Download Human Behavior and the Social Environment

Human Behavior and the
Social Environment
Integrating Social Systems
Culture and Society
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Culture:
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Those qualities and attributes that seem to be
characteristic of all humankind
Viewed as a macro system
A group phenomenon
Evolves from the interaction of person with
others, and a person’s belief or behavior
becomes part of the culture, when it is
externalized and objectified.
Culture and Society
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Society:
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A group of people who have learned to live and work
together.
It is a social organization that becomes more complex
because of an increased volume of relationships
among the various elements of the culture
Role is the total of the cultural expectations
associated with a particular status, including the
attitudes, values, and behavior.
It incorporates tools, language, child rearing, humans
urge to explain the world and social relationships.
Communities
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Held together by feeling and sentiment.
Is at the interface between society and
microsystems.
Community is a population whose
members:
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Consciously identify with each other
May occupy common territory
Engage in common activities
Have some form of organization.
Communities
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Communities are subordinate to larger,
regional networks.
Consists of social networks.
Behavioral aspects include social control,
socialization and communication.
There are place and non-place
communities.
Organizations
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They are social units.
Characterized by:
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Divisions of labor
Presence of one or more power centers
Substitution of personnel.
Persons are to perform according to their
assigned roles.
Purpose is the achievement of specific,
explicit goals.
Organizations
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Members confine themselves to a
relatively narrow range of behaviors.
Power over each other is in the form of
authority and hierarchal control.
Assures compliance with the system’s
goals and adherence to the member’s
prescribed roles.
Groups
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An arena of social interaction.
Has potential to provide for:
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A need to belong and to be accepted by
others
A need to be validated by others
A need to share common experiences
Opportunities to work with others on common
tasks.
Groups
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It has a unique wholeness of its own
Comprises those associations and activity
in which the person engage most of their
“selves” from day to day.
Characterized by energy/information
exchange to promote synergy.
Stages:
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Forming, norming, and storming.
Families
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Centrally important in defining social
expectations and in providing resources for
growth, in every phase of the person’s life.
The only system that is interwoven with all other
systems.
Assumes or is delegated, primary responsibility
for socialization into the culture and major
responsibility to ensure the survival of society
and of humanity.
Families
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A system of roles that are the cultural
expectations for behavior and where these
roles are learned and carried out.
Two views of family roles:
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The family is responsive to the demands and
dictates of larger social systems.
The family initiates change, and society
accommodates. The family determines
society.
The Person
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Without the individual, there would be no
society and without society there would be
no individual.
The human life cycle is viewed from a
psychosocial approach.
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The interaction of the individual person with
the social environment.
It is both cause and effect of social systems.
The Person
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A person’s growth and development is in a
pattern of expansion, a movement
outward.
As the cycle of life unfolds, persons
expand their interaction into systems of
ever-larger magnitude.
Strong emphasis is placed on the life cycle
theory of Erik Erikson.
Interaction of Systems
Humanity
 Society
 Community
 Organizations
 Groups
 Family
 Person
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