SOCIAL SCIENCE DISCIPLINES

HISTORY, METHODS, AND AREAS OF INQUIRY

Krisha Lorraine Malojo
Leonil John Conejos
 Social Science Disciplines

OBJECTIVE:
• Compare and contrast the various Social Science
disciplines and their field, main areas of inquiry,
and method.
 Social Science Disciplines

DISCIPLINES OR BRANCHES IN THE

SOCIAL SCIENCES
Anthropology History
Demography Political Science
Economics Psychology
Geography Sociology
Linguistics
 Social Science Disciplines

ANTHROPOLOGY
• The study of ancient societies and their cultural tradititons.
• It comes from the Greek word anthropos means “humankind” and logos
which mean “study” (Bonstingl, 1996, p. 206)
• Anthropologists investigate the people’s language, their values,
technologies and even how they group themselves.
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Anthropology has two broad fields:

Physical Physical Anthropology

Cultural  biological anthropology

 studies the biological evolution of man
 provides explanations on the reasons
behind the biological variations among
contemporary human population
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Anthropology has two broad fields:

Physical
Cultural Cultural Anthropology

 investigates and seeks to understand the

cultural features of societies.
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Anthropology has two broad fields:

Physical Three (3) Subdividions

Cultural  Archaeology
 Anthropological linguistics
 Ethnology
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Anthropology has two broad fields:

Physical  Archaeology - seeks to reconstruct the past

Cultural life of ancient societies, trace the cultural

changes that took place and the reason
behind the changes.
 Anthropological Linguistics - study of
language in societies or communities where
language may or may not be written.
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Anthropology has two broad fields:

Physical  Ethnology - uses data gathered through

Cultural observations and interviews with living

people. It studies marriage customs, kinship
patterns, economic system, and religious
rites of cultural groups and compare it with
the way of life of contemporary societies.
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ECONOMICS
• The study of efficient allocation of scarce resources in order to satisfy
unlimited human needs and wants.
• It comes from the Greek words, oikos meaning “home” and nomos which
means “management”.
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Four (4) Factors of Production:

Land
Labor  Land – anything that comes from nature
and which gives life and support to all living
creatures.
Capital  Labor – refers to any human effort exerted
during the production process which
Entrepreneurship includes physical exertion, application of
skills or talent or exercise of intellectual
faculties.
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Four (4) Factors of Production:

Land
Labor  Capital – refers to anything that can be
used to create or manufacture goods and
Capital services.
 Entrepreneurship – the ability to organize
Entrepreneurship all the other factors of production in order
to carry out effectively the production
process
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Two (2) Classification of Economics:

Microeconomics  Microeconomics – study of the choices

made by economic actors such as

Macroeconomics households, companies, and individual

markets.
 Macroeconomics – examines the behavior
of entire economies.
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GEOGRAPHY
• It studies the interaction between the natural environment and
the people living in it.
• It comes from the Greek words, geo meaning “Earth”and
graphos meaning “charting or mapping”.
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Geography is divided into two main branches:

Physical  Physical Geography – studies the natural

features of the earth, like climate, water,
vegetation, and soil.

Human  Human Geography – studies human

population and the impact of its activities
on the planet.
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Eratosthenes of Cyrene
“Father of Geography”
He wrote the three-book volume Geographika.
The book is the compilation of data accumulated in the previous three
centuries about the nature of the surface of the earth, with special attention
to the inhabited portions and the people living in it.
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HISTORY
• The study of the recorded past.
• It comes from the Greek words, historia which means
“learning”.
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Two (2) Types of Historical Sources:

Primary  Primary Source – a testimony of an

Secondary
eyewitness or an account of someone who
has firsthand information on the subject.
 Secondary Source – a testimony of
someone who is not an eyewitness to the
event being narrated.
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Herodotus of Halicarnassus
He wrote the narrative book, The Histories.
It is about the Greek wars against Persia during the third decade of the fifth
century BC.
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LINGUISTICS
• The study of the nature of language through an examination of
the formal properties of natural language, grammar, and the
process of language acquisition.
• It comes from the Latin word lingua which means “language”.
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Subdivisions of Linguistics:
Phonetics
Phonology  Phonetics –the study of speech sounds. It
examines how the sounds are made and

Morphology identifies its properties.

 Phonology – the study of speech sound

Syntax pattern. It identifies what sounds are there

and the categories these speech sounds fall

Semantics
under.

Pragmatics
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Subdivisions of Linguistics:
Phonetics
Phonology  Morphology – the study of how words are
categorized or formed.
Morphology  Syntax – the study of how words are
combined to form a sentence. It categorizes
Syntax types of phrases and types of sentences.

Semantics
Pragmatics
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Subdivisions of Linguistics:
Phonetics
Phonology  Semantics – the study of meaning-making.
 Pragmatics – the study of the language
Morphology context. It is not enough that the correct
meaning of the phrase or sentence is used,
Syntax you must also know the proper way to
convey it.

Semantics
Pragmatics
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POLITICAL SCIENCE
• The study of politics, power and government.
• It comes from the Greek word politea or a person who participates in the
polis. Polis means taking part in its decision-making, which normally
takes place in the market place, where new laws are passed or
disseminated under the scrutiny of the entire community.
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POLITICAL SCIENCE
• Politics is the process of using power in the government.
• Power is the means for the government to rule the power.
• Government is the authority that provides the system of rule over its
territory and for its people.
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Aristotle
He wrote the book, Politics, a pioneer in the field of political inquiry.
It delves on the topic of government and the leaders behind it. The book
makes the connection between the happiness and virtue of the political
community to the people’s participation in politics.
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John Locke
The author of Two Treatises of Government (1698)
It discusses the concept of representative government and the people’s right
to revolution.
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PSYCHOLOGY
• The scientific study of behavior and mental processes.
• It comes from the Greek words, psyche meaning “soul” or
“spirit” and logos means “study”.
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Three (3) Major Fields of Psychology:

Clinical  Clinical Psychology – assesses and finds

Developmental treatment for people with psychological

disorder.
 Developmental Psychology – studies the
Experimental intellectual, social, emotional, and moral
development across a lifespan.
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Three (3) Major Fields of Psychology:

Clinical
Developmental  Experimental Psychology – studies the
most basic concepts of psychology like
cognition, perception, memory, and
Experimental learning.
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Wilhelm Wundt
“Father of Modern Psychology”
He is credited for being the first in the movement to make psychology a
science.
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SOCIOLOGY
• The study on how people relate to each other and how they
work as a whole in the larger society.
• It comes from the Latin word socius meaning “friend” or
“companion” and a Greek word logos which mean “study”.
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Auguste Comte
The one who coined the word sociology in 1838 to encapsulate the idea of
improving society by understanding how it operates.
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DEMOGRAPHY
• The study of human population.
• It comes from two ancient Greek words, demos meaning “people” and
graphos meaning “charting” or “mapping”.
• The main source of data are census and other vital statistics.
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Basic Demographic Concepts:

Fertility
Mortality  Fertility – is the incidents of child bearing in
a country’s population. It is measured using

Migration crude birth rate or the number of live births

for every 1, 000 people in a population.

Population Growth  Mortality – is measured using crude death

rate, or the number of deaths for every 1,
000 in a population.
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Basic Demographic Concepts:

Fertility
Mortality  Migration – the movement of people into
and out of a particular territory.

Migration  Population Growth Rate – is simply the

difference between the crude birth rate and

Population Growth the crude death rate.

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Thomas Malthus
He is the author of the article, An Essay on the Principle of Population (1798).