Current Approach to the Study of Status Relations in Student Groups within the Framework of the School of Thought of the Department of Social Psychology at MSUPE

The paper presents results of the verification of a new approach to the study of status relationships through the position of a middle status group member — the approach developed within the framework of A.V. Petrovsky’s theory of activity-mediated interpersonal relationships in groups and M.Yu. Kondratyev’s school of thought at the Department of Social Psychology (MSUPE). A series of empirical studies were carried out in educational organizations of various types in Moscow and Moscow oblast, with more than 1200 students participating as subjects. The paper reveals how the character of intragroup interactions, well-being and emotional climate, as well as the level of social psychological development in the group in general, are shaped by the system of relationships between the middle status students with their groupmates. The paper concludes with some considerations on the specifics of the role that the middle status student plays in his group’s activity and outlines further perspectives of the presented social psychological approach to the study of status relationships.

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