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
οἶκος [oikos], "family, household, estate," and
νόμος [nomos], "custom, law," and hence
means "household management" or
"management of the state.
 What is anthropology?

• Anthropology is the systematic study of human kind.

• 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 human-
being 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 ψυχή, 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, non-
industrial, 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 decision-
making.
• 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
people’s 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.
 Sociology and Political science.
• 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 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.