Sociology

Sociology
• Sociology is derived from the Latin socio, meaning society and the
Greek logos, meaning science.
• Sociology is the science of society. It deals with the study of
relationship between human beings, it also deals directly with the
study of human behaviour.
• Whereas the unit of study of psychology is the individual, the unit of
study of sociology is the group.
• Sociology studies man in the context of society and as a part of it.
 Medical sociology
• Medical sociology is a specialization within the field of sociology.
• Its main interest is in the study of health, health behaviour and medical institutions.
• Illness is viewed not only as a medical problem but also as a psychological and social problem.
• The problems presented by patients are not always purely medical but also psycho-social.
• Diseases such as tuberculosis, leprosy, sexually transmitted diseases have a big social
component in their aetiology.
• Medical scientists are increasingly turning their attention to the study of social, behavioural
and cultural factors of illness.
• Physiotherapist needs to have a fuller appreciation of biological, behavioural and social
sciences.
• A successful Physiotherapist must possess a knowledge of the community and the factors
which affect the health of the community.
Society
• The importance of society lies in the fact that it controls and regulates the behaviour of
the individual both by law and customs.
• It can exert pressure on the individual to conform to its norms. In
• Society is a vast network of relationships and compulsions that propel, direct and
constrain man's individual efforts.
• The character of society is dynamic; it changes over time and place.
• Public health is an integral part of the social system.
• It is influenced by society, and society by public health.
• In many places it is the social organization that has made it possible to translate into
practice the scientific concepts and achievements.
• As a result, the mortality rates have been brought to low levels and the life expectancy
at birth has soared to very high levels.
Community
• "The people living in a particular place or region and usually linked by
common interests" or "A group of individuals and families living
together in a defined geographic area, usually comprising a village,
town or city“
• The definition accepted by WHO Expert Committee is "A community
is a social group determined by geographical boundaries and/or
common values and interests. Its members know and interact with
each other. It functions within a particular social structure and
exhibits and creates certain norms, values, and social institutions. The
individual belongs to the broader society through his family and
community
SOCIAL STRUCTURE

• Social structure refers to the pattern of inter-relations between

persons.
• Every society has a social structure – a complex of major institutions,
groups, power structure and status hierarchy.
• The study of social structure is comparable to the study of anatomy
and that of social organization to that of physiology.
SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS

• A social institution is an organized complex pattern of behaviour in

which a number of persons participate in order to further group
interest.
• The family, the school, the church, the club, the hospital, political
parties, professional associations and the panchayats are social
institutions.
• Within each institution, the rights and duties of the members are
defined
Roles
• In a society, individuals are allocated roles as people in a drama.
• Sociologists have classified roles into ascribed and achieved,
according to whether a particular role is "given" by virtue of sex, age,
and birth status or "acquired" by virtue of education or otherwise.
• In a single day, a man may play a role of husband, father, employee,
friend, son, brother, committee chairman, guest, neighbour.
• The playing of these roles enables him to cooperate with others in
many situations according to well-defined roles
Socialism
• Socialism is the general term for any economic doctrine that favours
the use of property and resources of the country for the public
welfare.
• It is a system of production and distribution based on social
ownership for raising the living standard of the working class,
• Capitalism is based on private ownership of the means of production
and aims at maximum private profit at the expense of the working
masses. Motto of capitalism is 'all for each' and 'each for each’,
• Motto of socialism is 'all for all' and 'each for all'.
SOCIALIZATION
• Every society has its beliefs, customs, traditions and prejudices.
• A man acquires these in his everyday social interaction with the
people of the society. This is called "socialization" or the process by
which an individual gradually acquires culture and becomes a
member of a social group.
• Children going to school is an instance of socialization. The internship
training programme of doctors is another instance.
SOCIAL CONTROL MECHANISMS
• In every society there are rules, formal and informal, for the
maintenance of relationships of authority and subordination.
• The laws and enactments of Parliament are social control
mechanisms.
• In the field of health, there are various Acts, some central and others
state or local which help to maintain the standards of health.
• In small organizations, there are sets of formal rules and regulations
which control the behaviour of individuals to perform different roles.
CUSTOMS
• The mere existence of a society, the mere plurality of individuals gives
rise to customs from which no single member of the community can
escape.
• The 'highly developed' societies of the modern world are just as
replete with social customs as the 'primitive societies' of the past.
• These customs are quite numerous and quite as powerful
CULTURE
• The word "culture" is widely used in sociology. It is the central
concept around which cultural anthropology has grown.
• Culture is defined as "learned behaviour which has been socially
acquired". Culture is the product of human societies, and man is
largely a product of his cultural environment.
• Culture is transmitted from one generation to another through
learning processes, formal and informal
ACCULTURATION
• Acculturation means "culture contact."
• When there is contact between two people with different types of
culture, there is diffusion of culture both ways.
• There are various ways by which culture contact takes place
• (1) trade and commerce,
• (2) industrialization,
• (3) propagation of religion,
• (4) education
• (5) conquest
STANDARD OF LIVING
• The term "standard of living" refers to the usual scale of our expenditure, the
goods we consume and the services we enjoy. It includes food, dress, house,
amusements and in short the mode of living.
• The standard of living in a country depends upon :
• (1) the level of national income
• (2) the total amount of goods and services a country is able to produce
• (3) the size of the population
• (4) the level of education
• (5) general price level
• (6) the distribution of national income.
SOCIAL STRESS
• A major source of stress, particularly in transitional societies, is the
conflict generated by new opportunities and frustrations arising from
societal changes.
• These stress inducing conditions include :
• the wave of migration from rural to urban areas and the consequent diminution
in the traditional family support system;
• a greater exposure through mass media to ideas that had been previously
culturally alien;
• tourism; changes in the technological needs of society requiring skills that are
different from those of the previous generation and for which the training or
education available may be inadequate and the encouragement by commercial
interests of economic aspirations that are often unrealistic
SOCIAL PROBLEMS
• In a community, there are both individual and social problems.
• Individual problems become social problems when they affect a large number
of people amounting to a threat to the welfare or safety of the whole group.
• All individual problems are not social problems.
• Poverty, crime and disease are the common social problems.
• Many public health problems are social problems and vice versa.
• Alcoholism, venereal diseases, mental illness and narcotic addiction are both,
public health and social problems.
• Social problems as housing, divorce, population growth, increased number of
old people have public health implications calling for a combined sociological
and public health action
SOCIAL PATHOLOGY
• The term "social pathology" is given a restricted interpretation linking
it to poverty, crime, delinquency and vagrancy.
• In the modern context, the term is also used to describe the relation
between disease and social conditions.
• The social pathology of accidents, diabetes, cardiovascular disease,
cancer, chronic bronchitis have all been subject of recent
investigations in medical literature.
• Social pathology is uncovered by "social surveys"
SOCIAL SURVEYS
• Social surveys disclose social pathology.
• Social surveys have played an important part, in the development of public
health.
• Survey by Chadwick that led to the foundation of the General Board of Health
in 1848 in Great Britain.
• There is a strong kinship between epidemiological survey and social survey.
• When the objective of the research is to study the role of social factors in the
aetiology of disease, the two merge into what is known as "social
epidemiology".
• Large scale social epidemiological studies have investigated the relationship of
social factors to heart disease, cancer and arthritis
CASE STUDY
• Case study is a method of exploring and analyzing the life of a social
unit - be that unit a person, a family, an institution, culture group, or
even an entire community.
• Its aim is to determine the factors that account for the complex
behaviour patterns of the unit and the relationships of the unit to its
surrounding milieu.
• The case study differs from the survey in the respect that it attempts
to collect a large amount of information from a small number of units
whereas a survey collects a relatively small amount of information
from a large number of units
FIELD STUDY
• Whereas surveys are concerned with the breadth of knowledge
(systematic collection of data from population or samples of
population through personal interviews or other data-gathering
devices),
• field studies are concerned with depth of knowledge; they involve
observation of people in situ.
COMMUNICATION
• The term "communication" refers to a social process the flow of
information, the circulation of knowledge and ideas, and the
propagation of thoughts.
• The role of communication in community health is to help motivate
people to accept ideas;
• the ultimate aim of communication is to bring about changes in
behaviour.
• The mass media (e.g., song and drama, radio talks, posters) are
extensively used as vehicles of dissemination of information.
SOCIAL DEFENCE
• A new concept has come into vogue in recent times - the concept of
social defence.
• It covers the entire gamut of preventive, therapeutic and
rehabilitative services for the protection of society from antisocial,
criminal or deviant conduct of man. Included in this are measures
relating to the prevention and control of juvenile delinquency,
eradication of beggary, social and moral hygiene programmes, welfare
of prisoners, prison reforms, elimination of prostitution, control of
alcoholism, drug addiction, gambling and suicides
THE FAMILY
• The family is a primary unit in all societies.
• It is a group of biologically related individuals living together and eating from a common kitchen.
• The term family differs from household in that all the members of a household may not be
blood relations, e.g., servants.
• As a biological unit, the family members share a pool of genes :
• as a social unit, they share a common physical and social environment.
• As a cultural unit, the family reflects the culture of the wider society of which it forms a part and
determines the behaviour and attitudes of its members.
• The family is also an epidemiological unit, and a unit for providing social services as well as
comprehensive medical care.
• The family therefore has engaged the attention of sociologists, anthropologists, demographers,
epidemiologists, medical scientists, and in fact all those who are concerned with family welfare.
• (1) Family of origin or the family into which one is born, and
• (2) Family of procreation or the family which one sets up after
marriage.
• 1. NUCLEAR FAMILY
• The nuclear or elementary family is universal in all human societies. It consists
of the married couple and their children while they are still regarded as
dependents. They tend to occupy the same dwelling space.
2. JOINT FAMILY
• The main characteristics of a typical joint family are
• (1) It consists of a number of married couples and their children who live together
in the same household.
• All the men are related by blood and the women of the household are their wives,
unmarried girls and widows of the family kinsmen.
• (2) All the property is held in common. There is a common family purse to which
all the family income goes and from which all the expenditures are met.
• (3) All the authority is vested in the senior male member of the family. He is the
most dominant member and controls the internal and external affairs of the
family. The senior female member by virtue of her being the wife of the male
head shares his power so far as the women of the family are concerned.
• (4) The familial relations enjoy primacy over marital relations.
3 THREE GENERATION FAMILY
• This tends to be a household where there are representatives of three
generations.
• It occurs usually when young couples are unable to find separate
housing accommodation and continue to live with their parents and
have their own children.
• Representatives of three generations related to each other by direct
descent live together.
Functions of the family

• (1) Residence : One of the major social functions of the family is to

provide a clean and decent home to its members.
• (2) Division of labour
• (3) Reproduction and bringing up of children
• (5) Economic functions : The family implies economic partnership for
the family and the progeny.
• (6) Social care
• (a) giving status in a society to its members, i.e., use of family names where it
occurs
• (b) giving status in a society to its members,
• (c) regulating marital activities of its members
• (d) regulating to a certain extent political, religious and general social
activities,
• (e) regulating sex relations through incest-taboos.
 Role of family in Health and disease

• The family is a group of biologically related

individuals
• Family performs many functions.
• Certain functions of family are relevant to health
and health behaviour,
• They are important from the medical-sociology
point of view
1. CHILD REARING
• community health workers are concerned, is the physical care of the
dependent young in order that they may survive to adulthood and
perpetuate the family.
• child rearing differs from society to society, and from time to time,
• this depends upon factors such as
• capital resources,
• level of knowledge,
• state of technology
• and system of values
• Patterns of child care (e.g., feeding, nutrition, hygiene, sleep, clothing,
discipline, habit training) are passed on from one generation to
another.
• In many societies, child care is socially determined by tradition.
• child care is more permissive in the East starting with the "on
demand" schedule at mother's breast.
• in the West, child care is more rigid and confined to a set of rules
• When the community health worker seeks to improve the health of
the child, he meets several obstacles:
• Traditional ways which are supported by appeals to religion and other
sanctions.
• Variations between societies may be complex and difficult to change.
2. SOCIALIZATION
• Responsibility of the family is to socialize the "stream of new-born
barbarians.“
• It’s the latent function or process whereby individuals develop
qualities essential for functioning effectively in the society in which
they live in.
 2. SOCIALIZATION
• Teaching the young the values of society and transmitting
information, culture, beliefs, general codes of conduct, by example
and precept, to make children fit for membership in the wider society
of which the family is a part.
• Organizations such as schools and religious places perform cultural functions
for the introduction of the young into adult society.
• The young are persuaded, given punishments, rewards for good behaviour –
3. PERSONALITY FORMATION
• This is a latent function of family.
• It is an area in which sociology comes closest to psychology.
• Early experience in the family, mainly with the father, mother and
siblings who provide the earliest and most immediate component of the
child's external environment.
• The capacity of an individual to withstand stress and strain and the way in which
he interacts with other people.
• The family acts as a "placenta“
• excluding various influences, modifying others that pass through it.
• contributes in laying the foundation of physical, mental and social health of the
child.
 4. CARE OF DEPENDENT ADULTS
• (a) Care of the sick and injured :
• In all forms of society, adults may become dependent either
through injury, illness.
• Care of illness is of great importance in determining the attitudes
of society where the illness arouses fear (e.g., leprosy) .
• Family is charged with the responsibility of such illness.
• The family is expected to provide the front-line care, particularly
the mother.
• Studies have shown that the family does more nursing than the
hospital, even in highly developed countries.
 CARE OF DEPENDANT ADULTS
• (b) Care of women during pregnancy and child birth :
• care of women during periods of recognized dependency, i.e.,
pregnancy and childbirth is an important function of the family.
• The attitude of society to pregnancy is associated to infant deaths,
premature and stillbirths, maternal morbidity and mortality.
• In many societies women are given financial help, maternity leave
facilities, diet and nutritional supplements and decreased
responsibilities during pregnancy and puerperium
CARE OF DEPENDANT ADULTS

(c) Care of the aged and handicapped :

• The increased number of such people have created new problems in
terms of long term care and specialist facilities.
• Without the support of the family, no amount of medical care can
succeed.
• Joint family provides for such support.
5. STABILIZATION OF ADULT
PERSONALITY
• The family is like a "shock absorber" to the stress and strains of life.
The stress could be injury, illness, births, deaths, tension, emotional
upsets, worry, anxiety, economic insecurity and the like.
• Family has an important function in the stabilization of the personality
of both adults and children, and in meeting their emotional needs.
• family provides an opportunity, for adults and children, for release of
tension so that the individual can attain mental equilibrium and strive
to maintain a stable relationship with other people.
 6. FAMILIAL SUSCEPTIBILITY TO
DISEASE
• The stress of modern living has increased the importance of mental
illness as a public health problem.
• Alcoholism and narcotic addiction are also a reflection of this trend.
• Chronic illnesses such as peptic ulcer, colitis, high blood pressure,
rheumatism, skin diseases are accepted as "stress diseases" having a
prominent emotional element in their development.
6. FAMILIAL SUSCEPTIBILITY TO
DISEASE
• The members of a family share a pool of genes and a common
environment and together, these decide their susceptibility to
disease.
• Certain diseases such as haemophilia, colour blindness, diabetes and
mental illness are known to run through families.
• Schizophrenia, psychoneurosis and some forms of mental deficiency
are also known to have a familial incidence.
• The family is often the playground also for such communicable
diseases as tuberculosis, common cold, scabies, diphtheria, measles,
mumps, rubella, chickenpox, dysentery, diarrhoea, and enteric fever.
 6. FAMILIAL SUSCEPTIBILITY TO
DISEASE
• These diseases are known to spread rapidly in families because of the
common environment which the family members share.
• Incidence of congenital malformation is higher among offsprings of
consanguineous as compared with non-consanguineous marriages.
7. BROKEN FAMILY
• A broken family is one where the parents have separated, or where death
has occurred of one or both the parents.
• Dr. John Bowlby brought out clearly the concept of "mental deprivation"
as one of the most dangerous pathogenic factors in child development .
• Separation of the child from its father (paternal separation) and
separation of the child from both of its parents (dual-parental separation)
are important factors in child development.
• Children who are victims of broken families early in their childhood have
been found sometimes to display in later years psychopathic behaviour,
immature personality and even retardation of growth, speech and
intellect.
8. PROBLEM FAMILIES
• Problem families are those which lag behind the rest of the
community.
• In these families, the standards of life are generally far below the
accepted minimum and parents are unable to meet the physical and
emotional needs of their children.
• The home life is utterly unsatisfactory.
 8. PROBLEM FAMILIES
• The underlying factors in most problem families are :
• personality and of relationship,
• backwardness,
• poverty,
• illness,
• mental and emotional instability,
• character defects and marital disharmony.
• These families are recognized as problems in social pathology
8. PROBLEM FAMILIES
• The health visitor, the health inspector, the midwife, the social worker,
the medical officer of health, all can render useful service in
rehabilitating such families in a community.
Marriage
• Marriage is a sacred institution.
• It is the usual social custom in Nepal to perform marriages early.
• It is considered a sound and desirable practice, because late
marriages may create problems in adjustment, especially in joint
family systems.
• Monogamy is the most universal form of marriage.
• Polygamy (marriage of one man with several woman) prevails in
certain communities.
• Polyandry (marriage of several men with one women)
Structure of society
• (1) Caste:
• Nepali society is mostly based on caste system.
• There are further sub-divisions into sub-castes.
• Each caste is governed by certain rules and regulations relating to food, drink, marriage, social contact
and rituals.
• Castes follow a definite occupation.
• In urban areas, the caste system is less rigid.
• The Nepali caste system is supported by religion.
• (2) Income :
• On the basis of income, people have been grouped into classes - upper, middle and lower classes.
People in the upper class enjoy better standards of life.
• (3) Occupation :
• Occupation has also been adopted for classifying people. In Nepal, there is no satisfactory
occupational class system.