Disciplines and Ideas in the Social Sciences– Grade 11

Quarter 1 – Module 16: Rational Choice & Institutionalism in examining soci-

cultural, economic and political situations
First Edition, 2020

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 DISCIPLINES AND IDEAS
IN THE SOCIAL SCIENCES 11
Quarter 1
Self-Learning Module 16
Rational Choice & Institutionalism in
examining socio-cultural, economic,
and political situations
Introductory Message

For the Facilitator:

Welcome to the Disciplines and Ideas in the Social Sciences 11 Self-Learning

Module on Rational Choice & Institutionalism in examining socio-cultural, economic
and political situations!

This Self-Learning Module was collaboratively designed, developed and

reviewed by educators from the Schools Division Office of Pasig City headed by its
Officer-in-Charge Schools Division Superintendent, Ma. Evalou Concepcion A.
Agustin, in partnership with the City Government of Pasig through its mayor,
Honorable Victor Ma. Regis N. Sotto. The writers utilized the standards set by the K
to 12 Curriculum using the Most Essential Learning Competencies (MELC) in
developing this instructional resource.

This learning material hopes to engage the learners in guided and independent
learning activities at their own pace and time. Further, this also aims to help learners
acquire the needed 21st century skills especially the 5 Cs, namely: Communication,
Collaboration, Creativity, Critical Thinking, and Character while taking into
consideration their needs and circumstances.

In addition to the material in the main text, you will also see this box in the
body of the module:

Notes to the Teacher

This contains helpful tips or strategies that
will help you in guiding the learners.

As a facilitator you are expected to orient the learners on how to use this
module. You also need to keep track of the learners' progress while allowing them to
manage their own learning. Moreover, you are expected to encourage and assist the
learners as they do the tasks included in the module.
 For the Learner:

Welcome to the Disciplines and Ideas in the Social Sciences 11 Self-Learning

Module on Rational Choice & Institutionalism in examining socio-cultural, economic,
and political situations!

This module was designed to provide you with fun and meaningful
opportunities for guided and independent learning at your own pace and time. You
will be enabled to process the contents of the learning material while being an active
learner.

This module has the following parts and corresponding icons:

Expectations - This points to the set of knowledge and skills

that you will learn after completing the module.

Pretest - This measures your prior knowledge about the lesson

at hand.

Recap - This part of the module provides a review of concepts

and skills that you already know about a previous lesson.

Lesson - This section discusses the topic in the module.

Activities - This is a set of activities that you need to perform.

Wrap-Up - This section summarizes the concepts and

application of the lesson.

Valuing - This part integrates a desirable moral value in the

lesson.

Posttest - This measures how much you have learned from the
entire module.
 EXPECTATIONS

At the end of this lesson, you are expected to:

1.identify the importance of rational choice theory and symbolic interactionism.
2.acknowledge how both approaches contribute into developing one’s self.
3.know what structural functionalism is and what causes social dysfunction
among the
society.
4.Discover the institutional approaches and how they are utilized in studying
different
institutions in the society.

PRETEST

Something is not right!

Directions: A category will be given for each number. Select the word that
does not belong to the group. Write the letter of your answer beside each
number. For 5 please choose two answers.

1.Stages of the Gestures Threefold

a. Game Stage c. Play Stage
b. Generalized others d. Work Stage
2. Pillars of Rational Choice Theory
a. Attitudes c. Courses of actions
available
b. Beliefs d. Preferences
3. Imperatives for society to survive
a. Adaptation c. Goal
b. Integration d. Potency
4. Types of institutionalism
a. Classic Institutionalism c. New
Institutionalism
b. Derivative Institutionalism d. Rational Choice
Institutionalism
5. Types of functions of a social structure
a. Axiom Function c. Manifest Function
b. Latent Function d. Strict Function
 RECAP
Previously, we tackled feminism and human environment systems. We
discovered the rich meaning of feminism, which is not just about sexes or gender,
but essentially the call for human respect, honoring dignity of human person
(especially among women), and for political understanding that we, human in nature
and differentiated by gender and sexes, are born equal and free. Human environment
systems, an interdisciplinary study, fortify that statement by taking a bigger picture
of ‘what are we in this world of being?’ – that all of us are equal for everything: we
depend, adapt, and modify the environment we live in.
Now, we continue understanding human person as rational being, endowed
with reason to choose, and as being social that move us together in forming groups
or institutions. Are we free to choose and born with reason? How does rationality
affect our sociality?

LESSON

Rational Choice Theory

Have you ever been into a situation wherein you had a difficult time
deciding? People make decisions all the time and in fact, it is not always
based on what you call “gut-feeling”. The decisions we make, these can go
narrower into the words we say and the actions we do, thus, forming us into
the individuals we are now.

Behind this complex social system of the human person, there is a

powerful tool people utilize in making sense of why individuals act or behave
in a certain way. This is the Rational Choice Theory.

What is the Rational Choice Theory (RTC)?

• Eister 1989 (in Ward 2002, 65) describes that its essence contains
choosing the best outcome when faced with multiple courses of action.
Moreover, he added that the following are the factors people consider when
deciding:
 Factors
1.Their
personal
preferences.
2. Their beliefs
3. The feasible
strategies they
have at hand.

Ward (2002) mentioned that the RTC Additionally, he mentioned that

Rational choice theorists explain that individual actions and the outcomes
they lead to are anchored on three pillars: (1) courses of actions available to
them, (2) preferences, and (3) beliefs about important parameters such as
others’ preferences.

Symbolic Interactionism
Have you ever wondered why certain things have meaning in your life?
Whenever you see an ambulance, you know it means that someone is hurt or
ill. When you see a tree during a hot day, you automatically think of it as a
source of shade. This is because of Symbolic Interactionism.
What is Symbolic Interactionism?
 A sociological framework focusing on different meanings people attach
to objects, people and their behavior, and interactions (Vejar, 2015).

 It is also a framework that actualizes the nature of humans to makes

sense of actions and interactions through external cues from their
environment.

George Herbert Mead is an important figure in symbolic

interactionism especially regarding gestures. According to Mead,
gestures (posture, tone of voice, voice inflections as well as hand
and facial movements) are significant when we communicate.
These can either emphasize or give contradiction to what we are
verbally stating (Vejar, 2015).

His central concept is the self, “the part of an individual’s

personality composed of self-awareness and self-image (Macionis
George Herbert Mead 2007, 124).
The Gestures Threefold
An important tool used in the process of self-discovery and self-development.

Three stages in the gestures threefold:

Play Stage Game Stage Generalized others

Young children identify with
key figures in their
environment such as their
parents as well as other
gender-specific roles. They
replicate the observed
behavioural norms.
Children extrapolate from
the viewpoints of the roles
they simulated and
assume the roles of others
through that viewpoint
just like in a team sport.
Generalized others refer to
the norms and behavior
constructed by the society
such as an employee being
prompt to avoid criticisms
from his fellow employees
in work.

Three premises that constitute symbolic interactionism:

1. Meaning is an important element of human existence. A subjective and
individualistic concept.
2. People identify and mold their unique symbolic references through
socialization.
3. There is a cultural dimension that intertwines the symbolic
“educational” development (e.g. a kiss and hug might be a warm
greeting for one culture but a breach of personal space for others).

Structural Functionalism
Try to observe a car. A car is a vehicle that has different parts. It has
different structures that function – the wheels for it to accelerate, the steering
wheel for changing direction, and so on and so forth. Do you know that our
society is like this? It contains different structures with corresponding
functions in order to satisfy the needs of the society. We will dive deeper and
find out why it is important to have different structures and why each of their
functions contributes to the whole.
What is Structural Functionalism?

 A framework for building a theory that sees society as a

complex system whose parts work together to promote
solidarity and stability (Macionis 2007, 15).

 The said parts vary but are all related to each other. One part
affects the other and vice versa. Talcott Parsons
 This framework was developed by Talcott Parsons which
emphasizes social structure, “any stable pattern of social behavior” and social
functions, “consequences of any social pattern for the operation of the society as a
whole” (Macionis 2007, 15).

 Robert Merton (1910-2003) expanded this framework by

emphasizing that one social structure may have many social
functions. He defined the ff:
1. Manifest Function – recognized and intended
consequences of a social pattern.
2. Latent Function – unrecognized and unintended
Robert Merton
consequences of any social pattern.

Example: Education/School
Manifest Function – provide the youth with skills needed to enable them
to perform their jobs after graduation.
Latent Function – keeping millions of young people from the labor
market, where a significant number of them may not get hired right away
after graduation.

What if something goes wrong or something disrupts the order of the society?

When something goes wrong or a social structure fails to perform a function resulting
to the disorganization of the society, a social dysfunction happens.

Social Dysfunction – any social pattern that may disrupt the operation of the society
(Macionis 2007, 16).

This is caused by the lack of consensus among people in each polity or society about what is
helpful or harmful to society. Different backgrounds or status may lead to differences in
recognition and appreciation of what is functional or not to individuals or groups of people
(Macionis 2007, 16).
Premises of Structural Functionalism:

Within every social structure or system – politics, family, organization – each

member of the system has a specific function.
Those functions can be small or substantial, are dynamic in nature, and work
toward the same purpose: to keep the system operational within its environment.
Change is evident within any society; however, for it to survive, it must adapt to
that change to maintain the equilibrium (McMahon, 2015).

Four imperatives for the society to survive: (AGIL)

 Adaptation: mobilizing sufficient resources so the system may survive.

 Goal Attainment: setting and implementing goals.

 Integration: maintaining solidarity or coordination among the subunits
of the system.
 Latency: creating, preserving, and transmitting the system’s distinctive
culture and values (McMahon 2015 Emphasis added).

Institutionalism

Classic Institutionalism
The institutional approach is a subject matter, a method and a theory.
As a subject matter - the study of political institutions is central to the
identity of the discipline of political science (Rhodes 1995).
Public Administration - is the “study of institutional arrangements for the
provision of public services” (Hood 1987, 504 in Rhodes 1995, 52) or the
“study of public bureaucracies” (Rhodes 1979, 7 in Rhodes 1995, 52).
As a method
Classic institutional approach is “descriptive- inductive (specific to general),
formal-legal, and historical-comparative”.
It also systematically describes and analyzes phenomena in the past and
explain present political phenomena with reference to past events.
(Kavanagh 1991,482, in Rhodes 1995, 42).
As a theory - the classical institutional approach makes statements about
causes and consequences of political institutions and espouses the
political value of democracy.
 Political institutions express particular choices about how political
relationships ought to be shaped; they are in the nature of continuing
injunctions to members of a society that they should try to conduct
themselves in specific ways when engaged in the pursuit of political
ends.
New Institutionalism
March and Olsen (1984, 734 in Lowndes 2002, 94, and Rhodes 1995,
53) coined the term “new institutionalism” critiquing the classic
institutionalism as having “receded in importance from the position they
held in the earlier theories of political scientists”. This also asserts that
political institutions played a more autonomous role in shaping political
outcome.
Indications Old Institutionalism Neo-Institutionalism

Movement From the law to politics From economics to

and economics politics and law
Methodology Other social sciences Neoclassical economics
(law, politics, sociology, (methods of
etc.) microeconomics and
game theory)
Method Inductive Deductive
Focal point of Collective action Independent individual
attention
Assumptions Holism Methodological
individualism

Normative and Rational Choice Institutionalism

 Normative institutionalism – political institutions influence actors’
behavior by shaping their values, norms, interests, identities, and
beliefs (March and Olsen 1989, 17). Normative refers to a concern with
norms and values as explanatory variables and not to normative theory
in the sense of promoting norms.
 Rational Choice Institutionalism – denies that institutional factors
produce behavior or shape individuals’ preferences which they see as
endogenously (from the system) determined and relatively stable.
Political institutions influence behavior by affecting the structure of a
situation in which individuals select strategies for the pursuit of their
preferences (Ostrom 1982, 5-7) and that institutions provide
information about future behaviors and incentives attached to different
courses of actions (Lowndes 2002, 95).
 ACTIVITIES

Activity 30
What’s the truth?
Direction: Below are statements regarding the topic. Write TRUE if the
statement is true and FALSE if otherwise.
_________1. The four imperatives for society to survive are Adaptation, Goal
Attainment, Execution,
and Latency (A.G.E.L).
_________2. Classical Institutionalism and New Institutionalism are the same.

_________3. Talcott Parsons developed structural functionalism.

_________4. Gestures threefold contains four stages: play stage, game stage, work
stage, and generalized others.

_________5. Rational Choice Theory has three factors namely preferences, beliefs,
and feasible strategies or actions they have at hand.

WRAP-UP

To synthesize, we now realize the impact of society to each individual

and how each of our functions influence the others. With this in mind, we
must consider our responsibilities as part of the society we live in. Today’s
lesson tackled from how we are influenced as we grow, and how we influence
as well as we become older.

VALUING

After this lesson, we found out how our choices

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 POSTTEST

Make the Right Choice

Directions: Below are statements that describe a concept in the particular
topic. Choose the correct letter for each and write them before each number.

________1. What kind of function does give education of the school entail?
a. Exponential Function c. Manifest Function
b. Latent Function d. Quadratic Function

________2. Public Administration is part of what institutionalism?

a. Classic Institutionalism c. Normative Institutionalism
b. New Institutionalism d. RCT Institutionalism

________3. Among are imperatives for society to survive except

a. Aspiration c. Goal
b. Integration d. Latency

________4. Who developed Structural Functionalism?

a. George Herbert Mead c. Sigmund Freud
b. Robert Merton d. Talcott Parsons

________5. Which among these did George Herbert Mead develop?

a. A.G.I.L. c. Gestures Threefold
b. Feminism d. Psychoanalysis
 KEY TO CORRECTION

5. A 5. C
4. B 4.D
3. D 3. A
2. A 2. A
1. D 1. C
Pretest Posttest

5. TRUE
4. FALSE
3. TRUE
2. FALSE
1. FALSE

Activity 1

References
BOOKS
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Sciences. Quezon City: Phoenix Publishing House, Inc.
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