The Social Sciences

Why Should I Care?

Each lessondiscipline isof organizedsocial alongscience has a templateunique personality. Whether it's a propensity for field work, or for being obsessed with thestatistics, followingsocial sections. This helps both instructors and studentsscientists have avery cleardifferent understandingways of what'sconducting presented.their Eachresearch, lesson starts with a statement of why they should care about the topic. Hopefully, this helps students and instructors focusdepending on the mostdiscipline relevantthey andbelong engaging aspects, of the material.to.

This lesson has 2 parts

• Disciplines of socialSocial scienceScience
  
• WhyScience areand socialits sciences useful?applications
  

What are the Social Sciences?

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Social

videosciences hereare scientific disciplines interested in understanding human behaviour as a cultural construct. Each discipline is different, but often times there are overlaps, so it's important to see the fundamental differences between them.

• PartDisciplines 1of Social Science

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• Part 2

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• Part 3

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WhatHere are the Socialmain sciences?social sciences, and what they focus on the most. These definitions are rather brief, and are meant to help students parse the disciplines apart.

SocialAnthropology
Derived sciencesfrom anthro, which means human, and logy, which refers to logic, this discipline is themostly study of

• Psychology: how people feel and behave individually
• Sociology: how people act and think as groups
• Political Science: how people govern themselves
• History: how people actedinterested in the past
• Geography: how people act and think over space
• Economics: how people produce goods and services
• Anthropology: how people exist as cultures and societiessocieties. Anthropologists are notorious for conducting fieldwork and becoming part of isolated communities, such as indigenous peoples. They are also interested in ancient civilizations, so they are known to work closely with archaeologists. Finally, they also use their knowledge and tools to understand modern cultures, and are often working on issues of ergonomy, which is how people use space and infrastructure around them.
  

  Economics
  Derived from ecos, and nomos, which refer to the rules of proper governance of the home, this discipline is very influential with governments and is interested in understanding the best way to use our scarce resources to produce goods and services. Economists are notorious for using mathematical modelling, and statistical analysis. They are interested in helping consumers, and producers understand markets, as well as work with governments to design taxes and regulations which can affect the economy.
  

  Geography
  Derived from geo (earth) and graphos (to write about), this discipline focuses on how people act and think over space. Geographers study the physical aspects of the earth and its atmosphere, and the social aspects such as the distribution of populations and resources, land use, and industries.

  History
  Derived from the Greek word historia, which originally meant inquiry, this discipline is focused on understand past events. Historians are notorious for their documentary research, and often insist on written sources to formalize their understanding of the past.
  

  Political Science
  Derived from Aristotle's classic work, Politiká, which meant the 'affairs of the cities', this discipline is interested in systems of governance, organization, and power. Political scientists are known for being experts in government rules and regulations, in their constitutions and the implications of democracy for society.
  

  Psychology
  Derived from the Greek psyche, which refers to the mind, spirit, and soul, this discipline is focused on how people feel and behave individually, and relative to other groups. Psychologists are notorious for their interest in relationships, and well-being.
  

  Sociology
  Derived from the Greek socius, which refers to groups, to companionship, and to associates, and logos, which refers to speech and logic. The word sociology was coined by French economist Auguste Comte in 1838 in a hope to unify all studies of humankind--including history, psychology and economics.

  • Science and its applications
    

  Why are social sciences useful?

  The goal of science is to build knowledge which helps to understand the world, but also to help solve real-life problems.

  Without a scientific approach to answering questions about why and how humans do things, we are left with casual research, journalism, religious beliefs and superstition. The problems with these are that we are often led to believe falsehoods. This duality of approaches leads to pooran understandingimportant ofdistinction howbetween thepure worldscientific works,inquiry, and poortechnological problem-solvingapplications. skills.
  

  ScienceThis mustduality leadis present in many sciences, although the natural sciences tend to truthfulseparate answers,the technological fields out of their realms more neatly. For example, those who are interested in understanding the forces of gravity, will study physics, a 'pure' science interested mostly in understanding how physical forces act in nature. Those who are interested in applying physics knowledge to building bridges, and hopefullyskyscrapers will study engineering, which is a set of technologies mostly borne out of the sciences.

  In social science, this duality is also present. For example, in psychology, those who wish to usefulstudy applications.the Same goes for social science.

  Referencesbrain and Furtherits Reading

  functions will consider themselves to conduct 'pure' scientific inquiry, in this case neuro-psychology. Those who wish to help people by applying the knowledge developed in psychology over centuries, will study clinical psychology.

  APA style references