Social values- these are life ideals and goals, which, in the opinion of the majority in a given society, should be achieved. The value system of a social subject can include various values:

• life-meaning values ​​- ideas about good and evil, happiness, purpose and meaning of life;
• universal values ​​- life, health, personal safety, well-being, family, education, qualifications, law and order;
• the values ​​of interpersonal communication - honesty, disinterestedness, benevolence;
• values ​​of public recognition - hard work, social status;
• democratic values ​​- freedom of speech, conscience, parties, national sovereignty.

Social norms are formed on the basis of social values.

Social norms

Social norms are the rules of behavior established in society that regulate relations between people, social groups, and public organizations.

Signs of social norms:

• They are general rules for members of the community.
• They do not have a specific addressee and operate continuously in time.
• Aimed at regulating public relations.
• They arise in connection with the volitional, conscious activity of people.
• They arise in the process of historical development.
• Their content corresponds to the type of culture and the nature of the social organization of society.

Ways to regulate people's behavior by social norms:

• Permissiveness is an indication of behaviors that are desirable but not required.
• Prescription - An indication of the required action.
• Prohibition - an indication of actions that should not be performed.

Types of social norms

Social norms are diverse in form and content, as are the social relations that they regulate. The main types of social norms:

Customs- The mass action patterns approved by the society resulting from their repeated repetition.

Traditions(in essence they are a kind of custom) - values, norms, patterns of behavior, ideas, social attitudes, etc., inherited from their predecessors. Traditions refer to cultural heritage; they are generally revered by the majority of members of society.

Moral standards- the rules of behavior, which express people's ideas about good or bad, about good and evil, etc. Compliance with moral rules is ensured by the authority of the collective consciousness, their violation is condemned in society.

Legal regulations- the rules of conduct established or sanctioned by the state, expressed in an official form and binding for execution.

Corporate norms- rules of conduct established by public organizations.

Political norms- rules of conduct that govern political activity, relations between citizens, the state, and social groups.

Religious norms- rules of conduct formulated in the texts of sacred books or established by religious organizations.

Norms of etiquette - formal rules of behavior in predetermined situations, norms of communication, cooperation.

Aesthetic norms- ideas about the beautiful and the ugly in artistic creation, as well as in people's behavior, everyday social practice.

Compliance with norms, depending on their type, is controlled by public opinion, the relevant social institutions and official organizations, the internal psychological attitudes of the individual.

According to the degree of compulsory execution, the following types of norms are distinguished:

• incentives (stimulate the activities of the individual desirable for society);
• prohibitive (indicate actions that cannot be performed, determine the boundaries of what is permitted);
• binding (indicate mandatory rules of conduct and methods of activity);
• recommendatory (indicate desirable but not required behaviors).

According to the criterion of formality, such social norms are distinguished as:

• written
• unwritten.

The written norms are formally fixed in legal acts (constitution, criminal law, etc.), their observance is controlled by the state. Unwritten norms are rules of conduct, the observance of which is not guaranteed by legal acts.

In order to exist in the social world, a person needs communication and cooperation with other people. But essential for the implementation of joint and purposeful action should be such a position in which people have a common idea of ​​how to act correctly and how to act incorrectly. Without such a vision, concerted action cannot be achieved. Thus, a person, as a social being, must create many generally accepted patterns of behavior in order to successfully exist in society, interacting with other individuals. Such patterns of behavior of people in society, regulating this behavior in a certain direction, are called social norms.

Social numbers- generally accepted rules, patterns of behavior, standards of activity, designed to ensure orderliness, stability and stability of social interaction of individuals and social groups.

The social norm performs the following functions.

• 1. The norms are designed to guide and regulate the behavior of people in different situations. The regulatory impact is that the norm sets the boundaries, conditions, forms of behavior, the nature of relations, goals and ways of achieving them.
• 2. socializes the personality;
• 3. evaluates behavior;
• 4. Prescribes appropriate behavior patterns.
• 5. Means of ensuring order.

The individual becomes a person in the course of socialization, that is, the assimilation of elements of contemporary culture, including the corresponding values ​​and norms of behavior. The spectrum of social values ​​is quite diverse: these are moral and ethical, ideological, political, religious, economic, aesthetic, etc. Values ​​are directly related to social ideals. Values ​​are not something that can be bought or sold; they are something worth living for.

The most important function of social values ​​is to play the role of selection criteria from alternative modes of action.

The main function of social values- to be a measure of assessments - leads to the fact that in any value system it is possible to distinguish:

• 1. What is preferred the most (acts of behavior that approach the social ideal are what they admire). The most important element of the value system is the zone of higher values, the meaning of which does not need any justification (what is above all, what is inviolable, holy and cannot be violated under any circumstances);
• 2. What is considered normal is correct (as is done in most cases);
• 3. That which is not approved, condemned and - at the extreme pole of the value system - appears as an absolute, self-evident evil, not allowed under any circumstances.

1. Social values

Currently, a number of prominent sociologists (for example, G. Lasswell and A. Kaplan) believe that values ​​are the basis that gives social interactions a certain color and content, making them social relations. Value can be defined as a targeted desirable event. Subject X's appreciation of object Y means that X is acting to reach, or at least approach, X. A person takes a position of assessment in relation to all components of his environment. But she will carry out social actions in relation to someone only because of the things that she values ​​and considers useful and desirable for herself, that is, for the sake of values. Values ​​in this case serve as an impetus, a necessary condition for any kind of interaction.

The analysis of social values ​​allows them to be conditionally divided into two main groups:

Welfare values,

Other values.

The values ​​of well-being are understood as those values ​​that are a necessary condition for maintaining the physical and mental activity of individuals. This group of values ​​includes, first of all, mastery (qualification), enlightenment, wealth, well-being.

Mastery (qualification) is an acquired professionalism in a certain area of ​​practical activity.

Enlightenment is the knowledge and information potential of an individual, as well as his cultural ties.

Wealth means mainly services and various material goods.

Well-being means the health and safety of individuals.

Other social values ​​are expressed in the actions of both this individual and others. The most significant of these should be considered power, respect, moral values ​​and affectivity.

The most significant of these is power. This is the most versatile and highest value, since its possession makes it possible to acquire any other value.

Respect is a value that includes status, prestige, fame and reputation. The desire to possess this value is rightfully considered one of the main human motivations.

Moral values ​​include kindness, generosity,

virtue, justice and other moral qualities.

Affectiveness is a value that includes, above all, love and friendship.

Everyone knows the case when Alexander the Great, who possessed power, wealth and prestige, suggested using these values ​​to the philosopher Diogenes of Sinop. The king asked the philosopher to name a desire, to present any demand that he immediately fulfills. But Diogenes had no need for the proposed values ​​and expressed his only desire: for the king to leave and not block the sun for him. Relations of respect and gratitude, which Macedonian counted on, did not arise, Diogenes remained independent, as, incidentally, did the king.

Thus, the interaction of needs for values ​​reflects the content and meaning of social relations.

Due to inequality in society, social values ​​are unevenly distributed among members of society. In each social group, in each social stratum or class, there is a different distribution of values ​​between members of the social community. It is on the unequal distribution of values ​​that the relations of power and subordination, all types of economic relations, relations of friendship, love, partnership, etc. are built.

A person or a group that has advantages in the distribution of values ​​has a high value position, and a person or group with fewer or no values ​​has a low value position. Value positions, and therefore value patterns, do not remain unchanged, since in the course of the exchange of existing values ​​and interactions aimed at acquiring values, individuals and social groups constantly redistribute values ​​among themselves.

In their striving to achieve values, people enter into conflicting interactions if they consider the existing value model to be unfair, and actively try to change their own value positions. But they also use cooperative interactions if the value pattern suits them or if they need to enter into coalitions against other individuals or groups. And, finally, people enter into interactions in the form of concessions if the value model is considered unfair, but some of the group members, for various reasons, do not seek to change the existing situation.

Social values ​​are the basic initial concept in the study of such a phenomenon as culture. According to the Russian sociologist N.I. Lapin “the system of values ​​forms the inner core of culture, the spiritual quintessence of the needs and interests of individuals and social communities. She, in turn, has a reverse effect on social interests and needs, acting as one of the most important motivators of social action, behavior of individuals. Thus, each value and value system has a two-fold basis: in the individual as a self-valuable subject and in society as a socio-cultural system. "

By analyzing social values ​​in the context of social consciousness and people's behavior, one can get a fairly accurate idea of ​​the degree of development of an individual, the level of his assimilation of all the wealth of human history. That is why they can correlate with one or another type of civilization, in the depths of which a given value has arisen or to which it mainly refers: traditional values, focused on the preservation and reproduction of the established goals and norms of life; modern values ​​that have arisen under the influence of changes in social life or in its main spheres. In this context, comparisons of the values ​​of the older and younger generations are very indicative, which makes it possible to understand the tension and causes of conflicts between them.

Spiritual world of youth

Spiritual world of youth

Usually, values ​​are understood as objects that have some properties useful for a person. In philosophy, the concept of value has a more abstract meaning, close to the concept of "meaning". When they talk about the meaning of something, then ...

Life values ​​of high school students and their attitudes towards marriage and family

Toffler's third wave concept

If the value of the Second Wave company could be estimated in terms of tangible assets, such as buildings, cars, stocks, stocks, then the value of the Third Wave company more and more lies in its ability to acquire, create ...

Youth subcultures in modern Russian society: sociological analysis

With the formation of a new social outlook at the end of the 20th century, the established system of values ​​and traditions was lost. The resulting socio-cultural vacuum was quickly filled with mass Western products ...

General human values ​​of a society of mass consumption

Universal human values ​​are fundamental, universal guidelines and norms, moral values, which are the absolute standard for people of all cultures and eras ...

Family values ​​of student youth

Different historical eras with different philosophical and religious systems are reflected in the formation of values. Values ​​are always social in nature. They are created on the basis of social relations ...

Social connections, social actions and interactions as a basic element of social life

Social life can be defined as a complex of phenomena arising from the interaction of individuals, social groups, a certain space, and the use of products located in it, necessary to satisfy needs ...

Sociology of personality

A person interacts with different people and social groups on a daily basis. It rarely happens when he fully interacts only with members of one group, for example a family, but at the same time he can be a member of the work collective ...

Formation of personality and its forms

The concept of values ​​reflects the significance of certain objective phenomena for the life of people. The value attitude is formed in the process of human activity, where three types of production are distinguished: people, things and ideas ...

The structure of society

The physical environment has an adaptive value for society in the sense that it is a direct source of material resources that are used by society through its production ...

Transformation of social values ​​in a traditional family

Family and family values ​​in all countries of the world have always formed the basis of any society. Regardless of cultural characteristics, children were born, brought up and grew up in families, gradually adopting the experience and traditions of the older generation ...

Values ​​and their role in human life

The modern generation should never forget about the wealth that our ancestors left us. The wisdom of our ancestors is reflected in the works of oral folk art. In a simple, short sentence, they could exactly ...

Values ​​and Principles in Individual Social Work

The social worker stands up for the rights and interests of the client. He conducts a course of rehabilitation therapy in a special way, allowing him to integrate into the community, to be its full member ...

Value orientations of modern youth

Social values

As already mentioned, the individual becomes a person in the course of socialization, that is, learning the elements of contemporary culture, incl. values ​​and norms of behavior. The spectrum of social values ​​is quite diverse: ϶ᴛᴏ moral and data values, ideological, political, religious, economic, aesthetic, etc. Values ​​are directly related to social ideals. Values ​​- ϶ᴛᴏ not something that can be bought or sold, ϶ᴛᴏ something worth living for. Do not forget that the most important function of social values ​​is to play the role of criteria for choosing from alternative methods of action. The values ​​of any society interact with each other, being the fundamental content element of a given culture.

The relationship between culturally predetermined values ​​is characterized by the following two features. First of all, according to the degree of their social significance, values ​​are formed into a certain hierarchical structure, subdivided into values ​​of a more and less high order, more preferred and less preferred. Secondly, the relationship between these values ​​can be both harmonious, mutually reinforcing, and neutral, even antagonistic, mutually exclusive. These relations between social values, taking shape historically, fill the culture of this type with specific content.

The main function of social values- to be a measure of assessments - leads to the fact that in any value system it is possible to distinguish:

• what is preferred to the greatest extent (acts of behavior that approach the social ideal are what they admire) Do not forget that the most important element of the value system will be the zone of higher values, the meaning of which does not need any justification (what is above everything that is inviolable, holy and cannot be violated under any circumstances);
• what is considered normal is correct (as is done in most cases);
• what is not approved, condemned and - at the extreme pole of the value system - appears as an absolute, self-evident evil, not allowed under any circumstances.

The formed system of values ​​structures, orders the picture of the world for the individual. Do not forget that an important feature of social values ​​is, in fact, that, due to their universal recognition, they are perceived by members of society as a matter of course, values ​​are spontaneously realized, reproduced in socially significant actions of people. With all the variety of content characteristics of social values, certain objects can be identified that are inevitably associated with the formation of a value system. Among them:

• definition of human nature, ideal of personality;
• picture of the world, the universe, perception and understanding of nature;
• the place of man, his role in the system of the universe, the relationship of man to nature;
• the relationship of a person to a person;
• the nature of society, the ideal of social order.

Social norms

In a situation where a system of social values ​​is characterized by stability, reproducibility over time and prevalence within a given society, this system is formalized, concretized in the form of social norms. Attention should be paid to the twofold definition of the concept of "norm". According to its first use norm - an abstractly formulated rule, prescription. It is known, however, that the concept of "norm" in relation to any series of phenomena, processes also denotes that set of phenomena or signs of a process, which serve as their predominant characteristic, are constantly renewed, stably manifesting themselves in a given series of phenomena (then they speak of a normal phenomenon, a normal process, on the presence of an objective (real) norm) In social life, there are ordinary, repetitive relationships between members of society. These relationships fall under the concept objective(real) norms in human behavior. A set of acts of action, characterized by a high degree of homogeneity and repetition, is objective social norm.

Objective social norm

This is a characteristic of existing phenomena or processes (or acts of command), therefore, its presence and content can be established only by analyzing social reality; the content of social norms is derived from the real behavior of individuals and social groups. It is here that social norms are reproduced from day to day, often manifesting their action spontaneously, not always being reflected in the minds of people. If in law the sphere of social obligation is expressed in the form of rationally conscious and logically formulated rules (prohibitions or decrees), where means are subordinated to goals, and immediate goals are subordinated to distant ones, then social norms are not dismembered in public consciousness into goals and means, they exist in in the form of stereotypes (standards of behavior), as something implied, are perceived as such and are reproduced in a command without their obligatory conscious assessment.

Social norms, spontaneously ordering the behavior of people, regulate the most diverse types of social relations, folding into a certain hierarchy of norms, distributed according to the degree of social significance. It is worth saying that political norms directly related to the system of ideological values ​​affect the norms of an economic nature, the latter - on technical norms, etc. The norms of everyday behavior, professional data, family relations and morality as a whole cover, in fact, the entire totality of social significant acts of behavior.

In the social norm, the vast majority of the phenomena (acts of behavior) are embodied. It can designate what is usually, naturally, typical in a given area of ​​social reality, which characterizes its main social life at the moment. These are the majority of exactly homogeneous, more or less identical acts of behavior. Relative homogeneity makes it possible to summarize them, separate them from other acts of behavior that make up deviations, exceptions, anomalies. The norm will be a synthetic generalization of the mass social practice of people. In social norms, that is, stable, most typical types and methods of behavior in specific areas of social practice, the objective laws of social development will awaken. Socially normal will be what is necessary, what naturally exists in a given structure of society.

The social norm in the sphere of human behavior in relation to specific acts can be characterized by two main series of quantitative indicators. This is, firstly, the relative number of behavioral acts of a certain type and, secondly, an indicator of the degree of theirs to a certain average pattern. The objective basis of the social norm will awaken in the fact that the functioning, development of social phenomena and processes occurs within the same qualitative and quantitative limits. The totality of actual acts of action that form social norms is made up of homogeneous but not identical elements. These acts of action inevitably differ among themselves in the degree of the average sample of the social norm. These actions, therefore, are arranged along a certain continuum: from a complete pattern through cases of partial deviation up to a complete overstepping of the objective social norm. In qualitative definiteness, in the content, sense and significance of the qualitative characteristics of social norms, real behavior will eventually be dominated by the dominant system of social values.

The total number of homogeneous (that is, more or less ϲᴏᴏᴛʙᴇᴛϲᴛʙ a certain characteristic) acts of behavior - the first quantitative indicator of a given set of acts. The difference between similar homogeneous acts is associated with the fact that the specified qualitative feature in each specific case can be expressed to a different degree, i.e. acts of behavior can have different frequency characteristics from the point of view of the manifestation of his feature in them. This is the second quantitative parameter of this population. Deviations from the average pattern of behavior to a certain level fit within the framework of what can be considered an objective social norm. Upon reaching a certain limit, the degree of deviation will be so high that such acts will be classified as anomalies, acts of antisocial, dangerous, criminal.

Going beyond the objective social norm is possible in two directions: with a minus sign (negative value) and with a plus sign (positive value). Here again an inextricable link between social norms and the dominant system of values ​​will awaken. It is such a system that not only provides social norms with their qualitative characteristics, but also determines the polar values ​​of cases of going beyond these norms. With m, the following regularity is essential: the higher the degree of a given act to the average sample of social norm, the more such acts, and the lower the degree of ya, the less and the relative number of such acts.

It is worth saying - it is useful to resort to a schematic, graphic representation of the ϶ᴛᴏth ratio (see Fig. 2) It is worth saying that for th we will postpone vertically the number of definite, relatively homogeneous (but never identical) acts of action, and horizontally - the degree of their ϲᴏᴏᴛʙᴇᴛϲᴛʙya to the middle sample (both with a "plus" and with a "minus")

On the above graph, in zones "b" and "b1" there are acts of actions that fit within the limits of an objective social norm, ϶ᴛᴏ the way they usually do. Zone "a1" - ϶ᴛᴏ deviations that go beyond the objective social norm. These are actions that differ from the average norm, that which is condemned. Zone "a" contains actions that deviate even more from the framework of social norms (maximum deviations), ϶ᴛᴏ actions condemned by the majority, assessed as unacceptable, criminal. In zone "c" there are actions that go beyond the average sample of social norms towards social ideals, those actions that are admired (although they are rarely followed)

Figure № 2. Graph of the ratio of social norms and deviations

The quantitative and qualitative characteristic of social norms is extremely indicative from the standpoint of the level of the dynamics of social changes and their content. A situation is possible when those acts of behavior that were in the minority grow to such an extent that they begin to move from the category of deviations, exceptions to the stage of formation of a new model of social norm. Usually, ϶ᴛᴏ marks a radical transformation of the system of social values ​​of this society

All of us, since we live in a society of our own kind, are doomed to choose a line of behavior in their environment. From behavioral responses - both our own and those of others - we learn whether we are accepted by a particular social group, are leaders or outsiders, whether we determine the behavior of others, or whether others predominantly determine our own behavior.

In different situations - in different social contexts - the same people behave differently. People's behavior is determined by values. In essence, the values ​​of all people are similar, people differ only in the scale of their values ​​- in which of the values ​​dominate for them, and which one can always or situationally give up.

Social values ​​are the value concepts adopted by a given social group. Such perceptions are more diverse than individual values. They are determined by ethnic psychology, the characteristics of the way of life, religion, economy and culture, if we are talking about the people, and the specifics of the occupation and social status of the group, if we are talking about more fractional groups.

Since each person belongs not to one, but to several social groups, the values ​​of these groups, sometimes very contradictory, intersect in his mind. Group values ​​are classified into social, stratification, political, ethnic, religious.

Those values ​​that really determine the behavioral strategies of people are obligatory for all members of a given social group and for neglect of which in the group sanctions sanctioned by the group are applied, are called social norms. Not all values ​​are reflected in norms. Only those values ​​that are capable of really regulating action become norms. Positive states of things that cannot be achieved by human efforts do not become norms, no matter how good and desirable they are.

There are also positive assessments of human actions and actions that never become a social norm because people are not able to follow them en masse. For example, in any society heroes are revered as the ideal of courage and selflessness, and saints as bearers of the ideal of lofty morality and love for one's neighbor. But history does not know a society that would only consist of heroes or saints. Thus, some social values ​​always remain an exclusive, unattainable model. What, in principle, can be required of everyone's behavior, becomes the norm.

Actions that a person cannot fail to do can not be the norm either. For the norm to become the norm, the opposite choice must be possible.

The function of norms in society is not limited only to the direct regulation of the social behavior of individuals; they make this behavior reasonably predictable. The norms prescribe all members of this group in such and such a situation to behave in a strictly defined way, and this normative prescription is supported by the threat of social sanctions in case of non-compliance and the expectation of reward if fulfilled.