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Importance of Social Science in Our Daily Life

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ARTiFACTS / Blog / Your Complete Guide on Why Social Science is Important

Science Students

Your Complete Guide on Why Social Science is Important

Table of contents:

There‘s one species in all of our planet’s history that has had far more impact on its trajectory than any other, and that’s us .

In order to be able to forecast where the human race might be heading, and taking the rest of the world with it, an understanding of the role of social scientists is a must.

Social science offers an insight into society and the relationships between individuals within that society.

It is a broad field, encompassing sociology, history, geography, political science, psychology, anthropology, and law.

There is a quote by George Santayana, a philosopher, poet, novelist, and essayist. He said, “Those who do not remember the past, are condemned to repeat it.”

As we reach an inevitable crossroads in the history of human existence, nothing could be more true. Let’s take a look at how social science allows us to unravel the development of the human race, and why it is so important to us, especially now.

A Definition of Social Science

The social sciences are a group of academic disciplines that are primarily concerned with the study of society. It delves into how individuals behave, interact with each other, develop as a culture, and impact the world.

Strictly speaking, the social sciences include:

Anthropology

Political science
Social psychology

Whilst they are definite crossovers with other subjects. The distinction between social sciences and other fields of study concerning human beings is often made in the methods used. Social science uses, as the name suggests, a scientific method, whereas other disciplines such as the humanities take a more philosophical approach to the study of human beings.

Anthropology studies the past and present of humans, our behavior, and societies. It looks at patterns of behavior, cultural meanings including different norms and values. It also looks at how language affects social life and our biological development.

The topic is vast, ranging from how chimpanzees behave within a group to our spending patterns. Anthropologists share the belief that human behaviors offer an insight into more encompassing sets of beliefs and values.

Anthropologists are concerned with questions such as:

Why are some people light-skinned while others are dark-skinned?
Why do people who belong to a particular community suffer more from a specific disease than people belonging to another community?
Why in some cultures do children leave the house of their parents at a certain age while in some they do not?
How do birth, death, and marriage ceremonies vary within different communities?

Whilst anthropology is mainly focussed on how the individual affects the whole. Sociology looks at how human beings behave as part of a larger group.

It studies society, concentrating on patterns of social relationships, social interaction, and the culture that encompasses everyday life.

It is the study of the collective behavior of organized groups of human beings.

Sociologists may look at sub-cultures such as football hooligans or the street-punk movement in terms of the different social factors that might influence such groups to form.

Social Psychology

Social psychology is concerned with how an individual’s behavior is influenced by their social environment.

Where sociology looks at group behavior, social psychology focusses on the psychological impact of being a member of that group.

Social Psychology studies give us an insight into human behavior, specifically looking into how our society influences that behavior.

The famous Stanford Prison Experiment (1971) saw college students take on the role of either prisoner or guard in an artificial prison for 14 days. However, the study was stopped after six days due to the guards becoming increasingly abusive and the prisoners showing extreme signs of stress and anxiety.

It is studies like this that help us understand how environments can play a huge part in affecting how we behave.

Economics concerns itself with how human beings use their limited resources. It focusses on how goods and services are produced, distributed, and consumed.

Its main focus is known as the four factors of production, which are:

Land – Anything supplied by nature that contributes to the creation of wealth
Labor – The human effort that contributes to the creation of wealth
Capital – Anything that is manmade and is utilized to produce goods and services
Enterprise – This combines the above three into a product or service for the consumer market

The study of economics is split into two main fields:

Macroeconomics – Focusses on the overall working of a national economy, including interest rates, unemployment, and taxes
Microeconomics – Focusses specifically on how households and individual businesses make economic decisions that eventually affect society as a whole.

Political Science

Political science is concerned with government institutions and political behavior. It deals with the analysis of political systems and the theoretical and practical applications of politics.

It looks into how power is allocated and transferred, and the roles and systems within governments and international organizations.

Understanding political science is important because we all live within a political system. We are therefore, affected by changes in the global political economy.

Political scientists provide us with a lens through which we can understand the global political economy.

Why Social Science is Important

The academic study and implementation of the social sciences can have a huge benefit on society as a whole, and on an individual level as well.

The implications are vast, but let us take a look at just a few of the reasons why social science is as important as it is.

Social Science as a force for greater good

One of the key roles of social science is how it can affect decision making when it comes to moving forward as a society, and eventually as an entire species.

We all want to live in a world that we consider safe, and where our human rights are respected along with our basic dignity. However, due to different political views, cultural and societal values, we don’t always agree on the best way to achieve this. This is where social scientists come in to play.

Because social science focusses on the social advancement of humanity, they are responsible for working alongside governments, social services, the media, and UN organizations to influence the work of the big decision-makers.

They are partly responsible for new laws and regulations that govern how we work and live. By understanding society and how it works they can help make decisions as to how we can move forward.

Historical examples of this include providing opportunities for women to become wage earners where such opportunities hadn’t previously existed. And also reducing the risk of hunger in areas where starvation rates had previously been high.

In regards to the current COVID 19 pandemic, social science facilitates the cross-referencing of the lessons learned from the Ebola crisis as well as ensuring a multidisciplinary approach to community engagement.

Social scientists can influence where aid is sent to, and how existing laws can be changed to meet societal demands that weren’t previously being met.

Imagining an Alternative Future

Social science opens up the opportunity for debate and provides us with the chance to have our say when it comes to the development of society.

It can help us to forecast how new technologies will affect us. By raising the questions associated with the large array of social, ethical, and legal issues that surround the introduction of new technologies, they help us to have a better understanding of the consequences of new technological developments.

When decisions around COVID 19 were made, it wasn’t entirely done by scientists. Whilst scientists can study the virus and establish how best to control it based on its behavior, social scientists are responsible for looking at how such decisions will affect society as a whole.

The Importance of Our Health and Well-Being

By interpreting medical statistics and evaluating health care policies, social scientists can help ensure that our health care systems work at an optimal level.

Where a nutritionist can provide the information necessary for an individual to have a healthy and balanced diet, the social scientist can look further into geographical, economic, and social factors that impact how obtainable such a diet might be.

Essentially, social science allows health care and health advice to be tailored to individuals based on their social circumstances.

A Brighter Future for Our Children

A school’s effectiveness is determined by much more than its curriculum. A top-down view of education might focus on academic prowess, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it takes the well-being of its learners into account.

Schooling as a foundation for social learning might be just as important as academic performance. By taking into account the viewpoints of children of all ages, and their parents, education officials can make better decisions towards what makes an effective school environment.

Social science helps to educate the public regarding social policy. It raises attention to a multiple of different perspectives on society and is supportive of the public when it comes to holding politicians and the media to account.

Along with the transformation of media into the digital age, social science has made modern democracy more transparent than it once was. It is much easier to access multiple angles from peer-reviewed research on individual topics of debate. Not only that, but the internet allows us to share our own.

Personal Development

Understanding the world around us can certainly make living in it more manageable. Not only that but by understanding society we better understand what we need to do to contribute to it.

It broadens our horizons by opening our eyes to different social movements and cultures. It promotes taking a multi-layered approach when forming opinions, thus developing the power of thinking and reasoning.

By being mindful of the environment you are in and the factors that affect it, you become more mindful of how you are within your environment.

The Future of The Social Sciences

Social sciences cover more than you might initially imagine. The internet is rife with social science articles that cover a wide range of research being done in the field.

From the reasons why college students binge-watch television shows to the ethical implications of government surveillance. Social science covers a vast array of what makes us who we are and where that may take us.

These kinds of studies highlight both the reasons why people do what they do and also how people react to the decisions that are being made for them. This allows for better-informed decisions as to what we, as a species and individually, should be doing to move forward.

In better understanding the social sciences and what they cover we quickly come to realize just how important their role is. They bridge the vital gap between the people making the decisions and those affected by them.

Social science continues to engage in cross-disciplinary work in diverse fields such as engineering, biology, medicine, computing, and mathematics.

As we move forward it is becoming quite clear that no subject area can operate independently without drawing on the research of other disciplines. It is here that social science plays its most important role.

For more information on social science and to find out more about current research being carried out in this field take a look at the rest of our site, and don’t hesitate to contact us with any questions

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10 reasons why we need social science

Reproduced with kind permission from the Campaign for Social Science .

We know that Britain’s social scientists are world leaders in their fields, but why do we need them? And if they weren’t around to analyse what’s going on, would you miss them? Audrey Osler suggests 10 reasons why you need social science:

1. Social scientists help us imagine alternative futures.

Social science can open up debate and give us a say in shaping our collective future. The social sciences developed as a field of study during the nineteenth century. Social science helped people understand the consequences and application of the new technologies of the age, such as steam power.

The growth of railways and factories not only transformed the economy and the world of work, but also changed forever the way people organised their family lives and leisure. Today nanotechnology and advances in medical research will have a significant impact on the way we live.

They present us with a bewildering range of ethical, legal and social issues. But it isn’t enough to rely on the scientists. We also need social scientists to analyse and critique what’s going on. That way we will make informed choices that shape the future.

The Proactionary Imperative: For more ideas on this topic Steve Fuller's books are a good place to start.

2. social science can help us make sense of our finances..

Social science is not just important for the future but for what’s happening now. We all resent paying to withdraw our money from cash machines. Charges can amount to £120 per year. Social scientists working on behalf of the Runnymede Trust found that this doesn’t just this depend on where we live, but that black and minority ethnic people are more likely to live in areas where they’re forced to pay.

This put pressure on banks to ensure we all have access to machines that don’t charge. A range of social scientists – not just economists but also psychologists, sociologists and political scientists, for example ‐ can help us understand the economic crisis and weigh up decisions we make for ourselves and those which governments make on our behalf. Without this kind of analysis we may feel like pawns in a global game of chess.

With the knowledge and understanding that social science offers us, we will feel empowered to act for ourselves, and to influence decisions being made on our behalf.

Unequal Ageing in Europe: explores the gender pension gap across the 28 member states of the European Union, plus Iceland and Norway

3. social scientists contribute to our health and well‐being..

From sports sociologists to public health experts, from those interpreting medical statistics to those evaluating policies for our care in old age, social scientists are working hard to make sure that our health, leisure and social care services work to best effect.

Social geographers at the University of Sheffield, for example, have shown that those of us who don’t follow eating advice are not simply weak‐willed or ignorant. Our eating habits are influenced by a whole range of circumstances. Some apparently unhealthy choices may seem rational: if the person doing the shopping knows that others will simply not eat the healthy option and it will just go to waste, they may simply not buy it.

So it’s no good just giving people a booklet on healthy eating. Effective nutritional advice needs to be tailored to people’s everyday lives and contexts.

Long-Term Care in Europe: analyzes the key issues at stake in developing long-term care systems for older people in Europe.

4. social science might save your life..

Psychologists at the University of Liverpool spent time in a steel factory to work out what needs doing to create a safer environment. Accidents at work happen even in the best regulated companies that provide staff training and take all necessary precautions.

A top‐down imposed safety regime simply doesn’t work. It’s when people see unsafe work practices as unacceptable and take decisions as teams that workplaces become safer. Employers need to see people as individuals who take their lead from those with whom they identify. These principles have also been shown to work in crowd control.

When those responsible for crowd management at football matches are trained in techniques which take this into account, there’s virtually no trouble.

Adjudicating Employment: Rights compares and analyses institutions for resolving employment rights disputes in ten countries.

5. social science can make your neighbourhood safer..

One common myth is that if you take measures to reduce crime in one neighbourhood the criminals simply move on, leading to increased crime in another area. Sociologists at Nottingham Trent University worked closely with police to reduce crime through a method involving scanning for crime patterns.

They were able to identify patterns that regular police work had not picked up, so avoiding guess work and lost time. A technique called situational crime prevention developed by the same team is now regularly used by the police, working with the public and private sectors to prevent crime. Together they make things more difficult for would‐be criminals.

For example, in one area there was a serious problem of lead being stolen from community building roofs. By working with dealers in the scrap metal market, and persuading them to keep records, it then became too risky to buy what might be stolen lead.

The Handbook of Security, 2nd edition: is the most comprehensive analysis of scholarly security debates and issues to date.

6. we need social scientists as public intellectuals..

British society is sometimes said to be anti‐intellectual. Yet in our fast changing world, there is a place for the social scientist as public intellectual. This doesn’t have to be a succession of boring grey talking heads, such as you can find on French TV any night. That’s enough to cause anyone to start channel surfing. Social scientists have a duty to make their work interesting and engaging to the rest of us.

They need to explain not only why social science is relevant but do it in a compelling way. Then we will want to listen, read and find out more. Perhaps more social scientists will have to become active listeners, talking more often to the public, each other and to scientists.

Then we can get all the disciplines around the table together. In a knowledge‐based world, we need people who can integrate a variety of different types of knowledge, and that come from different intellectual roots and from a range of institutions to work together.

The Price of Public Intellectuals: is an historically-informed survey critically outlining sociological, psychological, political, and economic approaches to the role of public intellectuals.

7. social science can improve our children’s lives and education..

All societies and all governments want to show they are dong the best for children. Yet too often education reform seems to take place without regard for the best interests of the learners. Education research shows that many parents, particularly parents of younger children, are more concerned that their children enjoy school, than that they are academic stars.

By working with students of all ages to understand their perspectives on schooling, researchers at the universities of Cambridge and Leeds have discovered new insights into what makes effective schools, and what makes for effective school leadership.

We just need to listen to children, provide structured opportunities for them to give their views, and prepare adults to really listen. Today even OFSTED, the school inspection service, has to listen to children’s viewpoints.

Informal Education, Childhood and Youth: emphasises how geography – space and place – matter to informal education practices, through a range of examples.

8. social science can change the world for the better..

We can generally agree that world needs to be a safer place where all people can enjoy basic dignity and human rights. This is the case even when we can’t always agree on what we should do to make this happen. Social scientists working in interdisciplinary teams have made their mark in the area of human welfare and development.

They are concerned with the social and economic advancement of humanity at large. They work with government institutions, UN organisations, social services, funding agencies, and with the media. They are influencing the work of strategists, planners, teachers and programme officers in developing and growing economies, like India, to influence development so that it impacts on the lives of the poorest members of society. For example, social scientists from the Delhi School of Economics are cooperating with colleagues at SOAS, University of London to explore the impact of legislation in India to guarantee minimum wages for rural unskilled manual labourers on the loves of women.

They found the new law provided opportunities for some women to become wage earners where none had existed before, reducing the risk of hunger and the chances of avoiding hazardous work. But they also identified barriers to women benefitting from the changes, including harassment at the worksite.

Those working in development studies are then able to support women’s ability to benefit by looking for creative solutions to such problems.

Why the Social Sciences Matter: provides an illuminating look at topics of concern to everyone at the beginning of the twenty-first century.

9. social science can broaden your horizons..

For debates about feminism, peace, ecology, social movements, and much more, social science offers each of us new perspectives and new ways of understanding. Whether your idea of relaxation is visiting a museum, watching soaps, or chatting online, social science encourages a fresh look at our everyday activities and culture.

Social scientists at the University of Leicester are making an impact on museums across the world, with the goal of making them more inclusive, abler to challenge prejudices, inspire learning and be more relevant in contemporary society.

One example is their work with the Gallery of Modern Art in Glasgow to involve local communities and international visitors alike in engaging with exhibitions on a range of social justice issues from sectarianism to gay rights, through programmes including arts workshops and residencies.

Radical Feminism: is a radical and pioneering feminist manifesto for today's modern audience written by one of the cornerstones of today's feminist scene.

10. we need social science to guarantee our democracy..

Social science offers multiple perspectives on society, informs social policy and supports us in holding our politicians and our media to account.

The Centre for the Study of Global Media and Democracy at Goldsmith’s College, London is monitoring how transformation from traditional to digital media is examining the move away from traditional journalism and politics to where we as citizens try to be community journalists, presenting our own accounts on‐line. The work brings together specialists in media and communications, sociology and politics.

Individual citizens may feel empowered by this but there are risks in turning away from traditional journalism, including fewer opportunities for in‐depth analysis and critique of powerful interests. This work by social scientists is critical in protecting a modern and transparent democracy. Just think what might happen without it!

Social Movements and Their Technologies: explores the interplay between social movements and their 'liberated technologies'.

Palgrave Macmillan Studies in Family and Intimate Life
Crime Prevention and Security Management
Work and Welfare in Europe

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The Critical Turkey

Essay Writing Hacks for the Social Sciences

What Should Be in a Social Science Essay? Fundamentals and Essential Techniques

This blogpost is also available as a PDF download , so it can be stored on your desktop and used as a checklist before submitting your essay.

The following is a condensed overview of the most important features of social science essay writing. Its aim is to cut through the noise, and focus on the most essential (and important) elements of essay writing. Read it carefully, and use it as a check-list once you have completed your essay.

Before we get into the details, however, be aware: The purpose of writing essays in the social and political sciences is not so much to just demonstrate your knowledge. Rather, it is about applying this knowledge, using it to make a well-informed, well-reasoned, independently-reflected argument that is based on verified (and verifiable) evidence. What should be in an essay, and how you should write it, is all informed by this purpose.

What’s in an Essay?

The main focus of an academic essay, article or book is to address a research or essay question. Therefore, make sure you have read the essay question carefully, think about what aspects of the topic you need to address, and organize the essay accordingly. Your essay should have three parts:

Introduction
Provide context to the question. Be specific (not ‘since the dawn of time, social scientists have been arguing…’, but ‘one of the key debates in the study of revolutions revolves around…’, ideally providing references to the key authors of said debate).
It is almost always a good idea to formulate an argument – an arguable statement – in relation to the essay question (e.g. if the question is ‘Evaluate Weber and Marx’s accounts of capitalism’, an argument could be ‘I am going to argue that Weber is most insightful on X, but Marx is important for Y’). This builds a nice critical element into your essay, your own take on things, going beyond merely describing what others have written.
Essay plan: Tell the reader about the points you are going to cover, and the order in which you are going to do this (e.g. ‘First, the essay looks at…, second… third…’ etc.). Think of it as a roadmap to the essay.
Define key concepts as necessary for understanding. Do not use general dictionaries, as they often contain notions that social scientists try to challenge. Use definitions from the readings, and from sociological dictionaries.
Length: Intro should be between 5 to 10%, and no more than about 10 per cent of the overall word count.
Main Part / Body
The structure of the essay body is informed by the research/essay question: What points do you need to include in order to address the question? What sub-questions are there to the big question? Concentrate on the ‘need-to-knows’ rather than the ‘nice-to-knows’ .
The order in which you arrange these points depends on what makes the most convincing line of argument. This depends on the essay question, but as a rule of thumb you want to build up your argument, from the basics to the more elaborate points, from the weaker to the stronger, from what contradicts your argument to what supports it.
The different points should be addressed in appropriate depth. Make sure you explain not just what something is, but also how it works, and use examples and illustration.
There should be a coherent thread running through the essay and connecting the various points to one another and the overall argument. Indicate these connections in strategic places with appropriate signposting. These signpostings should also help you develop your argument as you proceed.
Excellent essays often raise counter-arguments to the argument presented, and then provide arguments against those counter-arguments. Think about why and how someone might disagree about what you are saying, and how you would respond to them.
Use peer-reviewed academic sources and present evidence for the points you make, using references, reliable statistics, examples etc. Any opinion you express should be built on reliable evidence and good reasoning.
What, finally, is your answer to the question? Bring the various strings of the essay together, summarize them briefly in the context of the essay question, and round off by connecting to the bigger discussion that the essay question is part of. It is usually a good idea to have a differentiated conclusion, in which you e.g. agree with a statement to a certain extent or under specific circumstances (and explain which and why), but disagree with some other aspects of it, rather than making undifferentiated black-or-white statements. You can also contextualise your argument with your ideas from the introduction. It is normally not a good idea to introduce new material in the conclusion. You are wrapping up here, and rounding off, not starting new discussions.
Conclusion should be about, and no longer than, 10 per cent of the overall word count.

Notes on Writing Style

Find the right balance between formal and informal. Avoid being too informal and conversational on the one hand. But also don’t use overly convoluted and complicated language, as it makes your writing inaccessible, and can lead to a lack of clarity. You may at times encounter academic writing that seems deliberately obscure or overcomplicated, but those are not examples you should try to emulate.
Clarity and specificity should indeed be a top priority. Are the words you are using expressing what you want to express? Is it clear who specifically is doing what or saying what? Pay attention to this when proofreading the essay. Could someone understand this differently? Avoid ambiguities.
Key concepts should be clearly defined and used throughout the essay in the way you defined them. Choose the definitions that are most useful for your discussion.
Avoid hyperbole (don’t do ‘shocking statistics’ or ‘dire consequences’ etc.).

Notes on the Writing Process

Proofreading: When you are first writing, don’t think of it as the final product, but treat it as a first draft. Go through several drafts until you are happy with it. At a minimum, proofread the entire essay once or twice. Don’t be perfectionist when you start out, as you can always come back and improve on whatever you’ve written.
Small steps: Focussing on the small, concrete steps of your writing process rather than constantly thinking of the big task at hand will help you feel in control.
Procrastination: Feeling overwhelmed, as well as being too perfectionist, are among the leading causes for procrastination. The two previous points should therefore help you address this issue as well. Don’t be too harsh on yourself when you do procrastinate – almost everyone does it to some extent .
Over the years, keep addressing areas you want to improve on, and keep looking for information. Search online, for example ‘how to cite a book chapter in Harvard Sage’, ‘developing an argument’, ‘ using quotations ’, ‘memory techniques’, ‘how to read with speed’, ‘understanding procrastination’, or ‘ what does peer-reviewed mean ’. There is plenty of information, and some seriously good advice out there. See what works for you. Read the feedback you get on your writing, and incorporate it into your next essay.

Final Thoughts

Essay Writing skills are good skills to have in any situation (except maybe in a zombie apocalypse). They will make the studying process easier over time, and hopefully also more fun. But in a wider sense, they are general skills of critical engagement with the world around you, and will help you filter and prioritise the overload of information you are confronted with on an everyday basis. In that sense, they might actually even be helpful in a zombie apocalypse.

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Why the Social Sciences Matter

© 2015
Jonathan Michie (President) 0 ,
Cary L. Cooper (Distinguished Professor of Organizational Psychology and Health) 1

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Supported by the Academy of Social Sciences
Champions the importance of the social sciences in our continued understanding of the world
Contains contributions from leading social scientists at the cutting-edge of their respective fields
Advocates the pursuit of evidence-based policy through systematic scholarly investigation

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Table of contents (12 chapters)

Front matter, introduction.

Jonathan Michie, Cary L. Cooper

Social Science, Parenting and Child Development

Pasco Fearon, Chloe Campbell, Lynne Murray

Health and Wellbeing

James Campbell Quick, Robert J. Gatchel, Cary L. Cooper

Climate Change and Society

Waste, resource recovery and labour: recycling economies in the eu.

Nicky Gregson, Mike Crang

Poverty and Inequality

The economy, financial stability and sustainable growth.

Jonathan Michie

What Can the Social Sciences Bring to an Understanding of Food Security?

Camilla Toulmin

Numbers and Questions: The Contribution of Social Science to Understanding the Family, Marriage and Divorce

Mavis Maclean, Ceridwen Roberts

Crime, Policing and Compliance with the Law

Understanding the arab spring.

Stuart Croft, Oz Hassan

International Migration

Cathy McIlwaine

Back Matter

agriculture
climate change
unemployment

About this book

"This book powerfully demonstrates that if some of the planet's most urgent problems are to be solved, then the social sciences are not just necessary but are in fact indispensable. Humanity today needs high-quality social science more than ever - this book brilliantly shows why and how this is so." - David Inglis, University of Exeter, UK

"Eminent social scientists Professors Jonathan Michie and Cary Cooper have drawn together a distinguished group of world experts who document the enormous contributions that the social sciences can offer us all for a healthy, sustainable and peaceful future." - Julian Barling, Queen's School of Business, Canada

"While numbers are at the center of great natural science that can launch rockets, human hearts are the pulse of great social science. Private trouble and personal suffering spill over into the public domain, addressed in the collective ills of this volume. Our great hope is that we can solve these problems that we have created. The solutions lie within this volume and the social sciences." - James Campbell Quick, University of Texas at Arlington, US

'This excellent and thought-provoking book deserves to be widely read by policy-makers as well as by students and others who think about our futures. The book makes great contributions to society.' - Greg Bamber, Monash University, Australia

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Cary L. Cooper

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Bibliographic information.

Book Title : Why the Social Sciences Matter

Editors : Jonathan Michie, Cary L. Cooper

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137269928

Publisher : Palgrave Macmillan London

eBook Packages : Palgrave Social Sciences Collection , Social Sciences (R0)

Hardcover ISBN : 978-1-137-26990-4 Published: 09 January 2015

Softcover ISBN : 978-1-137-26991-1 Published: 09 January 2015

eBook ISBN : 978-1-137-26992-8 Published: 08 January 2015

Edition Number : 1

Number of Pages : X, 197

Topics : Crime and Society , Economic Policy , Migration , Environmental Sociology , Family , Sociology of Family, Youth and Aging

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What Is Social Science?

How It Works

Social Science in Schools

The bottom line, social science: what it is and the 5 major branches.

Daniel Liberto is a journalist with over 10 years of experience working with publications such as the Financial Times, The Independent, and Investors Chronicle.

Erika Rasure is globally-recognized as a leading consumer economics subject matter expert, researcher, and educator. She is a financial therapist and transformational coach, with a special interest in helping women learn how to invest.

Investopedia / Mira Norian

Social science is the study of how people interact with one another. The branches of social science include anthropology, economics, political science, psychology, and sociology.

Social scientists study how societies work, exploring everything from the triggers of economic growth and the causes of unemployment to what makes people happy. Their findings inform public policies, education programs, urban design, marketing strategies, and many other endeavors.

Key Takeaways

Social science involves academic disciplines that focus on how individuals behave within society.
It attempts to explain how society works, exploring everything from the triggers of economic growth and causes of unemployment to what makes people happy.
Social science is a relatively new field of scientific study that rose to prominence in the 20th century.
Typical careers in social science include working as an advertiser, economist, psychologist, teacher, manager, and social worker.
Social scientists generally rely more heavily on interpretation and qualitative research methodologies than those in the natural sciences do.

Understanding Social Science

Social science as a field of study is separate from the natural sciences, which covers topics such as physics, biology, and chemistry.

Social science examines the relationships between individuals and societies as well as the development and operation of societies, rather than focusing on the physical world. The academic disciplines involved in the social sciences rely more heavily on interpretation and qualitative research methodologies than do the natural sciences.

There are many fields within social science. The five main ones are anthropology, economics, political science, psychology, and sociology, although some people also include history, criminology, and geography.

Branches of Social Science

Some say there are seven social sciences, while others claim there are four, five, six, or something else. Opinions vary on what should be included, yet most observers agree that the following five fields fall into the social sciences category:

Anthropology
Political science
Social psychology

History is also sometimes regarded as a branch of social science, although many historians often consider the subject to share closer links to the humanities. Both humanities and social science study human beings. What separates them is the technique applied: Humanities are viewed as more philosophical and less scientific.

Law, too, has some ties to social science, as does geography.

Here's more about the five major branches

Anthropology, the study of the origin and development of human societies and cultures, has been a focal point for centuries but it really got off the ground and gained importance in Europe's Age of Enlightenment, which flourished in the 17th and 18th centuries. During that period, there was a big focus on advancing society and knowledge, and the key to achieving that goal was understanding human behavior.

The history of economic thought goes back all the way to ancient Greek philosophers such as Plato, Aristotle, and Xenophon. Their works laid the foundation of nearly all social science, economics included.

As travel became easier in the 15th to 18th centuries, and more nations were able to partake in international trade, the economic system of mercantilism grew. The economic actions of many nations were suddenly motivated by the belief that a country should maximize exports and minimize imports.

This predominating school of thought was challenged by writers such as Adam Smith , commonly known as the father of modern economics. Smith’s ideas, along with those of Rousseau and John Locke , promoted the idea of a self-regulating economy and introduced the concept of what is known as classical economics . Smith’s book The Wealth of Nations is still studied today and admired by many politicians.

Two other important economists who have shaped the way we think of economics are Karl Marx and John Maynard Keynes . Marx famously challenged capitalism as an appropriate economic model by placing an emphasis on the labor theory of value . While Marx’s ideas are by no means widely endorsed by most of today’s politicians, his critique of capitalism has had a huge impact on many thinkers.

The Keynesian school of economics , meanwhile, is very popular among today’s economists. Keynesian economics is considered a demand-side macroeconomic theory that focuses on changes in the economy over the short run. It was the first to separate the study of economic behavior and markets based on individual incentives from the study of broad national economic aggregate variables and constructs.

Political Science

The origins of political science can be traced back to ancient Greece. Back then, the philosopher Plato wrote various dialogues about politics, justice, and what constitutes good government.

Plato’s early contributions would gradually take on a more scientific approach, led by thinkers including Aristotle, Thomas Hobbes, Marx, and Max Weber. Centuries of research into politics helped to boost democracy and assist politicians in making popular policy choices and get voted into power.

Psychology is one of the fastest growing fields of social science. It began as a medical field of study in the late 1800s and grew popular in the Western world throughout the 20th century, thanks in part to the work of Sigmund Freud.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 20.3% of adults had received some form of mental health treatment in 2020. Although many still use psychiatric medicine to treat their mental health issues, more people in recent years are seeking alternative treatments, such as mindfulness training and yoga in addition to traditional talk therapy.

Neuroscience, drug treatments, and a growing variety of approaches to psychotherapy are adding to the options for psychological treatment. Research on animal learning, social psychology, and economic psychology are other branches of the field.

Sociology as a science developed in Europe in the mid-1800s, a period of rapid social change. Political revolutions and the Industrial Revolution drastically altered how many people lived, which wasn't always for the better. This prompted early sociologists to wonder how to maintain stability when so much in life was shifting so fast.

The first sociology course in the U.S. was taught at Yale University by 1875. In the years that followed, other colleges added sociology to the curriculum and the subject arrived in high schools in 1911.

In the United States, education in the social sciences begins in elementary school and progresses throughout middle and high school. There is an emphasis on aspects of core social sciences such as economics and political science. At the collegiate level, more specialized disciplines are offered.

Nowadays, colleges and universities offer numerous social science programs. For example, the University of California, Berkeley has 15 academic departments categorized as social sciences. They are:

African American studies
Cognitive science
Ethnic studies
Gender and women’s studies
Global studies
Linguistics
Political economy

Master’s degree and Ph.D. programs at colleges and universities offer opportunities for deeper specialization.

Economists and social workers are among the most sought-after employees in the U.S., according to the BLS.

Social Science Careers

Typical careers in social science include working as an advertiser, psychologist, teacher, lawyer, manager, social worker, and economist .

The subject matter of social science—human behavior, relationships, attitudes, and how these things have changed over time—is useful information for any successful business to possess. The concepts of social science, such as demography, political science, and sociology, are frequently applied in many different business contexts.

For example, advertising and marketing professionals often use theories of human behavior from these fields to more efficiently market their products to consumers.

Economists and Social Workers

Naturally, the field of economics is key to the business sector. Many industries use economic analysis and quantitative methods to study and forecast business, sales, and other market trends.

In fact, economists are some of the most sought-after workers in the U.S., especially behavioral economists , who use psychology to analyze and predict the economic decision-making processes of individuals and institutions.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) , the projected change in employment for economists from 2021 to 2031 is 6%, about the same as the average 8% projection for all occupations. Social workers, too, are expected to see a similar level of demand, with the BLS predicting employment in this particular field to grow by 9% from 2021 to 2031.

Social Science Wages

The BLS also reports that those with a social science degree generally command higher salaries than their peers with other types of degrees but it can depend heavily on the field of employment they enter into.

According to BLS research, the median wage for a social worker was $58,380 in May 2023 while the median pay for an economist was $115,730 at that time. The median wage for those with a social science degree overall was $68,000 in 2021, about $9,600 more than that of a social worker two years later.

History of Social Science

The origins of social science can be traced back to the ancient Greeks. The lives they led, as well as their early studies of human nature, the state, and mortality, helped to shape Western civilization.

Social science as an academic field of study developed out of the aforementioned Age of Enlightenment (or Age of Reason). Smith, Voltaire, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Denis Diderot, Immanuel Kant, and David Hume were among the major intellectuals at the time who laid the foundation for the study of social science in the Western world.

Individuals began to take a more disciplined approach to quantifying their observations of society. Over time, similar aspects of society, such as linguistics and psychology, were separated into unique fields of study.

Why Is Social Science Important?

The social sciences are important because they help people understand how to analyze not only their own behavior but also the behavior and motivations of their peers. The social sciences also give us a better understanding of how to create more inclusive and effective societal institutions.

How Do You Become a Social Scientist?

Typically, the path to obtaining a career in the social sciences begins by getting a four-year university degree in one of the social science subjects. If you’re interested in pursuing a career in social work or psychology, these careers often require additional schooling, certificates, and licenses.

Which Jobs Can You Get With a Social Science Degree?

A degree in the social sciences can help land you a job as an economist, psychologist, or survey researcher, as well as open up opportunities in sectors such as law, government, politics, and academia.

Social science helps us to gain knowledge of ourselves, our peers, and the society in which we live. Human behavior is important, and having a decent grasp of it should, in theory, lead to greater efficiencies and quality of life for everyone.

University of South Florida, Digital Commons. “ Social Science Research: Principles, Methods, and Practices ,” Pages 10-11.

University of South Florida, Digital Commons. “ Social Science Research: Principles, Methods, and Practices ,” Page 14.

Thomas Hylland Eriksen and Finn Sivert Nielsen, via Google Books. “ A History of Anthropology ,” Pages 11–19. Pluto Press, 2013.

International Monetary Fund. “ What Is Keynesian Economics? ”

Washington State University, Open Text WSU. “ History of Psychology .”

U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “ Mental Health Treatment Among Adults: United States, 2020 .”

OpenStax. “ Introduction to Sociology 3e: 1.2 The History of Sociology .”

Yale University. “ Welcome to the Yale Sociology Department .”

Michael DeCesare, via JSTOR. “ The High School Sociology Teacher .” Teaching Sociology, vol. 33, no. 4, October 2005, pp. 345–354.

UC Berkeley. " Berkeley Letters & Science: Berkeley Social Sciences .”

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. “ Occupational Outlook Handbook: Economists: Job Outlook .”

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. “ Occupational Outlook Handbook: Social Workers: Job Outlook .”

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. " Economists ."

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. " Social Workers ."

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. “ Occupational Outlook Handbook: Field of Degree: Social Science .”

Lynn McDonald, via Google Books. “ The Early Origins of the Social Sciences ,” Chapter 2. McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1993.

Encyclopædia Britannica. “ Social Science .”

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Interdisciplinarity

What I Have Learned from Social Science

I’ve spent my adult life in and around social science. Academically through studying psychology and linguistics (alongside philosophy), professionally through working at SAGE for over 30 years and personally through an abiding amateur interest in various fields sometimes expressed in my own writing of books or articles.

In light of my recent election as a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences. I’ve been reflecting on what social science has meant to me, and why my interest continues to this day.

These reflections are a quite personal take. They are not meant to be a ‘defence of social science’ or a comprehensive review of its impact in various domains, though when people who aren’t familiar with social science ask me what the point of it is I find myself responding in this kind of vein. It’s a personal view on why I think a social science imagination can benefit us as individuals and improve society more generally, especially at a time of such upheaval and reconfiguration.

The starting point for me is in human psychology, the subject of my undergraduate degree. In my first week in October 1985 as a fresher at Exeter University, I met Steve Reicher, who was assigned as my first-year tutor. Steve was a ‘new blood’ lecturer at the time who had a year earlier published what was to become a seminal article analysing the St Paul’s riots in Bristol in April 1980. Through my encounters and discussions with Steve and other psychologists in the department I learned about certain features of human nature. While I didn’t go quite as far as Steve, who would say ‘the nature of human nature is its capacity to transcend itself’, and while the very idea of human nature is, I realise, contested and felt confusing to me initially, I started to learn how profoundly social that nature was.

While this may sound obvious to many – we are social animals who cooperate and learn from each other, of course – I nevertheless find it hard to see myself that way consistently. And I’ve learned that it’s not just me. While social science shows how our natures are deeply social it also explains why we don’t always see this fact that well. When not looking through a social science lens we (in the West at least) tend to see ourselves and our place in the world as more individual than that, like fish swimming around unaware of the environment in which they are suspended.

It’s not that the idea of the individual is a myth. Rather it is one of many identities, all shaped by historical and cultural forces, which tends in our daily lives to be overly emphasised. We see the figure more easily than the ground along which she walks. For instance, what’s known as the ‘fundamental attribution error’ leads me to look at someone’s behaviour and explain it too quickly in terms of their imagined individual characteristics and ignore the context. So if someone cuts me up in traffic I more easily think ‘selfish!’ rather than ‘maybe there’s an emergency’.

A key value of social science, it seems to me, is to counter-balance that self-image , to help us see the ground as well as we see the figure. We know when it comes to physical health that what we want and what is good for us are not always aligned. Well so it is for the social health of this social animal. Our interests, it seems to me, are best served by a more balanced understanding of human circumstances and contexts, but for all sorts of reasons evolutionists like to explore, we don’t do this as fully as we might. The tendency mentioned above for instance, to see the individual more easily than her circumstances, has deep consequences for the chances of human flourishing – for our attitudes toward each other – if left unchecked.

And this point, the need to see more context, can be extended in various ways. Here are 10 examples of tendencies we have which a social science imagination can and should help us to counter-balance, each of which have moral or political implications for how to organise ourselves and society better. This is not to say that each tendency is a problem in itself, or that we can’t reverse it under certain conditions, it’s that a social science imagination is useful in helping us do just that. 1 I’ve added a reference for each one to help provide a bit more insight for those who are interested. But as I say these reflections are personal and highly selective rather than anything systematic. For that you should talk to the experts! I’ve put these 10 into three broad buckets:

Those tendencies which assume we have more agency, more control over our circumstances, than we do, e.g.:

Judgement over luck. It’s easier, thanks to the ‘just-world hypothesis’ and even the idea of meritocracy to assume people have more responsibility for their outcomes than they generally have. So people who end up worse off in life can be blamed for their individual failure to measure up.
Cure over prevention. It’s easier to say ‘lock ’em up’ and harder to be tough on the causes of crime. The same goes for health interventions. We will typically pay more for treatment rather than preventative measures.
The conscious over the unconscious. It’s easier to focus on explicit thoughts and feelings, and to assume we are rational and objective in our judgments while ignoring the less obvious underlying tendencies such as revealed by studies of unconscious bias.

Then there are those which favour the near over the far, whether in terms of time, space or social categories, such as:

Short term over long term. It’s easier to spend now than to save for a pension. Similarly, we can underrate the significance of climate change for future generations.
The near at hand over the far away. It’s easier to care about the incidence of COVID-19 in our own locale rather than further afield. There’s even evidence of a ‘propinquity effect’ which describes how we find people and things more appealing merely by being physically closer to us.
Us over Them. What’s called ‘ingroup favouritism’ makes it easier to sympathise with people ‘like me’ than the members of an outgroup. The recent surge in political polarisation, from Brexit to the recent US election, bears on this tendency.

We have tendencies to oversimplify, to prefer the status quo and then to generalise, such as when we favour

The dominant over the marginalised. It’s easier to see a tall, white middle class man as an authority figure than almost anybody else!
The vivid example over statistical data . It’s easier to fear terrorism and plane crashes than driving cars. And remember the line often attributed to Stalin, that a single death is a tragedy, while a million deaths are a mere statistic.
Choosing the status quo over alternative explanations. It’s easier to say ‘that’s just how things are’, than this is how they got this way and could be different. Much of what feels immutable is in fact socially constructed.
The simple over the complex. It’s easier to skewer politicians on the journalistic jab of ‘answer the question yes or no’, than to accept a more nuanced response. Many social problems are known as ‘wicked’ and don’t always have right or wrong answers, though hopefully better or worse ones.

It’s a simple list which reveals my starting point in psychology, and others (from sociology, anthropology, political science etc) would choose different examples I’m sure. But I hope it shows that tending to think people have more freedom and agency than they do, or tending to favour the near over the far, or to see the social world as fixed rather than constructed comes easily to us, while hampering the possibilities of human progress in many ways.

A social science imagination helps us put a thumb on the scales to counter-balance those tendencies. This offers possibilities to recalibrate society to better suit our social natures than an individualistic essentialising view will be inclined to do. Meanwhile politicians, media outlets, and more generally people with power and wanting to hold on to it exploit these tendencies; and social science analyses that, too.

Social science has a hard time breaking through because it tends not to offer up easy answers and solutions (see point 10 above). But as one physicist pointed out, it is child’s play to understand theoretical physics compared to understanding child’s play. Understanding molecules offers more law-like generalisations and predictions than understanding people and culture. The problems addressed by social science are complex and often don’t have right or wrong answers, but hopefully offer better or worse ones. And often those answers depend on some mix of different levels of analysis.

The complexity of social science reflects the complexities of humanity at many scales and magnitudes. At a global level, scientists study wars and conflict, trans-national migration, cultures and religions, international cooperation and diplomacy between nations. Zoom into a country and they look at forms of government and how power is gained, how the economy works. Zoom further into policy domains and see social scientists looking at crime, aging, mental health, physical health (obesity, vaccine uptake, physical distancing), education, social care, the use of technology, the nature of work, the media, social cohesion, inequality and social injustice. You’ll find them analysing organizations like companies, political parties, schools, prisons, cities, football clubs, unions and the forms of organization that describe how they work, and don’t work, such as leadership, crowd behaviour, discrimination, power. Zoom in further to see them study interpersonal behaviour whether in groups, teams or relationships. Looking into family systems offers yet more levels of complexity even before turning to individual differences and subjective experiences (of love, loneliness, stress, addiction, emotion, memory, motivation) let alone those who dive into perception, cognition, the unconscious and more.

These levels are intersecting and overlapping as much as we are, and the study of them leads social science to interact with other disciplines, from natural sciences on the one side to humanities on the other.

Of course there’s good and bad, deep and trivial, applied and abstract work in social science as in all fields, and the mechanism of generating scholarship which translates to everyday impact and relevance is complex and sometimes badly broken through the many mixed incentives that come from trying to create academic reputations in higher education settings. As the social scientist Garry Brewer once pithily remarked ‘the world has problems while universities have departments’.

With all that said the cumulative intellectual labour of social scientists across the globe does have a powerful effect over time. And it is particularly satisfying watching Steve Reicher, now at St Andrews, commenting influentially on many of today’s political issues. Many of you will have seen his work on government responses to COVID-19 as part of the behavioural science advisory committee to what we call ‘the other SAGE’ and latterly independent SAGE.

But the moment that struck me most forcibly was after the death of George Floyd and the subsequent protests, one of which was the pulling down of the statue of Edward Colston in Bristol — the same city where the St Paul’s riots occurred 40 years before. Steve commented on how this event did not trigger riots this time around. And he gave particular credit to Chief Constable Andy Marsh, suggesting that if he had been there in 1980 there wouldn’t have been riots. But the police have evolved in their training and tactics since then in part thanks to social scientists like Steve and his PhD students, now professors themselves in UK universities and often advising police on their responses to handling protests to avoid them turning into riots. The key point being to see crowds not as mad or bad but as highly minded and acting with reasons, and in contexts partly shaped by how the police themselves intervene. 3 Here’s a representative article urging shifts in the police’s construals of crowds at the time of the poll tax riots: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/(SICI)1099-0992(199807/08)28:4%3C509::AID-EJSP877%3E3.0.CO;2-C Social science imagination in action! I don’t know if Steve’s, his colleagues’ and others’ impact has been obliterated through incorporation, but I can see the link through time.

This is just one example. Play it out over the various domains I described earlier and you might see why I’m incredibly grateful to the social scientists present and past who through their work have shaped and framed my way of thinking and a stance toward the world which I believe would, in countless ways, be much poorer for its absence.

Ziyad Marar

Ziyad Marar is an author and president of global publishing at SAGE Publishing. His books include Judged: The Value of Being Misunderstood (Bloomsbury, 2018), Intimacy: Understanding the Subtle Power of Human Connection (Acumen Publishing, 2012), Deception (Acumen Publishing, 2008), and The Happiness Paradox (Reaktion Books 2003). He tweets @ZiyadMarar.

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This is interesting, and thought-provoking reading; I am reading it as part of the content for my MA in Creative Writing at Kingston School of Art. I am interested in your example of the ‘fundamental attribution error’ where we instantly ‘frame’ someone in a negative light in traffic, and your exposition on how this feeds through into many other examples. I think it is a shame though that you framed this as ‘imagined’, and that the imagination is often blamed for instances like this. As elucidated in A Critique of Pure Reason (Kant), you will note that it is the … Read more »

The most unkind remark made about the social sciences is that they are fuzzy science. Here in this article Ziyad Marar correctly explains that they are complex. And that they are infinitely worth pursueing. However, as Jordan Peterson and from a slightly different angle Douglas Murray might argue, there is a danger today that in this field the academic world has shifted so much to the left that University students are being misled in believing dismantelling statues for “righteous causes” is something brave and praiseworthy. I feel sure Mr. Marar would not be amongst those encouraging them, realising that different … Read more »

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What does heritage mean to you?

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Importance of Social Science

Social Science is the study of the activities of the physical and social environment. Basically, it is the study of human relations or the scientific study of human society.

It deals with the humans-their relationships, behaviour, development and resources they use and many kinds of organizations they need to carry in their daily life like the workplace, school, family, government, etc.

It is important because its study helps us to gain knowledge of the society we live in. Generally, Social Science focus on the relationships among individuals in society. It is the mixture of many subjects like History, Geography, Political Science, Economics, Sociology, Social Psychology and many more.

The main definition of social science is – “The social sciences subjects are those subjects which describe and examine the humans”. Social science is the society related study — the primary reason for Social studies to help students to develop the ability to make the right decisions. It increases the social considerate of students.

Subjects in Social Science

Aims of teaching social science in schools:-.

Objectives of social science

Why Study Social Science?

Social Science aware the students about our surroundings and the incidents happened in the past. It has significance to develop an international viewpoint. It is also important for the moral progress of society. It helps to form the man social character.

Study of Social Science makes us an efficient citizen of a democracy, and it also helps us to solve the practical problems in our daily life. It is essential for communities and organizations. It also helps the students to know how different societies are managed, structured and governed.

As we know, social science includes many subjects each subject give us different knowledge like history provide the knowledge of the ancient period, from this subject we come to know that what happened in the past.

Another subject is Geography from this subject we know about our natural environment or natural vegetations like plants, animals, etc. We also learn about the evolution of animals, water bodies, flora, fauna, the impact of the environment in the present and future life, preservation and conservation importance in our life.

Political Science is the subject from which we know about politics, democracy and the fundamental proficiencies poverty rate in the world, citizenships, moral and virtues, rights and duties etc. Economics is the subject from which we learn how to manages the finances, about effective economic policies etc.

From social science , students know about the different culture and religion in the world and how to value and respect our culture.

It gives knowledge about civilization and culture.
It provides knowledge of social development.
It develops social behavior.
It develops civil qualities.
It develops the power of thinking and reasoning.
It develops the feeling of universal brotherhood.
It develops modernization.
It develops suitable proficiency and good habits.
It develops the moral and social values.
It develops the all-round personality.

Objectives of Social Science

Social science help students to know about the duties towards human society and make us understand how a man can fulfil their needs. Because of Social science students understand the fundamental rights in our constitution, freedom fighters who fought for the nation.

It also provides knowledge of the social environment and nature. It also develops the human qualities, desirable attitudes in students, and it also expands the critical thinking and imagination of students.

Students learn many different things from social science like cultural and social beliefs, religions, caste, nationalities, languages, festivals, clothing, food etc. From these things, students come to know that in the society they live is multicultured, diverse and interrelated between the countries, culture and religion.

Social Science helps the students to know the importance of democracy, freedom and rights and how to live in society. It makes the student responsible, active and reflective towards the society.

And also makes the students well informed about the culture, religion and society; in short, it makes the student well-informed citizen.

Also read, Importance of Science Education in Schools

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Can Social Science Matter?
From Our Archives

Social Science and Contemporary Social Problems

Published in March of 1969, this essay by then SSRC president Henry Riecken grapples with many of the same issues raised by Prewitt and his interlocutors in “ Can Social Science Matter? ” The major upheavals of that historical moment are not discussed in any detail in Riecken’s essay, but they clearly influenced the timing and the content, as Riecken discusses how social science can contribute to addressing public problems, the differences between the social sciences and the natural sciences and engineering in this regard, and the limits to the ways in which social science can contribute given how it is organized and incentivized. Riecken concludes with an extremely prescient analysis of the ethical dimensions of certain kinds of social science work, specifically social experimentation and the collection and use of what we now call “big data.”

The social sciences, like the physical or biological sciences, are intellectual subjects, directed primarily toward understanding, rather than action. It would of course be a curious kind of “understanding” that had no implications for action, and this is perhaps especially true for the social sciences. Nevertheless, there is a difference between enlarging one’s understanding of human behavior and society on the one hand and trying to solve a social problem on the other. The social sciences are distinct from social problem solving, but each can contribute to the other.

During the last few years there has been a significant change in popular attitudes and expectations in the United States regarding social change and social problems. A renewed determination to ameliorate certain long-standing, as well as recently developed, ills of the society has arisen along with a sense of power and confidence in its ability to do so.

In looking for ways in which to implement this desire for self-control, for directed rather than accidental improvement, a good many leaders of society have begun to turn, increasingly expectant, to the social sciences. Some have asked what the social sciences can contribute to the venture. Others have assumed that these sciences have a great deal to contribute to a better society and that they need only to be force-fed (the recommended diet varies from prescriber to prescriber) in order to grow faster and to make their contribution larger.

The social sciences do have a contribution to make to social practice, but not so large a contribution as they will make if helped to develop properly. At this point in history, the magnitude of major social problems exceeds the capacity of social scientists to solve them.

Such expectations have been entertained before. In the latter part of the nineteenth century and the first decade or so of the twentieth, social scientists of the day offered advice to the progressive political and social movements of the times. As David Truman has pointed out, these political scientists and sociologists operated not only from a weak position in the political structure, but also with an almost total lack of theoretical sophistication, quite nonrigorous methods, and few facts about the systems on which they were advising. 1 David B. Truman, “The Social Sciences and Public Policy: Maturity Brings Problems of Relevance and Training,” Science , 160: 508-512, May 8, 1968. They were intellectually premature and too ready to claim relevance. Their efforts fell far short of expectations, both their own and expectations of those who, from outside the disciplines, had called upon them.

Social scientists had another try during the early years of the New Deal when economists especially, but sociologists and political scientists too, were invited into government and other institutions to develop programs, plans, and social devices for dealing with the Great Depression. The novel thinking of agricultural economists and the resultant development of institutions for what was then known as “farm relief” were considerably more successful than the efforts of the social reformers of the early 1900s had been.

One reason for the relatively greater success of the applied economics of the New Deal was that there had been developing in the United States a considerable sophistication in economics as a discipline, together with a good empirical base of data that had been accumulated over the prior decades. In comparison with today’s data base, that of the 1930s was poor and small; but it was a vast improvement over the virtual data vacuum of 1900. Another reason for the relative success was probably the degree of desperation that gripped the country and led to a willingness to try the somewhat radical measures that were proposed by economists; partly because people were willing to try the measures, they were successful. Still another opportunity for the social sciences came during World War II when psychologists and anthropologists especially made significant contributions to the prosecution of the war and the government of occupied territories.

Social scientists are currently being offered a fourth opportunity to display what they have to offer toward the solution of what is now a fairly well-standardized, if incomplete, list of problems: poverty, racial segregation and discrimination, urban decay and the strangulation of transportation, human and mechanical pollution of the environment, and a perceived increase in the incidence of crimes of violence. Will social scientists succeed better this time in living up to the expectations that face them? What can and should be done to make possible greater success?

There are several purely scientific difficulties in applying social science successfully to the solution of social problems. Limitations of space prevent their adequate discussion here. 2 These issues are taken up in the longer article in Social Science Information cited below. Their importance is such that they must at least be mentioned, however, and they require persistent scientific effort in order to improve the capacity of the social science disciplines to cope with social problems. There are three major scientific issues: so-called “Hawthorne effects” or changes in behavior which result from the fact that individuals are subjects in an experimental study; the inadequacies of existing data about social problems and individual behavior and the defects of indirect data; and finally the manipulability of social factors that are variables in social scientific analyses of problems. These are difficult scientific problems, but not impossible of solution. Furthermore, much headway can be made in applying social science without fully solving them.

Over the decades in the social sciences, the tendency has been to develop internal concerns, to define their own problems and not to accept, as their subject matter, the social problems of the contemporary and surrounding society. This tendency is attributable to forces intrinsic to the disciplines themselves, especially to conceptual redefinition of problems and to methodological or technical developments. A social scientist who undertakes to work on a practical problem, not as a wise man or a clever consultant, but as a scientist, quickly finds that the popular, or commonsense, statement of the problem is either incomplete or misleading; that “the” problem is really many problems, only some of which fall within the disciplinary or scientific scope; and that there are severe inadequacies in the methodological or technical equipment that he has for dealing with “the” practical problem. Sometimes the scientist examines the “real world” because some part of it has solved a problem and the scientist wants to know how the solution works. After he understands how it works he can sometimes improve upon the solution, but the basic movement of his thought is always away from the practical and toward abstract knowledge.

The social scientist gets driven back to more fundamental questions that bear less and less resemblance to the practical problem until they appear to be irrelevant; furthermore, some of the more fundamental questions raised in this way take on a life of their own and become genuinely dissociated from practical problems. They form, instead, the central conceptual or methodological core of the science as such. Thus, over a period of time, a social science can grow more abstract and become increasingly concerned with questions that confront it as an intellectual enterprise per se and that require solutions whether or not they bear upon the social problems of the day.

If these intrinsic intellectual forces were the only ones at work, a discipline would gradually lose all relevance. However, exogenous factors also have some influence. For example, some people become social scientists who have a genuine interest in solving social problems and retain it despite the professionalizing experiences of graduate study. Market forces are also effective, especially grants from both private foundations and government agencies to support applied social research.

The opportunity for a career in an applied field of social science is a market factor of importance. The very existence of professional economic consulting firms as private, nonacademic enterprises holds out the possibility of a career outside the academic world, and may tempt a young man who finds practical affairs more challenging than the intellectual world. The development of clinical psychology was greatly aided by the demands of the Veterans Administration directly after World War II for diagnostic and therapeutic help at its hospitals and clinics.

Another factor of importance is prestige. The social sciences are primarily academic enterprises, more so than either the biological or physical sciences, and the academic portion of the discipline is not only overwhelmingly larger than other sectors but also overpoweringly more prestigious. The physical and the biological sciences, on the other hand, have substantial nonacademic sectors that are intellectually and scientifically influential, as well as of great and evident practical importance.

The prestige which most social scientists attach to academic social science may or may not be justified but it is a fact. The low status of applied work is probably undeserved, but it too is a fact, and one that may discourage some first-rate scholars who are status conscious from entering early upon a career in applied social science. The origins of this low status lie partly in the earlier relative failures of social scientists to deal adequately and successfully with social problems. Even where applied social research has developed and has attracted competent people, it still has been applied research rather than what is called “development” (in the Research and Development sense) or “engineering.”

Most applied social research has been concentrated on the analysis of situations explaining or accounting for a given state of affairs; or the measurement of outcomes—and the degree of success of some action in reaching a stated objective. There has been less attention to preparing new means for taking action or recommending how a user should proceed in order to achieve success.

The production of recommendations for action goes beyond research and indeed beyond science, into what is properly termed “development” rather than “research,” or “engineering” rather than “science.” The distinction is more than verbal—it is a whole complex: a state of mind, institutional auspices, cross-disciplinary relations, communication with nonscientists, and employment of nonscientific resources and nonscientific skills.

“Development” or “engineering” calls primarily for an inventive and constructive attitude, more than an analytic and differentiating one. The scientist is usually trying to unscramble a given complex situation to see how its components work. An engineer is usually trying to put together a device or a process to achieve a given purpose. The scientific process is analytic; the engineering process is synthetic. The scientist’s creativity is conceptual, in producing imaginative new principles or connections between concepts. An engineer’s creativity is in tangible inventions of things or processes that have a causative or productive relationship to a desired end.

Except in very limited and spotty areas, social development or social engineering does not exist. Examples of social engineering can be found in economics in the development of fiscal and monetary policies, and in psychology in new forms of psychotherapy (especially behavior therapy), programmed instruction, human relations training, the training of managers, and the social organization of production units in firms.

Organizational influences

The development of an applied social science or a social engineering may proceed faster through professional schools (especially business and medicine) than through disciplinary departments in universities. The academically based research and teaching unit in the social sciences is affected by forces that hinder this sort of development. Some are organizational, some scientific; some derive from the institutional arrangements for the conduct of research in the social sciences. Most research is done in academic settings by part-time or short-term workers, i.e., by professors and graduate students.

The former have teaching and administrative responsibilities that take up part of their time, the latter have a primary short-term interest in completing a dissertation and getting on in the world. The former work part time on a research problem, the latter leave it for other places or other problems after a relatively short time. Thus, many social science research problems are “thesis-sized” because they are selected for that reason.

This tendency is abetted by the current system of project grants which tends to emphasize short-term investigation of discrete problems rather than long-term, exploratory and persistent pursuit of a problem, a phenomenon, or a method. The absence of a tradition of long-term research careers on a full-time basis, the inflexibility of space that makes it hard to expand and contract the size of a long-term project as such changes become necessary, the varying requirements for skilled labor in interviewing and data processing (currently eased by computer applications), all contribute to sporadic interest, easy discouragement, and lack of persistence.

On the other hand, the real basic advances in social science seem more likely to occur in settings—such as disciplinary departments—that are relatively free of the pressures to devise immediate solutions, to work with client systems, and to attend to the range of extra-scientific considerations that are involved in solving social problems. A convincing argument can be made that the most pressing needs of social science are methodological and that the greatest opportunities for strengthening the social sciences lie in improving methods of research and developing more powerful theories. Indeed, a considerable amount of the advance in social science that has taken place in the last few decades has come about through basic research of this sort, conducted in disciplinary departments.

Thus conventional disciplinary departments and institutes that are genuinely embedded in universities can be counted on to provide the social scientific underpinning for solving social problems, but should not be counted on for the actual problem-oriented work itself.

The latter task should be the responsibility of institutions that have less formidable intellectual responsibilities, and are free of the primary educational obligation. Furthermore, applied social research institutions ought to have some closer firsthand contact with social problems and the agencies that can take effective action on the problems.

Requirements for social science contributions to social problems

Where then should the responsibility for social science contributions to the solution of social problems be located? The phrasing of the question suggests part of the answer for, in the first place, a social problem rarely bears a one-to-one correspondence to social science, and almost never bears such a correspondence to any single social science discipline. All social problems are interdisciplinary in the sense that they require, for adequate solution, the efforts of more than one kind of scientist and usually of more than just scientists or engineers. Hence, the first requirement of an applied social research agency is that its professional personnel be drawn from a variety of disciplines (both within and outside the social sciences).

A second requirement, much harder to achieve, is that the assembled members of these disciplines be able to work together productively and effectively. This requirement demands first-rate scholars, not only curious about the problem at hand but also inquisitive about each other’s fields and capable of learning from each other. Willingness to listen and curiosity are more important than anything else, since transfer of training among social scientists is entirely possible, and it may even help in the solution of, say, a psychological problem if an anthropologist without any particular training in psychology gets to thinking about it.

A third requirement is that the team has full opportunity to perform its functions of engineering and development. This requires certain kinds of facilities: buildings and computers—especially adequate “software” to go with the computing machinery and all the programming and other technical help that can be provided. One of the most useful techniques in social engineering is the simulation of the social processes that are believed to underlie the social problem. In many cases these simulations will have to substitute for experimentation because of the size or other intractable features of the problem.

A fourth requirement is long-term funding commensurate with the size of the social problem. It is a commonplace of American politics that social problems must be solved quickly. We are abjured to waste no more time in eliminating segregation, discrimination, poverty, crime, and unemployment. But while sense of crisis may impel movement, a lot of it is waste motion. We are too impetuous and not persistent enough in trying to solve social problems. Problems need sustained study, trials of many different kinds of solution rather than one-shot panaceas arranged overnight by agencies that are funded on an annual basis and publicly criticized for lack of instant success.

Problems in utilization of social science

One of the most interesting points about social science contributions to the solution of social problems is that the process of introducing the changes necessary to solve the problem is in itself a problem in social science.

Before introducing changes into a quasi-stationary situation, the decision maker must consider a number of factors that affect the chances of success. First, he must consider the acceptability of his proposals to all the people involved in the situation; and the harm, damage, or deprivation that some of them may experience. Next, he must assess the effectiveness of the methods he expects to use to attract the attention and arouse willingness to explore, and the capacity he has to teach people new ways of behaving. Finally, he must try to adjust the incentive and inhibitory factors in the situation so as to stabilize the new equilibrium and maintain the change he aims to bring about. Almost all of these problems exist in one form or another in utilization of the products of biological and physical sciences, too. But these sciences have not only an engineering or developmental branch that puts their ideas into usable form, but also a marketing mechanism—a set of activities and relationships that handles these problems or is so constituted that it can afford to ignore some of them.

On the whole, the marketing mechanisms for social inventions and devices do not parallel those for physical and biological technology. There are at least three reasons for this. In the first place, until recently, there have been few social inventions or devices that could not be marketed or disseminated either through existing political mechanisms in the public sector, or through publication, or through the establishment of a professional group such as clinical psychologists. It may be that marketing mechanisms will spring up in response to the appearance of new items to be marketed.

For example, there are profit-making companies which now seem to be interested in developing and selling, as well as installing, new curricular materials and instructional procedures in the schools; and industrial firms have contracted to operate schemes for the alleviation of poverty—usually through retraining of the unskilled or underskilled. This trend has yet to be evaluated, but it could alter profoundly the nature of the process of social change. Secondly, there is difficulty in protecting property rights in intangible social technology. If the product is an idea, an attitude, a routine, it is hard to copyright and generally impossible to patent. The absence of protection of exclusive rights makes the prospect of investing in a marketing organization less attractive to an entrepreneur. Thirdly, much of the technological product of the social sciences has to do with the public rather than with the private sector of the economy, and is valuable for its distributive effect on the total society rather than for its enhancement of the quality of life of one individual at a time. Add to this the fact that a good many social inventions cannot be assigned a unit value, and one can see that the marketing mechanism must be the state in some form, rather than private enterprise.

Public policy issues in the application of social science

Some questions of public policy are raised by research and development activities in the social sciences. For example, what should be the public policy toward deliberate social experimentation, especially toward concealed experiments, in which the subjects are not aware that they are involved in an experiment? There are scientific reasons for concealment but the public policy problem is whether the probable gains from conducting such an experiment outweigh the ethical undesirability of acting in a less than open fashion. There is something repugnant about concealment of purpose, even when the motives for it are disinterested and no one is harmed. There is something upsetting about discovering that what one thought was a real and natural flow of events was instead a carefully contrived sequence of moves deliberately planned to accomplish a preconceived purpose.

The benefits to the general public welfare have to be balanced against these possible disadvantages. If experimental purpose must be concealed in order to obtain valid knowledge that will lead to improved social policies at a relatively low cost, not only in money but in mistakes and discomforts visited upon citizens, then the undesirable features of a concealed experiment may be outweighed by its advantages. The judgment cannot be made a priori for all cases; it must depend in each instance on the estimated costs and the anticipated benefits. Perhaps the more significant public policy question is: Who shall make the judgment?

On a more general level, one may raise questions in terms of a conflict between two values: the advancement of knowledge, and the personal integrity and convenience of the individual citizen. Nowhere does this conflict become more explicit than in questions concerning invasion of individual privacy, especially in regard to the collection of detailed data about individuals and their maintenance in files that are presumably to be used for research purposes.

The issues here turn around safeguards as to how the data will be used, and in how much detail the data will be kept. Briefly summarized, what has been proposed is that certain kinds of data which are now regularly collected by various agencies (central and local authorities and perhaps private agencies, too), but kept in separate files and published only in aggregated forms be made available for research purposes on a disaggregated basis.

More specifically it is proposed that data about individuals such as employment, income, savings, or expenditures be collected and stored in such a way that it would be possible to match the information from these separate series, by individuals. The anonymity of the individual and the confidentiality of the information would presumably be maintained as they are now. The data system would be used for research purposes, not for administrative ones.

Whether the very existence of a national data system would tempt those with legitimate access to make illegitimate use of the data is a much more serious question, going well beyond the data system per se. The question really turns around one’s estimate of the likelihood of “big brotherism”—of a controlling government and a controlled society, and of the role the social sciences might play in bringing about such a situation or maintaining it. As our society grows in density of population, in interdependence, in complexity and technological sophistication, the need for rational planning and for the thoughtful and foresighted management of our affairs grows apace. And so does the need for vigilance in the defense of individual liberty, since there is always, as there always has been, the tempting possibility for those in power to “simplify” their problems by wielding their power in ways that constrict freedom and constrain the less powerful.

There is no reason, however, to see the social sciences as more culpable or more threatening than other kinds of science and technological development. The power of the state is increased by the development of sophisticated weapons for its police, more efficient communication among them, and by devices that enable eavesdropping at a distance and through a wall. There are dangers in pharmacological control of behavior. Individual freedom can be abridged by the architecture of our dwellings and the design of our transportation, as well as by the laws which govern minimum wages, welfare payments, and income tax exemptions.

In fact, the social sciences can help to make us aware of threats to our freedom while giving us greater power to control our own behavior in constructive ways, helping us to be more tolerant of diversity, to learn to live together in greater harmony, less violently and more satisfyingly. If we are to reap these benefits, however, we must work at understanding ourselves and our society, at perfecting a social science that is capable of meeting the challenges of our future.

Henry W. Riecken (1917–2012) was an eminent social scientist who served as president of the Social Science Research Council between 1966 and 1971. He was also the first director of the National Science Foundation’s social science division. He also served on the faculties of Harvard University, University of Minnesota, and University of Pennsylvania.

This essay originally appeared in Items Vol. 23, Issue 1 in the spring of 1969. Visit our archives to view the original as it first appeared in the print editions of Items .

The Importance of the Social Sciences

In recent years STEM (science, technology, engineering, and maths) sciences have received the majority of investment and support from government, universities, etc., while these subjects are no doubt important, the importance of social sciences should not be ignored. In fact, in areas such as social and primary care, the justice system, and business, to name just a few, social science is extremely important, and necessary. It is therefore very important that this educational imbalance be addressed and more support provided to the social sciences.

While for many people the words “social sciences” may conjure up images of social workers or teachers, this is a gross misunderstanding of the range of roles available within this discipline, as well as the impact that it has on the wider world. In general, social sciences focus on the study of society and the relationship among individuals within society. Social science covers a wide spectrum of subjects, including economics, political science, sociology, history, archaeology, anthropology, and law. In comparison to STEM sciences, social science is able to provide insight into how science and innovation work – in effect it is the science of science. In particular, social scientists are equipped with the analytical and communication skills that are important throughout many industries and organizations.

What do social scientists do?

Social scientists are involved with solving many of the world’s biggest issues, such as violent crime, alternative energy, and cyber security. They have had profound effects on every part of society.

Among the important roles that social science can play is in fighting the spread of infectious diseases. A perfect example is the recent Ebola crisis in West Africa. While part of solving this problem naturally rested on developing a clearer understanding of the pathogens involved and increasing investment in drugs, there were a number of social science needs as well. In particular, it was necessary to understand the people who were suffering from the disease as well as the wider society in which they were living. For example, doctors needed to understand how people’s attitudes were shaped towards such things as hand washing and other sanitary behaviours. It was also necessary to inquire into larger societal questions such as why do states fail, and how can they be rebuilt and strengthened. Additionally, the fight against Ebola needed specialists in administration, markets, drug pricing, human resources, fund raising, and leadership.

In other fields of medicine, social scientists again have much to offer and are working with a variety of organizations in the UK. For example, researchers are currently studying how cancer patients and their carers understand the recent, and on-going, changes in cancer science. Social scientists are also working with the National Institute of Health to provide a clearer picture of patients’ experience with community hospitals. Sociologists are working with the Medical Research Council on the possible causes of poor sleep patterns.

Other examples of the uses of social science abound. The United Kingdom’s Ministry of Defence uses social scientists at thinktanks and universities in order to better understand the world and be better able to handle the defence and security challenges it faces every day. In another interesting example, the UK’s Home Office has brought together engineers, criminologists, and auto manufacturers in order to figure out how to build cars that are more difficult to steal. The insight that criminologists can provide into the reasons why people steal, as well as their methods, is of particular importance to this project.

Social scientists are also in great demand in the business world. For example, easyJet sponsors the Consumer Data Research Centre, which uses geo-demographic mapping to provide information to the airline about its customers’ use of services, travel patterns, access to airports, and much more. Companies around the world are often desperate to gain the type of deeper understanding of their customers that social scientists are able to provide. Social scientists have the skills to see the world as others do, as well as find data that others may have missed.

Strengthening social sciences for the future

It is clear that social science is of immense importance to societies around the world, however their still is much work to be done to increase the level of support that they receive. One of the key programs that have emerged to champion the social sciences has been the Campaign for Social Science. The Campaign attempts to inform public policy, build coalitions, and engage in measured advocacy for support of the social sciences.

Another important program that has helped raise the profile of the social sciences is The Future of the UK and Scotland, which, according to its website, “works to illustrate not just the value but the diversity of the social sciences – including resources on immigration policy, higher education, welfare, defence and security, business, currency and the constitution”. Successful programs like the ones listed above have done much to increase general knowledge of, and to secure increased funding for, the social sciences.

The choice between STEM and the social sciences is really a false one; society needs people trained in both. In order to formulate effective solutions for society and to understand the implications of those solutions, a mix of both STEM and social sciences will be required. Social science is already increasingly engaged in collaborative cross-disciplinary work in diverse fields such as engineering, medicine, computing, biology, and mathematics. It is clear that no subject area can stand alone, walled off from the outside, and that social science can play an important role in all fields.

Read on for more information about some of the leading institutions offering first-class social science programmes:

FACULTY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES, UNIVERSITY OF OTTAWA – CANADA The University of Ottawa (uOttawa) is ranked among the top 2% universities worldwide, and among the top 10 most research-intensive universities in Canada. uOttawa is home to 10 faculties that offer more than 450 undergraduate, graduate and professional degree programs to over 43,000 students from across Canada and 150 countries. The Faculty of Social Sciences (FSS) offers a range of high quality undergraduate, masters and doctoral programs. Given that the Faculty is situated just blocks from Parliament, embassies and the central offices of public and not-for-profit organizations, interacting with politicians, policy makers and society’s key influencers is commonplace. Read the full profile…

SOCIAL SCIENCES FACULTY, UNIVERSITY OF WARWICK – UK The University of Warwick is a globally connected and entrepreneurial institution designed to promote success through innovative teaching and exciting research opportunities. In less than fifty years Warwick has become one of the UK’s top universities, consistently ranked highly in all national league tables. Close links with business and industry ensure that students develop skills and knowledge relevant to the modern workplace, which in turn means that Warwick graduates are in high demand among the UK’s top graduate employers.

MOUNT ROYAL UNIVERSITY – CANADA An institution which prides itself on recognising students not as numbers or statistics but as individuals, Mount Royal University encourages all those enrolled to be themselves. With a thriving community of 12,000 undergraduate students studying across a broad spectrum of bachelor’s programmes, diplomas and certificates, the institution has a history of success in preparing young people for life after graduation. While Mount Royal’s courses have changed over time, the University’s dedication to providing high-quality teaching and small class sizes has remained the same.

FACULTY OF ARTS AND SOCIAL SCIENCES, UNIVERSITY OF WAIKATO – NEW ZEALAND One of the most progressive research-led institutions in New Zealand, the University of Waikato is dedicated to providing a rich learning environment in which tomorrow’s leaders are encouraged to excel. The University is ideally situated in the vibrant, densely populated city of Hamilton and offers its students a dynamic synthesis of academic excellence and personal development. The University of Waikato’s Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASS) graduates can now be found working for institutions such as the Ministry of Defence and successful web design company Rocketspark, urges its students to understand the value of their chosen subjects not simply within the academic community but also in the context of today’s global society.

SCHOOL OF SOCIAL SCIENCE AND PSYCHOLOGY, UNIVERSITY OF WESTERN SUDNEY – AUSTRALIA A world-class institution dedicated to providing students with the key skills and confidence they need to excel in their chosen disciplines, the University of Western Sydney (UWS) in Australia has been named one of the world’s top 400 universities in the prestigious Times Higher Education World University Rankings. The School of Social Sciences and Psychology offers a range of disciplines and areas of study that are amongst the most exciting and important in the contemporary university. Many of the programs that are managed by the School lead to professional recognition in areas such as Clinical Psychology, Social Work, Counselling, Urban Planning and Policing, whilst others have been developed in consultation of the relevant industry and public sectors.

Humanities, Social Science, and Natural Sciences

Introduction, the importance of humanities.

Humanities, social science, and natural sciences are major disciplines that deal with human beings and their culture. The main similarity between the three subjects is that they study society and human relationships. However, humanities deal with the heritage and the question of what makes us human, while social sciences focus on learning different parts of people’s lives within society (Öztemiz 813). Social science is a branch of study that includes topics such as arts, classics, philosophy, history, and anthropology (Öztemiz 814). Finally, natural sciences study the natural world and objects through physics, mathematics, chemistry, and biology. I have learned a lot in the course and realized that humanities involve a more critical and analytical approach while sciences are more scientific.

I gained valuable knowledge and understanding of these topics through this research work. The texts from social sciences made me realize that to understand the current day events, one must have a vast knowledge in social sciences. My research on humanities approved that the discipline is helpful to people who are looking to understand the human experience better. The two fields are closely related because they deal with human beings and culture. However, humanities tend to analyze human behavior in all aspects and scopes (Öztemiz 815). The texts on natural sciences used more scientific approaches to explain the discipline. An example is a scientific explanation of how the world came into existence. Various challenges, including funds and lack of enough sources for research materials on the discipline, paused a great challenge to my research work.

My research on the three disciplines changed my perception of these study areas. Initially, I never had an idea of the relationship between these three study fields. This research provided evidence of humanity being more than just about human beings. In natural sciences, perhaps there is one common myth that there is a universal scientific method with common steps that all scientist follows to solve scientific problems (Öztemiz 821). Another misconception I had was that science could solve all problems, but I realized that not all human problems could be solved through science. Viewing my topic from three different points of view taught me that writing in college has various genres, each with its specific style, content, and format requirements. For example, writing in humanities can be in the form of analyzing a poem, performance, or play. On the other hand, writing in sciences can be analytical, explanatory, or persuasive essays.

After changing my purpose and audience, I made several choices in doing my writing work in class. I added the information that readers needed to understand in my documents, changed my knowledge level, and pitched it right to accommodate the new audiences. I added examples and altered the status of my models to be appropriate to the audience. I learned that writing research works in the sciences straightforwardly explain complex scientific aspects and writing in the humanities uses long paragraphs that combine images and metaphors, and authors are active, not passive, in their voices (Öztemiz 826). However, the research must have an introduction, literature review, methods, results, and discussion in all these disciplines.

In conclusion, through my research work on humanity, social sciences, and natural sciences, I have gained positive knowledge on handling my academic papers through my educational journey. This research work has given me various strengths, including self-confidence, learning to work independently, critical thinking, and analytical skills. The research has helped define my academic, career, and personal interests. As a reader, thinker, and writer, my research has enabled me to expand my knowledge and understanding of humanity and the sciences.

Öztemiz, Seminar. “Cultural Heritage Literacy: A Survey of Academics from Humanities and Social Sciences.” Journal of Librarianship and Information Science 52.3 (2020): 818-831.

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Long-Term Care in Europe: analyzes the key issues at stake in developing long-term care systems for older people in Europe.

Adjudicating Employment: Rights compares and analyses institutions for resolving employment rights disputes in ten countries.

The Handbook of Security, 2nd edition: is the most comprehensive analysis of scholarly security debates and issues to date.

The Price of Public Intellectuals: is an historically-informed survey critically outlining sociological, psychological, political, and economic approaches to the role of public intellectuals.

Informal Education, Childhood and Youth: emphasises how geography – space and place – matter to informal education practices, through a range of examples.

Why the Social Sciences Matter: provides an illuminating look at topics of concern to everyone at the beginning of the twenty-first century.

Radical Feminism: is a radical and pioneering feminist manifesto for today's modern audience written by one of the cornerstones of today's feminist scene.

Social Movements and Their Technologies: explores the interplay between social movements and their 'liberated technologies'.

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What Should Be in a Social Science Essay? Fundamentals and Essential Techniques

What’s in an Essay?

Notes on Writing Style

Notes on the Writing Process

Final Thoughts

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Why the Social Sciences Matter

Kellogg College, University of Oxford, UK

Lancaster University, UK

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Table of contents (12 chapters)

Social Science, Parenting and Child Development

Health and Wellbeing

Climate Change and Society

Poverty and Inequality

What Can the Social Sciences Bring to an Understanding of Food Security?

Numbers and Questions: The Contribution of Social Science to Understanding the Family, Marriage and Divorce

Crime, Policing and Compliance with the Law

International Migration

Back Matter

About this book

Editors and Affiliations

About the editors

What Is Social Science?

Social Science in Schools

Key Takeaways

Understanding Social Science

Branches of Social Science

Political Science

Social Science Careers

Economists and Social Workers

Social Science Wages

History of Social Science

Why Is Social Science Important?

How Do You Become a Social Scientist?

Which Jobs Can You Get With a Social Science Degree?

Interdisciplinarity

What I Have Learned from Social Science

Ziyad Marar

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