Notes, summaries, assignments, exams, and exercises for Psychology and sociology for University

Philosophical Theories in Social Work Practice

Functionalism: Objectivity and System Balance

Functionalism asserts the existence of objectivity and a natural balance within systems. Within a set of elements, each serves a specific function. When an element fails, it is considered a pathology and requires correction.

Within this framework, social work is largely dominated by empiricism. This demands an objective and consistent interpretation of data. Furthermore, context and subjectivity are often rejected. The social worker, in this view, is subject to a central authority, focusing directly on problems and resolving them one by one as they arise. Consequently, the perception of context and user needs are often not taken into account.

Marxism: Conflict,

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

Individuals desire stable jobs, savings, insurance accounts, and religions or philosophies to organize their lives. Following these, the needs for affection, intimacy, and belonging emerge. People seek to love and be loved by family, friends, and partners.

Once the needs for affection are satisfied, the desire to be approved, recognized, and valued by oneself and the community becomes dominant. Finally, people seek self-actualization or growth, striving to develop their potential and achieve their ideals. Maslow argued that these needs are dominant in healthy adults.

The Five Levels of Needs

• Physiological needs: Hunger, thirst, air, and sleep.
• Safety needs: The absence of danger and the need for security.
• Love or social

The Nature of Psychotic Processes

The essence of any psychotic process is the loss of contact with reality by the individual and their spatiotemporal location. It is produced by a serious overall personality disorder, known as a psychotic state, whose effects are represented by a lack of mental control over perception or reasoning and an impairment in the directionality of behavior.

Classification of Psychosis

The causes of psychosis have informed their division into two primary groups:

1. Organic Psychosis: These are disorders resulting from irreversible injuries to the nervous system, whether as a result of disease processes, trauma, etc. This does not exclude the fact that, in some cases, a reversible process may occur when psychosis is treated

Collective Data Analysis and Interpretation

The latest research operations are related to the analysis of collected data and its interpretation.

Specific Treatment and Analysis of Data Sets

Each set of data requires specific treatment and analysis:

• Statistical treatments: These require surveys.
• Interviews: These require special treatments—first individually (transcripts, encoding, categorization of content, interpretation of the relationship between categories, etc.) and then in combination (cross-sectional analysis for the types of speech, etc.).

Social Circumstances and Situational Context

All data sets must be analyzed in relation to the social circumstances involved in shaping the social situation intended to be addressed. The goal is to discover

Understanding Organizational Culture

Culture encompasses the fundamental assumptions shared by members of a community. These presumptions, shared thoughts, meanings, and values create a backdrop for action, often taken as obvious and undisputed.

Key Components of Culture

Analyzing culture involves understanding its components and defining features that make it unique:

• Appearance: Fixed aspects of organization and decoration, including the structuring of space.
• Patterns of Behavior: Systematic collective life within the organization.
• Language: Use of metaphors, stories, legends, and myths.
• Implicit Rules: Unwritten norms and standards governing conduct.
• Values: Used to judge facts, actions, and people.
• Assumptions: Basic beliefs shared by members of

Origins of Participatory Action Research

The deeply transformative change in Action Research (AR) occurred in the 1970s due to the incorporation of two streams of social mobilization in South America:

• The popular education movement created by Paulo Freire in Brazil.
• The Theory of Liberation.

This momentum was carried out by researchers such as Orlando Fals Borda. The group moved toward a critical new concept further defined as Participatory Action Research (PAR).

Methodology and Social Praxis

IAP (Investigación-Acción Participativa) is conceived as a research methodology in which the subject and object develop symmetrically, horizontally, and operationally within social, economic, or political spheres, representing a commitment to social praxis....

Unit IV: Group Dynamics and Social Research

Understanding Discussion Groups

The discussion group technique is presented as a social research method and observational tool, often associated with intervention-oriented group practices. It aims to clarify the scope and significance of using groups as a tool to understand the symbolic dimensions of social reality and group practices themselves.

The Significance of Group Behavior

Groups are not merely categories or aggregates of individuals that can be assembled regardless of their intent or purposes. Instead, they are a set of individuals related by some common bond that makes them interdependent, such as friends or colleagues. Research conducted on groups based solely on sociodemographic categories...

Core Concepts in Experimental Design

Key Variables and Factors

• Dependent Variable: The primary variable of interest in research that is measured.
• Independent Variable: The variable thought to affect the measurements of the dependent variable (the variable the researcher manipulates).
• Factor: Each independent variable within an experiment.
• Treatment or Factor Levels: Each logical category or intensity level of a specific factor.
• Combination Treatment: Any specific combination of factor levels imposed on a single unit of material.

Experimental Methodology

• Experimental Unit: The basic unit to which a treatment or combination treatment is applied.
• Randomization: The process of assigning experimental units to various treatments randomly.
• Experimental Error:

Physiological Basis of Motor Activity

Motor activity holds significant physiological importance. It involves the discharge of muscle energy, combining tonic and kinetic components (e.g., spasms, difficulties with twisting movements). These activities are influenced by fundamental organic needs such as hunger and sleep.

Theories of Psychomotor Development

Henri Wallon's Psychobiological Concept

Wallon's theory emphasizes the psychobiological nature of development.

Wallon's Stages of Psychomotor Development

• Sensorimotor Stage (12-24 months)

  This stage organizes outward movement and is characterized by a strong desire to explore and investigate.

• Projective Stage (2-3 years)

  Motor activity becomes an instrument for influencing the world. The child begins

Piaget's Stages of Cognitive Development

The Sensorimotor Period (0-2 Years)

The Sensorimotor period ranges from 0-2 years. During this time, sensorimotor capacities appear, including perceptual and language skills. Habits appear, specifically locomotor and manipulative skills. Sensory information is organized and arranged. The child recognizes the invariant functional objects, developing an intentional act. A primitive notion of self, space, time, and causality appears. The motor IRAs exist and are made of genuine independent thought or cognitive processes as directors (Williams, 1983).

The Preoperational Period (2-7 Years)

The Preoperational stage ranges from 2-7 years. This stage involves the conceptualization of cognitive processes and operations...