Other Sciences of Behavior and How They Relate to Sociology

The Province of Sociology:Human Social Behavior

Human social behavior

Special Subsets of Human Social Behavior

Subsistence and exchange

Human social behavior

Group decision making

Academic Disciplines and Human Social Behavior

Subsistence and exchange

Sociology -Human social behavior

Group decision making

Political Science Economics

Political Science

• Political science: the science that studies the distribution and use of power– Social power, of course, not electricity

• Political scientists are not as interested in person-to-person power as in larger scale power, particularly governments

Economics

• Economics: the science that studies the distribution of scarce resources

• Only seems to be the study of money– Money is fabulous invention now pre-eminent in

how we distribute resources– Money also easy to do arithmetic and hairier math

with• Some see modern economics as branch of applied

mathematics

Political Economy

• Political science and economics overlap somewhat– Note for instance attempts by politicians and

government office holders to develop programs to affect the economy

• Area of overlap is called political economy

Human Behavior in General

Subsistence and exchange

Sociology - Human social behavior

Group decision making

Political Science Economics

Human behavior

Human Behavior Disciplines

Sociology -Human social behavior

Political Science Economics

PSYCHOLOGY - Human behavior

Political economy

Psychology

• The science of the mind– Mind of the individual, not some collective

• Backman definition: the science of human behavior– In practice psychologists leave more complex

social behavior to other social scientists

Branches of Psychology

• BIOPSYCHOLOGY -- biological processes affecting the mind

• LEARNING / COGNITION -- learning and thinking• PERSONALITY and SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY -- effects of

society on the individual; group process– Similar to microsociology

• DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY – psychological changes throughout the life span

• CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY – mental illness and its treatment

Human Behavior Disciplines

Sociology -Human social behavior

Political Science Economics

PSYCHOLOGY - Human behaviorANTHROPOLOGY – Human bhr

Political economy

Anthropology

• The science of humankind– Used to be the “Science of Man”

• Concerned with all human behavior– In practice, in comparison with psychology more

concerned with large scale social behavior

Branches of Anthropology

• Biological Anthropology (Physical Anthropology)– Study of structure and evolution of human body

• Cultural Anthropology (Social Anthropology)– Study of human societies and social organization

• Linguistics– Study of language, languages, language groups

• Archeology (aka Archaeology)– Study of human societies on basis of physical residues they

leave behind

Cultural Anthropology and Sociology

• Anthropology tends to be more holistic– Sociologists tend to be more willing to look at a small part

of society; anthropologists want to see how it all hangs together

• Anthropologists tend to study smaller groups– It is difficult to get a holistic view of large complex

societies like the United States

• Anthropologists less likely to generalize from N of 1– Sociologists tend to know a lot about one society;

anthropologists know about many societies

N of 1 and Critical Thinking (1)

• “N” or sometimes “n” refers to the number of observations a scientist made– In a survey, the number who completed it– In medical research, n of people/animals studied

• Old phrase: “One mouse equals no mouse” means conclusions drawn from studying one mouse are no better than conclusions based on studying no mice at all

• Drawing conclusions from an N of 1 is over-generalization, bad logic

N of 1 and Critical Thinking (2)

• If 1 observation is not enough for a reliable generalization, how many observations do you need?– A serious issue for statisticians– For statisticians answer depends on …

• How reliable you want to be• How different the observations are from each other

– If we are talking about societies, there is a great deal of variability

Sciences of Human Behavior: Review

• Sociology• Economics• Political science• Political economy• Psychology• Anthropology and its branches• N of 1

Animal Behavior

• Humans are animals• Humans do many of the same things animals

lacking our magnificence () do– Eat– Drink– Procreate– Use the kitty box

Animal Behavior Disciplines

Sociology -Human social behavior

Political Science Economics

Psych, Anthro - Human behavior

Political economy

BIOLOGY - Animal Behavior

Biology

• Humans are critters … so what?– Male – female seems biological– Hormones – biological– Brains for thinking – seems biological– Sociability – maybe biological– Capacity for language – biological

• Ergo [therefore] biology should be important for sociology

Sociobiology

• Sociobiology: the science concerned with the biological bases of social behavior– Also called behavioral genetics

• Sociobiologists are sometimes accused of being biological or genetic determinists: Biology is destiny!

• Sociologists were largely indifferent or hostile– Twin studies helped change

Why Sociologists Have Ignored Biology

• It is hard enough to learn sociology• Wide range of responses people have made to

human biology– If biology were destiny, all societies would be alike

• Assuming all Homo sapiens are basically alike• Implicit assumption all environments alike or irrelevant

– Societies are not all alike• Roles of men and women, in particular, are not alike

Sex, Gender, and Biology

• Gender is a social construction– Different societies define gender roles differently– Different societies recognize different sexes

• A variety of unusual conditions in utero or in the genes can lead to babies that do not have the typical external genitalia

– There can be more than two possible combinations of X and Y chromosomes

– Intersexes

Compare Sex and Gender

1. Sex refers to biological differences between males and females

2. Gender refers to social or cultural differences between males and females

3. They are alike because both are concerned with male/female differences

4. They differ in the source of the differences: sex comes from biology, gender from society

Biology: Hormones

• Chemical messengers• Q: do they affect human social behavior?

– Menstrual cramps

• Sex hormones are of great interest– Estrogen – important female hormone– Testosterone especially studied (male hormone)

• Hard to tell cause from effect

Testosterone

• Vietnam vets study• Results: High testosterone goes with

– Lower marriage rates– Higher divorce rates– Lower educational attainment– More spouse abuse– More legal problems– More drug use (including alcohol)

Evolution vs Physiology

• Hormone action is about physiology – how the body does what it does– Some sociobiology has a physiological focus

• Comparisons of human and chimpanzee behavior typically have evolutionary focus– How did this behavior evolve?– Sometimes explanations sound like Just So stories

History (as a Social Science)

• History interprets the past– Sociologists often, too

• Historians tend to want to understand the details of a particular story

• Sociologists: how are general laws of behavior reflected in particular stories?

Idiographic vs Nomothetic

• Historians tend to be more idiographic– Interested in specifics of a specific case

• Sociologists more nomothetic– Interested in general laws

• “Cases” historians study today not simply wars, politics, nations– Now social phenomena like lives of peasants, male

female relationships, etc

Boundaries Between Disciplines Are Porous

• To answer a discipline’s questions often involves consideration of other disciplines’ special knowledge

• Examples– Biology of the brain– Development of the self– Interaction process– Language– Power– Consumption

Disciplines and SOCY1000

• Course topic is Human Social Behavior– We steal ideas wherever we find them– Mostly steal from sociology

• Human social behavior is domain of sociology• Sociology is what I know best• In practice stealing from sociology is like stealing from

other disciplines since sociologists do it all the time

Review: Animal Behavior; History

• Sociobiology• Sex• Gender• Estrogen• Testosterone• Idiographic• Nomothetic