Introduction to social science – subfields of social sciences
Student Name:
Professor Name:
University:
Introduction to social science – subfields of social sciences
The academic discipline dedicated to the examination of the society is referred as Social Science. It is one of the branches of science and the focus of the discipline is on development of people, culture and the society as a whole. The ways in which society operates needs a scientific inquiry. A society is fully functional when its political and economic components are working in sync. From government policies to strategies used by corporations, the field of social science covers every detail. The field can be separated from natural science because natural science is about the study of the laws of nature and therefore, it mainly includes subjects such as chemistry, physics or biology. Contrarily, social science deals with the existing connection between societies and individuals. It does not consider the physical world like natural science. Moreover, the field is completely reliant on interpretation as well as qualitative and quantitative research methods (Sayer, 1992).
The major subfields of social sciences are Anthropology, Political Science, Social Psychology, Economics and Sociology (Dogan, 1996). Interestingly, History is often regarded as part of this field; however, the historians claim that the subject is closely related to humanities. However, both humanities and social science deals with human beings. However, social sciences are regarded as “more scientific” than humanities. Social sciences do not rely on the philosophical approach. Few of the sub-fields has been briefly introduced-
- Anthropology- It is a holistic science and it involves the study of primates and early hominids along with the study of human culture, language and archaeological remains.
- Political Science-It is a branch of social science that deals with government or political systems along with the analysis of political behaviour.
- Social Psychology- The subject is mainly concerned with human interactions and is regarded as one of the branches of psychology as well. The origins as well as the impact of social interactions are explored as well.
- Economics- The subject is considered as a part of social science because it utilizes scientific methodologies in order to establish theories which help learners to understand behavioural patterns of groups and organizations.
- Sociology- The most significant branch of social science because it uses scientific techniques for studying only the human aspect of all societies.
References
Dogan, M. (1996). The hybridization of social science knowledge.
Sayer, R. A. (1992). Method in social science: A realist approach. Psychology Press.