Three Perspectives on Social Pathology

Abstract

The issue of social pathology is a multilayered topic which goes through a series of disciplines. It can be perceived mainly as a sociological topic. The paper presents the contexts of other disciplines which define the issue such as social deviations, respectively from the viewpoint of psychology and pedagogy as risk behaviour. The paper points to three possible views on social pathology. The first view is social pathology as a set of phenomena which are perceived as problematic by the society (deviating from the behaviour according to the norms of the society). The second view is social pathology as a field of study preparing graduates for the prophylaxis and treatment of pathologically social phenomena. The third view is social pathology as a study subject concerning not only the students of socially oriented fields but mainly the students who are to become teachers. They often tend to be important sources of social support and possible actors in the process of searching for and elimination of pathological phenomena in the period of childhood and adolescence. Keywords social pathology The issue of social pathology forms the current discourse in social sciences not only in the Czech Republic, but also worldwide. The massive increase of phenomena that can be described as socially deviant is unusual for the society and we are looking for ways to describe socially unacceptable phenomena, explore them and find solutions and ways of preventing them. The subject matter of social pathology is the study of the issue of socially deviant behaviour. Kraus (2014, p. 15) defines social deviation as "the violation of or substantial departure from some social standards of behaviour or from a group of standards as an expression of disregard for their requirements." Social deviation is not only the violation of standards sanctioned in legal, religious or moral terms but also the violation of any social standards, e.g. aesthetic. We distinguish between positive and negative deviations. Positive deviation then represent exaggeration and compliance with such standards in extreme ways, e.g. workaholism or abstinence. (Kraus et al., 2010). Kraus (2014, pp. 25-26) divides social deviance into three groups depending on its severity and social risk: 1. Undesirable social phenomena are such phenomena that occur in every society. These phenomena are becoming dangerous for society when their incidence exceeds a certain acceptable level.

What Are the Potential Ways to Solve the Issue of Professionalization of Risk Behaviour Prevention in School Environment?

“…In the Czech school environment, such professionals include the school prevention methodist, upbringing advisor, school psychologist, special teacher, or possibly the upbringing commission including the school direction, as well as cooperation with external subjects. In connection with the previous studies of the author of this article (compare Bělík, 2012Bělík, , 2015, we take the liberty to state that a great part of risk behaviour prevention should consist in non-specific work of the form teacher and of other teachers who have much more frequent contacts with the class and with the children in it than the above stated professionals can have. They can highlight positive behaviours under use of examples from their subjects; they can offer examples to direct the children to the way towards positive value orientation, etc.…”