Social experience is what? Concept and essence

Social experience is, if expressed in scientific style, a stable system of habits, feelings, knowledge and skills that is formed in a person during his life. The topic is not only interesting, but also relevant. One has only to think: there are slightly less than 7,400,000,000 people on Earth. And each person is special and unique in its own way. Whoever he is. And it becomes such precisely in the course of acquiring social experience. Well, for a better understanding of the topic it is worth considering it in more detail.

general information

What does social experience in general mean? This is easy to understand, if you think about the meaning of each word individually. Social - it means, connected with life, society and relations between people. Experience - knowledge gained in the process of observation and participation in certain actions.

For a person to get it, he must be a part of society, constantly interact with him. In the course of this, he gets his social role, which also lays a certain imprint on his understanding and perception of life.

There is such a thing as objectified social experience. This is what is accumulated by all mankind as a whole, since such experience is acquired in the course of joint life activity. These are traditions, rituals, customs, norms of behavior, moral precepts.

Here, for example, in some African tribes of a deceased person, his relatives and friends eat up, believing that his experience and wisdom will thus be transferred to them. And there it is the norm. We consider this behavior to be completely antisocial and unacceptable. In fact, we just have different moral principles and traditions. Other social experience.

This is reflected also in the manner of communication, in objective forms, in ways of thinking. All of the above people unconsciously transmit from generation to generation. And so it was from time immemorial. If this practice did not take place, then we would still be primitive people.

Individual specificity

A special attention should be paid to the social experience of the individual (that is, the individual). There is such a thing as axiology. This is a theory of values. Every person loves something and / or someone. We all have needs for something. And what exactly this "something" is, is determined by our desires and preferences. All this is also reflected in the direction of man and his social orientation.

For example, the life goal of one individual can be a state. He loves money and wants to live richly in order not to deny himself anything. That's why he works, organizes business - he builds for himself what is truly sincere happiness for him.

For other people, the purpose of life can be a family. Some are ready to spend all their time on entertainment, as this is happiness for them. Others feel full-fledged when engaged in self-development. In general, the goals of life can be many. All of them arise from desires. In which, as the Indian guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar said, the goal is one - happiness.

Where does our desires come from? They appear when a person does not even realize his Being. He's just happy at that moment. And he wants to stay in it. It is to experience this sensation constantly, we do everything possible - set goals, go to them, achieve what we want. After that we become happy.

And the social experience of people concerns all this directly. Since it is during its acquisition that every educated person understands the meaning of personally identifiable objects that enter the value system. And not only in his, but also in others. A truly reasonable, socially experienced person is able to substantiate both his values and others alien to him.

Socio-psychological characteristics

A couple of words worth mentioning about such a phenomenon as the selectivity of thinking. The essence of it is that not every perception is translated into the level of judgments and concepts. Moreover, individuals, at times, do not even allow thought about anything. A simple example: a girl in love sees only the good in a young man. And when one of her relatives tries to warn about his not the best traits of character, she does not even admit that this can be true.

Such selectivity depends on both objective and subjective conditions. The social position of the individual can be referred to the first. If a person belongs to a simple working class, then it is difficult for him to form a real picture of the processes taking place in the upper strata of the population.

Here is an example: a young girl dreams of becoming an actress. She sees everything in bright colors, and thinks that the artist's life is easy and fun. And now she achieves what she wants, then she faces a shocking reality: you have to sit on the strictest diet for one or another role, memorize whole volumes of the text, rewrite every take until you like the director and do everything the producer says. Here it is, the manifestation of narrow selective thinking, focused on those phenomena that surround only the individual.

Subjective conditions include the attitudes, needs, interests and values of the individual.

Prerequisites

Acquisition of social experience is determined not only by the conditions in which a person is located, but also by his personal characteristics. Something that contributes to this, it is laid down on the genetic level. And this is innate potential. He defines, strictly speaking, the predisposition of man in development. Is it possible to say that it has already been determined in advance, what will we be like? No. But "soil" in the form of potential is available. Whether it is implemented or not is another matter.

There are both positive and negative predispositions. The first include makings that stimulate a person in the process of socialization. Due to their presence, the individual can achieve decent results in terms of self-realization and self-improvement.

Negative predispositions are what restricts a person to social development. Worst of all, when this becomes intolerable because of this.

By the way, such a science as social pedagogy distinguishes between bio- and sociogenetic trends. They determine the specifics of the prospects of an individual in terms of its development.

Proponents of the biogenetic direction assure that everything is predetermined by heredity. It depends on this, what kind of person will become a person. And adherents of the sociogenetic trend are sure that each individual is dynamic. And he can become anyone.

The second version is more plausible and has more scientific grounds and life examples. How many cases does our reality know when an absolutely adequate child has grown up in a dysfunctional family . And the reverse situations also take place. Often from the good and prosperous families comes an absolute marginal. By the way, this same situation is a vivid example of obtaining social experience. Let the unfavorable. So, for example, a child with parents-alcoholics from childhood sees what the dependence leads to.

Children

Special attention should be paid to such a topic as the social experience of the child. First of all, the family influences it. The second - educational institutions (kindergarten and school). It is there that the child is included in the process of socialization. And this causes certain problems. Because the individual social experience of the child with the social is united.

And here it is very important not to destroy in him personality traits that barely began to emerge. Unfortunately, this usually happens. As a result of purposeful training and education, the "a priori" nature of the child becomes poorer. He becomes what he wants to see, losing his personality.

Even Leo Tolstoy talked about this. The great Russian thinker and writer assured: children know much more about life, because they perceive everything with their soul and heart. And adults have long since lost this ability. In any case, the majority.

Assimilation of social experience in the child occurs spontaneously. Whatever it is taught, no matter what they say - it has its own way of thinking and attitude. Many adults are skeptical - what are we talking about? After all, the child really did not even live! But that's not the point. Just such a perception shows adults uneducated people. A child is not a machine that can be programmed. Everything he sees and says he sees in his own way. Many are interested. Thus, his assimilation of social experience is not passive, but intentional.

About Perception

It is worth noting that the formation of social experience also occurs through our reality. And to be more precise, her perception.

For ease of understanding, you can give an example. Suppose a person came up with an offer for extremely advantageous remote work. But in order to give him an order, you need to pay "insurance", which the employer will reimburse for losses in the event of non-fulfillment of the assignment. Man sends money and as a result, of course, remains with nothing. Because he just fell for the tricks of scammers. He made a mistake - he trusted. Only next time, he will immediately dismiss such proposals. Since, having made a mistake, he gained a social experience of life, which he will apply in many other situations. In any case, it will always demand guarantees, all recheck, seek the best and even give advice to others.

People are by nature very trusting, which rarely plays into their hands. After all, the social experience of activity and the world view of each of us depends directly on the manner of perception of the surrounding reality.

In psychology there is such a phenomenon. It is defined as the process of forming an image of an object with the help of sensory sensory organs. But this only interferes with our social experience, expectations and interpretation, through which the perception is corrected.

Application of experience

Continuing the topic started on perception, one can give an example. Suppose a person who knows a sufficient number of people in different strata of society in a company of friends notices a young attractive (if to judge objectively) a guy dressed in branded things, with a gold watch on his hands and an expensive phone that he does not let go of and otherwise demonstrates to others. He is 18 years old. Outwardly, he is really good. It's only the experience of communication that tells a person that the character of such a guy is not the best. Analyzing its behavior and comparing the external image, you can guess - most likely, it has too much pathos. It is not excluded that this guy considers himself better than others and boasts of his fortune, which, in fact, is not even his. As a result of all this, it is concluded that it is worth staying away from such a person. Or close to keep yourself away. There is little sincerity in it.

This is the manifestation of the application of social experience. Needless to say, even in the animal world, there are similar examples. If a person loves his cat, takes care of him, loves and feeds him, he will never hide. On the contrary. Will meet on arrival, wipe his tail and ask for help. If the animal does not do well, then the reaction will be appropriate - bites, scratches and escape. More he does not approach the person. Experience tells him that good is not over.

Man's self-help

It is important to note that the organization of social experience rests on the shoulders of the individual, and not only the society in which he exists. It's like self-education. Only in a different way.

It is necessary to learn from everything that happens around to gain for oneself a benefit and knowledge. Social experience is better to acquire not only on the mistakes.

There are a lot of irritants around. Because you need to control your attention. And turn it only to what really matters. If you do not learn this, then to the "I" person irritants will stick, like leeches.

It is important to put on the first place your self-awareness, a sense of personal individuality and dignity. Healthy selfishness is good. You need to think about yourself. After all, how many people lament: "Here, I always only think of others and think! When to give time to itself? »So what prevents to change a course of business? Here it is, the experience of social work on yourself in the flesh! And, more precisely, its complete absence. In society, after all, how it is built: they use those people who allow it to do with themselves.

About the essence

All forms of social experience are aimed, in fact, one thing - to adapt a person to the society and the environment in which he is. And also to teach him those skills that will help an individual to live easier and easier. Again, it's better to demonstrate by examples.

Say, stereotypes. They are everywhere. Everyone knows about their existence (many even claim that they do not follow them), but the vast majority of people are subject to their influence. Stereotypes prevent being impartial. They hide reality from us, set boundaries and prevent rational thinking. It is even frightening to think about how countless stereotypes are fixed in the modern society of the 21st century. Rottweilers are killer dogs, all women are inept drivers, every man changes, and everything cheap is bad. And this is only the most innocuous example. And even when the experience completely destroys this or that stereotype, which the person followed, still in the subconscious it is preserved.

Also life teaches us to strive to look deeper into things, because the external manifestation is deceptive. It is necessary to put everything into doubt, pay attention to all the details and discrepancies. It is necessary to be observant. And remember that there are tons of information around us that we just ignore. But this is education. Social experience is based on observation, reflection, experience and analysis. "Soil" for all this we receive daily, but only the majority misses everything by themselves.

About roles

Talking about society and generally affecting the social theme, one can not help talking about the roles of each individual. About this, in general, there is an incredible amount of scientific information. Z. Freud, J. Moreno, T. Parsons, C. Cooley - these and other well-known personalities paid great attention to the theory of the roles of the individual.

If you try to combine the most popular and authoritative positions of scientists, you get a definition: a person is a social system with an internal structure consisting of levels. There are three. Biological, psychological and social. The latter is divided into sublevels. On the actual sociological (includes experience, interests, motives of behavior), specifically cultural (values and norms) and moral.

And every person who is such a system is considered a part of society. With the same individuals. Because society is also a structure in which a person performs a certain role. And which one - he himself determines, based on his social experience.

Achieving well-being

The position in society for a person is determined by his worldview, values and needs. Social experience tells the individual what to do to achieve prosperity. Often, the conclusions drawn during the observation of others' lives and their mistakes are taken as a basis. Earlier it was said: you have to be careful, there's a lot of information around. And the best source is another person.

A vivid example: there are two brothers. The elder, having finished school, decided to immediately go into the army, and on his return to enter the university. That's only in practice, then it turns out that we should have done the opposite, because for a year the knowledge has become confused, and now it is to "return the form" in the mental plane. The younger brother, having analyzed everything, decided that he would be better at first disaccustomed and then, after receiving a diploma, he would go to serve. What happened? Elementary application of someone else's experience.

As you can see, the topic is really very interesting, multifaceted and relevant. It is possible to deepen it for a long time, but everyone must be assimilated: absorb everything that is happening around in our own interests. Because it gives us an invaluable social experience.