This metatheory of social constructionism was first introduced in 1966 by Peter Berger and Thomas Luckmann’s The Social Construction of Reality. This book established a new ground of psychological knowledge, “As the combined product of a sociologist (Berger) and philosopher (Luckmann), this book set the stage early for the relevance of an SC approach to multiple disciplines and for the emphasis on the role of language in shaping human understanding of the world” (Leeds-Hurwitz). This book is referred to as the obvious choice for a place to start if you what to begin and the beginning. The subject of social constructionism was deemed as the work of post-modernist. This theory of social constructionism is so relevant to the field of psychology because it directly deals with how people think.
Social structure theories look at the formal and informal economic and social arrangements of society that cause crime and deviance. The negative aspects of social structure such as disorganization within a family, poverty, and disadvantages because of lack of success in educational areas are looked upon as the producers of criminal behavior (Schmalleger, 2012). The three major types of social structure theories are Social Disorganization, Strain, and Culture Conflict (Schmalleger, 2012). Social disorganization theory is based on the idea that changes, conflict, and the lack of social consensus in society are the reasons for criminal behavior. This theory views society as a living organism and that criminal behavior is compared to a disease.
The idea of social realism is that in order to go beyond one must overcome and endure. Social realism first came about during an economic downfall in the 1920s. It was an art movement that social realists started to represent the working class. The word social refers to society and the word realism refers to accepting a situation and dealing with it accordingly. Social realism seeks to identify current issues that happen to ordinary people in society.
For example, there is confusion as to what these terms developmental social work actually mean in practice and this has limited its application (Patel and Hochfeld, 2012). The terms social development, developmental social welfare and developmental social work are very familiar in social work hence confusing practitioners. According to a study by Patel & Hochfeld (2012) in an attempt to explain what developmental social work and social work mean, respondents idetified key concepts that influence their understanding of developmental social work such as empowerment; capacity building development; and participation. These are concepts that match established social work conventions in that they are commonly used in individual and community empowerment practice. However, other aspects of developmental social work such as high impact interventions, generalist interventions, economic development, and broad human rights promotion and advocacy, were cited less frequently by the respondents.
According to Collins English Dictionary, “social work” means “social services that give help and advice to the poor, the elderly, and families with problems.” (www.collinslanguage.com). It is very hard to define social work as its work is so varied and sparse within society today. Feminist social workers tend to work more with women and help them to understand and alleviate their problems. Dominelli (1997: 246) postulates “ I define feminist social work as a form of social work practice which takes gendered inequality and it’s elimination as the starting point for working with women whether as individuals, in groups or within organizations and seeks to promote women’s well-being as women define it”. This quote illustrates the difference between mainstream social work which deals with both genders and feminist social work which concentrates on women within society.
Social Constructs: The Unreality in Reality In the world of academia, many have spoken about social constructs. Social constructs deal with the abstract concept that reality exists in the state that it does due to being shaped by society. By identifying social constructs, people can adjust their views on both society and reality. Someone identifying something as a social construct is like taking the red pill from the movie The Matrix and realizing that reality is not as it seems. In this case, reality is a structure built by society.
All people are looking for in this social world is to find a place where they belong. People divide themselves subconsciously into “them and us” through the “process of social categorization” (McLeod, SA. 2008). By recognizing race as a social construction does not make race any less meaning less or realistic. Racism is constructed historically, economically, politically and socio – culturally.
The most famous one is “social case work consist of those process which develop personality through adjustments consciously effected, individual by individual between men and the social environment. Richmond has given first rational and systemic approach to the analysis of individual social situation, the principle and ideas of Richmond now utilized extensively by the professional social workers for the diagnosis and assessment of needs to the poor peoples. (richmond
Whether reproducing workers or gender norms, social reproduction can be defined as the process of reproducing the capacity to continue working, leading to the reproduction of the pseudo-commodity known as labour power. The reproduction of this labour power is reliant upon unwaged, domestic labour to help replenish the labourer for the next day of work. Reproducing this worker, typically the male breadwinner, is reliant upon women’s unpaid labour, creating the nuclear family form. Armstrong believes social reproduction involves the processes of “socializing children, repressing sexuality, and instilling appropriate hierarchical relationships through the education of future workers” (Armstrong, [ ] , p. 74). Peck views social reproduction in a spherical configuration, distinguishing the multiple factors involved in reproducing people, such as education, training, the media, and biological procreation (Peck, [ ], p. 38).
Most fields of science rely on theories to explain centrally important issues, such as social phenomena, that have a wide range of applications. Sociologists attempt to describe human society though their theories, such as the structural-functionalism theory, conflict theory, and symbolic interactionalism. While the three theories attempt to describe how society functions the way it does, all three differ in their views of how humans are related to society and each other. In the structural-functionalism, the dominant view is that if the structures that exist are functional, then those structures should be preserved and maintained. Structure-functionalists tend focus on the interrelatedness to the social structures that make up society.