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Determents of Health
Dr. C. SENTHILKUMAR
Assistant Professor,
Dept of Sociology and Social Work
Arsi University, Ethiopia

Chapter - IV
Social Problems
&
Process of Interaction

Social Problems
• Social problem is an issue within the society
that makes it difficult for people to achieve
their full potential. Poverty, unemployment,
unequal opportunity, racism, and malnutrition
are examples of social problems. So are
substandard housing, employment
discrimination, and child abuse and neglect.

Meaning of Crime
• “An act or omission which is prohibited by
criminal law and punished, usually by fine or
imprisonment”.
• "A crime is a wrongful act of such a kind that
the State deems it necessary, in the interests
of the public, to repress it; for its repetition
would be harmful to the community as a
whole."

Determenents of Health - Chapter - IV .ppt

Types of crime
• Antisocial behaviour:
Antisocial behaviour is when you feel
intimidated or distressed by a person's
behaviour towards you.
• Arson:
Arson is when someone deliberately sets fire to
someone else's property to damage it or to
injure people.

• Burglary:
A burglary is when someone breaks into a building
with the intention of stealing, hurting someone or
committing unlawful damage.
• Childhood abuse:
Child abuse can happen in different ways, and can
include neglect as well as physical, emotional and
sexual abuse.

• Cyber crime:
The term cyber crime refers to a variety of
crimes carried out online.
• Domestic abuse:
Domestic abuse describes negative behaviours
that one person exhibits over another within
families or relationships.

• Fraud:
Fraud is when someone tricks or deceives you to
gain a dishonest advantage.
• Hate crime:
Hate crime is the term used to describe an
incident or crime against someone based on a
part of their identity.

• Murder or manslaughter:
Bereavement is a painful experience for anyone,
but when you lose someone because of the
violent actions of another person – through
murder or manslaughter – it can be particularly
devastating.
• Rape and sexual assault:
Find out more about rape and sexual assault and
how you can get help.

• Robbery:
A robbery is when someone takes something from you
with violence or threats – usually (but not always) in
the street or another public place.
• Sexual harassment:
Sexual harassment is any kind of unwanted behaviour
of a sexual nature that makes you feel humiliated or
intimidated, or that creates a hostile environment.
• Terrorism:
Terrorist attacks are sudden and unpredictable and
generally calculated to create a climate of fear or terror
among the public. A terror attack can lead to an
ongoing feeling of insecurity.

• Meaning of Social Interaction:
• Man is a social animal. It is difficult for him to
live in isolation. They always live in groups. As
members of these groups they act in a certain
manner. Their behaviour is mutually affected.
This interaction or mutual activity is the
essence of social life. Social life is not possible
without interactions.

• Eldredge and Merrill say, “Social interaction is
thus the general process whereby two or
more persons are in meaningful contact-as a
result of which their behaviour is modified,
however, slightly”.

• Types of Social Processes:
• There are hundreds of social processes. But
we find some fundamental social processes
that are found to appear repeatedly in society.
These fundamental processes are
socialisation, cooperation, conflict,
competition, accommodation, and
assimilation etc.

• Cooperation:
• Cooperation is one of fundamental processes
of social life. It is a form of social process in
which two or more individuals or groups work
together jointly to achieve common goals.
Cooperation is the form of social interaction in
which all participants benefit by attaining
their goals.

• The term ‘cooperation’ has been derived from
two Latin words – ‘Co’ meaning ‘together and
Operary meaning ‘to work’. Hence,
cooperation means working together for the
achievement of a common goal or goals.
When two or more persons work together to
gain common goal, it is called cooperation.

• Characteristics:
• Following are the important characteristics of
cooperation:
• 1. Cooperation is an associative process of
social interaction which takes place between
two or more individuals or groups.
• 2. Cooperation is a conscious process in which
individuals or groups have to work
consciously.
• 3. Cooperation is a personal process in which
individuals and groups personally meet and
work together for a common objective.

• 4. Cooperation is a continuous process. There
is continuity in the collective efforts in
cooperation.
• 5. Cooperation is a universal process which is
found in all groups, societies and nations.
• 6. Cooperation is based upon two elements
such as common end and organised effort.
• 7. Common ends can be better achieved by
cooperation and it is necessary for the
progress of individual as well as society.

• Types of Cooperation:
• (i) Direct Cooperation:
• Under direct cooperation may be included all
those activities in which people do like things
together. For example, plying together, working
together, carrying a load together or pulling the
car out of mud together. The essential character
of this kind of cooperation is that people do
such identical function which they can also do
separately. This type of cooperation is voluntary
e.g., cooperation between husband and wife,
teacher and student, master and servant etc.

• (ii) Indirect Cooperation:
• Under indirect cooperation are in included
those activities in which people do unlike
tasks together towards a common end. For
example, when carpenters, plumbers and
masons cooperate to build a house. This
cooperation is based on the principle of the
division of labour.

• Accommodation:
• It is a process through which individuals or
groups make adjustment to the changed
situation to overcome difficulties faced by
them. Sometimes new conditions and
circumstances arise in the society. Individuals
have learned to make adjustment to the new
situation. Thus, accommodation means
adjusting oneself to the new environment.

• (i) It is the End-result of Conflict:
• The involvement of hostile individuals or
groups in conflict makes them realize the
importance of accommodation. Since conflict
cannot take place continuously, they make
room for accommodation. It is the natural
result of conflict. If there were no conflict,
there would be no need of accommodation.

• (ii) It is both Conscious and Unconscious
Process:
• Accommodation is mainly an unconscious
activity because a newborn individual
accommodates himself with his family, caste,
play-group, school, and neighbourhood or with
the total environment unconsciously.
Sometimes, individuals and groups make
deliberate and open attempt to stop fighting and
start working together. For example, warring
groups enter into pacts to stop war. Striking
workers stop strike after having an
understanding with the management.

• (iii) It is a Universal Activity:
• Human society is composed of antagonistic
elements and hence conflicts are inevitable.
No society can function smoothly if the
individuals and groups are always engaged in
conflict. They must have to make efforts to
resolve conflicts, so accommodation is very
much necessary. It is found in some degree or
other in every society all the time.

• (iv) It is a Continuous Process:
• Accommodation is not confined to any
particular stage or to any fixed social situation.
Throughout the life, one has to accommodate
oneself with various situations. The continuity
of the process of accommodation does not
break at all. It is as continuous as man’s
breathing.

• (v) It is a Mixture of both Love and Hatred:
• In the words of Ogburn and Nimkoff,
accommodation is the combination of two
kinds of attitude love and hatred. The attitude
of love makes people to cooperate with one
another but it is the hate which leads them to
create conflicts and to get involved in them
and then to accommodate with one another.

• Assimilation:
• Assimilation in social relationships means that
the cultural differences between divergent
groupings of people disappear. Thus, they
come to feel; think and act similarly as they
absorb new common traditions, attitudes and
consequently take on a new cultural identity.
We see the process operating among ethnic
groups which enter a society with their own
society’s culture.

• “Assimilation”, says E.S. Bogardus, “is a
process whereby attitudes of many persons
are united, and thus, develop into a united
group”.

• Characteristics of Assimilation:
• 1. Assimilation is an associative process.
• 2. Assimilation is a universal process. It is
found in every place and at all times.
• 3. Assimilation is a unconscious process.
Individuals are not conscious that the discard
their own values and acquire new set of
values.

• 4. Assimilation is a slow and gradual process.
It is gradual as the individual comes to share
the expectations of another group and slowly
acquires a new set of values. The process
cannot take place overnight. The assimilation
of the Anglo-Saxon and Norman cultures has
taken more than two centuries in Britain.

• 5. Assimilation is a two-way process. It is
based on the principle of give and take.
Assimilation takes place when groups of
individuals borrow cultural elements from
each other and incorporates them to their
own culture. Contact between two groups
essentially affects both. Both the groups
discard their cultural element and substitute
them with new ones.

• Competition:
• Competition is one of the dissociative from of
social processes. It is actually the most
fundamental form of social struggle. It occurs
whenever there is an insufficient supply of
anything that human beings desire,
insufficient in the sense that all cannot have
as much of it as they wish.

• As E.S. Bogardus says. “Competition is a
contest to obtain something which does not
exist in quantity sufficient to meet the
demand.”

• (i) It is Universal:
• Competition is found in every society and in
every age. It is found in every group. It is one
aspect of struggle which is universal not only
in human society but also in the plant and
animal worlds. It is the natural result of the
universal struggle for existence.

• (ii) It is Impersonal:
• Competition is not a personal action. It is an
‘interaction without social contact.” The
competitors are not in contact and do not
know one another. They do not compete with
each other on a personal level. The attention
of all the competitors is fixed on the goal or
the reward they aim at. Due to this reason
competition is known as an impersonal affair.

• (iii) It is an Unconscious Activity:
• Competition takes place on the unconscious
level. Achievement of goal or the reward is
regarded as the main object of competitors.
Rarely they do know about other competitors.
For example, the students of a particular class
get engaged to secure the highest marks in
the final- examination. They do not conceive
of their classmates as competitors. Students
may, no doubt, be conscious of the
competition and much concerned about
marks.

• Conflict:
• Conflict is also goal oriented. But unlike
cooperation and competition, it seeks to
capture its goal by making ineffective the
others who also seek them.

• Gillin and Gillin say, “Conflict is the social
process in which individuals or groups seek
their ends by directly challenging the
antagonist by violence or threat of violence”.

• (i) It is a Universal Process:
• Conflict is an ever-present process. It exists at
all places and all times. It has been in
existence since time immemorial. The cause of
the universality of conflict is the increase of
man’s selfishness and his materialist tendency.
Karl Marx has rightly mentioned, that
‘violence is the mid-wife of history’.

• (ii) It is a Personal Activity:
• Conflict is personal and its aim is to eliminate
the opposite party. The defeat of the
opponent is the main objective in conflict.
When competition is personalised it becomes
conflict. The parties, locked in conflict, lose
sight of their definite goal or objective and try
to defeat one another.

• (iii) It is a Conscious Activity:
• Conflict is a deliberate attempt to oppose or
resist the will of another. It aims at causing
loss or injury to persons or groups. The
attention of every party is fixed on the rival
rather than on the reward or goal, they seek
for. So consciously, knowingly or deliberately
the parties make struggle with each other in
conflict.

• (iv) It is an Intermittent Process:
• There is no continuity in conflict. It is
occasional. It lacks continuity. It is not as
continuous as competition and cooperation. It
may take place all of a sudden and may come
to an end after sometime. If the conflict
becomes continuous, no society can sustain
itself. So it is an intermittent process.

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Determenents of Health - Chapter - IV .ppt

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