Marginal personality

Marginality is a special concept in sociology and social psychology, which denotes some kind of interim or, in other words, the "borderline" of the cultural orientation and position of the individual in relation to any groups in society. Of course, this position and the orientation of the personality cause the marginal forms of behavioral manifestations. Marginalization is characterized, first of all, by the impossibility or conscious unwillingness of the individual to adapt in new social conditions, which leads to the denial of certain cultural and moral values and norms.

Do not be confused

Often the definitions of "marginal personality", "social marginals" are used as synonyms for the term "declassed element", which, of course, is not entirely correct, although, to some extent, it can reflect the real situation in specific cases. More precisely, it will be assumed that marginal people have a special form of mentality. As representatives of different social groups of society, marginal people reject (and often do not fully accept) certain cultural values ​​and traditions of that society (in the broad sense) in which they are located. Marginal individuals assert and adhere to their own system of norms and values, adopted in closed or semi-closed groups. Different marginal groups are formed according to social, ideological, ethnic, cultural, aesthetic and other principles, social-behavioral attitudes and orientations.

Marginals in society

Of course, marginal people are a problem for society as a whole, since their socially-effective manifestations often give rise to conflict situations. This is due to the fact that the majority of representatives of groups formed in the society traditionally have other cultural and value orientations.

As a rule, therefore, marginal individuals can not (or do not want to) fully identify themselves with different groups and be identified as their members. As a result, many stable and long-standing social and cultural groups reject the individual, which leads to a situation of social exclusion and loneliness and, of course, the search for like-minded people - thus creating new closed or semi-closed groups. Representatives of these groups, in fact, "cultural hybrids" and live it, as a rule, is very difficult. The feeling of "fragility" and unreliability of the world does not allow you to relax and make behavioral mistakes forgiven by society.

Influence of marginals on society

As a result of changes in the social structure of society (not always with the same speed), new functional communities are formed in the economy, politics and culture, which leads to the displacement (or weakening of the influence) of traditional groups and socio-cultural and ideological associations, which destabilizes the social position of people and society as a whole. Such a state of society can be considered a time of aggravation of conflicts and an increase in group marginality.