Week 1

Discipline and Ideas in the Social Sciences

RATIONAL CHOICE THEORY
GEOGRAPHY
studies the interaction between the natural
environment and the people living in it.

-Physical Geography
studies the natural features on earth
-Human Geography
studies human population and impact of its
activities on the planet
-Eratosthenes
Father of Geography

HISTORY
-study of the recorded past
Primary Sources
Secondary Sources
Herodotus- Father of the history.
DEMOGRAPHY
-study of human population
 Fertiliy
 Morality
 Migration
Thomas Malthus-Malthusian Theory

DOMINANT APPROCHES AND IDEAS IN THE

SOCIAL SCIENCES
 Rational choice theory
 Symbolic interactionism
 Structural-functionalism
 Institutionalism
 Human-environment system approach
 Psychoanalysis
 Hermeneutic-phenomenology
 Marxism
 Feminist theory
RATIONAL CHOICE THEORY
Positivism- source of knowledge is experience
-is a powerful tool in making sense of why people act or believe in the way they do.
-Adam Smith was early theorist of Rational Choice.

Three Pillars of RCT

1. Strategies of courses of action open and available to them.
2. Their preferences over the end-state to which combinations of actions chosen by the various players lead to
them.
3. Their belief about important parameters such as other’s preferences.

COST-BENEFIT ANALYSIS
-is always performed in every given situation and is considered an instinctual response of every human.
 Will this benefit me?
 How will this benefit me?
 What will benefit the most?
 How far am I willing to negotiate?
 What will I have to sacrifice?
 How much will it cost me?

INSTITUTIONALISM
-patterns, norms, rules, schemes that govern and direct social thought and action.
-an approach that highlights the role of institutions, both formal and informal, in affecting social
behavior.
-draws insight from previous work in a wide array of disciplines, including economics, political science,
and anthropology.
The term institutionalism and institutional economics were coined in 1919 by Walton Hamilton. In an
article in the American Economic Review.

TWO KINDS OF INSTITUTIONS

Formal Institutions
-officially established in one way or another often by governments.
-include the written constitutions, laws, policies, rights, and regulations enforced by the officials’ authorities.

Two Dominant Perspective in Intuitionalism

1. Old Institutionalism/Traditional

2. New Intuitionalism
 - Normative Institutionalism
- Rational Choice Institutionalism
1. Old Institutionalism
 Descriptive-inductive
 Form-legal
 Historical-comparative
Descriptive-inductive
-It is descriptive because it employs the techniques of the historian and explores specific events, eras, people, and
institutions and inductive because inferences are drawn from repeated observations. The goal is to explain and
understand but not to formulate laws.
Formal-legal
-Formal because it involves the study of formal governmental organizations, and legal because it involves the study
of public law.
An example of formal-legal methods in study of political institutions is constitutional studies.
Historical-comparative
-“Institutions can be understood and appreciated only by those who know other systems of government…By the
use of a thorough comparative and historical method…a general clarification of views may be obtained.
-Woodrow Wilson

SYMBOLIC INTERACTIONALISM AND STRUCTURAL

FUNCTIONALISM
SYMBOLIC INTERACTIONALISM
-is a sociological framework that focuses on the different meanings individuals attach to
objects, peoples, and interactions as well as the corresponding behaviors that reflect those
meanings and/or interpretation.
George Herbert Mead
Herbert Blumer
Charles Cooley

George Herbet Mead

“Gestures are important in communication”
-central concept is the self, “the part of an individual’s personality composed of self-
awareness and self-image”
 Play stage
 Game stage
 Generalized other
Herbert Blumer
-Human at toward things on the basis of the meanings that things have for them.
-The meanings that things derive from social interaction
-These meanings are handled in, and modified through an interpretative process.
Charles Cooley
-LOOKING-GLASS SELF-THEORY
-self is understood as that which is formed from interactions, such as those done with the
primary group (family)
-Self-consciousness emerges through the lens of the other.
-Through encounters in interaction, the individual

Structural functionalism
-isa framework for building a theory that sees society as a complex system whose parts
work together to promote solidarity and stability. (Macionis 2007)
- everything has a function in the society
 Herbert Spencer
 August Comte
 Emile Durkheim
 Robert Merton
Social Stability in the society is achieved through institutions playing their part.
Consensus is characterized by common value system, agreement, consent and harmony
of member and group
Herbert Spencer- “Father of structural functionalism”
 Each social structure just like a body part has a purpose and function in the overall
well-being of the society,
 The process of or decline of a society will be determined by how it handles constant
problems.
 Social Equilibrium
Auguste Comte
 Scientific method could be applied to the study of human behavior and society, and
that the knowledge produced from this investigation should be based on empirical
evidence.
 Positivism- a way of thinking based on the assumption that is possible to observe
social life and establish empirical, valid and reliable knowledge about how it
works.
Emili Durkheim
 The study of society should involve the study of social facts, the aspects of social
life shape our actions as individual.
  The existence of society depends on cooperation which presumes the presence of
general consensus among members of a particular society, with regard to their roles
and specialization.
Robert Merton
 Expanded the concept of social function that any social structure may have many
functions.
 Manifest function- the recognized and intended consequences of any social
pattern.
 Latent function- the unrecognized and unintended consequences of any
social pattern.

Human environmental approach

Society shapes nature, Nature shapes society.
 Also known as CHANS “Coupled Human-Environment System”
 Refers to the interaction of human systems with corresponding environmental ot technological systems.
 Shows how human and the environment both impact each other.
 Conceptualizes mutual dependence between human and their environment.
 Interaction between human and ecosystem are complex adaptive system
HUMANS
1. Balance or influence the ecosystem.
2. Can destroy the ecosystem
ENVIRONMENT
1. Have the capacity to influence the behavior of society.
2. Can create norms or beliefs
ADAPTATION
A change in human behavior to cope with environment conditions.
MODIFICATION
When human actually change some part of the physical environment
DPSIR MODEL
 Driving Forces
 Pressures
 States
 Impacts
 Response

-REPUBLIC ACT 9003

ECOLOGICAL SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT
-REPUBLIC ACT 9275
THE PHILIPPINE CLEAN WATER ACT
-REPUBLIC ACT 7942
PHILIPPINE MINING ACT OF 1995

PYSCHOANALYSIS
 Began with a young physician’s search for the treatment of his patients with emotional problems.
Sigmund Freud
 He aimed at explaining why develop their unique patterns typical behavior.
WHAT IS PYSCHOANALYSIS???
  Theory of mind
 Direct connection to personality and behavior.
 Basic concept: Human mind has an UNCONSCIOUS STATE
 Most controversial
 Most unconscious desires originate from childhood experiences that people have long forgotten.
 Unconscious desires hinder the individual to function in society.
 There are thoughts, memories emotions and feelings that are hidden from a person’s conscious mind which without
him or her knowing, affects the way he or she thinks, feels and acts.
LEVEL OF CONSCIOUSNESS
-Conscious
- Preconscious
-Unconscious
Conscious level- It is the accessible information memories and thoughts that an individual has.
Preconscious level- It consists of memories that are not presently conscious but can easily be brought into consciousness.
Unconscious level- Inaccessible memories thoughts, emotions and feelings that are most populated by childhood events.

THE STRUCTURES OF PERSONALITY

The ID
-“Pleasure Principle”
-Wants to obtain immediate pleasure and avoid pain
The EGO
-“Reality Principle”
Central of logic and reason, decision maker and balance
-Known as the “Traffic cop/Moderator”
The SUPEREGO
-“Morality Principle”
-Demands strict adherence to the laws of society and conformity to social norms.
-Represents your conscience

 Parents are the main agents of society in creating the superego.

 Parental punishment creates the set of moral ambitions known as conscience.
 Their rewards set up standard of perfect conduct in the superego called the ego ideal.