Sociology and Medicolegal Aspects of Nursing

 INTRODUCTION TO THE SOCIOLOGICAL PROCESS

The study of sociology in nursing is important to all nurses because it involved the study of human social relationships that involved individual behaviours, family, status, religion, cultures, and social structures.

                What do we understand socialization process is all about? As we understand based on our working experience as a nurse caring for all categories of patients from different status and background. Thus the following outcomes stated below, will explain and help us to understand in depth the importance of socialization in nursing care. Understand better

LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of the lectures, student will be able to:

1.       define socialization process

2.       describe the development of sociology.

3.       explain the relevant of social science knowledge in understanding health care needs.

4.       Describe the research method in sociological questions.

5.       describe the theoretical perspectives of Sociology 

1.1 SOCIALIZATION PROCESS 

Firstly, socialization is the process refers to the development of the individual from childhood to social daily life through formal education in schools, through non-formal programs that will help the society to be managed and run smoothly. The socialization process covers the primary socialization, secondary socialization, development socialization, anticipatory socialization, and resocialization.

An example of the primary socialization takes place when a child learnt the different attitudes, values and actions that being carried out by each individual culture. The secondary socialization refers to the process of learning that involve the behaviours practice smaller groups of people within the larger society. This normally involved the teenagers and adults and involves smaller changes than those occurring in primary socialization. This happen when a person entering a new profession, relocating to a new environment or society. 

The third socialization process involve the development in which the process of learning behaviour in a social institution to develop the social skills. While the anticipatory socialization explains the processes of socialization in which a person will practice or tag with senior personal for the future positions, occupations, and social relationships.

Consequently, rresocialization can be an intense experience, with the individual experiencing a sharp break with their past, and needing to learn and be exposed to radically different norms and values. An example might be the experience of a young man or woman leaving home to join the military 

The common terms used in sociology subject and understanding the terms you will be able to understand the implications of sociology apply in our profession as a nurse during the bedside nursing care.

The term used are:

•       Sociology - the systematic study of human societies and human behavior in social settings.

•       Social structure – how people, groups, and organization are arranged with respect to each other.

•       Symbolic interactionism – a branch of sociology concerned with the communication between people that occurs by means of symbols such as words, gestures, facial expressions, and sound.

•       Culture – all the learned customs, beliefs, values, knowledge, artifacts and symbols that are constantly communicated among set of people who share a common way of life.

•       Values – general idea that people share about what is good or bad, desirable or undesirable.

•       Norms – a specific guideline for action, a rule that says how people should behave situations. 

      What are the agents involved in socializing? As regards to the people around us, agents of socialization are the people and groups that influence our self-concept, emotions, attitudes, and behavior.As an example, the Family is responsible for, among other things, determining one's attitudes toward religion and establishing career goals.

Education is the agency responsible for socializing groups of young people in particular skills and values in society.

Peer groups refer to people who are roughly the same age and/or who share other social characteristics (e.g., students in a college class), the Mass Media and other agents such as religion, workplace, the country etc. Thus the agents of socialization teach people what society expects of them, what is right and wrong, and they give them the skills they need to function as members of their culture. 

1.2. THE DEVELOPMENT SOCIOLOGY

             The field of Sociology emerged in the 19th century when European philosophers began to use scientific methods. The social philosophers who were not sociologists such as Plato and Socrates did thought and argued about social behavior. They did not test their speculations against reality.

             At least 2 factors combined to convert some philosophers into sociologists: the social upheavals of the 19^th century Europe and the advancement of the natural sciences. The western world was radically altered during the 19^th century as the Industrial Revolution (IR) brought new industries, technologies and the ways of living.

Almost overnight, societies that had long been rural and stable became industrialized, urbanized, and chaotic. They confronted problems as such the exploitation of factory workers, the migration of people from farms to the cities, congestion and poverty in the cities, crowded and squalid housing, broken families and rising crime.

Questions related to economic class, social status, urbanization, and the dangers of factory work raised new issues about society and social interaction, meanwhile the European political order had been shaken. Many people began to question the legitimacy of their monarchies and the authority of the church, demanding greater freedom of the individual. This led to social philosophers feeling the need to find solutions to their societies’ new problems and to understand how and why such radical change could occur.

At the same time the natural science were highly respected as they were providing ways to both explain and control aspects of the physical environment. Social philosophers looked at the natural science to learn from them. As sociology developed, these 2 urges – to improve the world and to apply scientific methods to the study of society – continued to motivate the sociologists.

The early thinker responsible for the development of SOCIOLOGY was – AUGUSTE COMTE 1978 – 1857.He was a French philosopher was one of the founders of sociology and coined the term sociology. Comte believed sociology could unite all sciences and improve society and argued that sociology must have a scientific base and be objective. He was then regarded as the “father of sociology”

The second was HARRIET MARTINEAU – 1802 – 1876. He studied social behavior in Britain & United States who emphasized more to social problems. While HERBERT SPENCER 1820 – 1903, he introduced the applied concept of evolution to explain how societies “evolve” overtime.

             EMILE DURKHEIM 1858 – 1917 introduced and was pioneered work on suicide. He insisted that behavior must be understood within larger social context and developed fundamental thesis to help explain all society. Subsequently he pioneered the systematic application of scientific principles and was the first to use statistical methods to test a hypothesis.

Later, modern development introduced by MAX WEBER 1864 – 1920. He was German Sociologist who fully comprehend behaviour, whom you must learn the subjective meaning people attach to their actions. In order to do this –you have to adopt a method called Verstehen (fair- SHTAY-in) – empathetic understanding of their subjects. They put themselves mentally in their subject’s position, could obtain “interpretive understandings” – the meanings of behavior. Then follow with careful observation.

1.3. THE SOCIOLOGY AS A SCIENCE

Social Sciences are defined as  the fields of human knowledge that deal with all aspects of the group life of human beings. They are closely related to humanities (deals with literature, music, art, and philosophy) because both deal with humans and their culture. Sociology is a science as indicated by to Auguste Comte and Durkheim because it adopts and applies the scientific methods. It makes proper use of scientific methods in the study of its subject matter. Hence sociology is considered as science. However, Social Sciences are most concerned with those basic elements of culture that determine the general patterns of human behaviour.

     There are several components of Social Sciences. Firstly, the Anthropology is the study of relationship between biological traits and socially acquired characteristics. Sometimes called the study of huma which divided into physical anthropology and cultural anthropology. There are major steps in Scientific Inquiry as such as observation: All scientific knowledge relates to the natural environment and all knowledge begins with facts gathered through careful observation, formulation of problem, collection and classification of more facts, generalization, formulation of the hypothesis, testing the hypothesis and retesting and reformulating the theory.

  Approaches in Social Sciences we need to define the problem, review the literature review, develop a theoretical framework, and formulate hypothesis. Then we are requiring choosing the research design, collect the necessary data, analyse the results, and draw conclusion.

Sociologists test and modify their understanding of how the world works through scientific analysis. Sociologists gather data on the ground and formulate theories about what they find. These theories are then tested by using the scientific method to assess the theory’s validity. It focuses on the group not the individual. Is to understand social institutions and look for repeating patterns in society children abduction in Asia as sexual predators in the internet.Sociology is the systematic study of society and social interaction. To carry out their studies, sociologists identify cultural patterns and social forces and determine how they affect individuals and groups. They also develop ways to apply their findings to the real world.

Mankind need to understand and observe the importance of social sciences with knowledge based society will be better equipped to socializing process as  well as balanced knowledge about social sciences will ensure the humans existence 

1.4. THE SOCIOLOGICAL IMAGINATION 

The Sociological Imagination is the concept of being able to "think ourselves away" from the familiar routines of our daily lives in order to look at them anew. Mills defined Sociological Imagination as "the vivid awareness of the relationship between experience and the wider society." It is the ability to see things socially and how they interact and influence each other. To have a Sociological Imagination, a person must be able to pull away from the situation and think from an alternative point of view.

The Sociological Imagination is stimulated by a willingness to view the social world from the perspective of others. It involves moving away from thinking in terms of the individual and their problems, focusing rather on the social circumstances that produce social problems.

As for the Private Issues & Public Issues, there is a strong tendency in liberal democracies towards seeing human behaviour in terms of individual characteristics, abilities, choices and preferences. We tend to experience whatever happens in our own lives as unique and private, and also to interpret what happens to other people as unique and private to them. These are seen as ‘private troubles. Sociologists, on the other hand, are more interested in the relationship between what happens to individuals in their lives and the larges processes of social, economic and political change that might be said to lie underneath or behind those happenings. The discipline of Sociology encourages you to look for the social processes and structures that give a generalised pattern to those private troubles and thus turn them into ‘public issues.

The thinking of the sociological Imagination ‘Neither the life of an individual nor the history of a society can be understood without understanding both, yet men do not usually define the troubles they endure in terms of historical change. Seldom aware of the intricate connection between the patterns of their own lives and the course of world history, ordinary men do not usually know what this connection means for the kind of men they are becoming and for the kinds of history making in which they might take part. What they need, is a quality of mind that will help them to see what is going on in the world and what may be happening within themselves. 

1.5. SOCIOLOGICAL RESEARCH METHODS

Before we proceed further, let's look at this video:

The purpose of sociological research is to answer questions about social life and the social world. To do this, sociologists develop theories, which is a general explanation of how or why social life follows the pattern it does. Sociologists try to ensure that their theories are based on sound evidence. Sociologists have a variety of different methods that they use to gather information about society.

Definition for sociological research method is the statement about a group of people or things that is based on only a few people or things in that group with the goal as test common sense & people’s assumptions then replace with fact & evidence

There are two types of sociological research methods. Quantitative: research that relies on

numerical data and the Qualitative: research which uses observation and relies upon descriptive data.

The methods that need to be carried out are:

1. Experiment: research that takes place in a lab setting (limited use in social research) Ø Field Research: research that takes place in a natural (non-lab) setting (primarily used in social research)
2. Questionnaire: asking a sample population to respond to a to a series of closed-ended questions Ø Interview: asking of open-ended questions in order to gain required information Ø Survey: research method in which people respond to questions (most common method used in research)
3. Secondary/Historical Analysis: reading and analysing another person’s data and r research on a topic Ø Case Study: in depth examination of a single group, problem, or community Longitudinal Study: type of case study that is conducted over a period of time. Cross-sectional Study: focus on data collected at a specific period.
4. 4. Participant Observation: research in which the researcher becomes involved with the group being studied Ø Natural Observation: research based on observation of people in any given environment (place)