unit 1

• Sociology


  The scientific study of social behavior and human groups
• Sub-sections of sociology


  • Analysis of conversations
  • Development of theories
  • Explaining how the world works
• Group


  Any collection of at least two people who interact with some frequency and who share some sense of aligned identity
• Society

  A group of people who live in a defined geographic area who interact and share a common culture
• Culture


  The group's shared practices, values, and beliefs
• Sociological imagination (C. Wright Mills)


  An awareness of the relationship between one's behavior and experience and the wider culture that shaped a person's choices and perceptions
• Social facts


  Aspects of social life shaping a person's behavior, including laws, morals, values, religious beliefs, customs, fashions, rituals, and cultural rules that govern social life
• Figuration (Norbert Elias)


  The process of simultaneously analyzing the behavior of individuals and society that shapes the behavior
• Importance of sociology in Occupational Therapy

  • Health is a social component
  • Most illnesses have social cause and social consequences
  • Sociology gives knowledge to deal with patients and to understand their habits, norms, culture and behavior
  • Necessary to understand the necessity of changing the environment or surroundings to meet the needs of patients
  • Necessary to understand the family and community
  • Helps avoid prejudices and discrimination
  • Assists in understanding the social position, status and social responsibility about health
  • Helps approach the patient at emotional, cultural and intellectual levels
• Interaction


  A social exchange between two or more individuals that forms the basis for social structure
• Status


  The position a person occupies in a particular setting
• Role


  The set of norms, values, behaviors, and personality characteristics attached to a status
• Norms


  Rules or expectations that are socially enforced
• Values


  A culture's standard for discerning what is good and just in society
• Folkway


  The learned behaviour, shared by a social group, that provides a traditional mode of conduct
• Capitalism


  An economic system with private ownership and an impetus to produce profit
• Communism


  A political theory supporting equality and a classless society where everyone collectively owns the goods
• Socialism


  A social and economic doctrine that calls for public rather than private ownership or control of property and natural resources
• Bureaucracy


  An organization of non-elected officials of a government or organization who implements the rules, laws, and functions of their institution
• Sociology helps the Occupational Therapist to understand factors such as faith, culture, community and religion
• Sociology assists in understanding the social position, status and social responsibility about health
• Sociologists study small groups and individual interactions from the micro-level and trends among and between large groups and societies on the macro-level
• Part of the sociological imagination is that the individual and society are inseparable and must be studied together
• Without sociological knowledge, the Occupational Therapist cannot understand the community
• It assists the Occupational Therapist to avoid prejudices and discrimination
• The Occupational Therapist will understand the necessity of changing the environment for making recovery better
• positivism


  study of sociological patterns
• Sociology


  The study of society and social interaction
• Sociological Imagination


  A framework for understanding our social world and making the connection between personal challenges and larger social issues
• Personal troubles


  Private problems experienced within the character of the individual and the range of their immediate relation to others
• Social or public issues

  Those that are outside of one's personal control and the range of one's inner life
• A majority of personal problems are not experienced only personally but are also influenced and affected by social norms, habits, and expectations
• Paradigm


  A broad viewpoint, perspective, or lens that permit social scientists to have a wide range of tools to describe society and then build hypotheses and theories
• Sociological theory


  Seeks to explain social phenomena and are used to create a testable proposition about society, or hypothesis
• Macro-level theories


  Relate to large-scale issues and large groups of people
• Micro-level theories


  Look at very specific relationships between individuals or small groups
• Grand theories


  Attempt to explain large-scale relationships and answer fundamental questions about society
• Main sociological theories


  • Structural functionalism
  • Conflict theory
  • Symbolic interactionism
• Structural-functional theory


  Sees society as a structure with interrelated parts designed to meet the biological and social needs of individuals in society
• Auguste Comte coined the term sociology