The reasons for human social behavior are believed to be instincts. Definition of instincts of social behavior

Theory of instincts of social behavior.

Originated in the USA. The first serious central work is considered to be the book by the English psychologist McDougall, who worked in the USA, “Introduction to Social Psychology” (1920). For a number of years this book was used as a textbook in American universities. According to his theory, personality psychology plays a decisive role in the formation of social psychology.

The main reason for the social behavior of individuals is innate instincts, ᴛ.ᴇ. an innate predisposition to perceive the environment and a willingness to react in one way or another. He believed that each instinct corresponds to a certain emotion. He attached particular importance social instinct, which generates a sense of belonging to a group.

This theory was leading in the USA. The concept of instinct was eventually replaced by the concept of predisposition, but the main driving forces of human behavior, the basis of social life, were still considered the need for food, sleep, sex, parental care, self-affirmation, etc. Great importance For the development of this theory, Freud's works acquired especially the structure of personality and the driving forces of development, and the mechanisms of stress relief also turned out to be important. The theory of psychological defense he created was further developed into social psychology; currently there are 8 methods of psychological defense:

1) Denial manifests itself in the unconscious refusal of information that is negative for self-esteem. A person seems to listen, but does not hear, does not perceive what threatens his well-being...

2) Repression is an active way to prevent internal conflict, which involves not only turning off negative information from consciousness, but also special actions to preserve a positive self-image, ᴛ.ᴇ. a person can not only forget facts that are not acceptable to him, but also put forward false, but acceptable explanations for his actions. 3) Projection - unconscious attribution to another person own desires and aspirations of personal qualities, most often of a negative nature.

4) Substitution - relieving internal tension by transferring, redirecting action aimed at an inaccessible object into an accessible situation.

5) Identification - establishing an emotional connection with another object and identifying oneself with it. Often allows you to overcome feelings of inferiority.

6) Isolation - protection from traumatic facts by breaking emotional ties with other people. Loss of the ability to empathize. And the most effective are:

7) Rationalization manifests itself in the form of reducing the value of the unattainable. 8) Sublimation - the translation of unfulfilled desires (sexual) into a socially acceptable direction.

9) Regression - a return to past (childhood) forms of behavior. Freud's ideas regarding human aggressiveness and methods of psychological defense found new development in the works of the American psychologist Eric Fromm (1900-1980) (2Flight from Freedom).

Theory of instincts of social behavior. - concept and types. Classification and features of the category "Theory of instincts of social behavior." 2017, 2018.

One of the first independent concepts in social science is the theory of instincts of social behavior by W. McDougall. McDougall's work "Introduction to S.p." was published in 1908, and is considered the year of the final approval of S.p. in independent existence. The main thesis of McDougall's theory is that innate instincts are considered the cause of social behavior. This idea is the implementation of the principle of striving for a goal, which is characteristic of both animals and humans. He called his concept “goal” or “hormic” (from the Greek “gorme” - desire, desire, impulse). Gorme and acts as driving force intuitive nature that explains social behavior.

The repertoire of instincts in each person arises as a result of a certain psychophysical predisposition - the presence of hereditarily fixed channels for the discharge of nervous energy.

Instincts include affective (receptive), central (emotional) and efferent (motor) parts. Thus, everything that happens in consciousness is directly dependent on the unconscious beginning. The internal expression of instincts is mainly emotions. The connection between instincts and emotions is systematic and definite. McDougall listed seven pairs of interconnected instincts and emotions: the instinct of fight and the corresponding anger and fear; flight instinct and sense of self-preservation; reproductive instinct and jealousy, female timidity; instinct of acquisition and sense of ownership; instinct of construction and sense of creation; herd instinct and sense of belonging. All social institutions are derived from instincts: family, trade, various social processes, primarily war.

The role of this theory in the history of science turned out to be very negative: the interpretation of social behavior from the point of view of some spontaneous striving for a goal legitimized the importance of irrational drives as a driving force not only of the individual, but also of humanity.

Socio-psychological views of G. Lebon. Nominalistic sociology of G. Tarde and evolutionary sociology of E. Durkheim. Theory of imitation and mass communication. The significance of psychoanalytic ideas for the development of social psychology (see lectures on social psychology)

Experimental stage of development of S.p. (V. Mede, F. Allport).

Early 20th century is considered the beginning of the transformation of S.p. into experimental science. The official milestone was the program proposed in Europe by V. Mede and in the USA by F. Allport, in which the requirements for the transformation of S.p. were formulated. into the experimental discipline. The main development in this variant is S.p. receives in the USA, where the rapid development of capitalist forms in the economy stimulated the practice of applied research and forced social psychologists to turn their attention to current socio-psychological topics. McDougall's concept is criticized. S.p. began to rely on the ideas of psychoanalysis, behaviorism and Gestal theory. The object of research is mainly small group. Within this period, S.p. gained momentum as a scientific discipline, there were many small group studies. On the other hand, the fascination with small groups has led to the fact that problems associated with the peculiarities of mass processes in their psychological structure have been practically excluded from the analysis. In the early 50s. 20th century Critical tendencies in S.p. began to increase sharply. Interest in theoretical knowledge.

Sociometric direction J. Moreno. Interactionism. (see lectures on social psychology)

Section 4. Topic 1 SP.

The essence of social behavior

Human social behavior is one of the objects of study of sociological science. Research in this area began to be carried out in the mid-19th century, and, in addition to the concept of “social behavior,” elements such as social action and interaction were included in the same category.

Definition 1

Social behavior of a group - in sociological science, this is a qualitative characteristic of social action and social interaction, which are inextricably linked with each other.

Social behavior characterizes the behavior of an individual or social groups in certain conditions, in a particular social situation and environment. Social behavior can be different situations uncharacteristic. For example, a certain number of deputies take part in the work State Duma, that is, they are actively involved in political activities. But their behavior is ambiguous, since some are interested in their activities, while others ignore their activities and responsibilities, staying at work only “for show,” because this is necessary to obtain benefits.

The behavior of participants in mass events can also be characterized in different ways. For example, some participants demonstratively peacefully follow the column, while others seek to show their deviant behavior, break the rules in order to demonstrate a negative attitude towards the current regime and a desire for change. All of these actions also fall under the category of “social behavior.” In other words, all people are equally participants in a socio-political event, but each participant behaves differently, depending on their interests, needs and worldview.

Thus, social behavior acts as a special way for the subject of a socio-political event (actor) to demonstrate his motives, preferences and attitudes, which are aimed at the implementation of social action and interaction.

Development of behavior in society

Social behavior plays a very important role in human life. Hence the importance for sociological science of not only studying this concept, but also a detailed analysis of its development.

Note 1

Social behavior is very multidimensional, and includes not only the social interactions of people with each other, but also the interaction of a person with the entire vast world of things that have their own unique meaning for him at each stage of development and socialization.

The development of social behavior of an individual or a separate, broader social group directly depends on various biological and psychological processes in the human body. Such processes include:

• puberty,
• level and development of perception, awareness, understanding of the surrounding world and its processes,
• development of memory and learning ability.

As soon as a person forms his own worldview, view of things and events, interpretation of specific concepts, then the motives of social behavior are realized, clearly defined goals appear, an assessment of his own intellectual, physical and psychological characteristics and opportunities. This is the essence of the development of social behavior - the presence of awareness of oneself and one’s place in the world around us. Social behavior is formed depending on the diversity of its types, which we will reveal in the next section.

Theories of social behavior and its development

Since social behavior is the object of research by a number of sociologists and psychologists, it is worth noting the presence of a fairly large number of theories that reveal the essence of social behavior, the features of its development and varieties.

One of the earliest and most studied theories of social behavior is the theory of individuality development by B.G. Ananyeva (“Organism. Individual. Personality. Individuality”). He examines a number of characteristics that represent differences between higher animals and humans. These include the following signs that influence social behavior:

1. Anatomical and morphological differences;
2. Differences in the organization of the psyche;
3. Development in interaction with the world (as subjects).

The development of a person’s individuality occurs based on the characteristics of his individual properties (psychological, physiological, intellectual). The entire set of these properties influences the formation of social behavior and the presentation of oneself as part of this world.

The next theory is disposition. It affects more the basis of the rule of law; it is for this reason that the disposition is called part of the rule, which contains the entire set of rules of behavior that all possible subjects of law must comply with and follow. The rules of law are provided depending on the Constitution, legislative documents and acts.

T. Hilton's situational theory, which determines not only the social behavior of an individual, but also the nature of his leadership. Thus, the nature of leadership stems from the basic and outstanding human qualities that are also inherent in leaders: communication skills, responsibility, self-confidence, belief in team spirit, the desire to act for the benefit of the public, and not just taking into account one’s own interests and needs.

But social behavior is considered by researchers not only within the framework of the norm, but also within the framework of antisocial (deviant) behavior. This includes a behavioral approach to the definition (determination) of deviant behavior of an individual and a social group. This theory has been considered for several years as a result of learning, and its founders are E. Thorndike, J. Watson and B. Skinner. The key idea is that social and antisocial behavior of an individual and a social group is aimed at adapting to environment, adapt to its constant dynamic changes. In this case, all of his qualities are manifested in a person, as well as the methods of behavior that he uses to achieve his goals.

Development of instinct theory

The last of Freud's great discoveries is his theory of the life and death instincts. In 1920, while writing Beyond the Pleasure Principle, Freud began a fundamental revision of his entire theory of instincts. He attributed the characteristics of instinct to “compulsory repetitions” and for the first time formulated a new dichotomy “Eros - death instinct”, the nature of which was discussed in detail in the work “I and It” (1923) and in subsequent works. This new dichotomy “life instinct (Eros) - death instinct” took the place of the original dichotomy “Ego - sexual instincts”. Although Freud now attempted to identify Eros with libido, the new polarity represented a completely different concept of drives.

While working on his book Beyond the Pleasure Principle, Freud was still not at all convinced that his new hypothesis was valid. “You can ask,” he wrote, “how confident I am in the validity of the hypotheses set forth on these pages. My answer might be as follows: I myself am not sure and do not seek to force others to believe in them. More precisely, I don’t know how convinced I am of them.” Considering that Freud was trying to develop a new theoretical doctrine that threatened the validity of many earlier concepts and required enormous intellectual effort, his sincerity, so brilliantly evident in all his work, is especially impressive. He devoted the next eighteen years to developing new theory and felt more and more convinced of her fidelity, which he initially lacked. This result was not brought about by the addition of completely new elements, but rather by intellectual “elaboration”; this must have further increased his disappointment that few of his followers understood and shared his views. The new theory was fully expounded in the work “Ego and Id.”

The following assumption is of extreme importance: “A special physiological process (anabolism or catabolism) should be associated with each of the two classes of instincts: both types of instincts should be active in every particle of living matter, although not in equal proportions, so that some one substance would be the main representative of Eros. This hypothesis does not shed any light on how the two classes of instincts are united, mixed, fused with each other, but the fact that this happens regularly and very widely is an assumption necessary for our concept. As a result of the combination of unicellular life forms into multicellular ones, death instinct in a single cell can be successfully neutralized and destructive impulses can be directed into the outside world with the help of a special organ. This special organ would be represented as a muscular apparatus, and thus the death instinct would be expressed - although perhaps only partially - in the instinct of destruction directed towards the external world and other organisms.

With these formulations, Freud more explicitly expressed the new direction of his thought than in the book Beyond the Pleasure Principle. Instead of the mechanistic physiological approach contained in the previous theory, which was based on the model of chemically induced tension and the need to reduce this tension to a normal level (the pleasure principle), the new theory is biological in nature; it is assumed that each cell of the body is endowed with two basic properties of living matter: Eros and the desire for death. However, the principle of reducing tension is preserved in a more radical form: reducing excitation to zero (the principle of nirvana).

A year later, in The Economic Problem of Masochism (1924), Freud took another step: clarifying the relationship between the two instincts, he wrote: “The task of the libido is to make the instinct of destruction harmless, and it accomplishes this task by largely reversing it - with the help of a special organic system, a muscular apparatus - outward, onto objects of the external world. Then this instinct is called the instinct of dominion or thirst for power. Part of the instinct directly serves the sexual function, where it plays an important role: this is sadism. The other part does not participate in this outward turning: it remains inside the body and, with the help of the accompanying sexual arousal, described above, becomes libidinally connected. It is in this part that we recognize the original, erotogenic masochism.”

In the New Introductory Lectures (1933), Freud took the same position. He spoke of “erotic drives that strive to unite more and more living matter into ever larger Unities, and of the death instinct, which resists such an attempt and transfers the living back into an inorganic state.”

In the same lectures, Freud wrote about the original instinct of destruction: “We can perceive it only under two conditions: if it is combined with erotic drives in masochism or if - with a much less erotic addition - it is directed against the outside world as aggressiveness. It is important to note the possibility that aggressiveness may be unable to find satisfaction in the external world when faced with real obstacles. If this happens, she may retreat and increase the self-destructiveness that dominates within. We'll look at how this actually happens and how important this process is. Delayed aggression causes severe injury. Indeed, it seems that we need to destroy some object or person in order not to destroy ourselves, in order to protect ourselves from the impulse of self-destruction. A sad discovery for a moralist! .

In his last two articles, written a year or two before his death, Freud did not make significant changes to the concepts that he had developed in previous years. In his work “Finite and Infinite Analysis” he further emphasized the power of the death instinct. As James Strachey wrote in the editorial notes, "The most powerful inhibitor of all, completely beyond our control is the death instinct". In Outline of the History of Psychoanalysis, written in 1938 and published in 1940, Freud confirmed the system of previous assumptions without any important changes.