SOCIOLOGY AND SOCIAL WORK

How are sociology and social work related to each other? Admittedly, they share much in
common but are also different in many ways. Sociology has been defined by early
American sociologists as follows: L. F. Ward defines it as the “science of society” and F.
H. Giddings as “the scientific study of society.” A. W. Small said that sociology “is the
study of men considered as affecting and as affected by association.” Sociology and
social work are both interested in people, their interactions, and understanding these
interactions. The sociologist is particularly concerned about the how, when, and why
people behave as they do in association with others. He or she aims to pinpoint the social
problems, conduct research, and do everything possible to understand interaction in
human associations. The sociologist is particularly interested in the why of human
interaction. The social worker is interested in understanding people and how they behave
in association with others; he or she is particularly concerned about helping these same
people solve the problems they have and improving their social functioning. Whereas the
sociologist generally spends most of his or her time in study and in ferreting out the facts,
the social worker tries to understand the client or the community, to make an appropriate
diagnosis, and to proceed with treatment, thereby helping solve the problems and change
the situations to bring about better adjustment.
PSYCHOLOGY AND SOCIAL WORK
The psychologist and social worker are often members of the same professional team,
particularly in treatment clinics and related settings. Nevertheless, many people raise
questions about the overlapping and the differences between the two. Psychology is the
science of the mind; it seeks to study, explain, and change behavior of people. The
psychologist is particularly interested in understanding the individual and his or her
behavior. Psychology and social work operate on some common grounds. Both are
interested in the behavior of people, particularly in their interactional patterns, although
the psychologist focuses mainly on individual behavior and the social worker on social
functioning. They both seek the thinking and feeling processes of people. In regard to
differences, psychologists have an area entirely unto themselves in the field of testing and
measurements. Psychologists study biological factors as well as social factors related to
individual behavior. The psychologist is particularly interested in the individual attributes
of people and aims to understand their characteristics and behavior. On the other hand,
some psychologists, particularly clinical psychologists, go beyond the study phase and
work directly with people in the helping process. These activities overlap some with
social work, and yet the focus seems to be different when considered as a totality. The
psychologist usually works with individuals on a rather intensive basis and sometimes
becomes a psychotherapist. Conversely, the social worker is particularly interested in the
social functioning and relationships of clients and in utilizing community resources to
meet clients’ personal and social problems. A clarifying tribute was paid to social work
by a graduate student who reported: It may sound naive, but I was most impressed by the
philosophy underlying the principles used in social work. I am in psychology, and while I
am certain psychology operates from the same philosophy, this had never been spelled
out. What I am referring to is emphasis on human worth and dignity which would seem
to stem from a Judeo-Christian ethic and also the belief in democratic processes and an
attempt to make this work at the community level—not only in community organization,
but in case and group work as well.
Relationship between Social Work and Economics :
Social work and Economics are interrelated with each other. Social work is a
professional service which includes specialized knowledge and skills for dealing with
human behavior to solve their problem and Economic is also the social science that
studies human behavior as a relationship between fulfill and scare means which have
alternative uses and it also studies how people attempts to accommodates scarcity to their
wants. It also helps to fulfill the financial need of the people and everywhere in social
work we need finance to organize the program so for the social worker it is necessary to
understand the economics and its principle to run the program or anything smoothly.
In a simple term Social Work seeks to enhance the social functioning of the
individuals, or groups by activities focused upon their social relationships which
constitute the interaction between man and his environment .Further, it is a welfare
activity based on humanitarian philosophy, scientific knowledge and technical skills for
helping individuals or groups or community to live a rich and full life. Social work is
profession that is full of contradiction, social workers may deal with very successful
people but more often they work with more vulnerable group of people in society. They
basically provide to those who are suffering from different kinds of problem. They
provide services that vary from counseling to group therapy to fund raising and even seek
for professional status. Social work is a humanizing profession and social workers are
action oriented people. Social worker emerged during 20th century as an important
profession in US society. It is a kind of professional activity of helping individuals,
groups or communities enhance or restore their capacity for social functioning and
creating societal conditions favorable to that goal .The purpose of social work is to
promote or restore a mutually benefic interaction between individuals and society in
order to improve the quality of life for everyone. It is a profession committed to
improving the quality of life for people towards social change without harming and
hurting anybody. Its principle is a lot but some of them are Non Judgmental, Objectivity,
and Accountability etc and so on.

Economic in general is the art of providing all the wants of a family, it tries to
provide everything that is necessary for the society, and it’s all about money. It is
introduced in the world to make balance in the society especially in the matter of wealth.
It is the science that studies the behavior of individual group and organization which have
alternative uses to achieve desire ends. It can be divided in to two parts one is
macroeconomic it means to focus on large area and another is micro economics which
focus on individual consumers. Economist seeks to answer important question about how
people, industries and countries can maximize their productivity create wealth and
maintain financial stability. Economics explains how people interact within markets to
get what they want or accomplish certain goals. Since economics is a driving force of
human interaction, studying it often reveals why people and governments behave in
particular ways. There are many principle of economic some of them are Management of
society resources because the resources is limited in the society, to study how society
manage the situation while there is lack of resources, to study how the buyers and sellers
interact etc and so on . So Economic is all about money and resources and it tries to
create balance in society in terms of wealth by providing equal resources.

Thus, Social work is all about helping people by knowing their situation in a well
manner and one of the principle of social work is equality that means it tries to provide
resources equally to the people of society. Economics also tries to create balance in
environment in the subject of wealth it also tries to distribute equal resources to all but
the one who get success will be more wealthy than other in the same way in social work
also the client who have capacity to capture the information said by the social worker can
solve his\her problem fastly comparing to other. Economics studies only economic
accepts of life whereas Social work is concerned with the whole life of man and it tries to
find the solution of problem and help in growth and development of the individual.

Anthropology and Social Work?

Anthropology is the study of the human race from a historical and biological perspective.
Anthropology focuses on understanding human development through time and space.
Specifically, anthropologists examine the history of humans through the lenses of
biology, culture, society and the environment.

Anthropology has three main sub-fields: archeology, physical anthropology and cultural
anthropology. A student who wants to become a social worker may benefit from studying
cultural anthropology. However, social work is focused on the here and now. The goal of
every social worker is to help meet their clients' basic needs while assisting them with
their health, mental and financial problems.

Social workers may work in clinical, hospital, treatment or office settings. On one hand,
anthropology takes a broader, objective approach to understanding humanity. Conversely,
social work takes a focused, subjective approach to working one-on-one with people.

SYSTEMS THEORY
Systems theory states that behavior is influenced by a variety of factors that work
together as a system. A person’s parents, friends, school, economic class, home
environment and other factors all influence how a person thinks and acts. Seeking to help
correct missing or ineffective parts of that system can have a positive impact on behavior.
The reverse, of course, is also true.

In one case study, a client was engaging in risky behaviors such as drug abuse and
unprotected sex. Upon examining her environment, it was found that she hadn’t had
contact with her father for five years, and some of her only memories of him were of drug
abuse and arguing with her mother. This led the client to self-medicate with drugs when
things went poorly and also provided a poor social model for relationships and little
emotional support.
In systems theory, a social worker must observe and analyze all of the systems that
contribute to an individual’s behavior and welfare, and work to strengthen those systems.
This may take the form of providing positive role models, therapy or other services to
help create a more supportive system for the individual.

Systems theory is the interdisciplinary study of complex systems. Social work is

the professional field concerned with applying social science insights toward
improving standards of living for individuals and communities. Systems theory
is valuable to social workers in that it can assist them as they identify, define
and address problems in social systems.

Systems Theory

Systems theory covers a broad range of theoretical and methodological practices

across many disciplines. Generally, systems theory is concerned with the
structure of complex systems, with a special emphasis about how parts relate to
each other and to the whole system. In the social sciences, this usually means
understanding how individuals relate to each other and to their society as a
whole, and the effects that social pressures have on individuals.

Social Work

Social workers can hold a variety of different roles. These roles range from
policy advisors to mental health professionals. Social workers can take on the
role of a direct counselor, serve as court liaisons or find further resources for
clients. In addition to roles relating more directly to clients, social workers also
take on the role of maintaining case records and documents for each case. What
binds these roles together is a core concern for improving social conditions for
individuals and promoting social justice.

Systems theory is the interdisciplinary study of complex systems. So cial work is

the professional field concerned with applying social science insights toward
improving standards of living for individuals and communities. Systems theory
is valuable to social workers in that it can assist them as they identify, define
and address problems in social systems.
Relationship between Sociology and Psychology
Sociology and Psychology are closely related with each other. Both are interrelated and
inter-dependent. Psychology is concerned with the exploration of the depth of man’s
mind and behavior in society. It is said that psychology shows the significance of the
relationship between the organism (individual) and environment and the response of the
former to the latter. It is defined as “the study of man’s mental life and behavior”. It is the
science of mind of mental processes.

The aim of psychology is to arrive at the laws of mental life and behavior of human
beings. Sociology, on the other hand is the study of society. It studies man’s social
relationships. In the words of Thouless, psychology is the positive science of human
experience and behavior.

Thus, sociology studies society where as psychology is concerned with human behavior,
So there are resemblances between psychology and sociology. Both are regarded as
positive science. These two disciplines have a great deal in common and are inter-related.
It is difficult to understand the inter-relations and the activities of human beings; without
an adequate knowledge of human psychology. In the same way, many truths of
psychology would remain unintelligible without a comprehensive idea about social
relationships, behavior and activities.

There is no gain saying the fact that psychology trends support to sociology and the help
sociology extends to psychology, is by no means insignificant. In other words they
sdepend on each other for their existence. In this way, both psychology and sociology are
deeply related to each other.

Differences between Sociology and Psychology

Although the two disciplines are inter-dependent, they differ from each other in certain
respects.

1. Psychology is concerned with the human mind whereas sociology is concerned with as
a whole.

2. The methods used by sociology and psychology are not identical. Both disciplines
therefore, differ from each other in respect of methods.

3. The psychologist focuses his attention on the individual while the sociologist is pre-
occupied with society as a whole. Therefore, the individual is regarded as the unit of
psychology and society is regarded as the unit of sociology.