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HSP3M Unit 1
Q. What do social scientist study? Human behaviour
Q. Why? To understand why people do what they do –
so we can then make society a better place for all
What are the Social Sciences?
• Anthropology – The
scientific study of the
human species and of
the various cultures
that make up humanity
• including sub-cultures
What are the Social Sciences?
• Sociology – the
scientific study of the
development,
structure, and
functioning of society
What are the Social Sciences?
• Psychology – the
systematic study of
people’s thoughts,
feelings, and
behaviours
Quantitative vs. Qualitative
•
•
•
•
Quantitative
Numbers
Measurable
Uses statistical
inference
• WHAT, WHERE,
WHEN
• Qualitative
• Relies on reason
• Smaller and more
focused samples
• WHY and HOW
The Incident at OC Transpo
• Pierre Lebrun/Charles
Whitman
• Unpopular/Loner
• Anger management
problems
• Low self-esteem
• No meaningful
relationships with women
• Paranoid/delusional
• Social outcast
Sociology
• Subject matter
• Not psychology
•
•
•
•
Human behaviour
focus on what goes on
between people
Not economics
interested in tangibles ($)
and intangibles (love)
Not Anthropology
focus on modern industrial
societies
Micro Sociology – small (life up close)
Macro Sociology – large (large scale patterns)
School of Sociology - Functionalism
• Analyze large-scale
patterns of society
• Society = human body;
every part has a function
• parts = institutions; when
all parts work smoothly
together, individuals are
protected
• Examines the relationships
among parts of society
Durkhiems’ Suicide Theory
• Egoistic suicide resulted
from too little social
integration. Those
individuals who were not
sufficiently bound to
social groups were left
with little social support or
guidance, and therefore
more likely to take their
own life
• Altruistic suicide was the
result of too much social
integration. Self sacrifice
was the defining trait,
where individuals were so
integrated into social
groups that they lost sight
of their individuality and
became willing to
sacrifice themselves to the
group's interests.
Altruistic or Egoistic?
In 1963 Buddhist
monk Thich Quang
Doc burned himself to
death during a protest
against South Vietnam
President Diem.
Altruistic or Egoistic?
Heaven's Gate was a
religious cult led by
Marshall Applewhite
who convinced 39
followers to commit
suicide so their souls
could ride on a
spaceship hidden
behind a comet.
Conflict Theory
• Karl Marx
• Study the social patterns and
structures that develop as
classes compete for scarce
resources
• Competition = conflict =
formation of social classes
• Conflict theorist examine the
social patterns that develop as
classes struggle against each
other
• Neo-Marxist
Symbolic Interactionism
• Max Weber argued that how we act
towards people and things is based on
the meaning we assign them.
We act differently in different social
situations because we have attached
different meaning to different
situations
• Focus on the everyday interactions
between individuals
• Humans construct society by attaching
meaning to actions = symbolism
Sociology - Hall of Fame
Auguste Comte 1798-1857
• First to study sociology – applied scientific methodology
(observation and analysis) to his study of society
• Positivism – Comte’s insistence on the rigid application of
the scientific method in order to arrive at the truth
• Social statics – the study of society’s customs, institutions,
laws and their interaction
• Social dynamics - the stages through which society must
go as they experience change
Believed that societies has a natural tendency to reach a
state of equilibrium
Sociology - Hall of Fame
Emile Durkheim (1859-1917)
• Founder of modern sociology. Father of functionalism
• Also used the scientific method to study change in society
• Studied relationship between sociology and the criminal
justice system – arguing that reform was better than
punishment
• Studies on suicide: Altruistic suicide (sacrifice himself to
save others), anomic suicide (not able to cope,
overwhelmed by sudden change), egoistic suicide (does
not share the values or goal of society)
Sociology - Hall of Fame
Karl Marx (1818-1883)
• Asked “Why had a few people become fabulously wealthy while the
majority had nothing?”
• concluded that uneven distributions of wealth was a normal condition
in society – which led to a struggle between rich and poor for wealth
and power (class conflict)
Conflict theory
• Bourgeoisie – wealth factory owners
• Proletariat – poor, who survive by selling their labour
• Believed that the struggle for wealth and power (class conflict) was the
driving force behind society and that Society’s problems could not be
solved until the wealth and power were redistributed
Sociology - Hall of Fame
Max Weber (1864-1920)
• Modified Marx’s approach to conflict arguing that it was too simplistic
since it did not account for the growing middle class
• Argued that religion, education, politics and family structure were
equally as important as economics when molding peoples’ values. He
believed that wealth alone was not enough to give a person power
• Believed that government bureaucracies were created to provide
essential social services would improve society, not armed revolution
• Popularized the idea that society could be reformed and improved – his
studies focused on solutions!
Sociology - Hall of Fame
George Murdock (1897-1985)
• Identified shared characteristics
of societies around the world –
Universals
• Over 100 in total including
body adornment, ethics,
gestures, superstitions and
sexual restrictions
• Expanded the study of
sociology to include more that
forces of division in society
Physical Anthropology
• Studies human evolution
and hominid cultures
Methods:
• Examine fossil, stone and
bone remains
• Study living primates
• Study and compare human
genetic variation
(connections to biology and
genetics)
Cultural Anthropology
• Studies similarities and differences of living cultures
Methods:
•
Participant Observation
CULTURE
Beliefs and Behaviours transmitted from generation to
generation. Culture is always changing.
1. Material culture: Physical objects
2. Attitudes: including ethics and values
3. Behaviours
Myths - traditional story accepted as truth; serves to explain the
world view of a people
Kinship – relationships among members of a social group that are
based on member’s descent from common ancestors
Social Anthropology
• studies how contemporary
living human beings behave in
social groups
Methods:
• Long-term intensive field studies
and observation
• Customs, economic and political
organizations, law, kinship,
gender relations
Anthropology Hall of Fame
Margaret Mead (1901-1978)
• Cultural Anthropologist
• Pacific Islands
• Adolescent culture / gender roles
• “Sex and Temperament in
Three Primitive Societies”
• Personalities largely shaped by
culture
• Was criticized for poor
methodology (personal stories)
Anthropology Hall of Fame
Ruth Benedict (1887-1948)
• Cultural Anthropologist
• Looked at role of religion in
shaping personality
• Linked personality to
culture (shame, guilt
cultures)
• Studied Japanese culture for
American re-development
in 1945 (distant anthro…)
Anthropology Hall of Fame
Bronislaw Malinowski (1884-1942)
• Social Anthropologist
• Functional Theorist – institutions designed to
serve people. Therefore culture functions to meet
the needs of individuals rather than society as a
whole
Methods
• Exhaustive observations
• record keeping
• New Guinea
Bronislaw Malinowski continued
• Rejected cultural
evolutionism on the
grounds that it was
ethno-centric
• Anthropologists job is
to observe and
explain, not judge
Cultural Evolution: built on the work of Charles Darwin (1809-1892)
Hypothesized that all societies and cultures develop in a regular series
of predictable stages
Sophisticated
(civilized, modern)
Primitive
Savage
Anthropology Hall of Fame
Raymond Dart (18931988)
• Physical Anthropologist
• Discovered
Australopithecus –
“Southern Ape” 1924
• Transitional stage Apes
→humans
2-3 million
Years old
Anthropology Hall of Fame
The Leakey Family: Louis (1903-1972) Mary
(1913-1996), Richard (1944-) (Kenya)
Physical Anthropologists
• Studied the origin of humans (Asia or Africa?)
• Important finds: Australopithecus and Homo
habilis
• Experimented with stone age tools to learn
how our ancestors lived
• Primate studies
3 Schools of Psychology
• Psychoanalysis
• Developed by Freud to
probe the unconscious
mind and treat patients
anxieties and phobias
• Studies the inner
experiences of the mind
through dreams,
fantasies, feelings
• Used to treat trauma and
anxiety
3 Schools of Psychology
• Behaviorism
• Focuses on studying observable
behavior
• Law of Effect
• The mind is an unknowable black
box
• Deduces principles for the
“prediction and control of
behaviour” (Watson 1913)
• Principles are consistent across
species
3 Schools of Psychology
Cognitive Psychology
• biology-focussed
• Areas of study include:
1. Perception
2. memory and learning
3. language use and acquisition
4. reasoning and decisionmaking
• Uses standardized tests
• Many applications in schools
Introvert
• Tend to be quiet
• Low-key, deliberate,
• Gain energy when
performing solitary
activities
• Enjoy intense one-onone social interactions
Extrovert
• Tend to be energetic
when surrounded by
people
• Enthusiastic/Talkative/
Assertive
• “I’m in love!”