Comprehensive Social Sciences & Theoretical Perspectives Overview

Social Sciences

Scientific study of society: how people behave, interact and influence institutions, economies, culture and politics.

Anthropology

Study of ancient societies, culture, traditions, language, values, technology, cultural change.

Herodotus

Father of History, early ethnographic accounts; mentioned as a precursor to anthropology.

Demography

Study of human population size & characteristics (age, sex, marital status, religion, nationality) and factors affecting population change.

Economics

Allocation of scarce resources to satisfy unlimited wants; from Greek oikos (home) + nomos (management).

Adam Smith

Scottish economist; Wealth of Nations; division of labour, invisible hand; mentioned as founder of modern economics.

Thomas Malthus

English scholar; Essay on the Principle of Population; warned of overpopulation; mentioned for demographic-economics link.

David Ricardo

British economist; Principles of Political Economy and Taxation; theory of comparative advantage; mentioned to show classical economics.

Geography

Interaction between environment and people; spatial variation (where/why things are located).

Eratosthenes

Greek scholar; coined 'geography,' measured Earth's circumference; mentioned as 'Father of Geography.'

Strabo

Greek geographer; wrote Geographika; mentioned for early geographic thought.

History

Systematic study of the past using sources and critique.

Thucydides

Greek historian; History of the Peloponnesian War; mentioned for rigorous evidence use.

Linguistics

Study of language, grammar, and acquisition.

Friedrich von Schlegel, Franz Bopp, Rasmus Rask

Pioneers of comparative linguistics; mentioned for Proto-Indo-European studies.

Ferdinand de Saussure

Swiss linguist; Cours de Linguistique Générale; structuralism; mentioned as founder of modern linguistics.

Political Science

Study of politics, power, government, institutions.

Aristotle

Greek philosopher; Politics; 'man is by nature a political animal'; mentioned as founder of political science.

John Locke

English philosopher; Two Treatises on Government; social contract, natural rights; mentioned as liberal influence.

John Stuart Mill

English philosopher; On Liberty; Considerations on Representative Government; mentioned for liberal democratic thought.

Psychology

Scientific study of behavior & mental processes.

Wilhelm Wundt

German psychologist; first psychology lab; structuralism; mentioned as father of psychology.

William James

American philosopher; functionalism; mentioned for adapting psychology to environment.

Sigmund Freud

Austrian neurologist; unconscious and psychoanalysis; mentioned for depth psychology.

Sociology

Study of social relationships, norms, institutions.

Auguste Comte

French philosopher; coined 'sociology'; positivism. Mentioned as founder of sociology.

Structural-Functionalism

Society as a system of interdependent parts; institutions maintain stability and equilibrium.

Émile Durkheim

Division of Labour in Society, Suicide; showed how social facts maintain order.

Herbert Spencer

Organic analogy of society; 'survival of the fittest.'

Robert K. Merton

Manifest vs latent functions; dysfunctions.

Marxism / Conflict Perspective

Society characterized by inequality and conflict over scarce resources; class struggle drives change.

Karl Marx

Historical materialism; critique of capitalism.

Friedrich Engels

Co-authored Communist Manifesto; working-class conditions.

Symbolic Interactionism

Human behavior shaped by meanings created through symbolic interaction; reality constructed in everyday life.

Symbolic Interactionism Level

Micro

George Herbert Mead

Social self; role-taking.

Herbert Blumer

Coined term; three premises.

Charles Horton Cooley

Looking-glass self.

Erving Goffman

Dramaturgical model; front/back stage.

Psychoanalysis

Theory of mind and therapy; behavior driven by unconscious conflicts and childhood experiences.

Id

Instinctual drives.

Superego

Moral conscience; produces pride or guilt.

Ego

Mediator; reality principle.

Defense mechanisms

Psychological strategies used to cope with reality and maintain self-image.

Repression

Burying a painful feeling or thought from your awareness though it may resurface in symbolic form. Sometimes considered a basis of other defense mechanisms

Denial

Insisting addiction doesn't exist.

Regression

Reverting to an older, less mature way of handling stresses and feelings

Projection

Attributing your own unacceptable thoughts or feelings to someone or something else

Splitting

Everything in the world is seen as all good or all bad with nothing in between

Isolation of affect

Attempting to avoid a painful thought or feeling by objectifying and emotionally detaching oneself from the feeling

Displacement

Channeling a feeling or thought from its actual source to something or someone else

Reaction formation

Adopting beliefs, attitudes, and feelings contrary to what you really believe

Rationalization

Justifying one's behaviors and motivations by substituting good, acceptable reasons for these real motivations

Altruism

Handling your own pain by helping others

Sublimation

Redirecting unacceptable, instinctual drives into personally and socially acceptable channels.

Suppression

The effort to hide and control unacceptable thoughts or feelings.

Rational Choice Theory

Individuals act rationally to maximize utility given preferences, beliefs, and constraints.

Rational Choice Theory Assumptions

Completeness, Transitivity, Independence of Irrelevant Alternatives.

Decision patterns in Rational Choice Theory

Four logical paths: Desire → Belief → Action.

Direct Action

Acting immediately on desire.

Thomas Hobbes

Author of Leviathan; known for the concept of social contract and choice from desires.

George Homans

Developed social exchange theory.

Gary Becker

Extended economics to family, crime, and discrimination.

Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps)

A conditional cash transfer program that improves health, education, and nutrition.

Institutionalism

The theory that institutions shape behavior, including both formal (laws, constitutions) and informal (customs, NGOs, community groups) aspects.

Thorstein Veblen

Known for the concept of conspicuous consumption.

John R. Commons

Defined institutions as working rules.

Karl Polanyi

Argued that economies are embedded in society.

Carl J. Friedrich

Known for his work on constitutionalism.

Chester Barnard

Described organizations as cooperative systems.

James March & Johan Olsen

Pioneers of New Institutionalism.

Normative Institutionalism

The subfield that studies how institutions shape behavior through values and rules.

Rational Choice Institutionalism

Focuses on how actors maximize preferences within institutional constraints.

Historical Institutionalism

Examines how past choices shape present and future actions, known as path dependence.

Feminist Institutionalism

Studies how institutions reinforce gendered power relations.

Sociological Institutionalism

Explains institutional persistence through culture and norms.

Feminism

A movement and theory advocating for political, economic, and social equality of the sexes.

First Wave Feminism

Focused on women's suffrage, access to education, labor rights, and property rights.

Second Wave Feminism

Broadened the struggle to reproductive rights, workplace equality, family roles, and challenging legal and cultural inequalities.

Third Wave Feminism

Emphasizes diversity and intersectionality, critiquing universal notions of womanhood.

Liberal Feminism

Calls for equal opportunities in education, jobs, and politics.

Socialist Feminism

Highlights the intersection of gender and class oppression, stressing intersectionality of race, age, and religion.

Radical Feminism

Sees patriarchy as the root of oppression and advocates for dismantling male-dominated structures.

Marxist Feminism

Links women's oppression to capitalism and economic exploitation.

Postmodern Feminism

Critiques grand narratives and emphasizes plurality and fluidity of identity.

Gender ideology

Reinforces traditional male/female roles, legitimizes inequality, and stigmatizes those who deviate from norms.

Examples of Gender Ideology

Wage gap between men and women; women criticized for working instead of being housewives; men stigmatized for taking caregiving roles.

Completeness

All actions can be ranked in a complete partial ordering of preference (indifference between two [2] or more is possible). In other words, all pairs of actions can be compared with each other.

Transitivity

If action A is preferred to B, and action B is preferred to C, then A is preferred to C. If A is preferred to B out of the choice set {A,

iIndependence of Irrelevant Alternatives

B}, then introducing a third alternative X, thus expanding the choice set {A, B, X}, must leave A preferred to B.

Strict Preference

It occurs when an individual prefers A to B and does not view them as equally preferred.

Weak Preference

It can be held in which an individual either strictly prefers A over B or is indifferent between them.

Indifferent Preference

It occurs when an individual neither prefers A to B nor B to A. Since the individual does not refuse a comparison, they must, therefore, not be included in the options.