Social Psychological Specifics of Relationships of Authority in Student Groups in Today's Universities

This paper presents and discusses outcomes of an empirical research on the social psy-chological specifics of relationships of authority in student groups in a modern Russian uni-versity. The outcomes show that in the first-year student groups, which are in fact 'emerging' contact communities and at the same time prosocial associations, relationships of authority are based mostly on the specification scheme and generally within dyadic interactions; authoritative students and their fellow mates for whom they are authoritative occupy almost equal positions in the intragroup power hierarchy; interpersonal authority reveals itself most fully in individually significant tasks. In the third-year groups, which are relatively 'mature' contact communities and prosocial cooperations, relationships of authority are basically built according to the irradiation scheme and mostly within group interactions, not dyadic; author¬itative students generally have a higher ranking status as compared to their group mates for whom they appear authoritative; interpersonal authority is clearly manifested both in indi¬vidually significant activities and those important for the group as a whole. In the fifth-year student groups, which are 'dying' contact communities and at the same time prosocial associ¬ations, relationships of authority are built upon the specification scheme and mostly within dyadic interactions when it comes to individually significant tasks; tasks of group signifi¬cance, though, require group interaction and hence involve the irradiation scheme; in indi¬vidually significant situations the status positions of authoritative students are for the most part equal to the ones of their fellow mates for whom they are authoritative, whereas in sit¬uations of group significance authoritative students tend to rank higher; relationships of authority are mostly evident in individually significant activities.

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