APOSTOLIC VICARIATE OF BONTOC – LAGAWE EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM

Fr. Sepulchre St., Poblacion

2616 Bontoc, Mountain Province, Philippines
Email: svs.emadli@gmail.com

Disciplines and Ideas in the Social Sciences

Second Semester
PSYCHOANALYSIS
This theory refers both to a theory of how the mind works and a treatment modality. As a treatment method,
it helps people understand themselves, their relationships, and how they behave in the world. Psychoanalytic
treatment is based on the idea that we are commonly motivated to act by impulse that we don’t recognize because
they originate in our unconscious. These unconscious conflicts can create negative feelings – emotions such as
unhappiness, anxiety, or depression – which can be expressed in many ways, including self-destructive behavior, or
difficulties with personal relationship or work.
The Founder of the Psychoanalysis is Sigmund Freud. He was the first person to include the conscious mind in
a formal psychological theory. Unconscious is the key to understand our personality.
According to Freud, there are three structures of personality:
1. Id – Unconscious; it is the person’s drive and instructs; it operates on
“pleasure principle”. The says “I want it now”
The unconscious part of the brain that mainly seeks to achieve
pleasure and primitive desires. It means if it wants it, it wants it now.
2. Superego – Operates on “moral principle”; it strives for perfection and
not pleasure; decides what is right or wrong. The superego says” Nice
people don’t do that”.
The unconscious part of the brain guided by moral constraints.
3. Ego – Mediator; operates on “reality principle”; Resolves the conflict
between Id and Superego. The ego says “Maybe I can find a
compromise”
The part of the brain that serves as a mediator between the superego and the id.
The structure of personality can be compared to an iceberg where the conscious (Ego and Superego) can be seen
mostly but the larger part of the personality or unconscious (Id) is hidden under.
When the ego cannot manage or resolve the conflict between the id and superego, the person would use defense
mechanism to deal with the problem or problems in life or to avoid pain. A defensive mechanism is a coping technique
that lessens anxiety or pain due to unacceptable or potentially harmful impulses. The use of defense mechanism is
unconscious done and most often learned behaviors, most of which we learned during childhood.
Types of Defense Mechanism
1. Rationalization – This is positioning someone into a different light or offering explanation for one’s perceptions
or behaviors in the face of a changing reality. The ego replaces less acceptable motive or impulse with more
acceptable ones.
2. Intellectualization – Rather than deal with painful associated emotions, a person distances oneself from the
impulse, event or behavior by using reasoning to block emotional distress.
3. Acting Out – Performing an extreme behavior in order to express thoughts or feelings the person feels incapable
of otherwise expressing.
4. Projection – This refers to the misattribution of a person’s undesired thoughts, feelings or impulse onto another
person who does not have those thoughts, feelings or impulses.
5. Dissociation – A person loses track of time and/or person, and instead finds another representation of their self in
order to continue in the moment.
6. Regression – Seeking the security of an earlier development stage.
7. Sublimation – Diverting an unacceptable impulse to a socially desirable one.
8. Reaction Formation – Converting of unwanted or dangerous thoughts, feelings or impulses into their opposites.
9. Repression – Unconscious forgetting
10. Suppression – Conscious form of forgetting wherein one deliberately escape or move away from the problem.
11. Splitting – Everything in the world is seen as all good or all bad with nothing in between.
12. Using Humor- Focusing on funny aspects of a painful situation because one would not like to face the real problem
or the involved if one will face the problem.

RATIONAL CHOICE THEORY

An Economic principle that assumes that individual always make prudent and logical decisions that provide
them with the greatest benefit or satisfaction and that are in their highest self-interest is the idea behind the Rational
Choice Theory. Human beings, thus, their behavior on rational calculations of the benefits and risks involved in doing
an action. People therefore act with rationality when making choices that are aimed at optimization of their pleasure
or profit.

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 Rational Choice theory, also known as the choice theory or rational action theory, is a general theory of action
and is considered one of the three overarching meta –theoretical paradigms in the social sciences, with structure-
institutional theories and cultural theories constituting its main competitors. It explains that phenomena is the result
of the individual choice of the individual, or simply it means that whatever is happening is mostly based from the choices
we make as an individual. Choices are “rational” if they meet some consistency criterion as defined by a decision
theory and are suitable to achieve specific goas, given the constraints of the situation. Rational choice theory comes
in many varieties, depending on the assumptions that are made concerning presences, beliefs, and constraints-the
key elements of all rational choice explanations.
Preferences denote positive or negative evaluations individuals attach to possible outcomes of their actions.
Preferences can have many roots, ranging from culturally transmitted tastes for food or other items to personal habits
and commitments. Beliefs refer to perceived cause-and-effect relations, including the perceived like hood with which
an individual’s actions will result in different possible outcomes. Constrains define the limits to set of feasible actions.
Economist use a logical axiom wherein they make decision. They make patter in which they can make rational
choice.
1. A person starts with DESIRE – create a BELIEF – propels you to act.
2. A person starts with DESIRE – propels you to act immediately.
3. A person starts with DESIRE – create a BELIEF – come upon a new INFORMATION – create a new BELIEF – propels
you to act.
4. A person starts with DESIRE – seek INFORMATION – create a belief – propels you to act.
We all know that money is a kind of motivation for humans. Actions are shaped because of that certain desire
to get money. To get the specific desire, humans would undergo decision making process in which rational choice
theory can be effective. It is normal that people always thinks of the cost and benefit of every action and chooses the
best outcome. There are three assumptions of rational choice theory about individual’s action preference.
1. Completeness – all actions can be ranked in a complete partial ordering of preference. In other words, all pairs of
actions can be compared with each other.
2. Transitivity – if action A is preferred to B, and action B is preferred to C, then A is preferred to C.
3. Independence of irrelevant alternatives – if A is preferred to B out of the choice set {A, B, X}, then introducing a
third alternative X, thus expanding the choice set to {A, B, X}, must leave A preferred to B.

Belief – a mental attitude of acceptance or asset toward a proposition without the full intellectual knowledge required
to guarantee its truth.
Desires – A want or craving; a large, desperate feeling or need.
Information – is data that is available to humans though the normal means of perception like sight, hearing, touch and
maybe others.

STRENGTH AND WEAKNESSES

PSYCHOANALYSIS
STRENGTH
1. Offers an in-depth perspective that emphasizes
exploring the origins of psychopathology.
2. The focus is development considerations
3. Most of the models address sexuality
4. The notion of “unconscious” begins to explain
behavior that we are unware of.
5. There is biological research that supports some of
Freud’s claim
6. Focus on relationship
RATIONAL CHOICE THEORY
STRENGTH
1. Rational Choice approach allows preferences to be 1.
represented as real-valued utility function.
2. It provides a compact theory that makes empirical
predictions with relatively spares model.
3. It is strikingly general. It has been used to analyze
not only personal and household choices about
traditional economic matters like consumption and
savings but also choices about education,
marriage, child-bearing, migration, crime and so
on, as well as business decision related to hiring ,
investment and etc.
WEAKNESSES
1. The theory only provides a piece of the pie-often
neglecting biological, culture, and social considerations
2. Psychoanalytical jargon serves to confuse rather than
clarify concepts.
3. The approach lacks a theory of intervention – not
enough focus on technique.
4. The exclusive focus on the past can lead to analysis
paralysis.
5. Too many patients are not considered appropriate for
psychoanalysis.
WEAKNESSES
The output of rational choice theory has been
limited, it has provided little to the overall
understanding of political interaction.
2. Nobel laureate Herbert Simon proposed the theory
of bounded rationality, which says that people are
not always able to obtain all the information they
would need to make the best possible decision.

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 FEMINISM
Studies gender and its relation to power, and dynamics these two concepts play out in economic, political,
sexuality, race, and nationality, among others. It is both a sociological perspective and a philosophy that aims to
promote gender equality, social justice, and women’s right. However, the primary concern that feminism tries to
address is the oppression of women in the society and the patriarchal structure of most societies.
Patriarchy, in its most basic sense, is a social organization wherein the father or the eldest male heads a society.
This can be seen in our community wherein most of the male elders are the ones being followed especially in cultural
related practices like the “mang-mang” and the ato culture of the Ifontoks. To further illustrate this, one only has to
look at the traditional Filipino family structure. The head of the family is the father, and the mother is subordinate to
the decision of the father. In some contexts, however, patriarchy constructs a social structure where men are seen
as more powerful than women. In the labor and economic context, for example, the father goes to his job every day
while the mother is left at home to take care of the children. In the past, when women did find opportunities to leave
the house and gain employment, the jobs offered to them were limited to being secretary or nurses, and this can still
be seen until now where in most jobs associated to women are jobs related to minimal work, and works related to
being subordinates to men. This are the struggles that feminism undertook in its advocacy for women.
Feminism developed in three waves. Each movement addressed a particular issue, which women struggled with at the
time.

1830’s – early 1900’s

Concerned with the following;
a. Suffrage
First
b. working Condition
Wave c. Educational right for women
***Women at this time surrendered their properties to their husbands, were not allowed to hold public
office, and were not given the rights of suffrage.
1960’s-1980’s
 the end of the ‘patriarchy’. Suddenly women became active in politics
Second  Shift in the role of women in the society
Wave  focused on the workplace, sexuality, family and reproductive rights
***The primary issue that this movement tried to address was of sexual equality and reproductive rights.
The movement encompassed women of all economic classes, races, and nationalities. It also included all
women regarding of class, and race.
1990’s – present
 sudden Representation of Women at All Levels of Government
 deals with issues which appear to limit or oppress women
Third  Gender violence
Wave ***Feminist from the third wave do not consider “feminine” object as artifacts of male oppression, but
as tools to enrich their femininity. For the third wave, a woman does not have to pretend like a man or
hold herself from putting on makeup just to be treated as equals. Women continuously advocate for
their right to individuality in whatever from or shape. This advocacy rules the blame-the-victim practice
because of what they wear and because they put on makeup.

Types of Feminism
Radical Feminism: is a movement Socialist Feminism:
that believes sexism is so deeply movement that calls for an
rooted in society that the only cure end to capitalism through a
is to eliminate the concept of socialist reformation of our
gender completely. They are more economy. This came to life
concerned with the idea that because men earn more
women are more superior than than women in same
men. profession.

Cultural Feminism: movement Liberal Feminism: fights for

that points out how modern complete gender equality
society is hurt by encouraging through social, political and
masculine behavior, but society legal means. Liberal feminists
would benefit by encouraging argue that society holds the
feminine behavior instead. That false belief that women are, by
is why the encourage feminine nature, less intellectually and
behavior over masculine ones. physically capable than men.

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KEY CONCEPTS OF FEMINISM
1. Gender Ideology: A social belief that supports gender inequality. It is a social divide that establishes perceived
riles for men and women, and relegating them to specific roles. Some gender ideologies include women
staying at home while men go to work, and women being more delicate, emotional, and nurturing compared
to men who are more aggressive, assertive, and dominant.
2. Gender Inequality: The actualization or realization of gender ideology. There is gender inequality when the
perceived role of women subordination to men reflects hiring procedures and requirements; for example, a
secretarial post accepting only female applicants. Salaries are also unequal when it comes to men and women.
For instance, a researcher on gender pay gap revealed that women in the U.S received less than men even if
they have the same position and job title.
3. Gender Ideology: Actualization in how toys are determined for children. Typically, action figures are supposed
to be played by boys and dolls are to be played by girls. A Boy playing with doll is ridiculed as being gay, while
a girl playing action figures is teased as a lesbian. It is evident that as this early stage of development, children’s
perception of gender roles is already being established and affirmed. The gender ideology in children’s play
evolves in adulthood as gender bias and prejudices, which support inequality.

SUMMARY
Psychoanalysis
 Both a theory and a clinical approach in aiding individuals who are suffering from repressed emotions and
consciousness/
 The basic premise of this theory is that human min has an unconscious state.
Rational Choice Theory
 Individuals are guided by one’s preferences, which are dictated by the person’s wants and needs.
 Explains that human actions and behavior are products of choice. Individuals rationalize their situations by
processing between the most beneficial choices and lesser individuals cost.
Feminism
A collection of movements and ideologies aimed at defining, establishing, and defending equal political,
economic, and social rights for women belief that men and women deserve equality in all opportunities, treatment,
respect, and social rights.

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