The “Science” and the

“Social” Behind the Study

of Society
Learning Objective

• To define Social Science as

the study of society and
explain what consists
Social Science
Key Understanding
 Understand the meaning of Social Science as
the study of society and what consists Social
Science and appreciate their differences and
collective objectives

Key Question
 What is Social Science
 What is Natural Science
 different disciplines of Social
Science
 What is Social Science?

• 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.
• On the other hand, the word “science” is
also a key idea in the said rubric of
disciplines.
 What is Social Science?

• 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.
It is being related to the fields of natural
science and humanities because of some
concepts. it main concern is to deal
with aspects of human condition.
 What is Social Science?
• 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
• 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.
•Nevertheless, social sciences cannot be wholly
categorized as exclusive to empirical study or
humanistic concerns because they can be
both. We should realize that they can never be
isolated as belonging to a standard intellectual
framework and methodology. If we take it to
heart that all social science disciplines deal
with people as social beings with creative
capacities as well as with physical needs and
live in the physical world, we would not see a
line that divides the
“Arts” from the “Sciences,” nor the “Social” from
“Sciences.”
 What is Natural Science?

• Nature conjures an image of ramdom and unstructed

forces that shape a given area. these forces and events,
while unrestrained and dynamic, usually follow a general
pattern, law or processever se the world existed.

• this kind of patterns and laws follow an amazing

uniformity,which enables a researchers to trace back what
happened in the past by looking at what happening in the
past.
• it main concern is to exlain natural environmental
phenomena.
 What is Natural Science?

• the science of nature or the Natural

science have developed sophisticated
ways on how to investigate nature, how to
learn more about it, discover its secrets
and identfy underlying universal laws.
 What is Natural Science?

• the principle of a constantly changing

earth,science draws from the belief that
knowledge is not inherent in sacred
scriptures but it comes from keen
observation of the srroundings and an
appreciation of the fact that information
about life and the world can be learned
through a regorious mental and
methodical process known today as
Scientific Method.
 What is Social Science?

• 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.”
• .
 Fundamental Concepts of Social
Science Theories
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
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
• 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 Disciplines
• 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.
•That the means through which they
must be understood or
comprehended by humans is
through a thorough observation and
critical analysis of facts, evidence,
and conditions found among the
people living in a particular society.
 Social Science Disciplines
• 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
• 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
• 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
• 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.