Discuss your understanding of essential features of the field of study known as the ?????Social Sciences?? Highlight the key basic assumptions that are the foundation for the

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What is Social Science?

Social Science is the scientific study of social, cultural, psychological, economic, spatial and political forces that guide individuals in their actions.

Social Science is the name given to a system of knowledge; all knowledge of human beings, including their natural environment, cultural and products.

Scientific Knowledge is knowledge that has been systematically gathered, classified, related and interpreted. It is concerned with learning the concepts and applying those concepts to particulars, rather than just learning a vast amount of information.

In modern times emphasis are on the search for scientific knowledge. Human knowledge has been divided into a number of areas and fields, and every science represents the systematic collection and study of data in some of these areas which can be grouped roughly into two major fields: Social Science and Natural Science

1. Social science is the field of human knowledge that deals with all aspects of the group of life of human beings.

1. Natural Science is concerned with the natural environment in which human beings exist. It includes such sciences as physics and chemistry, which deal with the laws of matter, motion, space, mass, and energy: it also includes the biological sciences, which deal with living things.

1. The third field of study is the Humanities, which deals with literature, music, art and philosophy. The Humanities are closely related to social science in that both deal with human and their culture. Social Science however, is most concerned with those basic elements of culture that determine general patterns of human behavior.

No field of study is more important to human beings than the social sciences. To understand society, is to learn not only conditions that limit our lives but also the opportunity open to us for improving the human condition.

Social Science has been broken up into several fields, such as history, anthropology, sociology, geography, economics, political science, and psychology

1. Anthropology is the study of the relationship between biological traits and socially acquired characteristics; sometimes called the study of humans. It consists of two broad fields Physical anthropology and Cultural anthropology

1. Sociology is the systematic study of relationships among people. Sociologist assumes that behavior is influenced by people’s social, political occupational and intellectual groupings and by the particular setting in which they find themselves at one time or another.

1. Geography is the study of the natural environment and how it influences social and cultural development. Some of the concerns of geography are ecology, climate, resources accessibility and demography. Mapping and spatial analysis of areal differentiation on the earth’s surface is a crucial distinguishing characteristic of geography.

1. History is the study of past events, it is a social science in the sense that it is a systematic attempt to learn about and verify past events and to relate them to one another and to the present. Every event has a historical context within which we commonly say the event must be studied. The subject matter of history is everything that has already happened. Their study of history involves: identifying, classifying, arranging and patterning

1. Economics is the study of the ways in which men and women make a living — The most pressing problem faced by most human beings. It considers the social organization through which people satisfy their wants and needs (demand) for scarce goods and services (supply). It’s subject matter is often summarized as Production, Distribution, and Consumption.

1. Political Science is the study of social arrangements to maintain peace and order within a given society and geographical location/entity. It deals with government and its interest is Politics, Laws, Administration, Theory of the nature and functions of state and international relations.

7. Psychology is the study that deals with the mind and personality of the individual; it is a social science because humans are social creatures. It focuses on the individual and physical processes such as: Biological structure and Development and maturation

Cognitive Science: The Study of how the mind identifies problems, and how the mind solves those problems.

Scientific Method: A set of rules, how to establish rules that Social Scientists utilize.

Experimental Method: A method of separating out causal factors. It consists of running an experiment many times with only one variant. If the result of the experiment is different (or the same), that one variant is most likely the cause. (Note that this is still a probabilistic assessment because human CHOICE may be involved with no single/uniform response pattern can be predicted).

Paradigm: As a scientific theory and the core of belief that surround it. According to Kuhn, when a new idea emerges up to challenge the status-quo or previous orthodoxies, it can lead to a “paradigm shift”. Paradigm shifts are often “messy” process and sometimes persist for a long time. For example, Copernicus and his associates around 1540 AD, challenged the notion that the Earth is the center of the Universe as taught by the Church. His new paradigm was that the Earth revolves around the Sun, hence the Sun is the center of the universe. This led to significant societal turmoil as the paradigm was changed over a long period of time.

Research Program: Group of Scientists working on a particular problem

Social Scientist’s Research: Social Scientists must observe, classify, and analyze their facts, make generalizations and attempt to develop and test hypotheses to explain their generalization. It is difficult to have exact laws that govern social life. Human behavior is hard to predict.

Scientific Method

1. Social science begins with “observation” of the way people (humans/society) look at the real world (or even their imaginations/perceptions of the world—i.e. their ‘worldview’)

1. Defining the problem “Topic” or subject matter

1. Review the Literature “Relevant literature” what has been covered in prior studies

1. Observing some more. After you have defined your problem and reviewed the literature, your observation will be sharper.

1. Developing a theoretical framework and formulating a hypothesis, which is to prove your point

1. Choosing a research design

1. Pick a means of gathering data – a survey, an experiment, an observational study.

1. Analyzing the results

1. When all the data are received, classify facts, identify trends, recognize relationships, and tabulate the information so that it can be accurately analyzed and interpreted.

1. Drawing conclusions

1. Now you can prepare a report, summarizing the steps you’ve followed and discussing what you’ve found.

1. We must recognize that there could Alternative Approaches: The approach one takes when analyzing a problem reflects one’s worldview- the lens through which one see the world. Worldview is a function of background, culture, education, etc …

Four approaches that Social Scientist uses are:

1. The functionalist theory approach. The interconnectedness of social life and the difficulty of affecting only one part of society with a policy.

1. The exchange theory approach. This approach emphasizes the voluntary exchanges of individuals as reflecting individual’s choices. E.g.: What do societies value the most? Harmony, Love, war/peace, education, food, music, etc.

1. The conflict theory approach. The tension that exists in society between competing groups or classes.

1. The symbolic interaction theory approach. Followers of this approach see reality as reflecting less what people do and more what they think and feel. Their motives and perception rather than actions are emphasized.

Alternative Methods

In addition to using different approaches, social scientists also use different methods. These include the historical method, the case method and the comparative and cross-cultural methods.

1. The historical method. Tracing the principal past developments that seem to have been directly significant in bringing about a social situation such as collecting birth and marriage certificates and classifying those data.

1. The case method. The case study method can involve making a detailed examination and analysis of a particular issue or problem situation. It can be an individual, town or countries.

1. The comparative and cross-cultural methods. This method was initiated in the hope of discovering evolutionary sequences in the development of human institutions- that is patterns of social development or progress that would be universal.

1. The cross-cultural method. This method consists of making detailed studies of the cultural patterns of a number of societies for the purpose of comparing the different ways in which their people meet similar needs.

Educated common sense: Rational thought, based on observation and the best information available.

Correlation: It is the relationship between two sets of data.

Statistics: Information in numerical form that has been assembled and classified.

Survey: A method whereby data is collected from individuals or institutions by means of questionnaires or interviews.

Interdisciplinary approach: Means that a group of social scientists with different specialties will work together on certain problems, not all of whose aspects any one of the group fully understands, and they thereby learn from each other.

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