Basics in Social Science: A brief introduction

What is Social Science?

Social Science is not a discipline to itself but is composed of numerous sub-disciplines. Social science is commonly used as an umbrella term to refer to a plurality of fields outside of the natural sciences. These fields include: anthropology, economics, history, political science, sociology and psychology. The term may be used, however, in the specific context of referring to the original science of society established in 19th century sociology. A running definition is the scientific study of the social world. We study all things social.

SCIENCE

NATURAL SCIENCES

SOCIAL SCIENCES

BIOLOGICAL

PHYSICAL

BIOLOGICAL SCIENCE
a study of human and non-human living organism Under this area are: 1. Biology 2. Botany 3. Zoology 4. Bacteriology

PHYSICAL SCIENCES PHYSICAL SCIENCES

- examine the non living physical character of the world Under this area are: 1. Astronomy 2. Geology 3. Chemistry 4. Physics

SOCIAL SCIENCES
- deals with human relationship, social systems and societies but differ from each other in their focus Under this area are: 1. Economics 2. Political Science 3. Anthropology 4. History 5. Psychology

Natural Science/Social Science or Limitations of Social Science

Difficult to control Biasness Difficult to generalize Difficult to predict

What are the major branches of Social Science?

Psychology Economics Anthropology Political Science History Sociology

Economics
Economics is a social science that seeks to analyze and describe the production, distribution, and consumption of wealth. The word "economics" is from the Greek [oikos], "family, household, estate," and [nomos], "custom, law," and hence means "household management" or "management of the state.

What is anthropology?
Anthropology is the systematic study of humankind. More specifically, it is the study of human differences, cultural and biological, in the context of human nature. The scientific study of the origin and development of humanbeing both biological and cultural is Anthropology. Anthropologists identify and compare behavior of a particular group against the full range of human behavior. Two major goals:
Understand uniqueness and diversity Discover fundamental similarities

Political Science
Political scientists focus on politics of the State, that is, of the government. But even government policies affect our personal lives.. Political science studies power, government and politics. The study of order, rulers, and ruling has a long tradition with students as diverse as Aristotle and Machiavelli. For most of the history of human kind, political events were seen as unique.

What is Psychology?
The word psychology comes from the ancient Greek , psyche ("soul", "mind") and logy study). Psychology is the science of brain processes and behavior Psychology is the scientific study of behavior and mental processes.

Psychology?
Psychology differs from anthropology, economics, political science, and sociology in seeking to capture explanatory generalizations about the mental function and overt behaviour of individuals, while the other disciplines rely more heavily on group, field studies and historical methods for extracting descriptive generalizations

History
A discipline which studies all the events of the past with explanation. Although commonly used to refer to events which happened earlier in time, 'history' in academic study is either the study of the past or the product of our attempts to understand the past, rather than the past itself.

Relations of Sociology with other Social Sciences

Sociology shares deep ties with a wide array of other disciplines that also deal with the study of society. Sociology is the mother of all social sciences. Because briefly sociology covers the whole aspects of human social life, while the rest of social sciences confined only to a single aspect of human life. E.g. Economics is a social science which focuses only on economic life of human being but it is one of the aspects of society student by sociology, similarly political science, history etc.

Sociology and Economics.

Economics is concerned with the production and distribution of goods and services. It deals with the relationship of prices to supply and demand. Economics has a relationship with sociology as economic changes affect social life, for example the employment of women has changed the structure and functions of the family in modern life.

Sociology and Anthropology

Anthropology has a close relationship with sociology. Culture, by which we mean the system of symbols, including language and beliefs that is shared by a particular group, is the subject matter of anthropology Anthropologists tend to study primarily primitive, nonindustrial, or non-literate humanity, whereas sociologists study more advanced civilizations. The result of this difference is that anthropologists tend to study societies as wholes but usually in a particular culture area. Sociologists, by contrast usually parts of a society, they generally specialize in some institution, such as the family etc.

Sociology and Psychology. Psychology deals with mental processes such as thinking, learning, remembering and decisionmaking. Sociology and psychology are closely inter-linked with each other. It is in the area of social psychology, that psychology comes closest to sociology. Some of the social psychologists are interested in how personality and behavior are influenced by peoples social backgrounds or by the social settings in which they find themselves.

Sociology and Psychology.

In spite of the similarity and relationship, there is difference between them as well. The object of study of a psychologist is individual whereas that of a sociologist is society. As both have different objectives. Sociology studies society from the viewpoint of community elements, whereas psychology from the viewpoint of psychological factors involved.

 Political Science is the study of state. Sociology and political science are also related in the sense that they both concern the welfare of people in a society. Many years ago political science was concerned largely with how to make government more efficient. It left to political sociologists the study of political behavior, for example, the social backgrounds of politicians etc. The political system does affect the group life, for example communism, democracy and dictatorship affect group life differently. Sociology studies all aspects of society. Political science deals mainly with the government, which is under the jurisdiction of sociology.

Sociology and Political science.

Sociology and History.

Sociologists are usually more interested in the present or the recent past. History also gives us information about the development and growth of social institutions. It is due to this that historical method of study is considered one of the important methods for the study of sociology. The historians also take the help of sociologists while arriving at their conclusions. It is one of the major duties of a historian that he should study social conditions of the people. History is past sociology and sociology is present History. In-spite of the similarity both have differences as well. All that is contained in history is not the concern of sociology. A sociologist needs social history and institutions, which is just a part of the whole history.