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SOCIAL SCIENCE
SOCIOLOGY
is a scientific study of human society and its origins, development, organizations,
and institutions. It is social science which uses various methods of empirical
investigation and critical analysis to develop a body of knowledge about human
social activity, structures, and functions.
SOCIAL SCIENCE THEORIES
Macro-level theories- approaches to sociology that focus primarily on society
and/or other large social units.
STRUCTURAL-FUNCTIONALISTS- usually more optimistic and view society as a
system of differentiated, interrelated elements that tend to move towards
stability.
CONFLICT THEORISTS- more pessimistic and view society as full of confliting
elements that can play a role in social change and even upheaval.
Micro-level theories- deal with individual interactions within smaller social units.
ACCULTURATION/ ENCULTURATION
- is a process in which members of one cultural group adopt the beliefs and
behaviors of another group.
EXAMPLES:
Picking up a southern American accent within a day or two
Sushi becoming popular in the West
The granddaughter of a Chinese immigrant has gone to American schools and
will now attend an American college. She spends time primarily with her American
friends, dresses as they do and shares their values and interests. She has become
highly acculturated into American culture.
CULTURE
-is the sum total of ideas, beliefs, values, material cultural equipments and nonmaterial aspects which man makes a member of society. (E.B. Taylor 1860s)
-Culture can be conceived as a continuous, cumulative reservoir containing both
material and non-material elements that are socially transmitted from generation
to generation.
COMPONENTS OF CULTURE
Material Culture- consists of all the physical objects people have borrowed,
discovered, or invented and to which they have attached meaning. (natural
resources, trees, plants)
Non-material culture- consists of intangible creations or things that we cannot
identify directly through the senses. (e.g. beliefs, values, norms, folkways, and
mores)
COMPONENTS OF NON-MATERIAL CULTURE
Beliefs- first component of nonmaterial culture is beliefs, conceptions that
people accept as true, concerning how the world operates and where the
individual fits in relationship with others. Can be rooted in blind faith, experience,
tradition or the scientific method.
Values- represent societys stipulations about what is acceptable in life.
Norms- standards of behaviour governing social situations that are established
by a societys values.
TYPES OF NORMS
passed on from generation to generation. This allows society to survive and even
proliferate beyond the lifespan of individual members.
OPEN CLASS SYSTEM
is an economic system that has upward and downward mobility,
is achievement-based, and allows social relations between the classes.
Industrialized nations tend to have open class systems
.
CLOSED CLASS SYSTEM
have been confined to their ancestral occupations, and
their social status has mostly been prescribed by birth.
Most closed class systems are found in less industrialized countries.
An example of a closed class system with limited social mobility is French society
before the French Revolution.
Under the Ancien Rgime, French society was
divided between the first estate (clergy), second estate (nobility), and third estate
(commoners).
Members of each estate were likely to socialize only with others in the same group
.
ASCRIBED STATUS
The social status of a person that is given
from birth or assumed involuntarily later in life.
It is the social position one is born into and personal characteristics beyond one's
control, such as race and gender.
A social status of a person that is acquired, such as being an Olympic athlete,
being a criminal, or being a college professor. It is one's social standing that
depends on personal accomplishments.
ACHIEVED STATUS
In an open class system, people are ranked by
achieved status
,
whereas in a closed class system, people are ranked by
ascribed status.
STRUCTURAL MOBILITY
-Opportunity for movement in social class that
is attributable to changes in the social
structure of a society, rather than to
changes in an individual.
PRIMARY FUNCTION OF
RELIGION IN HUMAN SOCIETY
is to establish an orderly relationship between man and his surroundings.
CASTE SYSTEM
- is a form of social stratification characterized by endogamy, hereditary
transmission of a style of life which often includes an occupation, ritual status in a
hierarchy, and customary social interaction and exclusion based on cultural
notions of purity and pollution.
CONFORMITY
is an individuals adopting of attitude and behaviours of others because of
pressure (real or imagined) to do so.
Example, a cheerleader who wants to do an original routine but goes along with
social prestige
FASCISM
is a form of radical authoritarian nationalism.
Fascists seek to unify their nation through a totalitarian state
that seeks the mass mobilization of the national community,
relying on a vanguard party to initiate a revolution to organize
the nation on fascist principles.
It promotes regulated private enterprise and private property contingent
whenever beneficial to the nation and state enterprise and state property where
private enterprise and private property is unable to meet the nation's needs.
COMMUNISM
- An equal society, without social classes or class conflict, in which the means of
production are the common property of all.
CAPITALISTS
The social class of owners of the means of production in industrial societies,
whose primary purpose is to make profits.
SOCIALISM
is an economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of
production and co-operative management of the economy. "Social ownership"
may refer to cooperative enterprises,
common ownership, state ownership, or citizen ownership of equity.
NEUROTRANSMITTER
are endogenous chemicals that transmit signals from a neuron to a target cell
across a synapse
acetylcholine
dopamine
serotonin
gamma aminobutyric acid (GABA)
glutamate
epinephrine and norepinephrine
endorphins
enkephalins
EXTRASENSORY PERCEPTION (ESP)
involves reception of information not gained through the recognized
physical senses but sensed with the mind.
The term was adopted by Duke University psychologist J. B. Rhine.
ESP is also sometimes casually referred to as a sixth sense, gut instinct or hunch,
intuition. The term implies acquisition of information by means external to the
basic limiting assumptions of science, such as that organisms can only receive
information from the past to the present.
TYPES OF EXTRASENSORY PERCEPTION
1. CLAIRVOYANCE- is used to refer to the ability to gain information about an
object, person, location or physical event through means other than the known
human senses, a form of extra-sensory perception.
2. TELEPATHY- is the transmission of information from one person to another
without using any of our known sensory channels or physical interaction.
3. Psychokinesis/telekinesis- "distant-movement" with respect to strictly
describing mental movement or motion of solid matter, is a term coined by
publisher Henry Holt to refer to the direct influence of mind on a physical system
that cannot be entirely accounted for by the mediation of any known physical
energy.
4. PRECOGNITION- precognition (from the Latin pr-, before, + cognitio,
acquiring knowledge), also called future sight, and second sight, is a type of
extrasensory perception that would involve the acquisition or effect of future
information.
EGO DEFENSE MECHANISMS
1.Conversion: the expression of an intrapsychic conflict as a physical symptom;
some examples include blindness, deafness, paralysis, or numbness.
2. Denial: Refusal to accept external reality
3. Displacement: Defense mechanism that shifts sexual or aggressive impulses to
a more acceptable or less threatening target; redirecting emotion to a safer outlet
4. Hypochondriasis: An excessive preoccupation or worry about having a serious
illness.
5. Isolation: Separation of feelings from ideas and events, for example, describing
a murder with graphic details with no emotional response
6. Reaction formation: Converting unconscious wishes or impulses that are
perceived to be dangerous into their opposites
7. Regression: Temporary reversion of the ego to an earlier stage of development
rather than handling unacceptable impulses in a more adult way.
8.Repression: The process of attempting to repel desires towards pleasurable
instincts, caused by a threat of suffering if the desire is satisfied; the desire is
moved to the unconscious in the attempt to prevent it from entering
consciousness
9. Undoing: A person tries to 'undo' an unhealthy, destructive or otherwise
threatening thought by acting out the reverse of unacceptable.
10. Withdrawal: Withdrawal is a more severe form of defence. It entails removing
oneself from events, stimuli, interactions, etc. under the fear of being reminded of
painful thoughts and feelings.
11. Identification: The unconscious modelling of one's self upon another person's
character and behaviour.
12. Introjection: Identifying with some idea or object so deeply that it becomes a
part of that person.
13. Sublimation: Transformation of negative emotions or instincts into positive
actions, behaviour, or emotion.
14.Thought suppression: The conscious process of pushing thoughts into the
preconscious; the conscious decision to delay paying attention to an emotion or
need in order to cope with the present reality
15.Somatization: The transformation of negative feelings towards others into
negative feelings toward self, pain, illness, and anxiety.
EGO DEFENSE MECHANISMS
PRACTICE TESTS:
1. Which of the following defines sociology?
A. a study that is concerned with discovering and organizing
facts, principles, and methods
B. a study of human groups, their customs and institutions,
and places
C. a study that deals with the production, distribution, and consumption
of wealth by human groups.
D. a study of human behavior, mental processes,
and personality
2. People can best show enculturation when they learn to
a. be refined
b. act as people
Freud believed two basic drives guide and shape HUMAN BEHAVIOR-EROS AND
THANATOS. Eros reflects the sexual drive and thanatos reflects the aggressive
survival instinct. Basically, this is a reflection of the pleasure principle, which
drives people towards seeking pleasure and avoiding pain.
Trait theory and behavioural theory
tend to be
neutral about human nature.
Humanistic theory and cognitive social learning theory
tend to be more
optimistic about the nature of people.
GESTALT PSYCHOLOGYS PRINCIPLES
OF PERCEPTUAL ORGANIZATION
-the process whereby people categorize and organize stimulus information into
meaningful units to make sense of the stimuli.
-The underlying idea is that stimuli are perceived as an organized whole, not as
unrelated or disjointed piecesthe whole is greater than the sum of the
parts.-For instance, people recognize a familiar tune but do not ordinarily hear
each distinct note or even every musical instrument playing the song. They
identify a persons face but do not usually pay attention to each eye, eyebrow,
nostrils, etc.
Principles of Grouping
Grouping is a process whereby individuals are inclined to perceive stimuli as
groups or chunks of information rather than as discrete bits of data.
similarity
proximity continuity closure simplicity
SIMILARITY
things that are physically similar are perceived as belonging together or as
forming a whole figure (gestalt). Therefore, XXOO is seen as two groups, with
the XX as one group and the OO as another group.
Proximity/ contiguity
group like with like,suggests that things that are in close proximity to one
another are perceived as belonging together or as forming a gestalt. In your
clothing drawers you probably put things together that logically go together;
undergarments in one drawer, shirts or blouses in another, and so on. You would
not expect to find canned peas in someones medicine cabinet but rather in the
kitchen pantry.
CONTINUITY (LAW OF GOOD CONTINUATION)
holds that people categorize stimuli into smooth, uninterrupted, continuous forms,
rather than into discontinuous patterns.
Simplicity- (pragnnz)
suggests that individuals opt for relatively simple perceptions even when more
complex perceptions can be derived. That is, every stimulus pattern is seen in
such a way that the resulting structure is as simple as possible.
CLOSURE (MENTAL COMPLETION) PRINCIPLE
states that people tend to perceive incomplete patterns as being complete. We
tend to fill in the blanks based on prior experiences. A triangle with a small
part of its edge missing will still be seen as a triangle. Consider the annoyance
that arises from having a missing element or two from a collection, such as
stamps, magazines, or CDs by a particular musical group. And, soap operas keep
viewers hanging on with cliffhanger endings.
DEPTH PERCEPTION
The images we see appear on our retinas in 2-D form, but we tend to perceive a
3-D world. We see depth by using monocular and binocular cues.
Monocular cues
are depth cues based on each eye working independently.
Binocular cues
rely on both eyes working together.
Examples of monocular cues are
linear perspective, texture gradient, relative size, and interposition.
Convergence, wherein the eyes turn inward as an object comes closer, is actually
an example of a binocular cue, not a monocular cue.
Answer: B
Answer: D
Answer: A
Answer: B
Answer: A
Answer: B
Answer: C
Answer C:
Answer: A
Answer: C
Answer: C
Answer: B
Answer: A
Answer: A
Answer: C
Answer: A
Answer: C
Answer: A
Answer: D
Answer: B