In today's world everyone is a part of society and has several social roles, directly interacting with other people. A modern democratic society has gradually become civilian. This citizen is not just a person who has legal rights and responsibilities, but also attained a certain level of consciousness. This is a person who deliberately applies to himself, his place in society actively participating in public and political life.
The concept of a person is used to characterize the inherent qualities of all the people and abilities. A single representative of the human race, a particular carrier is an individual human trait. It is unique, unrepeatable. However, it is universal, because everyone depends on social conditions, the environment in which he lives, the people with whom you communicate. The individual is a "person", as he is in a relationship with others and performs certain functions, and implements its activities socially significant properties and quality.
In sociology, the most famous are the following theories of personality: Theory of the Mirror "Me", Role theory of personality and The Marxist theory of personality. Proponents of the first theory (Cooley, Meade) understand the "personality" as a set of reflections of other people's reactions. The core of the "personality" is the self-consciousness, which develops as a result of social interaction, during which the individual has learned to look at you through the eyes of others as an object.
Representatives of Role theory of personality (Merton, Parsons) describe the social behavior of "personality" through two main concepts: "social status" and "social role". Social status represents a particular individual's position in the social system, which involves certain rights and responsibilities. A person may have several statuses - prescribed, natural, professional job, which is the basis of the main status and determines the person's position in society.
The Marxist theory of personality is considering "personality" as a product of historical development, the result of the inclusion of the individual in the social system by means of vigorous activity and communication. At the same time the essence of "identity" is revealed in the totality of its social qualities, which are due to an individual belonging to a certain type of society, class and ethnicity, features work and lifestyle.
Formation of the "person" is only possible in human society. People, unlike animals, have no inherent patterns of behavior, and their genes are programmed difficult social relations. The process of assimilation by the individual of social norms, cultural values and patterns of behavior of the society to which he belongs is called socialization.
Socialization occurs through effects on human society, such as education, training, as well as due to the influence of various environmental factors (different forms of communication, media, and art). Methods and goals socialization depends on what quality of "personalities" are valued in a particular culture, which statuses and roles are the most popular in the society.
In everyday life, we interact with people, and the whole of life in society is a complex system of interactions. Thus, each of us is a witness of certain social phenomena, which he analyzed and interpreted in the framework of their own ideas and concepts. It means that we do not only exist in the community and interact with other individuals, and practically analyze the social reality.
We are sociologists now and then when we commit a set of elementary acts of social interaction, not even knowing about that. We shake hands and say a greeting while meeting someone, skipping ahead of women, children and elderly people when entering the bus. All these are acts of social interaction. It consists of individual social action. In sociology, they call it with a special term – social interaction. It is obvious that making social activities, each person feels the actions of others. Thus, the exchange action occurs, or social interaction.
Social interaction is considered to be a system of interrelated social activities that involve a causal relationship in which the actions of one subject are both a cause and consequence of the response of other actors. It means that every social action is caused by the previous social action and at the same time is the cause of further action. Thus, the social action is a link in an unbroken chain, called interaction. Communicating with friends, colleagues, relatives, and people constantly performs social interactions, which have varied according to the forms of manifestation than social activities.
Therefore, each person who is included in the system of social relations, has countless social ties, and is endowed with a variety of status and performs a set of different roles is the bearer of certain ideas, feelings, nature, and properties and so on. We are sociologists every time when we commit an action which is typical for our society, while talking respectively to our bosses or giving advice to our friends. It means that we are born and socialized in a certain social environment which has an impact not only on our behavior but also values and views.
Works cited
Cooley, Charles Horton. Personal Competition: Its Place in the Social Order and the Effect upon Individuals; with Some Considerations on Success. Economic Studies 4, 1899. Print.
Meade, George Herbert. The Social Self, The Journal of Philosophy, Psychology, and Scientific Methods. [SW] Selected Writings, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1964. Print.
Merton, Robert. Social Theory and Social Structure. New York: The Free Press, 1968. Print.
Parsons, Talcott. Social Structure and Personality. New York: Free Press, 1964. Print.
