Social adaptation is a process in which a person or a social group adapts to a constantly changing social environment. In other words, this is the adaptation of a person to the social group or society in which he lives or will live.
Getting into a certain group and fulfilling the established norms of this group, a person in the process of adaptation can be honored and respected, but destroying these norms, not obeying them, can be rejected by the group. Each person to one degree or another depends on the people around him, so adaptation has a great impact on the development of a person as a person.
In society, there are established norms and laws that everyone is obligated to fulfill. But there are unwritten laws and rules that are inherent only to a particular group of society. For example, a child going to kindergarten must adapt to a group of his peers. The first grader has more serious problems when he did not attend kindergarten, but immediately went to school. A person usually belongs to several social groups at the same time, and he has to meet the requirements of each of them. For example, an adult in the family is the head of the family, and at work - the representative of a profession or position. In each of the social groups, a person has to adapt to the norms and rules that are inherent in each of them. This means that adaptation is a constant process.
A person who is able to adapt quickly is called normal, but for different social groups this concept can radically differ. Adaptation problems may arise, first of all, due to the rules adopted in society. For example, foreigners may have problems due to differences in culture and norms of behavior accepted in their home country. Problems can arise due to individual characteristics of a person. For example, a quiet, shy and timid person cannot be a leader in the team.
Adolescents also have many problems associated with adaptation. A person entering an independent life usually has two main problems: how to determine his place in the surrounding life and how to find the meaning of life. The social adaptation of the personality of individual adolescents is very difficult: they are constantly worried about their place in life, about the purpose of their existence, about the meaning of their being on this earth. Moreover, almost none of the adults can help the teenager in this. That is why so many suicides occur in adolescence.
Adaptation problems arise in an elderly person. In retirement age, he sometimes has "age-related depression." He experiences a deep crisis, is acutely worried about a lot, he has many conflicts with others. The elderly person is affected by the factors of life stages, when he analyzes the past years. Sometimes at this time he expects nothing more from life, hopes for nothing, expects only misfortune. And in this difficult period, such a person requires special attention, support, participation. The social adaptation of a person in society is painless, taking into account both health and social factors. Adaptation of addiction requires loneliness.
Adaptation problems can often cause so much stress that as a result there are health problems: malaise, nervousness. Sometimes, under certain conditions, these problems cause serious illnesses, such as asthma, ulcers, arthritis. Emotional overstrain can also trigger mental illness.
Social adaptation can provoke special problems for children of foreigners living in our country temporarily. Mismatch of human roles in different social groups can also lead to problems.
Particularly often there are problems with adaptation in society for people with disabilities. Disability poses a lot of problems for a person, especially for people with disabilities. These people become a special socio-demographic group. They have a low income level, a low educational opportunity, and almost no employment. Most people with disabilities do not create families, they have no interest in life, no desire to do something useful and necessary. Therefore, the social adaptation of persons with disabilities should be aimed at introducing into the public consciousness the idea of equal rights and opportunities for people with disabilities. Until this happens, a person with disabilities cannot be in the "stream" of public life.
From the foregoing, it can be argued that social adaptation is a holistic structure that has its own specific problems, the solution of which will lead a person to the opportunity to develop and change.