This paper will address various social problems affecting learners, identify their causes, describe ways of assessment and propose intervention procedures.

 Man is basically a social animal.  He is born in society, develops, works and progresses in society.  Social development is therefore very essential for proper adjustment in the society.  The foundation of social development is laid by parents in the family and success in future social adjustment depends on the role that the school plays. The most characteristics of social development is the increased influence of peer group.  With advancing age learners remaining most of the time with friends who shape their behaviour to a great extent by affecting their interests, attitudes and values.

 The greatest challenges that face education today is the increase in number of social problems among learner that are tremendously diminishing academic achievements.  It is vital to asses learner with problems of social interaction that can affect motivation and self-systems and more significantly provide knowledge of needs and developmental tasks that are appropriate to them.  By understanding these needs teachers and administrators can frame appropriate curriculum, school policies and methodology of teaching them. 

 HEIGHTENED EMOTIONALITY

 An emotion is a disturbed state of an organism.  It is expressed in love, fear, anger, laughter and tears.  It involves feelings of jubilation or depression and impulse to action and awareness of perception.  Emotion in the organism is a dynamic internal adjustment that operates for the satisfaction and welfare of the individual. Heightened emotionality is evident among learners from nail biting, tension, conflicts, quarrels etc.

 Causes of Heightened Emotionality: -

 1.                 Change of roles at home, school and society.

 -         Change of roles require adjustment to new situations in different ways.  The change over to new pattern of habits creates emotional tensions in learners;

 2.                 Unfavourable relations at home: -

 -         Parents in most cases do not prepare their children to meet the problems of adolescence and this make them to become emotionally disturbed.

 3.                 Social Expectations: -

-         The society and parents expect learners to think and act like adults for which they are not physically and intellectually matured.  Failure to meet social expectations results in emotional disturbances.

 4.                 Adjustment to the Member of Opposite Sex: -

 -         Sometimes learners are not able to understand the correct social behaviour, how to make friendship with members of opposite sex.

 5.                 School Failure: -

 -         Failures cause heightened emotionality so much so that many learners commit suicide, leave home and sometimes give up education.

 6.                 Conflict with Friends and Family Members: -

 -         Too strict discipline, restriction on movements and lack of understanding their interests or point of views are the chief sources of emotional disturbances.

 

Common Emotional Patterns Among Learners

 1.                 Love and Affection: –

 -         The emotion of love that is related to sexual impulse is common in learners and is the result of consequences of physiological disturbances.  The learner is able to discriminate people with whom he likes to associate and build up an affectionate association.

 2.                 Joy, Pleasure and Delight: - 

 -         Every learner feels insecure and uncertain in life and any situation that is opposite to these feelings gives happiness e.g. Passing examinations, being elected to student union etc.

 3.                 Worry: -

 -         This is an imaginary fear which is caused by a repeated rehearsal of the situation feared.  Most learners have the following types of worries: -

(i)                School work,

(ii)              Examination and Test,

(iii)            School problems as favouritism by the teacher, unreasonable home-work, lack of ability to concentrate etc

(iv)            Home worries that are caused by lack of understanding between learner and parents,

(v)              Fear of material objects and social relationship.

 4.                 Anger: -

         -         This is a learned response to environmental stimuli and is social in nature characterized by light and aggression.

 

Effects and Emotions

 The most damaging effect of emotions is on the physique of the individual.  Constant emotional tension may causes lack of sleep, restlessness, headache, chronic fatigue, insomnia and lack of appetite.

Research shows that emotional tensions affect the efficiency of an individual, shifts of moods and inconsistency in behaviour.  Forgetting increases in emotion state and an individual cannot reason, think and concentrate.  Negative emotional experiences for along period disturb the total personality of an individual and may lead to neuroticism.

 Assessment of Emotional Disturbance

 These are certain symptoms which are evidence of emotional disturbances in learners.  The teacher can locate these learners and provide them individual guidance.  This signs are: excessive nail biting, thumb sucking, biting the lips, scratching the nose, pulling or twisting the hair, scratching the head, leaning the face on the hands and rocking legs etc.  other mechanisms such as aggression, in-attention, shyness, withdrawal and hyperactivity also indicate emotional disturbance.

 Interventions

 Developing proper emotions and controlling them is a very essential objective of education.  Emotions need to be controlled by learning to approach a social situation with rational attitude and repression of those emotions which are socially unacceptable. Administrators and teachers can play an important role to reduce pressure that interfere with the learners emotional development.  Some of these intervention can be adopted.

 1.                 Proper Training:-

 -         Teachers may use methods that can control fears of inadequacy in various situations by developing competencies and skills in activities in which learners are interested to create self-confidence.  Emphasis should be laid on the interpersonal relationship for the facilitation of learning.

 2.                 Development of Resistance:-

 -         Learners should be encouraged to examine critically the causes of their failures and frustration.

 3.                 Guidance and Counselling: -

 -         Adolescence is a period when learners are overwhelmed by a number of simultaneous developments and therefore proper guidance is needed to meet this situation.

 4.                 Proper Understanding: -

 -         Educators need to change their attitude and provide proper environment for the expression of pant-up feelings.  Fair treatment, sympathy, cooperation and freedom of action within a reasonable limit should be given to learners.  The school administrator and the teacher can encourage the development of effective social maturity by providing them: -

 (a)              Skills that will enable the learner to deal effectively with threatening aspects of his environment,

(b)              An atmosphere that permits the learner to admit the feelings he is experiencing,

(c)               A variety of opportunities to participate in activities leading towards the acceptance of responsibility.  This participation will foster a spirit of tolerance, cooperation, habits, confidence and a spirit of fair play. The teacher must develop a clear recognition of the desirability of achieving free and more constructive expressions of emotions which will result in progress towards the desired goal.

 (d)                The school may organize picnics, excursions and tours to provide students with opportunities to understand each other and come closer.  This will resolve many problems of learners which are created by lack of communication among the members of the class and the institution at large.

 

INTEREST

 Interest is any activity that drives or motivates the individual for action.  It describes why learners tend to favour some situations and thus come to react to them in a very selective manner.

 FACTORS AFFECTING INTEREST

 The variations in interests are influenced by a number of factors as follows: -

 Physical Development.  If a learner is physically handicapped his interests will be confined to different kinds of activities, mostly indoor.

1. Sex Differences. There is a great difference between interests of boys and girls which can be attributed to the physiological differences and cultural influences.
2. Environmental influences in giving the opportunity to come in contact with various items of interest.
3. Social-Economic status plays an important role in deciding interest like not having money to purchase articles of games, books magazines etc.
4. Intelligence.  According to studies done by Lehman and Witty, gifted learners participate in solitary games which involve rules and well-organized system and do not like those activities which require muscular strength but prefer problem solving activities.  On the other hand dull students participate in social games requiring muscular strength.

 

ASSESSMENT OF INTEREST

 The most important and widely used test of interest is the strong vocational interest blank (SVIB).  This test consists of 400 items indicating various activities.  The subject has to give his preference indicating like, neutral or dislike and the score are compared in principle with the scores of a huge number of occupational groups.  Those occupational groups whom the subject most resembled were the ones in which he was interested.

 The other test that can be used to determine interest is the kuder interest test.  This test consists of 100 items each consisting of three activities to which subjects indicate by pressing a pin through the relevant hole of an answer sheet.  It measures ten important interests as outdoor, mechanical, scientific, clinical, social science, literary and musical.  This test is useful for counselling purposes.

 Interventions

 Students need guidance in the development, appropriate interests and for this purpose the school is the right place where a variety of activities can be organized to foster the interests.  According to Chauham (1996) the following activities will help: -

 Social Functions: – The school should organize informal social functions in which students may come closer to each other and have an opportunity to understand interests and aspirations of each other.  These functions must be organized in such a way as to cater for all types of students.

1. Excursions and trips: – These trips provide more opportunities for informal conversations and exposure to a variety of events and activities that help to arouse interest.
2. Games, Debates and Seminars should be organized to train students on various activities and issues in life.
3. The teacher should make an appraisal of student’s social interests, social acceptance in classroom, social-economic conditions and organize activities to foster appropriate interest.

 

Personality

 An individual’s personality is considered as everything a person does.  It is the individual’s characteristic way of conducting himself.  The physique, appearance, aptitudes and character traits.  It can also be defined as the holistic picture of an individual.  It is in short the sum total of an individual’s behaviour which helps us understand why students do the things they do.  

 Manu(2000) observes that behaviour which contributes to an individual’s personality can be classified as: -

 (i)                Ovest Behaviour: – The behaviour which is not easily seen or expressed eg the way he thinks.

(ii)              Overt behaviour: – This is the expressed form of behaviour.

 Determinants of Personality

 1)                 Genetic determinant which in this case can be biological or social and are passed on from one generation to another.  Various studies according to Chauham (1996), shows that: -

 (a)              An individual is a by-product of the constant interaction of hereditary and environmental influences.

(b)              Training and experiences in the environment contribute to the development of traits.

(c)               Heredity influences physique, meter-sensory equipment and level of intelligence.

(d)              Bad environment can suppress good inheritance and therefore good training and experiences improve the performance of learners.

(e)              Substantial differences in intelligence can be created by providing an appropriate environment.

 

2)                 Social Determinant: - Man is born in a social set up and all men are born alike with respect to their biological need, Chauham says that differences are created by the social environment in which needs are fulfilled.  The home plays an important role in shaping the personality pattern of an individual in early infancy.  His likes, dislikes, stereotypes about people, expectancies of security and conditioned emotional responses all are shaped in early childhood.  The type of training and role in the development of personality. Stott in 1939 administered a questionnaire to 1800 Nebraska adolescents covering child-parent relationship and personality inventory and came up with the following findings:-

  (i)                Students coming from homes where good morale pattern dominated were better adjusted, more independent and related well.

(ii)              Those coming from homes showing family discard pattern were generally, poorly adjusted in their social environment

(iii)            Poverty of parents and lack of money to fulfil legitimate needs leads directly to certain kind of frustrations.

 The school plays an important role in moulding the personality of students because a significant part of their life is spent in school.  The school poses new problems to be solved, new taboos to be accepted into the super ego and new model for imitation and identification all of which contribute their share in moulding personality.  The importance of the principal or administration’s style in maintaining discipline determine the emotional tone of the school in respect to personality.  The way a teacher carries out his role in class will affect the emotional climate in the classroom.  An authoritarian teacher will establish an autocratic climate and democratic teacher will create a different kind of climate.  These differences in the attitude of teachers will imply differences in the number of frustrations imposed upon the students and in the kind of personality development encouraged.

 3)                 Cultural Determinants:      Cultural conditions play an important role in moulding the personality patterns of individuals.  Culture is a great educator of human beings directly or indirectly by the methods of training and passing on great social heritage, it leaves permanent impression on the personality of learners.

 

ABNORMAL PERSONALITY

 This is the malfunctioning of personality.  Among these are: -

 1)       Psychoses:    This is an extreme form of maladjustment characterized by   severe disturbance in thinking, feeling and behaviour.  There are three        forms of psychoses:-

           (i)      Schizophrenia: -      Extreme withdrawal coupled with apathy,                            indifference, loss of interest, loss of sense of responsibility and                           incoherent speech.

          (ii)      Paranoia: -    Experience of persistent delusions

          (iii)     Affective Reactions: -        This is marked by emotional excess,                          excited and active for short periods followed by withdrawal.

          (iv)     Neuroses: –   It involves an exaggerated use of defence mechanism                    instead of solving problems the neurotic complicates them.

 2)                 Nervous Exhaustion: -

           It is characterized by excessive fatigue, feeling of weakness, inadequacy    and rapid movement.

 3)                 Hysteria an Disassociation: -

           It involves forgetfulness, vagueness, inability to understand, loss of          contact with reality and childish behaviour.

 ASSESSMENT OF PERSONALITY

 Underlying the process of personality assessment is the premise that individuals differ in certain identifiable and measurable dimension as observed by Zanden (1987).  There are many ways of judging personality and among these are: -

 1.                 Interview Method: -

           This consists of the formal method in which organized questions are asked          face to face and the informal method which is used when obtaining     information for maladjusted people.

 2.                 Rating Scales: -

           This method is useful for learning what impression an individual has made          on persons with who he comes into contact in respect to some specified        trait as honesty, punctuality and emotional stability.

 3.                 questionnaire: -

           It represents a list of statements which are to be answered by checking     one of several possible answers.  There are personal questions, attitude         questions and interest questions.

 4.                 Behaviour Inventory: -

           There are two kinds:-

 (i)                Direct which deals with specific information and no efforts are made to conceal the meaning of the questions.

(ii)              Indirect which conceals the real purpose by giving a choice whereby one has to select one of two alternatives

 5.                 Projective Techniques

           This technique represents an ambiguous situation into which the individual         reads his own wishes fears and fantasies.  The procedure seem so    impersonal that the examinee often projects his real self and unravelled      motives without knowing.

 INTERVENTIONS

 The teacher can improve the personality of his students by following these steps:-

 Remember you are a social stimulus and therefore appearance, speech, education, culture as revealed in conversation, opinions and attitudes should be checked.

1. Cultivate accepted social skills because people admire those who are willing to do something.  Teach students to do things which will enhance their popularity.
2. Help students to penetrate through and understand their real movies.  Help them to check why they behave the way they behave.
3. Help students strive hard to develop positive personality traits which may include being stable, cooperative, friendly etc.
4. Help learners to defend what is right and condemn what is wrong in the society.  They should cultivate the life of being sincere, honest and being responsible for his own actions.

 ADJUSTMENTS

 Adjustment means reaction to the demands and pressures of social environment imposed up the individual.  This demands may be external or internal and when the two come into conflict with each other they make adjustment a complicated process for the learner.

 Conflicts among the various needs or demands of a person present special problems of adjustment to an extent that if you gratify one of the conflicting needs, the need which is not gratified will produce frustration and leads sometimes to abnormal behaviour.

 CRITERIA FOR GOOD ADJUSTMENT

 Four criterial have been evolved by psychologist to judge the adequacy of adjustment.  These are: -

 (i)                Physical Health: -

 -         The learner should be free from physical ailments like headache, ulclers.

 (ii)              Psychological comfort: -

 -         One should not have a psychological diseases as obsession, compulsion, anxiety and depression.

 (iii)            Work Efficiency: –

 -         A teacher who makes full use of his social capacities may be termed as well adjusted in his social set up.

 CAUSES OF MALADJUSTMENT

 There are numerous factors at home, society and school which lead to maladjustment: -

 (1)              Physique

           The physique and appearance play an important role in the social    development of students especially when comparisons are drawn.

 (2)              Long sickness and injury

          Long term sickness or injury may cause untold anxiety and dependence syndrome in a child which may later in life create an environment of wanting uncalled for sympathy even long after the child has healed up.

 (3)              Poverty: -

           It has been observed that the highest percentage of maladjusted students come from low economic conditions because parents cannot meet their        legitimate needs.

 (4)              Broken Homes: –

           Children from broken homes do not get the affection, love, sympathy and           security and so they are emotionally disturbed.

 (5)              Personal Inadequacies: –

           Parents who are ambitious and set high goals for their children       irrespective of their physical and mental abilities create frustration in their    children.

 (6)              Parental Attitude: -

           Rejection and lack of affection may lead to maladjusted behaviour.  On     the other hand over-protection of the child may lead to lack of        responsibility, lack of socialization, aggressiveness and selfishness.

 (7)              Value Placed On Sex Of The Child: -

           The Preference of boys to daughters may lead to maladjustment of the     girl child

 (8)              Emotional Shock: -

           Children who experience emotional shocks such as death, accidents may   manifest maladjustment in their behaviour.

 (9)              Lack Of Clubs, Playgrounds And Libraries: -

           Students need physical and mental recreational activities to fulfil their physical and mental needs.  If these needs are not created they lead to emotional tensions which are manifested in maladjusted behaviour.

 FORMS OF MALADJUSTMENT

 1)       Regression: -

 This is an unconscious back tracking either in memory or in behaviour which might have been successful in the past.  A student who has been frustrated in fulfilling his needs may return to more primitive modes of behaviour.  This problem is encountered in classes particularly when students are reprimanded.

 2)       Negativism: -

 This is a mechanism by which a learner draws the attention of other persons.  He develops strong and irrational resistance in accepting the suggestions feelings towards their teachers which serve no useful no useful purpose but hinder the achievement reactions.

 4)                 Obsessive – Compulsive Reactions

 an obsession is a recurring thought or desire that a person regards useless or false but cannot help.

 The obsession develops gradually and becomes deep rooted in the mind and may result in higher mental disorders.

 INTERVENTIONS

 Schools are in a position to help in the development of students’ potentialities by catering far their needs.  Administrators and teachers should take various measures for proper development of physical, mental and spiritual abilities.  The following interventions can be adopted.

 1.                 School Environment

           It should be one that provides feelings of security in each and every          student irrespective of their differences.  It should be conducive for     learning free from fear, tension and frustration.

 2.                 Democratic Environment: -

           School problems should be discussed with teachers and students decisions          should be taken by taking students into confidence.

 3.                 Provision Of Curricular Activities

           The school may organize regular games, discussions, debates, scouting,    guided reading, dramas, educational exhibitions etc

 4.                 Teacher’s Role: -

           The teacher must be emotionally stable and have positive attitude   towards teaching. He must take interest in students and their welfare.        His behaviour with students should be of a friend, philosopher and a guide    in creating confidence in his students to face the realities of life.

 5.                 Freedom Of Expression: -

           Learners should be provided with opportunity in the class to express their views freely on problems.

 6.                 Variety Of Interests: -

           The teacher should try to develop a variety of interests in his students       such as games, reading and hobbies of different types which may help in        the development of sound attitudes.

 7.                 Classes In Human Relations: -

           Daily life problems need to be discussed with emphasis on how to live      with other. 

 8.                 Provision Of Sex And Moral Education: -

           Regular lessons and seminars on sex education and moral principles should be introduced in the school curriculum to enhance responsible character development.

 9.                 Guidance: -

           School should organize guidance services for the benefit of students in      three areas, personal, educational and vocational.

 DELINQUENCY

 Bandura defines delinquency as the manifestation of frustrated needs of the child which leads to aggression.  According to C. Burt “A child is to be regarded as technically delinquent when his antisocial tendencies appear so grave that he becomes or ought to become the subject of official action”.

 Characteristics of Delinquents

 Physical: – They are xenomorphic in constitution, muscular and bold.

1. temperament: – Restlessly energetic, impulsive, extraverted, aggressive and destructive
2. Attitude: – hostile, defiant, resentful, suspicious, unconventional and non-submissive to authority.
3. Psychological: – Tendering to direct and concrete, rather than symbolic intellectual expression and less methodical in their approach to the problems.
4. Social cultural: – Lack of affection, stability, moral standard of parents usually unfit to be effective guide to them.

 CAUSES OF DELINQUENCY

 There are two views as regards the causes of delinquency – one view is held by hereditarians who hold the belief that delinquents are born and inheritance is responsible for anti-social behaviour.

The environmentalist on the other hand emphasis on the environmental factors as the sole cause of delinquency which include; ecological factors e.g. Densely populated areas, broke homes, discipline in schools and society at large.

 INTERVENTION

 The treatment of delinquent learners can be done through psychotherapy by using the following methods: -

 1.  Re-Education:- This means building the learners self by giving information on sex problems and family relations to help clarify his ideas on defilement  problems.

2 Abreaction: -This involves providing opportunity to the learner to express his pent-up and suppressed emotional feelings through discussion. 

3 Persuasion: -The teacher can appeal to the reason of the delinquent student not to indulge in delinquency in future.

4 Suggestion and counselling:- Positive suggestions are given to strengthen the super-ego of the delinquents.

5 Environmental Treatment: - It is expected that by placing the delinquent student in new environment he may give up his delinquent acts and may start his life afresh.

 PLANNING AND IMPLEMENTING INTERVENTIONS

 1.                 Discussion Technique: –

      Time is set aside each weak for the analysis of the adjustment problems of particular students by all teachers, principal and guidance and counselling personnel.  The data regarding the problems is presented and analysed and then recommendations for remedial measures are made.  Monitoring and evaluation is done on a weekly basis.

 2.                 Establishing A Human Relations Class: -

      This is done once a week whereby the teacher reads before the class a story which features emotional problems.  The students then required to give an appraisal of the story from their own personal experiences.  The basic idea is to release emotional tensions and develop a better understanding of their own problems by listening to their classmates.

 3.                 Providing a personal relation course which follows the following steps:

(i)                Students list their personal problems

(ii)              Discussing behaviour is observed

(iii)            Showing and discussing films and slides

 The work of this course is to incorporate the basic principles of mental hygiene and their application to everyday living.

 The school should arrange for in-service programmes for teachers to refresh their knowledge on new technique.  The principal should also encourage his colleagues to experiment with innovative ideas in dealing with problems.

 CONCLUSION

 The primary purpose of education is to train students to solve life’s personal, social and economic problems since learning is not the activity of single function but is bound up with total personality of the learner.  In developing institutions it is important for administrators, teacher and guidance counsellor to work out programmes that can improve the social health of learners in order to improve academic performance.

 REFERENCES

 Chauhan S.S (1996) Advanced Educational Psychology. 6th Edition, New Delhi: Vikas Publishing House PVT Ltd.

 Munu Patrick (2000) Perspectives in Psychology Pure, P.J. Enterprises

 Sanden, Scarr Vander (1987) Understanding Psychology. New York: Random house Inc.