Republic of the Philippines

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
Region IVA- CALABARZON
DIVISION OF LAGUNA
District of San Pedro
Cuyab Integrated national High School

DISS- Discipline and Ideas in Social Sciences

MODULE 4: Social Sciences in the Real World

Performance Standard:
 Illustrate situation and contents in which Social Science can be applied

Learning Competency:
 Determine the Social Science can be used to address social concerns. HUMSS
_DISII-IVh-6
 Recognize multidisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary as an approach to looking at
society. HUMSS_DISII-IVh-7
 Generate an analysis of a social phenomenon using atleast two approaches
from the Social Sciences. HUMSS_DISII-IVi-j-8

Content Standard:
Demonstrate and understanding the role of Social Science in the real world.

Content:
1. Professions
2. Applications and intersections of the approaches in addressing social problems

1. Professions

 Social Scientists are involved with solving many of the world’s

biggest issues, such as violent crime, alternative energy, and
cyber security. They have had profound effects on every
part of society. Among the important roles that social
science can play is in fighting the spread of infectious
diseases.
 List of the top 10 highest paying social science careers to
find the perfect path for you:
 a. Political Scientist, IMAGE SOURCE: Pixabay, public
domain…
b. Economist
c. Industrial-Organizational Psychologist
d. Sociologist
e. Geographer
f. Psychologist

 A profession is “ am occupation or calling reqiring

advanced training and experience in some specific
or specialized body of knowledge which provides
service to society in that special field”
 Criteria of a Profession:
a. A profession musrt satisfy an indispensable social
need and must be based upon well established
and socially accepted scientific principles.
b. It must demand adequate pre-professional and
cultural training
c. It must demand the profession of a body of
specialized and systematized training.
d. It must give evidence of needed skills which the
public does not possess that is, skils which are
partly inherent and partly acquired.
e. It must have developed a scientific technique
which is the result of tested experience.
f. It must require the exercise of discretion and
judgment as to time and manner of the
performance of duty.
g. It must have a group of consciousness designed
to extend scientific knowledge in technical
language.
h. It must have sufficient self-impelling power to
retain its members throughout life. It must not be
used as amere stepping stone to other
occupations.
i. It must recognize its obligations to society by
insisting that its memebers live up to an
established code of ethics.

 The Qualities of a profession

a. A profession applies its body of knowledge in practical services
that are vital to human welfare, and especially suited to the
tradition of seasoned practitioners shaping the skills of newcomers
to the role.
b. It constantly enlarges the body of knowledge it uses and
subsequently imposes on its members a lifelong obligation to
remain current in order to “do no harm”.
c. A profession functions autonomously in the formulation of
professional policy and in monitoring its practice and
practitioners.
 d. It utilizes in its practice a well-defined and well-organized body of
knowledge that is intellectual in nature and describes its
phenomena of cocern.
e. A profession has a clear standard of educational preparation for
entry into practice.
f. A profession is distinguished by the presence of specific culture,
norms and other values that are common among its members.

 What kind of Jobs can you get with a social science degree?

a. Advice worker
b. Civil service career
c. Charity Officer
d. Community Development Worker
e. Community Education Officer
f. Equality and Diversity officer

2. Applications and intersections of the approaches in addressing social

problems

 Approaches to Social Problems

Interactionist Perspective:

Approach Toward Social Problem

 Labeling Approach - Recent approach to study social

problems. Interested in explaining why and under what
conditions certain acts and situations come to be defined
as problematic or deviant.

Concept:

“ Social Problems are conditions in which certain behaviour or

situation become defined as social problems”

Causes:
1. Awareness of people about certain behaviour or situation’s
existence makes them social problems.
2. Definition of social problems changes according to our own
situation, interest or by pressure group.

Consequences:

People who are considered deviant and are labelled will

accept that definition and will or may adopt more deviant
acts to compliment/reinforce deviancy.
For Example:
- Drug addiction leading towards crime and life style
change as secondary deviance.

Functionalist Perspective:

 Social Pathological Approach

Nineteenth-century American and European sociologists

Concept:
“Individuals and groups who deviate from social norms, are
“sick” or pathologic and a risk to the society’s health”

Causes:

Social Problems arise when either individuals or social

institutions fail to keep pace with changing conditions and
thereby disrupt the healthy operation of the social
organism (individuals or groups) such individuals or
institutions were considered “ sick” hence the term “Social
Pathology”

For Example:
Rural migrants who fail to adjust in urban life are
considered as a source of “ sickness’ or “ illness”

Causes:

Early social pathologists identify individual’s as a source of

society’s problems who could not be properly socialized or
who rejected society’s values and beliefs because of their
internal defects.

For Example:
Social pathology includes: substance abuse, violence,
abuses of women and children, crime, terrorism,
corruption, criminality, discrimination, isolation,
stigmatisation and human rights violations.

Causes:

Modern Social Pathologists focus more on defects of

society and its institution. Immoral society produce
immoral individuals.

For Example: Corruption

 Many contemporary social problems are global in nature
and are shared by many countries.

Consequences:

-Social pathologists “ often lead to a flood of social,

economic and psychological problems that undermine
well-being” and therefore need to be considered in
developing a mental health policy that promotes
population mental health well-being and addresses issues
that contribute to mental illness.

-Increase the cost of maintaining social order (terrorism)

Solutions:

-Education as a solution to social problems

-Programs to prevent the transmission of defects in next
generations.

 Social Disorganization Approach

Concept and Causes:

- Society is organized by a set of expectations and rules.

Social Disorganization results when these fail and result in:
a. Normlessness (people have no rules)
b. Cultural conflicts (people feel trapped by
contradictory set of rules)
c. Breakdown ( obedience to a set of rules results in no
rewards or punishment)

For Example:

- Rapid Social Change, Job Discrimination, Drug Addiction,

personal, family and community disorganization

Consequences

Social system feels the force of disorganization

- It may change its rules
- Keep contradictory rules in force
- Breaking down

Solution

-Reversed by isolating its causes and correcting them

- Society to make new rules and expectations.
 Institutional Approach

Concept:

“Problems in social Institutions produce patterns of

deviance or institutions must address the problems through
strategic social change”.

Causes

Social problems are the product of the “ impersonal

operation” of existing social institutions both now and in the
past.

Solution/Remedies

a. Engage in research and active social interventions

b. Planned change or overall change in social institutions
c. Emergence of new social institutions replacing existing
institutions.

Five contributions of sociologists/social scientist to

understanding social problems

1. Sociologists can measure objective conditions (IM;

sociologist can gather information on the number of
infant mortality in clinics and hospitals and on how
the cities and provinces vary in their access to
medical facility)
2. Sociologist can measure subjective concerns ( They
can determine people’s attitudes and views about
social problems. Such information is useful in
evaluating potential policies.
3. Sociologist can apply the sociological imagination;
that is they can place social problems into their
braod social context ( family planning is related to
people’s attitudes and is also related to profound
differences of opinions about privacy, what human
life is, when life begins and ends the role of religious
institutions)
4. Sociologist can identify different ways to intervene in
a social problems. They can suggest potential social
policies courses of actions for public and private
agencies, educational programs, public awareness
campaigns, and legal changes to address a social
problem.
5. Sociologist can evaluate likely consequences of
social policies. For example, sociologist can estimate
how a proposed social policy on family planning will
 affect thebirth rate, population growth, crime rate,
and expenditures for welfare and education.

A. Name that Profession

1. One who makes arrow

2. A female employee of a family who teaches children within

their home. In contrast to a nanny. ( formerly called a nurse) of
a baby sitter, she concentrates on teaching children.

3. Person engaged in the art of mounting or reproducing

animals and humans for display.

4. An employee who lives in the premises of apartment buildings

and serves as a general property caretaker.

5. A content specialist of a heritage ( museum, gallery) who is

responsible for an institution’s collections.

B. Answer the following questions:

1. What are the approaches to social problems?

2. What is the sociological approach to studying social

problems? Can democracy be the remedy for the country’s
economic, political and social problems?
 3. What are the five contributions of sociologist/social scientist to
understanding social problems?

Prepared:

ELENA D. PATAGNAN
SHS Teacher