Types of communication: business, role-playing, intimate and personal. The need for communication

For a child - a favorite swing, for an adult - a certain bench in the park or, for example, a table in a cafe ... Each of us has a favorite, long-chosen place. And it becomes uncomfortable when someone else suddenly takes it. Around a person there is a certain shell that has several levels. It is called his personal space.

This topic is very curious and often touched upon by psychologists. After all, having such knowledge, it will be easy for you to win over a person to yourself, learn how to create comfortable communication without violating the boundaries of personal space.

There are 4 zones of space:

Intimate zone (from 15 to 46 centimeters) This is the main zone of space, its man guards his territory like a lion. And it reacts violently and negatively to attempts to penetrate its borders. Only the closest people (relatives, spouse, children, friends) with whom a person is in close emotional contact are allowed to cross them. There is also a small subzone (15 cm) that can only be penetrated through physical contact. It's called the super-intimate zone.

Personal zone (46 centimeters to 1.2 meters) The distance that can be observed at parties, receptions, friendly evenings. They also try to preserve this space by communicating with co-workers and acquaintances.

Social zone (from 1.2 to 3.6 meters) A person keeps this distance with unfamiliar people whom he sees not for the first time, but has no relationship with them, in addition to work or other joint activities. For example, a new employee at work.

Public area (more than 3.6 meters) Comfortable distance in a group of people, at meetings for work, study. If it is violated by strangers, it gives the impression of a lack of space. Arguing on the topic of personal space, it is wrong to forget that a person tends to "mark" his territory. On the example of animals, we saw how our smaller brothers defend their land, female, family. But this is their personal space, which they subconsciously appropriated and will not allow others to take away from them. It's exactly the same with people.

Watch your loved ones. You will notice that, for example, the father likes to sit in the same armchair in the evenings, the child plays in a certain place in the room, and it is unpleasant for you if someone drinks from your cup at the table, although it has neither a signature nor name. These little things show that a person has his own space, for which he is ready to fight.

The situation is similar with physical intimacy. For a man and a woman, if they are close to each other, this is normal. But between unfamiliar and unfamiliar people in close contact (for example, in the subway or elevator during a crush), embarrassment is felt. Women sometimes react indignantly to the touch of unfamiliar men. Therefore, it is important to know what kind of relationship you are with a person and how close you can be to him. Understanding the principle of personal space, you can build relationships in a team, avoid misunderstandings, or vice versa, letting a person closer, show that you care about him.

Take care of yourself and your space, and remember that you always have the right to it!

Communication is one of the most important concepts in psychology. Outside of communication, it is impossible to understand and analyze the process of the personal formation of an individual, it is impossible to trace the patterns of the entire social development. According to G. M. Andreeva, communication acts as a way of cementing individuals and, at the same time, as a way of developing the individuals themselves.

Communication is extremely diverse in its forms and types. You can talk about direct and indirect communication, non-mediated and mediated. At the same time, direct communication is understood as natural face-to-face contact using verbal (speech) and non-verbal means (gestures, facial expressions, pantomime). Direct communication is historically the first form of communication between people with each other, on its basis and at later stages of the development of civilization, various types of indirect communication arise. Mediated communication can be considered as incomplete psychological contact with the help of written or technical devices that make it difficult or separate in time to receive feedback between the participants in the communication. Obviously, the emergence of writing, printing, and then various technical communication devices significantly increased the number of sources for the assimilation of human experience, greatly complicated the system of human communication.

Further, a distinction is made between interpersonal and mass communication. Interpersonal is associated with direct contacts of people in groups or pairs, constant in composition of the participants. It implies a certain psychological closeness of partners: knowledge of each other's individual characteristics, the presence of empathy, understanding, and joint experience of activity.

Mass communication is multiple, direct contacts of strangers, as well as communication mediated by various types of mass media. Art as aesthetic communication should also be attributed to important types of mass communication. Aesthetic communication, on the one hand, unfolds as a kind of mass communication (theatrical performance, literary evenings and so on), on the other hand, art itself is often a special artistic modeling of human communication and is, as it were, a substitute for some of its other forms.

It is also necessary to note the possibility of highlighting interpersonal and role-playing communication. In the first case, the participants in communication are specific individuals with unique individual qualities that are revealed to others in the course of communication and organization of joint actions. In the case of role-playing communication, its participants can be considered as carriers of certain social roles (teacher-student, buyer-seller). The role performed at the moment fixes the place that a person occupies in the system of public, social relations. It can be said that in role-playing communication a person loses a certain spontaneity of his behavior, since certain of his steps and actions are dictated by the role being played. Of course, on my own social role does not define human behavior in detail. Much depends on the understanding of one's own role and the roles of other participants in communication, on the attitude of the person himself and his environment to this role, and on established traditions. In addition, each person brings his own uniqueness to the performance of the role.

Thus, in communication, people manifest, reveal their psychological qualities to themselves and others. But these qualities are not only manifested through communication, they arise and form in it. Communicating with other people, a person learns universal human experience, historically established social norms, values, knowledge and ways of activity, is formed as a personality and individuality. That is, communication is the most important factor in the mental development of a person. In the most general form, communication can be defined as a universal reality in which mental processes and human behavior are born and exist throughout life.

Types of communication

Business conversation

Business communication is a type of communication, the purpose of which lies outside the communication process and which is subject to the solution of a specific problem (industrial, scientific, commercial, etc.) based on the common interests and goals of the communicants. Business communication is a communicative subject-targeted and primarily professional activity in the field of social, legal and economic relations (M.V. Koltunova 2005).

Features of business communication

A partner in business communication always acts as a person significant for the subject.
Communicating people are distinguished by a good mutual understanding in matters of business.
The main task of business communication is productive cooperation.

Depending on the various characteristics, business communication is divided into:

- from the point of view of the form of speech:

oral
written;

- from the point of view - unidirectional / bidirectional speech between the speaker and the listener:

dialogic
monologue;

- in terms of the number of participants:

interpersonal
public;

- from the point of view of the absence / presence of a mediating apparatus:

direct
indirect;

- in terms of the position of the communicants in space:

contact
distant.

Forms of business communication:

business conversation- interpersonal verbal communication of several interlocutors in order to resolve certain business problems or establish business relationships. The most common and most commonly used form of business communication.

Business conversation on the phone- a method of operational communication, significantly limited in time, requiring both parties to know the rules of telephone etiquette (greeting, mutual introduction, communication and discussion of the subject of the call, summing up, expressing gratitude, farewell).

Business negotiations– exchange of views to achieve any goal, to develop an agreement between the parties.

office meeting- one of effective ways involvement of employees in the decision-making process, a tool for managing the involvement of employees in the affairs of their unit or organization as a whole.

business discussion- an exchange of opinions on a business matter in accordance with more or less defined rules of procedure and with the participation of all or some of its participants.

Press conference— a meeting of officials (leaders, politicians, government officials, public relations specialists, businessmen, etc.) with representatives of the press, television, radio in order to inform the public on topical issues.

public speech- a monologue oratorical speech addressed to a specific audience, which is delivered in order to inform listeners and provide them with the desired impact (persuasion, suggestion, inspiration, call to action, etc.).

Business correspondence- a written form of interaction with partners, which consists in the exchange of business letters by mail or e-mail. Business letter is a short document that performs several functions and deals with one or more related issues. It is used to communicate with external structures, as well as within the organization to transfer information between individuals and legal entities at a distance.

Also forms of business communication are Public auctions and Presentation.

Role communication

Role communication helps people create and maintain relationships built on the basis of business, formal social contacts. It provides communication in such social tandems as “manager-subordinate, buyer-seller”. In such relationships, it is the role, the role expectations of the participants in communication that determine how the partner will be perceived, how his behavior will be read and how his own will be built. In role-playing communication, a person is not free in choosing a strategy for his behavior, perception of a partner and self-perception.

In role-playing communication, a person realizes himself as a member of society, a certain group, a spokesman for the interests of certain relationships. By participating in such communication, he thereby maintains and develops a system of social, public relations of a certain community. In addition to interpersonal and role-playing communication, there are : ritual, monologue, dialogic.

ritual communication - a person confirms his existence as a member of the society of one or another important group for him. An important feature of ritual relations is their impersonality. A person considers not only himself as the bearer of a role, but formally perceives his partner as a necessary element of the ritual. Its qualities are not important as long as they do not interfere with the performance of the ritual. Rituals are given little space in interpersonal relationships. Their number increases in situations of emotional tension, psychological escape of partners from each other: emphasized politeness, banal compliments . Ritual- this is such a "resource-saving" technology of social confirmation. The ritual style of communication is "object-objective" due to the fact that the value of a person, individuality is leveled in it, it does not have a specific author, there is no focus on a specific person. Participants are equal in their impersonality and in their right to satisfy those important social needs for which they entered the ritual.

monologue communication - this is a common form of communication, suggesting positional inequality of partners. There are two types of monologue communication: imperative and manipulation.

imperative communication- this is an authoritarian, directive form of influence on a partner in order to achieve control over his behavior and internal attitudes, coercion to certain actions or decisions. The peculiarity of the imperative is that the ultimate goal of communication - coercion of a partner - is not veiled: "You will do as I say." As a means of exerting influence, orders, instructions, prescriptions and demands, punishments, and rewards are used. It is generally accepted that there are 3 norms of behavior that can be instilled in a baby with a hard imperative: Do not do something that is a threat to your life; do not do what is a threat to the life of another person; do not harm the property, values ​​​​of your family. All other norms of behavior and social values ​​must be instilled in a different way, in a process of cooperation that allows the child to personally

process and internally assimilate the information and requirements of an adult. This will ensure the stability of beliefs and will allow the formation of such personality traits as criticality, independence in actions and evaluation of one's own and others' behavior.

Manipulation- this is a hidden control of a personality, such a psychological impact on a person that provides the manipulator with one-sided advantages, but in such a way that the partner retains the illusion of independence decisions taken. The manipulator uses psychological vulnerabilities human traits character, habits, desires, dignity. E. Shostrom, notes that the manipulator is characterized by deceit and primitiveness of feelings, apathy towards life, cynicism and distrust of oneself and others. Relationships built on love, friendship, mutual affection suffer the most from manipulation. A manipulative attitude towards another leads to the destruction of close, trusting ties between people, whether they are lovers, parents and their children, etc. In any training, there is always an element of manipulation (to make the lesson more interesting, to motivate children, to attract their attention.) The manipulator lives in every person. E. Shostrom singled out 8 types of manipulators, which are combined into 4 pairs: dictator - rags: calculator - stuck: hooligan - nice guy: judge - defender.

Dictator - He exaggerates his strength. Orders, quotes authorities authorities and does everything to rigidly control his victim.

Rag - a victim of the dictator. Develops great skill in relationships with the dictator: does not hear, is silent, catches on the fly and at a glance. At the right time, he easily changes places with the dictator.

Calculator - Exaggerates the possibilities of his control over others. Deceives, eludes in order to outwit and bring to light. Strives to control everyone and everything.

Sticky - He exaggerates his addiction. Allows others to do the work for themselves.

Hooligan - Exaggerates his aggressiveness, cruelty, malevolence, threatens. Thus, he draws conclusions for himself.

Good guy - He exaggerates his care, love, binds to himself with deliberate kindness. In an argument with a bully, most often wins

Judge - He exaggerates his criticality. He does not trust anyone, is full of indignation, accusations, forgives with difficulty.

Defender - The opposite of a judge. Excessively lenient towards the mistakes of others. Corrupts people, sympathizing beyond measure, preventing them from becoming

independent and self-critical in their assessments. Assertiveness!!!

Intimate-personal communication

Intimate-personal communication is one of the types of communication based on the personal sympathy of partners towards each other, their mutual interest in establishing and maintaining trusting relationships. Assumes I-You-contact, a high degree trust partner, mutual deep self-disclosure.

Intimate-personal communication is realized mainly in friendship or love relationships. It contributes to the self-actualization of the individual and the maintenance of her mental health. IN explanatory dictionary Russian language S.I. Ozhegova "intimate" is defined as intimate, sincere, deeply personal, and "intimacy" means treating someone too confidentially, having intimate conversations.

H. Sullivan (N. Sullivan) believes that psychological intimacy, the presence of confirmation or approval from the partner in communication contribute to the discovery for the subject of the true essence of his personality and help maintain the stability of his Self.

In psychology, there are different points of view regarding the definition of personal communication:

M. I. Bobneva proposes to consider it as a substantial form of existence and manifestation of the inner world of the individual. The personal quality that the subject reports is directly manifested in the course of personal communication (for example, a person not only reports his sincerity, but also shows it in the process of communication). At the same time, verbal components do not play a primary role. The inner world of a person is not transmitted, but exists.

A. S. Slutsky and V. N. Tsapkin see in personal communication the process of interaction between 2 or more subjects, during which the mutual disclosure of the inner world of each of them is carried out.

E. A. Rodionova states that in personal communication, it is not so much direct information that is important, but the attitude of one partner to the point of view of the other, that is, the exchange of “secondary information”; At the same time, personal communication is regulated more by the image of the interlocutor, and not by the image of the situation.

Following these definitions, we can conclude that personal communication is always mutual and proceeds at a deep value-semantic level, while information moments are present, but often fade into the background, while the personality of the communication partner comes to the fore. In the process of intimate-personal communication, mutual transmission of intimate personal information takes place.

I. S. Kon notes that psychologists associate the ability for intimate-personal communication with high level development of the identity of boys and girls. The need for intimate-personal communication in girls is formed earlier than in boys. Intimate-personal communication with different partners is also realized at later stages of ontogenesis (for example, intimate personal communication friendly, intimate-personal communication marital, intimate-personal communication child-parent, intimate-personal communication psychotherapeutic), although its role and significance for the individual compared to adolescence are somewhat reduced.

The need for communication

Communication, as an activity in general, is not only a way of being of a developing personality, but also one of the most important ways of mastering human life.

The problem of communication in connection with its determining influence on the process of development and formation of personality can be considered in two aspects.

On the one hand, communication is a material and practical interaction between individuals and, in this sense, is woven "into the language of real life." People necessarily enter - and cannot but enter - into certain relations with each other already by virtue of the social mode of their existence, in which any relation of the individual as a person, including to himself, is mediated by his relation to another person.

Communication is a component, an attribute of activity as a specifically human form of activity. The activity itself contains the objective need for communication between individuals in the form of “exchange” (K. Marx) of abilities, knowledge, experience, results of activity, etc. Being directly woven into various types of activity as their essential and mandatory moment, communication is necessary included in the process of determining the development of personality as a subject of activity.

The problem of communication appears in psychology in yet another aspect. It is connected with the fact that communication as interpersonal interaction is the content of one of the fundamental human needs - the need of a person in the personality of another individual.

And if, when considering the first of the indicated aspects, the main moment in the development of the personality is the moment of external determination, coming from the side of objective conditions and forms of human life, then when considering the second aspect, the center of gravity moves towards the personality itself, towards its own activity and capabilities, i.e. to the internal determinants of development.

This aspect of the problem of communication acts as a psychological one, since the subject of consideration is the motivational - incentive sphere of the personality. For psychology dealing with a specific person, it is important, of course, to determine the internal motive forces for the development of an individual as a person, to reveal the real psychological basis of this process.

A person's need for communication, the subject of which is the personality of another person as similar to him, but possessing the wealth of his own subjectivity, is realized primarily as interpersonal interaction. In the process of this interaction, there is an exchange of ideas, thoughts, feelings, reflections, experiences, interests, moods, character traits, etc., i.e., everything that is the property of the inner world of communicating individuals and determines the richness of their subjective experience.

In interpersonal interaction, a “dialogical” connection of equal partners is established, in which there are no polarizations of the parties in the sense that one “produces” and the other “consumes”. It is always bilateral, mutual enrichment, because by sharing one's feelings, thoughts, knowledge with others, "giving" oneself to others, a person becomes spiritually richer, reaches higher levels of moral and psychological maturity. With all clarity and obviousness, this regularity appears in feelings of love, friendship, camaraderie, which represent the most profound and individualized forms of manifestation of a person's need for another person.

In the process of satisfying the need for communication through specific mechanisms of identification, empathy, feeling, synchronization, suggestion, imitation, etc., it becomes possible, while remaining within the framework of one’s “I”, to step into the subjective world of another person, to join the universal experience ( for example, in the process of "consumption" of works of art, literature). That is why the need for communication contains the key to understanding how the transition of a person, the bearer of individual subjectivity, individual essence, into a person, the bearer of social essence, and vice versa, is carried out.

Experimental studies of various aspects of the emergence and development of the need for communication at different stages of ontogenesis, and above all at its early stages, convincingly show the enormous role of the need for communication in the overall progress of the individual - in the development of the most important personal structures and forms of behavior.

The perceptual side of communication

(communication as knowledge and understanding of each other by people)

The concept of social perception

The emergence and successful development of the process of interpersonal communication is possible only if there is mutual understanding between its participants. The extent to which people reflect the features and feelings of each other, perceive and understand others, and through them themselves, largely determines the process of communication itself, and the relationship that develops between them, and the ways in which people carry out joint activity. Thus, the process of perception by one person of another in the course of communication acts as an obligatory component of communication and can conditionally be called the perceptual side of communication.

Consider, using a hypothetical example, how, in general, the process of perception by one person (let's call him an observer) of another (observed) unfolds. In the observed, only external physical signs are available to him for perception, among which the most informative are the appearance (physical qualities plus appearance design) and behavior (actions performed and expressive reactions). Perceiving these qualities, the observer evaluates them in a certain way and makes some conclusions (often unconsciously) about the internal psychological properties of the communication partner. The sum of the properties attributed to the observed, in turn, gives a person the opportunity to form a certain attitude towards him (this attitude is most often emotional in nature and is located within the continuum "like - dislike"). On the basis of the psychological properties assumed in the observed, the observer draws certain conclusions about what kind of behavior in relation to him, the observer, can be expected from the perceived person, and then, based on these questions, builds his own behavior strategy towards the observed person. Let us explain what has been said with an example. A man standing at a bus stop late in the evening notices an approaching pedestrian. He is dressed in dark clothes, keeps his hands in his pockets and moves with a quick, decisive gait. If a person standing at a bus stop is calm and confident, he may think something like this: “This person, apparently, is cold and is very taken aback. Probably late for home or a date. Now he will pass quietly by. And having thought like this, the observer also calmly continues his expectation.

If the person at the bus stop is anxious or suspicious, he may think differently: “Why does he have his hands in his pockets? How quickly he approaches me! He may have something bad on his mind. The view is painfully suspicious "... And the person will hide in the shadows ("out of harm's way").

The whole process of social perception described above can be represented in the form of the following scheme:

Thus, we define social perception as the perception of a person's external features, their correlation with his personal characteristics, interpretation and prediction of his actions on this basis. Social perception cannot be considered, by analogy with perceptual mental processes, as a purely cognitive, "rational" act of capturing the external properties of a perceived person. It necessarily contains both an assessment of the other and the formation of an attitude towards him emotionally and behaviorally. On the basis of the external side of behavior, we kind of “read” the inner world of a person, we try to understand it and develop our own emotional attitude to what we perceive. In general, in the course of social perception, the following is carried out: an emotional assessment of another, an attempt to understand the reasons for his actions and predict his behavior, the creation of his own strategy of behavior.

We can also distinguish four main functions of social perception: self-knowledge, knowledge of a communication partner, organization of joint activities based on mutual understanding and the establishment of emotional relationships.

If we turn again to the scheme of social perception, we can see in it the so-called “weak points”, that is, those nodal points of the process at which distortions in the objective perception of another person are most likely to occur. It is easy to see that such “weak points” are, first of all, the psychological characteristics and attitudes of the observer himself, the characteristics of the observed that are accessible to perception (to what extent they adequately reflect the objective psychological properties this person) and the adequacy (legality) of the estimates on which the attitude of the observer to the object of observation is built. In other words, there are two main aspects of the study of the process of social perception. One is connected with the study of the psychological and social characteristics of the subject and the object of perception, and the second is with the analysis of the mechanisms of interpersonal reflection. Let us dwell on their analysis in more detail.

Study psychological features observer,

influencing the process of social perception is a fairly popular and developed area of ​​social psychology. So, in the perception and evaluation of each other by people, individual, gender, age, professional and sex-role differences were recorded. So, it was found that children first learn to recognize expression by facial expressions, then they become available to analyze emotions through gestures and relationships of other people. In general, children are more oriented towards appearance (clothing, hairstyle, presence of distinguishing features in appearance, uniform, glasses, etc.) than adults. It has been observed that teachers and teachers notice and evaluate other qualities and traits in their students than the same students and students in their teachers. A similar discrepancy occurs in the perception and evaluation of subordinates by the leader and vice versa. The profession of an observer significantly affects the process of perception. So, when evaluating people, teachers are very strongly focused on the speech of the perceived, and, for example, choreographers, sports coaches, first of all notice the physical constitution of a person.

Although the characteristics of the observer named above play a certain role in shaping the evaluation of a communication partner, the psychological qualities of a person and his system of attitudes are of the greatest importance. The internal psychological and social attitudes of the subject of perception, as it were, "launch" a certain scheme of social perception. At the same time, sometimes the result of the perception of another person is quite rigidly programmed by this scheme. The work of such attitudes and such perceptual schemes is especially significant in the formation of the first impression of a stranger. More on this will be discussed below.

IN social psychology there is a long tradition of research and psychological properties of the object of perception, that is, the observed person. At the same time, most studies are an attempt to answer the question: what psychological and other properties of the observed are the most important and informative for the process of its cognition by the observer, what do people first of all pay attention to when evaluating communication partners?

These most essential properties of the observed person include: the expression of his face (facial expressions), ways of expressing expression (feelings), gestures and postures, gait, appearance (clothes, hairstyle) and features of voice and speech. At the same time, studies show that it is possible to distinguish both widespread, “international” gestures, postures and other signs that have almost the same interpretation in different cultures, as well as quite specific means that are noticed and evaluated only by people of a certain national or cultural group.

We can give examples of expressive gestures that have a universal interpretation in European culture:

• fingers brought together by the tips - shame, humility, humility
• finger held in the palm of the other hand - self-encouragement

various “scratches” of the head - indecision, unpreparedness. Thus, growing up in a certain cultural and national environment, the child learns a set of expressive means by which it is customary for adults to express their states and desires, and at the same time learns to "read" signs from the behavior and appearance of other people, with the help of which they can understand and appreciate.

At the same time, a number of universal psychological mechanisms can be identified that ensure the very process of perception and evaluation of another person, allowing the transition from externally perceived to evaluation, attitude and forecast. Let's take a look at the job description mechanisms of social perception.

Mechanisms of social perception

We can talk about the existence of mechanisms that ensure the knowledge and understanding of another person, oneself in the process of communicating with him, and that ensure the prediction of the actions of a communication partner.

The mechanisms of cognition and understanding are primarily identification, empathy and attraction. Identification is such a way of knowing another, in which an assumption about his internal state is based on an attempt to put himself in the place of a communication partner. That is, there is an assimilation of oneself to another. When identifying with another, its norms, values, behavior, tastes and habits are assimilated. A person behaves as in his opinion this person would build his behavior in a given situation. Identification has a special personal meaning at a certain age stage, approximately in the older adolescence and youth, when it largely determines the nature of the relationship between a young man and significant adults or peers (for example, attitude towards an idol).

Empathy can be defined as emotional empathy or empathy for another. Through an emotional response, a person achieves an understanding of the internal state of the other. Empathy is based on the ability to correctly imagine what is happening inside another person, what he experiences, how he evaluates the world. It is known that empathy is higher than better man is able to imagine how one and the same event will be perceived by different people, and to what extent he admits the right to the existence of these different points of view. Empathy, empathy in relation to a communication partner can be considered as one of the most important professional qualities psychologist, teacher, social worker. In a number of cases, the development of the ability to empathize is a special task for people associated with this kind of activity, and is solved through active self-education, participation in various professional development groups.

Attraction (in the literal translation - attraction) can be considered as a special form of knowing another person, based on the formation of a stable positive feeling towards him. In this case, the understanding of the communication partner arises due to the formation of affection towards him, a friendly or even deeper intimate-personal relationship.

The mechanism of self-knowledge in the process of communication was called social reflection. Social reflection is understood as the ability of a person to imagine how he is perceived by a communication partner. In other words, it is knowing how the other knows me. It is important to emphasize that the completeness of a person's ideas about himself is largely determined by the richness of his ideas in other people, the breadth and variety of his social contacts, which make it possible to analyze the attitude towards himself on the part of various communication partners. In addition, and this is especially important for a psychologist, the key to knowing oneself is openness to other people. This thesis can be explained by the example of the famous “Yogari window”.

Each personality is a combination of four psychological spaces:

At the beginning of communication, you can depict the volume of each of these personal spaces as follows:

However, as a result of establishing open, direct relationships, the picture changes:

Thus, revealing our inner world to others in the process of communication, we ourselves gain access to the riches of our own soul.

Turning to the third group of social perception mechanisms that provide predicting the behavior of a communication partner, we highlight the most important, one might even say universal mechanism interpretation of the actions and feelings of another person - a mechanism causal attribution— or the reason for the interpretation.

In the process of communication, a person never or almost never has complete information about the reasons for the behavior of a partner. Under the conditions of a shortage of such information, the individual has no choice but to form his own forecast based on the assumption of possible causes, in other words, to attribute to another certain motives and grounds for certain actions and reactions; Despite the fact that such attribution is a purely individual process, its versatile studies have revealed a number of patterns in accordance with which causal attribution unfolds.

Before turning to their presentation, we give experimental examples of the study of the process of caused attribution. The most revealing are the experiments carried out under the guidance of A. A. Bodalev. A group of subjects were alternately shown photographs of a young woman and an elderly man. The subjects, looking at the photograph for five seconds, had to verbally recreate the appearance of a person. Before each display of the same photo, different groups of subjects were given different settings. So, one group was told that a photo of a teacher would be shown, and the other - an artist. The elderly man was told to one group that they would see a hero, and the other a criminal. The results showed that almost half of the subjects gave a description of the person in accordance with the information they received at the beginning. The following examples of descriptions of an elderly man can be given: “A man who has fallen, very angry. Untidy combed. A very angry look”, and “...Very expressive eyes, which are usually the case with smart, insightful people. A person with such eyes must know and love life and people well...

In another study, experienced kindergarten teachers were told about a child's misbehavior and were shown a picture of the baby, while being asked to rate the misbehavior. But some teachers were shown a cute baby, and others - an ugly one. As a result, those who saw a cute baby were more indulgent towards him. Much more negative personality traits were attributed to the unsympathetic and harsher methods of punishment were proposed.

Now let's turn to the analysis of various aspects of attributive behavior.

It is known that each person has his own "favorite" schemes of causality, that is, the usual ways of explaining someone else's behavior. So, people with personal attribution in any situation tend to find a specific culprit of what happened, to attribute the cause of what happened to a specific person. In the case of an addiction to circumstantial attribution, people tend to primarily blame the circumstances without looking for a specific culprit. Finally, with stimulus attribution, a person sees the cause of what happened in the object on which the action was directed (the vase fell because it did not stand well) or, for example, in the victim (it is his own fault that he was hit by a car).

In the study of the process of causal attribution, many different patterns of attribution have been identified. For example, people most often attribute success to themselves, and failure to circumstances. The nature of attribution also depends on the degree of participation of a person in the event under discussion. The assessment will be different in cases where he was a participant (accomplice) or an observer. A special issue is attributing to the observable responsibility for the actions taken. The general pattern is that as the severity of the incident increases, the subjects tend to move from circumstantial and stimulus to personal attribution (that is, to look for the cause of what happened in the conscious actions of the individual).

In general, the study of the phenomenon of causal attribution allows us to better imagine the very process of forming an assessment and attitude towards a communication partner.

Typical schemes for the formation of the first impression

Speaking of social perception, it should be noted that this is a fairly developed area of ​​socio-psychological knowledge, especially in matters related to the formation of the first impression of a person. It is known that in the process of long-term communication, people's relationships become very individual, hardly amenable to any kind of schematization, while at the first stages the main role is assigned to various stable patterns of perception of the actions and feelings of another person, a large role is played by stereotypes formed in past life process.

Let us dwell on the analysis of typical schemes and stereotypes of interpersonal perception.

The literature describes the three most typical schemes for the formation of the first impression of a person. Each scheme is "launched" by a certain factor, one way or another present in the acquaintance situation: the factor of superiority, the partner's attractiveness factor, and the factor of attitude towards the observer. The first scheme of social perception begins to work in a situation of inequality of partners (more precisely, when the observer feels the superiority of the partner in some important parameter for him - mind, height, financial situation, or something else). The essence of what happens next is that a person who surpasses the observer in an important parameter is estimated by him much higher in other significant parameters. In other words, there is a general personal reassessment. At the same time, the more insecure the observer feels at the moment, in this particular situation, the less is needed to launch this scheme. So, in an extreme situation, people are often ready to trust those whom they would not listen to in a calm environment.

The second scheme is associated with the perception of a partner as extremely attractive in appearance. The error of attractiveness lies in the fact that people also tend to overestimate an outwardly attractive person according to other psychological and social parameters that are important to them. So, in ex-experiments it is shown that people who are more beautiful in photographs are rated as more self-confident, happy and sincere, and beautiful women men tended to be more caring and decent.

Finally, the third scheme of partner perception is triggered by his attitude towards us. The error of perception in this case consists in the fact that people who treat him well or share some of his important ideas, a person tends to evaluate higher and according to other indicators.

The concept of social stereotype

At the heart of all typical schemes for the formation of the first impression of a person is a social stereotype. A social stereotype is understood as a stable image or a stable idea of ​​any phenomena or people, characteristic of representatives of a particular social group. Different social groups, real (nation) or imaginary (professional group) develop stereotypes, stable explanations of certain facts, habitual interpretations of things.

The most famous ethnic stereotypes are images of typical representatives of certain nations, which are endowed with fixed features of appearance and character traits (for example, stereotypical ideas about the stiffness and thinness of the British, the frivolity of the French, the eccentricity of Italians, characteristic of the national culture).

For an individual who has perceived the stereotypes of his group, they perform an important function of simplifying and reducing the process of perceiving another person. A stereotype can be considered as a tool of "rough adjustment" that allows a person to "save" psychological resources. They have their "allowed" scope of social application. For example, stereotypes are actively used in assessing a person's national or professional group affiliation. However, in the case of the active use of the stereotype as a means of knowing and understanding other people, the emergence of prejudices and significant distortions of the objective situation is inevitable. Let us turn to examples of pedagogical stereotypes and their role in education.

One of the most important results of pedagogical stereotyping is the formation in the teacher's mind of a model of an ideal student. This is the kind of student who confirms the teacher in his role as a successful educator and makes his work enjoyable: cooperative, eager to learn, disciplined. Children similar to this ideal are perceived by the teacher not only as good students, but in general as good people, pleasant in communication, decent and developed. Children who fit the opposite image of “bad learners” are generally perceived as indifferent, aggressive, bad people, are a source of negative emotions of the teacher.

It is very important that the expectations formed by teachers in relation to the child really determine his real achievements. This is due not only to the bias of teachers who have become victims of their own stereotypes, but also to the fact that under the influence of such expectations, the child's self-perception is formed. As the Western psychologist Rist notes, many children are doomed to drag out a miserable existence in school and feel hostility towards themselves only because they were labeled “underdeveloped”, “unbalanced”, “incapable” from the very beginning. That is, the feedback from teachers to the student, which has the form of expectations, often works, according to R. Burns, as a "self-actualizing prophecy." This is easy to show with examples.

So, in one of the experiments, the opinions of first-grade teachers about the pace of mastering reading skills in boys and girls were revealed. There was a group of teachers who believed that there were no gender differences, and a group of teachers who believed that boys were worse at acquiring such skills. Measurements carried out a year later showed that in the classes of teachers of the 1st group there were no differences in the quality of reading between boys and girls, and in the classes of teachers of the 2nd group, the boys in general lagged significantly behind the female representatives. The described fact is called the “expectation stereotype” or the “Pygmalion effect”. It can be formed not only on the basis of the ideal image of the student or the theoretical pedagogical concepts of the teacher, but even on the basis of the name of the child. Studies have shown that children who have a name that the teacher likes have a more positive internal attitude towards themselves compared to children who have names that the teacher does not accept. The name can also influence the teacher's expectations related to the academic success of a given child.

"Expectation stereotype" is a real factor pedagogical process. This is due to the fact that it manifests itself not only in the attitudes and expectations of the teacher, but also very actively - in his behavior. Let us consider the real manifestations of the expectation stereotype in pedagogical practice.

1. 1. The stereotype is manifested in relation to the answers of students. Good students are called more often and more actively supported. The teacher, through his gestures and phrases, makes it clear to the “bad” student from the very beginning that he does not expect anything good from him. An amazing paradox arises: objectively, the teacher spends less time on interviewing “bad” students than on interviewing “good” ones, however, in the mind of a teacher subject to the “expectation stereotype”, the situation subjectively turns over, and he sincerely believes that he spends the lion’s share study time for the lagging behind.
2. 2. The stereotype also appears on the nature of the help in answering. Unbeknownst to himself, the teacher prompts and helps the "good" ones in order to confirm their expectations. However, he is convinced that he is pulling out a bad student.
3. 3. The stereotype generates characteristic statements about successful and unsuccessful students. The bad ones are criticized more and more sharply using generalizations like “I didn’t learn again”, “As always you ...”, etc.

In general, the stereotype of expectation can also have positive consequences if the teacher managed to develop positive expectations for a weak child. However, studies show that at the negative pole, this stereotype works more efficiently and consistently.

Thus, we have considered the most important aspects of the process of social perception - that is, people's knowledge and understanding of each other in the course of communication. As already noted, one of the functions of social cognition is the creation psychological basis(in the form of mutual understanding) for the organization of joint activities). Below we will focus on ways to organize interaction in the process of interpersonal communication.

Interactive side of communication

(organization of interaction in the process of communication)

The interactive side of communication is a conditional term denoting the characteristics of those aspects of interpersonal communication that are primarily related to the interaction of people. In the course of communication, it is important for its participants not only to exchange information and establish mutual understanding, but also to organize an exchange of actions, plan common activities, and develop forms and norms for joint actions.

When characterizing this side of communication, we turn to an analysis of the types of interpersonal interaction, as well as the motivation that can prompt participants in communication to choose one or another type of interaction.

Characteristics of strategies interpersonal interactions

First of all, we note that various studies have identified several important types of social motives (that is, the motives with which a person interacts with other people):

1. 1. The motive of maximizing the total gain (otherwise, the motive of cooperation).
2. 2. The motive of maximizing one's own gain (in other words, individualism).
3. 3. The motive for maximizing the relative gain (competition).
4. 4. The motive for maximizing the gain of another (altruism).
5. 5. The motive of minimizing the gain of another (aggression).
6. 6. The motive for minimizing differences in payoffs (equality).

Obviously, within the framework of this scheme, all possible motives that determine social interaction of people. Naturally, the nature of the social motivation of the participants in the interaction determines both the means of communication, and the result of the interaction, and the relationship between communication partners. It can be assumed that the ratio of communication motives available to the participants in the interaction is especially important: if they coincide or naturally complement each other, one can predict the greater success of their contacts. You can also identify those motives that are more likely to lead to “losing” interaction strategies in terms of communication success. These include the second and fifth motives, which lead to ignoring the interests of the communication partner, which in turn probably activates protective strategies on his part.

What interaction strategies can be distinguished in general, based on the characteristics of motivation that determines the choice of strategy? To answer this question, let's imagine the interaction as a process unfolding in the following coordinate system. Along the Y axis are interaction strategies focused on achieving their own goals by its participants. On the X axis - strategies focused on achieving the goals of the communication partner.

Accordingly, for each scale, a minimum point and a maximum point can be distinguished (as extreme forms of manifestation of one or another orientation). And in accordance with the initial social motivation of the participants in communication, five main strategies for their behavior in the process of interaction can be identified:

• . point P corresponds to the motive of maximizing one's own gain and the strategy of behavior, called "counteraction". In this case, the individual demonstrates a complete focus on his goals without taking into account the goals of communication partners.
• . point And - the strategy of "avoidance" - corresponds to the motive of minimizing the gain of the other. The meaning of the avoidance strategy is to avoid contact, true interaction, losing one's own goals in order to exclude the gain of another.
• . point Y symbolizes the strategy of "compliance", oriented towards the realization of the motive of altruism. In this case, a person sacrifices his own goals for the sake of achieving the goal of a partner.
• . point K is a "compromise" strategy that allows you to implement the motive for minimizing differences in payoffs. The essence of this strategy is the incomplete achievement of goals by partners for the sake of conditional equality.

• . Finally, point C symbolizes the strategy of "cooperation", aimed at the full satisfaction of the participants in the interaction of their social needs. This strategy allows you to implement one of the two motives of human social behavior - the motive of cooperation or the motive of competition.

The last of these strategies can be considered as the most productive in terms of the effectiveness of interaction and as the most successful in terms of the well-being of the participants in communication and their relationships. At the same time, it is very difficult to implement, as it requires significant psychological efforts from communication partners to create a positive climate, resolve emerging contradictions in the spirit of mutual understanding, respect for the interests of another. In many cases, teaching people the skills of cooperative behavior is an independent psychological task, most often solved by methods of active socio-psychological learning. Collaboration is the most effective strategy for pedagogical interaction. It manifests itself in the fact that the teacher considers the child not as an obstacle to his successful professional work, but as a person who has his own goals in education. The teacher, without giving up his desire to teach his subject effectively and with a sense of satisfaction, can find such forms of interaction that would not put the student in the position of a humiliated one, would not force him to give up his interests and inclinations under pressure, but created conditions for the successful implementation of both the teacher as a professional and the child as an individual.

The cooperation strategy should find its expression in the behavior of the teacher, his non-verbal reactions and the words with which he addresses the student, in his responses to the statements of the student, his ability to listen and answer questions, in the ways of expressing his feelings. Of course, the implementation of this method of interaction is impossible if the teacher is not internally tuned in to a respectful attitude towards the interests and views of the student, his needs and desires.

Structure of interpersonal interaction

The question of the most important characteristics of the interaction process deserves a separate discussion. He always confronts the researcher, the practicing psychologist, who is faced with the need to observe real interpersonal interaction. What characteristics of the observed exchange of actions between communication partners are really important for the analysis of the entire communication process, and which ones play a secondary role? Undoubtedly, the answer to this question depends on the type of communication observed, its direction, as well as the goals of observation. At the same time, a number of invariant characteristics of interaction can be distinguished, the fixation and analysis of which are important in the most different situations observations. The registration scheme for such characteristics was developed, in particular, by R. Bayles. In his opinion, the entire spectrum of interpersonal interactions can be described for the benefit of study using 4 categories: the area of ​​positive emotions, the area negative emotions, problem solving domain and problem posing domain. In turn, each category is revealed through several major manifestations, forming the following interaction registration scheme:

By registering the frequency and form of manifestation of certain categories in the course of real interaction, one can understand its features. For example, in what particular area is communication unfolding, what is it aimed at, whether the behavior of the participants was constructive or aimed at emotional rejection of other participants, and so on.

It is also appropriate to cite another scheme for registering the features of interaction, developed by N. Flanders for the analysis of pedagogical communication (teacher-student in the process of the lesson). It distinguishes 10 categories, according to which the reactions of teachers and students in the lesson are differentiated:

A. Teacher reaction

1. Accepts the attitude or tone and expression of the student's emotions and explains his attitude in a non-threatening manner

2. Approves the actions or behavior of the student

3. Develops ideas suggested by the student

4. Asks questions based on his ideas with the intention of getting an answer from the student.

5. Explanation, development of own ideas

6. Commands, instructions to be followed by the student

1. Critical remarks about the student of a directive nature, in a raised tone, an appeal to the authority of the teacher.

B. Student reaction

8. The answer is only to the teacher’s appeal, the freedom of one’s own statements (on the topic of discussion) is limited

1. Expression of own ideas, questions, suggestions, free development of own thoughts.

B. Situation of interaction

10. Silence or confusion of those interacting. Pauses, short periods of silence, the meaning of which is incomprehensible to the observer.

We examined the features of interpersonal interaction in the process of communication, described its most important types and characteristics. Let us dwell below on one of the possible consequences of its unproductive development, which is characterized by the emergence and development of an interpersonal conflict.

Socio-psychological characteristics of the conflict

In psychological terms, the conflict can be considered as a clash of incompatible, oppositely directed tendencies in the human mind, in interpersonal or intergroup relations, associated with acute negative experiences. We note the most important points of this definition. First, conflict refers to those interactions and relationships that are based on incompatible interests, needs or values ​​and their simultaneous satisfaction, existence is impossible.

Secondly, it is possible to single out intrapersonal, interpersonal and intergroup conflict, depending on the space in which objective contradictions arose and are developing.

Thirdly, the conflict in psychological terms is accompanied by negative emotional states for its participants, complicating the already difficult situation of objective contradiction.

In social psychology, when analyzing interpersonal conflicts, it is customary to discuss the causes of conflicts, their structure, development dynamics and functions. In addition, we will turn to the study of the problems of conflict prevention and psychological mediation in their resolution.

The communicative side of communication

(communication as an exchange of information)

In the process of communication, people exchange various ideas, interests, moods, feelings, etc. All this can be considered as a variety of information, and in this case, communication appears to us as a communicative process. It is important to remember that communication processes between people differ significantly from information exchange in technical devices; interpersonal communication, both in its content and in its form, has important specific features. The specificity of interpersonal communication is revealed, first of all, in the following processes and phenomena: the process of feedback, the presence of communication barriers, the phenomenon of communicative influence and the existence of different levels of information transfer (verbal and non-verbal). Let's analyze these features in more detail.

Feedback in interpersonal communication

First of all, it should be noted that information in communication is not simply transferred from one partner to another (the person transmitting information is usually called a communicator, and the person receiving this information is called a recipient), but it is exchanged. Accordingly, the main task of information exchange in communication is not a simple translation of information in the forward or reverse direction, but the development of a common meaning, a single point of view and agreement about a particular situation or problem of communication. To solve this problem, within the framework of the general information process, a special mechanism operates, which is characteristic exclusively for interpersonal communication - the mechanism feedback. The meaning of this mechanism lies in the fact that in interpersonal communication the process of information exchange is, as it were, doubled, and in addition to the content aspects, the information coming from the recipient to the communicator contains information about how the recipient perceives and evaluates the behavior of the communicator. Thus, feedback is information containing the recipient's reaction to the behavior of the communicator. The purpose of providing feedback is to help the communication partner understand how his actions are perceived, what feelings they cause in other people. The transfer of feedback to the communicator can be carried out in various ways. First of all, they talk about direct and indirect feedback. In the first case, the information coming from the recipient, in an open and unambiguous form, contains a reaction to the behavior of the speaker. These can be open statements such as “I don’t like what you are saying”, “I can hardly understand what is being said now”, etc., as well as gestures and various manifestations of feelings of annoyance, irritation, joy, etc. . Such feedback provides an adequate understanding of it by the communicator, creates conditions for effective communication. Indirect feedback is a veiled form of passing on to a partner psychological information. For this, various rhetorical questions, ridicule, ironic remarks, emotional reactions unexpected for a partner are often used. In this case, the communicator must guess for himself what exactly the communication partner wanted to give him, what is actually his reaction and his attitude towards the communicator. Naturally, guesses do not always turn out to be correct, which greatly complicates both the exchange of information and the entire process of communication.

Thus, we have named the first distinguishing feature of interpersonal communication - the presence of psychological feedback.

The concept of a communication barrier

In the process of communication, the participants in communication are faced with the task of not only and not so much exchanging information as achieving its adequate understanding by partners. That is, in interpersonal communication, the interpretation of the message coming from the communicator to the recipient is a special problem. Firstly, the form and content of the message significantly depends on the personal characteristics of the communicator himself, his ideas about the recipient and attitude towards him, the whole situation in which communication takes place. Secondly, the message sent by him does not remain unchanged: it is transformed, changed under the influence of the individual psychological characteristics of the personality of the recipient, the attitude of the latter to the author, the text itself, the situation of communication. The same words heard by a person from the lips of the boss and his own son can induce him to completely different psychological reactions: the remark of a high-status person will be listened to with due attention, and the son’s remark, even correct in form, will unexpectedly cause irritation in the soul. Different people can perceive the same program in completely different ways, depending on their political preferences, cultural habits and preferences. One and the same remark of the teacher will be perceived by one student as an indication to action, and the second as an unfair nitpick, one will take note, and the second will not even hear.

What determines the adequacy of information perception? There are several reasons, the most important of which is the presence or absence in the process of communication communication barriers. In the most general sense, a communicative barrier is a psychological obstacle to the adequate transfer of information between communication partners. In the event of a barrier, the information is distorted or loses its original meaning, and in some cases it does not reach the recipient at all. We can talk about the existence of barriers of misunderstanding, social and cultural differences and barriers of attitude.

One can give examples of the artificial creation of this kind of barriers, for example, by children creating their own language on the basis of a common language, little understood by adults (remember Tosla and Vistula from the tales of Mummy Troll). Removal of the phonetic barrier is possible in case of improving the quality of speech of the participants in communication, teaching them the basics of rhetoric.

There is also a semantic barrier of misunderstanding, associated primarily with differences in the systems of meanings (thesauri) of the participants in communication. This is primarily a problem of jargon and slang. It is known that even within the same culture there are many micro-cultures, each of which creates its own “field of meanings”, is characterized by its specific understanding of various concepts, phenomena, expressed by them. So, in different micro-cultures, the meaning of such values ​​as “beauty”, “duty”, “nature”, “decency”, and so on is not equally understood. In addition, each environment creates its own mini-language of communication, its own slang, each with its own favorite quotes and jokes, expressions and turns of speech. All this together can significantly complicate the process of communication, creating a semantic barrier of misunderstanding. For a number of professions, the removal of such barriers is a very urgent problem, since their success is directly related to the creation of adequate interpersonal relationships with other people. This, above all, applies to teachers, doctors, psychologists, specialists in the field of management, advertising, and so on. It is important for them to be able to assimilate other people's semantic systems in order to speak with people “in their language” without provoking the emergence of semantic barriers with their own specific speech.

An equally important role in the destruction of normal interpersonal communication can be played by a stylistic barrier that occurs when the communicator’s speech style and the communication situation or the speech style and the recipient’s current psychological state, etc. do not match. So, the communication partner may not accept a critical remark, because it will be expressed in an inappropriate pani-brotherly manner, or the children will not perceive interesting story due to dry, emotionally unsaturated or scientific speech of an adult. The communicator needs to subtly feel the state of his recipients, to capture the shades of the emerging communication situation in order to bring the style of his message in line with it.

Finally, we can talk about the existence of a logical barrier of misunderstanding. It arises in those cases when the logic of reasoning offered by the communicator is either too complicated for the perception of the recipient, or seems to him not correct, contradicts his inherent manner of proof. In psychological terms, we can talk about the existence of many logics and logical systems of evidence. For some people, that which does not contradict reason is logical and evident; for others, that which corresponds to duty and morality. We can talk about the existence of "female" and "male" psychological logic, about children's "logic", etc. It depends on the psychological predilections of the recipient whether he accepts the system of evidence offered to him or considers it unconvincing. For a communicator, the choice of a system of evidence adequate to a given moment is always an open problem.

As noted above, socio-cultural differences between communication partners can serve as the cause of the psychological barrier. These can be social, political, religious and professional differences, which lead to different interpretations of certain concepts used in the communication process. The very perception of a communication partner as a person of a certain profession, a certain nationality, gender and age can also act as a barrier. For example, the credibility of the communicator in the eyes of the recipient is of great importance for the emergence of a barrier. The higher the authority, the fewer barriers to the assimilation of the proposed information. The very unwillingness to listen to the opinion of a particular person is often explained by his low authority (for example, the famous "eggs don't teach chicken"). This easily explains the thoroughness with which people collect all authoritative opinions that can serve as confirmation of their personal private position (various references to authoritative sources, the well-known formula “there is an opinion”, quoting the classics, and so on).

Relationship barriers are already a purely psychological phenomenon that arises in the process of communication between the communicator and the recipient. We are talking about the emergence of a feeling of hostility, distrust towards the communicator himself, which extends to the information transmitted by him.

Considering the essence of the psychological barrier phenomenon, it is impossible not to notice that any psychological barrier is, first of all, a protection that the recipient builds in the way of the information offered to him. Before turning to the reasons that prompt a person to defend himself from information, let us illustrate the protective work of psychological barriers on the following everyday example. Let us imagine a person, a heavy smoker, who felt ill and turned to his friend, a professional doctor, for advice. A friend, after checking his state of health, declares the need to quit smoking, citing the following argument: "Your breathing becomes hard and your heart is naughty." If a person does not want to spend effort and part with a stable habit, how can he protect himself from such unpleasant and traumatic information? There are several psychological barriers that he can use for this purpose: The first way is to distort and avoid information, actively attentive to all facts that contradict it. “Today I feel much lighter, my heart is calm - it was a temporary phenomenon” or “ This article says that smoking helps to cope with stress. The second way is to reduce the credibility of the source of information: “Of course, he is a doctor, but for many years he has retrained as a gastroenterologist. He understands a lot about heart disease!” Finally, the third possibility is protection through misunderstanding, for example, logical: “If only he knew what really bad breath is! Here at my neighbor, for example! And nothing, smokes.

Impact in the process of communication

The study of the simple example described above allows us to understand what makes a person defend himself from someone else's information. The fact is that any information coming to the recipient carries one or another element of influence on his behavior, opinions, attitudes, desires in order to partially or completely change them. That is, interpersonal communication always involves communicative influence and an attempt to influence the behavior of a communication partner. In this sense, a communicative barrier is a form of psychological protection against alien mental influence carried out in the process of information exchange between participants in communication.

Let us turn to the analysis of the forms and conditions of communicative influence. It is customary to distinguish two types of communicative influence, which differ significantly both in tasks and in the means of influence of the communicator on the recipient - authoritarian and dialogic communication. It is expedient to carry out their consideration in the form of comparison on a number of the most important parameters. Brief results of such a comparative analysis are given in the table below.

First of all, these two types of communication differ in the nature of the psychological attitude that arises in the communicator in relation to the recipients. This setting in the vast majority of cases is not realized by the author of the message, however, it determines the style of its communicative impact. In the case of authoritarian influence, this is a “top-down” setting, in the case of a dialogic one, it is equal rights. The “top-down” setting implies not only the subordinate position of the recipient, but also the communicator's perception of him as a passive object of influence: the communicator broadcasts, the listener listens and uncritically absorbs information. It is assumed that the recipient does not have a stable opinion on a particular issue, and if he does, he can change it in the direction necessary for the communicator. In the case of an equal attitude, the listener is perceived as an active participant in the communication process, having the right to defend or form his own opinion in the process of communication. Accordingly, the positions of recipients in communicative acts of the authoritarian and dialogic type also differ. In the first, the listener acts as a passive contemplator, in the second, he is forced to engage in an active internal search for his own position on the issue under discussion.

	Analysis Options process		communication		Dialogic communication
	communications
	Psychological		"Top down"		"Equally"
	installation
	communicator
	Characteristic		impersonal character,		personification
			without taking into account the features		accounting for individual listener features
			listener
			hiding feelings		open presentation
					own
			axiomatic		debatable
	Communicative		monophony		Polyphony
	space
	Ways to organize		communicator		communicator
	communicative
	space
	non-verbal behavior		tinplate closure and position above		open gesticulation
			audience"		one spatial level

Such a difference in the position of the recipient is largely due not only to the attitude of the communicator, but also to the nature of the text itself, the construction of statements. So, in the case of authoritarian communication, the text often has an impersonal, “general” character (“it is believed”, “there is an opinion”, “it is known that” ...), the problem is presented one-sidedly, in an axiomatic form, the author’s view is the only true one. The text does not focus on the listener, but the listener is made dependent on the text and its content. Dialogue communication presupposes the rejection of the impersonal theist, his active personification, broadcasting in his own name. The communicator does not hide his true feelings that arise in him about this or that content of the message. The listener is informed that the communicator expresses his personal point of view, trying to substantiate it convincingly.

The message is presented not as an axiom and dogma, but as a specific problem that has various solutions, including the author's approach. That is, the content of the text is debatable. The text is aimed at the listener, who form the so-called “You-installation”: “How do you know” ..., “It will be interesting for you to know” ..., “Let's look at it” ... etc.

Further, the authoritarian act of communication will be built on the principle of monophony (one opinion - one vote). Listeners are ordered to remain silent. Dialogue communication initially implies the possibility of participation of listeners in the discussion of the problem.

Significant differences are also found when considering typical ways of organizing space. Authoritarian communication assumes that all participants can only see the lecturer:

In dialogic communication, such an organization of space is preferable, in which all participants see both the communicator and each other:

Finally, significant differences are found in the postures and gestures used by the communicator. In an authoritarian position, these are closed postures and gestures, taking such a physical position that would provide pressure and status impact on recipients (broadcasting from the pulpit, standing, using stands and microphones). The dialogic position is the opposite - open gestures, free postures, sitting conversation, at the same spatial level.

When comparing these types of communication, the reader may get the impression that dialogical communication should be considered as a more advanced and modern form of communicative influence. This is not entirely true. Rather, we should talk about the limited areas of application of authoritarian communication, which effectively works only in those cases where an immediate unification of individual efforts is required to solve extraordinary problems, in extreme or military conditions. This is due to the fact that authoritarian influence can have a strong, but short-lived effect, as a rule, does not have a significant impact on the fundamental attitudes and opinions of people. At the same time, the dialogic impact, not being significant immediately after communication, has a great effect of consequences, can have a strong influence on the personal structures of the listeners.

Levels of information exchange in the process of communication

In the end, let us dwell on the analysis of another important specific property of interpersonal communication - its two-level organization. In the process of communication, the exchange of information between its participants is carried out both at the verbal and non-verbal non-speech levels.

At the basic, verbal level, human speech is used as a means of transmitting information. However, in addition to this universal sign means, communication also includes other sign systems, generally called non-verbal communication.

First of all, we note the role of the opto-kinesthetic and acoustic systems. The optical-kinesthetic system includes the perceived appearance and expressive human movements - gestures, facial expressions, postures, gait, and so on. In many ways, they are mirrors that project the emotional reactions of a person, which we, as it were, “read” in the process of communication, trying to understand how the other perceives what is happening. This also includes such a specific form of human non-verbal communication as eye contact. The role of all these non-verbal signs in communication is extremely great. We can say that a significant part of human communication takes place in the underwater part of the "communicative iceberg" - in the field of non-verbal communication. In particular, it is these means that a person most often resorts to when transmitting feedback to a communication partner. Through the system of non-verbal means, information about the feelings experienced by people in the process of communication is also transmitted. We resort to the analysis of "non-verbal" in those cases when we do not trust the words of partners. Then gestures, facial expressions and eye contact help determine the sincerity of the other.

All of the above applies to both the opto-kinesthetic and acoustic systems. It should include the quality of the communicator's voice (timbre, pitch, loudness), intonation, speech rate, phrasal and logical stresses preferred by him. No less important are various inclusions in speech - pauses, coughs, laughter and more.

Among non-verbal systems, the organization of space and time of the communicative process also plays an important role. So, for example, placing partners face to face contributes to the emergence of contact, and a shout in the back will most likely cause a negative defensive reaction of a person.

A special place can be occupied by situations characterized by a constant specific combination of space-time coordinates, the so-called "chronotopes". For example, the chronotope of a “carriage companion” is described. The specific situation of close, in spatial terms, communication between two strangers over a fairly significant period of time leads to unexpected psychological effects. This is how one can explain the amazing frankness that people allow themselves in dealing with a “carriage companion”. The literature also describes the chronotope of the "hospital ward".

Non-verbal means are an important addition to verbal communication, naturally woven into the fabric of interpersonal communication. Their role is determined not only by the fact that they are able to strengthen or weaken the speech influence of the communicator, but also that they help to reveal the intentions of each other to the participants in communication, thereby making the communication process more open.

Thus, we discussed the most important specific features of interpersonal communication, described its most important types. Some important conditions for effective communication were also named. These include the presence of effective feedback, the correspondence of the type of communicative influence to the goals and objectives of communication, the absence of communication barriers. It can be noted that extended non-verbal communication is also a condition for a successful communicative exchange. In addition, it is necessary to name and disclose the content of another psychological condition for adequate interpersonal communication: this is the possession by participants in communication of effective listening techniques.

In the process of human communication, the difference between two seemingly close concepts is clearly manifested: “listen” and “hear”. Unfortunately, quite often people, listening, do not hear each other. IN scientifically we can talk about effective and inefficient listening. Listening is ineffective in cases where it does not provide a correct understanding of the interlocutor's words and feelings, creates the speaker's feeling that they are not being heard, replaces his problem with another, more convenient for the interlocutor, considers his experiences ridiculous, insignificant. Listening is also ineffective in cases where it does not ensure the promotion of communication partners in understanding the problem under discussion, does not lead to its solution or correct formulation, and does not contribute to the establishment of trusting relationships between communication partners.

Effective listening, which ensures the correct flow of the processes mentioned above, is a complex volitional act that requires constant attention, interest, readiness to break away from one’s own tasks and delve into the problems of another from the listener. There are two types of effective listening, differing in the situation of their use.

Non-reflexive listening - or attentive silence - is used at the stages of posing a problem, when it is only formulated by the speaker, as well as in a situation where the goal of the conversation on the part of the speaker is "outpouring of the soul", emotional discharge. Mindful silence is listening with active use of non-verbal means such as nods, facial expressions, eye contact, and postures of mindful interest. Speech techniques are also used, such as repeating the last words of the speaker "Mirror"), interjections ("Uh-huh-assing").

Reflective listening is used in situations where the speaker needs not so much emotional support as help in solving certain problems. In this case, feedback is given to listeners in speech form through the following techniques: asking open and closed questions on the topic of conversation, paraphrasing the words of the interlocutor, allowing you to express the same thought in other words (paraphrase), summarizing and presenting intermediate conclusions on the conversation.

Verbal and non-verbal means of communication

Verbal communication uses human speech, natural sound language as a sign system, i.e. a system of phonetic signs, including two principles: lexical and syntactic. Speech is the most universal means of communication, since when information is transmitted through speech, the meaning of the message is least of all lost. True, this should be accompanied by a high degree of common understanding of the situation by all participants in the communicative process, which was discussed above.

With the help of speech, information is encoded and decoded: the communicator encodes in the process of speaking, and the recipient decodes this information in the process of listening. The terms "speaking" and "listening" were introduced by I.A. Zimnyaya as a designation of the psychological components of verbal communication (Zimnyaya, 1991).

The sequence of actions of the speaker and the listener has been studied in sufficient detail. From the point of view of the transmission and perception of the meaning of the message, the scheme K - C - P (communicator - message - recipient) is asymmetric.

Non-verbal communication

Another type of communication includes the following basic sign systems:

1. 1) optical-kinetic,
2. 2) para- and extralinguistic,
3. 3) organization of space and time of the communicative process,
4. 4) visual contact (Labunskaya, 1989).

The totality of these tools is designed to perform the following functions: supplementing speech, replacing speech, representing the emotional states of partners in the communicative process.

The optical-kinetic system of signs includes gestures, facial expressions, pantomime. In general, the optical-kinetic system appears as a more or less clearly perceived property of the general motor skills of various parts of the body (hands, and then we have gestures; faces, and then we have facial expressions; postures, and then we have pantomime). Initially, research in this area was carried out by Charles Darwin, who studied the expression of emotions in humans and animals. It is the general motor skills of various parts of the body that reflects the emotional reactions of a person, therefore, the inclusion of an optical-kinetic system of signs in a communication situation gives nuances to communication. These nuances turn out to be ambiguous when using the same gestures, for example, in different national cultures. (Everyone knows the misunderstandings that sometimes arise when communicating between a Russian and a Bulgarian, if an affirmative or negative nod of the head is used, since the head movement perceived by the Russian from top to bottom is interpreted as agreement, while for the Bulgarian “speech” this is a denial, and vice versa ). The importance of the optical-kinetic system of signs in communication is so great that a special area of ​​research has now emerged - kinesics, which specifically deals with these problems. So, for example, in the studies of M. Argyle, the frequency and strength of gestures were studied in different cultures (within one hour, the Finns gestured 1 time, the Italians - 80, the French - 20, the Mexicans - 180).

Paralinguistic and extralinguistic systems of signs are also "additions" to verbal communication. The paralinguistic system is a vocalization system, i.e. voice quality, its range, tonality. Extralinguistic system - the inclusion of pauses in speech, other inclusions, such as coughing, crying, laughter, and finally, the tempo of speech itself. All these additions increase the semantically significant information, but not through additional speech inclusions, but by "near-speech" techniques.

The organization of space and time of the communicative process is also a special sign system, carries a semantic load as a component of a communicative situation. So, for example, placing partners facing each other contributes to the emergence of contact, symbolizes attention to the speaker, while a shout in the back can also have a certain negative value. The advantage of some spatial forms of organization of communication both for two partners in the communicative process and in mass audiences has been experimentally proven.

In the same way, some norms developed in various subcultures regarding the temporal characteristics of communication act as a kind of addition to semantically significant information. Arriving in time for the beginning of diplomatic negotiations symbolizes courtesy towards the interlocutor, on the contrary, being late is interpreted as a manifestation of disrespect. In some special areas (primarily in diplomacy), various possible lateness tolerances with their corresponding values ​​have been developed in detail.

Barriers in communication

"Barrier" of communication- a mental state, manifested in inadequate passivity of the subject, which prevents him from performing certain actions. The barrier consists in strengthening negative experiences and attitudes - shame, guilt, fear, anxiety, low self-esteem associated with the task.

In psychology, conflict is defined as a collision of oppositely directed, incompatible tendencies in the mind of a single individual, in interpersonal interactions or interpersonal relationships of individuals or groups of people, associated with negative emotional experiences.

A person, as an element of communication, is a complex and sensitive "recipient" of information with his feelings and desires, life experience. The information he receives may cause an internal reaction of any kind, which may enhance, distort or completely block the information sent to him.

The adequacy of the perception of information largely depends on the presence or absence of communication barriers in the process of communication. In the event of a barrier, the information is distorted or loses its original meaning, and in some cases it does not reach the recipient at all.

Communication barriers of communication

Communication interference can be a mechanical break in information and hence its distortion; ambiguity of the transmitted information, due to which the stated and transmitted thought is distorted; these options can be referred to asinformation-deficient barrier.

It happens that the receivers clearly hear the transmitted words, but give them a different meaning (the problem is that the transmitter may not even detect that his signal caused the wrong response). Here you can talk aboutsubstitutive-distorting barrier.The distortion of information passing through one person can be insignificant. But when it passes through several people - repeaters, the distortion can be significant. This barrier is also called the "reflection barrier".

A much greater possibility of distortion is associated with emotions -emotional barriers.This happens when people, having received any information, are more occupied with their feelings, assumptions than real facts. Words have a strong emotional charge, and not so much the words themselves (symbols), but the associations that they generate in a person. Words have a primary (literal) meaning and a secondary (emotional) meaning.

There is alsosemantic barrier of misunderstanding,connected, first of all, with differences in the systems of meanings (thesauri) of the participants in communication. This is, first of all, the problem of jargons and slangs. It is known that even within the same culture there are many microcultures, each of which creates its own "field of meanings", is characterized by its understanding of various concepts, phenomena, expressed by them. So, in different microcultures, the meaning of such values ​​as "beauty", "duty", "nature", "decency", etc. is not equally understood. In addition, each environment creates its own mini-language of communication, its own slang, each has its own favorite quotes and jokes, expressions and turns of speech. All this together can significantly complicate the process of communication, creating a semantic barrier of misunderstanding.

An equally important role in the destruction of normal interpersonal communication can be played bystylistic barrier,arising from a discrepancy between the communicator’s speech style and the communication situation or speech style and the recipient’s current psychological state, etc. Thus, a communication partner may not accept a critical remark, as it will be expressed in an inappropriate situation in a familiar manner, or children will not perceive an interesting story because for dry, emotionally unsaturated or scientific speech of an adult. The communicator needs to subtly feel the state of his recipients, to capture the shades of the emerging communication situation in order to bring the style of his message in line with it.

Finally, one can speak of the existencelogical barriermisunderstanding. It arises in those cases when the logic of reasoning offered by the communicator is either too complicated for the perception of the recipient, or seems to him not true, contradicts his inherent manner of proof. In psychological terms, we can talk about the existence of many logics and logical systems of evidence. For some people, that which does not contradict reason is logical and evident; for others, that which corresponds to duty and morality. We can talk about the existence of "female" and "male" psychological logic, about "childish" logic, etc. It depends on the psychological predilections of the recipient whether he accepts the system of evidence offered to him or considers it unconvincing. For a communicator, the choice of a system of evidence adequate to a given moment is always an open problem.

Psychological barriers to communication

The reason for the psychological barrier may be socio-cultural differences between communication partners. These can be social, political, religious and professional differences that lead to different interpretations of certain concepts used in the communication process. The very perception of a communication partner as a person of a certain profession, a certain nationality, gender and age can also act as a barrier. For example, the credibility of the communicator in the eyes of the recipient is of great importance for the emergence of a barrier. The higher the authority, the fewer barriers to the assimilation of the information offered. The very reluctance to listen to the opinion of a particular person is often explained by his low authority.

Communication is an invariable component of a person's social life, which is not always amenable to conscious control. This can be learned, but to a much lesser extent than the technique and methods of communication. The means of communication is understood as the way in which a person realizes a certain content and goals of communication. They depend on a person's culture, level of development, upbringing and education. When talking about the development of a person's abilities, skills and communication skills, first of all, they mean the technique and means of communication.

Psychological barriers in communication arise imperceptibly and subjectively, often they are not felt by the person himself, but are immediately perceived by others. A person ceases to feel the infidelity of his behavior and is sure that he communicates normally. If it detects inconsistencies, complexes begin to develop.

We list the psychological barriers that arise in the process of communication between people.

First impression
is considered one of the barriers that can contribute to the misperception of a communication partner. Why? The first impression, in fact, is not always the first, since both visual and auditory memory influence the formation of the image. Therefore, it may be relatively adequate, correspond to character traits, or it may be erroneous.

Barrier of bias and unreasonable negative attitude.It is expressed as follows: outwardly for no reason, a person begins to have a negative attitude towards this or that person as a result of the first impression or for some hidden reasons. Possible motives for the emergence of such an attitude should be identified and overcome.

The barrier of a negative attitude introduced into a person's experience by one of the other people.You have been given negative information about someone, and a negative attitude is formed in relation to a person about whom you know little, there is no experience of personal interaction with him. Such negative attitudes, brought in from outside, prior to your personal experience of communicating with a particular person, should be avoided. New people with whom you have to communicate should be approached with an optimistic hypothesis. Do not focus on the final assessment of a person only on the opinion of others. person only on the opinions of others.

Barrier of "fear" of human contact.It happens that you need to make direct contact with a person, but somehow awkward. What to do? Try to analyze calmly, without emotions, what is holding you back in communication, and you will see that these emotional layers are either subjective or too secondary. After the conversation, be sure to analyze the success of the conversation and fix your own attention on the fact that nothing terrible happened. Typically, such a barrier is typical for people who experience difficulties in communication, having a generally low level of sociability.

The barrier of "expectation of misunderstanding".You must enter into direct interaction with a person in business or personal communication, but you are concerned about the question: will your partner understand you correctly? And here they often proceed from the fact that the partner must necessarily misunderstand. They begin to predict the consequences of this misunderstanding, to anticipate unpleasant sensations. It is necessary to calmly and thoroughly analyze the content of the conversation you are planning and, if possible, eliminate from it those points or emotional aspects that may cause an inadequate interpretation of your intentions. After that feel free to get in touch.

The "age" barrier - typical in the system of everyday communication. It arises in a wide variety of areas of human interaction: between adults and children (an adult does not understand how a child lives, which is the cause of many conflicts), between people of different generations. Older people often condemn the behavior of the young, as if forgetting themselves at this age. Young people get annoyed and laugh. There are complications in interpersonal relationships. The age barrier in communication is dangerous both in family relationships and in the system of service interaction. Therefore, it was the Barrier of “age” that became the topic of my research.

Conclusions: Communication barriers refer to those numerous factors that cause or contribute to conflicts. Barriers to communication are multifaceted, varied and require a certain resolution. There are communication barriers (when a person does not understand the speech of the interlocutor for one reason or another, for example, if the speech is distorted or people speak different languages) and psychological barriers (for example, if people do not understand each other due to age difference or "first impression" had too much effect).

intimate personal communication

one of the types of O., based on the personal sympathy of partners in relation to each other, their mutual interest in establishing and maintaining trusting relationships. Assumes I-You-contact, a high degree of trust in a partner, mutual deep self-disclosure. I.-l.o. implemented preim. in friendships or love relationships. It contributes to the self-actualization of the personality and the maintenance of its mental health. health.

In the explanatory dictionary of Russian. lang. S. I. Ozhegova “intimate” is defined as intimate, sincere, deeply personal, and “intimacy” means treating someone too confidentially, having intimate conversations. H. Sullivan (N. Sullivan) believes that psychol. intimacy, the presence of confirmation or approval from a partner in O. contribute to the discovery for the subject of the true essence of his personality and help maintain the stability of his self. t. sp. regarding the definition of personal O. M. I. Bobneva suggests considering it as a. substantial form of existence and manifestation of ext. world of personality. That personal quality, about which the subject reports, is directly manifested in the course of personal O. (for example, a person not only reports his sincerity, but also shows it in the process of O.). At the same time, verbal components do not play a primary role. Int. the world of personality is not transmitted, but exists. A. S. Slutsky and V. N. Tsapkin see in personal O. the process of interaction 2 or several. subjects, in the course of which mutual disclosure of internal is carried out. the world of each of them. E. A. Rodionova states that with personal O., it is not so much direct information that is important, but the attitude of one partner to t. sp. the other, that is, the exchange of "secondary information"; at the same time, personal O. is regulated rather by the image of the interlocutor, and not by the image of the situation. Following these definitions, we can conclude that personal O. is always mutual and proceeds at a deep value-semantic level, while information moments are present, but often seem to fade into the background, while the personality of the O. partner comes to the fore. In the process I. - l. about. there is a mutual transfer of intimate personal information. According to the research data of E. V. Zinchenko, conducted on the dew. In the sample, the most intimate topics for the individual are the topics of their own body and finances. This trend is observed in people of different ages and gender. Particularly significant for the personality of I.-l. about. becomes a teenager. I. S. Kon notes that at the age of 9-15 years, the subject actualizes the need to share the most intimate. D. B. Elkonin and a number of other representatives of the activity approach consider I.-l. about. with peers, the leading activity of a teenager, which determines the main changes in the mental. processes and psychol. features of his personality. D. I. Feldstein, giving preference to socially useful activities in the quality. leading in adolescence, while also indicating a large role of I. -l. about.

He considers I.-l. about. as one of the 3 forms of O. adolescents, along with spontaneously group and socially oriented. From his t. sp., I.-l. about. occurs only in the case of a commonality of values ​​​​of the interlocutors, while its content is the participation of O. partners in each other's problems, which is due to mutual understanding of thoughts, feelings and intentions, as well as the presence of mutual sympathy. I.-l. about. it is considerably activated in the teenage period at impossibility of satisfaction of need for socially focused O. According to the empirical data received by D. I. Feldshteyn, need of teenagers for I. - l. about. in the main is satisfied in real O. Their partners in I.-l. about. perform (as the frequency of choice decreases): classmates, friends in the yard, friends in the club, circle, section or team, older teenagers. Adults and children, as a rule, are not perceived as quality by teenagers. subjects I.-l. about. To the higher forms I.-l. about. the author relates friendship and love. I.-l. about. with peers in adolescence becomes an important specific channel for the transmission of intimate information that is significant for the development of a teenager, including psychosexual.

With the help of I. - l. about. with peers, the teenager's need for knowledge of areas of reality of interest to him is satisfied, which, for some reason, is not fully satisfied by adults. I. S. Kon notes that the ability to I. - l. about. psychologists associate with a high level of development of the identity of boys and girls. Need for And. - l. about. in girls it develops earlier than in boys. I.-l. about. with different partners is also realized at later stages of ontogenesis (for example, I.-l. o. friendly, I.-l. o. matrimonial, I.-.l. o. child-parent, I.-l.o . psychotherapeutic), although at the same time its role and significance for the individual in comparison with adolescence is several. are declining.

Lit .: Zinchenko EV Self-disclosure and its conditionality by socio-psychological and personal factors. Rostov-n / D, 2000. Psychology of the modern teenager / Ed. D. I. Feldstein. M., 1987; Feldshtein D. I. Psychology of human development as a personality: Selected. tr.: v 2 v. M., 2005. T. 1. E. V. Zinchenko

one of the types of O., based on the personal sympathy of partners in relation to each other, their mutual interest in establishing and maintaining trusting relationships. Assumes I-You-contact, a high degree of trust in a partner, mutual deep self-disclosure. I.-l.o. implemented preim. in friendships or love relationships. It contributes to the self-actualization of the personality and the maintenance of its mental health. health. In the explanatory dictionary of Russian. lang. S. I. Ozhegova “intimate” is defined as intimate, sincere, deeply personal, and “intimate” means treating someone too confidentially, having intimate conversations. H. Sullivan (N. Sullivan) believes that psychol. intimacy, the presence of confirmation or approval from a partner in O. contribute to the discovery for the subject of the true essence of his personality and help maintain the stability of his self. t. sp. regarding the definition of personal O. M. I. Bobneva suggests considering it as a. substantial form of existence and manifestation of ext. world of personality. That personal quality, about which the subject reports, is directly manifested in the course of personal O. (for example, a person not only reports his sincerity, but also shows it in the process of O.). At the same time, verbal components do not play a primary role. Int. the world of personality is not transmitted, but exists. A. S. Slutsky and V. N. Tsapkin see in personal O. the process of interaction 2 or several. subjects, in the course of which mutual disclosure of internal is carried out. the world of each of them. E. A. Rodionova states that with personal O., it is not so much direct information that is important, but the attitude of one partner to t. sp. the other, that is, the exchange of "secondary information"; at the same time, personal O. is regulated rather by the image of the interlocutor, and not by the image of the situation. Following these definitions, we can conclude that personal O. is always mutual and proceeds at a deep value-semantic level, while information moments are present, but often seem to fade into the background, while the personality of the O. partner comes to the fore. In the process I. - l. about. there is a mutual transfer of intimate personal information. According to the research data of E. V. Zinchenko, conducted on the dew. In the sample, the most intimate topics for the individual are the topics of their own body and finances. This trend is observed in people of different ages and gender. Particularly significant for the personality of I.-l. about. becomes a teenager. I. S. Kon notes that at the age of 9-15 years, the subject actualizes the need to share the most intimate. D. B. Elkonin and a number of other representatives of the activity approach consider I.-l. about. with peers, the leading activity of a teenager, which determines the main changes in the mental. processes and psychol. features of his personality. D. I. Feldstein, giving preference to socially useful activities in the quality. leading in adolescence, while also indicating a large role for I.-l. about. He considers I.-l. about. as one of the 3 forms of O. adolescents, along with spontaneously group and socially oriented. From his t. sp., I.-l. about. occurs only in the case of a commonality of values ​​​​of the interlocutors, while its content is the participation of O. partners in each other's problems, which is due to mutual understanding of thoughts, feelings and intentions, as well as the presence of mutual sympathy. I.-l. about. it is considerably activated in the teenage period at impossibility of satisfaction of need for socially focused O. According to the empirical data received by D. I. Feldshteyn, need of teenagers for I. - l. about. in the main is satisfied in real O. Their partners in I.-l. about. perform (as the frequency of choice decreases): classmates, friends in the yard, friends in the club, circle, section or team, older teenagers. Adults and children, as a rule, are not perceived as quality by teenagers. subjects I.-l. about. To the higher forms I.-l. about. the author relates friendship and love. I.-l. about. with peers in adolescence becomes an important specific channel for the transmission of intimate information that is significant for the development of a teenager, including psychosexual. With the help of I. - l. about. with peers, the teenager's need for knowledge of areas of reality of interest to him is satisfied, which, for some reason, is not fully satisfied by adults. I. S. Kon notes that the ability to I. - l. about. psychologists associate with a high level of development of the identity of boys and girls. Need for And. - l. about. in girls it develops earlier than in boys. I.-l. about. with different partners is also realized at later stages of ontogenesis (for example, I.-l. o. friendly, I.-l. o. matrimonial, I.-.l. o. child-parent, I.-l.o . psychotherapeutic), although at the same time its role and significance for the individual in comparison with adolescence is several. are declining. Lit .: Zinchenko EV Self-disclosure and its conditionality by socio-psychological and personal factors. Rostov-n / D, 2000. Psychology of the modern teenager / Ed. D. I. Feldstein. M., 1987; Feldshtein D. I. Psychology of human development as a personality: Selected. tr.: v 2 v. M., 2005. T. 1. E. V. Zinchenko

Personal space is an intimate area where a person feels calm, protected and comfortable. Gardeners know that in order to grow a healthy and fruitful plant, it needs to allocate a sufficient amount of land - it can be 10 centimeters in the garden or a personal pot on the window. A flower must take root, spread its leaves, receive nourishment from its piece of land, the invasion of which can lead to its death. An intimate territory is also vital for a person, where he belongs only to himself, can calmly take a break from the hustle and bustle of other people, dream, get to know his own “I” better. From this article, you will learn how to protect yourself from stress, maintain harmonious relationships with a man and a child, without encroaching on their personal space.

In the animal world

What is personal space and what is it eaten with? This concept came to us from the science of animal behavior - ethology. Every living creature needs its own corner, which will be jealously guarded from strangers. The animals consider the surrounding territory to be their own. But its size depends on many factors.

In nature, lions can have "personal space" a hundred kilometers in diameter. It is clear that in the zoo the same animal will have to manage ten meters ... These predators will not tolerate strangers on their territory. Dogs and cats, even domestic ones, mark the boundaries of their possessions. The pungent smell stops relatives from taking someone else's place. If someone decides to encroach on territory that does not belong to him, you need to be prepared for a fight not for life, but to death.

Invisible soap bubble

People are far from animals. That is, we perceive personal space as a certain area around us, considering it an extension of our body. Some have more, some have less. Have you ever felt dislike from the fact that an unfamiliar person comes too close to you, actively gesticulates in front of your face, or pats you on the shoulder in a familiar way? This feeling is completely justified, because the interlocutor behaves extremely unethically towards you.

The first rule of harmonious interpersonal relationships, which psychologists have deduced: you can not violate the personal space of a person. To step over its borders is a bad form. The desire to maintain a physical distance between yourself and the interlocutor or any other person is quite normal. It is inherent in us by nature itself and gives a sense of security. If a person’s personal space is violated, he can withdraw, become aggressive or show other negative qualities, believing that in this way disrespect, distrust and even hostility were shown to him.

Know your place

Each person strives to have his own secluded corner, where he will be hidden from prying eyes at least for some time: an apartment, a room, his place in the office ... He "marks" this territory with things dear to himself, decorates it in accordance with his taste and design talent. For example, a cactus on an office desk and a personal photo indicate that the place already has an owner, and with his own character. The interior of the house can also tell a lot about a person, his hobbies, desires and creative abilities.

When creating a family, it is often difficult for people to “get used to” each other; at some point, personal spaces intersect or disappear altogether. To maintain a good relationship, it is simply necessary to win the right to temporarily withdraw into your world, or at least to the sofa.

One step, two steps

How to understand if you accidentally crossed the line of personal territory of a stranger? First of all, you need to decide on your relationship. Based on this, it will not be difficult to find out how close you can communicate so as not to cause discomfort to the interlocutor. There is such a thing as a zone of personal space. Psychologists distinguish four varieties of it: intimate, personal, social, public.

• The intimate zone is the smallest, but at the same time the most important. It is approximately 15 to 45 centimeters. Only the closest people can join it: parents, children, close friends, pets.
• The personal zone is also quite small, dedicated specifically for friends and acquaintances. It includes the distance at which we are comfortably ready to be at parties or meetings with friends. This is approximately from half a meter to 1.22 meters.
• The social zone is reserved for strangers or unfamiliar people with whom we have not yet had contacts. It is approximately from 1.22 to 3.6 meters.
• The public area is ideal for performing in front of a large group of people. It is very popular with lecturers or presenters of various events and is more than 3.6 meters.

That is, if you came to the concert, you should not climb with hugs to the idol. But at the party it is quite possible to sit next to friends.

Attention, proximity!

No matter how paradoxical it may seem, but personal space is most often violated by the closest people: relatives, friends, loved ones. And we forgive them and sometimes even encourage them, for example, during sexual contact.

But the invasion of our intimate zone of strangers - in addition to emotional rejection - also causes physiological changes in the body. The heart begins to beat faster, adrenaline goes off scale, and the blood is sent in a powerful stream to the muscles and brain. That is, against our will, the body is preparing for a potential fight or flight. Therefore, you should not hug or touch unfamiliar people, even if you are madly in love with them. These actions can set them up negatively towards you. The conclusion suggests itself: when communicating, you should always keep your distance.

How not to strangle a man

The personal space of a man is a separate issue. This is where the psychology of gender relationships comes into play. In order for the relationship to succeed and grow into a good strong family, you need to learn to appreciate and respect the partner's personal space. Yes, feelings are so strong that you want to spend the whole day with your loved one, follow him around and not lose sight of him.

But this is a road to nowhere. A man will simply suffocate in a gentle embrace and run away at the first opportunity. Each person needs to be given time for solitude, when he can think over his innermost thoughts or do what he loves, take a break from the presence of another. After such respite, feelings flare up with renewed vigor.

Child's personal space

Children need personal space just as much as adults. While the child is small, he is inseparable from his mother and does not feel the need for a separate corner, but as he grows up, he needs his own territory more and more.

Child psychologists advise parents to give the child a room, or at least part of it, where he will be the rightful owner. In this case, the invasion of personal space is unacceptable. It is impossible to enter its territory without an invitation, and even more so to restore order or touch things. After all, adults can consider some of the treasures of babies as ordinary trash that needs to be thrown away. If you disagree with something that your son or daughter likes so much (music, clothing style, etc.), you should not make harsh remarks. It may hurt your child. As a result, the baby will close up and stop sharing with you at least some important things, not to mention the most intimate. It is necessary to respect the personal space of the child, his interests and the friends he has chosen from birth. Then he will grow up as a self-confident person who has a steel inner core.

How not to destroy the comfort and coziness in the house

Often the violation of personal space is our fault. You just need to organize your leisure time correctly, agree with all family members about which room or corner will be yours, discuss things that should not be touched (beauty bag, shampoo, knives, phone, and so on). If this is done in advance, then there will be no unnecessary quarrels with either the husband or the children. Mutual acceptance of personal space makes relationships stronger and healthier.