The concept of social adaptation
Social adaptation is an integrative indicator of an individual’s state, reflecting his ability and ability to perform social functions, which include:
- appropriate perception of the surrounding world and one’s body;
- an adequate system of relationships with others, the ability to learn, work, and organize recreation;
- adaptability of behavior in accordance with the role expectations of other people.
Social adaptation is the process and result of an individual’s active adaptation to the conditions of a new social environment.
Content of social adaptation: the maximum possible convergence of value orientations and goals of the group and the individual belonging to this group. The individual’s assimilation of traditions, norms, and culture of the group, integration into the role structure of the group.
Socio-psychological adaptation is accompanied by the individual’s adaptation to new conditions, the realization of his interests, aspirations, and needs. Having entered a new social environment, a person becomes a full member of it, develops individuality and asserts himself.
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Socio-psychological adaptation is accompanied by the development of social qualities of behavior, communication, and activity accepted in society, thanks to which the individual realizes his needs, aspirations, and interests.
Lecture “Social adaptation and social maladaptation - essence and main types”
Plan:
1. The concept of “social adaptation” and its essential characteristics.
2. Social maladjustment: concept, causes
Literature:
1. Social work / Ed. V.I. Kurbatova.-R/ on the Don., 2000.-P.307-316
2. Social pedagogy / Edited by V.A. Nikitin. - M., 2000. -
3. Nikonchuk A.S. Social adaptation and socialization of the individual in the context of socio-pedagogical work. / A.S. Nikonchuk // SPR.-2005. No. 3
4. Kholostova E.I. Social work with maladjusted adolescents: Textbook / E.I. Kholostova. –M.: Publishing and trading corporation “Dashkov and K”, 2007
5. Dictionary of a social teacher and social worker: / Ed. I.I. Kalacheva, Ya.L. Kolominsky. – Mn.: BelEn., 2001-256 p.
6.Social adaptation of adolescents /author-comp. L.V. Astapovich. – MN.: Krishko-Print, 2008
1 question.
The concept of “social adaptation” has been used in science for a long time and widely. At the same time, the scope of application of the concept is not limited to any one specific industry or area of scientific knowledge. On the contrary, the concepts of “adaptation” and “adaptation process” are used today in biology and social psychology, philosophy and cybernetics, sociology and ecology, etc.
It can be argued that the problems of adaptation processes are problems of a comprehensive study of man and the world around him.
These studies began with the biological sciences, where adaptation is considered as the process of adapting the structure and functions of the body to the conditions of existence and getting used to them.
In a certain sense of the word, the process of human life can be reduced to the need to constantly solve the problem of “getting used to” in new systems of social relations, groups, value systems, etc. This happens, first of all, due to the dynamic nature of social life, leading to constant changes in the human environment.
In its most general form, the concept of “social adaptation” can be defined as follows: it is a process of interaction between a subject
and the social environment, during which the requirements and expectations of its participants are agreed upon .
Social adaptation –
the process of adaptation of an individual or social group to a new living environment through its active assimilation.
Social adaptation is carried out in various spheres of human life
Social adaptation –
an integrative indicator of a person’s condition, reflecting his ability to perform certain biosocial functions:
adequate perception of the surrounding reality and one’s own body;
an adequate system of relationships and communication with others;
flexibility (adaptability) of behavior in accordance with the role expectations of others.
The most important element of this process is the coordination of the subject’s self-esteem, aspirations and capabilities with the realities of the social environment. This coordination includes, firstly, the real level of the process - the state of the environment and the social subject at a given point in time, and, secondly, the potential level - the possibilities, trends and patterns of development of both the social environment and the social subject.
From the above it follows that the process of social adaptation is a mutually directed process, i.e. presupposing the mutual influence of the social environment and the social subject on each other.
In the process of social adaptation, the following are formed:
communication skills acceptable to the environment,
behavior and activities that enable the individual to assert himself and realize his needs
Social adaptation is associated with another process associated with the subject’s mastery of the social environment—the process of socialization.
Thus, the concepts and processes of social adaptation and socialization mutually define and complement each other. On the one hand, socialization presupposes that the subject has the ability to understand and assimilate the changing conditions of life; on the other hand, social adaptation represents a mechanism and one of the forms of socialization of the individual.
However, these two processes differ significantly from each other.
The process of socialization is a long, gradual process of evolution
of a fundamental nature, including recognition, accumulation and assimilation of new knowledge, skills and abilities, the process of transforming social values and norms into internal mechanisms for regulating one’s own activities (the process of internalization).
The adaptation process has a more compressed time frame, this is
rather, a revolutionary process in which social changes and problems that have been created must be eliminated or internalized in relatively short periods of time.
In the course of social adaptation, not everything is mastered and assimilated, but relatively stable and significant elements of the social environment and the most typical forms and methods of solving social problems.
A person, group or organization must, first of all, adapt precisely to such conditions and use the results of this process as the basis or basis for deepening and concretizing the subsequent process of social adaptation.
1.1.
Types of adaptation
Complete social adaptation
person includes:
Physiological adaptation
.
Managerial (organizational) adaptation
. Without management, it is impossible to provide a person with favorable conditions (at work, at home), create the prerequisites for the development of his social role, influence him, and ensure activities that meet the interests of society and the individual.
Social adaptation is a controlled process. It can be managed not only in line with the influence of social institutions on the individual during his production, non-production, pre-production, post-production life, but also in line with self-government.
Economic adaptation
. This is a very complex process of assimilation of new socio-economic norms and principles of economic relations of individuals and subjects.
Pedagogical adaptation
. This is an adaptation to the system of education, training and upbringing, which form the individual’s system of value guidelines.
In Russia, about 45 million children and adolescents are outside the school system; tens of thousands have become homeless; 20% have experience using drugs; 16% experience physical and 24% psychological violence in schools; up to 76% of school-age children have various forms of mental disorders (among disadvantaged schoolchildren this figure increases to 95%); The death rate from suicide among teenagers has increased by 60% over the past 5 years; child and teenage crime, especially serious and group crimes, is growing faster than crime in the adult population.
Psychological adaptation
. In psychology, adaptation is considered as the process of adapting the senses to the characteristics of the stimuli acting on them in order to better perceive them and protect the receptors from excessive load. The process of human psychological adaptation occurs continuously, since socio-economic living conditions, political and moral-ethical orientations, environmental conditions, etc. are constantly changing.
Professional adaptation
- this is the individual’s adaptation to a new type of professional activity, a new social environment, working conditions and the characteristics of a particular specialty. The success of professional adaptation depends on the adapter’s inclination towards a specific professional activity, the coincidence of social and personal motivation for work and other reasons.
1.2. Stages of social adaptation
Social adaptation is a process that represents the unity of the following stages.
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1. Adaptation shock,
which is understood as a general disorder of the functions of a social subject or system, due to some shock of a sociogenic nature caused by a sharp disruption of the usual interaction with the external environment. This is one of the most painful stages of social adaptation, and a period of paralyzing fear and inaction and, at the same time, a primary, emotional assessment and an attempt at the very first understanding of the essence of the changes taking place. It is at this stage of social adaptation that the subject first faces the need to master new elements of the social environment and learns their positive and negative aspects.
At this stage, the individual (social group) becomes aware of the fact that her previous behavior does not contribute to the achievement of success and it is necessary to change the model of behavior taking into account the requirements of the new social environment. To change behavioral patterns, an active position of the individual is required.
The considered stage of social adaptation represents a fairly serious danger for social subjects whose social, psychological and physical potential is insufficient to overcome the difficulties that arise. In some cases, adaptation shock can become the basis for the destruction of the human personality or even its physical death.
2.Mobilization of adaptation resources
. Here, for subjects who managed to survive the stage of adaptation shock, a stage of deep understanding of the situation begins and concentration of efforts on a conscious search for a way out of it.
This stage is associated with an active, conscious search, choice and
mastering new models of life at the behavioral level. In this case, the subject, relying on the results of the initial development of the new social environment at the previous stage of social adaptation, gets the opportunity
choose and put into practice the most suitable way of behavior and activity for him, activating his own abilities and capabilities.
The present stage of social adaptation involves the activation of the subject’s adaptive potential
, which is understood as a set of properties and resources that a person or group has in
hidden form and is activated and updated in the process of social adaptation.
Elements of adaptive potential are characteristics of a subject such as:
level of education and qualifications,
demographic and social status,
socio-psychological characteristics, etc.
It is the presence of the subject’s adaptive potential and its characteristic features that determine the subject’s ability to master the power of
situation and get used to it.
3
.
Response to the “challenge of the environment”.
This is the final stage of the process of social adaptation. Its content represents the implementation of a specific model of behavior and activity that is chosen by the subject taking into account his own adaptive resources and capabilities, ideas about what is happening, as well as the main characteristics of the social environment in which the process of social adaptation takes place.
At the same time, it is necessary to remember that the choice made by the subject does not necessarily have to meet the requirements of the environment. The subject may
make a mistake in your choice, choosing a model of behavior and activity that
corresponds to his own goals, aspirations and capabilities, but contradicts the objective laws and trends in the development of the situation in which the process of social adaptation takes place. This circumstance can subsequently lead a person to serious problems and difficulties.
There are other approaches to identifying the stages of social adaptation. A number of researchers identify four qualitative stages
of social
adaptation:
first (initial) stage
when an adapting individual grasps only the rules of behavior, but the value system of society is not internally recognized by him;
second stage
(tolerance), when both the social environment and the individual recognize the equivalence of standards of behavior in relation to each other;
third stage - adaptation, “accommodation”
“- is associated with mutual concessions: the individual recognizes and accepts the value system of the environment, but representatives of this environment also recognize some of his values;
fourth stage -
complete adaptation, “assimilation”, when an individual abandons previous patterns and values and completely accepts new ones.
1.4. Mechanisms of social adaptation
The sequential change of the main stages of social adaptation involves the use of various mechanisms at each of them, each of which is distinguished by its originality and adaptive capabilities that appear in a person or group and with their help solve the problem of adaptation to new conditions of their life.
Mechanisms of social adaptation can be classified according to
for various reasons:
according to the forms of their acceptance by the subject of adaptation. There are two main mechanisms of social adaptation: voluntary and forced.
Voluntary adaptation is a situation in which new living conditions offered to a subject by the environment do not contradict his system of value orientations, beliefs and ideals and opens up new prospects and opportunities for the subject and, therefore, is accepted without resistance, even if this requires making certain efforts . For example, the opportunity to make a good career or receive a high salary can be considered by a person as the basis and necessity for changing jobs and adapting to a new team, obtaining education, retraining, etc. Difficulties that inevitably arise during the development of a new environment and new living conditions are accepted by the subject as “difficulties of growth” that must be passed through in order to get what they want.
In conditions of voluntary adaptation, changes in the social environment to which the subject needs to adapt, firstly, do not prevent him from living and ideating in a familiar, convenient and accessible way for him.
Secondly, the values, principles and ideals that were previously characteristic of the subject change in the new conditions of life without much resistance or tension, since he himself believed or was convinced of the merits and advantages of the new, in comparison with the old. Thirdly, the requirements that are presented to the subject by the social environment are, to a certain extent, adjusted in such a way that they become understandable and accessible to him.
Forced adaptation, on the contrary, is a situation in which the characteristics and properties of a new living environment for a subject do not correspond to and contradict his value-normative attitudes. However, at the same time, the subject cannot but accept these characteristics.
That is, in contrast to voluntary adaptation, forced adaptation rigidly forces a person to accept new living conditions. Without doing this, he will not only be unable to find a new social niche for himself and new opportunities for self-realization, but will also lose the existing ones.
For example, to save your life and
to their loved ones, the opportunity to work, study, etc., a person can agree
strive to accept the most stringent demands of society or government, even those that contradict his inner convictions.
Based on the means used in the adaptation process, the following mechanisms of social adaptation are distinguished.
1.Mental mechanisms
, aimed at the formation and development of the subject’s psyche, the impact on it of various factors of the social environment and the adaptation of the individual’s mental makeup to the requirements of the environment. This group of social adaptation mechanisms includes the mechanisms of mental defense, mental trauma, mental and psychological suggestion, etc.
2. Socio-psychological mechanisms
, intended for adaptation
the individual’s connection to the environment through its development in various ways.
This group includes:
cognitive mechanisms, i.e. adaptation to the environment through its exploration, study and cognition. These include the mechanisms of imagination, thinking, and cognitive activity.
emotional mechanisms that allow the subject to adapt to the environment through the emotional states that it causes. In this case, the emotional experiences of an individual in a new living environment become the basis for him making appropriate decisions regarding the most appropriate forms of behavior and activity for the environment. These mechanisms include fear, worry, anxiety, peace, etc.
behavioral mechanisms, which represent the choice and implementation by a subject in a new situation of a certain model of behavior and activity.
3.Social mechanisms
. These include:
a mechanism of social activity that can be considered as a universal mechanism of social adaptation. It is in the process of social activity that the subject is actually included in a new system of social relations, norms and values. As part of social activity, the subject acquires new social statuses and roles that allow him to enter a new social environment.
a mechanism of social communication that allows the subject, firstly, to improve his existing communication skills and acquire new ones, and secondly, to expand the social environment of his own life and learn new social norms and values.
The external form of manifestation of adaptation processes, which allows us to draw conclusions about how successfully they proceed in each specific case, is adaptation behavior
, i.e. the process of interaction between the subject and the social environment, during which mutual requirements and expectations are agreed upon and certain mechanisms of social adaptation are implemented.
A subject can choose various forms of adaptive behavior in the process of solving problems of social adaptation.
The main forms of adaptive behavior include:
conformism or subordination of the subject to the environment, when he fully fulfills the new requirements placed on him;
innovation or renewal by a subject of the environment, when the development of the environment is carried out by the subject through certain changes in its individual aspects, properties and characteristics;
external decency or ritualism, in which the subject’s adaptation to the environment occurs through external adherence to the requirements placed on him; at the same time, the subject’s own internal motives and goals may not coincide with similar characteristics of his new social environment;
“withdrawal” of the subject from the environment, his self-isolation or retreatism; such behavior is chosen by the subject, most often, when his own social and personal resources are insufficient to overcome the stage of adaptation shock or when the subject’s own goals and interests do not fundamentally coincide and cannot coincide with similar characteristics of the environment;
transformation by the subject of the environment or rebellion, rebellion, when the subject seeks to completely transform the environment in accordance with his ideas about it.
In the process of social adaptation, the subject’s activity
May be:
1. Adaptive, when he himself strives to adapt to the environment (con-
Formism, ritualism and retreatism);
2. Adaptive, in which the subject strives to independently change the environment in accordance with his goals, objectives and needs. The most effective result of social adaptation can be achieved in the case of a combination of adaptive and adaptive aspects in the behavior of the subject.
The process of an individual’s adaptation to a new living environment
involves identifying those aspects, properties and characteristics to which it is necessary to adapt, first of all, i.e. object of social adaptation.
Depending on the social object
adaptation, some of its types can be distinguished.
1.Functional
, which is the subject’s adaptation to a new social environment through the development and performance of new social functions. For example, a child’s adaptation to school is possible, among other things, through his mastering the student’s functional responsibilities.
2.Organizational,
associated with the development and adaptation of the subject to new organizational structures, to a new system of social or intragroup stratification. An example of such adaptation can be a person’s mastery of hierarchical relationships in a new team. For example, at work, military service.
3. Situational
, which represents the external adaptation of the subject to new conditions of existence and life. This type of social adaptation can be observed when a subject begins to adapt to the environment by fulfilling some of its requirements, rules and norms.
A person living in a real society has to adapt to certain life processes. This adaptability is required in:
the field of labor relations;
personal and household sphere;
cultural and leisure sphere.
Based on this, scientists identify three main types (levels) of social adaptation:
Production;
Household;
Leisure
The reason for adaptation may be:
A change in the social status and position of an individual or group of persons in connection with a new social situation (enrolling in school, changing schools, losing a job, retiring, etc.).
An increasingly complex social situation, a different status of an individual (group of persons) are unique criteria for classifying the main directions of social adaptation in relation to social and pedagogical activities.
The following areas of social adaptation in SPD can be distinguished:
Social adaptation to adult life of orphans – graduates of boarding schools;
Adaptation of disabled children to new living conditions;
Adaptation of persons subjected to violence;
adaptation of disaster survivors;
adaptation of pensioners to new living conditions;
adaptation of children to school, etc.
When organizing work on social support for a person, group or organization faced with the need for social adaptation to new conditions of existence and life, it is necessary to take into account that this process presupposes the need for the subject to overcome quite serious barriers.
To the main barriers to social adaptation in modern
society can be attributed to:
socio-psychological (beliefs, principles, habits, stereotypes of behavior and activity inherent in the subject);
social (representing negative characteristics of social
al environment in which the adaptation process takes place);
sociocultural (value-normative characteristics of the subject).
Question 2. Social maladjustment: concept, causes
One of the areas of activity of a social teacher is the prevention of maladaptive behavior and SPD with maladjusted adolescents.
Disadaptation –
a relatively short-term situational state resulting from the influence of new, unusual stimuli in a changed environment and signaling an imbalance between mental activity and the demands of the environment.
Disadaptation
can be defined as a difficulty complicated by any factors of adaptation to changing conditions, expressed in an inadequate response and behavior of the individual.
The following types of maladjustment are distinguished:
1.
In educational institutions, a social teacher most often encounters the so-called
school maladjustment
, which usually precedes social maladjustment.
School maladjustment -
This is a discrepancy between the psychophysical and sociopsychological state of the child and the requirements of schooling, in which the acquisition of knowledge, skills and abilities becomes difficult, and in extreme cases, impossible.
2.Social maladjustment
in the pedagogical aspect - a special type of behavior of a minor, which does not correspond to the basic principles of behavior universally recognized as mandatory for children and adolescents. It manifests itself:
in violation of moral and legal norms,
in antisocial behavior,
in the deformation of the value system, internal self-regulation, social attitudes;
alienation from the main institutions of socialization (family, school);
a sharp deterioration in neuro-mental health;
Increased teenage alcoholism and suicidal tendencies.
Social maladjustment –
a deeper degree of maladjustment than at school. She is characterized by antisocial manifestations (foul language, smoking, drinking alcohol, impudent antics) and alienation from family and school, which leads to:
to a decrease or loss of motivation for learning, cognitive activity,
difficulties in professional determination;
a decrease in the level of moral and value concepts;
decreased ability of adequate self-esteem.
Depending on the degree of depth and deformation of socialization, two stages of maladjustment
:
Stage 1
social maladaptation is represented by pedagogically neglected students
Stage 2
represented by socially neglected teenagers. Social neglect is characterized by deep alienation from family and school as the main institutions of socialization. The formation of such children is under the influence of asocial and criminal groups. Children are characterized by vagrancy, neglect, and drug addiction; They are not professionally oriented and have a negative attitude towards work.
The literature identifies several factors influencing the process of adolescent maladaptation:
heredity (psychophysical, social, sociocultural);
psychological and pedagogical factor (defects in school and family education)
social factor (social and socio-economic conditions for the functioning of society);
deformation of society itself
social activity of the individual himself, i.e. an active and selective attitude towards the norms and values of one’s environment, its impact;
social deprivation experienced by children and adolescents;
personal value orientations and the ability to self-regulate one’s environment.
In addition to social maladaptation, there are also:
2.. Pathogenic disadaptation
– caused by deviations, pathologies of mental development and neuropsychiatric diseases, which are based on functional and organic lesions of the nervous system (mental retardation, mental retardation, etc.).
3. Psychosocial maladjustment
caused by the gender, age and individual psychological characteristics of the child, which determine their certain non-standardity, difficulty in educating, requiring an individual approach and special psychosocial and psychological-pedagogical correctional programs.
In this case, we are talking about some personal psychological characteristics that complicate the social adaptation of children and adolescents. These may include:
various character traits;
inadequate expression of self-esteem; violation of the emotional-volitional and communication sphere
2.1. Directions for working with maladjusted children and adolescents.
The main directions of social and pedagogical work with maladjusted children and adolescents are:
early diagnosis of children at risk.
Here, first of all, you need to keep an eye on certain groups of children with an increased risk of developing maladaptive forms of behavior disorders:
—
hyperactive children:
—
children raised in families with different levels of social maladjustment (dysfunctional);
—
children under parental overprotection;
—
children with a high hereditary burden of mental and psychosomatic diseases.
Advisory and explanatory
working with parents; teachers.
Activation
educational efforts of the environment, work with contact groups of adolescents, including families.
Organization of correctional and rehabilitation
work depending on the level of maladjustment.
Development and implementation of targeted programs and technologies,
aimed at preventing behavioral disorders
.
Creation of correctional and rehabilitation programs
based on psychological and pedagogical diagnostics.
N.I. Nikitina highlights the following areas of work for social educators in the prevention of maladaptive behavior:
Early identification of children at risk;
Consultative and explanatory work with parents and teachers;
Mobilization of the educational potential of the environment;
Working with a reference group;
Social and pedagogical patronage of maladjusted minors;
Attracting the necessary specialists.
Interdependence of socialization and social adaptation
The processes of socialization and social adaptation are interconnected; they reflect a single process of interaction between the individual and society.
Definition 1
Socialization is the process of an individual’s active reproduction of social experience, realized in activity and communication, the development of the individual under the influence of society, social institutions and agents of socialization. The process of socialization contributes to the development of psychological mechanisms of interaction between the individual and the environment, which are formed in the process of adaptation.
During socialization:
- the individual is an object that perceives, assimilates, norms, traditions, roles characteristic of a given society;
- formation, development and formation of personality occurs;
- ensures the normal functioning of the individual in society;
- the individual adapts to society.
Finished works on a similar topic
Course work Socialization and social adaptation 440 ₽ Essay Socialization and social adaptation 240 ₽ Test work Socialization and social adaptation 210 ₽
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Social adaptation is an important mechanism of socialization. Social transformation is a change in both external social relations and the inner world of a person.
It is necessary to take into account the ambiguous, complex nature of adaptation, the socio-political means that ensure its successful occurrence.
Note 1
An important condition for mass adaptation is the creation of material, economic, social, and organizational conditions that provide the opportunity to adapt to changes, use their positive opportunities, and mitigate emerging difficulties. Macrosocial and macroeconomic transformations must be understandable to the population. Often, for people to adapt, it is enough to create conditions conducive to benefiting from a new situation. A feeling of unadaptability and dissatisfaction to new situations can arise due to the inaccessibility of social and material benefits, due to psychological discomfort, inertia of consciousness, and the unfamiliarity of new forms of life.
Social adaptation is sustainable if there are no serious discrepancies between ideological foundations and private adaptive strategies of different social groups.
Sustainable adaptation to new conditions based on old means and goals is unlikely. With the spontaneous development of adaptive processes in society, the formation of only unstable adaptation is possible.
Social adaptation largely depends on the nature of interaction between society and the individual, which is explained by the discrepancy between the nature of psychological and social changes. The main reason for the delay in adaptive reactions to emerging situations is temporary barriers that impede the implementation of adaptive processes.
Adaptive processes relate to ideological foundations, the change of which involves a long period and is accompanied by changes in the value base of the individual.
If, in the process of life, a person easily develops adaptive strategies that allow him to effectively interact with different social institutions and communities, without coming into conflict with the norms, laws and traditions of society, while maintaining emotional satisfaction and psychological stability, we can talk about adaptation as a fait accompli.
