Introduction the social sciences

1. INTRODUCING THE DISCIPLINES
WITHIN THE SOCIAL SCIENCES
Prepared by: Rennie Boy L. Lanutan, LPT

2. OBJECTIVES:
1. Define the nine disciplines of
Social Sciences: and
2. Identify the natures and functions
of each disciplines.

3. INTRODUCING THE DISCIPLINES WITHIN THE SOCIAL
SCIENCES
1. Social science tells us how society works. It provides a deeper understanding
about the world beyond our immediate experience. It tells us that everything is
interconnected, that the labor of yesterday can be the fruits of today and that
the actions of today will have an impact in the future of humanity.
2. Social sciences consist of a variety of disciplines, subject areas, and methods,
and there is no reason to expect that these disciplines will eventually add up to a
single unified theory of society. Political science, sociology, history, anthropology,
economics, geography, and area studies all provide their own, largely
independent, definitions of scope, research agenda, and research methods.
Furthermore, there is no grand plan according to which the disciplinary
definitions jointly capture all that is of scientific interest about the social.
3. Anthropology, Demography, Economics, Geography, History, Linguistics, Political
Science, Psychology, and Sociology are the nine social science disciplines.

4. Table 1: Etymologies of Social Science
Disciplines and Definitions
Social Science
Disciplines
Etymologies Definitions
Anthropology
“anthopos” (human), “logos”
(study of)
Scientific study of man or human
being and their societies in the past and
present
Demography
“demos” (people),
“graphein” (description)
Study of human population and
Dynamics
Economics
“oikanomia” (household
management)
Study of what constitutes rational
human behavior in the endeavor to
fulfill needs and wants
Geography
“geo”(Earth),
“graphein”(description)
Deals with the study of the relationship
between the earth and people

5. Linguistics “lingua”(tongue,
language)
Study of languages and focuses
on the three aspects of language
History “histoire” (recorded and
documented events)
The study of the past and its
records about events.
Political Science
“politika,” “polis” (affairs
of the cities)
Deals with the system of
Governance
Psychology
“psyche” (mind),
“logos” (study of)
Scientific study of the mind and
Behavior
Sociology
“socius” (people
together, associate),
“logos” (study of)
Study of groups - how they are
formed, how they change, and
how the group impacts
individual Behavior

6. Table 2: Functions of Social Science
Disciplines
Disciplines Function
Anthropology
Essentially to understand as many aspects of human life as can possibly be studied, to
record its findings, and contribute to both historical understanding as well as to ascertain
current states of the human condition in an attempt to better understand and/or act upon
those findings. (Fethe, 2017)
Geography
To understand basic physical systems that affect everyday
life (e.g. earth-sun relationships, water cycles, wind and ocean currents). To learn the
location of places and the physical and cultural characteristics of those places in order
tofunctionmore effectivel in our increasingly interdependent world. (Bonnett, 2008)
History
A useful for work. Its study helps create good businesspeople, professionals, and political
leaders. The number of explicit professional jobs for historians is considerable, but most
people who study history do not become professional historians. (Evans, 2001)
Sociology
Can study society with a wide variety of focuses. From studying the power elite, to the
interaction of the economy, society and the environment, to the examination of various
rights movements, Sociology examines the way different aspects of society behave and
function. (San Juan, 2011)

7. Political Science
A social study concerning the allocation and transfer of power in
decision making, the roles and systems of governance including
governments and international organizations, political behavior and
public policies. (Mortel et al. 2003)
Economics
The three most important functions of economics are as follows: Just as
feeding, digestion and growth are the vital processes of living beings;
similarly production, consumption and growth are the essentials of
economies. (Leaňo, 2012)
Linguistics
Refer to the general social uses of language, such as requesting objects
and activities, initiating social interactions, expressing personal feelings,
describing aspects of the world, requesting information, and pretending.
(Bernardez, 2013)
Demography
To know the population of a particular area; To ascertainas to
which factors are influence the population of that particular area; To
explain the factors relating to changes in population; and To study the
population trends on the basis of the above three factors.
Psychology
According to earlier psychologists, the function of psychology was to
study the nature, origin and destiny of the human soul. But soul is
something metaphysical. It cannot be seen, observed and touched and we
cannot make scientific experiments in soul. (Kendra, 2020)

8. Methods Description
Positivism Embraces human agency in history. Uses sources to provide and accurate and complete vision of the past.
Also embraces and empathetic approach towards people in the past.
Narrative - Chronology The creation of narratives of the past - analysis plays less role as the role of accidents is most important.
Biography - Hagiography
The “Great Men” method which creates chronological narratives. Often look at the agency of one
individual in history.
Dialectics - Analysis
These are created which become orthodoxies. New theses then arrive to challenge these - revisionism - and
a synthesis is produced from the old and the new. The synthesis becomes the new thesis or paradigm and
the process of clashes (dialectics) repeats.
Meta - Narrative/ Total History
Works of the Annales school are characterized by a multi - layered approach which seek to integrate long
term, midterm and short term factors in a “total history”. There is an effort to explain large amounts of
human history through the application of theory and social sciences.
Negativism
Rejects human agency in historical affairs. Rejects all sources. Rejects the possibility of empathetic
understanding of the past.
Table 3: According to Banaag, 2012 the
Methods of Creating History:

9. Table 4: According to Gans, 2020 the School
of Psychology
School of
Psychology
Proponents Description
Structuralism Wilhelm Wundt and Edward
Titchener
 Considered to be the first school of
thought in Psychology.
 This outlook focused on breaking
down mental processes into
the most basic components.
 The focus was on reducing mental
processes down into their most basic
elements.
The structuralists used techniques such
as introspection to analyze the inner
processes of the human
mind.

10. Functionalism
John Dewey, James Rowland
Angell, and Harvey Carr.
Founder: William James
 A general psychological philosophy that
considers mental life and behavior in
terms of active adaptation to the
person’s environment.
 A theory of the mind in contemporary
philosophy, developed largely as an
alternative to both the identity theory of
mind and behaviorism.
Psychoanalytic Sigmund Freud
 Studies the unconscious mind.
 This school of thought emphasized the
influence of the unconscious mind on
behavior.
 Freud believed that the human mind was
composed of three elements: the id, ego,
and superego.

11. Behaviorism John Watson and B.F. Skinner
 Focuses on observable behavior.
 Suggests that all behavior can be
explained by environmental
causes rather than by internal forces.
 Theories of learning including
classical conditioning
and operant conditioning were the
focus of a great deal of research.
 An approach to psychology that
combines elements of philosophy,
methodology, and theory.
 Psychology should concern itself
with the observable behavior of
people and animals, not with
unobservable events that take place
in their minds.

12. Cognitivism
 The school of psychology that studies
mental processes including how people
think, perceive, remember and learn.
 As part of the larger field of cognitive
science, this branch of psychology is
related to other disciplines including
neuroscience, philosophy, and
linguistics.
Gestalt Psychology
Max Wertheimer,
Wolfgang Kohler, and Kurt
Koffka
 Studies the mind and behavior as a
whole
 A school of psychology based upon the
idea that we experience things as unified
wholes.
 Means “form” or “configuration”
 The whole is other than the
sum of its parts