Human beings are inherently social. “We are wired to connect”, said Goleman, (2006). Human beings grow and develop throughout life. Growth is observable and measurable unlike development. There are various aspects of development like physical, intellectual, moral emotional and social. The aim of education is to promote holistic development of students. Social development is the foundation of all kinds of development. The way a person behaves and succeeds in personal and public life in adulthood depends upon his sound social development in childhood. There is massive research in the field of social development. There are a number of theories that attempt to explain the complex nature and process of social development. Social development is also perceived as the development of society. The two kinds of development are interconnected. The purpose of this paper is to trace the major theories of social development, and explain their significance.
Theory is the revision and summation of past knowledge in the form of generalizations. Theories address a number of developmental problems like personal development, questions of rural development, industrializations urbanization and trade policies. The decisions at state and national level depend upon the individual citizens. As part of society, individuals have to play certain roles. They follow rules, norms and traditions of the society. Certain patterns of behavior are acceptable in society and some patterns are undesirable, unsocial and harmful to the structure of the society. Developing in the correct direction is of utmost importance. Different theories deal with different aspects of social development. Individuals internalize the values and norms of society during the process of education.
Social development implies acquisition of social competencies. CASEL ( 2000) has listed the following social competencies: self-awareness, social awareness, self-management, relationship skills and responsible decision-making. Social development begins even before birth and it can be divided into stages. The nature and pattern of development differ from stage to stage. For example, development in infants is different from development during adolescence. Social development theories deal with development during the various stages of development throughout life.
The lifespan development theory provides an overview of the common important developmental stages that human beings pass through: birth, infancy, adolescence, adulthood, old age and death. Along the way, human beings learn how to communicate with others; they build relationships, set goals, make a position for themselves in the social structure and settle into life. The lifespan theory serves as a base for human life. A teenager who cannot get dates will face social anxiety problems as an adult. One who is not properly nurtured as an infant may develop mistrust later in life. “Knowing something about how people develop helps to place problems into contexts and shows the way for solving problems,” ( Gething et al, 1995).
The first stage stretches from birth to two years. The first social contact for a baby is with the parents or caretakers. This stage is crucial. Infants need intimate attachment with the caretakers. It is necessary that they should feel safe and secure with the caretakers. “Attachment with caretakers is biologically based. An infant’s attachment to caregivers serves as a foundation for all future social development.” ( Bowlby, 1988). Attachment with caretakers also fosters emotional development. Emotional and social developments are closely related. Eric Erikson’s theory of psycho-social development deals with the interplay between social and emotional domains. Erikson ( 1964) broadened the scope of personality to incorporate society and culture. He stated that human beings go through a series of conflicts and they achieve balance when they resolve the conflicts. He divided the individual life span into eight stages of development, each representing one kind of conflict: trust vs. mistrust, autonomy vs. shame, initiative vs. guilt, industry vs. inferiority, identity vs. role confusion, intimacy vs. isolation, generativity vs. stagnation and integrity vs, despair, (Erikson, 1964).
Another significant theory of social development is Vygotsky’s theory. Vygotsky, a Russian social psychologist goes a step further and states that cognitive functions are connected to the social world, (Vygotsky, 1978). Vygotsky explained that an individual can learn certain things by himself. An individual uses tools like speech and language from his culture and uses the tools for learning. He can learn further with the help of others. “The range of skill that can be developed with adult guidance or peer collaboration exceeds what can be attained alone” ( Vygotsky, 1978). The distance or gap between the two points is called the ‘zone of proximal development’ (ZPD).Learning takes place within the ZPD. Vygotsky also suggested the technique of scaffolding. The teacher provides necessary assistance to the learner mnitots the progress at every step and changes the level of assistance accordingly. This is called scaffolding. It helps a child to become socially competent. This implies, “Cognitive development in an individual is limited to a certain range at any given age. Full cognitive development cannot take place without social action” ( Vygotsky, 1997) and intervention. Vygotsky’s theory leads to the implication that the single best predictor of adult achievement is not academic intelligence, but social development. Neil mercer has observed, “ In recent years, one major influence on educational research has been the emergence of a socio-cultural theory of education and cognitive development derived from Vygotsky’s work. Its basic premise is that human intelligence is essentially social and cultural, and that the relationship between social activity and individual thinking underpins cognitive development” ( Mercer, 2013).
Urie Brofenbrenner (1979) came up with an expanded view of social development. This is not a stage theory. Brofenbrenner developed the ecological systems theory to point out that everything in the child’s environment affects his growth and development. He divided the environment into four levels. The first is called the microsystem. It is the small, limited and immediate environment of the child. It includes the family members, caretakers or relatives. It extends to the day-care center and pre-school. How the child is nurtured in the ecosystem will decide how he reacts to the environment and how he will influence it in turn. The next level is the mesosytem which includes the neighborhood and other social organizations like the school and community to which the child belongs. The exosystem level includes other people in the environment, in the city or state with whom the child may not interact. It also includes the parents’ workplaces or clubs and the locality. These places affect the child’s life in some way, though not directly. The final level is the macrosystem that is largest and most remote. It includes the national values, rules of the government, cultural values, economy, wars etc. They affect the child positively or negatively.
Bandura ( 1986) explained that there are three categories of influence that play a role in social development of children. The first is the behavior that children observe within their home and culture; the second are the cognitive factors such as the child’s own expectations about success and the last are the social factors such as the class or school. Bandura came up with the reciprocal determinism model. According to the model, the three kinds of factors are reciprocally related. For example, a child’s self-efficacy can affect his social behavior and can have an impact on the classroom environment. Similarly, the classroom environment will affect his self- efficacy.
Bandura’s social cognitive theory has involved a number of inquiries. Bandura talke about the formation and development of self efficacy. According to Phan and Ngu ( 2012), the social cognitive theory indicates that we inform our self efficacy beliefs from four major sources of information: enactive performance accomplishments, vicarious experience, verbal persuasion and emotional and physical states, ( Phan& Ngu, 2-12). “Bandura’s social cognitive theory posits the importance of personal self-efficacy, defined as beliefs in one’s capability to execute required courses of actions, govern one’s choice of behavior and aspirations and the mobilization and maintenance of effort,” ( Phan & Ngu, 2012). Phan and Ngu have stated in their article that “Academic self efficacy marks a major contribution to the prediction of quality learning and achievement outcomes. One avenue of inquiry in social cognition involves the study of formation, and how individuals develop their self efficacy beliefs for academic learning over the course of time,” ( Phan and Ngu, 2012).
Self efficacy includes barriers that individuals perceive in achieving a goal. A study was conducted by Lent, Brown and Hackett to investigate the career development of ninth Evade students living in two rural communities. The aim of the experiment was to find out the response of participants to self-efficacy beliefs among other factors. Ojeda et al ( 2012) found that acculturation, ethnic identity and conscientiousness were predictive of career decision making efficacy for a group of Latino middle school students. Gushue ( 2006) found that ethnic identity had a direct positive relationship to career decision-making. None of the students perceived barriers in their future education plans.
Social competencies include incorporating social norms and behaving in acceptable ways. Factors that affect social development are multiple. They can be biological, psychological or social. Children are socialized through processes that include perceived opportunities for involvement in activities, the skills to participate and the reinforcement they perceive in the activities. “When socializing processes are consistent, a bond is established between the individual and the social unitthe unit has the power to affect behavior independently. If individuals engage in behavior that is inconsistent with the standards and norms of those to whom they are bonded, the bond is threatened if the behavior is exposed,” (Hawkins, 1996). Every individual experiences the need to be accepted by a social group. In order to maintain his position in the group, he has to accept the norms and patterns of the group. If a child happens to get into bad company, he is likely to adopt undesirable and unsocial behavior patterns. The social developmental model seeks to explain a range of behaviors from the use of illegal drugs to violent and non-violent crime. Delinquency and drug abuse are generally initiated in childhood or adolescence. According to the theories of anti-social behavior it is possible to predict pro-social or anti-social behavior and to use this knowledge in specific predictive relationships in the development of anti-social behavior. There are risk factors like community norms, disorganized neighborhoods, conflicts in families, extreme economic deprivation, family history of drug abuse or crime, low bonding with family members etc. These conditions have more possibilities of leading to anti-social and criminal behavior. Developmental theories of anti-social behavior should be transformational and should point the way to bringing about positive change in behavior patterns.
Social development affects individual decisions and career choices. There are sociology-based theories of career choice. Career choice depends upon the personal inclinations, temperament, likes and dislikes of an individual. It is psychological rather than sociological. Sociology-based theories of career choice have little to do with career counseling. They focus on status attainment, which include socio-economic status of the family and the gender and race of the individual. An individual judges the value of a career based on his social development.
The social scenario has changed in the last few decades and continues to change rapidly and radically. Technology has brought about a significant change in the social structure and social relationships. Ways and means of communication have changed. These have influenced social relationships. “Powered by speed and connectivity, internet-based technologies continue to redefine how people live, work and progress in both local and global community. One such technology that has emerged in the past few years and has gained widespread popularity has been social media,” ( Rauniar et al). Social media have affected the lives of people belonging to all age groups. The scope of social contact has widened overnight. There are no limitations. Communication is virtual rather than real. The tools of communication have changed. Virtual mobility covers the entire globe. This new social structure has endless benefits. The mesosystem of individuals has become wide. Individuals have become knowledgeable. At the same time, social media have brought with them malpractices. The virtual world is more prone to deceit. It supports crime. Cybercrime is a new problem before the society. Parents have lost control and contact with children. Families are disintegrating. Attachments are severed. In the present circumstances there is a need for research which will lead to new social development theories that can lend stability to the uprooted society. The article “ Mapping Social Policy Development in Sub-Saharan Africa” discusses the limitations of existing theories for understanding social policy development in Africa. It highlights their relevance for the analysis of the development and transformation of social programs in the region’s countries, (Kpessa and Beland, 2013).
Individual social development and development of the society are closely connected. Individuals make the society. Reality is socially constructed. The lost and depressed youth of today is incapable of playing a substantial and responsible social role. The stability and integrity of a nation depends upon the quality of every element that constitutes the nation. Hence, it can be concluded that individual social development and societal development go hand-in-hand.
Social responsibility is a value. It is rooted in democratic relationships. It rests on moral principles like care and justice. It is important in building stronger relationships and communities. Practitioners and educators who deal with youth and adolescents must emphasize modeling prosocial behaviors and create opportunities to practice civic skills.
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