Assignment Code: MSW-003/TMA/2022-23

Course Code: MSW-003

Assignment Name: Basic Social Science Concepts

Year: 2022-2023

Verification Status: Verified by Professor

Answer all the five questions. All questions carry equal marks. Answers to question no. 1 and 2 should not exceed 600 words each.

Q1) Describe the emerging forms, changing functions and dynamics of family.

Ans)

Emerging Forms

Different family patterns have emerged as a result of the various above-mentioned variables. Below are a few of the well-known ones:

1. Joint family: This is the conventional, normative family pattern that has evolved in terms of its relationships, functions, and behaviours. In a mixed family system, roles are still assigned based on a person's age and gender.

2. Nuclear family: They go by the name modern democratic family system. In contrast to the hierarchical and traditional autocratic ideology of the joint family system, nuclear families are more and more characterised by a family philosophy with an egalitarian and friendship foundation.

3. Alternate family patterns: We see many other family structures outside of the standard in the modern social world; they are referred to as alternate family structures.

4. Conjugal Families: There may or may not be close emotional and functional linkages between these neo-local family patterns and their parent families.

5. Single Parent Families: The causes could be a spouse's death, divorce, or separation. When fathers are no longer present, moms are frequently shown caring for the child.

6. Women Headed Families: These are typically families with a single parent. It also includes immigrant families whose male members relocate to metropolitan areas while the lady assumes total household responsibilities.

7. Adoptive Families: These families include those who have adopted children. Adopting a child in India involves a lot of complications. Child adoption is covered by the 1956 Hindu Adoption and Maintenance Act. Visits to prospective adoptive families are frequently conducted to assess the child's compatibility with the adoptive family.

Changing Functions and Dynamics of Family

Joint families are highly common in communities with an agricultural or pastoral way of life and, in some circumstances, a traditional occupation. Joint families rely on a relatively steady occupation. This kind of family has served several functions, including protecting its members' security and serving as an economic unit.

1. Economic: The role of the family in the economy has significantly changed with the advent of the secondary and tertiary sectors. The majority of the adults in the household are no longer working in the same fields as their families; instead, they are involved in different economic activities.

2. Health Care: The role of family elders as midwives has been eliminated by hospitals, clinics, and other healthcare facilities. Home treatments used by elderly women are not common today. People seek medical treatment for their problems at various public and private health care facilities. A web of health centres offers prenatal treatment, postpartum care, and baby care.

3. Education: The term education has altered in meaning and now more frequently refers to "schooling." Family-provided informal education is not a suitable replacement for a formal education.

4. Religious Functions: The elders in the household used to fulfil all religious duties and obligations in the past. In the current situation, official places of worship have also supplanted this important family duty.

5. Recreation: Family used to be a place for leisure, relaxation, and enjoyment in the past. Family members would gather to converse, play, and unwind together. Currently, leisure and relaxation are offered through clubs, peers, and other formal and informal institutions. Television, video, computers, the Internet, and similar devices are chosen over chatting, sharing emotions, and playing with family members in the family setting as well.

6. Counselling, Welfare and Support: Elders in the family would offer therapy at times of dispute and crisis, but nowadays we use the services of family counsellors and psychologists. Family used to act as a protective barrier at times of crisis like divorce, desertion, death, widowhood, injury, handicap, old age, being orphaned, etc.

Q2) Enlist the theories of personality development.

Ans) A distinctive quality of an individual is the development of their personality. Personality development is approached by different psychologists from various angles or views. Numerous personality theories developed by eminent psychologists aid in our understanding, justification, and prediction of people's personalities. We can interpret personality development in numerous ways thanks to many personality theories.

Allport’s Trait Theory

The trait approach to elucidating personality was first proposed by G.B. Allport, a personality theorist. Using three categories cardinal, primary, and secondary he categorised qualities. Cardinal characteristics are very powerful and predominate. There aren't many of these. The pillars of personality are the central traits. They serve as the centre of the person's personality. Less significant qualities are secondary. R.B. Cattell created the most modern theory of personality. Cattell thought of personality as a complex web of characteristics. He developed his theory using the technique of factor analysis.

Freud’s Theory

Sigmund Freud made a significant contribution to the study of personality formation. He defined personality as an individual's conscious, preconscious, and unconscious states. The Psychoanalytic Theory of Personality Development is the name of Freud's theory. According to this theory, the fundamental dynamics of personality involve a struggle between two opposing forces: defence mechanisms against desires that cause anxiety and anxiety itself, which arise from the repression of desires.

Eric Erikson’s Stages of Psychosocial Development

Theory on Psychosocial Development is the name Eric Erikson gave to his theory on personality development. According to this notion, a person goes through eight stages before reaching adulthood. In order to advance to the next stage and handle new problems, the person must first master and resolve a specific conflict or stressful scenario in each stage. The difficulties of a particular stage may recur as unsolved problems or trouble areas for the person if they are not fully overcome.

Carl Roger’s Self Theory

The Self-Theory was put forth by Carl Rogers to explain how personalities evolve. We encounter a variety of events in our environment every day and every minute. Our behaviour is determined by how we perceive and interpret these experiences. The organism and the self are the two fundamental systems that underlie Roger's theory of personality. These two systems function in a person's phenomenological sphere. This interplay results in personality.

The term phenomenological field refers to reality as it is experienced by an individual or as their own unique reality. The organism is a metaphor for life as a whole. The acknowledged awareness component of self is experience. The process of developing one's self-concept is protracted and ongoing. Our self-concept determines whether we regard an experience as positive or bad. Through interactions with social experiences, a person's self-concept is established.

Self-Actualization Theory

Abraham Maslow's theory of the hierarchy of needs is the most well-known theory on self-actualization. Maslow thought that the achievement of inborn potentials is what determines a person's personality. He proposed that every human being has requirements that can be sorted from basic to complicated in terms of relevance or hierarchy.

Maslow described the five phases of personality development's motivating satisfaction. The first stage, often known as physiological demands, is the most fundamental requirement for humans. The need for food, clothing, and shelter are among the physiological necessities. The needs for safety are in the second stage. The third stage includes a need for love and a sense of love. The needs for self-esteem was present in the fourth stage, while the need for self-actualization was present in the fifth stage, which was the highest stage.

Q3) Answer any two of the following questions in about 300 words each: 10x2

a) Describe the role of family in the socialization process.

Ans) The statuses and roles are allocated to the members based on the culture of the society. The values of the society determine the criteria on which the statuses and roles are allocated to the members. The process by which the future members learn to become members of the society is called socialization. The young one of the human species is the most helpless of all animals. Apart from the biological reasons one important reason for the delay is the nature of human culture. Human culture is the more advanced and complicated than other animals.

It is a primary agency for socialization. Families in modern society have a major role in the development of the individual’s personality. The pre-modern society was the main agent of socialization as the other agents of socialization were not fully developed. But as process of differentiation lead to the growth of specialized agencies like school, mass media, which lead to the family being divested of many of its responsibilities. However, the family’s role in the emotional and social development of the child remains unchanged and therefore is crucial. Family is the only place where the individual is treated as a whole person and not simply as a worker or a student.

Family’s role in the development of the child personality is proved by a number of studies. Some of them have proved that the behaviour of the parents influences the child. The children of divorced or separated families have a greater chance of divorcing themselves. The children of alcoholic fathers have greater tendency to get into trouble with authority figures such as teachers, policemen as they never had satisfactory relationships with the authority figures in their families. Similarly broken families have a co-relation within incidence of mental illness, juvenile delinquency, and drug abuse.

b) Define groups and state the features of groups.

Ans) A group can be defined as two or more persons who interact, with one another, share common goals are somehow interdependent, and recognize that they belong to a group. Examples of groups include a family unit, a football team, four or five college friends, ladies getting together to help children in the neighbourhood. Few elderly men regularly meeting for a morning walk. We come across a number of different groups around us.

Features of Groups

Groups have the following features:

1. Norms determine appropriate behaviour implicit rules and expectations for group members to follow, like saying thank you, shaking hands.

2. Roles that are assigned to people that determine what behaviours and responsibilities people should take up.

3. A communication structure that determines who talks to whom within the group.

4. A power structure that determines how much authority and influence group members have.

Example: In a school there are norms, these norms tell the students how to behave, what time they should come in, what uniform to wear. The teachers have their role includes teaching and administering examinations. The principal has a role-to manage and coordinate the whole school. The communication structure of the class demands that students listen without talking to each other while the teacher teaches. The power structure gives the principal, teachers more authority than any of the students. Some students also may have more authority and influence than other students, such as those who are more familiar with the class material.

Q4) Answer any four of the following questions in about 150 words each:

a) Differentiate between rural community and urban community.

Ans) The differences of urban, rural, and tribal communities can be understood using the following criteria:

Economic Activities

Urban communities are dependent on secondary and tertiary occupations while rural communities are dependent on primary occupations. Modern economies are increasingly based on secondary and tertiary sectors. Even in India the contribution of agriculture to the GDP is decreasing while the contribution of the secondary and more so the tertiary sectors are growing.

Family Life

It is generally believed that joint families are more prevalent in the rural areas and nuclear families are more prevalent in urban areas. The causes for it is identified as the lack of space in urban areas, frequent geographical mobility, and the liberalized values prevalent in urban areas. Research shows a more complex picture. It shows that joint families exist in good numbers in urban areas also. If the occupation of the family is traditionally business then it is more likely that the family will be joint family.

Type of Social Relations

Social relations in urban areas are characterized by anonymity impersonal relations relatively less importance of the neighbourhood. Urban areas are characterized by large number of people who have different interests, engage in different occupations and are career oriented. They have no time or inclination to develop relations with people around them.

b) Discuss the relevance of psychology to social work practice.

Ans) Psychology provides considerable help in the field of social work practice, like individual and family case work; diagnosing and treatment planning for problem of children related to schooling; individual's adjustment with primary and secondary groups, physical and mental patients' accommodation with medical requirements and adjustment with others; understanding, diagnosing and modifying group behaviour and developing leadership qualities; ego analysis and strengthening and understanding defensive reactions of individuals and counselling and guidance for enhancement in positive adjustment and fulfilment of needs of individual and society.

Psychology deals with human behaviour, emotions, and projections. It also deals with some of the factors responsible in the formation of behaviour patterns. Cognition, learning, and memory are core subject matters for psychology. Knowledge of socialization process is dependent upon psychology. The individual's reactions and behaviour, to a great extent, are based upon projections, which is a psychological phenomenon. Psychology studies the interaction pattern between heredity and environment and explain to us the reasons for aware of individual differences in physical and mental traits and abilities

c) What basic legal information should the social work have?

Ans) Social work and law have an important relationship. In many countries especially in the West social work has been given statutory powers to intervene in selected areas of social life, for example the family to protect children or prevent domestic violence. Due to scandals in the social services regulation through law has increased in these areas. The limitations in law and the legal system has made it difficult for common people to get justice. Social workers have understood this chronic malady afflicting the legal system.

The need for knowledge of law is of paramount importance to the Indian social worker. Indian social legislations are often attempts to bridge the gulf between consensual values and their apparent incongruence with prevailing patterns of behaviour. It creates a legal framework for the new situations and provides opportunities for change in the desired direction.

Hence the social work has to get a basic understanding and knowledge of the following:

1. Constitution with special emphasis on rights and directive principle.

2. Legal Aid.

3. Legislations related to marriage, divorce, maintenance, adoption, and succession.

4. Special legislations to protect disadvantaged sections like Dowry Prohibition Act, People with disabilities Act, Prevention of atrocities of SC&ST, Juvenile Justice Act.

5. Public Interest Litigation.

6. Basic procedures related to arrest, bail, First Information Report, charge sheet etc.

d) Enlist the needs of an individual and the society that the institution of marriage fulfills.

Ans) Marriage may be defined as a socially sanctioned union of man with woman to perform the roles of husband and wife. The term marriage has different meanings and connotations for different people. To some, marriage is a relationship between man and woman for propagation of human species.

Marriage is development of one of the most unique and versatile relationships of human life. It offers an opportunity for life-long companionship, belongingness, and support. It fulfills need for sex, intimacy, love, and affection. From society’s perspective, it is division of roles and responsibilities for procreation and socialization of children and running a family.

Indian views on marriage have all the more dimensions. Marriage is a sacrament, with religious and moral obligations on one hand and social and economic on the other. Hindu concept of marriage is that it is a sanskar or dharma a holy union of the two souls and not simply of two bodies. It is considered an indissoluble bond that could be broken only by death. Marriage has been taken as a ceremonial gift of the bride by her father, or other appropriate relative, to the bride groom in order that both may together fulfil their duties which is necessary for human existence.

Q5) Write short notes on any five of the following questions in about 100 words each:

a) Culture

Ans) Culture comes from the Latin word ‘cultura’ stemming from colere, meaning “to cultivate” Culture is often used word commonly referring to the level of sophistication a person has. A person who is rude and couth is supposed to have no culture and a person who possess the right behaviour and etiquette is said to have right culture. But sociologists and anthropologists have a distinct and separate meaning for culture. Some definitions are given below:

That part of the total repertoire of human action, which is socially as opposed to genetically transmitted. Culture according to prominent anthropologist E. B. Taylor is that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, laws, customs, and other habits quoted by man as a member of the society. Mac Iver and Page say that “culture is the realm of styles, of values of emotional attachments, of intellectual adventures.

b) Social Stratification

Ans) Human beings have always dreamt of an equal society where everyone will have equal accesses to resources, treated equally without any discrimination and so on. But this utopian ideal has never been translated into reality. Inequality has always existed between individuals, groups, and communities. Industrial societies are characterized by higher degree of inequality as the income of the richest is many times the income of the lowly paid, while pastoral societies the difference is relatively less.

While social equality is omnipresent, social stratification is a particular kind of social inequality. The term stratification comes from the word ‘strata,’ which is borrowed from geology. Strata in geology refers to the different layers found in the inner part of the earth. It is observed the inside of the earth consists of layers each consisting of a different material. In the same way societies are divided into different layers according to the wealth, status and power possessed by the members.

c) Social Learning

Ans) It is often maintained that human behaviour is learnt. Through the process of socialization, we learn innumerable things about our culture, language, customs, role expectations, values, mores, attitudes, beliefs, mental images about ourselves and others that in turn become an integral part of our personality. In fact, learning is basic to human life as it enables the persons to adapt to their environment.

The term social learning was coined by Neil Miller and John Dollard. It is defined as any relatively permanent change in behaviour that occurs as a result of practice or experience. The definition signifies that learning is essentially ‘a change in behaviour’ of an individual. However, learning does not always have positive connotation, it can be faulty and mal-adaptive. Further, the change in behaviour is relatively permanent and not momentary. Permanent, here, does not mean essentially life-long but nevertheless long lasting. Learning may be a conscious attempt and we also learn many things unconsciously.

d) Defence Mechanisms

Ans) Though defence mechanisms are psychic functions, they have great significance for social work profession too. After carefully reading about these defence mechanisms, you may gain insight into the personality of human beings and may help you to understand the coping patterns of your clients in a better way. During your day-to-day interactions with family and friends, colleagues, and neighbours, you may observe people making use of these defence mechanisms differentially depending upon their own perception of self, of social reality, socialization pattern and experiences of life events. You may even introspect your own behaviour in certain social situations and appraise usage of certain defence mechanisms.

e) Gender Discrimination

Ans) As there are many elements influencing heredity and the social environment, this results in a high degree of variety. No two people in the world are precisely same, not even fraternal twins, according to scientists. Through the process of socialisation, social expectations are what are translated into our behaviour. A child born into an egalitarian home may have variable gender role identities, but a youngster born into a conformist family learns to imbibe socially acceptable gender roles.

According to a common belief, a newborn infant is like a blank slate; whatever the socialisation agents write on it will shape the child's personality and behaviour. These socialisation agents frequently instil their own biases and prejudices, attitudes, and beliefs in the child, collectively and specifically, intentionally, and unconsciously. They mould the child's personality and sense of self. The newly born helpless child is dependent on these socialisation agents to meet his or her needs for survival and growth and is unable to inquire about the validity and usefulness of the information given to him or her.