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IN
G11-HUMSS│Q1│Weeks 7-8
UNIT IV: Dominant Approaches and Ideas in the Social Sciences: Critical Social Sciences
Subtopics:
Feminist Theory
Marxism
Psychoanalysis
Human Environment Systems
UNIT V: Dominant Approaches and Ideas in the Social Sciences: Interpretive Social Science
Subtopics:
Symbolic Interactionism
Hermeneutic Phenomenology
Now that you already have the idea of the reasons why those three mentioned above
belongs to positivist social sciences, still, the next lesson will be taking you a look at the
dominant approaches and ideas offer various ways of looking at society and also offer
various ways of explaining the things that are happening in it.
The dominant approaches that will be discussed in this unit will be classified into three,
namely positivist social science, interpretative social science and critical social science.
In this module, Critical social science and Interpretative social science will be tackled.
Under Critical social sciences are Feminist Theory, Marxism, Psychoanalysis and
Human-Environment Systems then under of Interpretive social sciences are symbolic
Interactionism and Hermeneutical Phenomenology
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DISS 11-HUMSS (Q1 Weeks 7 & 8)
LECTURE NOTES
What is Critical Social Science?
In other words, it aims to uncover surface reality in order to expose underlying structures
so that people may improve the society to which they belong. Therefore, the goal of critical
social science is not only to discover laws that explain human behavior and social phenomena
but to help people understand why social inequalities exist so that they can do something to
address these inequalities.
Moreover, Critical Social Science rejects the idea of alienation, or giving the creations of
your own activity a detached existence. It advocates the idea that people should not remove
themselves from their creations so that they will recognize them as something they helped bring
about, giving them a sense of achievement and a sense of control over their own destiny.
FEMINIST THEORY
Critical process of inquiry that attempts It aims to eliminate class conflict through class
to uncover surface illusions to reveal struggle.
real structures in the material world for
social transformation
PSYCHOANALYSIS
HUMAN-ENVIRONMENT SYSTEMS
According to a popular saying, feminism is the radical that women are people. Just
what exactly does it mean? It means that in society, women have traditionally been treated as
subordinate to men, and that feminism can help in granting women their rightful status in
society. There are various feminist theories that try to explain the nature of women’s
subordination and strategies that can be used to elevate women’s in society. Basically,
feminism promotes the belief that women and men should be treated equally and the steps
have to be taken to realize the goal of gender equality.
The first wave of feminism The second wave of feminism Third-wave feminism refers to
talks about women suffrage or broadened the debate to a wide several diverse strains of
having the right to vote. range of issues: sexuality, feminist activity and study,
family, the workplace, whose exact boundaries in
reproductive rights, de facto activity and study, whose exact
inequalities, and official legal boundaries in activity and
inequalities. study, whose exact boundaries
in the history of feminism are a
subject of debate, but are
generally marked as beginning
in the early 1990s and
continuing to the present.
Radical Feminism Male power is always based from social relation and
interaction
Postmodern Feminism Women attempt to change and to criticize the dominant order
or the modern thought.
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DISS 11-HUMSS (Q1 Weeks 7 & 8)
KEY CONCEPTS OF FEMINIST THEORY
2. MARXISM
It refers to the political and economic theories of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in which
the concept of class struggle plays an important role in abolishing class oppression. Central to
Marxism is the idea of historical materialism, for Marx believed that consciousness is shaped by
the material or economic environment; hence history is a product of material circumstances. It
spouses a dialectal view of social changes and serves as a critique of capitalism.
Marxism is one of the theoretical approaches in social science that is associated with
conflict theory or the view that society is divided into social classes which are always in conflict
with one another. It analyzes how society functions to serve the powerful class and
disadvantage the others, thereby causing conflict. Hence, it views social order as being a
product of coercion and power being exercised by the more powerful group (bourgeoisie) to the
disadvantaged group (proletariat).
3. PSYCHOANALYSIS
It refers both to a theory of how the mind works and a treatment modality. As a treatment
method, it helps people understand themselves, their relationships, and how they behave in the
world. Psychoanalytic treatment examines how the unconscious factors affect current
relationships and patterns of thoughts, emotions, and behaviors.
Psychoanalysis, which traces its roots to psychologist Sigmund Freud, means “analysis
of the mind.” It came from the word psychoanalyse, coined in Frencs by Freud in 1896 from
Latinized form of Greek psyche, which means mental, plus German analyse, from Greek
analysis.
Psychoanalysis has been used as a social science approach as early as the twentieth
century and it is sometimes considered as the only school of psychology that paints a complete
and dynamic picture of personality. Moreover, it liberates people by acquiring consciousness of
the unconscious. By making conscious of the unconscious, people will understand why they
behave in a certain way or why they hold certain values and beliefs.
Three Structures of
Personality by Sigmund
Freud
id ego superego
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DISS 11-HUMSS (Q1 Weeks 7 & 8)
TECHNIQUES IN PSYCHOANALYSIS
TECHNIQUES PROCESS
Confrontation and Feedback procedures to help the patient become aware of what
Clarification is concurring and in need of further analysis
When used to analyze how people behave in society, psychoanalysis can be very
helpful and in fact, has the potential to become emancipator or liberating. Since the core or
essence of psychoanalysis is the analysis of hidden forces in the mind which dominate one’s
feelings and behavior, by making the unconscious conscious, we can understand and explain
social behavior and how people act in particular ways in society.
4. HUMAN-ENVIRONMENT SYSTEMS
This theory follows the idea that social and natural systems are inseparable. They are always
together and each one affects or influences each other.
Many of the environment issues of today relate to human’s over use of finite resources for
economic development. Healthy ecosystems and environments are necessary to the survival of
humans and other organisms. Ways of reducing negative human impact are environmental
resources management, environmental protection and environmentally-friendly chemical
engineering. Environmental awareness, consciousness and sensitivity needs to be promoted at
all times.
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DISS 11-HUMSS (Q1 Weeks 7 & 8)
Carrying Capacity The largest size that the The number of people who
resources permit can survive in a lifeboat
after a shipwreck
1. Carl Sauer
2. Donald Meinig
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DISS 11-HUMSS (Q1 Weeks 7 & 8)
CONCLUSION
The four approaches discussed in this lesson all fall under critical social science
because they share the same emancipator goal of liberating people from oppression:
feminist theory to liberate individuals from gender inequality; Marxism to emancipate
workers from class oppression; psychoanalysis to liberate individuals from the
unconscious in order to understand human behavior; and human-environment systems
to make people realize how they can transform the environment and utilize if for
sustainability. In general, the said approaches are all action-oriented and encourage
people not only to explain and interpret society but to change it for the better.
LESSON SUMMARY
Critical social science aims to uncover surface reality in order to expose underlying structures
so that people may improve the society to which they belong.
Marxism as a social science approach aims to expose the conflict caused by the existence of
different social classes with different interests and encourages people to challenge the status
quo and abolish social inequality.
Human-environment systems focus on how humans and the environment are related and how
people can transform the environment for sustainability.
REFERENCES
BOOK
Arcinas, M. M. (2016). Disciplines and ideas in the social sciences. Quezon City: Phoenix
Publishing House.
Jison, J. R. & Ponsaran, J. N. (2018). Discipilines and ideas in the social sciences for senior
high school. Quezon City: C & E. Publishing Incorporated.
Ong, J. (2016). Disciplines and ideas in the social sciences. Quezon City: Vibal Group, Inc.
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DISS 11-HUMSS (Q1 Weeks 7 & 8)
LECTURE NOTES
What is Interpretive Social Science?
It is one of the three broad paradigms in the Social Sciences which are sensitive
to context. This approach claims that people create and associate their own subjective
meaning as they interact with the world around them. Hence, it is the duty of interpretive
researchers to search for the meanings people assign to certain phenomena in order to
understand them.
Historical phenomena are interpreted differently in Symbols help us understand how we view society and
proper context through one’s consciousness communicate with each other
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DISS 11-HUMSS (Q1 Weeks 7 & 8)
1. HERMENEUTIC PHENOMENOLOGY
Hermeneutics refers to the art of understanding and the theory of interpretation while
phenomenology means the science of phenomena. Hermeneutics means “to interpret” and the
term came from the name of Hermes, the wing-footed messenger of gods in Greek mythology.
Hermeneutic phenomenology came up out to German philosophy and aims to reveal the
life world or human experience as it is lived. It advocates the idea that instead of simply one
truth as conceived by the scientists, there are in fact many truths. Hermeneutics, therefore,
means the process of making the incomprehensible understandable.
HERMENEUTIC PHENOMENOLOGY
Art of understanding and theory of interpretation The study of experience and how we experience
HERMENEUTIC PHENOMENOLOGY
1. Martin Heidegger
2. Hans-Georg Gadamer
2. SYMBOLIC INTERACTIONISM
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DISS 11-HUMSS (Q1 Weeks 7 & 8)
Premises Explanation
1. Human beings act The setting of the human motivation is the key as to how we make
toward things on meaning or make sense of things, such as a knock at a door or
the basis of the the color of the dress in one event. The things disengaged from
meanings that the setting may be gestures, sounds, material things, or what
things have for symbolic integrationists call symbols. That is, the individual
them. interprets these things as meaningful symbols and uses the
symbols in action according to the setting that they are in.
That is, when responding in a particular way to a symbol, the individual notes the
Symbol and however, quickly or unconsciously, develops a particular response.
2. Herbert Blumer
CONCLUSION
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DISS 11-HUMSS (Q1 Weeks 7 & 8)
incidents, and actions. These interpretive approaches try to understand human behavior and
actions by focusing on the individuals and their interactions.
LESSON SUMMARY
Interpretive social science claims that people create and associate their own subjective
meanings as they interact with the world around them.
Interpretive social science claims that our knowledge of reality is only socially constructed, thus
there is no objective reality.
Symbolic Interactionism is a social science approach which depends on the symbolic meaning
developed by people in the process of interaction.
REFERENCES
BOOK
Arcinas, M. M. (2016). Disciplines and ideas in the social sciences. Quezon City: Phoenix
Publishing House.
Jison, J. R. & Ponsaran, J. N. (2018). Discipilines and ideas in the social sciences for senior
high school. Quezon City: C & E. Publishing Incorporated.
Ong, J. (2016). Disciplines and ideas in the social sciences. Quezon City: Vibal Group, Inc.
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DISS 11-HUMSS (Q1 Weeks 7 & 8)
SUMMATIVE ASSESSMENT
A. DRAWING. Draw and color the symbols, logos, and items that characterize the following
ideas, places, settings and events. (3 pts each)
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DISS 11-HUMSS (Q1 Weeks 7 & 8)
B. LYRIC ANALYSIS. Analyze the lyrics of the song “Tatsulok” by Bamboo then underline the
lines that you think it shows social inequalities in terms of class conflict and explain its message.
(20 pts)
Tatsulok by Bamboo
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