Sociology Theories: Rational Choice & Interactionism

Rational Choice Theory

• Individuals make decisions based on rational calculations to achieve personal objectives.
• Emphasizes choices that provide maximum benefit and satisfaction given available options.
• Needs alternative perspectives to explain individual interests, perceptions, and social constraints.
• Rooted in Economic discipline, linking decisions to costs and benefits.
• Cost includes resources like time, money, labor, and materials lost to pursue an action.
• Benefit encompasses the positive outcome gained from a decision or action.
• Critics argue it ignores moral and ethical standards, focusing solely on self-interest and power.

Symbolic Interactionism

• Focuses on small-scale interactions between individuals and the meanings assigned to these interactions.
• Central concept is the SELF, consisting of self-awareness and self-image.
• Actions depend on the meaning individuals assign to events, objects, and people.
• Three tenets:
  • Actions depend on meanings assigned (First Tenet).
  • Meanings vary between individuals based on social interactions (Second Tenet).
  • Meanings are subject to change over time (Third Tenet).
• Considered supplemental to larger sociology theories, focusing on individual experiences.

Structural Functionalism

• Views society as a complex system with interrelated parts promoting stability and solidarity.
• Social structures represent stable patterns of behavior, such as family and religious organizations.
• Social facts are external forces that influence individual behavior unconsciously.
• Institutions are organized entities created to meet societal needs, like schools and banks.
• Manifest functions are the intended outcomes of social institutions, while latent functions are unintended consequences.
• Rejects rapid societal changes, advocating for gradual evolution to maintain equilibrium.

Feminism

• Encompasses movements advocating for women's rights across various social, political, and economic dimensions.
• First Wave focused on legal issues like suffrage, ownership, and governance in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
• Second Wave emphasized sexual equality and the dismantling of women's objectification.
• Third Wave highlighted gender and sexuality issues, breaking stigmas like rape culture.
• Different feminist perspectives include:
  • Liberal Feminism, advocating for equal rights and civil liberties.
  • Marxist Feminism, focusing on oppression through capitalist economic structures.
  • Radical Feminism, pushing for a complete societal reordering to eliminate male supremacy.

Psychoanalysis

• Psychological theory aimed at understanding the interaction between conscious and unconscious elements in the mind.
• Sigmund Freud, the founder, emphasized childhood experiences shaping adult behavior and personality.
• Three components of personality include:
  • Id, driven by instinctual desires and pleasures.
  • Ego, the decision-making center balancing desires and societal standards.
  • Superego, focusing on morality and conscience.
• A healthy personality requires balance among id, ego, and superego.

Social Thinkers in the Philippines

• Social thinkers are individuals who provide significant contributions to social and political philosophy.
• Notable Filipino social thinkers include:
  • Jose Rizal, recognized for his writings that laid the groundwork for Filipino nationalism.
  • Claro M. Recto, a key political figure and proponent of social justice in the Philippines.
  • Apolinario Mabini, significant in the evolution of Philippine governance and labor rights.
  • Isabelo de los Reyes, introduced socialist ideas and founded labor movements, influencing local socio-economic practices.