WHAT ARE THE BRANCHES OF THE SOCIAL SCIENCES? - CULTURE VOCABULARY - 2025

The branches of the social sciences include disciplines such as economics, political science, geography, demography, human ecology, psychology, sociology, semiotics, anthropology, archeology, history and linguistics.

The social sciences are one of the most important academic disciplines, which deal with the study of society and the relationships between individuals within it. In turn, it has many branches and each of them is considered a "social science."

The term is also sometimes used to refer specifically to the field of sociology, the "science of society," established in the 19th century.

Disciplines of social sciences and their characteristics

1- Economy

It is a social science related primarily to the study and analysis of the production, distribution and consumption of goods and services, according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary.

The discipline was renamed in the late nineteenth century by Alfred Marshall from "political economy" to "economics" as a shorter term for economics, at a time when the use of mathematics was on the rise.

This helped the acceptance of economics as a science and also, as a separate discipline, outside of political science and the other social sciences.

The economy is also responsible for the study of ways to meet the needs of society with limited resources. Another object of study of this social science is the way in which societies and individuals prosper and survive.

Economic analysis can be applied throughout society, such as in business, finance, health care, and government. Economic analyzes can also be applied to topics as diverse as crime, education, family, law, politics, religion, social institutions, war, science, and the environment.

The ultimate goal of the economy is to improve the living conditions of people in their daily lives.

2- Political Science

Political science is the social science that deals with the study of government systems, the analysis of political activities, political thoughts and political behavior.

It extensively addresses the theory and practice of politics, which is commonly seen as a determinant of the distribution of power and resources.

Political scientists are involved in revealing the relationships that underlie political events and conditions, and from these revelations they attempt to build general principles about the way the world of politics works.

Political science encompasses numerous subfields, including comparative politics, political economy, international relations, political theory, public administration, public policy, and political methodology.

Furthermore, political science is related to and based on the fields of economics, law, sociology, history, philosophy, geography, psychology, and anthropology.

As a social science, contemporary political science began to take shape in the second half of the 19th century when it began to separate from political philosophy, which traces its roots to the works of Aristotle and Plato, written nearly 2,500 years ago.

3- Geography

The term geography comes from the Greek and literally means "description of the Earth." It is the field of social science, responsible for the study of the lands, characteristics, inhabitants and phenomena of the Earth.

The first person to use the word geography was Eratosthenes (276-194 BC). Geography is a comprehensive discipline that seeks an understanding of the Earth and its human and natural complexities, not only where objects are, but how they have changed and come to be. The four historical traditions in geographic research are:

1. Spatial analysis of natural and human phenomena
2. Area studies of places and regions
3. Studies of man-land relations
4. Earth sciences

Geography as a discipline can be broadly divided into two main secondary fields: human geography and physical geography.

The former focuses primarily on the built environment and how humans create, manage, and influence space.

The last field examines the natural environment and how organisms, climate, soil, water, and landforms are produced and interact.

The differences between these approaches led to a third field: environmental geography, which combines physical and human geography and refers to the interactions between the environment and humans.

4- Psychology

Psychology is the science that studies and analyzes the behavior and mental processes of the individual, encompassing all aspects of conscious and unconscious experience, as well as thought.

It is an academic discipline and it is also a social science that seeks to understand individuals and groups by establishing general principles and investigating specific cases.

Psychologists explore behavior and mental processes, including perception, cognition, attention, emotion (affect), intelligence, phenomenology, motivation, brain function, and personality.

5- Sociology

Sociology is the study of social or societal behavior, including its origins, development, organization, networks, and institutions.

It is a social science that uses various methods of empirical research and critical analysis to develop a body of knowledge about social order, disorder, and change.

Many sociologists seek to carry out research that can be applied directly to social policy and welfare, while others focus primarily on refining the theoretical understanding of social processes.

The topic ranges from the micro-sociology level of individual agency and interaction, to the macro level of systems and social structure.

6- Anthropology

Anthropology is the study of various aspects of human beings within societies past and present.

Social anthropology and cultural anthropology study the norms and values ​​of societies. Linguistic anthropology studies how language affects social life. Biological or physical anthropology studies the biological development of human beings.

7- Demography

Demography is the statistical study of populations, mainly of human beings. It is dedicated to analyzing any type of dynamic population, which changes with time or space.

Demography includes studies on the structure, size or distribution of populations, as well as their spatio-temporal changes. With this we speak of factors such as birth, migration, aging or deaths.

8- History

History is the study of the records of events that occur before prehistory.

It is an umbrella term that refers to past events, as well as the memory, discovery, collection, organization, presentation and interpretation of information about these events. Scholars who write about history are called historians.

9- Linguistics

Linguists traditionally analyze human language by observing an interaction between sound and meaning. Phonetics is the study of speech and non-speech sounds, and delves into their acoustic and articulatory properties.

On the other hand, the study of the meaning of language deals with how languages ​​encode the relationships between entities, properties and other aspects of the world to transmit, process and assign meaning, as well as to manage and resolve ambiguity.

While the study of semantics is typically concerned with truth conditions, pragmatics deals with how the situational context influences the production of meaning.

10- Archeology

Archeology is about the study of human activity based on the recovery and analysis of cultural material.

In addition to being considered a social science, archeology also belongs to the branch of humanities.

References

1. Paul A. Baran. (2010-May). monthlyreview.org.
2. Economic and Social Research Council. esrc.ac.uk.
3. Harper, Douglas (February 2007). "Online Etymology Dictionary - Economy". Retrieved October 27, 2007.
4. Bonnett, Alastair (16 January 2008). What is Geography ?. SAGE Publications. ISBN 9781849206495.
5. Tosh, John (2006). The Pursuit of History. Pearson Education Limited. pp. 168-169.