Disciplines and Ideas in the Social Sciences

Governor Pack Road, Baguio City, Philippines 2600

Tel. Nos.: (+6374) 442-3316, 442-8220; 444-2786;
442-2564; 442-8219; 442-8256; Fax No.: 442-6268 Name:
Email: [email protected]; Website: www.uc-bcf.edu.ph

S.Y. 2020-2021 Third Trimester Grade Level/Section: HUMSS 11

MODULE 1 – Soc Sci 11 Subject Teacher: KIMBERSON P. ALACYANG

EMERGENCE OF THE SOCIAL SCIENCES: DEFINING THE SOCIAL

SCIENCES AS THE STUDY OF SOCIETY
I. LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
Through discussion, the learners are able to:
A. define Social Sciences as the study of society;
B. distinguish Social and Natural Sciences and Humanities;
C. understand the role Social Sciences has in making meanings about the world; and
D. complete the task at the end of the module

II. DISCUSSION
the desire to understand and predict human behavior is at least as old as the desire to
understand natural phenomena (Rosenberg, 2008)
A. DEFINING SOCIAL SCIENCES
• each discipline that can be considered a social science has developed rather
independently. Thus the history of the social sciences has generally been divided
according to discipline (Backhouse & Fontaine, 2010).
• the scientific study of society is a remarkably new enterprise (Kagan, 2009 & Eller, 2017)
1. The Social Science
The term "social science" did not appear until the nineteenth century, when the social
sciences began to be recognized as distinct disciplines
a. Social Science is the study of human behavior by scientific methods (Gordon,
1991)
b. Social science is, in its broadest sense, the study of society and the manner in
which people behave and influence the world around us (Economic and Social
Research Council, n.d.).
2. The Social Sciences
a. New World Encyclopedia (2020) defined social sciences as a group of academic
disciplines that study human aspects of the world, in particular those involving
social behavior and society.
b. According to SSRN (2016), Social Sciences are those disciplines that study the
following:
i. institutions and functioning of human society and the interpersonal
relationships of individuals as members of society;
ii. a particular phase or aspect of human society.
c. Social Sciences include social and behavioral sciences and encompass areas
such as sociology, economics, law, political science, anthropology, archeology,
history, psychology, geography, business, decision sciences, criminal justice,
administration, military science, naval science, library science, ethnic, gender,
and culture studies, information science, interdisciplinary application studies,
research methodology social sciences, etc.
d. The study of social science is more than the study of the individual social sciences,
you must also know how they interrelate (Eller, 2017)

B. THE THREE CULTURES

Remember, Huntington (1928) stated that the thing which gives a science its distinctive mark as
a science is not the field of facts treated, but the aim, the course of reasoning, the purpose for
which the facts are treated, the point of view as determined by the central problem under
investigation.

1. Social Science
as presented above

This module is an intellectual property of the University of the Cordilleras Senior High School. Unauthorized reproduction, modification, distribution, display or
transmission in any form, medium and manner of any of the contents of the modules (digital or printed) for whatever purpose is strictly prohibited.
 Disciplines and Ideas in the Social Sciences
Governor Pack Road, Baguio City, Philippines 2600
Tel. Nos.: (+6374) 442-3316, 442-8220; 444-2786;
442-2564; 442-8219; 442-8256; Fax No.: 442-6268 Name:
Email: [email protected]; Website: www.uc-bcf.edu.ph

S.Y. 2020-2021 Third Trimester Grade Level/Section: HUMSS 11

MODULE 1 – Soc Sci 11 Subject Teacher: KIMBERSON P. ALACYANG

2. Natural science
✓ concerned with the natural environment in which human beings exist and Natural
scientists emphasize material processes and the relations between a concept and a
set of observations (Kagan, 2009 & Eller, 2017).
✓ Natural science has provided increasingly reliable knowledge about the physical
world since the seventeenth century (Rosenberg, 2008)
3. Humanities
✓ deal with special aspects of human culture and are primarily concerned with our
attempts to express spiritual and esthetic values and to discover the meaning of life
(Eller, 2017).
✓ The primary interest of humanists is neither to predict nor to explain, but to understand
human reactions to events and meanings that humans impose on experience as a
function of culture, historical era, and life history (Lowatcharin, 2016)
✓ Humanities provide divergent perspectives on the human condition and create
objects of beauty. They also remind society of its contradictions, articulate salient
emotional states, detect changing cultural premises, confront their culture’s deepest
moral dilemmas (Lowatcharin, 2016)

Table 1 presents the differences and similarities of the three in terms of the presented dimensions.
DIMENSIONS NATURAL SCIENCES SOCIAL SCIENCES HUMANITIES
Type of Research Employs the Scientific Method
Historical, Interpretive,
and Methods of
Empirical and analytical
Inquiry
Research Design Quantitative Qualitative
Have much larger There is no consensus on the question that each of
body of well- them is to address, nor on the methods to be
Availability of
established successful employed. Philosophical theories become the
methods
answers to questions source of guidance for research.
(Rosenberg, 2008)
and well- established
methods for inquiries
As spectators of the The social scientist is not just a spectator of the social
phenomena they seek domain, but a participant, an agent, a player in the
Perspective
to discover. human domain.

• Prediction and • Prediction and An understanding of

explanation of all explanation of human human reactions to
natural phenomena behaviors and events and the
psychological states meanings humans
• Theories in natural impose on experience
Primary interests
science cannot • Theories in social as a function of culture,
(Rosenberg, 2008 &
change the nature science can and often historical era, and life
Kagan, 2009)
of the reality that do. As participants in history
the physicist or social life learn about
chemist or biologist these theories, their
studies actions may change
in light of them.
Primary sources of Experimentally Behaviors, verbal Written texts and human
evidence and controlled statements, and less behaviors gathered
control of observations of often biological under conditions of
conditions material entities measures, gathered minimal control
(Rosenberg, 2008) under conditions in which

This module is an intellectual property of the University of the Cordilleras Senior High School. Unauthorized reproduction, modification, distribution, display or
transmission in any form, medium and manner of any of the contents of the modules (digital or printed) for whatever purpose is strictly prohibited.
 Disciplines and Ideas in the Social Sciences
Governor Pack Road, Baguio City, Philippines 2600
Tel. Nos.: (+6374) 442-3316, 442-8220; 444-2786;
442-2564; 442-8219; 442-8256; Fax No.: 442-6268 Name:
Email: [email protected]; Website: www.uc-bcf.edu.ph

S.Y. 2020-2021 Third Trimester Grade Level/Section: HUMSS 11

MODULE 1 – Soc Sci 11 Subject Teacher: KIMBERSON P. ALACYANG

the contexts cannot

always be controlled

However, the meanings of the concepts used by the three groups deserve
special attention because the communities use different sources of evidence.
Semantic and Constructs referring to Concepts referring to
Mathematical psychological features, human behavior, and
concepts whose states, and behaviors of the events that provoke
referents are the individuals or groups, with them with serious
Primary
material entities of an acceptance of the contextual restrictions
vocabulary
physics, chemistry, and constraints that the on inferences
(Rosenberg, 2008)
biology, and assumed context of observation
to transcend particular imposes on generality
settings

THINK ABOUT IT!

How would we understand the phenomenon of human action/behavior should Social Sciences
not emerged?
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III. ACTIVITY
Try This!
A. What are some of the professions you might want to pursue in the future? List down the career
opportunities that you might want to take in the academe. Provide ten (10).
B. Try scanning articles from a news paper or articles in any social media platform. Identify ten (10)
social issues that you have read.
Processing Questions:
1. Have you listed some professions that you think belong to the academe? Do you think they belong
to the Social Sciences? Identify courses in your list that belongs to the Social Sciences.
2. Can you Identify which professions can actually address the particular social issues you listed. How
important is it to solve these problems in our society?

Rubric for scoring each item:

Content Includes the flow of thought and (3)(1)

organization of ideas
Technicalities Includes grammar and proper punctuations (2)(1)

IV. ADDITIONAL REFERENCE:

Huntington, C. (1928). Geography as a Social Science. Social Science, 262-265.

V. REFERENCES:

This module is an intellectual property of the University of the Cordilleras Senior High School. Unauthorized reproduction, modification, distribution, display or
transmission in any form, medium and manner of any of the contents of the modules (digital or printed) for whatever purpose is strictly prohibited.
 Disciplines and Ideas in the Social Sciences
Governor Pack Road, Baguio City, Philippines 2600
Tel. Nos.: (+6374) 442-3316, 442-8220; 444-2786;
442-2564; 442-8219; 442-8256; Fax No.: 442-6268 Name:
Email: [email protected]; Website: www.uc-bcf.edu.ph

S.Y. 2020-2021 Third Trimester Grade Level/Section: HUMSS 11

MODULE 1 – Soc Sci 11 Subject Teacher: KIMBERSON P. ALACYANG

Backhouse, R., & Fontaine, P. (2010). The History of the Social Sciences since 1945. New York:
Cambridge University Press.

Economic and Social Research Council. (n.d.). Retrieved from Social Science:
https://esrc.ukri.org/about-us/what-is-social-science/

Eller, J. D. (2017). Social Science and Historical Perspectives: Society, Science, and Ways of Knowing.
New York: Routledge.

Gordon, S. (1991). The History and Philosophy of Social Science. London: Routledge.

Kagan, J. (2009). The Three Cultures: Natural Sciences, Social Sciences, and the Humanities.
Cambridge University Press.

Lowatcharin, Grichawat. (2016). Book Review: The Three Cultures: Natural Sciences, Social Sciences,
and the Humanities in the 21st Century. Local Administration Journal. 9. 114-122.

New World Encyclopedia Contributors. (2020, June 19). Retrieved from New World Encyclopedia:
https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/p/index.php?title=Social_sciences&oldid=1038400

Rosenberg, A. (2008). Philosophy of Social Science: Third Edition. Boulder: Westview Press.

This module is an intellectual property of the University of the Cordilleras Senior High School. Unauthorized reproduction, modification, distribution, display or
transmission in any form, medium and manner of any of the contents of the modules (digital or printed) for whatever purpose is strictly prohibited.