarten (registration was carried out by two observers). We noted situations in which the child’s initiative requests to a peer appeared and considered them in connection with the partner’s response. We identified objects, that is, manifestations of certain qualities that the child was looking for when addressing a peer. Except
In addition, specific actions, verbal and non-verbal, with which the child expressed his desire for a partner were identified.
In the second study (D.B. Godovikova, 1984), the importance of a peer’s qualities as incentives to communicate with him was specifically tested. We created such playful communication situations in which children had to take on a role, reincarnate as carriers of the qualities (motives) inherent in their communication with adults (business, cognitive and personal). Thus, children, playing with toys, demonstrated business skills (masters of the game); they looked at picture books, which created a reason for the emergence of cognitive motives; talked about their tastes, favorite toys, preferred peers, expressing their personal qualities. In several situations, business, cognitive and personal motives were embodied in the behavior program of one child. He acted as an actor, the other as a spectator. The actor got the opportunity to demonstrate his merits to his peer and receive his response, assessment, while the viewer was able to perceive the various qualities of his peer and express his attitude towards them. The situations were structured like a game “on TV” (A. G. Ruzskaya, 1974).
Both participants recorded manifestations of activity that characterize the degree of desire for the qualities demonstrated by a peer: attention to him and an emotional reaction to his activity, proactive appeals to him and response to his answer. The total assessment of these manifestations of the child’s desire to communicate with a partner acting in a certain capacity served as an indicator of the motivating power of the motives of a particular category. The same purpose was further served by the child’s choice of one communication option after familiarizing himself with all the options. Children connected by relationships of affection and friendship were involved in the experiments.
The same preschoolers (50 people) participated in the experiments (second study) and observations (first study), which made it possible to obtain a variety of information about each child.
The third study, conducted by R. A. Smirnova (1981), also used a technique for implementing certain motives of communication in children's behavior programs. The programs were personalized to different children. After the child had experience of all the provided types of interaction with partners, it became clear which one he preferred. The basis for the conclusion about the attractiveness of a particular type of interaction was the change in the child’s attitude towards peers who personified different motives for communication.
The fourth study (R.I. Derevyanko, 1983) compared the motives of a child’s communication with peers and with adults. Co-
1 The work has not been published. 102
Situations were created that stimulated the child to make business, cognitive and personal contacts with both adults and peers.
Research (a total of 5,000 experiments) was conducted with children from 2 to 7 years old in kindergartens in Moscow, Dushanbe, Komsomolsk-on-Amur.
Main categories of motives for communication - with peers in children 2 - 7 years old
We judged the child’s motives for communicating with peers based on an analysis of his communicative actions and those active manifestations of his partner that created a state of satisfaction in the child. In the verbal act, the topic of discussion was revealed, which characterized the need that caused the appeal to a peer, and at the same time the type of action to which the child encouraged the partner was determined: practical, communication of information, attitude to what was heard. This gave us the opportunity to establish for what qualities of a peer the child turns to him, and to identify stable goals that were systematically set by the child. As a result of the analysis of all the materials received, three categories of motives for a child’s communication with a peer were identified, similar to those inherent in his contacts with an adult.
The first and most important category consists of motives generated by children’s need for active activity, which is expressed in preschoolers in role-playing games and is the leading activity for them. A child enters into communication with a peer for the sake of participating in a common game or productive activity, to which he is encouraged by the qualities of a peer necessary for the development of exciting and coordinated action. And above all, these are the skills to create interesting ideas for games, put forward goals and coordinate their goals and actions with other participants. The subordination of the motives of communication of this category to the needs of the common cause allows us to call them business.
During preschool age, children's cognitive interests develop. The child is enriched with new knowledge about the world and the ability to construct a narrative. This creates a reason for turning to a peer, in whom the child finds a listener and connoisseur. The qualities of a peer as a source of information and its connoisseur, which meet the cognitive needs of children, constitute the second category - the cognitive motives of their communication, which is inferior in importance to the first.
The third category included personal motives. The child gets involved in any activity that a peer is engaged in in order to compare his and his capabilities. Here, the role of motives is played by comparable, analogous qualities - one’s own and one’s peer’s, capabilities (skills, knowledge, moral qualities), needs (desires, inclinations). This is the first version of a personal motive, when it 103
directly expresses the need to communicate with a peer, and is not subordinated to other needs. The second version of the personal motive is a peer as a connoisseur of those qualities that the child has already identified in himself as advantages. The child demonstrates his skills, knowledge and personal qualities, encouraging other children to confirm their value. The motive for communication becomes his own qualities in accordance with the property of his peer to be their connoisseur. This motive is also directly related to the need for communication, with the child’s desire to know his capabilities, to confirm his advantages, using the response to them from a peer. Both versions of personal motives embody the qualities of a peer as a mirror in the two functions discussed at the beginning of the chapter.
Knowledge of another person and oneself is accompanied by an assessment of both subjects, as a result of which a stable position is created in relation to oneself and to peers. Three types of positions are possible: equality with a peer, superiority over him and inequality in favor of a peer. A child may develop one type (superiority or equality) or all three types of positions in relation to peers. Uneven positions become sources of different motives for communication. In a position of superiority, the child looks for qualities in peers that confirm her main motive: a peer-appreciator. In a position of equality, the child strives to cooperate and search for common goals, similar activities and self-expression among peers. In an unequal position, the child wants to find in a peer a model or source of goals and instructions for their implementation, as well as his attention and approval. The business motive here is combined with the personal one. Evaluating the actions and qualities of oneself and a peer involves their correlation with the norm. Therefore, we will also classify as personal motives the moral norms identified by children in discussing people’s actions. Children need a more refined understanding of the latter when constructing their actions and their own personality.
Personal motives for communication form an independent category. However, they are included as a mandatory addition in the categories of business and educational motives. In addition to these main categories of motives for children’s communication, there are complex forms - personal-business, personal-cognitive.
In all the options considered so far, the peer acted as a motive-means: his qualities contributed either to enriching the child’s play or to a better understanding of himself. However, already in preschool age it is possible to communicate with a peer for the sake of revealing precisely his qualities and building a holistic image of a peer with his inherent originality and dissimilarity from other people.
View of the world
Communication helps us change and reconsider our attitude towards others.
Sharing information with people allows us to rethink our views and change ourselves in time. Unfortunately, contacts with society can bring not only benefits, but also harm. Communication with people who demonstrate a sharply negative attitude towards traditional universal values can lead to harmful consequences. That is why, when receiving information from various sources, it is necessary to be selective, to filter out information that may be harmful or even dangerous.
Kholod Victoria · 08 Mar, 2018
Chapter 2. The need for communication and methods of studying it
Needs and motives of the individual in communication
The need for communication is a purely human need, which is built on the fundamental foundations of people's desire for community and cooperation. The motives serving it can be mutually exclusive and complementary - from selfish-manipulative to altruistic-disinterested. When establishing relationships with others, a person may strive to dominate, dominate, impress, maintain the image of a friendly and benevolent person, etc.
Need
can be defined as a state of need for objective conditions, objects, objects, without which the development and existence of living organisms and their life activities is impossible. The need is considered as a special mental state of the individual, as “tension”, “dissatisfaction”, “discomfort” felt or recognized by him, as a reflection in the human psyche of the discrepancy between the internal and external conditions of activity. Needs are sources of human activity. The most basic human needs are drives, which are closest to instincts.
The essential features of human needs are the objectivity of origin, their historical nature, dependence on practical activity, and social conditioning. Human needs are diverse: preservation of the species and the need for activity; the need for meaning in life and the need for freedom, for work, for knowledge, for communication.
The process of satisfying needs has a complex structure and consists of several stages, the main of which are motivation and implementation of activities. In this complex process, paradoxical moments can be revealed when, after too long a wait and too much stress, a person avoids an object that could satisfy his need. Thus, after a long forced separation, people deliberately push back and delay the moment of meeting, and when they meet, they behave with restraint, thereby puzzling those around them.
Failure to satisfy important needs and the inability to find substitute methods and objects can lead to profound personal disorders. Failure to satisfy vital human needs - such as acceptance, respect, satisfying communication, sincerity and trust in friendly contacts - leads to a feeling of inescapable loneliness, inhibits the emergence and development of other needs and sometimes reduces a person’s activity or changes the direction of this activity. Prolonged unsatisfaction of a person's vital needs leads to a state of frustration.
Frustration of needs and its consequences
Frustration, dissatisfaction or blocking of important social needs, including the need for communication, and long-term isolation do not pass without leaving a mark on the individual.
Frustration
(Latin
frustratio -
futile expectation, deception) - a mental state filled with anxiety, annoyance, frustration, internal discomfort, general tension. This state occurs when events that a person expected do not occur, hopes are not fulfilled, and obstacles arise on the way to the goal.
Frustration
(Latin frustratio – futile expectation, deception)
– a mental state filled with anxiety, annoyance, frustration, internal discomfort, general tension; occurs when events that a person expected do not occur, hopes are not fulfilled, and obstacles arise on the way to the goal.
Frustration occurs when a person can neither achieve a goal nor abandon it. A concept close to frustration is “danger”. However, in a dangerous situation, there is still only the threat of trouble, and the occurrence of frustration signals that trouble has already happened. Therefore, danger causes a mobilizing mental state aimed at the future, and frustration causes a state focused on the present and past.
Causes
A person can evaluate frustrations as
external
(difficult, unresolved task, unfavorable conditions, bad assistants and employees) and
internal
(poor preparation for completing the task, lack of will, etc.). Most often, people (especially children) tend to consider frustration a consequence of the influence of external circumstances. If a person views the causes of frustration as removable, his motivation increases, increased emotional arousal and a strong desire to destroy obstacles appear.
This natural mechanism, which triggers energy reserves in the event of interference in achieving a goal, is socially progressive and individually beneficial for the better adaptation and functioning of both humans and animals. With persistent, repeated failures and complete loss of hope for success, motivation drops. Then a new motive may appear.
Continued failures can cause frustration to build up,
which in turn leads to psychosomatic disorders (ulcers, allergies, asthma, stuttering) and fixed reactions, more often arising under the influence of punishment.
The immediate psychological consequences of frustration are excitement, fantasy, apathy, destructiveness, despair. Typical reactions to frustration are aggression (directed at others or at oneself), rationalization, reduction in the value of an unattainable object (the desire to relieve oneself of the blame for failure, to present events in a favorable light).
A frequent adaptation to frustration is replacement activity. If a child is forbidden to build a house from a constructor because the time for rest and play has ended, he can begin to draw it in the air. The real way out of this state is conscious retreat, which is tantamount to restraint; unconscious retreat is expressed in the suppression of unwanted and unrealizable hopes and aspirations, which sometimes manifest themselves in a person’s dreams.
Lack of motivation in a situation of frustration makes a person insecure, resentful and doomed to failure.
To study frustration, the “Methodology of Unsolvable Problems” as well as the “Methodology of Interrupted Actions” are successfully used.
2.1.2. Motivation
The concept of “motive” often denotes such psychological phenomena as intention, desire, desire, design, hunting, thirst, fear, etc., which reflect the presence in the human psyche of a certain readiness that directs towards a specific goal. Activity is directed by a variety of motives; We call their totality and the internal process of motivation itself motivation. Motivation is closely related to human needs, as it appears when a need or lack of something arises. This is the initial stage of mental and physical activity.
Motivation –
inducement to activity by a certain motive, the process of choosing grounds for a certain direction of action.
Motive
is a concept that is used to explain individual differences in activities carried out under identical conditions.
Motivation processes can have different directions - to achieve or avoid a goal, to carry out an activity or to abstain from it; accompanied by experiences, positive or negative emotions (joy, satisfaction, relief, fear, suffering). Motivation is accompanied by a certain psychophysiological tension, that is, states of excitement, influx or loss of strength.
Motive
a concept that is used to explain individual differences in activities carried out under identical conditions.
Purpose and motive are not the same. So, for example, a person may have a goal - to change his place of residence, but the motives may be different: to improve his situation; change your social circle, move your place of work closer to your place of residence; live close to relatives, etc. Some motives may not be recognized by the person.
The strength of motivation and its activity are expressed in the degree of influence on the direction and success of activities. Strengthening motivation increases the success of an activity to a certain limit; with a further increase in motivation, the success of the activity begins to decline. Thus, sociability becomes an obsession, and the desire for creative solitude can turn into painful reclusion.
In addition, in solving easy tasks, the best success of activity is achieved with a high level of motivation, and in solving difficult ones - with its low and medium level. Maximum efficiency corresponds not to maximum, but to optimal strength of motivation.
Text of the book “Motivation and Motives”
As shown by O. A. Tyrnova (1996), the leading motives for communication are: for girls - the desire to share various thoughts and experiences, as well as curiosity; among young men there is a commonality of interests and activities.
10.2. Communication goals
The goals of communication can be functional and objective. The functional goals of communication can be:
– helping another person;
– receiving help;
– searching for a partner for conversation, joint games, activities, etc. (i.e., an interaction partner);
– searching for a person from whom you can get understanding, sympathy, emotional response, praise;
– self-expression (communication with those who give the opportunity to demonstrate strength, intelligence, abilities, skills);
– introducing another (others) to one’s own or universal values (education, training);
– changing the opinion, intention, behavior of another person (the methods of influence used for this have already been discussed in Chapter 6).
In connection with these goals, the central point in the motivation of communication becomes the choice of a permanent or situational communication partner (goal-object)
, and for a psychological researcher - the study of the reasons and factors that determine such a choice or refusal of it.
The most common reason for choosing a permanent communication partner, in particular by children, according to many authors, is the attractiveness of another person as a person in terms of moral, business or physical qualities, the manifestation of sympathy and love for this person, i.e. an emotional attitude. Thus, in preschoolers, attachment to peers is ensured by such qualities of the latter as sensitivity, responsiveness, care and attention, fairness, friendliness, consideration of the interests of others, and friendliness. As N.G. Polekhina (1971) showed, the need for students to communicate with teachers outside of class time arises if the latter have the following qualities: humanity, good character, sense of humor, tact. A teacher must have erudition, the ability to find contact, be a good conversationalist, and understand students.
Business qualities (intelligence, ability to organize a game, study, work) can also be the reason for choosing a permanent or temporary communication partner (V.N. Lozotseva, 1978; V. Hartan, 1970; Ya.L. Kolominsky, 1976). In the emergence of attachment to someone, a person’s external attractiveness can also play a role (and already in children 3–7 years old) (T. A. Repina, 1988).
An important role in choosing a communication partner is played by the presence of common interests, values, worldview, as well as the need for cooperation and interaction in the process of receiving or providing assistance. In some cases, the choice of a communication partner is determined by external factors: proximity of residence, acquaintance of parents (for children), etc.
The stability of student communication pairs (and, consequently, the stability of the communication motive), according to I.K. Shirokova (1973), does not depend on the closeness of partners in terms of sociometric status and extraversion, but is associated with closeness in terms of neuroticism and emotional expansiveness; In addition, pairs with opposite values of nonverbal intelligence and the strength of the nervous system turned out to be stable.
In general, data on psychological factors (motivators) influencing the choice of a communication partner and the stability of communication pairs seem at first glance to be quite contradictory. N. N. Obozov (1979) found that people with similar personality characteristics are more likely to be friends. T. B. Kartseva (1981), having studied pairs of friends and enemies, revealed that they are united both by the principle of similarity and by the principle of contrast. More than half of the friends turned out to be rather reserved people, about half of them had the same level of intelligence, and the other half - different; a little more than half of the friends showed different levels of dominance and “concern - carelessness.” It turned out that two reasonable, cautious, prudent people, or timid and indecisive people, rarely become friends.
In fact, these contradictions are largely surmountable, if we consider that innate qualities in compatible couples are often contrasting, and acquired qualities (values, attitudes, etc.) are often similar.
Reluctance to communicate with one or another student is more associated with his negative behavior (lack of discipline, aggressiveness and untidiness) - in the lower grades and with negative moral qualities (deception, dishonesty, envy, laziness) - in adolescents.
The motives for communication between adolescents and parents were studied by S. V. Belokhvostova (1983). The most significant motive for communication between teenagers and mothers (80% of responses) is the desire to share their mood and convey their experiences. In communication with dads, this motive was noted by only 19% of teenagers. The second most important motive (74% of responses) for communicating with mothers is the need for them to regulate the actions and behavior of adolescents. Teenagers are focused on regulatory communication with their mothers to a greater extent than with their fathers. In communication with the latter, this motive was noted only in 24% of cases.
In communication with dads, the most significant motive was “I want to learn as much new and interesting things as possible” (84% of responses). In communication with mothers, this motive was noted by 58% of the adolescents surveyed.
10.3. Shyness as a negative motivator of communication
Satisfaction of the need for communication can be hampered by such a personal quality of the subject as shyness.
According to V.N. Kunitsyna (1995), 33% of the adult population of our country falls into the shy category (30% of women and 23% of men). In schoolchildren, the prevalence of shyness ranges from 25 to 35%. This is how V. N. Kunitsyn and E. N. Boytsova describe the communication of a shy person (1983).
In a group of people, a shy person usually stays apart, rarely enters into a general conversation, and even less often starts a conversation himself. During a conversation he behaves awkwardly, tries to get away from the center of attention, speaks less and more quietly. Such a person always listens more than he speaks himself, does not dare to ask unnecessary questions or argue, and usually expresses his opinion timidly and hesitantly.
It is difficult to get him to talk, often he cannot squeeze out a single word, and his answers are usually monosyllabic. A shy person often cannot find the right words for a conversation, often stutters, or even falls silent; He is characterized by a fear of doing anything in public. With everyone’s attention on him, he gets lost, doesn’t know what to answer, how to react to a remark or a joke; For shy people, communication is often a burden. Characteristic of such people is the difficulty of making decisions.
Difficulties in communication experienced by a shy person often lead to the fact that he withdraws into himself, and this, in turn, often leads to loneliness and the inability to start a family. The tension experienced by a shy person when communicating with people can lead to the development of neuroses.
Shyness and the difficulties associated with it in communication are especially pronounced in youth. At the same time, adults mistake it for modesty or secrecy, while teenagers and young men themselves try to hide it behind external swagger and even rudeness (this is especially typical for males).
I. S. Kon (1989) believes that shyness is caused by introversion, low self-esteem and unsuccessful experience of interpersonal contacts. As for personal characteristics (introversion and self-esteem), it is still worth thinking about whether the situation is just the opposite: are low sociability and low self-esteem a consequence of shyness?
Overcoming shyness, according to many psychologists who deal with the problem of communication, is facilitated by mastering communication skills, especially in childhood and adolescence.
10.4. Age-related characteristics of communication motivation
In infancy, the need to communicate with parents, especially with the mother, is clearly expressed. Therefore, a lack of such communication for 5–6 months leads to irreversible negative changes in the child’s psyche, disrupts emotional, mental and physical development, and leads to neuroses.
By the end of the first year of life, children develop a fairly stable desire to communicate with peers: they love to be around other children, although they do not yet play with them. From the second year, communication with peers expands, and for 4-year-olds it becomes one of the leading needs. At the same time, their independence and initiative increase, that is, their behavior becomes more and more internally determined.
As M.I. Lisina notes, the content of the need for communication (or rather, the motive for communication) at different stages of ontogenesis may be different (isn’t this the best proof that there is no specific primary, basic need for communication and that the need for communication is a need for a way to satisfy other needs?). In the first 7 years of a child’s life, the content of this need consists of: in children 2–6 months from birth – in friendly attention, in children from 6 months to 3 years – in cooperation, in children 3–5 years old – in the respectful attitude of an adult, in children 5–7 years – in mutual understanding and experience. Thus, with age, the content of the need for communication (or more precisely, the content of the motive for communication) becomes richer and more diverse. At the same time, the meaning of the adult as an object of communication also changes. For children under 6 months, an adult is a source of affection and attention, and communication itself has a personal meaning for the child. For children from 6 months to 3 years old, an adult is a play partner, a role model, an evaluator of the child’s knowledge and skills; communicating with him makes business sense. For a child from 3 to 5 years old, an adult is a source of knowledge, an erudite, and communication with him has cognitive meaning. For children 5–7 years old, an adult is an older friend, and communication again takes on a personal meaning.
In the lower grades, the motivation to communicate with peers again becomes the driving force and a stable circle of immediate contacts is formed. The need for emotional support from peers can be so great that children do not always think about the fundamental foundations of these relationships. Hence the cases of “false partnership”, “mutual responsibility”.
It is believed that the motive for communicating with peers reaches its maximum development at the age of 11–13. As shown by D.I. Feldstein, only 15% of adolescents declared a desire for spontaneous group communication, although the actual presence of this form of communication was recorded in 56% of children aged 11–15 years. This happens because the need for a socially oriented form of communication, which is preferred by most teenagers, is often not satisfied. Therefore, they are forced to satisfy the need for communication in spontaneously formed groups. N.I. Vishnevskaya (1981) studied the factors that attract schoolchildren to informal street communication groups. These are, first of all, shortcomings in the organization of leisure time and poor relationships with parents. At the same time, street groups attract (in descending order): the absence of adults, freedom of action, emotional contacts with peers of both sexes, staying in secluded places, noisy walks along the streets, joint pranks, the opportunity to smoke and drink wine.
For some teenagers, the desire to communicate with adults does not disappear. But in the 7th and 8th grades this motive takes on a new quality: a quarter of schoolchildren have a need for confidential communication with adults
(A.V. Mudrik, 1981).
During adolescence, a significant renewal of communication motives occurs. The circle of communication is expanding, as well as its goals. Intragroup communication with peers is destroyed, contacts with people of the opposite sex, as well as with adults, increase when difficult everyday situations arise (I. S. Kon, 1989). The need for mutual understanding with other people is noticeably increasing: among boys - from 16% in the seventh grade to 40% in the ninth, among girls - from 25 to 50%, respectively, which is associated with the formation of self-awareness.
While studying at school, some students develop a motive to communicate with teachers during extracurricular hours. N. G. Polekhina (1971), who studied this issue, notes that the severity of this motive depends on the type of school (regular or boarding school - in it the desire for communication is higher) and on the status of the teacher (the higher the status, the greater the desire, although there are and exceptions, which is associated with the character of the teacher, his leadership style).
The significance of the personal factors of the partner chosen for communication at different age periods is not the same. E. F. Rybalko (1990) showed that in the preschool period there is a transition from direct forms of communication to motivated communication of different levels. According to her terminology, direct forms of selective communication mean the choice of a partner without any explanation on the part of the child, which is typical for children of primary preschool age who enter into short-term contacts with peers and often change playmates. Most older preschoolers justify their selectivity in communicating with peers, but in different ways. Most often, the motivation is emotional: “Because I like to play with him.” Functional reasons were rarely mentioned: helping, caring for another.
Younger schoolchildren also relatively rarely cite the desire to help a friend as a motive for communication, while among teenagers this is a fairly common basis for communication. In younger schoolchildren, the basis of communication is often based on external factors: “we live next door,” “my mother knows her mother,” “there are beds next to each other in the bedroom,” etc. In adolescents, such motivations do not occur, but justifications appear that take into account qualities communication partner: “strong-willed”, “honest”, “brave”, etc.; His business qualities are also indicated: he plays football well, plays the guitar well, etc.
Sixth graders have motives for choice related to the need for internal (spiritual) communication: “to dream together,” “to make different plans in life together.”
According to S.P. Tishchenko (1970), fifth-graders in the vast majority of cases would like to be friends with popular students; in the 8th grade, this factor of choosing a permanent communication partner manifested itself in only 20% of schoolchildren.
Until recently, students in our schools, when choosing a communication partner, did not think about what nationality of children they would like to study with, play with, or be friends with. In recent years, according to D.I. Feldshtein, the picture has changed: already 69% of 6-7-year-old schoolchildren, when choosing a friend, put his nationality in the first place in importance. For teenagers, this percentage is even higher – 84.
On the stability of partner choice
Small children do not need to speak to communicate. For example, L.N. Galiguzova (1980) found that young children often cannot recognize among three peers someone with whom they had previously met alone 15 times and played for a long time.
With age, as A.V. Mudrik (1981) showed, stability in choosing a communication partner increases, in particular among schoolchildren - up to the 7th grade.
10.5. Classification of communication motives
N.P. Erastov (1979) gives a classification of motives for communication, which is essentially based on different types of needs (although the author himself does not think so, separating needs, interests, whims, habits): motive-need, motive-interest, motive-habit, motive-whim and motive-duty. Unfortunately, the author’s disclosure of the inner content of these motives is not always logical.
In addition to the above classification, when comparing the motives of communication between the communicator and the addressee, N.P. Erastov identifies three types of their correspondence to each other: interacting
(which in the process of communication come closer in content to each other, although initially they are even different),
opposing
(which exclude each other, are opposite in direction - one wants to know the truth, and the other does not want to tell it) and
independently occurring
(which do not influence each other : those communicating have different goals, but each has nothing against the goal of the other).
The motives for communication can be business or non-business (personal). The latter are related to acquaintance, friendship, affection, love. In turn, these motives can be divided according to two types of communication - desirable and undesirable, which are based on different motives for communication (desire or reluctance to communicate with a given person).
11. Motivation for prosocial behavior
11.1. Motivation for normative behavior
The so-called normative (social) behavior is a type of imitation.
The term "social norms" is usually used to indicate the existence of standards, rules (both prescriptive and prohibitive) that members of a group or society must adhere to. Society requires conformity from the individual, agreement with these norms. By observing these norms in his behavior, a person becomes like the other members of the group, social community, joins it, becomes “like everyone else.” It turns out that these norms, external to a person, seem to govern his behavior, force him to act one way and not another.
At the same time, even the same external norms of behavior have different internal meanings for different people. For example, as shown by O. D. Stamatina (1977), there are at least three types of motivation for sustainable honest behavior, reflecting the level of social maturity of the individual. Some justify the need for such behavior primarily in utilitarian and practical terms: because dishonest people are deprived of trust, are not respected, etc. Others connect the need to be honest with the needs of society, but sometimes view it as self-sacrifice. Still others express full awareness of the personal and social significance of this necessity, accepting it as an independent value, regardless of the possible consequences.
Norms of social behavior are not fulfilled by themselves. They must be internalized, they must become, according to Schwartz, “personal norms.” In addition, there are a number of factors that reduce their imperativeness. In particular, in this regard, D. Darley and B. Latane (J. Darley, B. Latane, 1968) put forward the thesis about the phenomenon of social inhibition
when providing assistance during emergencies. This phenomenon manifests itself in three variations.
The first is public obstruction: in the presence of other people, a person tries to avoid actions that might embarrass him. Therefore, wary of getting into trouble, he holds back and does nothing. The second variation is social influence:
By observing the behavior of other people present during an emergency, a person may decide that his intervention is undesirable or that nothing special is happening.
The impulse to help is again inhibited. The third variation is the diffusion of responsibility:
the presence of other people weakens the subject’s sense of responsibility, which is distributed among everyone. But since everyone thinks this way, people in the group are less likely to come to the aid of the victim.
On the other hand, when making a group decision, “diffusion of responsibility” contributes to an increase in the level of risk, which can have both positive and negative consequences.
Thus, I. Janis (1972), analyzing various military and political decisions, discovered a phenomenon he called “groupthink ”
[26]. It refers to the way of thinking of people who are fully integrated into a single group, and in this group the desire for unanimity is more important than a realistic assessment of possible courses of action. This thinking is characterized by conformism, biased selection of information, over-optimism, and a belief in the omnipotence of the group and the infallibility of its views. All this increases the likelihood of making risky decisions. Despite the fact that the fallacy of the views and decisions of such a group soon becomes obvious, the adopted course of action and the developed concepts, instead of radically changing them, continue to be defended and implemented. It is obvious that the phenomenon of “groupthink” applies not only to politicians and the military, but also to scientific groups; and here you don’t have to look far for examples; it’s enough to recall some physiological and psychological schools (and the behavior of their representatives in the process of oral and printed discussions), which for decades can “stew in their own juice,” “chewing” the idea put forward by the leader of the school.
Normative behavior associated with the presentation by a group of certain demands on the subject can lead to such a phenomenon as perfectism.
This happens when a person lacks both abilities and education to fulfill the desired social role. He makes every effort, overexerts himself; a conflict occurs between the role being played and the “I”, in which the assessment of the role significantly exceeds the assessment of one’s own “I”. As a result, a person becomes a perfectist, exhausting himself with backbreaking work.
Sometimes following the principle of strict adherence to rules and official duties leads to inappropriate behavior. An example of this is the behavior of two Berlin subway guards during the Nazis’ flight from the city in May 1945 during the advance of our troops. Trying to leave the city through the metro tunnels, in one of its sections the fugitives came across a waterproof bulkhead that prevented further progress. Enraged people demanded that the watchmen raise it, but they refused, citing some paragraph from the 1923 charter, which actually ordered the bulkhead to be lowered every evening after the last train had passed. For many years it was the duty of these watchmen to keep an eye on this. And although not a single train had passed through here for more than a week, these law-abiding servants still acted in accordance with the regulations.
