To a large extent, social factors determine human development. According to Karl Marx, the essence of man is an ensemble of social relations. But it should be remembered that a person is not formed passively under the influence of the environment. The social environment does not fundamentally affect the development of personality traits. It is common knowledge that the same social conditions of life lead to different levels of moral, intellectual and spiritual development... This feature can be considered as a pattern in the development of the individual.

The development of social factors leads to a variety of their impact on personality development. Factors of intentional impact on a person can be political system and state policy, science, school, education and upbringing, working and living conditions, family, culture and traditions of the state, and much more.

There is a group of social factors that do not have a total effect, but give a person the opportunity to develop. These include culture, literature, art, means mass media, technical and sports societies, various clubs, exhibitions, sections, etc. The degree of influence of these factors will be determined by the capabilities and aspirations of the personality itself in their implementation. But the point is that the natural principle of a person is always individual: the peculiarities of the course of mental processes, the makings of abilities, the degree of activity, etc. People themselves have different attitudes towards the knowledge of art, literature, the development of knowledge, both technical and humanitarian. Someone is passionate about sports, someone is contraindicated for health reasons. Naturally, their developing qualities will be different. Thus, even the combined effect of these factors does not always ensure the formation of the necessary personality traits.

Among the social factors, upbringing can be called a special one. It can be viewed as a purposeful process of the formation of specific qualities and properties of an individual, her abilities, a process based on the laws of social development.

Everything that a person possesses, what makes him different from animals, is the result of his life in a social environment. It is characteristic that a child who has not absorbed the culture of society turns out to be unadapted to social life, cannot realize what is inherent in him by nature itself. Outside of society, a child does not become a person.

At the same time, it would be a clear oversimplification to think that a person is exclusively the result of socialization. In a certain sense, man is already born as a man, crystallizes in himself everything that has been accumulated by all mankind over the centuries. This crystallization is also carried out through heredity. The child does not simply absorb the information conveyed to him. He inherits a genetic store of information through the specifically human structure of the body, brain, and inclinations. If a chimpanzee from the first days of birth is placed in special conditions social life and surround with careful attention and care of the most talented teachers, all the same this animal will remain only a well-trained monkey. She has a different heredity, a different brain, which separates the monkey from the person with an impassable line. In other words, the emergence of labor, society and the psyche peculiar only to people - consciousness - was accompanied by important changes in the structure and activity of the brain and all nervous system, and vice versa. However, the features of the human brain and nervous system are only necessary condition or, more precisely, the biological prerequisite for the formation of consciousness, but not consciousness as such. Human consciousness itself is formed only in interaction and communication with other people, i.e. in a social context.

The biological nature of man, the structure of his brain, the researchers say, have hardly changed since the time of the Cro-Magnon man. But people of past eras both thought, and felt, and acted in completely different ways.

The social nature of consciousness, therefore, lies in the essence of those social relations that a person assimilates in the process of his activities, communication with outside world, in the process of educational influences. Various conditions people's lives and upbringing, belonging to different social groups, interaction and the struggle of their interests develop and form different consciousness. In this sense, consciousness as the highest form of human mental activity is not identical to thinking. Human consciousness changes not only from era to era, from one cultural and historical civilization to another, it can change throughout the life of the same person, depending on the characteristics of social relations in which he is included (he can be religious at one time, at the other - an atheist, at one time an adherent of some views, at another - others, etc.). Let's give a historical example: a child from an African tribe ends up in Paris and is brought up there, grows up as an educated person, a true Parisian. Thus, the development of new subject-object relations is manifested and realized in new social roles of the individual, which are gradually personified and transformed into his personal properties: character traits, abilities, etc.

It can be noted that upbringing affects the natural qualities of a person, introducing new content into them, adapting to the specific social conditions in which she is included. Already in the works of I.P. Pavlova passed the idea of ​​the plasticity of the nervous system, its compliance with education in different environmental conditions, as well as the great compensatory capabilities of the organism, i.e. the ability to compensate for a number of functions by other organs due to injuries, diseases, etc.

All of the above makes it possible to talk about the influence of social factors on personality development as priorities. Nevertheless, among them there are also factors that negatively affect the harmonious development of the personality, the content and direction of education. At the end of the XX century. in Russia, due to various historical reasons, new relations have developed. Let's name some of them.

• 1. Socio-political (collapse of the state and its ideological basis, destruction of spiritual and moral values, loss of national interests and culture, destruction of statehood and legality, bureaucracy, lack of a clear concept of education and upbringing, etc.).
• 2. Socio-economic (the collapse of the state economy, a decrease in the level of material production, neglect of spiritual values, lack of material and technical support educational institutions, the impossibility of familiarizing with the values ​​of spiritual culture among a significant part of the population due to the low standard of living, unemployment, etc.).
• 3. Socio-pedagogical (a sharp decline, and in many cases the absence of high-quality family education, new educational guidelines, the unpreparedness of many teachers to work in the new socio-political and economic conditions, tactical mistakes and mistakes in education management, lack of pedagogical tools, methodological and technological developments in the field of didactics, theory and methods of upbringing, the destruction of the traditional connection "school - community - family - production", the low social status of the teacher's work.
• 4. Socio-psychological (let's call them as derivatives of the above): hypertrophied views on the meaning of life and being; distorted needs, motives, interests, value orientations, attitudes towards gender relations and sexual behavior, etc.).

As a summary, let's say the following:

• 1. As a law, the objective existence and influence on the development of personality of the above factors remains.
• 2. Change of epochs of socio-economic and cultural-historical development causes changes in the content of social factors.
• 3. In pedagogical process it is important to understand and take into account the influence of these factors on personal development, mitigation or neutralization of their actions through a properly constructed system of education and development.

Most likely, you have already heard about such a concept as a social factor more than once. This is a term that is used in a wide variety of fields of activity. However, what does it mean? How exactly can it be used? What does he give? You can learn about all this from this article. Moreover, you will also learn about what social factors are at this moment influence the Russian reality as much as possible, in particular the financial world. After all, the social factor is, in most cases, an economic term that allows you to better navigate in the modern realities of doing business.

What it is?

So, first of all, you need to understand what this concept is. A social factor is a phenomenon or process that becomes the cause of certain social change affecting various fields of activity, from economics to healthcare. Simply put, societies. It is social factors that determine the direction in which society will move. Accordingly, it is very important to study them in order to have an idea of ​​the reality of the present in a particular industry in a particular society, most often within one city or one country. Thus, the social factor is a very important term that you should try to learn as much as possible about. Naturally, it is worth focusing on what social factors are, as well as on which of them are most relevant for modern Russia... What does it mean? This means that everyone needs to understand which particular social factors at the moment more than others influence the development of society in the country and, accordingly, the development of industries interconnected with society, in particular the economy.

Factors in Russia

There are dozens of social factors, so it is impossible to consider all of them. Therefore, this article will focus on those factors that have the greatest impact on the modern Russian Federation.

Population aging

The first social factor of development, which will be considered in this article, is the aging of the population, and it greatly affects the development of the country. Naturally, given the fact that it directly affects the population, we can say that this factor should be attributed to demographic, but this will not be entirely correct. The fact is that it has a direct impact on what happens in society, so it can be safely attributed to social factors.

What kind of impact does it have on society? It turns out to be comprehensive, since changes in the age structure of the population towards pensioners contribute to the opening of more establishments aimed at older people, more relevant products are produced, and so on. Separately, it should be said that with the aging of the population, the demand for health services increases significantly, so that even in this example, one can already see the impressive influence of social factors on society.

Income differentiation

What other social factors currently exist in Russia that influence society? Naturally, one cannot fail to note the differentiation of society in terms of income, or rather, its sharp means that the gap between the rich and the poor is growing, and this cannot but affect various spheres of activity. Firms constantly appear offering budget vacations abroad, cheaper goods and services aimed at the poor. Undoubtedly, each branch of activity takes into account this differentiation, since the choice of the direction of activity depends largely on which class will be focused on this activity. The fact is that in each of the classes, the tastes and interests of people will be approximately similar, so you will not be able to orient your activity towards both the upper and the middle class at the same time.

Private enterprise, unemployment

Separately, it is worth considering the socio-economic factors, which are among the most important in real life. They are the main driving force of development, since they combine two key elements - the economy and society. In Russia at the moment greatest influence the development of society is influenced by the growth in the number of private enterprises. Compared to the situation ten to fifteen years ago, when any attempt at private initiative was crushed in the bud, now almost everyone, if they want and have the means, can try their hand in the world of business.

Less pleasant is unemployment, which, unfortunately, is also constantly growing. Because of her, society suffers greatly, as many families do not receive enough money for a happy existence. And because of unemployment, in particular, income differentiation is growing, since all more people they simply cannot find a job, while the incomes of others are constantly growing. Naturally, new jobs are being created, which is a social reaction to this factor.

Structural changes in the family

It would seem that the family is an ancient institution, with which no serious social changes can occur that can affect the development of society. However, it turns out that it is in this institution that some of the most serious changes take place. For example, the number of divorces is constantly increasing, but at the same time it cannot be said that the desire of people to acquire new family... As a result, a new serious social group appears, consisting of people who are lonely, but at the same time have a stable serious income and reliability in their own lives.

It is also worth noting that the popularity of the so-called civil marriages has a huge impact on society. Increasingly, young people are in no hurry to legalize their relationship in the registry office and simply come together, starting cohabitation. They can even have children in this state, but at the same time they can disperse at any time. Naturally, this also has an impact on the most varied areas of life in the country. Their lifestyle is very different from the lifestyle that is characteristic of young people who have tied the knot, so this social factor should also be taken into account.

Variety of factors

As you can already understand, the social factors of a person is a very broad topic that you can talk about endlessly. There are dozens of factors. For each country they will be their own, which may turn out to be generally unacceptable for another country. Accordingly, every marketer should have extensive knowledge of social factors where his firm operates. Only in this way will he be able to collect the necessary information with which to achieve maximum efficiency companies.

Social factors include, for example, the human factor, which is characterized by a certain number of indicators of living standards, including average per capita incomes, minimum wages, and average wages. People grow up in a particular society, which shapes their basic views, values ​​and norms of behavior. Almost without realizing it, they perceive a worldview that determines their relationship to themselves and their relationship with each other. The features of the social structure are influenced by factors that seemingly at first glance do not have a significant impact on the economy of the enterprise:

Strong adherence to basic traditional cultural values;

Subculture within a single culture;

Temporary changes in secondary life values;

Married couples' views on family size;

The attitude of people towards the use of alcoholic beverages.

The first of these factors affects most organizations. Planning for this change is critical.

Technological factors.

Engineering and applied science is one of the influential forces determining the fate of the enterprise. The attitude to the scientific and technical complex depends on whether a person admires its miracles or is rather amazed at its failures. Any scientific and technical innovation is fraught with large long-term consequences that are not always predictable. Changes in technology have an impact on virtually all organizations and businesses and need to be accounted for. The following products did not exist 20 years ago:

Personal computers;

CDs;

Digital audio tape recorders;

Video cameras;

Fax machines;

Industrial robots;

These achievements owe their success to advances in microelectronics. The impact of microelectronic technologies has increased significantly in the retail sector. Many leading experts in the industry noted that retailers who are out of step with new technology will be pushed to the sidelines of business life.

The head of the enterprise must closely follow the leading trends in the scientific and technical complex and take into account the following points when planning the activities of an enterprise:

Acceleration of scientific and technological progress;

The emergence of endless possibilities;

Increased allocations for R&D;

Increased focus on introducing small improvements to existing products;

Tightening of state control over the quality and safety of goods.

Economic forces.

In addition to the people themselves, the purchasing power of the markets is also important. General level purchasing power depends on the level of current income, prices, savings and credit availability. Purchasing power is affected economic downturns, high unemployment rate, the growing cost of obtaining loans, as well as:

national currency exchange rate, mortgage payment level, inflation rate, economic cycle. Which factor is more important for a particular enterprise - the exchange rate or the interest rate - is determined by the profile of its market. Of course, the so-called economic cycle - a period of upturn or recession in the economy - has a significant impact. Few companies can resist the general trend of business development. An increase in interest rates can reduce the volume of loans, and a decrease in the level of mortgage payments will affect not only the real estate trade, but also those sellers, entrepreneurs, whose income depends on people changing their homes.

Political factors.

Marketing decisions are strongly influenced by events in the political environment. This environment is made up of legal structures, government institutions and influential groups of the public that influence various organizations and individuals and restrict their freedom of action within society.

The macroenvironment of the company also includes such factors as the demographic environment, legal environment, and natural environment.

Demographic environment.

Demography is a science that studies the population in terms of its size, density, etc. For marketers, the demographic environment is of great interest because markets are made up of people. The most significant demographic trends:

Decreased fertility;

Population aging;

Family changes;

Population migration.

Natural environment.

In the 1960s, there was growing public concern about whether industrial activity in developed countries was destroying the environment. natural environment... Vigilance groups and movements arose, and concerned lawmakers began pushing various measures to protect the environment. Changes in the environment also affect the goods that firms produce and offer to the market:

Deficiency of certain types of raw materials;

Rising energy costs;

Growth of environmental pollution;

Decisive government intervention in the process of rational use and reproduction of natural resources.

Legal environment.

All activities (especially in the field of marketing) are increasingly influenced by the legal environment:

Business regulation legislation;

Increased demands from government agencies that monitor compliance with the law;

An increase in the number of public interest groups.

Considering the importance of taking into account STEP factors for planning the activities of an enterprise, it is necessary not only to analyze them, but also to predict them in a targeted manner. Forecasting the external environment or audit of the external environment became important in the early 80s, especially after organizations expanded the scope of research. in forecasting, including causal factors. For example, predicting the development of technology has become especially important since microelectronics penetrated most areas of production.

Most forecasts are based on four main forecasting methods:

Study of opinions,

Count,

Extrapolation of statistical trends,

Finding the relationship between two or more statistical variables.

The external environment of the organization is divided into two groups of factors: the external environment and the competitive environment. Structural scheme environmental factors is shown in Fig. 1.4. Some factors influence others and vice versa. But without certain means and methods of structuring, there is a danger that the analysis will become disordered, and important factors will be ignored.

Analysis and forecast of the competitive environment, which include the study of all components of the competitive environment, is equally important.

The most important aspects in market analysis are as follows:

What is the market? How big is it? Is the market subject to change? What are the substitutes for this product? How profitable is the market?

n What are geographic boundaries market? For what reasons and how do they change?

Social factors, their dynamics have a very significant impact - no less than others - on the consumer behavior of the population. An analysis of the social parameters of society can suggest to marketing researchers possible directions for the development of consumer preferences among buyers, which will allow the company's management to formulate a reasonable marketing strategy for its activities. Among the social factors characteristic of Russia and deserving the attention of marketers are:

Population aging (gender and age structure of the population);

Strengthening the differentiation of society by income level;

The emergence of private enterprise, wage labor and unemployment;

Structural changes in the family.

Of course, we can name other social factors that are of a private nature and appear only on the territory of certain regions. Here, only those that lie on the surface are mentioned. social phenomena and are typical for the whole country, for each of its regions.

It is obvious that the age and sex structure of the population, which in dynamics shows the aging of the population, is a demographic indicator. But since its change gives rise to specific processes in society associated, for example, with care for older citizens, an increase in the birth rate, etc., then it is quite appropriate to consider the indicators of the population structure in the block of social factors. If we are talking about the aging of the population, then in Russia, as in European countries, there has long been a tendency towards an increase in the proportion of older people in the general structure of the population. This is typical for all regions of Russia. The only difference is that in some of them the proportion of older people is higher, in some it is less. As for Altai, according to regional statistics, the number of people aged 20-29 decreased from 479.5 thousand people in 1959 to 358.7 thousand people in 1996, while the number of people aged 60 years and older over the same period increased from 198.1 thousand people to 449.2 thousand people. These figures are convincing evidence of the aging of the population of the Altai Territory. The economic reform further exacerbated this trend as the birth rate plummeted. If in Altai in 1959 there were 209.5 thousand people aged 0-2 years, then in 1996 there were only 71.7 thousand people. It is obvious that these trends cannot but have a certain impact on the consumer behavior of the population of the region as a whole, which the marketers of enterprises should not ignore when building marketing strategies development.

The question arises: how can the behavior of the population change in connection with a change in its age structure? In the event of an aging population, inevitably there will be, in particular, an increase in the demand for health services. Other forms of changing people's consumer behavior are also possible. In Europe and the United States, for example, an increase in the proportion of older people retiring is helping to increase the demand for tourism services. There is no such tendency in Russia. The growing army of Russian pensioners prefers to spend time on their summer cottages cultivating fruits and vegetables. Thus, it can be stated that one and the same demographic trend in different countries gave rise to completely dissimilar social trends. This is easily explained by the difference in national cultures, the level of income of the population, etc.

But how should Russian business respond to these interrelated and interdependent trends? Obviously, in some sectors of the agro-industrial complex, it is necessary to increase the production of gardening equipment, fertilizers, etc., adjusting these goods for consumption in small land plots... To produce, for example, motoblocks, small in power and dimensions, simple and reliable in operation, to pack fertilizers in containers acceptable for summer residents, etc. Of course, Russian business should not lose sight of the irrepressible passion of Western pensioners for travel, creating for them the appropriate tourism infrastructure (in any region of Russia they have something to see).

This is approximately complex analysis but, of course, more detailed, interrelated factors external environment(v in this case demographic, social, cultural) and should underlie any marketing decision. If we are talking about attracting elderly Western tourists to Russia, then the range of these factors, of course, should be expanded, including in the list for analysis both politics (bilateral and multilateral interstate agreements), and the economy (dynamics of exchange rates), and possibly others.

The growing differentiation of society in terms of income also has a very significant effect on the structure of consumption. This indicator is used by foreign sociologists as the basis for the division of society into classes:

Upper upper class (less than 1% of the population). This includes the elite, who come from eminent families and live on inherited wealth. They can donate money to charities, usually own more than one house, send their children to private schools, and do not like to show off their wealth. The main consumer markets for them are jewelry, antiques, homes, leisure and travel services.

Lower upper class (about 2%). This class includes people in the liberal professions and businessmen who receive high incomes due to their exceptional abilities. They, as a rule, are active in public affairs, strive to recognize their social status and conspicuously spend their savings. They strive to move to the upper upper class. Their market is expensive houses, yachts, swimming pools, cars.

Upper middle class (12%). Freelancers, managers, businessmen making a career. They strive to obtain good education, show concern for spiritual life, culture, civic affairs. Good houses, furniture, clothes, and household appliances are bought on the market.

Lower middle class (30%). This includes white-collar workers, small entrepreneurs and the so-called labor aristocracy. They strive to observe cultural traditions, norms and rules, to give themselves an aura of respectability. Their market is for do-it-yourself products, household items, formal clothing.

Upper lower class (35%). These are small employees, skilled and semi-skilled workers. They are concerned with the problems of a clear division of the roles of the sexes, strengthening their position in society. Their market is inexpensive sporting goods, beer, household goods.

The lowest lower class (20%). This class includes unskilled workers, people living on benefits. Their market is foodstuffs, some household goods, televisions, second-hand items.

V Russian society to solve marketing problems, it is also possible to single out the class of the rich, the middle class and the class of the poor, carrying out, if necessary, their more detailed differentiation. Of course, the quantitative and qualitative characteristics of these classes will not be the same as in the United States. But the methodological approach itself can be applied in Russia as well.

Thus, social classes are fairly stable groups of people who are characterized by the presence of similar value ideas, interests, aspirations, consumer (and other) behavior. In other words, social classes are characterized not only by the level of income, but also by other indicators, mainly qualitative, such as education, attitude to cultural traditions, value preferences, etc. Knowledge of the class structure of society helps marketers to better navigate social processes, since belonging to a class speaks about possible stereotypes of behavior of its members, in particular:

1) belonging to one class also determines the tendency of its representatives to very similar (sometimes almost identical) behavior;

2) belonging to a class determines the position of people in society;

3) representatives of some classes can move to other classes (rise from the lower classes to the higher ones, descend from the higher to the lower ones)

Focusing on class dynamics, marketers can build more reasonable predictive scenarios for the development of their enterprises, their product and pricing policy, determine the most preferred directions for the development of assortment policy, etc. How can you characterize the class structure of Russia that emerged as a result of reforms in the 90s? First of all, it should be noted that the economic reform in Russia led to a rather deep differentiation of Russian society, expressed in the emergence of a class of the rich and even the super-rich, as well as the class of the poor, whose numbers are very significant. The middle class, which should form the basis of society, is perhaps only outlined. And at the beginning of the new century it cannot yet be called formed and strengthened, which cannot but cause concern, including among businessmen.

Belonging to one or another social class determines not only the material situation of people, but also their mental state. The growing social distance between the poor and the rich in Russia exacerbates the feeling of their own poverty among the poor, which, unfortunately, does not always lead them to the idea of ​​seeking to improve their situation by legal methods and means. An increase in the number of the poor leads to the accumulation of negative potential in society in relation to the rich in general and to business in particular, which is fraught with social upheaval. On the contrary, the prevalence of the middle class in society makes society more stable. The middle class consists of workers who already live well and want to live even better. They already have something to lose when the social order changes and they have something to gain if stability in society is maintained. Their value orientation is expressed in increasing their material well-being, they are ready to spend the money they earn on good cars, more comfortable housing, expensive household appliances, etc. Thus, the larger the share of the middle class in a society, the more opportunities in this society for business development. Marketers, on the other hand, must carefully study the needs and requirements of representatives of this class, because these needs are largely massive in nature, which can provide impressive sales.

The emergence of private entrepreneurship and hired labor in Russia also influenced the change in the lifestyle of the population, which, naturally, could not but affect their consumer behavior.

At the initial stage of the economic reform (1990-1991), three goals were formulated. The essence of the first of them was privatization, the creation of a private sector in the economy, destroyed during the years of Soviet power. The second goal was to replace the administrative-command mechanism of management with a market one. And the third goal concerned the revival of the sense of the owner in people, so that each owner strives to increase his property and to use it efficiently. If the first two goals have been more or less achieved (although there are still discussions in society about this; in particular, the communists, agrarians, representatives of the military-industrial complex are inclined to believe that the reforms did not take place), then the third goal at the beginning of a new century has yet to be considered fully achieved.

Entrepreneurs, with whom the concept of a sense of master should be identified, have appeared, but hardly their numerical and most importantly qualitative composition can be seen as acceptable. Who should be considered an entrepreneur? If we include all citizens who have received certificates of entrepreneurs in their district administrations and are engaged in the shuttle business, then there are many of them in Russia. But are they essentially entrepreneurs, i.e. subjects that create new goods, services that generate new needs in society, and, consequently, contribute to the emergence of new jobs for hired labor? By and large, of course not. There are still few such entrepreneurs. Therefore, the third goal has not been fully achieved. And, perhaps, it cannot be achieved so quickly. To form a sense of master among the people, while the entire past upbringing of entire generations was aimed at suppressing it, of course, is not easy and it takes a certain amount of time. The very emergence of entrepreneurship as a phenomenon should already be considered positive. As soon as it exists, even in this form, there is also the hope that sooner or later entrepreneurs like Henry Ford the first, Bill Gates will appear in the country, and if you recall pre-revolutionary Russia, then merchants such as Demidovs, Savva Morozov, etc. Such entrepreneurship (Entrepreneurship with a capital letter) is not only able to ensure the saturation of the market with unique goods and services, but also to solve an important social task associated with a decrease in the unemployment rate.

The economic reform led to the emergence in Russian society of such phenomena as unemployment, hired labor, which had not existed in our country for decades and which in a certain way influenced the mass consciousness of citizens. During the years of Soviet power, when the right to work was guaranteed by the Constitution of the USSR, the people used to consider themselves protected from this scourge. Therefore, in 1991, as the results of a special sociological survey showed, only 7% of the respondents noted the threat of unemployment as a problem that worries them (10th place among other problems). In 1992, already 30% (5th place) of the respondents expressed concern about the threat of unemployment - the perception of the problem has become aggravated. The realization came that the Soviet worker had suddenly turned into a hired worker who could be shown the door at any moment without a guarantee of employment. As a result, a labor market appeared, a complex system of relations regarding hiring arose: relations of hired workers as with their real buyers. work force and with potential buyers. On the basis of these relations, a mechanism of competition for jobs began to take shape, which simply could not exist in Soviet Russia.

All this allows us to hope that the quality of work will increase, because the dependent psychology of the able-bodied population, conditioned by the constitutional guarantee, its carelessness about employment and the lack of initiative in raising qualifications and retraining will sink into oblivion. Already now, many, especially young people, have realized that the preservation of jobs for themselves largely depends on themselves, on their desire for continuous professional improvement. Thus, negative social consequences unemployment created the preconditions for the development of motivation for the qualification growth of the population of working age. Such a transformation of mass consciousness cannot but affect the final results of the activities of enterprises for the production of goods and services by them. When developing (developing) the consumer properties of a product, when creating new goods, this economically beneficial striving for professional self-improvement for hired labor should certainly be taken into account by enterprise marketers. When coupled with workplace initiative, preferably economically rewarding, the growth of professional skills of employees can lead a firm to commercial success by offering the market goods and services with unique consumer properties that are in demand. When examining social factors, marketers should also pay attention to structural changes in families, since the subject of consumer behavior is not just an individual, but an individual, one way or another connected by family relationships, which are in constant dynamics due to changes in the economy, culture, demography and others. spheres. For the purposes of identifying consumer behavior characteristic of a particular market, one can use the classification of families proposed by foreign sociologists.

The demographic circumstances discussed above, as well as economic, cultural and, possibly, others, led to the emergence of new trends in the development of family structure. Increasingly, divorced or widowed people, even in childbearing age, are in no hurry to start a second family, preferring a solitary lifestyle. Many of them already have a fairly high level of income and they can in no way be attributed to the type corresponding to the first stage of the life cycle. Their character of consumer behavior is already different and does not resemble any of the types listed in digression 3.12. Many young people enter into a so-called civil marriage and are in no hurry to have children. Their income levels are rapidly increasing and the style of consumer behavior is becoming unlike that of young newlyweds without children. All these circumstances should also become the object of close attention of marketing research in order to provide the management of their organization with more accurate and reliable information about the specifics of the market, about its potential purchasing abilities.

Social factors largely form stereotypes of consumer behavior, therefore, in marketing research they should be given appropriate attention.

Social factors

In a generalized form, all social factors can be divided into microsocial, including direct social ties and living conditions of a person, and macrosocial, including broader socio-economic conditions of his existence.

Under microsystem means a specific living space of a person with well-defined spatial, temporal and interpersonal characteristics, for example: home, school, workplace... Within the microsystem, a person is in a certain period of time, in a certain place and in a certain role. This includes the system of interpersonal relations. Within the framework of the system of microsocial factors, family factors play a special role.

Macrosystem includes the laws, rules, regulations of the economic, political, social and pedagogical systems of a given culture. It also includes informal laws and regulations that govern daily life.

Pathogenic macrosocial factors include overpopulation, pollution environment, high levels of violence and reduced social support, unemployment, homelessness, migration.

A study of sex-related prevalence of mental disorders showed that higher prevalence was associated with female gender, low educational attainment, and age after 30 years.

It has been found that working women are less likely to suffer from depression than non-working women. An important factor in mental illness is sexual and physical abuse, from which women primarily suffer.

Research shows that the enormous scale of technological change is also an important stressor in the growth of mental disorders.

It should also be noted the influence of ethnocultural factors on the prevalence and nature of the course of various mental disorders. It is known that for eastern peoples characterized by the predominance of somatic symptoms masking the emotional manifestations of depressive and anxiety disorders.

It is necessary to note socio-cultural factors as values ​​cultivated in society. The influence of culture on the specifics of mental disorders, in particular the destructive influence of the values ​​of the consumer society and competition, is a subject of special study in modern clinical psychology.

A steadily growing body of research leads to the conclusion that there is a multifactorial biopsychosocial nature of mental disorders.

Biopsychosocial Models - important step on the way to a comprehensive solution to the problem of human mental health through the prism of biological, psychological and sociological approaches.

Periods of human mental development

In the development of a person, one can consider the universal and individual laws of his life cycle, the formation of mental abilities, the formation of the psyche as a whole.

The development of people, including their mental development, is uneven. This applies to both different mental processes and individual aspects of individual mental development of a person. So, the processes of general perception are characterized by early dates development, while the aesthetic perception of a person refers to the mature periods of his life.

Self-consciousness of a person is formed in the process of all life, according to a differentiated awareness of oneself as a member of society is characteristic of adolescence. Moreover, the individual unevenness of mental development can be expressed in the discrepancy between the physical, chronological, psychological age, in which the unevenness of the mental, socio-psychological, emotional aspects of development is also observed. For example, an intellectually developed adult may exhibit socially inappropriate behaviors that are more typical of adolescence.

Age problem. The problem of age is simple only at first glance. Attempts to create age-related periodization are associated with the need to define the concept of "age", which still remains unclear. There is the concept of "chronological age", meaning the duration of a person's life from the moment of his birth.

The periodization of human mental development involves the selection of criteria for correlating chronological and psychological age. One of the first attempts at such a correlation was the introduction by Alfred Binet of the concept of "mental age". A. Binet, French psychologist, at the beginning of the XX century. created the first test mental development... He defined mental age as the ability to solve problems that reflect ideas about the level of knowledge of concepts and mental operations. The ratio of mental age to chronological age served as an indicator of mental development, which, at the suggestion of W. Stern, was called the intelligence quotient (IQ).

Social development and the concept of "socialization". Social development - the process of a person's entry into the surrounding social reality - is one of the most important aspects of his mental development as a whole. Without the ability to effectively interact with other people within the framework of certain social groups, it is difficult to imagine an adult, "mature" person.

Numerous facts obtained during the observation of the consequences of social deprivation and in the course of special experiments indicate the decisive role of the social environment for all spheres of human mental development: from motor to cognitive, from emotional to the sphere of self-awareness.

The allocation of the sphere of social development as a separate side of mental development is conditional, since none creature is not so socially dependent and at the same time does not have the same expressed opportunities influence on your environment as a person. In fact, it is the process of constant interaction of a person with his social environment, more and more expanding and becoming more complex as he grows up, serves as a kind of "engine" of all other spheres of his mental development.

The process of social development of an individual, as a process of development in general, is carried out on the basis of the interaction of the individual with the social environment. It is to characterize this active inclusion of a person in the system of social ties that the concept of "socialization" is usually used. Therefore, the concepts of "socialization" and "social development" in some cases act as synonyms. However, as a rule, they are used in various epistemological contexts.

Socialization is understood as a person's compliance with social requirements for a given age stage, as the presence of personal and socio-psychological prerequisites that ensure normative behavior or the process of social adaptation. In this case, socialization acts as a broader concept that includes, in addition to the signs of socialization, readiness to move into new situations of social development. Thus, in contrast to socialization, socialization implies:

• - the ability to adequately perceive new social requirements;
• - selective attitude to social impact;
• - low social rigidity;
• - the presence of personal prerequisites for performing the tasks of the next stage of socialization.

In the past two decades, the term "resocialization" has been actively used to denote the process of "secondary" entry of an individual into the social environment, which became necessary due to the existing "defects" of socialization (resocialization of those released from prison) or as a result of a change in the social and cultural environment ( re-socialization of migrants).

The ability to navigate in unforeseen social situations is considered as the central characteristic of a person's social behavior in the process of resocialization. The ways of this skill formation are understood by researchers in different ways. In the complex process of socialization, as a rule, four directions are distinguished.

Firstly, the emphasis in the analysis of socialization is placed on culturally assigned values, models of behavior, methods of social categorization, etc. In this case, the social development of the individual will be viewed primarily as a process of inculturation.

Secondly, the process of socialization is viewed as the process of mastering social skills, internalizing various types of social experience. Social development will accordingly be associated with the mechanisms of this assimilation and the content of the assimilated.

Thirdly, attention can be paid mainly to the analysis of the results of socialization, i.e. rather, it will be about socialization as about adaptation. This understanding involves the analysis of the characteristics of a person that ensure his normative functioning. The main criterion in assessing the social development of a person is his social success.

All these three directions of socialization reflect the first (let's say, passive) side of socialization: the moment of a person's "entry" into society. The second side of socialization, reflecting the moment of active use by a person of the assimilated social experience, has been studied much less often in sociology and psychology. This requires the allocation of the fourth direction of socialization: the consideration of it as a process of construction. At present, the problem of human construction of the social world is an independent object of analysis, constituting the subject content of the psychology of social cognition.

Naturally, the allocation of these four facets of socialization is very conditional. To characterize the socialization process as a whole, such a structuring of it seems to be justified.

According to the results empirical research in the process of socialization, three series of factors can be distinguished that determine the success of adaptation. This is, first of all, the ability of a person to change his value orientations; secondly, the ability to find a certain "balance" between their value orientations and social role; third, an orientation not towards specific social requirements, but towards the adoption of a universal system of values.

Summarizing the results of studies of socialization from the point of view of the development of adaptation processes, their following general provisions should be noted: socialization is understood as a final process, the idea of ​​the possibility of reaching a final level adequate to the social situation remains unchanged: the course and content of socialization are determined by the social requirements that were set.

Mechanisms of mental adaptation and maladjustment. The human body is such dynamic system, in which the same morphological and physiological structures provide many functions and adaptive processes. The system of mental adaptation is formed by multifaceted subsystems that are in complex relationships. Therefore, mental adaptation cannot be explained on the basis of the statistical relationships of its constituent elements.

The idea of ​​the role of functional systems in mental activity and its disorders allows us to combine individual facts and, in each individual case, assess their place and significance in the work of the general functional system... Thus, the leading place belongs to the study of the functioning of the system as a whole, and not of its components.

Mental adaptation of a person can be presented as a result of the activity of an integral system, the activity of which is provided not only by a set of individual components, but by their interaction, which generates new integrative qualities that are not inherent in individual subsystems. The result of the functioning of the entire system is the state of mental adaptation, which allows it not only to most optimally resist various natural and social factors, but also to actively and purposefully influence them.

The fundamental difference between the activity of the functional system of human mental adaptation from all other functional systems is the presence of mechanisms of conscious self-regulation, which are based on a subjective individual-personal assessment of natural and social influences on a person.

Mental activity in a state of adaptation is the most important factor in ensuring a person's health. In the case when these "abilities" correspond to the level required for active life, or exceed it, we can talk about the adapted, "normal" mental activity of a person.

However, it should be pointed out that the indicators of mental norm and pathology are insufficiently developed at the present time. The sociological, psychological, and medical criteria applied in these cases are usually built on a negative, often subjective, basis that emphasizes factors that should not be "normal". Attempts to assess positively "normal" mental activity are extremely rare.

The concept of a person's mental norm is not unambiguous. It can be very difficult to determine the transition from norm to pathology, especially on the basis of taking into account only the behavior of a person in isolation from all his mental activity. This is due to the fact that the border of normal and pathological mental activity is wide enough.

Psychic adaptation can be presented as a result of the functioning of a system, which is characterized by a state of mobile equilibrium, in which its structure remains constant, but, in contrast to the usual equilibrium, this constancy remains in the process of continuous exchange and movement of its constituent substance (L. Bertalanffy).

This definition of mental health was developed by V. Ya. intensity.

The personality traits that develop during life, the volume and nature of acquired knowledge, the orientation of interests, the originality of emotional and volitional qualities, moral attitudes - all this creates a certain degree of freedom of a person's response in certain conditions and the basis for individual adaptation to unfavorable mental factors, and also allows actively and purposefully transform them. Therefore, this or that effect for one person can become a psycho-traumatic factor, and for another it can be indifferent.

The systemic concept of mental adaptation presupposes a dialectical unity of its general, particular, and individual (single) characteristics. The state of all body systems is reflected in the possibilities of human mental adaptation. Dysfunction of any of them can be reflected in the functional activity of the mental adaptation system. It is obvious that biological and socio-psychological factors influencing the life of a person, to varying degrees, affect the highest level of manifestations of adaptation - the adaptation of mental activity. This confirms the extreme complexity of the structure of the functional system of mental adaptation.

The system of mental adaptation is dynamic, always in development. The functional capabilities of its leading and secondary links are constantly changing due to the instability of their biological and socio-psychological basis.

On the initial stages development of a maladapted state, biological and socio-psychological components of mental adaptation mutually compensate for possible violations of each of them. This is ensured by integrative connections between them, which create ample opportunities for plasticity, adaptation to changing conditions of life.

This general position quite well explains the ease of occurrence of asthenic, neurotic disorders in somatic diseases, known to doctors. It can be explained by three reasons: asthenization of patients and the resulting increased fatigue, psychological tension and the inability to adequately respond to traumatic influences, an additional neurotic reaction to a painful somatic state, and also by the fact that in such cases, adverse interactions are experienced by various links that form functioning of a single barrier of mental adaptation. This is the reason for a decrease in their compensatory capabilities with an increased load on each of the links separately.

One of essential conditions the occurrence of mental disorders is the discrepancy between the psychological, social and biological capabilities of a person for processing information, the rate of its receipt and the amount, which can be either excessive or insufficient. This discrepancy often serves as the direct cause of various violations of the ordered relationships of a person, expressed in the form of neurotic disorders.

All stages of the tension of the barrier of mental adaptation and its breakthrough are accompanied by general and non-specific biological changes for the traumatic effect, which are now widely known as manifestations of the general adaptation syndrome arising in response to stress.

Canadian pathophysiologist G. Selye formulated the concept of stress as a set of adaptive and protective reactions of the body to any impact that generates mental or physical trauma. He established a general biological endocrine-biochemical mechanism of stress caused by a traumatic effect.

This mechanism sequentially includes the following three stages:

• 1) anxiety reaction with "shock phase", "counter-shock phase", which represent a generalized effort of the body to adapt to new conditions;
• 2) the stage of resistance, which occurs as a result of the restructuring of the body in relation to the traumatic agent;
• 3) the stage of exhaustion, replacing the state of "tense resistant dormancy" in the relationship of the organism and continuing its pathogenic effect of trauma.

Emotional stress holds a special place among the various traumatic influences on a person. At the same time, as established by G. Selye and his students, the sequence of the mechanisms of these three stage biological reactions is preserved.

Mental adaptation barrier. The most important indicator of a violation of mental adaptation is a violation of an adequate response of a person in a traumatic situation. There is a breakthrough of a strictly individual adaptation barrier for each person, which, as it were, absorbs all the features of a person's mental make-up and the ability to respond.

The literature indicates three levels of biological and psychological regulation that provide active adaptation of a person.

The first of them - the general biological level of self-regulation - ensures the dynamic constancy of the internal environment of the organism, developed in the process of phylogenesis and supporting the autonomy of the main life processes.

The second, higher, level, on the basis of genetically determined general biological mechanisms of regulation, determines instinctive forms of behavior that are a function of the spinal, stem and subcortical parts of the central nervous system.

The third, highest, level of regulation develops during a person's life under the influence of his personal needs and volitional activity. These three levels are in close functional connection, the violation of which, as well as the disintegration of the activity of each of them separately, inevitably leads to a violation of the barrier of mental adaptation.

The concept of a barrier to mental adaptation and its constituent components contributes to a clearer integrated understanding of mental activity. This concept unites all the potentialities of adequate and purposeful mental activity, includes genetic predisposition, individual socially acquired skills that are relevant in certain life periods, as well as the physical and psychological state of a person.