Exploring Social Science: Understanding Lives in Society (FY008)

This essay delves into the application of social science to understand human behavior and societal structures. It addresses the central question of how social science enhances our comprehension of individual and collective lives within society. The essay focuses on two key topics: gender and sexuality, analyzing how social divisions based on these factors impact individuals and communities. It examines concepts such as equality, discrimination, and various forms of prejudice, including biphobia, transphobia, and homophobia. The essay uses real-world examples to illustrate the negative consequences of discrimination and explores how societal perceptions and biases contribute to these issues. It also highlights the role of social science in identifying and addressing these challenges to improve overall health and quality of life. The conclusion emphasizes the importance of social science in understanding human behavior and the complexities of social division, and offers a comprehensive analysis of the subject matter.

1200 Ways of Learning
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Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................3
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7
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INTRODUCTION
A study in which people learn about society and the manner in which they behave and
influence the whole society and world is known as social science (Camerer and et.al., 2018).
This study is going to show different aspects of social science and broad topics according to
which, behaviours of people can be known. It will discuss race, ethnicity, gender and sexuality
on which basis; people in the society and the world are being discriminated. Society has being
divided on this entire basis that this study will show in a detailed manner.
MAIN BODY
In regard to social science it can be said that it is scientific study of knowing human
behavior and social relationships (Charnley and et.al., 2017). Social science is one of the best
way or study of knowing about social world as what people think, why they think so and others.
This social science can help in solving problem that general people or society members face in
improving their overall health and quality of lives. There are some topics relevant to social
science that can help in knowing about society such as:
Social division: Gender-
Before discussing social division on the basis of gender, it is important to discuss and known
about equality as well as discrimination. Equality refers the state of being equal and getting equal
and fair chance, rights and opportunities at all places.
Whereas, discrimination refers the prejudicial or unequal treatment with people of different
categories or on the group of race, gender and sex.
In regard to social division it can be said that it refers a regular pattern of divisions in society
that are associated with social group and differences. In addition, it can be said that there are
people of society members that are being discriminated on the basis of gender and others social
class. There are some differences between group of people regarding their lifestyle and
experiences (Cole, 2018).
Women are also not being providing equal opportunities in education and others as like
males (Heckert, 2018). With social science or sociology, it is also found that females have
expressive roles and males have instrumental roles. Rather than race, when people are being
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discriminated only because of their gender then it is known as gender discrimination. Nowadays.
People discriminate people, who are bisexual, gay as per their hormonal imbalance. There is no
wrong in it as it happens but due to mentality of people or societies, they are being viewed as
they are not like normal people. It also has several negative impacts on their mental health.
On the basis of gender, females or women are being discriminated in all areas such as
educational field, commercial field and others. There are some developing rural areas where
people do not allow girl child to school for education. They have psychology that females have
to do household chores after marriage and in the future so, they do not allow girls to school and
say them to stay at home only. In commercial and professional field also, they are being
discriminated as they are not being given equal pay as like male. There are some industries and
field where females are not allowed as it is believed that women do not have power as like
males. So, they are not shortlisted for promotional and others opportunities. So, these are some
examples where gender discrimination is too much and have negative impacts.
For more understanding social behaviour on the basis of gender social division, it can be
divided into different groups such as:
Biphobia: It refers a fear of only bisexual people as when people find themselves that
they love both males and females then they have fear of violence by other society members.
Bisexuality is not accepted by society members and that is why it leads discrimination. Due to
this, many people have committed suicide because people discriminate people who love both
males and females.
Transphobia: It refers fear of being hated by people only because of be transgender and
having different gender characteristic than a normal human (Panter, 2018).
Heterosexism: It is a fear in which people have assumptions that every individual in
society are heterosexual.
Sexuality
Sexuality can be defined as biological physical characteristics that determines as whether
they are female or male. As per the social science, it found that male and females are being
allotted different roles in society. There are some rural areas where, females are expected to do
household chores and males are expected to do job and earn money in order to foster their
family. Sexual oriented discrimination also has several negative impacts on people who are being
discriminated only because of this basis. Sexual oriented discrimination is the one where
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someone is being treated differently only because of his and her real as well as perceived sexual
orientation. Many people consider it as gender discrimination but there is a huge difference
between gender and sexual discrimination. Gender discrimination is the one where, females are
being discriminated only because of their gender (Wade and Harper,2020). But in sexuality
discrimination, all people are being discriminated as per the society perception or different
sexual orientation. Different sexual orientation on the basis of people is being treated as a normal
person includes: pansexual, gay, lesbian and bisexual.
Homophobia: It refers a fear of people who all identify as gay or bisexual. It includes:
emotional and physical attacks. As when people find themselves as whether they are gay, lesbian
or bisexual then they have fear of death and violence by other society members.
Such discrimination occurs only because of society perceptions. In developing countries, it is
mentality of people that loving people with same gender is not normal and only because of this
and lack of awareness, they discriminate people who are not straight or love with same gender of
people. It affects people in professional life as well as they are not being given equal and fair
opportunity related to their job role. There are some examples of sexual harassment and
discrimination such as:
People who come under above discussed categories such as gay, lesbian and bisexual are not
being promoted, not hired. It goes being yelled at for showing up late. There are numbers of
companies that have policies that explicitly discriminate against gay, lesbian and bisexual
employees. Whereas, there are some companies in developed countries where all these does not
matter and employees are being hired and promoted as per their performance and set criteria by
employers. Such discrimination comes from just a few people in the company who does not have
strong perception and knowledge regarding this. People who believes that it is all because of our
hormones, they are more likely to treat with all people in a fair manner (Slater and et.al., 2017).
But due to poor and ineffective perception regarding such sexuality, people on this basis.
Sometimes people with this sexuality have to go through from harassment in college and
workplace. Other employees crack jokes on sexuality and mock at them. It affects them
negatively and has long lasting impacts.
On the basis of above discussed different groups, it can be said that people in society are beg
discriminated on above discussed gender or sexuality basis. The main normal basis on which
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people are being discriminated is gender as females are being paid lower than males only
because of their social behavior and mentality towards gender. All these are basis of
discrimination that has been done by society members only due to their mentality or psychology.
CONCLUSION
From the above discussion, it has been concluded that social science plays a vital role in
understanding human behaviours and knowing about society and other elements. It has discussed
social division on the basis of gender and sexuality. Social science makes people able in
understanding reasons and all bases on which people are being discriminated in the society or
why they are being divide. Further, it has also shown social behaviours in regard to gender and
their behaviours lead to gender discrimination.
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REFERENCES
Books and journals
Camerer, C.F. and et.al., 2018. Evaluating the replicability of social science experiments in
Nature and Science between 2010 and 2015. Nature Human Behaviour, 2(9), pp.637-644.
Charnley, S. and et.al., 2017. Evaluating the best available social science for natural resource
management decision-making. Environmental Science & Policy, 73, pp.80-88.
Cole, S. ed., 2018. Gender equality and tourism: Beyond empowerment. CABI.
Heckert, J., 2018. Sexuality/identity/politics. In Changing anarchism. Manchester University
Press.
Panter, H., 2018. Transgender cops: The intersection of gender and sexuality expectations in
police cultures. Routledge.
Slater, M.E. and et.al., 2017. Sexual orientation-based discrimination, excessive alcohol use, and
substance use disorders among sexual minority adults. LGBT health. 4(5). pp.337-344.
Wade, R.M. and Harper, G.W., 2020. Toward a multidimensional construct of racialized sexual
discrimination (RSD): Implications for scale development. Psychology of Sexual
Orientation and Gender Diversity.
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