Lecture Notes in Sociology (part 2)
Natural Sciences and the Social Sciences
Natural Sciences
· Designed to comprehend, explain, and predict the different occurrences and phenomena of the natural environment.
o Biology
o Geology
o Chemistry
o Physics
Social Sciences
· A field of study whose primary concern is to observe patterns of human behavior and society.
o Anthropology
o Economics
o Political Science
o Psychology
o Sociology
o (History)
Branches of Social Science
History
· Focuses on past events
· Attempts to unearth the facts surrounding some event which is of social significance
· Looks for the important people, ideas, institutions, social movements or preceding events
· Reconstructs records from the past, abstracts what they consider to be the most important elements or variables that caused the event.
Political Science
· Focuses on politics and government, how groups of people govern others/ themselves
· Looks at various forms of government and structures and their relations to other institutions of society
· Looks at how power is disseminated and maintained.
· Looks at the consequences of the different activities of rulers
Economics
· Deals with the study of production, distribution, and allocation of material goods and services of society
· Concerned with what goods are being produced; at what rate or what cost and variables that determine who gets what.
Anthropology
· Traditionally, this discipline examines the life of indigenous/tribal people.
· Focuses on understanding culture
· Includes studies of artifacts peoples produce (tools, weapons, art, etc.)
· Looks at group structures, patterns, genealogy, ideas and values, belief systems, forms of communications
Psychology
· Primarily concerned with the human mind
· Perceptions, attitudes, values, personality, mental aberrations/illnesses.
· Processes occurring within an individual’s mind.
Sociology
· Like history, it also attempts to study social contexts that affect people
· Like political science, it looks at how people govern each other and the consequences thereafter.
· Like economics, it deals with how goods are distributed and allocated, especially the social consequences of the distribution.
· Like anthropology, it also looks at and studies culture — social consequences of material goods, group structures, beliefs, and communication systems.
· Like psychology studies how people adjust to the problems they face in life, their dispositions, behaviors, etc.
Sociology and History
Andres Bonifacio
Father of the Philippine Revolution
Dropped out of school to support his siblings after his parents died.
Son of a tailor
lMade and sold canes and paper fans
Worked as a bodeguerro for a British firm, Fleming and Co.
lHeavily influenced by the principles of the French Revolution
Sociology and Political Science
The Armed forces of the Philippines
· Served as a colonial army (Philippine Scouts, US occupation)
· Focused on constabulary tasks
· Civil-military relations affected by dynamic changes in polity
· E.g. Martial Law compared to Cory Aquino’s government
· Stature affects AFP’s stand and capacity to defend RP in current national security issues.
Sociology and Psychology
Approximately 35 South Koreans commit suicide per day
Before South Korea got rich, wired and worried, its suicide rate was among the lowest in the industrialized world. (7.9 % — 1990 to 24.7 % — 2008)
As modernity spawned, it created an overwhelming level of stress. More South Koreans are compelled to work more, sleep less, and spend more money per capita.
A word such as “psychiatry” remains taboo amidst this industrializing society.
