Major Social Science Ideas

1. ACTIVITY:
“PICTURE
ANALYSIS”

2. Analyze and describe each picture:
1. What can you say about the pictures?
2. How can you relate these pictures to your daily life?
3. How do you make a choice?
4. What are the factors that influenced you to make a decision?
5. What are the consequences after making that decision?

3. RATIONAL CHOICE THEORY

4. RATIONAL CHOICE THEORY
• also called as rational action theory or choice theory, states that
individuals use rational calculations to make rational choices and
achieve outcomes that are aligned with their own personal
objectives.
• is an approach that could be used by social scientists to
understand human behavior, because this theory explains that
human action and behavior are products of choice.

5. • Individuals rationalize their situations
by processing between the most
beneficial choice and the lesser
individual cost.
• In this theory, cost –benefit analysis is
always performed in every given
situation and is considered an
instinctual response to every human.

6. • Cost is something disadvantageous to or what is
lost by an individual.
• Benefit is what should be gained or
advantageous to the individual after making the
choice.

7. Here are some questions commonly asked during cost
–benefit analysis:
Will this benefit me?
How will this benefit me?
How far I’m going to negotiate?
What will I have to sacrifice?
How much will it cost?

8. For example, Sebastian has two classmates whom he wants to be friends
with: Ethan, a social outcast but has the newest action game, and
Alyster, the most popular in the class but does not like to play action
games.
• Sebastian’s first level of cost –benefit analysis is choosing between
having the chance to play the newest game or not.
• His second level of cost-benefit analysis is choosing whether he would
like to be associated with social outcast or with the most popular
student in class.
• The rational choice for Sebastian would then be dependent on which
is more important to him- to play the game or to be associated with
the popular crowd.

9. The key elements of all rational choice explanations are
individual preferences, beliefs, and constraints.
• Preferences denote the positive or negative evaluations
individuals attach to the possible outcomes of their actions.
• Beliefs refer to perceived cause-effect relations, including
perceived likelihood with which an individual’s actions will
result in different possible outcomes.
• Constraints define the limits to the set of feasible actions.

10. ASSUMPTIONS OF THE RATIONAL CHOICE THEORY
According to Peter Abell (2000), there are a few assumptions made by rational choice
theorists.
1. Individualism – it is the individuals who ultimately take actions.
Individuals, as actors in the society and everywhere they go, behave and
act always as rational beings, self-calculating, self-interested and self-
maximizing. These individual social actions are the ultimate source of
larger social outcomes.

11. 2. Optimality
• Individuals choose their actions optimally, given their individual
preferences as well as the opportunities or constraints with which
they are faced with.
• Abell defines optimality as taking place when no other course of
social action would be preferred by the individual over the course of
action the individual has chosen. This does not mean that the course
of action that the actor adopts is the best in terms of some
objective, and outside judgment. The rational choice theory,
therefore, assumes that individuals “do the best they can, given their
circumstances as they see them”.

12. 3. Structures
• Abell argues that structures and norms that dictate a single course of action
are merely special cases of rational choice theory. In other words, the range of
choices in other circumstances differ from choices in a strong structural
circumstance, where there may be only one choice.
• Although these structures may be damaging to the rational choice model,
individuals will often find a way to exercise action optimally, hence the
rational choice model may not necessarily show harmony, consensus, or
equality in courses of action.
• Again, structures, as we know them, may not be optimal from the viewpoint
of an individual with few resources, however, the rational choice approach will
attempt to explain how this situation emerges and is maintained through
rational choices.

13. 4. Self-regarding Interest
• This assumption states that the actions of the individual
are concerned entirely with his or her own welfare.
• Abell (2000) noted that in as much as this is a key
assumption in the rational choice approach, is not as
essential to the approach as the assumption on
optimality.

14. 5. Rationality
• This appears to be the most predominant assumption of the
rational choice theory.
• All individuals, according to this assumption, act in ways that
would benefit them more; every individual is most likely to
undertake courses of actions that they perceive to be the best
possible option and one that would immensely be to their own
advantage.

15. KEY CONCEPTS IN RATIONAL CHOICE THEORY
Social consequences of Scarcity-based Decision
• Human beings have unlimited wants but only limited resources.
• Scarcity of resources and the requirements of human’s unending ambitions force
us to make a choice.
• The most essential rational choice is to conserve the limited resources and share
these with each other. However, in every choice we make, opportunity cost exist.
The decision to make such choices depends upon our mind-set, especially those
individuals who only seek self-interest and what benefits them most

16. IMPORTANT THEORISTS
William Stanley Jevons (1835–1882)
• He was an English economist who applied the principles of rational choice theory in political
economy.
• Jevons was one of the first to advance the theory of marginal utility(value), which sought
application in determining and understanding consumer’s behaviour.
• This theory states that the utility (value) of something decreases as more of it is consumed. The
theory held that the utility (value) of each additional unit of a commodity—the marginal utility—
is less and less to the consumer.
• When you are thirsty, for example, you get great utility from a glass of water. Once your thirst is
quenched, the second and third glasses are less and less appealing. Feeling waterlogged, you will
eventually refuse water altogether. “Value,” said Jevons, “depends entirely upon utility.”

17. GARY BECKER (1930–2014)
• He was an American economist who expanded the study of economics to the
realm of sociology and other social sciences. Suggesting that human behaviour is
subject to economic analysis.
• Becker argued that individuals act to minimize their own welfare, thereby taking
the scope of economics beyond mere calculation of financial gains.
• Becker ascribes to the principle that humans behave according to their
“perceived values and preferences”. “True Rational Choice” is having a clear
understanding not only of the situation and the given choices, but also of the
factors that are imposed by the individual actors in decision making.

18. CRITICISMS AND LIMITATIONS
Rational choice theory is heavily criticized for its neglect of
ethical and moral standards. The main philosophy of rational
choice theory is the acquisition of personal interest, power and
wealth. It is not strict with the method and the product of
decision making: rather, it analyses the outcome and the
preferences based on what is optimal and ultimately beneficial
for individual actor.

19. ASSESSMENT
A. Identify the following:
1. This theory explains that human action and behavior are
products of choice.
2. He was an English Economist who applied the principles of
rational choice theory in Political Economy.
3. This assumption states that the actions of the individual are
concerned entirely with his or her own welfare.

20. 4. According to him, True Rational Choice “is having a clear
understanding not only of the situation and the given
choices, but also of the factors that are imposed by the
individual actors in decision making.
5. He defines optimality as taking place when no other
course of social action would be preferred by the individual
over the course of action the individual has chosen.

21. B. Modified True or False. Write True if the statement is correct and
False if the statement is incorrect and supply the correct answer.
6. The key elements of all rational choice
explanations are individual preferences, beliefs,
and constraints.
7. Preferences play an insignificant role in
decision making.
8. Rational Choice Theory is also called as
Rational Action Theory or Choice Theory.

22. 9. Rational Choice Theory states that
individuals use irrational calculations to make
rational choices and achieve outcomes that
are aligned with their own personal
objectives.
10. Cost is what should be gained or
advantageous to the individual after making
the choice.