Social experience is, if expressed in a scientific style, a stable system of habits, feelings, knowledge and skills that is formed in a person during his life. The topic is not only interesting, but also relevant. One has only to think: a little less than 7.4 billion people live on Earth. And each person in his own way is special and unique. Whoever he is. And he becomes such precisely in the course of gaining social experience. Well, for a better understanding of the topic, it is worth considering it in more detail.
general information
What does social experience mean ? This is quite easy to understand if you think about the meaning of each word individually. Social - means connected with life, society and relations between people. Experience - knowledge gained in the process of observation and participation in certain actions.
For a person to find him, he must be part of society, constantly interact with him. In the course of this, he receives his social role, which also leaves a certain imprint on his understanding and perception of life.
There is such a thing as objectified social experience. This is what is accumulated by all of humanity as a whole, since such experience is gained in the course of joint life. These are traditions, rituals, customs, norms of behavior, moral precepts.
For example, in some African tribes a deceased person is eaten by his family and friends, believing that his experience and wisdom will thus be transferred to them. And there it is the norm. We consider such behavior to be completely antisocial and unacceptable. In fact, we simply have different moral principles and traditions. Different social experience.
This is also reflected in the manner of communication, in subject forms, in ways of thinking. All of the above people unknowingly pass from generation to generation. And so it has been for centuries. If such a practice did not have a place to be, then we would still be primitive people.
Individual specifics
Special attention should be paid to the social experience of the individual (that is, the individual). There is such a thing as axiology. This is a theory of values. Each person loves something and / or someone. We all have a need for something. And what exactly this “something” is is determined by our desires and preferences. All this is also reflected in the orientation of man and his social setting.
For example, the state may be the life goal of one individual. He loves money and wants to live richly so as not to deny himself anything. Therefore, he works, organizes business - builds for himself what is truly genuine sincere happiness for him.
For other people, the goal of life may be family. Some are ready to spend all their time on entertainment, as this is happiness for them. Others feel full when engaged in self-development. In general, life goals can be many. All of them arise from desires. For whom, as the Indian guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar said, the goal is one - happiness.
Where do our desires come from? They appear when a person does not even realize his Being. He is just happy at that moment. And wants to stay in it. It is to experience this feeling constantly, we do our best - we set goals, go to them, achieve what we want. Then we become happy.
And the social experience of people concerns all this directly. Since it is during its acquisition that every educated person understands the meaning of personally defined objects that are part of the value system. And not only in him, but also in the rest. A truly intelligent, socially experienced person is able to substantiate both his values and others alien to him.
Socio-psychological features
A few words should be said about such a phenomenon as selectivity of thinking. Its essence is that far from every perception is transferred to the level of judgments and concepts. Moreover, individuals, at times, do not even allow thoughts of anything. A simple example: a girl in love sees in the young man only the good. And when one of her relatives tries to warn about his not the best character traits, she does not even admit that this may be true.
Such selectivity depends on both objective and subjective conditions. The former include the social position of the individual. If a person belongs to a simple working class, then it is difficult for him to make a real idea of the processes taking place in the upper layers of the population.
Here is an example: a young girl dreams of becoming an actress. She sees everything in bright colors, and thinks that the artist’s life is easy and funny. And so she achieves what she wants, after which she faces a shocking reality - you need to sit on the strictest diet for a particular role, memorize entire volumes of text, rewrite each take until the director likes it and does whatever the producer says. Here it is, a manifestation of narrow selective thinking, focused on those phenomena that surround only the individual.
Subjective conditions include attitudes, needs, interests and values of the individual.
Background
The acquisition of social experience is determined not only by the conditions in which the person is, but also by his personal characteristics. Something that contributes to this is laid down at the genetic level. And this is an innate potential. It determines, in fact, the predisposition of a person in development. Is it possible to say that it is already predetermined what we will be? Not. But there is “ground” in the form of potential. Whether it will be implemented or not is another question.
There are both positive and negative dispositions. The first include inclinations that stimulate a person in the process of socialization. Thanks to their presence, an individual can achieve decent results in terms of self-realization and self-improvement.
Negative dispositions are what limit a person in social development. Worst of all, when because of this the character becomes unbearable.
By the way, such a science as social pedagogy distinguishes bio- and sociogenetic directions. They determine the specifics of the prospects of an individual in terms of its development.
Proponents of the biogenetic trend assure that everything is predetermined by heredity. It depends on what kind of person a person becomes. And adherents of the sociogenetic trend are sure that each individual is dynamic. And he can become anyone.
The second version is believable and has more scientific foundations and life examples. How many cases does our reality know when an absolutely adequate child grew up in a dysfunctional family . And reverse situations also have a place to be. Often, good and prosperous families come out as an absolute marginal. By the way, the same situation is a vivid example of obtaining social experience. Let unfavorable. So, for example, a child with alcoholic parents from childhood sees what the addiction leads to.
Children
Special attention should be paid to such a topic as the child’s social experience. First of all, the family affects its acquisition. The second - educational institutions (kindergarten and school). It is there that the child is included in the process of socialization. And that causes certain problems. Since the individual social experience of the child is combined with the public.
And here it is very important not to destroy personal characteristics in it, which barely began to emerge. Unfortunately, this usually happens. As a result of focused training and education, the “a priori” essence of the child becomes poorer. He becomes what they want to see him, losing his personality.
Even Leo Tolstoy spoke about this. The great Russian thinker and writer assured: children know much more about life, because they perceive everything with their soul and heart. And adults have long since lost this ability. In any case, the majority.
The assimilation of a child’s social experience occurs spontaneously. Whatever he is taught, no matter what they say, he has his own thinking and attitude. Many adults grin skeptically - what are they talking about? After all, the child did not really live! But that is not the point. Just such a perception shows adults uneducated people. A child is not a machine that can be programmed. Everything he sees and says he perceives in his own way. Interested in many. Thus, his assimilation of social experience does not occur passively, but intentionally.
About perception
It is worth noting that the formation of social experience also occurs through our reality. And to be more precise, its perception.
For ease of understanding, an example can be given. Suppose a person received an offer of extremely profitable remote work. But in order for him to be given an order, you need to pay "insurance", which the employer will compensate for losses in case of failure to fulfill the assignment. A person sends money and, as a result, of course, is left with nothing. Because he just fell for the tricks of scammers. He made a mistake - trusted. Only next time, he will immediately dismiss such proposals. Because, having made a mistake, he gained the social experience of life, which he will apply in many other situations. In any case, it will always require guarantees, double-check everything, look for the best, and even give advice to others.
People are by nature gullible, which rarely plays into their hands. Indeed, the social experience of activity and the worldview of each of us depends directly on the manner of perceiving the surrounding reality.
In psychology there is such a phenomenon. It is defined as the process of forming the image of an object using sensory sensory organs. But our social experience, expectations and interpretation, with the help of which perception is corrected, still interfere with this.
Application of experience
Continuing the topic of perception, we can give an example. For example, a person who knows a sufficient number of people from different walks of life, in the company of friends, notices a young attractive (judging objectively) guy dressed in branded clothes, with a gold watch on his hands and an expensive phone that he doesn’t let go and shows it to everyone in every possible way. He is 18 years old. Outwardly, he is really good. But only the experience of communication tells a person that the character of such a guy is not the best. By analyzing his behavior and comparing the external image, we can guess - most likely, there is too much pathos in him. It is possible that this guy considers himself better than others and boasts of his condition, which, in fact, is not even his. As a result of all this, the conclusion is drawn that you should stay away from such a person. Or keep close to yourself. There is little sincerity in him.
Here it is a manifestation of the application of social experience. Needless to say, even in the animal world there are similar examples. If a person loves his cat, takes care of him, loves and feeds him, he will never begin to hide. Quite the contrary. Will meet on arrival, wipe his tail and ask for his hands. If the animal is poorly managed, then the reaction will be appropriate for it - bites, scratches and escape. He will no longer approach a person. Experience tells him that it will not end well.
Human Assistance to Himself
It is important to note that the organization of social experience lies on the shoulders of the individual, and not just the society in which he exists. It’s like self-education. Only in a different way.
You need to learn how to get benefits and knowledge from everything that is happening around you. It is better to gain social experience not only through mistakes.
Around a lot of stimuli of various kinds. Therefore, you need to control your attention. And to pay it only to what really matters. If you do not learn this, then irritants will stick to the "I" to a person, like leeches.
It is important to put in the first place your identity, a sense of personal individuality and dignity. Healthy egoism is good. You need to think about yourself. After all, how many people lament: “Well, forever I only think about others! When to devote time to yourself? ” So what prevents to change the course of affairs? Here he is, the experience of social work on himself in the flesh! Or rather, its complete absence. After all, it’s how it is built in society: they use those people who allow them to do this with themselves.
About essence
All forms of social experience are aimed, in fact, on one thing - on the adaptation of a person to that society and the environment in which he is. And also to teach him those skills that will help an individual to live easier and easier. Again, it’s better to demonstrate with examples.
Say stereotypes. They are everywhere. Everyone knows about their existence (many even claim that they do not follow them), but the vast majority of people are subject to their influence. Stereotypes make it difficult to be impartial. They block reality from us, set a framework and impede rational reflection. It’s even scary to think how many countless stereotypes are enshrined in modern 21st century society. Rottweilers are killer dogs, all women are inept drivers, every man cheats, and everything cheap is bad. And this is just the most harmless example. And even when experience completely destroys one or another stereotype that a person followed, it is still preserved in the subconscious.
Life also teaches us to strive to look deep into things, since the external manifestation is deceptive. It is necessary to question everything, pay attention to all the little things and discrepancies. You have to be observant. And remember that there are always tons of information around us that we simply ignore. But this is education. Social experience is built on observation, reflection, experience, and analysis. We get the "ground" for all this on a daily basis, but only the majority passes everything by itself.
About the roles
Talking about society and generally touching on a social topic, one cannot help but talk about the roles of each individual. There is, in general, an incredible amount of scientific information about this. Z. Freud, J. Moreno, T. Parsons, C. Cooley - these and other famous personalities paid great attention to the theory of personality roles.
If you try to combine the most popular and authoritative positions of scientists, you get the definition: a person is a social system with an internal structure consisting of levels. There are three of them. Biological, psychological and social. The latter is divided into sublevels. On the actual sociological (includes experience, interests, motives of behavior), specifically cultural (values and norms) and moral.
And every person who is such a system is considered a part of society. With the same individuals. Since society is also a structure in which a person performs a certain role. And which one - he determines himself, based on his social experience.
Achieving Well-Being
The position in society for a person is determined by his worldview, values and needs. Social experience tells the individual what he needs to do to achieve well-being. Often, the conclusions drawn during observation of the lives of others and their mistakes are taken as the basis. It was said earlier: you need to be careful, there is a lot of information around. And its best source is another person.
A vivid example: there are two brothers. The elder, having graduated from school, decided to immediately join the army, and upon returning to enter the university. But only in practice then it turns out that it should have done the opposite, since for a year his knowledge has been confused, and now he has to “return to form” mentally. Having analyzed everything, the younger brother decided that he would better first unlearn and then, after receiving a diploma, will go to serve. What happened An elementary application of someone else's experience.
As you can see, the topic is really very interesting, multifaceted and relevant. You can go deep into it for a long time, but everyone must learn without fail: to absorb everything that is happening around is in our own interests. Because it gives us invaluable social experience.