Lesson 2

Science and Common Sense

Common Sense Science

- Is prone generalization, inaccurate observation, - Starts with common sense, but goes beyond
and illogical reasoning common sense
- Considered to be the bedrock of science - To be scientific, one must only observe
meticulously without prejudice
Ptolemaic Theory - One has to learn the culture of science. One
- Named after the famous Alexandrian must learn how to observe and what to
astronomer Claudius Ptolemy observe.
- Galileo Galilei and other astronomers exposed - In science, there is more to “seeing’ than meets
the falsity of this theory by substituting it with the eye.
the heliocentric theory.

The Emancipatory Potential of the Social Sciences

Based on the preceding section, by using scientific method, the social sciences can contribute greatly to the
elimination of prejudices against certain groups of people such as racism, sexism, and cultural ethnocentrism. It can
also enable people to become open minded and welcoming of other beliefs and practices no matter how foreign or alien
they are.
Scientific method can also help predict future events that would allow people to mitigate dangers, risk, and
casualties. It also helps people to better understand other people's way of life.
Two Basic Methods in the Social Sciences
Social Research - refers to the methods and techniques that go into the investigation of social phenomena in order to
understand and interpret the occurrence of such phenomena.
Two Methods Employed by Social Scientists
Quantitative Method
- Refers to "research involving the collection of data in numerical form for quantitative analysis.
- The numerical data can be durations, scores, counts of incidents, ratings, or scales.
- Quantitative data can be collected in either controlled or naturalistic environments, in laboratories or field
studies, from special populations or from samples of the general population.
Quantitative Research
- Familiarizes the researcher with the problem or concept to be studied, and perhaps he/she will generate
hypotheses to be tested.
- Quantitative methods, especially surveys and secondary data analysis, are often to do large-scale social
investigation involving representatives of the population, with survey being the most popular method.
- Q quantitative researcher attempts to delimit phenomena into measurable or common categories that can be
applied to all of the subjects or wider and similar situations.
Qualitative Method
Qualitative Research
- A research that investigates aspects of social life which are not amenable to quantitative measurement.
- Uses a range of methods to focus on the meanings and interpretation of social phenomena and social
processes in the particular contexts in which they occur.
- The goals of qualitative research are to understand processes, experiences, and meanings that people assign to
things.
- A variety of methods include interviews, participant observations, focus group discussions, textual and
discourse analysis, oral history, biographies, and other forms of humanistic techniques.
Qualitative Methods
 - Are often used to study meanings embedded in a certain organization or practices occurring in a community.
Its primary purpose is to understand the meanings attached by the actors to what they are doing.
The subject matter of most qualitative research is how people construct their understanding of the social world and
how they make sense of everyday life. Reality is seen as subjective and variable across individuals, and major goal is to
understand how these views of reality differ across space and time

The Concept of Society as an Objective Reality

- The term "society" came from the Latin word societas, which in turn was derived from the noun socious
(comrade, friend, ally). It is used to describe a bond or interaction between parties that are friendly, or at least
civil.
- Society may also refer to the persistent interactions among members of a particular group like kinship group
and other institutions.
Methodological Individualism
- This view states that collective concepts such as groups, associations, and societies do not exist, but only
individual members
Sociological Realism
- States that society is reality is sui generis and cannot be reduced to individual aggregates or parts
Structural Functionalism (Emile Durkheim)
- Society is made up of a bunch of moving parts that have moved together as one
- Does not believe in major changes
- Looks at society from a macro level
Manifest Functions
- intended purposes of an institution/goal
- Things that are put in place intentionally to keep society moving forward
Latent Functions
- Unintended consequence from manifest functions
- Can be good or bad
Institutions
- Are structures that meet the needs of society (manifest functions)
Social Facts
- These objects have persuasive effects over individuals, yet they can’t be influenced by individuals
- People do not notice social facts, unless they try to resist them
Social Reproduction or How Societies Persist
According to Louis Althusser, no society can endure over time if it does not support its very own reproduction. To do
this, all societies must require the creation of institutions to perpetuate the existence of society.
Two types of institutions that reproduce the condition of social life:
1. Ideological State Apparatuses are institutions that are created and used by society to mold its members to
share the same values and beliefs that a typical member of the society possesses.
2. The Repressive State Apparatuses refer to those coercive institutions that use physical force to make the
members conform to the laws and norms of society like courts, police, and prisons.
According to Parsons, all societies will have to take care of its own reproduction if they are to persist across time and
space. He listed four general functional prerequisites that all societies must attend to in order to survive.
1. Adaptation - the capacity of society to take resources from its system and distribute them accordingly. This
function is carried out by the economy, which includes gathering resources and producing commodities for
social redistribution. (Economic System)
2. Goal Attainment - the capability to set goals and mobilize the resources and energies necessary to achieve the
goals set forth by society. This is set by the political subsystem. Political resolutions and
3. Integration - or the harmonization of the entire society to achieve consensus. By integration, Parsons meant
the coordination, adjustment, and regulation of the rest of the subsystem so that society will continue to
function smoothly. It is a demand that the values and norms of society are solid and sufficiently convergent.
 This requires, for example, the religious system to be fairly consistent, and even in a more basic level, a
common language. (Societal Community)
4. Latency - or latent pattern maintenance, requires that society is able to constantly produce and socialize
actors who will follow norms and roles given to them by society. This function refers to institutions like family
and school, which mediate belief systems and values between an older generation and its successor. (Fiduciary
System)
Society is an objective reality, which means that it is relatively independent of how people conceive it. However, unlike
physical objects, such as chairs and tables, society is dependent also on people's social interactions. Society has to be
reproduced across time and space for it to persist. Two general theories explain the process of social reproduction,
namely, the structural functionalist approach of Talcott Parsons and the conflict theory by French sociologist Louis
Althusser.
Lesson 3
Defining Marriage
Marriage (The Family Code) - a special contract of permanent union between a man and woman entered into in
accordance with law for the establishment of conjugal and family life. Marriage is at the center of the kinship system.
Marriage creates alliances and "fictive kinship" among members of clans and tribes.
Kinship consists of three aspects
1. It comprises forms of nomenclature and classification.
2. rules which affect people's kinship behavior, covering everything from criminal laws to ideas about good
manners;
3. what people actually do.
Kinship terminology - set of words used to refer to relatives
Marriage and the Family
Nuclear and extended families can be classified either as family of orientation or family of procreation. The family to
which one belongs is the family of orientation When one establishes a new family through marriage, it is called the
family of procreation
Families and the Rule of Descent
Families can be classified according to their basic rules of descent. As a social organization, the family is descent
group. Descent groups can be or two types: unilineal and ambilineal Descent groups are important to maintain the
continuity and survival of a group. It is not only the descent of the member that is crucial, but also the residence rule
for married couples after marriage.
Neolocal Residence - couples have the freedom and option to live separately and independent of their respective
families.
The Philippine law do not recognize same-sex marriage. But the New People's Army, the armed wing of the Communist
Party of the Philippines, already recognizes same sex marriage The first same sex marriage among the NPA was
celebrated in 2005 between gay couple Andres and Jose which happened in Southern Mindanao. They separated years
later and one of them died from sickness in the mountains.
Same-sex marriage (also known as gay marriage) - marriage between two people of the same biological sex and/or
gender identity. Legal recognition of same-sex marriage or the possibility to perform a same-sex marriage is sometimes
referred to as marriage equality or equal marriage, particularly by supporters.
Denmark (1989) - the first country in the world to legally recognize same-sex unions, after passing a bill legalizing
"registered partnerships" in a 72-47 vote.
Belgium (2003) - the second country to grant legal recognition to same-sex marriages.
Consanguineal (blood relation) - Two people are related to each other by consanguinity if they have a common
ancestor or one is a descendant of the other.
Two people are related by affinity if they are married, or if one person is related by blood to the other person's spouse.
These links between kin groups established by marriage are called affinal links.
People also rely on social relationships made by means of ritual observances, which are known as godparenthood or
compadrazgo.
Endogamy - the practice of marrying within a specific ethnic group, class, or social group, rejecting others on such a
basis as being unsuitable for marriage or for another close personal relationships.
Exogamy - the practice of marrying outside one's group, which is common in modern societies.
Rules of exogamy create links between groups, while rules of endogamy preserve separateness and exclusivity, and are
a means of maintaining boundaries between one group and other groups.
Transnational Families: Virtual Connections
● Diasporic Families - the dispersion of any people from their original homeland.
● Transnational Families - referred to as multi-local or multi-sited families, or families living in spatial
separation.
- Families that live some or most of the time separated from each other, yet hold together and create something
that can be seen as a feeling of collective welfare, unity, namely "familyhood", even across national borders.
New Intimacies: Families in the Age of Post-modernity
● Reflexive Modernity - a social condition when people are aware and knowledgeable about the risks they face
people no longer require the "forever" clause in romantic love relationship.
● Postmodern Families - are families that are very different from traditional and modern families and
marriages.
● Postmodernism - is often defined as a social condition that accompanies globalization. Reflects the
disorientation in intimate relationships in the globalized world.
● Liquid Love - conditions in which everything becomes fleeting, transient, and disposable.
● Speed Dating - is a formalized matchmaking process or dating - system that encourages people to meet a
large number of other people.
Divorce and Remarriage
● Divorce - a court order saying that a man and woman are no longer husband and wife. (alcoholism and drug
abuse, infidelity, incompatibility, physical and emotional abuse, disagreements about gender roles, sexual
incompatibility, and financial problems)
● Annulment - a judicial statement that there never was a marriage between the man and the woman. It is the
cancellation of marriage as if it never happened. Grounds for annulment may include the following: absence of
parental consent during the marriage, mental illness, fraud, lack of consent, and certain diseases.
● Legal Separation - a decree that gives the husband and wife the right to live separately from each other, but
not allowed by the law to remarry.
Violence against women and their children
- refers to any act on a series of acts committed by any person against a woman who is his wife, former wife, or
against a woman with whom the person has or had a sexual or dating relationship, or with whom he has a
common child, or against her child whether legitimate or illegitimate, within or without the family abode,
which result in or is likely to result in physical, sexual, psychological harm or suffering, or economic abuse
including threats of such acts, battery, assault, coercion, harassment or arbitrary deprivation of liberty.
Romantic Love, Mate Selection, and the Family
● Monogamy - in modern societies, this is often associated with romantic love, where one marries out of love.
● Homogamy - people tend to marry those who share the same characteristics they have -personality, class,
lifestyle, family background etc.
Emerging Issues on Families
● Families and Domestic Violence Family Violence - encompasses not only violence between female and male
partners or same-sex partners but also called child abuse and elder abuse.
● Domestic Violence - refers to the abuse by one person of another in an intimate relationship.
Polygamous and Monogamous Marriages
● Polygamy - a marriage that includes more than two partners. When a man is married to more than one wife at
a time, the relationship is called polygyny.
● Polyandry - a woman is married to more than one husband at a time.
● Group or conjoint marriage - if a marriage includes multiple husbands and wives.