Theories of Human Behavior and the Social Environment (MSWK 531)

Course title: Human Behavior and Social Environment

Course code: MSWK 111
Credit hours: 3
Course description
This course is designed to introduce students to the knowledge of human development and
behaviour in the social environment that is a necessary foundation for learning effective social
work practice. The purpose of this course is to enhance students' understanding of human
behaviour and social environment by examining how individuals and families are affected by,
and affect larger social systems. The course provides students with the concept that help to
understand human behaviours in the environment. The course considers various theories about
human behaviour in the social environment. Specific theories from the biological, psychological,
social and cultural theories will be presented throughout the course. The contents of the course
also includes theories about the range of social systems in which individuals live, including
families, groups, organizations, institutions and communities. In addition, students are
encouraged to develop critical thinking skills as they examine the adequacy of the theories and
research, and appreciate the strengths and limitations of the existing knowledge base of human
behaviour and social environments with regard to: (1) their relevance in the social and cultural
environment of Ethiopia; (2) the role and significance of biological, psychological, traditional
practices, and spiritual factors; (3) consideration of social, cultural, and economic forces
affecting human behaviour and development in Ethiopia; and (4) consistency with social work
values and ethics. Lecturer, readings, brainstorming, and group discussions will be used to
deliver this course. Writing individual assignment, group exercise and sit exam will also be
applied to evaluate students’ performance.
Objectives of the course
The objectives of this course are:
1. Explain theories and Knowledge of the interactions throughout the life span among human,
biological, social, psychological and cultural systems as they affect and are affected by
human behaviour.

2. Evaluate and critically analyze perspectives and theories of human behaviour in social
environment such as; the ecological and strengths perspective, systems theory, conflict
theory, rational choice theory, social constructionist theory, psychodynamic theory,
developmental theory, social behavioural theory and humanistic theory.

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 Theories of Human Behavior and the Social Environment (MSWK 531)

3. Differentiate the range of social systems in which individuals live, including families, group,
organizations, institutions and urban communities.

4. Analyze one’s own values and beliefs about human diversity as they relate to one’s ability to
respect culture, class, and life style differences in others in relation to generalist practice.

5. To comprehend the central importance of lifestyles and family structures within

contemporary society and the unique aspects of cultural background, ethnicity, religion,
spirituality, gender, age, socioeconomic status, sexual orientation, and physical challenges
that influence individuals’ processes of development.

6. Recognize and respect the strengths and cultural values of diverse populations;

Teaching and Assessment Methods

Teaching: a wide range of flexible teaching methods will be used in this course. Students will be
taught through a mixture of lectures, seminars, paper presentations, and analysis of case studies,
independent learning, collaborative learning group work assignments on specific topics and
presentations.
Assessment: the progress of students in the understanding of the course will be assessed
continuously during the course period through continuous assessments such as peer assessment,
tests, project work, individual and group assignments and written examination.
Course contents
I. Course Introduction and Overviews
A. Student and instructor introductions
B. Course Overview
C. Exploration of the Significance of this Course for Social Work generalist curriculum
1. What is the study of Human Behaviour?
2. Examining the Social Work Code of Ethics….IASSW & NASW
3. Making the connection between our understanding of Human behaviour and our
role as social work practitioners…Frame of Reference
Reading: Chapter 1: Aspects of Human Behavior: Person, environment, time
The Code of Ethics is available at the NASW Website, which is www.socialworkers.org.
II.Theoretical Foundation for the study of Human Behavior
A. Differentiation between Knowledge and Values
1. Understanding different ways of knowing
2. Understanding general knowledge and unique knowledge
B. Building a knowledge Base
1. What is theory? How do we evaluate theories?
2. The role of research in knowledge building
C. Introduction of the Multidimensional Approach to Understanding Human Behavior
1. Understanding the three aspects of human behavior
2. Understanding the dimensions of human behavior
D. Theoretical Bases of knowledge about human behavior
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E. Evaluation of the major tenants of each theory using criteria for a good theory
F. Explore the implications for social work of each theoretical perspective
Reading: Chapter 1: Aspects of Human Behavior: Person, environment, time
Chapter 2: Theoretical Perspective of Human Behavior
III. The Multiple Dimensions of Person
A. The Biological Person
1. An integrative approach for understanding biological health and illness
2. Biological Systems
3. Socioeconomic status and health
4. Implications for Social Work
Reading: Chapter 3. The Biological Person.

B. The Psychological Person: Cognition, Emotion, and Self

Theories of cognition
1. Theories of emotion
2. Cognitive /emotional disorders
3. The Self
4. Implications for social work
Reading: Chapter 4: The Psychological Person: Cognition, Emotion, Self.
D. The Psychosocial Person: Stress, Coping, and Adaptation
1. The concept of stress
2. Coping and adaptation
3. Normal and Abnormal coping
Reading: Reading: Chapter 5: The Psychological Person: Stress, Coping and adaptation
E. The Spiritual Person
1. The meaning of spirituality
2. Transpersonal theories of human development
a. Fowler’s stages of faith development
b. Wilber’s full spectrum model of consciousness
3. The role of spirituality in social work
Reading: Chapter 5: The Spiritual Person
IV. What We Know So Far: Integrating the Biological, Psychological, and Spiritual
Aspect of the Person into Social Work
1. Discussion of the Interview with John
2. Reviewing key Concepts/Responding to Mid
V. The Multiple Dimensions of the Environment……
A. The Physical Environment
1. The Relationship between the physical environment and human behavior
a. Stimulation Theories
b. Control theories
c. Behavior Settings Theories
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2. The Natural Environment

3. The Built Environment
a. Institutional Design
b. Defensible Space and Crime Prevention
c. Behavior Setting and Addictions
4. Place Attachment
5. Accessible Environments for Person with Disabilities
6. The physical environment and human behavior across the life course
7. Implications for Social Work
Reading: Chapter 6: The Physical Environment
B. Culture
1. The Challenge of defining Culture
2. Traditional understanding of culture and variation in human behavior
3. A contemporary, holistic application of culture
a. A Practice Orientation
b. Cultural Maintenance , Change, and Adaptation
4. Diversity
5. Implication for social work practice
Reading: Chapter 7: Culture
C. Social Institutions and Social Structure
1. Patterns of social life
2. Contemporary trends in US social institutions
3. Theories of social inequality, social mobility, and resilience
4. Mechanism of Oppression and Privilege
5. The Nature of prejudice and Discrimination
6. Implication for social work practice
Readings: Chapter 8: Social institutions and Social Structure
D. Families
1. Socio-Historical Perspective of the definition of family
2. Theoretical perspective for understanding the family
3. Diversity in Family life
4. Implications for social work practice
Read: Chapter 9 Families
F. Small Groups
1. Small groups in social work
2. Dimensions of group structure
a. Group composition
b. Basic group Processes
3. The effects of physical environment of group process
4. Implications for Social Work practice
Reading: Chapter 10 Small Groups
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G. Organizations
1. Definition of formal organizations
2. Perspectives on formal organizations
3. Burnout: a negative organizational outcome
4. Organizations as a context for practice
5. Culturally competent care systems
6. Implication for social work
Read: Chapter 11 Formal Organizations
H. Communities
1. Territorial Community and Relational Community
2. The History Social Workers and Communities
3. Theoretical approaches to community
4. Contemporary issues
5. Implications for social work practice
Read: Chapter 12 Communities
I. Social Movements
1. Definition of social movements
2. Social movements and history of social work
3. Perspectives on Social Movements
4. Social Movement outcomes
5. The future of social movements and contemporary issues
6. Implication for social work
Read: Chapter 13 Social Movements
VI. Conclusion
A. Understanding Social Work practice in a Multidimensional Environment
B. Class Summary and Evaluation.

Reading Material
Robbins P. S, Chatterjee P &Canda R.E. (1998). Contemporary Human behavior Theory: a
critical perspective for social work. Allyn& Bacon.
Hutchinson, Elizabeth D. (1999). Dimensions of human environment: Person and environment
2nd Ed. Thousand Oaks, Ca. Sage Publishing.
Hutchinson, Elizabeth D. (1999). Dimensions of human environment: The Changing Life
Course. Thousand Oaks, Ca. Sage Publishing.

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Chapter One
Aspects of Human Behavior: Person, Environment, Time
Chapter Objectives:
At the end of this chapter, students will be able to:
- Understand the constituent elements of human behavior
- Discuss the three major dimensions of human behavior
- Explain the need to have a multidimensional approach to fully understand human
behavior
- Analyze the implications of multidimensional approach to human behavior in social work
practice.

 The Complexity of Human Behavior

As a social worker, you will become a part of many unfolding life stories, and you will want to
have a way of thinking about them. The purpose of this chapter is to provide a way for you to
think about the nature and complexities of the people and situations that are at the center of
social work practice. Three major aspects that are significant to understand human behavior are
the person, the environment, and time.

If we focus on the person, we observe a healthy biological constitution and how individuals have
been nurtured well in their youth will have an impact in their future behavior and how they
deal with the challenges they face. It will determine how individuals cope with and go through
the challenges of life including starvation, illness, and war. Emotional resilience and a belief in
one’s own capabilities also constitute an aspect of the person that helps him/her deal with the
psychological and spiritual impacts of life’s experiences. Even though people may face various
challenges such as illness, abuses and violence, some may survive physically, but a limited
number of them survive both physically and spiritually, with a zest for life and hope for the
future at the time of the challenge may appear to be lacking.

If we focus on the environment, we see many influences on people’s stories. Consider first the
physical environment: one challenge that clients of social work experience are the migration of
people for different reasons including war, natural disasters and diseases. In the effort to save

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their lives, people may be forced to migrate to more comfortable places by crossing jungles and
deserts and by fighting against the challenges these places contain.

The other aspect of the environment is the social environment. People can have different types
of relationship with their social environment. Some may be favorably seen by the social
institutions in their communities and as a result may be respected and have a higher status than
other members of the community. Others, on the other hand, may be discriminated and face
stigma in the social institutions of their community. People’s response to these social institutions
influence their actions and behavior.

Culture, too, is also a powerful influence in people’s behavior and stories. Culture dictates how
all things are carried out in a society. Power distribution in the household, how marriage can be
conducted, and how people communicate each other are among the things that are shaped by
culture. All these elements of culture direct how our lives and stories unfold and the roles and
responsibilities we assume in them as well as the actions we take and the behavior we engage in.

If we, now, focus on the influence of time, we see that the experiences of the past, whether it is
war and atrocity, or escape from one’s place of residence, or resettlement in another area are all
powerful life events that influence and shape people’s present and future. These events will leave
many effects in people’s current life. Bad experiences in the past can leave people with fear and
panic. Our past can dictate and control our present and future. If our past is filled with good
memories, then it will be a source of pleasure for our present and future. But if an individual had
gone through terrible experiences in the past, then the past and its accompanying experiences
will be a source of anguish and despair.

Person, environment, and time interact dynamically. Relationships are reconfigured as the
multiple influences on human behavior. The actions of one person can only be understood in
relation to the actions of other people and in relation to ever-changing situations. Person and
environment depend on each other for their definition; the same person in a different
environment, or the same environment with a different person, most likely will yield different
behaviors. In reality, of course, any configuration or situation involves multiple persons and
multiple environments. We will be referring, at points, to this approach as a transactional
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approach, because that is the name used by other scholars who focus on changing relationships
among inseparable aspects of a unity. It is impossible to focus on person, environment, and time
independently; they are inseparable.

1.1. A Multidimensional Approach

Thinking about human behavior as changing configurations of person and environment over time
is a multidimensional approach. Such an approach is not new. Social work has historically
recognized human behavior as an interaction of person with environment. The earliest social
work practice book, Social Diagnosis, written by Mary Richmond in 1917, identified the social
situation and the personality of the client as the dual foci of social work assessment. The
settlement house movement put heavy emphasis on the environmental aspects of person-
environment configurations, but environment was deemphasized, and intra-psychic factors were
emphasized, when social work began to rely on psychodynamic theory in the 1920s.

In 1958, Herman Stein and Richard Cloward published an edited reader, Social Perspectives on
Behavior: A Reader in Social Science for Social Work and Related Professions. In the preface,
they commented that social work had failed, in the midst of its fascination with dynamic
psychology, to keep abreast of developments in sociology, cultural anthropology, and social
psychology. In addition, in the late 1960s, general systems theory and other related
formulations were incorporated into the way social work scholars think about human behavior.

In recent times, ecological theory, which addresses the relationships between organisms and
their environments, has become the dominant theoretical approach across a number of behavioral
science disciplines. These approaches have renewed social workers’ interest in the social
sciences and helped social workers to understand the processes and activities involved in the
relationships between person and environment. We need, of course, to move beyond general
statements about the inseparability of person and environment and about changing configurations
to bring these ideas alive in our day-to-day experiences as social workers and to understand how
to talk with clients about their concerns.

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A vast multidisciplinary literature, of both theory and research, is available to help us. The
multifaceted nature of this literature provides a broad knowledge base for the varied settings and
roles involved in social work practice. The multidimensional approach is built on the three major
aspects of human behavior: person, environment, and time. Although we focus on each of these
aspects separately, keep in mind that no single aspect can be entirely understood without
attention to the other aspects. We can get a clearer picture of these three aspects if we think about
the important dimensions of each—about what it is that we should study about person, about
environment, and about time.

Keep in mind that dimension refers to a feature that can be focused on separately but that
cannot be understood without also considering other features. The dimensions identified are
usually studied as detached or semidetached realities, with one dimension characterized as
causing or leading to another. However, it is very important to see how these dimensions work
together, how they are embedded with each other, and how many possibilities are opened for
social work practice when we think about human behavior this way. Human behavior is multi-
determined, or developed as a result of many causes. However, focusing on specific dimensions
one at a time can help to clarify general, abstract statements about changing configurations of
person and environment.

1.2. Dimensions of Human Behavior

1.2.1. Personal Dimensions
Any story could be told from the perspective of any person in the story. The story could also be
told from the perspectives of a variety of other persons: parents, neighbors, friends, colleagues
and so on. You will want to recognize the multiple perspectives held by different persons
involved in the stories of which you become a part in your social work activities. You also will
want tools for thinking about the various dimensions of the persons involved in these stories.

For many years, social work scholars described the approach of social work as psychosocial,
giving primacy to psychological dimensions of the person. Personality, ego states, emotion, and
cognition are the important features of the person in this approach. Currently, however, social
workers, like contemporary scholars in other disciplines (e.g., Bandura, 2001; Clark, Anderson,

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Clark, & Williams, 1999; McInnis-Dittrich, 2002; Sadock & Sadock, 2003; Saleebey, 2001;
White, 2005), take a biopsychosocial approach. In this approach, human behavior is considered
to be the result of interactions of integrated biological, psychological, and social systems.
Psychology is seen as inseparable from biology; emotions and cognitions affect the health of the
body and are affected by it (Adelman, 2006). Increasingly, neurobiologists write about the
“social brain, “recognizing that the human brain is wired for social life but also recognizing that
the social environment has an impact on brain structure and processes.

In recent years, social work scholars as well as scholars in the social and behavioral sciences and
medicine have argued for greater attention to the spiritual dimension of persons as well. Recent
developments in neuroscience have generated new explorations of the unity of the biological,
psychological, and spiritual dimensions of the person. For example, recent research has focused
on the ways that emotions and thoughts, as well as spiritual states, influence the immune system.
One research team has explored the impact of spirituality and religiosity on mental health and
found that thankfulness protects against major depression (Kendler et al., 2003).

1.2.2. Environmental Dimensions

Social workers have always thought about the environment as multidimensional. As early as
1901, Mary Richmond presented a model of case coordination that took into account not only
personal dimensions but also family, neighborhood, civic organizations, private charitable
organizations, and public relief organizations (See Fig 1).

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Public Relief Forces

Private charitable
Forces

Civic Forces

Neighborhood
Forces

Personal
Forces

Family
Forces

Fig. 1. Mary Richmond’s 1901 Model of Case Coordination

Like contemporary social workers, Richmond saw the environment as multidimensional,

including in her model many of the same dimensions of environment.
1. Family Forces- capacity of each member for affection, training, endeavor and social
development
2. Personal Forces- Kindred Friends (a person who has the same opinion,
interest and feelings as you )
3. Neighborhood Forces- Neighbors, landlords, tradesmen; Former and present employers
Clergymen, Sunday-school teachers, fellow church members, Doctors; Trade-unions,
fraternal and benefit societies, social clubs, fellow-workmen; Libraries, educational
clubs, classes, settlements, etc.; Thrift agencies, savings banks, building and loan
associations

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4. Civic Forces- School teachers, Police, police magistrates, probation officers,

reformatories; Health department, sanitary inspectors, factory inspectors Postmen Parks,

baths, etc.
5. Private Charitable Forces- Charity organization society, Church of denomination to
which family belongs; Benevolent individuals; National, special, and general relief
societies; Charitable employment agencies and workrooms, children's aid society, society
for protection of children, children's homes, etc.; District nurses, dispensaries, hospitals,
etc.; prisoner's aid society, etc.
6. Public Relief Forces- Almshouses, Outdoor poor department, Public hospitals and
dispensaries

Several models for classifying dimensions of the environment have been proposed more
recently. Among social work scholars, Ralph Anderson and Irl Carter (1974) made a historic
contribution to systemic thinking about human behavior with the first edition of their Human
Behavior in the Social Environment: A Social Systems Approach, one of the earliest textbooks on
human behavior authored by social workers. Their classification of environmental dimensions
has had a significant impact on the way social workers think about the environment. Anderson
and Carter divided the environment into five dimensions: culture and society, communities,
organizations, groups, and families.

Some recent models have added the physical environment (natural and designed
environments) as a separate dimension. Failure to include the physical environment has most
notably hampered social work’s ability to respond to persons with physical disabilities. To have
an up-to-date understanding of the multidimensional environment, social workers need
knowledge about the eight dimensions of environment. We also need knowledge about dyadic
relationships—relationships between two people, the most basic social relationships.

Simultaneous consideration of multiple environmental dimensions provides new possibilities for

action, perhaps even new or revised approaches to social work practice. These dimensions are
neither mutually exclusive nor hierarchically ordered. For example, a family is sometimes

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referred to as a social institution, families can also be considered as small groups or dyads, and
family theorists write about family culture. Remember, dimensions are useful ways of thinking
about person-environment configurations, but you should not think of them as detached realities.

1.2.3 Time Dimensions

Look at this statement “The date is the most important information on a written social work
assessment.” This statement entails a way of acknowledging the importance of time in human
behavior, of recognizing that person-environment transactions are ever-changing, dynamic, and
flowing. We can understand the time dimension in the ongoing process of acculturation.
Acculturation is a process of changing one’s culture by incorporating elements of another
culture. Acculturation happens over time, in a nonlinear process, with new situations and
opportunities to learn, negotiate, and accommodate. Twenty years ago, research indicated that
men adapted to cultural change faster than women, but more recent research indicates that
women often have a faster pace of acculturation than their spouses. There is also considerable
evidence that children usually have a faster pace of acculturation than their parents.

Most people in affluent countries with market economies think of time in association with
clocks, calendars, and appointments; and allow the clock to tell them when an event should begin
and end. This approach to time has been called clock time. However, this approach to time is a
relatively new invention, and many people in the contemporary world have a very different
approach to time. In non-industrialized countries, and in subcultures within industrialized
countries, people operate on event time, allowing scheduling to be determined by events. Robert
Levine (2006) provides numerous examples of event time. Signals from the body, rather than the
hour on the clock, dictate when to eat. Activities are guided by seasonal changes; when the rainy
season comes, it is time for planting. Appointments are flexible; “I will see you tomorrow
morning when the cows go out to graze.” The length of an event may be explained by saying, for
example, “The storm lasted as long as a rice-cooking.” Monks in Burma have developed their
own alarm clocks, knowing it is time to get up when there is enough light to see the veins in their
hands. Some event time cultures, such as that of the Hopi of the U.S. Southwest, and some Arab
cultures have no language to distinguish past, present, and future time. However, clock time
cultures often use the concept time orientation to describe the extent to which individuals and
collectivities are invested in three temporal zones—past, present, and future time— known as
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linear time. Research indicates that cultures differ in their time orientation. More traditional
cultures are more invested in the past, and advanced industrial cultures are more invested in the
future (Hofstede, 1998).

Recently, Western behavioral scientists have begun to incorporate Eastern mindfulness practices
of being more fully present in the current moment (present orientation) to help people buffer the
persistent stresses of clock time and goal monitoring (future orientation). Research also indicates
that there are age-related differences in time orientation, with older adults more past oriented
than younger age groups (Shmotkin, 1991). There are also individual variations in time
orientation. This difference is consistent with research that found that trauma survivors who had
experienced the most severe loss were more likely than other trauma survivors to be highly
oriented to the past

It is important for social workers to be aware of the meaning of time for the individuals and
communities they serve. Nancy Yattaw (1999) suggests four ways of thinking about time in
changing configurations of persons and environments: constants, trends, cycles, and shifts. Both
event time and clock time are represented in these ways of thinking about time. Constants and
trends are long-term changes, and cycles and shifts are short-term changes. This is how they
differ:
 Constants move invariably in one direction. It is hard to think of examples of constants
in our contemporary global societies, but the aging process approximates the idea of a
constant.
 Trends move in a general direction but are not as invariable as constants.
 Cycles reverse direction repetitively. Cycles of behavior can recur in different patterns:
daily, weekly, monthly, seasonally, annually, or in some other regular or partially regular
pattern. Miriam Glucksmann (1998) suggests that cyclical time serves as the glue for
social life: “Everybody does the same thing on the same day so they share a common
daily or weekly cycle”. Socially constructed cyclical time has a large impact on our lives.
 Shifts are sudden abrupt changes in direction. After September 11, 2001, we heard much
talk about whether the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon
would produce shifts in our patterns of social interactions. Early reports suggested that
family life became more precious to us (“ACOG Assesses Impact of September 11,”
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2002) and faith in each other increased (“Historical Perspective,” 2002).At this point,
there is considerable evidence that these changes in social life were temporary in nature
and did not signal a more permanent shift in direction.

Sometimes the pace of change is more rapid than at other times. There is also a temporal scope,
or duration, to changing configurations. In linear time, the scope of some events is brief, such as
a birthday party, an automobile accident, termination from a job, winning the lottery, or a natural
disaster. Werner, Altman, and Oxley (1985) refer to these brief events as incidents; they are also
called life events. Although life events are brief in scope, they may produce shifts and have
serious and long-lasting effects. It is important to note the role of perception when discussing
both the pace of change and the duration of an event.

Other events are long and complex transactions of people and environments. Werner et al. (1985)
refer to these longer events as stages; it is this dimension of time that has been incorporated into
life stage theories of human behavior. Life stage theories have been criticized for their
overstatement of the universality of the sequence of stages and of the timing of human
behavior. In contrast, a life course perspective assumes that each person’s life has a unique long-
term pattern of stability and change but that shared social and historical contexts produce some
commonalities (George, 1993).

1.3. Implications for Social Work Practice

The multidimensional approach outlined in this chapter suggests several principles for social
work assessment and intervention, for both prevention and remediation services:
- In the assessment process, collect information about all the critical dimensions of the
changing configuration of person and environment.
- In the assessment process, attempt to see the situation from a variety of perspectives. Use
multiple data sources, including the person(s), significant others, and direct
observations.
- Allow people to tell their own stories, and pay attention to how they describe the pattern
and flow of their person-environment configurations.

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- Use the multidimensional database to develop a dynamic picture of the person

environment configuration.
- Link intervention strategies to the dimensions of the assessment.
- In general, expect more effective outcomes from interventions that are multidimensional,
because the situation itself is multidimensional.
- Pay particular attention to the impact of diversity and inequality on the unique stories and
situations that you encounter.
- Allow the unique stories of people and situations to direct the choice of theory and
research to be used.
- Use general knowledge to suggest tentative hypotheses to be explored in the unique
situation.
- Think of social work practice as a continuous, dialectical movement between unique
knowledge and general knowledge.

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Summary
Definitions and Examples of Dimensions of Person, Environment and Time

Personal Definition Examples

Dimensions
The Biological Person The body’s biochemical, cell, organ, Nervous system, endocrine
and physiological systems system, immune system,
cardiovascular system,
musculoskeletal system,
reproductive system

The Psychological Person The mind and the mental processes Cognitions (conscious thinking
processes), emotion (feelings),
self (identity)

The Spiritual Person The aspect of the person that searches Themes of morality; ethics;
for meaning and purpose in life justice; interconnectedness;
creativity; mystical states;
prayer, meditation, and
contemplation; relationships
with a higher power
Environmental Definition Examples
Dimensions
The Physical Environment The natural and human-built material Water, sun, trees, buildings,
aspects of the environment landscapes

Culture A set of common understandings, Beliefs, customs, traditions,

evident in both behavior and material values
artifacts

Social Institutions and Social Social Institutions: Patterned ways of Social Institutions: family,
Structure organizing social relations in a religion, government, economy,

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particular sector of social life education, social welfare,

health care, mass media Social
Social Structure: A set of interrelated Structure: social class
social institutions developed by
humans to impose constraints on
human interaction for the purpose of
the survival and well-being of the
collectivity
Dyads Two persons bound together in some Parent and child, romantic
way couple, social worker and client

Families Groupings of two or more people who Nuclear family, extended

define themselves as family and family, fictive kin
assume obligations to one another
Small Groups Collections of people who interact with Friendship group, self-help
each other, perceive themselves as group, therapy group,
belonging to a group, are committee, task group,
interdependent, join together to interdisciplinary team
accomplish a goal, fulfill a need
through joint association, or are
influenced by a set of rules and norms
Formal Organizations Collectivities of people, with a high Civic and social service
degree of formality of structure, organizations, business
working together to meet a goal or organizations, professional
goals associations

Communities People bound either by geography or Territorial communities such as

by network links (webs of neighborhoods; relational
communication), sharing common ties, communities such as the social
and interacting with one another work community, the disability
community, a faith community,
a soccer league

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Social Movements Large-scale collective actions to make Civil rights movement, poor
change, or resist change, in specific people’s movements, disability
social institutions movement
Time Dimensions Definitions Examples
Trends Long-term patterns of change that Trend toward greater ethnic
move in a general direction diversity in the United States
Trend toward delayed
childbearing in advanced
industrial countries Trend
toward greater income
inequality between sub-Saharan
Africa and the rest of the world

Cycles Short-term patterns of change that A weekly cycle of work

reverse direction repetitively interspersed with rest and
relaxation Economic downturns
and upturns

Shifts Sudden abrupt changes of direction Changes in patterns of living

following a major loss Changes
in the physical and social
environment following a
natural disaster (e.g., hurricane,
flood, earthquake),or a human-
made disaster such as
September 11,2001

Linear Time Time in terms of a straight line Past, present, future

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