NCERT Class 11 Home Science Community and Society

 

In the preceding chapters, you have learnt about the importance of the family, school and friends in the lives of individual people. Human beings

are a social species; we live in close connection with other people in our lives. After birth, the human infant is the most dependent of all newborns across all mammals, and remains so for the longest period in comparison.This period of dependence allows for close interactions between the caregiver and infant and facilitates important developments in early life that lay the foundations for the future. Sociability is a critical attribute in human life. We like to be among other people, we build our idea about ourselves from listening to others and seeing their reactions to us, we learn about our society and culture by engaging with people around us; and we develop a sense of right and wrong by looking around us. These are some of the examples of the ways in which groups can influence individual development. This does not imply that the reverse cannot be true. As sentient living beings (beings that have sensory organs) we are deeply affected by what we experience. This is one of the primary reasons.