Grade 12 DIASS Past Paper PDF

# Grade 12: Discipline and Ideas in Applied Social Science (DIASS) ## Contents of this Subject This subject introduces some Applied Social Sciences, namely, Counseling, Social Work, and Communication, which draw their foundation from the theories and principles of Psychology, Sociology, Anthropol...

# Grade 12: Discipline and Ideas in Applied Social Science (DIASS) ## Contents of this Subject This subject introduces some Applied Social Sciences, namely, Counseling, Social Work, and Communication, which draw their foundation from the theories and principles of Psychology, Sociology, Anthropology, and other Social Sciences. The course highlights the seamless interconnectivity of the different applied social science disciplines while focusing on the processes and applications of these applied disciplines in critical development areas. ## What is Social Science and Applied Social Science? ### Social Science - The study of society and the manner in which people behave and influence in the world around us. - The utmost goal of social science is to answer different questions and problems about the society and human condition on how to improve it. - It provides vital information to governments and policymakers, local authorities, nongovernmental organizations, and others. ### Applied Social Science - The study that uses the knowledge-based theories, principles, and methods of interdisciplinary disciplines of basic social science to understand the society and to help address or solve a social problem or practical problem in society. ## **4 pics 1 word** * **Image:** 4-square puzzle with the words "WORD" below. Each square contains a different image. * Top left: a burning fire * Top right: a puppy running * Bottom left: a blue sky with clouds * Bottom right: a desert scene with sand dunes * **Answer:** ELEMENT ## **4 pics 1 word** * **Image:** 4-square puzzle with the word "HELP" at the bottom of the image * Top left: a man holding his head in his hands * Top right: a young woman sitting at a desk with books, looking sad * Bottom left: a woman lying on a couch, talking to a therapist * Bottom right: a young man holding a sign that says "HELP" ## Introduction: The Discipline of Counseling is a relationship characterized by the application of *one or more psychological theories* and *recognized sets of communication skills* appropriate to a client’s intimate concerns, problems, or aspiration (Feltham Dryden 1993). ## Discipline of Counseling - **01:** Definition - **02:** Goals - **03:** Scopes - **04:** Core Values - **05:** Principles ## Definition of Counseling ### What is Counseling? - As a process of guiding a person during a stage of life when reassessments or decisions have to be made about himself or herself and his or her life course. - Is widely considered the heart of guidance services in school. - Also utilizes appraisal and assessment to aid counseling by gathering information about clients through the use of psychological tests and non-psychometric devices. - Empowers diverse individuals, families, and groups to accomplish mental health, wellness, education, and career goal-setting. It involves helping people make needed changes in ways of thinking, feeling and behaving. ## Context and the Basic Concepts of Counseling Counseling is affected by the context and the surrounding factors. These are explored here as part of the basic concepts of counseling that are very important to consider: ### Primary Context * **a.** Peers as Context. Friends' attitudes, norms and behaviors have a strong influence on adolescents. Many issues are often introduced to the individual by their peers. Parents can have much influence over their adolescent children. Critical family issues involve family roles, both positively and negatively. * **b.** Neighborhood as Context. The interactions between the family and its neighborhood as immediate context are also important to consider. A family functions within a particular neighborhood. The behavioral problems in this particular neighborhood require that families work against crime and social isolation that may impact them. * **c.** Culture as Context. Culture provided meaning and coherence of life to any orderly life such as a community or organization. Various sectors of the community, families, peers, and neighborhoods are all bound together by a cultural context that influences them all as individual members. * **d.** Counseling as Context. The National Institute of Health recognizes counseling itself as a context. Regardless of the therapeutic approach in use, the counseling situation itself is a context. From the counseling context, other success factors such as *client factors, counselor factors, contextual factors, and process factors* should be managed well so as to contribute toward the success of the engagement. ### Client Factors The client factors are everything that a client brings to the counseling context. He or she is not a passive object receiving treatment in the manner of a traditional doctor-patient situation. Very often, the expectations and attitude of the client define the result of a counseling process and experience. The success or failure of the counseling process depends so much on the client. ### Counselor Factors The personality, skills, and personal qualities of a counselor can significantly impact the outcomes of the counseling relationship. The counselor’s personal style and qualities can make the interventions successful. The conditions for self-restoration or experience of self-empowerment in a client are some qualities that a counselor usually brings about. ### Contextual Factors The context in which counseling takes place can define the outcomes. Counselors are therefore concerned with the environment and atmosphere where to conduct the sessions. There are ideal contexts and not ideal ones. ### Process Factors The process factors constitute the actual counseling undertaking. Vellemean (2001) presents *the following six stages*, which for him apply to all problem areas in the process of counseling: * **a.** Developing trust. This involves providing warmth, genuineness, and empathy. * **b.** Exploring problem areas. This involves providing a clear and deep analysis of what the problem is, where it comes from, its triggers, and why it may have developed. * **c.** Helping to set goals. This involves setting and managing goal-directed interventions. * **d.** Empowering into action. This means fostering action to achieve set goals. * **e.** Helping to maintain change. This means providing support and other techniques to enable the client to maintain changes. * **f.** Agreeing when to end the helping relationship. This implies that assurances are there that guarantee the process is being directed by the client and toward independence. ## Goals and Scope of Counseling The general goal is to lead an *individual client or group to self-emancipation* in *relation to a felt problem*. At some stage in the process, the *client should attain insight and understanding of oneself*, achieve *better self-awareness*, and *look at oneself with increased self-empowerment*. ## Principles of Counseling These can be found in the basic process of counseling since they govern each and every step: developing trust; exploring problems areas; helping to set goals; empowering into actions; helping to maintain change; and agreeing when to end. * **Advice.** Counseling may involve advice giving as one of the several functions that counselors perform. When this is done, the requirement is that a counselor makes judgements about a counselee's problems and lays out options for a course of action. * **Reassurance.** Counseling involves providing clients with reassurance, which is a way of giving them courage to face a problem or confidence that they are pursuing a suitable course of action. * **Release of emotional tension.** Counseling provides clients the opportunity to get emotional release from their pent-up frustrations and other personal issues . * **Clarified Thinking.** Tends to take place while the counselor and counselee are talking and therefore becomes a logical emotional release. * **Reorientation.** Involves a change in the client's emotional self through a change in basic goals and aspirations. * **Listening Skills.** Listening attentively to clients is the counselor's attempt to understand both the content of the client's level of aspiration to bring it more in line with the actual and realistic attainment. * **Respect.** In all circumstances, clients must be treated with respect, no matter how peculiar, strange, disturbed, weird, or utterly different from the * **Empathy and positive regard.** Carl Rogers combined empathy and positive regard as two principles that should go along with respect and effective listening skills. Empathy requires the counselor to listen and understand the feelings and perspective of the client and positive regard is an aspect of respect. * **Clarification, confrontation, and interpretation.** Clarification is an attempt by the counselor to restate what the client is either saying or feeling, so the client may learn something or understand the issue better. Confrontation and interpretation are other more advanced principles used by counselors in their ## Core Values of Counseling Certain values are considered core to counseling and are reflected and expressed in the practice of counseling. All counselors are expected to embrace these and similar sets of core values as essential and integral to their work. These values are: - **1. Respect for human dignity.** This means that the counselor must provide a client unconditional positive regard, compassion, non-judgemental attitude, empathy, and trust. - **2. Partnership.** A counselor has to foster partnerships with the various disciplines that come together to support an integrated healing that encompasses various aspects such as the physical, emotional, spiritual, and intellectual. - **3. Autonomy.** This entails respect for confidentiality and trust in a relationship of counseling and ensuring a safe environment that is needed for healing. It also means that healing or any advice cannot be imposed on a client. - **4. Responsible caring.** This primarily means respecting the potential of every human being to change and to continue learning throughout his/her life, and especially in the environment of counseling. - **5. Personal integrity.** Counselors must reflect personal integrity, honesty, and truthfulness with clients. - **6. Social justice.** This means accepting and respecting the diversity of the clients, the diversity of individuals, their cultures, languages, lifestyles, identities, ideologies, intellectual capacities, and capabilities regardless of the presented issues.