DOMINANT APPROACHES AND IDEAS

IN THE SOCIAL SCIENCES

OBJECTIVES
Identify Assess Explain
Identify terms Assess the
current situation Explain concepts
and concepts in
of the Philippine under Marxism
the dominant
government through a
approaches in
through its graphic
the social
different organizer.
sciences;
functions; and
Structural functionalism
 “a framework for building
a theory that sees society as
a complex system whose
parts work together to
promote solidarity and
stability” (Macionis 2007).
Talcott Parsons
Developed by in the 1930s
under the influence of the
works of Max Weber and
Emile Durkheim (McMahon
2015).
Interdependent as they are, they all
have one goal and that is to maintain
or keep the whole system, at least in its
present form.
It emphasize social structure, “any relatively stable
pattern of social behavior” and social functions, “the
consequences of any social pattern for the operation
of society as a whole” (Macionis 2007).

EXAMPLE:

Governmen
Family Religion Education Economy
t
SOCIAL STRUCTURE
Shapes our lives in various
context such as the family, the
workplace, classroom, and
community; and all social
structure functions keep
society going, at least its
present form (Macionis 2007).
Robert Merton
(1910-2003)
Expanded the concept
of social function by
arguing that any social
structure may have
many functions.
 Robert Merton
(1910-2003)
He distinguished between manifest
functions, “the recognized and
intended consequences of any
social pattern” and latent
functions, the unrecognized and
unintended consequences of nay
social pattern” (Macionis 2007).
Example:
The manifest function of higher education is to provide the
youth with the information and skills needed to enable them to
perform their jobs after graduation.

By keeping millions of young people out of the labor market,

where a significant number of them may not get hired right away
after graduation, serves as the latent function of higher
education.
• He coined the term
“Social Dysfunction.” A
social dysfunction is
“any social pattern that
may disrupt operation of
society”(Macionis 2007).
What causes social dysfunction?
The lack of consensus among peoples
in a given polity or society about
what is helpful or harmful to society
is a key feature of ever society or
polity.

Differences in backgrounds or status,

for instance, may lead to differences
in recognition and appreciation of
what is functional or not particular
individuals or groups of peoples.
Change is evident within any
society or system: however, for the
system to survive, it must adapt to
that change in order to maintain its
equilibrium (McMahon 2015).
 Adaption: acquiring
and mobilizing
sufficient resources
Four Imperatives For
so that the system
can survive. Societies To Survive

Latency: creating,
preserving, and Goal Attainment:
transmitting the system’s setting and
distinctive culture and implementing goals.
values (McMahon 2015)

Integration:
maintaining
solidarity or
coordinating among
the subunits of the
system
EMPIRICAL-CRITICAL APPROACH
IN THE SOCIAL SCIENCES
 • Marxism owes it name and
origins to Karl Max (1818-
1883)

• German philosopher,
historian, and economist.

• Macionis (2007) provides a

very interesting profile of
Marx of how he
revolutionized both thinking

Karl Max (1818-

and theorizing about the
state and society, and whose
influence remains to this
1883) day.
• Recognizing that the economic system is
society’s infrastructure or the society’s
real foundation, other social institutions
such as the family, the political system,
and religion are built on this foundation
or economic base and form society’s
superstructure and support the economy
(Macionis 2007).
INDUSTRIAL CAPITALISM IN EUROPE
 CAPITALISTS
People who own and
operate factories and
other businesses in
pursuit of profits.
PROLETARIATS

People who
sell their labor
for wages
To keep profits high, capitalists keep wages low.
But workers want higher wages.
Developed their class consciousness, “workers’ recognition
of themselves as a class unified in opposition to capitalists
and ultimately to capitalism itself”(Macionis2007).

Industrial workers must

become aware of their
The proletariat must
oppression under a
organize and act to address
capitalist system and realize
their problems.
that capitalism is the cause
of their oppression.
Alienation
The experience of isolation and misery resulting
from powerlessness” (Macionis 2007).
Alienation from the act of working:
Capitalism denies workers a say in what
they make or how they make it. Work
is a constant repetition of routine tasks.
Workers are replaced by and/or turned
into machines.

Alienation from the products of work:

Workers’ product belongs to the
capitalists who sell it for profit. As
workers invest more of themselves in
their work, the more they lose.
Alienation from other
workers: Industrial capitalism
creates competition in work
that prevents bonds of
community to develop, and
hence, sets each worker apart
from everyone else.
Alienation from human potential:
Capitalism prevents workers to
develop their best qualities as
human beings. Instead of fulfilling
one’s self in work, one denies one’s
self; instead of well-being, misery;
instead of freely developing one’s
physical and mental energies, one
gets physically exhausted and
mentally debased.
Classical “Marxists have responded to
theoretical critiques from both inside

Marxism and outside the Marxist tradition,”

“Such an economistic formulation has

proved unable to explain economic,
social and political developments,”
and

“Economic, social, and political

changes in the world have stimulated
new theoretical development” (Marsh
2002).
Antonio Gramsci and Nicos Poulantzas
Antonio Gramsci
Emphasized the role of
political or hegemonic
struggle, the importance of
ideology and the
significance of agents, such
as parties, workers’
councils, and intellectuals
in overthrowing capitalism.
(Marsh 2002).
RELEVANT OF MARXISM

Capitalism is Nationality and

Capitalism still exploitative as internationally,
contains significant Marx emphasized a societies are
contradictions century and a half characterized by
ago. massive
inequalities.
EMPIRICAL-ANALYTICAL APPROACH IN THE SOCIAL SCIENCES
 Symbolic
Interactionism
Is a sociological framework that
focuses on the different meaning's
individuals attach to objects,
peoples, and interactions as well as
the corresponding behaviors that
reflect those meanings and/or
interpretations.
George Herbert Mead
Gestures, according to him, are important in communication.
Mead’s central concept
is the self, “the part of
an individual’s
personality composed
of self-awareness and
self-image”
 HISTORICAL-HERMENEUTIC
APPROACH IN THE SOCIAL SCIENCES
Psychoanalysis
• Refers to both a theory and a
type of therapy based on the
belief that all people possess
unconscious thoughts, feelings,
desires, and memories.
Theorized three levels
of consciousness and
three components of the
personality structure.

1. conscious mind
2. preconscious mind
3. unconscious mind
Sigmund Freud
THREE COMPONENTS OF THE PERSONALITY
STRUCTURE
The conscious mind is
merely the tip visible
above the surface, whereas
the bulk of the important
workings of the mind
lurks mysteriously
beneath the surface.
 id
Composed primarily of two
sets of instinct, life instincts
and death instincts.

The life instincts, termed libido by Freud, give rise to motives

that sustain and promote life, such as hunger, self- protection,
and sexual desire.
 id
• The id-operates according to
the pleasure principle.

• The id wants to obtain

immediate pleasure and
avoid pain, regardless of how
harmful it might be to others.
EGO
The ego is formed because the
id has to find realistic ways of
meeting its needs and The ego operates according
avoiding trouble caused by to the reality principle.
selfish and aggressive
behavior.

It opposes the id’s wishes

The ego’s goal is to help only long enough to find a
the id fulfill its needs. realistic way to satisfy them.
Restrictions are placed on the actions of the id and ego when
the superego develops, the part of the mind that opposes the
desires of the id by enforcing moral restrictions and by striving
to attain a goal of “ideal” perfection. Parents are the main
agents of society in creating the superego. They teach moral
principles to their children by punishing transgressions and
rewarding proper behavior.
EMPIRICAL-ANALYTCAL APPROACH
IN THE SOCIAL SCIENCES
Rational choice theory (RCT)

Is a powerful tool in
making sense of why
people act or behave the
way they do.
The essence of rational choice theory
is that when faced with several
course of action, people usually do
what they believe is likely to have the
best overall outcome.

Individual’s actions are based on

their preferences, beliefs, and
feasible strategies.
Rational choice theorists’ explanations of individual actions and
the outcomes they lead to are anchored on three pillars, namely:

Strategies or courses of action open and available to them.

Their preferences over the end-states to which combinations of

actions chosen by the various players lead.

Their beliefs about important parameters such as other’s

preferences.
ADVANTAGE
It forces you to be explicit about assumptions that are often left implicit in
verbal arguments.

It provides a “positive heuristic” –set of categories that help in constructing

explanations, a set of exemplary examples of good explanation to emulate, and
suggestions about fruitful lines of research.

It provides a unified framework of explanation across subdisciplines, allowing

cross-fertilization of ideas and a viewpoint from which common patterns can be
seen across diverse phenomena.
 GROUP OF CRITICISMS

The sociologist’s critique of

The heretics’ critique who
RCT’s tendency to play down
wish to emphasize bounded
social structure and holistic
rationality
modes of explanations

Critique from mainstream

The psychologists’ critique political science on the basis
of RCTs main assumption of the implausibility of the
that individuals often act assumptions made and the
rationally predictive failures of the
model.
INSTITUTIONALISM

• The institutional approach

can be understood as a
subject matter, as a
method, and as a theory.
 PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION

Is the study of “the

institutional
arrangements for the
provision of public
services”.
“PUBLIC
BUREAUCRACIES”
 Traditional Or Classic
Institutional Approach

It is descriptive because
Institutions an inductive
it employs the
because inferences are
techniques of the
drawn from repeated
historian and explores
observations (Rhodes
specific events, eras,
1995).
people,
 Systematically
Classic Institutional describes and
Approach analyzes phenomena
that have occurred in
the past and explain
contemporary
political phenomena
with reference to past
events.

The classic or traditional approach is also comparative

THANK YOU!