MATSEC SEC Social Studies cheat sheet

Social Studies examines how people live together: it draws on sociology, geography, history, economics, politics and law to explain human behaviour in society.

Key sociological terms: socialisation (learning norms and values), norms (shared expectations of behaviour), values (beliefs about what is right or desirable), roles (behaviour expected of a status such as parent or student), and culture (the shared way of life of a group).

Primary socialisation occurs in the family in early childhood; secondary socialisation occurs later through school, peers, religion, media and workplace.

Agents of socialisation include family, school, peer group, mass media, religion and workplace; each transmits norms and values in different ways and may conflict with the others.

Formal social control is exercised by institutions such as the police, courts and schools through written rules and sanctions; informal social control works through family, friends, gossip, disapproval and public opinion.

The family is a universal institution; functions commonly identified are reproduction, protection, economic support, emotional support and socialisation. Types include nuclear, extended, single-parent, reconstituted and same-sex families.

Maltese institutional landmarks: the 1964 Independence Constitution established Malta as a sovereign state within the Commonwealth; Malta became a republic on 13 December 1974; Malta joined the European Union on 1 May 2004 and adopted the euro on 1 January 2008.

The Maltese Parliament is unicameral (the House of Representatives); general elections use the single transferable vote system of proportional representation, and the President is elected by the House for a five-year term.

Citizenship carries rights (vote, education, health care, free expression) and duties (obey the law, pay taxes, respect others' rights, jury or public service where required); rights are limited where they harm others.

Culture has material elements (tools, buildings, food, dress) and non-material elements (beliefs, values, language, customs); ethnocentrism judges other cultures by one's own standards, cultural relativism tries to understand them on their own terms.

Social stratification ranks people by class, status and power; social mobility is movement between strata (upward or downward, intergenerational or intragenerational), and poverty can be absolute (basic needs unmet) or relative (below the standard of the surrounding society).

Economic basics: scarcity forces choices; opportunity cost is the value of the next best alternative forgone; factors of production are land, labour, capital and enterprise; the public sector provides goods and services funded mainly by taxation.

Market structures range from perfect competition to monopoly; demand normally falls as price rises, supply normally rises as price rises, and price settles where the two meet.

Malta's economy is service-based, with tourism, financial services, remote gaming and manufacturing prominent; it depends heavily on imports, so it is exposed to external shocks.

Environmental issues relevant to Malta and the Mediterranean: water scarcity (Malta relies on desalination and reverse-osmosis plants), waste generation and recycling targets, traffic congestion and air quality, coastal and marine protection, and climate change impacts such as sea-level rise and heatwaves.

Sustainable development meets present needs without compromising future generations; it balances economic, social and environmental pillars, and is pursued through instruments such as the EU Green Deal, national waste-management plans and marine protected areas.

Research methods in Social Studies: questionnaires (large samples, low cost, shallow data), interviews (depth, small samples), observation (natural behaviour, observer effect), and secondary sources such as official statistics, census data and media reports.

Evaluating evidence requires checking source reliability, bias, sample size and representativeness, date and currency of the data, and whether a claim is fact, opinion or inference; correlation does not by itself prove causation.

Democracy combines free and fair elections, rule of law, protection of human rights, freedom of expression and association, and accountability of rulers; authoritarian systems concentrate power and restrict these freedoms.

Separation of powers divides legislature (makes law), executive (implements law and policy) and judiciary (interprets law and decides disputes); an independent judiciary is essential to the rule of law.

Malta's legal system is a mixed civil-law and common-law system; the Constitution is the supreme law, and ordinary legislation inconsistent with it can be declared invalid by the courts.

Human rights instruments: the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) set out civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights; the European Convention on Human Rights (1950) is enforced through the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.

The European Union: the European Commission proposes and enforces EU law, the European Parliament and the Council of the EU legislate, and the Court of Justice of the EU interprets EU law; Malta elects six Members of the European Parliament.

The United Nations, founded in 1945, promotes peace, development and human rights; Malta has served on the UN Security Council as a non-permanent member (2023-2024).

Social change is driven by technology, demography, education, economic shifts, social movements and legislation; it can be gradual (evolution) or rapid (revolution), and is studied through changes in family life, work, gender roles and migration.

Migration types include voluntary and forced (refugees, asylum seekers), internal and international; push factors drive people out (conflict, poverty, persecution) and pull factors attract them (jobs, safety, education).

Globalisation increases cross-border flows of goods, capital, people, information and culture; it brings growth and access to technology but also inequality, cultural homogenisation and pressure on local industries and environments.