The agent of socialization of a human individual is always society as a system and a whole. However, society operates in the socialization environment and in the socialization process through various socialization factors. The means of socialization are specific social groups - large, medium, small groups. And likewise individual people in certain social roles and positions that allow them, or require them to influence other people in a formal way - e.g. teachers, educators, managers, cultural and political actors, and also in an informal way - e.g. parents, siblings, peers, reference groups such as friends or interest groups and other groups.

What is a social environment? Society as a whole and individual groups that make up a person's social environment? If we identify with the opinion (Krech, D. - Crutchfield, R. S. - Balachey, E. L., 1968, p. 382) that "society is an organized grouping of people, consisting of a network of interconnected groups and organizations that form a social structure", then we have a definition of the social environment. We interpret the ideas of the mentioned authors of the well-known book Man in Society (Imtiež, p. 350, 381) as follows:

  • In the social environment, coordination and regulation of the activities of members of social groups is achieved through systems of social positions and social roles.
  • Social class, as the most important status system, significantly determines the social environment and the position of the individual in this environment.
  • In the social environment, the influence on people takes place in such a way that the social structure imprints the stamp of uniqueness and durability on the needs, knowledge and interpersonal response characteristics of individuals.

The development of personality as a social system, i.e. the development of a person's moral and ethical qualities, his conscious actions, as well as his patterns and values, is manifested in the culture of his behavior and actions. An individual thus significantly influences the social level of society. We consider the relationship of man to natural and social reality in terms of: - Connections between man and the natural environment. - Connections between man and the material environment. - Connections between man and the mental and spiritual environment. - Connections between man and the social environment.

According to V. S. Merlin (1975), a person in society lives his life as an individual through his temperament and psychological processes; as a personality through psychological characteristics of character in a specific social environment through family, work, interest, cultural, political and other diverse social groups and in the spirit of socio-historical community / nation.

Solving any social task and social problem is possible only if the general and specific cultural, psychological, social, material and social conditions of life of individuals and social groups in a given society are taken into account. Social, psychological and physical adaptability and adaptability in the given society are required from the personalities of people today. In this context, we will only remind you that (M. Machalová, 2006):

  • A person's personality is a self-organizing whole. Personality is characterized by purposeful and purposeful organization of psyche, behavior and actions.
  • A person's personality is an open system that exchanges information and energy with the environment.
  • A person's personality is a goal-driven system - he behaves and acts based on his needs and the needs of the environment he is a part of.

Man lives under the influence of the external environment (social and social environment) and also under the influence of his internal environment (mental and physical environment). He manages life in different environments more or less adaptively thanks to the system of psychological and physical self-regulation of man.

O. Mikšík (1980, p. 21) considers the hypothetical structure of psychological variability to be a subjective condition of people's social adaptation. It consists of a complex of innate and acquired strategies for dynamic coping with situational variables, which are manifested in the individual's readiness for a certain form and manner of reactions. In this context, O. Mikšík (1980, p. 22) defined two forms of psychological adaptation variability of people:

  • High adaptive variability is manifested in a person's tendency to respond and adapt purposefully and flexibly.
  • Adaptational rigidity (inertia) is manifested in a person's tendency to stick to their own patterns of behavior and not adapt.

This theoretical introduction to the issue of the personality and environment system aims at understanding the general psychological influence of the social and social environment on people.

Social-psychological adaptation of an individual in a social environment

We frame the process of social-psychological adaptation against the background of mutual interaction and relationships of the individual (or the personality of the person) in the social environment. An individual person does not come into contact with all systems of the social environment, but only with some of them. However, the social environment is a prerequisite for a person to become a personality. Society shapes a person's personality to some extent as its own result. Their interconnectedness is visible in the fact that the personality of a particular person is to some extent a manifestation of the society in which that person lives. And vice versa - a specific society is to some extent a manifestation of the personality that lives in that society. The level of sociability of an individual person depends on the level of sociability of the social environment in which that person lives and vice versa.

Socio-psychological adaptation of a person is connected with psychological and social development as well as psychological and social development of a person. Adaptation of an individual to a specific social reality means more or less beneficial gains for his psychological and social development and development. J. Charvát (1969, p.54)) considers the socio-psychological adaptation of a person to be a controlling factor in the developmental changes of individuals and states: "We do not fully understand adaptations. They are usually understood ex post, historically, as a consequence of evolution. However, sometimes we can also understand them the other way around, as one of the causes of evolution. The biological purposefulness of adaptations flows from the encoded memory of the species. Only in higher creatures, especially in a person, we also find experiences saved and processed from the individual's life. And they also have an adaptive character... adaptations are supposed to guarantee the duration of the individual when the external conditions change... they are supposed to help him survive the burden".

The psychological content of adaptation can be (P. Lauková, 2008; L. Šírová, 2008) the convergence of goals and value orientations of groups and individuals as members of groups, in such a way that people adopt social norms, traditions, a certain culture and social structure of small, medium and large social groups of people. Social-psychological adaptation of people is closely related to their socialization (M. Machalová, 2006, p.148): Adaptation is considered one of the basic socio-psychological mechanisms of human socialization. Adaptation is a term used to express the dynamic process of human adaptation in the environment. The result of the human adaptation process is his adaptability.

The prominent psychologist J. Piaget (1970) stated the following:

  • The process of accommodation is aimed at the functioning of the human body and personality in accordance with the requirements and characteristics of the environment, but through accommodation, a person adapts only formally, externally, while disagreeing and protesting internally.
  • The process of assimilation leads to the assimilation, to the internalization (internalization) of the demands and properties of the environment. Man adapts creatively, by reshaping the properties of the environment in accordance with his own needs, with his own consent.

Here we interpret the statement of P. Philips, who formulated, in our opinion, an innovative, interactive concept of human adaptation as follows (P. Philips, 1968, In: M. Machalová, 2006): If a person adapts only to the specific situations in which he finds himself, then it is a situational adaptation, the result of which is the situational adaptability of a person. If a person adapts by actively solving problems that go beyond the given situation, then it is a general adaptation, the result of which is the general adaptation of the person. And now we think in our own way by calling general adaptation generalized adaptation and we can consider the result of this human adaptation as an indicator of the fact that a specific person has mastered multiple and cumulative situational adaptations. It can be assumed that he adaptively managed stressful situations of stress, frustration, deprivation, conflicts.

V. Bačová notes that a person's social maladjustment can manifest as stress from being different, as well as stress from not meeting social expectations in a given society. A significant socially undesirable difference of an individual from the majority society can become a psychological and social stigma of a particular person.

Social rejection happens as a way of social categorization of people. Categories of people encounter different social acceptance in society. Society rejects some categories of people, accepts some groups but rates them low. Social categorization of people and social groups depends on socially accepted social adaptation and socially rejected social adaptation of people.

Socially accepted adaptation of an individual and a social group is a process that results in the social adaptation of an individual or a social group in a specific social environment, within specific social situations, while respecting the social norms accepted by the social group. Socially undesirable adaptation of an individual and a social group is a process that results in satisfying the needs of the individual and the social group in the social environment and in social situations, but at the expense of the social group, while disregarding and violating the social norms accepted by the social group.

Socially undesirable social adaptation is characterized by the behavior and actions of people that significantly deviate from the socially valid social norms observed in the given society. A. A. Nalchadzhian (1988) states that the pathological adaptation of people pre-empts the creation of a social atmosphere that is conducive to creative social communication of people in a given social environment. Socio-pathological adaptation is characterized by socially pathological ways of behavior and actions of people, which are often a manifestation of neurotic, psychotic, psychopathic syndromes and personality disorders of individuals.

It is understandable that there are both socially desirable and socially undesirable ways of behaving and acting in human society. Socially maladaptive behavior and actions are the consequence and at the same time the cause of social problems of individuals and social groups. From a psychological point of view, the maladaptive social behavior of individuals and social groups in a given society is a consequence of not being able to cope with social tasks, but at the same time it can also become an incentive for people to take responsibility for their lives. Awareness of one's own responsibility is a motivation for people to act and behave in a socially mature manner.

Author: Prof. PhDr. Mária Machalová, CSc. Literature

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