Event groups in the family
Interpersonal, event plan is evident in such life changes as:
- remembered meeting,
- marriage and marriage,
- victory or defeat in sport,
- quarrel,
- joint creative work,
- child's appearance in the family and tetc.
Similar events occurring in a person's life always and necessarily involve an accomplice - another person more or less involved in this event, which is also no less vital for him.
Of course, not every life change contains an interpersonal plan. In the life of everyone there are events( changes in nature, in a state of one's own health. ..) that occur without the participation of other people. This makes, however, only more convincing conclusion: an essential characteristic of the events of a person's life path is the degree of their involvement in the destinies of other people, the measure of the participation of these others in their implementation. The event thus turns into the epicenter of a circle of meaningful communication, it seems to draw near and distant people to itself, creates some, more often informal, community - an eventful small group through which its realization is ensured.
This group can include both well-known and unknown to each other people, but they have become necessary in an actual life situation. In relation to the person - the subject of life activity - these persons act as helpers or impediments in achieving her life goals, role models or, on the contrary, people whose lives and mistakes should not be repeated. What are the characteristics of such groups? Due to what they are able to unite even unfamiliar people, to bring together and intertwine their fates to the point of complete merger, when the life of another is experienced as their own? How does communication in these groups affect character formation and personality development?
FEATURES OF THE
EVENT GROUPS In comparison with traditional small groups in social psychology, the identified event groups have a number of specific features. First of all, they differ from contact groups, suggesting direct, "face to face" communication. Members of the event group can be any people from whom, from the standpoint of the individual, the implementation of this event depends: relatives, friends, neighbors, colleagues in studies and work, heroes of art works, historical figures, representatives of previous and subsequent generations. This makes it clear why there is not always direct contact between members of the event group. Moreover, it is not always necessary, and sometimes even hinders the implementation of the event.
The case, told by one Ukrainian actor, is indicative in this connection. Being a schoolboy, he was going to enter the theater studio. His father was an actor and undoubtedly influenced his son's decision by his example. Nevertheless, hearing about this decision, my father was more upset than pleased, because he knew how thorny the actor's path was. Wanting to "save" his son, he turned to the head of the studio - his old friend - with the request to fail his son at the entrance examinations. Despite this, the story had a happy ending for the young man. At the exam, he so sincerely fulfilled the proposed role of the "third superfluous" in the "love triangle", that the examiners were disarmed. Thus, to enter the studio - one of the most important events in the life of the actor - were involved in the father and studio management. But, of course, not only they. An important role, according to the narrator, was played by the heroes of the plays, the theatrical atmosphere, which was imbued with his childhood, the mother who preferred to see the son as a doctor or an engineer, a friend's advice. As we can see, both real and fictitious persons were simultaneously members of the event group, between which direct contact was simply impossible. In the same place where it was possible( between the girlfriend and the leadership), there was no need for it;moreover, in some cases( between the father and the leadership), he, from the point of view of the main character( son), was extremely undesirable.
The lack of direct contacts between many members of the event group brings it closer to the reference group-the personal for the individual. Even more significant in this convergence is the high importance for the subject of representatives of both groups. However, unlike the reference ones, the event groups are not so long-term, they arise in connection with the decision of the personality of a particular vital task and can disintegrate after the realization of the corresponding event. Therefore, they could be called short-term, situational, operational reference groups. They differ from traditional reference groups as well as the variety of forms of the subject's significant relationship to each member of the group. So, if the representatives of the reference group act primarily as "competent judges" and "models for imitation," then the event group includes persons who actually help or interfere with the subject psychologically close to him and distant, his and others'.Consequently, the event group does not reduce to referential in the usual sense of the latter.