1_The _Science_ and_the _Social_ Behind_the_Study_of_Society (1).ppt

Grade11/12 Social Science

1. The “Science” The “Science”
and the “Social” and the “Social”
Behind the Behind the
Study of SocietyStudy of Society

2. •To define Social Science as the
study of society and explain
what consists Social Science
Learning Objective

3. Understand the meaning of Social
Science as the study of society and what
consists Social Science and appreciate
their differences and collective objectives
Key Understanding
 What is Social Science and its
disciplines?
Key Question

4. •Social Science is a body of knowledge characterized by an
objective to understand what society is and what does it do to
people living inside it.
•This is a group of rather independent disciplines—with its own
respective philosophies, intellectual histories, and research
methodologies—but are fundamentally bound together because
they deal after all with the same entity that is called “society.”
•Hence, the word “social” situates the whole discipline in people
and their social contexts. Whenever there are people and matters
or issues that affect them, social science comes to the fore.
What is Social Science?

5. •Another point that is equally important is that social science deals
with people, with the idea of being “human
•Traditionally, social science disciplines most associated with
humanities are the following: history, anthropology (including
archaeology), and linguistics because they all deal with the human
past and touch on the meaning of being human, which makes the
whole exercise border abstraction and subjectivity.
•Traditionally, too, social science subject areas that are most
associated with empirical research and aims are the following:
economics, sociology, psychology, political science, and
demography.
What is Social Science?

6. Fundamental Concepts What does Social Science emphasize?
Individual Social actors, and active, mindful, and
conscious decision makers
Nature Environment; social structures that
provide the physical and biological as
well as the social context of collective
action or social phenomena
Culture Shared and collective actions, ideas, and
values that are demonstrated, exhibited,
produced, and reproduced by a particular
group of people and communicated
through symbols including language
Fundamental Concepts of Social
Science Theories

7. Fundamental Concepts What does Social Science emphasize?
Social Structure Patterns of behavior and interaction, which
have been institutionalized over time; result
of human interaction with one another and
with the “social world” and “natural world”
Action Decisions, activities, and interactions made
by human beings in the context of their
particular social world and conditioned by
their collective consciousness
Fundamental Concepts of Social
Science Theories

8. •Social science disciplines pose different questions but they
actually observe a common social phenomenon—everyday life
events and activities that involve people and affect people living
together in a particular society.
•Since there are two elements constituting social science, one is
society (hence, social) and the other is empirical analysis
(hence, science)
•The study and understanding of social phenomena presuppose or
require an assumption that there is a reality out there that must be
understood.
Social Science Disciplines

9. •Anthropology deals with the nature of human beings, both
from a biological and cultural point of view. For anthropologists,
culture is a key factor that shapes human nature and that this
culture is conditioned by both natural and social environments.
•Sociology, a close relative of anthropology, deals with how
people behave and interact with one another as a member of a
particular social group. It focuses on structures that underlie
society itself and theorizes about the processes in which people
are socialized in the world in which they live.
Social Science Disciplines

10. •Demography deals with population as a unit of analysis.
Demographic processes such as birth migration and aging are
investigated because they impact on how society changes across a
period of time.
•Economics, thought at times separated from the other social
sciences due to its emphasis on quantitative analysis and
mathematical equations as representations of social behavior,
focuses on markets, wealth, and resources that people construct
and make use of in order to live. Given the limited resources,
economists study how these resources are allocated among the
people and how they affect the material condition of society.
Social Science Disciplines

11. •Geography, on one hand, insists that it is the environment or the
location of the people—a condition that exists outside of people—
that ultimately conditions the way people will behave in society.
The proximity to certain geographic locations determines the kind
of society that will be formed or created over a period of time.
•Psychology pushes the discussion further by asserting that
what is going on within the individual mind or the psyche—one’s
feelings, joys, fears, worries, triumphs, and struggles—does shape
the way he/she views society and thus impacts on his/her
relationship with people and the environment.
Social Science Disciplines

12. •History interprets that the past is part and parcel of the
present as events that happened in the past shape the way
people make their decisions in the present.
•Language, a product of human race’s biological and
cultural heritage, is an invention by people yet they
themselves are shaped by it.
•Political science believes that it is politics or the
political realm that captures human life.
Social Science Disciplines

13. •Social science, for all intents and purposes, is as much a
collective and coherent framework of social inquiry as it is
a diverse field of intellectual study. We only have to
appreciate its value as a potent tool of both understanding
and transforming human condition in this world.
•Social science is interested in telling us what it means to
be human.