Social Sciences 101 Trivia Quiz

Answer:

While some consider the use of the word science in relation to these disciplines, due primarily to the difficulty of replicating and/or falsifying results, and the possible ambiguity of interpreting data, they nevertheless represent a significant area of investigation using accepted scientific methods to investigate humans and their interactions. (When I was an undergraduate, all students were required to complete two semester of a lab science, or three semesters of psychology because second-year courses included investigation as well as the underlying theory that was the focus of the first-year course; the other social sciences didn't get a look in.)

Sociology, the first area described as a social science, investigates social behavior patterns, especially looking at social order (the institutions, behaviours and relationships that form a society) and how they change. The roles of Compte and Durkheim were mentioned in the quiz, but Karl Marx, whose work on the philosophy of history led to the development of a proposed mechanism of societal change, is often proposed to be the true 'Father of Sociology'. The third figure often counted as a founder of the discipline is Max Weber, whose explanation of capitalism as arising from the Protestant work ethic contrasted with Marx's concept of dialectical materialism.

Anthropology focuses on the individuals within a society more than on its institutions, and has subdivisions including social anthropology (looking at patterns of interactive behaviour), cultural anthropology (analysing the cultural significance of observed behaviour), linguistic anthropology (considering how language influences social behaviour, and vice versa), physical anthropology (determining the impact of biological development on societal development) and (possibly, but debatably) archaeology, which tries to gain information about past societies and individuals from the physical evidence they have left behind.

Psychology focuses on the individual, exploring what makes people behave the way they do. Considering both the conscious and unconscious aspects of thought, it also looks at the physical body systems that are involved; as such, some aspects of psychology are considered to be natural science, and some social science. Exploration of cognitive processes and consideration of motivation for behaviour obviously existed long before the formal science of psychology was established in the 19th century, but that is when John Stuart Mill first proposed the scientific principles that could be used to explore what he called mental chemistry. Psychology moved from the sphere of philosophers and theologians into the world of social science. Experiments began, data was collected, and schools of thought as to its interpretation developed, in a process that continues apace.

Economics (a term that comes from Greek roots meaning household management) looks specifically at the way in which wealth (however that may be defined for a particular time and place) is created, transmitted and used. It is often broken into two main categories. Microeconomics looks at an individual (or single business entity), while macroeconomics looks at the big picture - an entire society (or even a global scale analysis). Both of these interact with other social sciences as they attempt to explain the reasons behind observed behaviours.

Political science developed as a field in the late 19th century, distinguishing itself from the older field of political philosophy by the introduction of scientific methods, rather than relying on the development of theory in the abstract. It considers governance and power - the who and how of setting up social structures and institutions that control the activities available to a society's members.

Each of these disciplines has subcategories, and some of them overlap with each other and with other traditional academic disciplines. Some areas which seem intuitively to be a social science are not easy to categorise. For example, consider education, which involves transmission of cultural norms (anthropology) and knowledge, relying on an understanding of psychology to produce effective teaching, and operating within a given social structure, the education system, all managed somehow to ensure the necessary means are available at both local and systemic levels.