Introduction to Social Science - Essay Example

Introduction to social science Question 1a Career development Career development may be a topic that can be interest to both a sociologist and psychologists (See 1). The sociological perspective of this looks at the social context in which individuals live. It looks at how the contexts influence the lives of the individuals. At the centre of these perspectives of how individuals are impacted by the society, they live in. According to C Wright Mills, the sociological perspective of a person enables them to get the link between history and biography. History here means that every society is in a broad stream of events. Thus, every society has specific characteristics like its concept on the right roles of women and men. Biography refers to specific experiences that give people their life orientations. Thus, Mills says that individuals do not do what they do because of internal inheritance of mechanism like instincts but external influences (Punch 211). The external experiences become part of ones motivation and thinking. Thus, it can be concluded that the sociological perspective is that people’s choice of careers is influenced by the environment that they grew up and live in. One of the psychological main assumptions is that work is one of the main activities in the life of a human being that is important in order to survive. Another one is that it naturally interacts with the different roles that individuals take in the social and economic lives. The psychology of working can be viewed as an explicitly contextualized discourse that looks to define the effect of racism, classism, heterosexist and disabling conditions related to the full range of experience. As typical career development theory plus practice has cantered on the requirements of a person who can access education also, work that is in line with their goals, interests and values, most people in the world do not have such benefits. Psychologists have looked at the influence of social class, race, sexual orientation and gender in career development (Punch 215). Question 1b Economic growth and development Economic growth and development is a topic that is of interest to the economists and the political scientists (See1). Economics defines economic growth as the increase the market value of goods and services that are produced in a given economy with time. It is usually measured as the percentage rate of growth of real Gross Domestic Product. In economics, economic growth is used to refer to the growth of potential production at full employment. This is different from economic development, which is the study of economic elements of development process in developing countries. It can be defined as the sustained, intensive efforts of policy makers and citizens that bring about good standard of living and a healthy economy in a country. Thus, it is the qualitative and quantitative changes happening in an economy. Economists acknowledge that it takes the efforts of both the citizens and the policy makers to achieve economic development. In political science, development is viewed as importantly as being determined by structure of governance in an economy. Governance is interpreted by also, shaped through the development goal. Most of the development theories in this discipline, equate development with the national economic growth and the state is viewed as its main agent. Thus, one of the core concerns is to understand and explain the state’s role in development and the kind of relationship that is between government and the market. Since these explanations show the relationship between the results of development to the degree and the type of the role of the state in development, it shows that there exists a close relationship between the theory of development and practice. However, this theory has changed with time mostly in ideology and international settings. The political scientists look at it that it is the governors that influence economic development and citizens do not play such a big role in it. 2 A The key variables that are of interest in this research are the courses offered in the undergraduate level in Singapore, the social economic status of the students’ families, academic achievement and the attitude of the students towards school. The reason for choosing these variables is because the study aims at looking at the factors that influences the choice of career of under graduate students (Henn et al. 112). The variables chosen are what will be investigated to establish if they have any effect on the choice of career. Hypothesis SIM University is said to be bringing broad-based education in business course, as well as accounting to the school, whereas the Singapore Institute of Technology has highly specialized engineering courses in rail and software. Business and engineering are already there as main programs in other universities in Singapore. Thus, it seems like there will be an oversupply of engineering and business graduates (Henn et al. 126). This research therefore, is to investigate the factors that affect the choice of career of undergraduate students in Singapore. The question of interest thus is why does business and engineering seem to be the most popular subjects? Do the students like them? What influences the students to like these courses or dislike them? Will there be an over supply of business and engineering graduates in future? B The research will apply the survey research design that will target thousands of undergraduate students spread across the country in a number of universities. The students will be chosen distributed across all year levels in all universities that offer engineering and business courses. It is estimated that a population of 3,067, with a sample size of 1,240 which is about 40 percent will be drawn, applying the stratified proportional random sampling technique to make sure that the distribution is equitable and to reduce bias. Each university will be divided into four groups of 100, 200, 300 and 400 and the sample size of 40 percent of the population will be drawn from every education level of the university. This is to make sure that there is uniformity and consistency (Punch 215). A field research will also be carried out where the parents will be interviewed. This will be done randomly in the areas around the universities. It is estimated that around 500 families will be interviewed. C The study is likely to reveal that most females preferred business programs to engineering programs, whereas most males prefer engineering course to business courses. On the marketability of the subjects most students view courses with few students to be the most marketable, with engineering having the highest number of votes than business. This is influenced by the competition for vacancies. The choice of courses is also determined by the family background. This can be shown by the fact that female students believe that business courses are for females, while engineering courses are for the males. The ability of the family to pay tuition fee also makes most students avoid expensive courses like engineering. There will be an over supply of business and engineering students in future. The total number of respondents is expected to have greater number of female students and less number of male students who take business courses. The number of male who take engineering is expected to be greater than that of females who take engineering. On the marketability of the subjects, more than 60 percent of students rated courses with few students to be the most marketable, with engineering having the highest number of votes than business. Most students prefer business course even though it is rated as not marketable compared to engineering. Most students feel that the gender of students determines their interest in a course. For example, most female students prefer business course to engineering. It is expected that Family’s ability to pay the high fees of engineering courses also determines the number of students who take engineering courses (Punch 215). Most students will rate business and engineering courses as the most courses offered in the country therefore, most of them do not have much choice. Most parents are expected to indicate that they believe that engineering courses are for the males and females should do business courses. Most parents should express the feeling that the fee charged on engineering courses is high. Work cited Henn, Matt, Mark Weinstein, and Nick Foard. A Short Introduction to Social Research. London: SAGE, 2006. Print. Punch, Keith. Introduction to Social Research. London: SAGE, 2005. Print. See, Sharon. Education landscape sees gradual shift in 2013. (2013). Web. Read More