The book is given with some abbreviations

Socio-psychological phenomena arise from the interaction of the social environment, the individual and the group. Therefore, when studying them, it is necessary first of all to form a fairly clear idea of the social environment, of the individual and the group as subjects of these phenomena, and of general conditions their mutual influence and interaction.
Social environment- this is all that surrounds a person in his social life, serves as the object of his mental reflection - either direct or mediated by the results of the work of other people. Exposure to the wider population social factors a person experiences throughout his life. All of them, taken together, make up the social environment of the individual. But to designate the social factors that determine social life, they can tell us that in Marxism the concept of “socio-economic formation” is used, why else the concept of “social environment”? Let's consider the relationship between these concepts.

Social environment and socio-economic formation

The concept of social environment denotes the specific uniqueness of social relations at a certain stage of their development. In this way it differs from the concept of socio-economic formation and complements it. The concept of social environment characterizes not the essence of social relations, but their specific manifestation. Capitalism as a socio-economic formation is subject to the same socio-economic laws. But, manifesting itself in specifically special forms, the action of these laws creates a specific social environment that differs from other social environments. It is in this specific social environment that individuals and groups operate. And if historical figures and large groups (classes, nations) operate in a broad social environment, then the sphere of action of small groups and the individuals included in them is the microenvironment, the immediate social environment.
A specific social environment appears in the psychological aspect as a set of relationships between individuals and groups. The relationship between the social environment and the individual has a rather significant element of subjectivity. If a class cannot change its place in the socio-economic formation without destroying itself as a class, then a person can change his place in the social environment, can move from one social environment to another and thereby construct, to a certain extent, his own social environment.
Of course, the mobility of an individual in the social environment is not absolute; it is limited by the objective framework of socio-economic relations and the class structure of society. Nevertheless, the activity of the individual, especially in relation to the microenvironment he chooses, cannot be underestimated. The practical significance of this issue is revealed, in particular, when analyzing the causes of crime.
The social environment in relation to the individual is of a relatively random nature. This randomness is especially great in psychological terms, since the character and characteristics of certain individuals leave their mark on their relationships. But even this randomness manifests itself only to certain limits. It is limited by the necessity of relations determined by a certain socio-economic system.
It should be taken into account that the socio-economic formation is the highest abstraction of the system of social relations, where only global features are recorded. In the social environment, these elements of socio-economic formations are enlivened by a variety of aspects: demographic, ethnic, psychological, individual. Therefore, the structure of the social environment seems more confusing and more complicated than the strictly logical structure of the socio-economic formation.
The structure of the social environment cannot be a complete analogue of the structure of the socio-economic formation, its mirror image. Factors of an ethnic order, for example, belonging to a nationality, a nation, a particular ethnic group, as well as derived factors of ethnic consciousness, acting together, constitute integral elements of the social environment. At the same time, elements directly related to the socio-economic formation have a decisive influence on the social environment. The system of objective social relations constitutes, as it were, a framework on which small groups and individuals are located. The place of the group on this framework mainly determines the social environment of the individual.
Thus, the social environment, to a first approximation, can be determined by the type of socio-economic formation. This is how the social environment characteristic of the primitive communal, slave, feudal, capitalist and socialist systems differs. The nature of the influence of the social environment defined in this way on the individual and the group also differs. We speak with indignation, for example, about feudal-bai remnants in socialist reality. We angrily denounce the modern facts of the slave trade and slavery, realizing that they do not pass without leaving a trace on the minds of those who live in a similar social environment in some foreign countries.

The class character of the social environment

Within the types of social environment, distinguished by the type of socio-economic formation, the types should be distinguished depending on the place of the group in the structure of the formation. Here, first of all, the class social environment is distinguished by its place in the historically determined system of social production. Thus, we distinguish between the bourgeois social environment, the proletarian social environment, etc. Since any social class is heterogeneous in its composition and is divided into certain layers, each layer has its own characteristic features of the social environment. This gives intra-class divisions of the social environment. In addition, there is a social environment of the so-called declassed elements. Each of the noted types of social environment is characterized by certain psychological traits that leave their mark on individuals and groups of people.
Finally, there is a group of characteristics that help to identify the type of social environment according to the division of labor. There is a more or less clear distinction between the urban environment and the rural environment; a social environment characterized by physical and mental labor, various types of activity - industrial, political, legal, scientific, artistic, with all the ensuing features of people's existence.
All these signs constitute specific characteristics of the social environment that affect the individual qualities of a person, leaving their mark on their relationships.
The problem of the lifestyle of an individual or a small group is closely related to the problem of the social environment. The social environment is a complex set of relationships. However, the individual can be involved with varying degrees of activity in these relationships. The totality of practical relationships to the social environment constitutes the individual’s way of life. More details about lifestyle will be discussed below. Now let's sum it up.
So, the socio-economic formation in its historical, demographic, geographical and ethnic specificity forms a given social environment, giving rise to a particular way of life and, subsequently, a way of thinking and feeling.
Consequently, the socio-economic formation - social environment - lifestyle - personality - is circuit diagram the process of penetration of social relations into a person’s relationship with other people, the social into the individual, the path of socialization of the individual.
It is not enough to say that the social environment shapes personality, as the French materialists of the 18th century said. It is necessary to carry this connection further - to the socio-economic formation, the method of production, as Marxism does. “We,” wrote G.V. Plekhanov, “not only say that a person with all his thoughts and feelings is a product social environment; we are trying to understand the genesis of this environment.” Concluding that ultimately “the properties of the social environment are determined by the state of the productive forces at any given time,” Plekhanov explains: “Any given stage of development of the productive forces necessarily leads to a certain grouping of people in the social productive process, i.e., certain relations of production , i.e. a certain structure of the entire society. And once the structure of society is given, it is not difficult to understand that its character will be reflected in general on the entire psychology of people, on all their habits, morals, feelings, views, aspirations and ideals.”
The concept of social environment is widely used by modern bourgeois sociology and social psychology. However, the social environment is predominantly understood by them as a cultural environment, without connecting it with the productive activities of people, with the social-class structure of society, which ultimately leads to an idealistic interpretation of the role of the social environment in the formation of personality.

Social environment

We can call the social environment what surrounds a person in social life - this is a manifestation of social relations regarding the person himself. It is important to understand that the social environment is determined by nationality, class, and social economic processes.

There are intra-class differences between people, many of us are in different social strata, and there are also professional and everyday differences in the social life of each individual.

For example, we can distinguish between “artistic environment” and “village environment”; the concept of “urban environment” and “industrial environment” is common.

Depending on the historical, geographical, national and demographic situation, a specific social environment is formed. And a certain social environment gives rise to a specific way of life, behavior and thinking.

The totality of economic, political, material, social and spiritual conditions of a person’s life, his activities and the formation of his personality - all this determines the social environment for a person.

Social microenvironment and macroenvironment

There is also a distinction between social microenvironment and macroenvironment. The social microenvironment is a person’s close environment, for example, a family, a group of friends or a work team. The social macroenvironment covers large social groups and social phenomena - these are public institutions, the economy, public culture and consciousness.

Poor and rich families

The older a child becomes, the more he realizes that his peers and their parents differ from each other in financial status and social status. Then comes the understanding that there are poor and rich families.

Poor families are those families that are unable to maintain an acceptable standard of living and whose income is low. Members of such a family are forced to constantly save and limit their needs.

Sometimes such families even save on vital expenses - food and accommodation, clothing and treatment costs. Poor families have to give up some services, items and activities.

It is obvious that rich families can afford many material goods and do not skimp on many services and items. Such families can provide both parents and children with all the necessary benefits of life.

If the members of such a family are kind and spiritually developed people, they often help those who are forced to constantly save and give up something.
But the fact that a poor family does not have material resources for certain things and benefits does not mean that such a family is somehow worse than a rich family. It is necessary to understand from childhood that most people differ from each other in material status, but this does not prevent them from respecting each other and treating each other with kindness and love.

There are children from rich families who can make fun of children from poor families, but this is not only rude, but also unfair. A person, regardless of his family’s income, must behave culturally and tactfully, and not show his superiority over those who, for whatever reason, do not have material wealth.

3.3. The influence of the environment on personality development

A person becomes a person only in the process of socialization, that is, communication and interaction with other people. Outside human society, spiritual, social, mental development cannot occur.

The reality in which human development occurs is called environment. Personality formation is influenced by a variety of external conditions, including geographic and social, school and family. When teachers talk about the influence of the environment, they mean, first of all, the social and home environment. The first is referred to as the distant environment, and the second - to the immediate environment. Concept social environment has such general characteristics as a social system, a system of industrial relations, material conditions life. Next Wednesday - family, relatives, friends.

The home environment has a great influence on human development, especially in childhood. The first years of a person’s life, which are decisive for the formation, development and formation, pass in the family. The family determines the range of interests and needs, views and value orientations. The family also provides conditions for the development of natural inclinations. Moral and social qualities of an individual are also established in the family.

The interaction of a person with society is called "socialization". The concept of socialization as a process of complete integration of an individual into a social system, during which its adaptation is carried out, was formed in American sociology (T. Parsons, R. Merton). In the traditions of this school, socialization is revealed using the concept of “adaptation”.

Concept adaptation, being the leading concept of biology, means the adaptation of a living organism to environmental conditions. It was extrapolated into social science and came to mean the process of a person’s adaptation to the conditions of the social environment. This is how the concepts of social and mental adaptation arose, the result of which is the adaptation of the individual to various social situations, micro- and macrogroups.

Using the concept of adaptation, socialization is interpreted as the process of a person’s entry into the social environment and its adaptation to cultural, mental and social factors. The essence of socialization is conceptualized somewhat differently in humanistic psychology, whose representatives are G. Allport, and Maslow, K. Rogers, etc. In it, socialization is the process of self-actualization of the “I-concept”, the self-realization by an individual of his potential creative abilities, overcoming negative impacts environment that interferes with her self-development and self-affirmation. Here the subject is considered as a self-developing system, as a product of self-education. These two approaches do not contradict each other, but define a two-way process of socialization.

Society, in order to reproduce the social system and preserve its structures, strives to form social stereotypes and standards (group, class, ethnic, professional, etc.), patterns of behavior. In order not to be in opposition to society, the individual assimilates this social experience by entering the social environment, the system of existing social connections. However, in connection with its natural activity, a person retains and develops a tendency towards autonomy, independence, freedom, and the formation of his own position of non-repeating individuality. The result of identifying such a trend? development and transformation not only of the individual himself, but also of society.

Thus, the essential content of socialization is revealed in the totality of such processes as adaptation, integration, self-development and self-regulation. their dialectical unity ensures optimal personality development throughout a person’s life in interaction with the environment.

Socialization is a continuous process that continues throughout life. It consists of stages, each of which “specializes” in solving certain problems, without the solution of which the next stage may not occur, be distorted or inhibited. In domestic science, when determining the stages (phases) of socialization, it is believed that it is carried out more fruitfully in work activity. Depending on the attitude towards work activity, the following stages are distinguished:

- TO labor, containing the entire period of a person’s life before the start of work. This stage is divided into two more or less independent periods: early socialization, covering the time from the birth of the child to his entry into school; youth socialization - training at school, technical school, university;

- Labor stage covers the period of human maturity;

- Pislyatrudova stage occurs in old age due to the cessation of active work.

A.V. Petrovsky identified three macrophases of social development of the individual at the working stage: childhood- adaptation of the individual, mastery of the norms of social life; adolescence- individual, which is expressed in the individual’s need for maximum personalization, in the need to “be a person”; youth- integration, which is expressed in the acquisition of personality traits and properties that meet the needs and needs of group and personal development.

What are the factors of socialization and personality formation? Factors socialization refers to the circumstances under which conditions are created for the implementation of the socialization process. A.V.Mudrik identified the main factors of specialization, combining them into four groups:

- Megafactors(mega - very large, general) - space, planet, world, which to one degree or another through other groups of factors influence the socialization of all inhabitants of the planet or very large people living in individual countries;

- Macro factors(macro - large) - country, ethnic group, society, state that influence the socialization of all residents living in certain countries (this influence is mediated by other groups of factors)

- Mesofactors(meso - “average, intermediate”) - conditions for the socialization of large groups of people, distinguished by the place and type of settlement in which they live (region, village, town, city); by belonging to the audience of certain mass communication networks (radio, television, cinema, etc.); according to belonging to certain subcultures.

- Microfactors are those that directly affect specific person- family and home, peer group, microsociety, organizations in which social education is carried out - educational, professional, public, etc.

Microfactors that influence the development of an individual through the so-called agents of socialization, that is, persons in direct interaction with whom her life takes place. At different age stages, the composition of agents is different. So, in relation to children and adolescents, these are parents, brothers and sisters, relatives, peers, neighbors, teachers. In youth or early adulthood, agents are also husband or wife, colleagues at work, study and military service. In adulthood, one’s own children are added, and in old age, members of their families are added.

Socialization is carried out using a wide range of means specific to a particular society, social status, and age of a person. These include how to feed and care for the baby; methods of reward and punishment in the family, in peer groups, in educational and professional groups; types and types of relationships in the main spheres of human life (communication, play, sports, etc.). The better organized social groups are, the more opportunities there are to exert a socializing influence on the individual. However, social groups are unequal in their ability to influence an individual. different stages its ontogenetic development. So, in the early and preschool age The family has the greatest influence. In adolescence and adolescence, the peer group increases and has an effective influence, while in adulthood, social status, work and professional collectives, and individuals take first place in importance. There are socialization factors whose value remains throughout a person’s life. This is a nation, mentality, ethnicity. Nowadays, scientists are attaching increasing importance to macrofactors of socialization, including natural and geographical conditions, since it has been established that they influence the formation of personality.

Socialization factors are a developmental environment that must be designed, well organized and even built. The most important requirement for a developmental environment is the creation of an atmosphere in which humane relations, trust, safety, and the opportunity for personal growth will prevail. At the same time, the role of social factors in the formation of personality cannot be overestimated. Aristotle also wrote that the soul “is the unwritten book of nature; experience writes its writings on its pages.” D. Locke believed that a person is born with a pure soul, like a board (tabyla rasa) covered with wax. Education writes on this board whatever it pleases. The social environment in this case was interpreted metaphysically, as something unchangeable, fatal, such that it determines the fate of a person, and a person was interpreted as a passive object of environmental influence.

A reassessment of the role of the environment (Helvetius, Diderot, Owen) led to the conclusion: in order to change a person, you need to change the environment. But the environment is, first of all, people, so it turns out to be a vicious circle. To change the environment, you need to change people. However, a person is not a passive product of the environment; it also influences the environment. By changing the environment, a person thereby changes himself.

Recognition of the activity of the individual as the leading factor in its formation raises the question of purposeful activity, self-development of the individual, that is, the question of continuous work on oneself, on one’s own spiritual development. Self-development provides the opportunity to consistently complicate the tasks and content of education, implement an age-specific and individual approach, form the creative individuality of the student, implement collective education and stimulate the individual’s further development.

The nature of personality development, the breadth and depth of this development under the same conditions of training and upbringing depends primarily on her own efforts, on the energy and performance that she displays in various types of activities, of course, with appropriate adjustments for natural inclinations. This is what in many cases explains the differences in the development of people, including schoolchildren, who live and are brought up in the same conditions and experience approximately the same educational influences.

Domestic pedagogy is guided by the position that free and harmonious development of the individual is possible in conditions of collective activity. Of course, under certain conditions, the collective neutralizes the individual. However, individuality can develop and find expression in the team. Organization various forms collective activities (educational and cognitive, labor, artistic and aesthetic, etc.) Helps to identify the creative potential of the individual. The team with its public opinion, traditions, and customs is indispensable as a factor in the formation of positive public experience, as well as socially significant skills and habits of social behavior.

Both theoretically and practically, an interesting question is: what has a greater influence on human development - environment or heredity? There is no clear answer to this question. But, for example, the English psychologist D. Shuttleworth (I935) came to the following conclusion regarding the influence of the main factors on mental development: 64% of the factors of mental development are due to hereditary influences; 16% - on differences in the level of the family environment; 3% - on differences in raising children in the family; 17% - on cumulative factors (interaction of heredity with the environment).

Each person develops individually and the “fate” of the influence of heredity and environment is different for everyone.

A person always exists only in a certain environment. The social environment, as already mentioned in section 1.3.4, means a set of natural and social conditions the environment of a person, social groups, society and humanity as a whole. For individual person the environment appears in the form of the nearest living space: apartment, house, street, area of residence, city, place of work or study, etc. Although the person is essential component this socio-spatial environment and the creator of its image, in this very general definition, nevertheless, Newton’s picture of the world clearly emerges, where a person finds himself “placed” in an environment, an environment where “being determines consciousness,” etc. The active role of social actors as subjects of defining and constructing the world, creating its geometry cannot be ignored by theoretical consideration. A way of relating a person to the world, i.e. the nature of a person’s relationship with the social environment determines the most important features both the environment and all life situations of a person, the predominance of normal situations (naturally, normatively or conventionally defined by society) or “difficult life situations”, which are also codified differently in different societies, and in modern society are defined by law.

Man as an individual always correlates his immediate existence and environment with something else that lies beyond his own boundaries. “Axes of relationships (relationships)” are very different and historically changeable: this is the family, clan, tribe or clan; home, village, city, state; Old World and New World; country, planet, space, etc. Such relationships defined the boundaries of “us” and “alien”, “I”, “we” and “they”.

2.2.1. The environment is the totality of eco-social conditions surrounding a person or group, and a person is the “environment of the environment”, since he isolates, analyzes, constructs, and attaches certain meanings to his socio-cultural and natural environment. The concept of “home” presupposes an environment that has already been mastered by man.

But “house” as a designation for the developed environment in a modern city is different from a village house or a house in a small town where the parents or grandfathers of most of today’s Russians were born. Russia is a country where the urban revolution occurred much later than in Europe, and its social consequences and the features have not been sufficiently analyzed against the backdrop of constant changes in forms of ownership and mode of production. For example, according to historians, the corporate organization of production in cities Western Europe had extremely important consequences for the townspeople in terms of social inclusion. Any artisan or member of a guild organization found himself completely bound by corporate guidelines that regulated not only production, but often family life. At the same time, there was mutual respect and revenue within the corporation, reinforced by consistency of employment.

In pre-revolutionary Russia, such professional corporations simply did not have time to take shape in a stable manner, although they certainly existed in big cities. It is interesting that they were fueled by migration processes, where communities played the role of socializing and career-guiding structures. Multiple Conversions social structure in Russia during the 20th century. They did not allow the natural mechanisms of social inclusion that had been formed over centuries in European cities to take shape. In addition, many historically established Russian cities gradually decayed, and the country enthusiastically built new cities on the edge of the Earth (i.e., outside the “home”), some of which today have also fallen or are falling into decay. Therefore, the literature notes that society has acquired the characteristics of a “tumbleweed,” and people have acquired the psychology of homeless people living on state land, in no-man’s space, and not in their own equipped home. Alienation begins immediately outside the door of your own apartment or outside the entrance door. Condition of yards, streets and others common spaces indicates that people feel completely uninvolved in them, completely turned off and indifferent. I remember O. Spengler, who wrote about a new nomad, a modern barbarian, an inhabitant of large cities (the ancient Greeks called all those who were not residents of their city-polises barbarians).

If we systematize changes in the social environment and ways of interacting with it, which distinguish the urbanized, non-natural environment from the natural environment of a small settlement, we will obtain the following features.

1. Differentiation and concentration various types activities potentially available to every person and the possibility of not only choosing, but also changing them.
2. Differentiation and concentration of social interactions, their diversity and, again, the ability to choose among a potentially infinite variety.
3. Changing the form of social interactions from predominantly personal, informal to impersonal, formalized, anonymous, functional-role-based.
4. “Feverish” or stressful pace and rhythm of interactions, set by the concentration of activities, the tyranny of artificial, “tempered” time, clocks, schedules, etc.
5. Refusal or neglect of common, old traditions for freer individual expression, individualization of style and lifestyle, up to the rejection of such a traditional form of community as a family with children.
6. Coexistence of individual lifestyles, interaction of diverse cultures and emphasis on tolerance to the point of indifference to generally accepted norms.
7. A change in the nature of interaction with the developed environment, with the “house”, because the design and construction of the house is entrusted to “qualified specialists”, and a person is placed in a given environment, like “an atom in the void”. From this point of view, the practice of handing over houses for occupancy without interior decoration should be welcomed because it gives people the opportunity to master their environment and become masters of their apartment house - residents of such apartments gain the opportunity to control their environment.

All this has led to the fact that the development of many artificial environments is becoming increasingly difficult for humans. This also applies to the state environment due to the underdevelopment of civil law relations in Russia; market environment due to the unformed layer of small owners and entrepreneurs and other environments. When talking about any type of environment, we must take into account their accessibility for human development and the ability of man himself to control changes in the environment.

In the historical subconscious of the Russian population lies a stably structured and functionally defined natural space in which the house and the surrounding “extra-natural” environment are localized. In a city, it is the natural environment that is localized, and the main environment is an unusual, alien sociocultural environment, the “jungle.” big city", in the struggle with which the unrooted Russian city dweller lives. This transition from a simple, predictable and stable environment to a complex and alienating environment modern city very dramatic. (An example of this is those freezing due to faulty communications apartment buildings in small towns in Russia. In the summer, the residents themselves cannot replace, weld damaged pipes, communications, or even take part in this, because they are not the owners of this.) For part of the city to be a home, i.e. mastered environment, people must know what they can (should) do in this environment. They must truly master it, make it “theirs.” It is not without reason that “graffiti,” which abounds in clean Western cities, is considered by some researchers to be a logical form of development—domestication of the urban environment by young people. A significant part of modern social work in community development consists of the work of a social manager who finds points of application for the efforts of local residents - clearing a dirty yard, landscaping a staircase, building a sports ground, etc. Thus, the concept of one’s environment is formed, the image of the House, in the construction of which every resident of the block, microdistrict, etc. took part. The Russians have yet to travel this path.

2.2.2. Wednesday Always characterized by certain resources necessary for a person to satisfy his needs. Resources can be tangible or intangible. Material resources are often important for access to intangible ones: information, legal, medical, etc. But in addition to the resources themselves, the client’s access to these resources is no less important. It is known that in modern society, not only material wealth is distributed extremely unevenly, but also power, prestige, respect, and access to various services. Social worker clients often have their channels of access to these resources and services blocked. Often resources in the environment are only potentially available. For example, in the environment of a local territorial community (city, district, block, municipality) there is always such an untapped reserve as the activity of the residents themselves. But, in order to put this reserve into action, it is necessary to intensify the social participation of these residents, awakening their initiatives, which can be done by a professional - social worker. Educational institutions, families and other environments have their own unused reserves.

But the social environment not only provides resources, but also poses a certain risk for people. Let's say a person can become a client as a result unfavorable conditions social environment (get injured and become disabled, a person with deviant behavior etc.). Moreover, victims of unfavorable environmental conditions can be divided into real and potential. Real clients are people with psychosomatic defects and deviations, people with disabilities; potential clients - children born in families with low economic, moral, cultural levels, migrants, etc.

2.2.3. Exists enough many objective factors, turning a person into a victim of unfavorable environmental conditions, i.e. social work client. These are, firstly, the harsh natural and climatic conditions of the region, country, locality, geopathogenic zones, environmental pollution of various types, which can have an impact on negative impact on human development and behavior, increasing not only the risk of morbidity, but also the level of criminal, antisocial behavior (stimulating the development of drug addiction, alcoholism, suicide, etc.). Secondly, instability in society, which is typical for societies in transition. Researchers emphasize that the rapid economic, political and ideological reorientation in Russia has led to the loss of individual and social identity among different groups population, especially older ones, and to the formation of fundamentally different, new value orientations among younger generations, which together leads to an increase in “victims” among older, middle and younger groups of the population.

IN result The number of different types of victims of unfavorable socialization conditions has also increased (offenders, drug addicts, prostitutes, homeless people, poor sections of the population). Thirdly, a peer group with an antisocial orientation (especially in adolescence and adolescence). Fourthly, family, when, for example, a tendency to antisocial lifestyle and illegal behavior can be inherited.

In general, the environment should be treated as a source of various risks, and not just resources; it can be both developing and destructive of a person. If the possibilities of risks in it dominate over the possibilities of obtaining resources, if it does not provide opportunities for human development, stimulating in him only the emergence of asocial qualities, then such an environment is precisely destructive. A developing environment will be if:

it presents in the required balance both risks and ways of adapting to them;

- there are the necessary resources for the positive development of a person and the satisfaction of his needs;
- a person has access to these resources;
- the environment is characterized by diversity and richness of stimuli; a person is included in this environment voluntarily and actively, based on

his motives and abilities (which corresponds to his self), and not under external pressure;

the characteristics of the environment do not provoke his transformation into a passive client or only a consumer of services;

The environment forms a social order for a person’s personal qualities;

interactions between man and environment are built on the basis of mutual openness of man and environment, their mutual interest;

Mastering the environment is feasible for a person, accessible, or when difficulties arise for a person, it is regulated by a special intermediary, so that the person sees benefit from this mediation for himself (he feels that his social competence is increasing);

Such regulators of interaction between man and environment have emerged as law, morality, professional activity of a social worker, etc. Components of the social environment can be strongly or weakly connected. Strong connectivity indicates the strength of the environment, weak connectivity indicates its fragility.

Any environment has a number of common characteristics, among which we can point out:

measure of stability/instability of the environment;
availability of environmental resources (material/intangible)",
the client's ability to access these resources;
riskiness of the environment for the client",
hidden reserves of the environment,
accessibility of the environment for development by the client (the possibility of his direct interaction with its components);
diversity of opportunities and environmental characteristics (creating the basis for human growth)
a measure of the openness of the environment to humans, demand for a person by the environment;
way of including a person into the environment: voluntary (based primarily on personal motives and abilities) or strictly forced;
presence/absence of intermediaries between a person and the environment;
type of relationship between the environment and a person and vice versa (from destructive to completely meeting mutual needs).
2.2.4. Which of these characteristics is appropriate to focus on depends on the goals facing the social worker, as well as on the specifics of the life situation client. In any case, a generalized portrait bad environment in accordance with the general characteristics given, it boils down to the fact that this is an environment with weak (in best case scenario limited) resources for the client, difficulties in accessing these limited resources, a high probability of a person becoming a victim of environmental conditions, increased instability, unpredictability of events occurring in it (which gives rise to difficulties in adapting to the client, frustration, neuroticism of the client), poverty of the environment with incentives (which limits the possibilities of his self-realization), the difficulty of mastering by the client (and as a result his poor health in the conditions of this environment) or the compulsion of his inclusion in this environment, etc. Respectively good there will be an environment characterized by sufficient high level stability (which is important for the client’s successful adaptation), the availability of the necessary resources and the ability to access them on the part of the client, the absence of the danger of turning him into a victim, a variety of incentives (which creates opportunities for his development), good mutual exchange between the client and the environment, ease of mastery by the client (and accordingly his good psychological well-being in the conditions of this environment), the voluntariness of his inclusion in this environment, etc.

This can be illustrated with examples. If the environment is in the family, educational institution, the territorial community is quite stable, sustainable, has the necessary resources, despite the fact that these resources are available to a person, if in this environment the means of adaptation to various risks are developed and it provides the necessary opportunities for the constructive development of a person, is characterized by a variety of incentives, etc., then we can consider such an environment prosperous. And, indeed, the stability of the demands placed on children in the family and school is an obvious condition for the success of their upbringing. Instability, brought about by parental divorce or conflicting demands from parents, hinders the success of parenting. The presence of a variety of resources is also an obvious condition for the family and school to successfully achieve their educational goals. At the same time, resources must be available to children. For a school, material resources such as the provision of premises, computers, textbooks, etc. often come to the fore. For a family, the most priority resource is a spiritual resource: love for children and care for them.

The richness and variety of situations and developmental environments in the family and school make them interesting and attractive for children. The monotony of the environment in such specific institutions as an orphanage, a shelter (in general, any closed institution) negatively affects the development of children and adolescents.

It is necessary, however, to emphasize that the emphasis in the family and school on material resources alone often leads to the impoverishment of communication in these environments. A family with such an orientation turns out to be closed only on the problems of their own survival, children grow up in an atmosphere of flawed communication generated by the current difficult situation (they hear conversations only about money, material difficulties of parents who do not have enough time for their spiritual education and familiarization with culture). The spiritual resource turns out to be completely unused.

Of course, the family and school must be interested in the child, ready to accept him, surround him with care, attention, adapt to him and his characteristics (which is so often lacking). There are, as they said, even families with “unnecessary”, “extra” children. In general, the most diverse environments are often not ready for the inclusion of a person in them, are not able to adapt to the emergence of a person, are characterized by a certain egoism, and strive to “crush” the person’s iodine. And environments can be differentiated according to the degree of readiness/unreadiness for such inclusion of a person in them. For this reason alone, a person who joins them often needs an intermediary - a social worker, who helps him in mastering the environment and entering into it.

In principle, the social environment should contribute as much as possible to the process of realizing a person’s potential and adapting it to the requirements of society. Here, of course, difficult questions arise: what is the most favorable developmental environment for a child or an elderly person, what are its specific features for each stage? life path, how to fill it with specific content in relation to the stage of infancy, adolescence, youth, and especially senile or adulthood.

From a theoretical point of view, it is important to emphasize that it is necessary to raise the question of constructing favorable developmental environments specific to each age period. It is the question of these environments that forms the core of developments on the problem of creating “living conditions worthy of a person” (poorly clarified in conceptual terms). In practical terms, this task intersects with the task of developing social standards and regulations for the activities of social services.

Often the social environment, as already mentioned, is filled with incentives that create threats to development and can turn a person into a client-victim. Information about drugs, advertising of alcohol, cigarettes, and corresponding temptations for teenagers have become integral features of the modern urban environment. It also presents the possibility for a teenager to join totalitarian sects and join various criminal groups. All these risks seem to program the teenager into the role of a possible victim, a client of a social worker. Of course, these components of the environment affect a person only under the condition of underdevelopment of his consciousness, infantilism. A focus on “prestigious” consumer goods is typical for many teenagers. The priority task for a social worker is to improve the environment, reduce its riskiness through changing the organization of the environment, saturating it with developmental rather than destructive stimuli, and preventing drug addiction, youth and teenage crime.

In surveys, teenagers often say that they prefer to spend their free time not in your own, but in other areas; feel the lack of sports sections and clubs, teenage clubs, in general, they name many reasons that form their negative attitude towards their area of residence. This situation is a signal for rethinking local social policy in relation to youth, an incentive to formulate positive programs to create a more attractive environment for teenagers in the region. At the same time, this is an assessment of the activities of local authorities by this group of the population.

2.2.5. Others problems with environment optimization arise in relation to a person elderly. While older people live in an environment created primarily for adults healthy people. It is often difficult for an elderly person to use transport - it is difficult to enter, the steps are too high, etc. Sometimes there aren’t enough benches near the front doors of houses to just sit and chat. It is not in Russian traditions and not in the financial capabilities of older people for them to regularly visit cafes and restaurants. The modern urban environment devotes less and less space to people in general and older people in particular (the number of comfortable recreational places is decreasing, the number of green spaces, squares, etc. is decreasing). In general, a large-scale task arises of designing the living environment by local authorities to suit the needs and interests of people, and not cars. On this path, we will have to overcome certain stereotypes, namely, the opinion that this kind of activity is something of secondary importance; power can function without taking into account the needs of different groups of the population.

Of course, in the practice of shaping the urban environment, in addition to the negatives, there are also positives. Their example is the creation of pedestrian zones in city centers. The pedestrian zone opens up the possibility of returning to the original meaning of movement around the zone. The pedestrian zone allows anyone to relax, concentrate on the architecture of the buildings, sit and relax. Sitting is not just an empty pastime or rest. This is at the same time a way of contemplation, unity with the environment and a demonstration of an autonomous (independent) position, a “way of movement” for older people. A significant proportion of older people, as a rule, avoid crowded city streets and squares. Other stimulating elements of urban space are its small architecture, trees, and flowing water. Components of this kind create the impression of a “domesticated environment” and strengthen people’s sense of security. The creation of appropriate localized spaces and cozy corners can be considered as a promising area of activity in municipal social work. These aspects are indicated in “Lectures on the technology of social work,” ed. E.I. Kholostova (Part III. M., 1998. P. 57). About the potential for healing and rejuvenation of an elderly person that environment, shows a striking experiment by E. Lenger and her Harvard colleagues. They decided to change the environment surrounding people at the age of 75, restructuring it into an environment that was 20 years earlier, immersing them in the environment of 20 years ago. The experiment lasted only a week, but the result of immersing the elderly in such a “younger” environment is amazing: it was possible to influence the very process of aging of people (sharpen vision and hearing, increase muscle strength, improve memory, even increase the level of intelligence). These kinds of results are encouraging. The conclusion, however, is already clear: by changing the environment, turning it into a more comfortable one that meets the deepest interests of a person, a lot can be achieved.

It so happened that, on the basis of the prevailing type of social environment, as mentioned, separate directions in social work are distinguished. This approach, however, does not take into account the holistic nature of the structure “person - environment - regulators of their interaction”; it is based only on one, albeit important, component of it - the environment.

2.2.6. For the theory of social work, the question of types of relationships, possible between people And environment in principle. The fact is that these ratios can be very different - from extremely unfavorable (a person is a victim of the environment) to very favorable for a person. In other words, the social environment can either completely suppress or block a person’s development, turning him into a victim-client, or completely contribute to the satisfaction of all his needs and the process of human development. Let us list some types of relationships between man and environment.
1. Complete mismatch between man and environment. The environment turns a person into a client-victim, which can manifest itself at various stages of life. But his original form is clearly revealed at the very beginning of life, when a newborn baby is not needed by the immediate environment, the family did not expect him, he is not in demand, he is “superfluous.” The percentage of “unnecessary” children, as we know, is very significant. The “protective” capabilities of the social worker should be immediately included or removed from such an environment, triggering the mechanism of legal protection of the child. In any case, a search for means and mechanisms for including the child in an age-appropriate environment is required.

But a person can end his life in such an unfavorable environment that destroys him. Thus, research shows that elderly single people in social homes for single elderly people often do not always find themselves in a favorable environment. Contrary to initial expectations, the environment in social homes for single elderly people can isolate a person from society and lock them into their experience of old age. If a social house is integrated into the life of a city block, then it increases the variety of meaningful life and does not limit the number of social roles of old people.

The opposite situation is also possible, when the environment acts as a victim of people. For example, the same painted, shabby elevators, staircases, entrances turned into a kind of garbage dump, basements flooded with water, etc. There are many examples of such an attitude towards the urban environment on the part of humans.

Social work is focused primarily on changing what develops in inadequate types of relationships between a person and the environment. Of course, we need, first of all, technologies to protect people from the effects of environments that destroy them. Adaptation of a person to them is impossible in principle. Therefore, means of appropriate social diagnostics to first identify such environments.

2. Partial matching of person and environment. The social environment of modern Russian society now requires increased initiative and enterprise from a large number of people. But most people meet this requirement only “partially”; perhaps they have just begun to develop these qualities; many are not capable of them at all. There is also partial correspondence between a person and a profession, etc.
3. Complete correspondence between person and environment. In this case, the environment develops a person’s potential (for example, a person’s informed choice of profession, a happy marriage, life-diversifying hobbies, etc.).

Of course, a social worker more often deals with cases of complete discrepancy or partial conformity between person and environment. In the case of a complete discrepancy (most often encountered in the practice of social work), in order to prevent a person from turning into a client-victim, technologies are required to radically transform the situation, remove the person from the influence of this environment, and select for him another environment that meets his age, personal, and social characteristics.

The most productive interaction between a person and the environment, as stated, is possible only if a relationship of mutual exchange has developed between them: the environment satisfies the basic needs of a person, and a person, in turn, supports the existence of the environment through his activities. In this sense, it was said about their mutual assumed™, mutual usefulness. Of course, this relationship of mutual utility is most represented at the stage of a person’s adulthood, when he is at the stage of productive activity. You cannot demand “usefulness” from pensioners, disabled people, and children.

Collection of legislation Russian Federation. Art. 3.
2 See: Spengler O. Decline of Europe. M., 1993.
Social work / under general. ed. V. I. Kurbatova. Rostov n/d, 1999.
Kuznetsova T. 10. Social adaptation of orphanage graduates: kaid. dis. St. Petersburg, 2003.
Chopra L. Ageless body, eternal spirit. M., 1994.

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