Major Social Sciences Theories

Discipline and Ideas in Social Sciences

Submitted by: Abad, Guithan Jr. A.

11 HUMSS A
Submitted to: Mr. Jess Martin C. Siapno
 action, people usually do what they believe is likely to

RATIONAL CHOICE THEORY have the best overall outcome.” Individuals’ actions are
based on their preferences, beliefs, and feasible strategies
(Ward 2002). But as Ward (2002, 65) observed, rational
choice theory “needs other perspectives to help explain
The rational choice theory is an important concept why individuals have the interests they do, how they
because it elaborates how individuals make choices. Every perceive those interests, and the distribution of rules,
decision is completed by first considering the costs, risks, powers, and social roles that determine the constraints on
and benefits of that decision, according to the definition their actions.”
of rational choice theory. Choices that seem irrational to
one person may make perfect sense to another based on HISTORY OF RATIONAL CHOICE THEORY
one‘s desires.
Rational choice theory origins date back
Rational choice theory has applications in numerous
centuries. Philosopher Adam Smith is considered the
fields, including economics, psychology, and philosophy.
originator of rational choice theory. His essay “An Inquiry
According to this theory, individuals use their self-
into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations,”
interest to make choices that benefit them the most.
from 1776, proposed human nature’s tendency toward
People weigh their options and choose the option they
self-interest resulted in prosperity. Smith’s term “the
assume will ultimately benefit them.
invisible hand” referred to unseen forces driving the free
Personal preferences influence how individuals decide
market. Smith used the work of philosopher Thomas
what will best serve them. For example, one individual
Hobbes’ “Leviathan” (1651) to influence his own work. In
may decide that abstaining from smoking is best for them
“Leviathan,” Hobbes explained that political institution
because they want to protect their health. Another
functioning was a result of individual choices.
individual will decide they want to smoke because it
Philosopher Niccolò Machiavelli, who wrote “The Prince”
relieves their stress. Although the choices are opposite,
in 1513, also introduced ideas related to rational choice
both individuals make these choices to get the best result
theory in his treatise. Moving from economics to the
for themselves.
social sciences, in the 1950s and 1960s, sociologists George
Nonetheless, it is not a comprehensive theory that can
C. Homans, Peter Blau and James Coleman promoted
fully account for one’s behavior or action. According to
rational choice theory in relation to social exchange.
Elster 1989 (in Ward 2002, 65), “the essence of rational
These social theorists stated that a rational calculation of
choice theory is that ‘when faced with several courses of
an exchange of costs and rewards drives social
behavior. Rational choice theory expresses that
individuals are in control of their decisions. They don’t
make choices
because of unconscious drives, tradition or environmental
influences. They use rational considerations to weigh
consequences and potential benefits.
ASSUMPTIONS OF RATIONAL CHOICE THEORY
In order to fit the criteria for rational choice theory, the
following assumptions are made.
 All actions are rational and are made due to
considering costs and rewards.
 The reward of a relationship or action must outweigh
the cost for the action to be completed.
 When the value of the reward diminishes below the
value of the costs incurred, the person will stop the action
or end the relationship.
 Individuals will use the resources at their disposal to
optimize their rewards.
VIEWS ON RATIONAL CHOICE
THEORY
Behavioralists
The beginnings of rational choice theory (RCT) can be
traced back to the behavioral revolution in American
political science of the 1950s and the 1960s (Ward 2002)
instigated by behavioralists or scholars following the
behavioral tradition or persuasion, and hence, the name
behavioral movement.
The behavioral movement was strongly influenced by the
positivist tradition in the social sciences, in particular, by
the writings of August Comte in the nineteenth century
and the logical positivism of the ‘Vienna Circle’ in the
1920s. Behavioralists adopt the view of positivism about
the nature of empirical theory and explanation. In
contrast to other social scientists, behavioralists believe
that: “(a) observable behavior, whether it is at the level of
the individual or the social aggregate, should be the focus
of analysis; and (b) any explanation of that behavior
should be susceptible to empirical testing” (Sanders 2002,
45).
Economists
The RCT has become a dominant approach to political
science at least in the US. But while it traces its
beginnings to the behavioral movement, “rational choice
theory draws on the methodology of economics in
contrast to behavioralists who drew on sociology or
psychology” (Ward 2002, 65).
Using similar methods as in standard microeconomics, it
is the economists who carried out largely early work in
rational choice theory. The most important tool used is
the game theory. Central to the game theory is strategic
interdependence, a situation where others’ choice of
strategy affects an individual’s best choice and vice versa
(Ward 1995).
Rational choice theorists’ explanations of individual
actions and the outcomes they lead to are anchored on
three pillars, namely, (1) strategies or courses of action
open and available to them, (2) their preferences over the viewpoint from which common patterns can be seen
end-states to which combinations of actions chosen by the across diverse phenomena.
various players lead, and, (3) their beliefs about important Even in circumstances in which action is irrational, it
parameters such as others’ preferences. In making provides a standard against which action can be judged
predictions, rational choice theory proceeds by applying and indicates variables that might lead to departures from
logic and mathematics to a set of assumptions. These rationality (Mansbridge 1990b, 20 in Ward 2002, 70).
assumptions may include axioms about rational behavior
as well as auxiliary assumptions about the context that CRITICISMS OF RATIONAL CHOICE THEORY
players find themselves in (Ward 2002).
One potential issue with rational choice theory is that it
Nonetheless, rationality in itself is silent about whether
doesn’t account for non-self-serving behavior, such as
the preferences of an individual are benevolent or evil.
philanthropy or helping others when there’s a cost but no
RCT does not explain where preferences come from and
reward to the individual. Rational choice theory also
how these are mediated or negotiated. RCT only assumes
doesn’t take into consideration how ethics and values
that individuals pursue self-serving goals by doing a
might influence decisions.
rational calculation of what is strategically best among
Another criticism is that rational choice theory doesn’t
alternatives to achieve their goals. This implies a cost-
comment on the influence of social norms. An argument
benefit analysis of alternatives and strategies.
against rational choice theory is that most people follow
As it exemplifies the deductive-nomological approach to
social norms, even when they’re not benefiting from
explanation (Ward 2002), RCT enjoys the advantages
adhering to them.
associated with this method. Some of these advantages
Also, some critics say that rational choice theory doesn’t
include:
account for choices that are made due to situational
It forces you to be explicit about assumptions that are
factors or that are context-dependent. Factors like
often left implicit in verbal arguments.
emotional state, social context, environmental factors and
It provides a ‘positive heuristic’ (Lakatos 1978)—a set of
the way choices are posed to the individual may result in
categories that help in constructing explanations, a set of
decisions that don’t align with rational choice theory
exemplary examples of good explanations to emulate, and
assumptions.
suggestions about fruitful lines of research.
Some critics also state that rational choice theory doesn’t
It provides a unified framework of explanation across
account for individuals who make decisions based on
different fields of the social sciences and across sub
fixed learning rules, in that they do things because that’s
disciplines, allowing cross-fertilization of ideas and a
the way they’ve learned to do them—even when the
decision has higher costs and fewer benefits.
Nonetheless, RCT has been the target of criticisms not
only from political science but also from other disciplines
in the social sciences. Ward (1995 & 2002) grouped these
criticisms into four modes, namely, (1) the ‘heretics”
critique who wish to emphasize bounded rationality; (2)
the sociologists’ critique of RCT’s tendency to play down
the social structure and holistic modes of explanations; (3)
the psychologists’ critique of RCTs main assumption that
individuals often act rationally; and (4) critique from
mainstream political science on the basis of the
implausibility of the assumptions made and the predictive
failures of the model.
Heretic’s Critique
Drawing on the work of Herbert Simon on bounded
rationality, some rational choice theorists question the
highly implausible assumptions of RCT about the rational
capacity of individuals. Given limited information, time,
and cognitive capacity to process information, Simon
believes that individuals use standard operating
procedures as a heuristic device and as a shorthand guide
to rational action. For Simon, an action is procedurally
rational if it is based on beliefs that are reasonable given
the context the actor is in (Ward 2002 & 1995).Since
individuals can not have all the rational capacity, time,
and emotional detachment necessary to choose the best
course of action, individuals resort to a range of heuristics
in dealing with any problems. Individuals can copy the
methods used by those who are more successful. They
can rely on communication and others’ reputations for
trustworthiness and adopt norms of appropriate behavior
which there are intangible costs to violating (Ward 2002).
Sociologist's Critique
In contrast to rational choice theorists, sociologists
believe “that individual behavior is largely a function of
social structures” and not based on individual choice
(Ward 2002 & 1995, 74). Sociologists find it implausible
that individuals are fully autonomous. For instance,
structural factors can shape decisions made by
individuals. These may include social norms, ideologies,
as well as rules and conventions.
Sociologists recognize that individual behavior can be
driven by social norms understood as deriving from
society’s need for system integration as well as by
structures of belief, such as ideologies. They argue that
action can only be seen as rational or irrational within the
context of a particular system of meaning, hence,
symbolic and ritual action become important in human
actions (Ward 2002).
Even collective actors in processes of deliberation with
the end goal of achieving given ends are influenced by
structural factors. The processes that produce decisions
and actions of collective actors can be strongly influenced
by “rules and conventions used to categorize problems;
paradigmatic filters biasing the use of incoming
information; limited efforts to search for available
solutions; pressures to appear consistent, even at the cost
of failures of goal attainment; the upgrading of means
into ends in themselves; and other organizational
pathologies (March & Olsen 1984 and Hindess 1988 in
Ward 2002, 78).”
Psychologist critique
The psychologist critique of RCT attacks the latter’s
assumption that individuals often act rationally. They
typically argue “that individuals often do not act
rationally in the standard sense and are motivationally
and psychologically complex” (Ward 2002, 72; Ward 1995,
79). Motives of individuals do not necessarily reflect self-
serving interests since individuals frequently act
altruistically in political life (Ibid. 79).
Moreover, psychologists also attack RCT’s claim that
individuals have all the emotional detachment necessary
to choose the best course of action. Emotions and
unconscious drives make the level of detachment highly
unlikely. Individuals often make decisions based on
consistency with past actions, reduction of strains within
the individual’s belief system (cognitive dissonance) or
normative orientation than through a calculation of the
most efficient means to given ends (Ibid. 80).
Political science’s Critique
Finally, many political scientists point to the poor
empirical record of RCT (Ward 2002) and its implausible
assumptions and failure in predictive terms (Ward, 1995).
They argue that many of the variables in rational choice
models, notably preferences, are not directly measurable,
and that rational choice theorists, in their desire to
generate a universally applicable model of politics, evade
and ignore contrary evidence (Ward 2002). 
APPLICATIONS OF RATIONAL CHOICE
THEORY
Rational choice theory has a wide variety of applications
in all types of spheres affecting human populations.
a. Economics and business: Rational choice theory can
explain individual purchasing behaviors.
b. Politics: Rational choice theory can be used to explain
voting behaviors, the actions of politicians and how
political issues are handled.
c. Sociology: Rational choice theory can explain social
phenomena. This is because all social change and
institutions occur because of individual actions.
d. Addiction treatment: Rational choice theory can be
used to identify addiction motivations and provide
substance alternatives that are equally beneficial to
patients.
When there’s a need to describe, predict and explain
human behavior, rational choice theory can be applied.
FEMINIST TTHEORY
The term feminism can be used to describe a political,
cultural or economic movement aimed at establishing
equal rights and legal protection for women. Feminism
involves political and sociological theories and
philosophies concerned with issues of gender difference,
as well as a movement that advocates gender equality for
women and campaigns for women's rights and interests.
Feminism has altered predominant perspectives in a wide
range of areas within Western society, ranging from
culture to law. Feminist activists have campaigned for
women's legal rights (rights of contract, property rights,
voting rights); for women's right to bodily integrity and
autonomy, for abortion rights, and for reproductive rights
(including access to contraception and quality prenatal
care); for protection of women and girls from domestic
violence, sexual harassment and rape; for workplace
rights, including maternity leave and equal pay; against
misogyny; and against other forms of gender-specific
discrimination against women. Many people incorrectly
believe that feminist theory focuses exclusively on girls
and women and that it has an inherent goal of promoting
the superiority of women over men. In reality, feminist
theory has always been about viewing the social world in
a way that illuminates the forces that create and support
inequality, oppression, and injustice, and in doing so,
promotes the pursuit of equality and justice. That said,
since the experiences and perspectives of women and
girls were historically excluded for years from social
theory and social science, much feminist theory has
focused on their interactions and experiences within
society to ensure that half the world's population is not
left out of how we see and understand social forces,
relations, and problems. Part of what makes feminist
theory creative and inclusive is that it often considers
how systems of power and oppression interact, which is
to say it does not just focus on gendered power and
oppression, but on how this might intersect with systemic
racism, a hierarchical class system, sexuality, nationality,
and (dis)ability, among other things.
GENDER ROLE IDEOLOGY
-an individual’s attitudes to how the roles of women and
men are and should be shaped by sex.
TRADITIONAL differentiates the role of man and
woman. Men are usually expected to provide for the
family and women are to stay home, take care of the
children and do the household chores.
TRANSITIONAL is between traditional and egalitarian.
It still accepts some of the traditional views regarding
gender role but are open the egalitarian idea. A mother
who chooses to work will still have to do identified work
for women.
EGALITARIAN perceives that role should not be divided
by gender. Example, father and the mother both working
and shares responsibility at home. Man may do what the
female use to do like do the laundry or the mother may
do painting and so on.
HISTORY OF FEMINISM
Simone de Beauvoir wrote that "the first time we see a
woman take up her pen in defense of her sex" was
Christine de Pizan who wrote Epitre au Dieu d'Amour
(Epistle to the God of Love) in the 15th century. Heinrich
Cornelius Agrippa and Modesta di Pozzo di Forzi worked
in the 16th century. Marie Le Jars de Gournay, Anne
Bradstreet and Francois Poullain de la Barre wrote during
the 17th.
Feminists and scholars have divided the movement's
history into three "waves". The first wave refers mainly to
women's suffrage movements of the nineteenth and early
twentieth centuries (mainly concerned with women's
right to vote). The second wave refers to the ideas and
actions associated with the women's liberation movement
beginning in the 1960s (which campaigned for legal and
social rights for women). The third wave refers to a
continuation of, and a reaction to the perceived failures
of, second-wave feminism, beginning in the 1990s.
First wave
First-wave feminism refers to an extended period of
feminist activity during the nineteenth century and early
twentieth century in the United Kingdom and the United
States. Originally it focused on the promotion of equal
contract and property rights for women and the
opposition to chattel marriage and ownership of married
women (and their children) by their husbands. However,
by the end of the nineteenth century, activism focused
primarily on gaining political power, particularly the right
of women's suffrage. Yet, feminists such as Voltairine de
Cleyre and Margaret Sanger were still active in
campaigning for women's sexual, reproductive, and
economic rights at this time. In 1854, Florence
Nightingale established female nurses as adjuncts to the
military.
In Britain the Suffragettes and, possibly more effectively,
the Suffragists campaigned for the women's vote. In 1918
the Representation of the People Act 1918 was passed
granting the vote to women over the age of 30 who owned
houses. In 1928 this was extended to all women over
twenty-one. In the United States, leaders of this
movement included Lucretia Mott, Lucy Stone, Elizabeth
Cady Stanton, and Susan B. Anthony, who each
campaigned for the abolition of slavery prior to
championing women's right to vote; all were strongly
influenced by Quaker thought. American first-wave
feminism involved a wide range of women. Some, such as
Frances Willard, belonged to conservative Christian
groups such as the Woman's Christian Temperance
Union. Others, such as Matilda Joslyn Gage, were more
radical, and expressed themselves within the National
Woman Suffrage Association or individually. American
first-wave feminism is considered to have ended with the
passage of the Nineteenth Amendment to the United
States Constitution (1919), granting women the right to
vote in all states.
The term first wave was coined retrospectively after the
term second-wave feminism began to be used to describe
a newer feminist movement that focused as much on
fighting social and cultural inequalities as political
inequalities.
Second wave
Second-wave feminism refers to the period of activity in
the early 1960s and lasting through the late 1980s. The
scholar Imelda Whelehan suggests that the second wave
was a continuation of the earlier phase of feminism
involving the suffragettes in the UK and USA. Second-
wave feminism has continued to exist since that time and
coexists with what is termed third-wave feminism. The
scholar Estelle Freedman compares first and second-wave
feminism saying that the first wave focused on rights such
as suffrage, whereas the second wave was largely
concerned with other issues of equality, such as ending
discrimination.
The feminist activist and author Carol Hanisch coined the
slogan "The Personal is Political" which became
synonymous with the second wave.
Second-wave feminists saw women's cultural and political
inequalities as inextricably linked and encouraged women
to understand aspects of their personal lives as deeply
politicized and as reflecting sexist power structures.
Third wave
Third-wave feminism began in the early 1990s, arising as a
response to perceived failures of the second wave and also
as a response to the backlash against initiatives and
movements created by the second wave. Third-wave
feminism seeks to challenge or avoid what it deems the
second wave's essentialist definitions of femininity, which
(according to them) over-emphasize the experiences of
upper middle-class white women.
A post-structuralist interpretation of gender and sexuality
is central to much of the third wave's ideology. Third-
wave feminists often focus on "micro-politics" and
challenge the second wave's paradigm as to what is, or is
not, good for females. The third wave has its origins in
the mid-1980s. Feminist leaders rooted in the second
wave like Gloria Anzaldua, bell hooks, Chela Sandoval,
Cherrie Moraga, Audre Lorde, Maxine Hong Kingston,
and many other black feminists, sought to negotiate a
space within feminist thought for consideration of race-
related subjectivities.
Third-wave feminism also contains internal debates
between difference feminists such as the psychologist
Carol Gilligan (who believes that there are important
differences between the sexes) and those who believe that
there are no inherent differences between the sexes and
contend that gender roles are due to social conditioning.
STRANDS OF FEMINISM
Socialist and Marxist
Socialist feminism connects the oppression of women to
Marxist ideas about exploitation, oppression and labor.
Socialist feminists think unequal standing in both the
workplace and the domestic sphere holds women down.
Socialist feminists see prostitution, domestic work,
childcare and marriage as ways in which women are
exploited by a patriarchal system that devalues women
and the substantial work they do. Socialist feminists focus
their energies on broad change that affects society as a
whole, rather than on an individual basis. They see the
need to work alongside not just men, but all other groups,
as they see the oppression of women as a part of a larger
pattern that affects everyone involved in the capitalist
system.
Marx felt when class oppression was overcome, gender
oppression would vanish as well. According to some
socialist feminists, this view of gender oppression as a
sub-class of class oppression is naive and much of the
work of socialist feminists has gone towards separating
gender phenomena from class phenomena. Some
contributors to socialist feminism have criticized these
traditional Marxist ideas for being largely silent on gender
oppression except to subsume it underneath broader class
oppression. Other socialist feminists, many of whom
belong to Radical Women and the Freedom Socialist
Party, two long-lived American organizations, point to
the classic Marxist writings of Frederick Engels and
August Bebel as a powerful explanation of the link
between gender oppression and class exploitation.
In the late nineteenth century and early twentieth
century both Clara Zetkin and Eleanor Marx were against
the demonization of men and supported a proletarian
revolution that would overcome as many male-female
inequalities as possible. As their movement already had
the most radical demands of women's equality, most
Marxist leaders, including Clara Zetkin and Alexandra
Kollontai, counterposed Marxism against feminism,
rather than trying to combine them.
Radical
Radical feminism considers the male controlled capitalist
hierarchy, which it describes as sexist, as the defining
feature of women’s oppression. Radical feminists believe
that women can free themselves only when they have
done away with what they consider an inherently
oppressive and dominating patriarchal system. Radical
feminists feel that there is a male-based authority and
power structure and that it is responsible for oppression
and inequality, and that as long as the system and its
values are in place, society will not be able to be reformed
in any significant way. Some radical feminists see no
alternatives other than the total uprooting and
reconstruction of society in order to achieve their goals.
Liberal
Liberal feminism asserts the equality of men and women
through political and legal reform. It is an individualistic
form of feminism, which focuses on women’s ability to
show and maintain their equality through their own
actions and choices. Liberal feminism uses the personal
interactions between men and women as the place from
which to transform society. According to liberal feminists,
all women are capable of asserting their ability to achieve
equality, therefore it is possible for change to happen
without altering the structure of society. Issues important
to liberal feminists include reproductive and abortion
rights, sexual harassment, voting, education, "equal pay
for equal work", affordable childcare, affordable health
care, and bringing to light the frequency of sexual and
domestic violence against women.
Gender Differences
Some feminist theory provides an analytic framework for
understanding how women's location in and experience
of social situations differ from men's. For example,
cultural feminists look at the different values associated
with womanhood and femininity as a reason for why men
and women experience the social world differently. Other
feminist theorists believe that the different roles assigned
to women and men within institutions better explain
gender differences, including the sexual division of labor
in the household. Existential and phenomenological
feminists focus on how women have been marginalized
and defined as “other” in patriarchal societies. Some
feminist theorists focus specifically on how masculinity is
developed through socialization, and how its
development interacts with the process of developing
femininity in girls.
Gender Inequality
Feminist theories that focus on gender inequality
recognize that women's location in and experience of
social situations are not only different but also unequal to
men's. Liberal feminists argue that women have the same
capacity as men for moral reasoning and agency, but that
patriarchy, particularly the sexist division of labor, has
historically denied women the opportunity to express and
practice this reasoning. These dynamics serve to shove
women into the private sphere of the household and to
exclude them from full participation in public life. Liberal
feminists point out that gender inequality exists for
women in a heterosexual marriage and that women do
not benefit from being married. Indeed, these feminist
theorists claim, married women have higher levels of
stress than unmarried women and married men.
Therefore, the sexual division of labor in both the public
and private spheres needs to be altered for women to
achieve equality in marriage.
INSTITUTIONALISM
Institutionalization is a process of embedding
regulations, norms, schemas, rules within a social
system or a society that regulates human interaction.
Institutionalism is a general approach to governance
and social science. It concentrates on institutions
and studies them using inductive, historical, and
comparative methods. Institutional Theory – A social
science theory which considers a process by which
norms, practices, constitutional law, rights,
customary laws, structures, schemas and routine
becomes guidelines to social behavior.
Institutionalism is an approach to economics,
anthropology, and other fields that focuses on the
role of organizations and institutions in shaping the
world in various ways. Institutions are entities that
are defined by rules, norms, and social structures.
Many thinkers at various times and across many
disciplines have presented themselves as
institutionalists. For instance, in America in the late
19th and early 20th centuries, institutionalism
appeared as a response to the prevailing trends in
economics that had come to overlook the many ways
in which institutions interact with each other and
change over time.
More specifically, institutionalism arose in response
to economic theories that overemphasized the role
of decisions made by individual agents. It was argued
that studying individuals in isolation tended to
distort social events and behaviors by interpreting
decisions as results of abstract logic. Institutionalists
have asserted that individual decisions are not made
in a vacuum; instead, individuals make decisions
against a background of institutions. Moreover,
institutions themselves can act and change as
circumstances change.
Institutionalism’s definition, then, is an approach to
social theory, broadly speaking, that focuses on rule-
governed organizations. Institutionalism is
important because it allows researchers to expand
the realm of what can be studied and how.
Institutionalist theorists might go so far as to claim
that without institutionalism, researchers would be
blind to how individuals act and react within the
context of shared organizations.
One important mid-20th century institutionalist was
Karl Polanyi. Polanyi worked in economics.
According to Polanyi, many economic theorists took
it for granted that market exchanges (buying and
selling) produce social integration. Polanyi argued
that the reverse is largely true. More specifically,
social institutions and norms produce an integrated
economy. More substantively, Polanyi believed that
relatively stable prices are not set primarily by
random acts of exchange, but rather by price-setting
organizations that coordinate and normalize
exchanges.
This institutional perspective highlights the roles of
institutions like banks, national governments, and
other similar institutions. Institutional theory
attempts to explain how prices and other economic
patterns emerge as a result of complex interactions
between organizations.

Another way to frame Polanyi’s point is that non-
institutionalist theories understand pricing to
emerge from buyers and sellers who exchange goods
for money. Both buyers and sellers seek to maximize
their self-interest. Presumably, these exchanges have
a tendency toward regularity. However, institutional
theory emphasizes the roles of organizations and
social backgrounds to explain regularity in pricing.
Consider an example of selling medications.
According to institutionalists like Polanyi, many
economists would see drug prices as a result of both
pharmaceutical companies seeking to maximize their
profit and consumers seeking to maximize their
satisfaction. Consequently, the price for medication
will be set at the point that most people are willing
to pay that will also maximize profit for the
pharmaceutical company. However, since
pharmaceutical companies compete with other
companies, there is additional pressure to keep
prices low so that they do not lose potential buyers.
For institutional theorists, one could not properly
study the regularity of medication costs simply from
the buyer-seller relationship and the rationality of
self-interest. Instead, one would have to study how
companies, as an institution, attempt to set prices in
reference to other companies as well as other
organizations such as the FDA, insurance companies,
hospitals, pharmacies, etc. When pharmaceutical
companies are seen in this light, there are many
further relationships and norms to be studied.
TYPES OF INSTITUTIONS
Formal - These are the formally established institutions
by a governing body. One example of formal institution
is the government. It has the power to impose new
restriction that has created a “new normal”.
Informal - These are not formally established but the
practices are widely accepted in a society.
IMPORTANCE OF INSTITUTIONALISM
Institutionalism is important because it highlights
how decisions and social patterns do not arise solely
from abstract individuals. Instead, institutions and
traditions exert influence on individual decisions.
In sociology, institutional isomorphism describes
and explains the similarity of institutions.
Institutions come to resemble each other through
coercive processes, mimetic processes, and
normative processes. Institutional theory is used for
a variety of purposes in various fields. For instance, it
can be used in economics to describe the regular
patterns of prices in contrast an individual-exchange
approach.

An example of institutional theory would be Meyer

and Rowan’s notion of institutional isomorphism.
This concept explains how institutions come to
resemble each other and thus provide for a more
integrated and regular society.

HERMENEUTIC
PHENOMENOLOGY
Methodology refers to the process, principles and
procedures by which a researcher approaches
problems and seeks answers (Bogdan and Taylor
1975). Langdridge (2007) defines methodology as a
term referring to the general way to research a topic,
whereas method is the specific technique(s) being
employed.
Phenomenology is the study of the structures of
experience and consciousness.
Heidegger’s interpretive phenomenology was and is
also known as hermeneutic phenomenology or
existential phenomenology. Defined as the
interpretation of text or language by an observer, or
the “art and science of interpretation”, especially as
it applies to text, hermeneutics can be used as a
methodology or as an enhancement of
phenomenology, hence, the name, interpretive
phenomenology.
A HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE ON
PHENOMENOLOGY
It is considered that there are two main approaches
to phenomenology: descriptive and interpretive.
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Descriptive phenomenology was developed by
Edmund Husserl and interpretive by Martin
Heidegger.
Husserl’s descriptive phenomenology was and is also
known as transcendental phenomenology and
preceded Heidegger’s interpretive phenomenology
historically. Interpretive phenomenology is also
known as hermeneutic phenomenology as
existential phenomenology. Hermeneutics is the
interpretation of text or language by an observer and
can be used as a methodology or as an enhancement
of phenomenology, hence the alternative description
of ‘interpretive phenomenology’.
Edmund Husserl
Edmund Husserl, around the turn of the twentieth
century, established his phenomenology as a
philosophy to challenge the Cartesian philosophy
that was clearly objective, empirical and positivist.
From a philosophical perspective Husserl saw
phenomenology as a way of reaching true meaning
through penetrating deeper and deeper into reality.
In this sense it was seen as a movement away from
the Cartesian dualism of reality being something
‘out there’ or completely separate from the
individual. Husserl’s phenomenology was about the
relation between consciousness and ‘objects of
knowledge’ with an emphasis on the objects – ‘the
things themselves’. Husserl wanted to develop a
science of phenomena that would clarify how
objects are experienced and present themselves to
human consciousness (Spinelli 2005). One of the key
aspects of Husserl’s work was his identification of
the ‘life world’ (Langdridge 2007; Smith et al 2009).
This idea became a context for subsequent
phenomenological studies. Edmund
Husserl originally conceived of and developed the
method of phenomenological description. His
original method, called a Husserlian description,
uncovers or discloses the structures and forms of
conscious experience. A Husserlian description
typically begins by describing an actual experience
in the first person. For example, in The
Phenomenology of the Consciousness of Internal
Time Husserl describes the phenomenon of being
conscious of an individual, actual tone. This
description is "a typical example of Husserl's
descriptive... method". Another good example of
Husserl describing the structure of a conscious
experience is his description of the act of naming his
inkpot, provided in the Logical Investigations.
However, although Husserl's descriptions may begin
at this basic level, they are often considerably more
lengthy, involved and complex. For example, they
often range from descriptions of the singular and
empirical to descriptions of the essential and
universal. Husserlian descriptions often depict the
essential or invariant structures of conscious
experience. For example, immediately after he
describes the singular example of naming his inkpot
in Logical Investigations he proceeds to describe the
phenomenon of naming at the more general,
invariant and essential level.
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In the first edition of the Logical Investigations, still
under the influence of Brentano, Husserl describes
his position as "descriptive psychology." Husserl
analyzes the intentional structures of mental
acts and how they are directed at both real and ideal
objects. The first volume of the Logical
Investigations, the Prolegomena to Pure Logic,
begins with a devastating critique of psychologism,
i.e., the attempt to subsume the a priori validity of
the laws of logic under psychology. Husserl
establishes a separate field for research in logic,
philosophy, and phenomenology, independently
from the empirical sciences.
"Pre-reflective self-consciousness" is Shaun
Gallagher and Dan Zahavi's term for Husserl's
(1900/1901) idea that self-consciousness always
involves a self-appearance or self-manifestation
(German: Für-sich-selbst-erscheinens) prior to self-
reflection, and his idea that the fact that "an
appropriate train of sensations or images is
experienced, and is in this sense conscious, does not
and cannot mean that this is the object of an act of
consciousness, in the sense that a perception, a
presentation or a judgment is directed upon it"
Martin Heidegger
Husserl had been a professor at Freiberg University,
Germany for some years and had a student, later an
academic assistant, called Martin Heidegger.
Heidegger developed his own strand of the
philosophy; existential phenomenology or
hermeneutic phenomenology, which can be viewed
as a ‘follow-on’ from Husserl’s descriptive
phenomenology.
Martin Heidegger's explication of phenomenological
description is sketched out in the Introduction of his
book Being and Time, where he argues that the way
to best approach the question of the meaning of
Being is to examine the concrete ways in which
phenomena show themselves in themselves — as
they seem in consciousness. By examining the way
phenomena immediately present themselves, we can
get insight into how revealing as such occurs. For
Heidegger, truth is always revealing — aletheia.
Important to note is that Heidegger's method of
phenomenology represents a new tradition of
"hermeneutic phenomenology" as opposed to merely
descriptive, as in the Husserlian tradition. Heidegger
was of the view “that the observer could not remove
him or herself from the process of essence-
identification, that he or she existed with the
phenomena and the essences” (Sloan and Bowe, 6).
What is central to Heidegger’s view was the use of
language and the interpretation of a person’s
‘meaning-making’, their attribution of meaning to
phenomena (Sloan and Bowe 2014, 6). Heidegger
suggested that a philosopher cannot investigate
‘things in their appearing’ to identify their essences
while remaining neutral or detached from the
things. This means “that it is not possible to bracket
off the way one identifies the essence of a
phenomenon”
After Husserl and Heidegger had established their
two classic versions of phenomenology, other
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philosophers and methodologists became involved –
mainly during the second half of the twentieth
century. They added to or refined the ideas and
approaches put forward by Husserl and Heidegger.
They included Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Jean-Paul
Sartre, Ademeo Giorgi, Hans-Georg Gadamer and
Max van Manen (Langdridge 2007; Smith et al
2009).
Hans Georg Gadamer
Hans Georg Gadamer followed the works of Husserl
and Heidegger and was a student and colleague of
Heidegger’s in the mid-1920s. Working with
Heidegger, Gadamer wanted to add to hermeneutic
phenomenology and developed interpretive
phenomenological thought into a philosophy now
called Gadamerian hermeneutics.
Gadamer, through hermeneutics, concentrated on
how language reveals being, with the philosophical
stance that all understanding is phenomenological
and that understanding can only come about
through language. He saw language, understanding
and interpretation as inextricably linked
(Langdridge 2007; Rapport in Holloway 2005).
For Gadamer language is not independent of the
world: the world is represented by language and
language is only real because the world is
represented within it. Gadamer connected language
with ontology and, from the influence of Heidegger's
work, focused on a mode of being rather than the
epistemological mode of knowing that was most
prevalent in philosophy up until that time (Rapport
in Holloway 2005).
Max van Manen
More recently, Max van Manen has been developing
the hermeneutic approach of phenomenology. His
approach follows Gadamer as his philosophy is that
language reveals being within some historical and
cultural contexts, understood by participant and
researcher and through language, such as the
language of the interview (Langdridge 2007). Max
van Manen’s hermeneutic phenomenology can be
used to clarify phenomena in the fields of, for
example, pedagogy, psychology and nursing in a
practical way. He has stated that phenomenology
formatively informs, reforms, transforms, performs,
and pre-forms the relation between being and
practice (van Manen 2007). This suggests that
hermeneutic phenomenology has been evolving
from a philosophy to a methodology.
DESCRIPTIVE VERSUS HERMENEUTIC
Husserlian phenomenology and the hermeneutic
phenomenology of Heidegger and Gadamer have
some similarities. Both of these traditions emerged
from German philosophy; their creators having
worked with and influenced one another. Each of
these phenomenologists sought to uncover the life
world or human experience as it is lived. Husserl
and Heidegger were convinced that the world is
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simply one life world among many worlds, so both
called for a review of the truth of our world and
ourselves as conscious beings,
There are many differences between descriptive and
hermeneutic
phenomenologies. Hermeneutic phenomenology is
more complex than descriptive phenomenology,
with its temporality and ‘being-in-the-world’. That is
to say that time is a factor for hermeneutic (or
interpretive) phenomenology, but is not for
descriptive phenomenology, and the participants
existence and relation to the world around him or
her is also a factor for hermeneutic phenomenology.
This added complexity was an attempt, by
Heidegger, to provide more clarity about
phenomena for the philosopher or the researcher,
and to allow more practical applications of the
approach to a wider range of scenarios to which
phenomenology might be applied.
Descriptive and interpretive methodologies share
four common features, namely, description,
reduction, essences, and intentionality (Kafle 2011,
181).
The aim of phenomenology is the description of
phenomena, reduction is a process that involves
suspending or bracketing the phenomena so that
the ‘things themselves’ can be returned to. Likewise,
an essence is the core meaning of an individual’s
experience that makes it what it is. Finally,
intentionality refers to consciousness since
individuals are always conscious to something. This
means intentionality is the total meaning of the
object or the idea which is always more than what is
given in the perception of a single perspective.
In descriptive phenomenology one has the
technique of ‘bracketing off’ influences around a
phenomenon to get to the essences (Smith et al
2009). The focus of descriptive phenomenology is
the correlation of the noema of experience (the
‘what’) and the noesis (the ‘how it is experienced’).
Once ‘the things themselves’ have been identified, or
otherwise analyzed, descriptive phenomenology
considers its work done. The researcher can do what
he or she likes with the outcomes, but those actions
will be a departure from descriptive
phenomenology. In hermeneutic phenomenology
one has approaches that recommend to the
researcher to interpret the meanings found in
relation to phenomena. Often these approaches
suggest the analysis of text to find these meanings
and allow interpretation. The focus is on
understanding the meaning of experience by
searching for themes, engaging with the data
interpretively, with less emphasis on the essences
that are important to descriptive phenomenology.
Also, hermeneutic phenomenology prefers not to
formalize an analytical method so that the context
of the phenomenon itself can dictate how the data
are analyzed.
Van Manen noted that to apply the hermeneutic
phenomenology, a researcher “has to apply the skill
of reading texts, such as the text of transcripts, that
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is, the spoken accounts of personal experience.”
These spoken accounts of personal experience are
what van Manen referred to as “isolating themes.”
These isolating themes can be viewed as written
interpretations of lived experience. Using van
Manen’s (1997) words, Sloan and Bowe (2014, 3)
notes that any application of hermeneutic
phenomenology requires the examination of text, to
reflect on its content in order to discover something
‘telling’, something ‘meaningful’, something
‘thematic’. By having isolated phenomenal themes,
one can rewrite the theme while interpreting the
meaning of the phenomenon or lived experience.
Brought about by their difference in terms of their
process of interpreting and describing human
experience to understand the central nature of that
experience, descriptive phenomenology and
hermeneutic phenomenology also differ in terms of
the role of reflexivity. Reflexivity is a person’s
reflection upon or examination of a situation or
experience. It can help in interpreting the meanings
discovered, or add value to those types of
interpretations” (Langdridge 2007 in Sloan and
Bowe 2014, 11).
Reflexivity describes the process in which
researchers are conscious of and reflective about the
ways in which their questions, methods, and subject
position might impact on the data or the
psychological knowledge produced in a study
(Langdridge 2007 in Sloan and Bowe 2014, 11).
Reflexivity is often mentioned in hermeneutic
phenomenology …This is where the researcher uses
empathy or relevant prior experience as an aid to
data analysis and/or interpretation of meanings.
Reflexivity has no place in descriptive
phenomenology—it is an antithesis to the principle
of bracketing out influences on the phenomena so
that they can be seen as ‘the things themselves’
(Langdridge 2007 in Sloan and Bowe 2014,12).
Among the fields of inquiry in the social sciences, it
was the discipline of psychology that adopted
Husserl’s phenomenology. The philosophical
perspectives offered by phenomenology have been
adopted as a methodology—or a family of
methodologies, so that phenomenological
psychology can be seen as a ‘family of approaches,
which are all informed by phenomenology but with
different emphases, depending on the specific strand
of phenomenological philosophy that most informs
the methodology’ (Langdridge 2007, 4 in Sloan and
Bowe 2014, ).
To date, the influence of descriptive phenomenology
and hermeneutic phenomenology is visible within
the field of qualitative investigative methods. Some
have their antecedents in the former and some in
the latter. However, hermeneutic or interpretive
phenomenology is more prominent being listed as
one of the various qualitative methodologies of the
social sciences. It is also applied to many sorts of
qualitative studies in the human sciences (Sloan and
Bowe, 2014, 10 ).
Tan et al. (2009, 2) noted the application or use of
hermeneutic phenomenology in recent years in
various applied disciplines such as nursing, social
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work, mental health, and in the study of the
experiences of hope and of grief. Nevertheless,
hermeneutic phenomenology remains to be both a
theoretical perspective and a methodology and not a
method of research, and therefore, the challenge to
it is the clarity and accountability of its method. Like
psychoanalysis, hermeneutic phenomenology faces
the critique posed by the positivists about claims to
scientific knowledge, one that is utterly objective
and is the only type of evidence that is valid and
certain (Crotty 1998 in Tan et al., 2009, 2).
HUMAN-ENVIRONMENT SYSTEMS
Humans have the capacity to interact with its
environment. They have the capacity to change or
influence the balance of the society. Humans and
the environment have that “mutual” interaction with
each other.
Environment is a complex of many variables which
surrounds man as well as the living organisms. It
includes the living and nonliving things that an
organism interacts with, or has an effect on.
Systems may be described as a complex of
interacting components together with the
relationships among them that permit the
identification of a boundary-maintaining entity or
process.
 Human environment systems are the
interdisciplinary approaches which study the
complex interactions among human and
environment systems.
Human systems are the various institutions and
activities human created in society. These systems
include government policies, industrial waste
management, agriculture, urbanization, culture and
tradition.
Environment systems are the biological, ecological,
and living and nonliving natural systems in the
planet. These include the biodiversity of earth,
global weather systems, landscapes, and animal and
plant life, among others.
Overpopulation or overabundance is a
phenomenon in which a species' population
becomes larger than the carrying capacity of its
environment.
Deforestation or forest clearance is the removal of a
forest or stand of trees from land that is then
converted to non-forest use. Deforestation can
involve conversion of forest land to farms, ranches,
or urban use.
KEY CONCEPTS IN HUMAN ENVIRONMENT
SYSTEMS
Sense of Place refers to the development of
meaning or association with a given location. It is an
attachment to a particular environment and is
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deepened by its history, the writings about it, and
the experiences of an individual.
Mental map refers to the mental representation of
things and people of a given location. It is formed by
the memory’s identification of the physical
characteristics and features of a particular place.
Spatial Distribution refers to the distribution of
anything that exist on earth that can be mapped out
and is observable through spatial processes. It maps
out natural and physical aspects such as
temperature, weather and cities.
Spatial process refers to the distribution of
anything that exist on earth that can be mapped out
and is observable through spatial processes. It maps
out natural and physical aspects such as
temperature, weather and cities.
HUMAN-ENVIRONMENT SYSTEMS (HES)
in the social sciences is an interdisciplinary
approach in the social sciences. It bridges the gap
between, and integrate knowledge from, the social
and the natural sciences within one framework in
the study of environmental and social issues.
Human-environment system (HES) refers to “the
interaction of human systems with corresponding
environmental or technological systems” Scholz &
Binder, (n.d. 791). The HES approach conceptualizes
mutual dependence between human and
environmental systems. Scholz and Binder (n.d., 791)
describe this mutual dependence as two different
systems that exist in essential dependencies and
reciprocal endorsement.” The use of the term
human systems or”social systems ranging from
society to individuals” (Apostle 1952 in Scholz and
Binder n.d.) can be traced as far back as the time of
the ancient Greeks, while the use of the term
environmental systems began late in the early
nineteenth Century (Scholz and Binder n.d. 791).
The human-environment system, also referred to as
the “coupled human-environment system” or the
“coupled human and natural system” or CHANS
“acknowledges the fact that humans, as users,
actors, and managers are not external, but integral
elements of the human-environment system”
(Schrter D. et. al. 2004, 11). As integral parts of the
human-environment system—as users, actors, and
managers—they become duty bearers themselves
who must share the responsibility for the
sustainability of the human-environment system.
The science of CHANS builds on but moves beyond
previous work such as human ecology, ecological
anthropology, and environmental geography (Liu.
et. al., 2007).
THREE CENTRAL FEATURES OF HES Or
CHANS
First, CHANS research focuses on the patterns and
processes that link human and natural systems.
Second, CHANS research, such as integrated
assessment of climate change, emphasizes reciprocal
interactions and feedbacks—both the effects of
humans on the environment and the effects of the
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environment on humans. Third, understanding
within-scale and cross-scale interactions between
human and natural components (e.g., how large-
scale phenomena emerge from local interactions of
multiple agents and in turn influence local systems)
is a major challenge for the science of CHANS.
Although each of these three aspects has been
addressed in some studies on human-environment
interactions, the science of CHANS promotes the
integration of all these aspects (Liu J et al., 2007,
639).
Liu, J. et al. (2007) made a clear articulation of the
reason why an integration of the three aspects is
necessary. They argued that “such integration is
needed to tackle the increased complexity and to
help prevent the dreadful consequences that may
occur due to the fundamentally new and rapid
changes, because the magnitude, extent, and rate of
changes in human-natural couplings have been
unprecedented in the past several decades, and the
accelerating human impacts on natural systems may
lead to degradation and collapse of natural systems
which in turn compromise the adaptive capacity of
human systems.”
To understand and appreciate the human-
environment system (HES) approach in the social
sciences, the following discussion outlines three
areas or fields of inquiry where the HES approach is
relevant and necessary both as an analytical tool and
framework.
One is the study of the human causes of
environmental change—not only proximate causes,
such as burning coal, releasing heavy metals into
rivers, and clearing forests, that immediately change
a part of the environment—but especially indirect
causes or driving forces, such as population growth,
economic development, technological change, and
alterations in social institutions and human values,
that must be understood to forecast trends in
environmentally destructive human activity and, if
necessary, to change those trends.
A second field of inquiry concerns the effects of
environmental change on things people value—both
proximate effects, such as on growing seasons and
rainfall in agricultural areas, soil fertility,
endangered species, and so on, and indirect effects,
such as on population migrations, international
conflict, agricultural markets, and government
policies.
The third field is the study of the feedbacks between
humanity and the environment—the ways
individuals, organizations, and governments act on
the basis of experienced or anticipated
environmental change to manage human activity
and preserve environmental values. These feedbacks
provide the greatest challenge for scientists and
policy-makers, partly because there are so many
ways people can intervene in the system (Stern 1993,
1897). 

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