social problem

• ELEMENTS OF A SOCIAL PROBLEM:

  • Cause physical or mental damage to individuals or society
  • Offend the values or standards of some powerful segment of society
  • Persist for an extended period of time
  • Generate competing proposed solutions
• social problems are individuals problems solved with group action
• NATURE OF SP:

  1. objective element - is a mere definition; refers to the existence of a social condition; empirical evidence of negative consequence.
  2. subjective element - refers to the belief that a condition is harmful & should be changed w/ perception of welfare; needs to be addressed
• the subjective element is the constructionist view of SP's nature
• CHARACTERISTICS:

  1. existence of particular social problem is relative
  2. most social problems are interelated and intertwined
  3. complex and not as simple as people think
  4. differs in their life span
  5. can be categorized
  6. some problems are normal consequences of societal excess
• the difference between a social issue & social problem is the degree of seriousness
• 3 PATTERNS OF PUBLIC CONCERN FOR SOCIAL PROBLEMS:

  • some problems are of more or less continual concern
  • periodically appears overnight
  • natural history emergence & disappearance
• NATURAL HISTORY OF SP:

  STAGE 1 - emergence & claims making

  STAGE 2 - legitimacy

  STAGE 3 - renewed claims making

  STAGE 4 - development of alternative strategies
• emergence & claims making - calls attention to a condition or behavior that is serious; sp emerges which social entity begins
• legitimacy - tries to persuade government to take action to address the problem
• renewed claims making - advocates often decide to press their demands anew by reasserting claims
• development of alternative strategies - dvocates realized to develop their own strategies for addressing sp
• constructionist view on SP:

  does not become a SP unless there is a perception that it should be a SP
• social pathology refers to problems & behaviors that violate social norms & have a negative effect on society
• deviant behavior is behavior or actions that societies have agreed are immoral or unnacceptable
• deviant behavior can be legal or illegal & can be relative
• TYPES OF SP:

  • norms violation
  • social condition
  • institutional deviance
• norms violations - discrepancy between social standards & reality for several reasons:

  • appraoch directs attention to society's failures
  • culturally defined & socially labelled - labels some acts as deviants or normal
• powerful people play an important role in determining who gets the negative label
• our defintion of deviance depends on what behaviors the law singles out for punishment
• social conditions are ones that cause psychic & material suffering for some category of people
• institutional deviance - society & formal organizations are not meeting the needs & demands of people
• CATEGORIES OF SP:

  • social problems from physical sources
  • mainly from economic sources
  • mental sources
  • cultural sources
• PERSPECTIVES:

  • social disorganization
  • value conflict
  • deviance
• social disorganization is the disruption or breakdown of a social system
• value conflict is the different values & attitudes of people
• deviance is the product of both organization & disorganization