Social Science Foundations: Psychology, Sociology and Economics in Family Life
This domain applies psychology, sociology and economics to home and community life. Expect definition questions, theorist matching, and short cases requiring a concept rather than opinion.
Core concepts
- Psychology studies behaviour and mental processes. Learning includes classical conditioning (Pavlov), operant conditioning (Skinner) and observational learning (Bandura). Maslow's hierarchy runs physiological, safety, belonging, esteem and self-actualisation needs. Intelligence is measured by IQ and is broader than one score.
- Sociology studies groups, norms, roles, socialisation, stratification, gender and social change. Agents of socialisation include family, school, peers and media.
- Economics studies how scarce resources are allocated. Key ideas: wants, scarcity, opportunity cost, demand and supply, budget, saving, inflation, poverty and consumer behaviour.
Worked example
A family earns ₹30,000 monthly. Fixed needs are food ₹10,000, rent ₹7,000 and school fees ₹8,000, leaving ₹5,000. They want a ₹15,000 phone. Reasoning: fixed needs total ₹25,000, so the phone cannot be bought without borrowing ₹10,000. The opportunity cost of the phone is the goods, services or savings sacrificed, including interest. A budget shows the deficit and supports a saving plan; buying on credit converts a want into a future liability.
Traps
Mixing psychology's individual focus with sociology's group focus; treating correlation as causation; calling every want a need; using GDP or per capita income as a complete measure of welfare; ignoring opportunity cost in budget answers.
Exam focus
Concept definition, theorist–idea matching, socialisation agents, budget arithmetic and opportunity-cost reasoning.