1.0: PROMOTION OF LIFE SKILLS

Civics notes| form two notes| form two civics notes

Concepts of Life skills, Problem and Social Problem

Life skills

Life skills refer to the knowledge and skills which give an individual ability to work independently and accuracy with maximum efficiency.  

Problem

Problem is the something and an unpleasant or undesirable condition that cause the difficulties and unsatisfactory to the people. Problem has to be solved and needs to be corrected in order to create satisfied situation among the people in the society.

Social problems

Social problems are the things that cause the difficulties that affect the community. Social problems may include violence, theft, drug abuse, corruption and many others.

Problem solving

Problem solving is an act which involves the relation of decision-making that requires someone to make a choice and selecting the best alternative and implementing the solution.

Problem Solving Techniques

Problem solving techniques refers to the ways or methods that are applied by a person or a group of people to deal with the difficult situation in the societies and find out the better solutions. These methods are applied in order to solve the different problems that face people in the society when they struggle to get the better life.

Ways of problem solving

i.     Cooperation.  A person, who has a problem, exposes it to other people around him or her. People can decide to make contribution of their ideas in order to solve that problem. ii.  Hard working. Sometimes, some problems are caused by laziness, for example lack of food and good clothes. These problems can be solved by working hard so as to get better achievement.

iii.                Guidance and counseling. There are some of the problems which cannot be solved physically or mentally, instead they need psychological treatments. This can be applied to the people who have mental or emotional suffering like people with HIV/AIDS.

iv.                Seeking advice from individual person. In our daily life, there are people who are considered to be wise with the knowledge and experience about the problems. So some

people who are facing with various problems pay list to these people seeking the advice of their problems.

v.                  Reading the book. Some books are providing various knowledge in life. They can be used to provide different. They can be used to provide different suggestion on how to solve the problems. For example, there are some books which help people with psychological problems to recover. Reading the books refresh the mind and acquire problems solving skills.

vi.                Consult expertise. There are some of the problems need to be solved by expertise. This need scientific way of solving problem and it is important for a person who is seeking advice to consider the nature of the problem and deciding which expert to see because there are some problems which may not be solved by individual people instead need collective solutions.

Importance of applying social problem techniques

i.       Promotion of peace and security. Effective application of social problem-solving techniques reduces the numbers of social problems in the society and promote peace, security, unity and a strong bond among the citizens

ii.       Disease control. Application of social problem solving techniques is a very important aspect to control diseases. These diseases may include communicable and non- communicable diseases.

For example prolonged stress may cause heartbreak, pressure etc 

iv.                Provision of solution to various problems. The use of social problem solving techniques help individuals or a society to get possible solutions to a number of unresolved social problem

v.                 Minimization of cost. The provision of appropriate locally social problem techniques help to reduce unnecessary cost which would have been incurred by external experts to solve some social problems

vi.                Making people active and useful. Social problem solving techniques enable people to participate in various productive activities. Through these techniques, people can solve their social problems and become more active and useful members of the society.

vii.              Reduction of social problems. People in a given society should take effective measures to overcome various social problems.

Steps Taken in The Problem Solving

i.                    Identifying the problem. This is the first step of social problem solving. In this step, the social problem experienced should be identified so that it becomes familiar to those who are responsible to solve it

ii.                  Collecting Information. This is the stage whereby all necessary information concerning the identified social problem is collected. The information is collected through various methods such as questionnaire, observation or interview.

iii.                Defining the Problem. This is the explanation of the conflict and disagreements between people. The problem should be well known before solving it

iv.                Generating alternatives. This involves the generating of many solutions which ultimately assist in problem solving

v.                  Agreeing in solution. This is the step of making agreement which can be involve what to do in order to avoid the reoccurrence of the same problem

vi.                Carrying out evaluation. This is the final step in the process of solving a particular problem. At this step the person in-charge determines whether or not the solution applied to solve the social problem has been successful.

Methods of gathering information

i.            Observation. This is one of the methods used in collecting information. Through this method, a person responsible to resolve a problem may obtain relevant information by observing what is actually happening.

ii.          Interview. This method involves interrogating people. The information obtained through an interview is likely to be more accurate compared to other methods. This is so because the method involves face- to- face conversation between interviewer and interviewee. 

iii. Questionnaire. This is method involves a list of questions to be answered by respondents in a writing form. This method is useful in collecting information from a large sample size within a short period.

iv.            Mass media. This is a method of collecting information involving the use of various presses like television, radio, newspaper, journals blogs, social media and websites.

v.              Documentary review. This method involves the use of authoritative documents such as books and other publications to obtain information. For example, through books and other publication, a person can get information on how to address a social problem.