Disciplines and Ideas in the Social Science

SOCIAL SCIENCES

- A branch of science devoted to the study of societies and the relationships among
individuals within those societies.
- “Social sciences as those mental or cultural sciences which deal with the activities of the
individual as member of the group. The term social sciences thus embrace all those subjects
which deal with the relationship of man to the society.

NATURAL SCIENCES

- A major branch of science that deals with the description, prediction and understanding of
natural phenomena, basically based on observational and empirical evidence.

HUMANITIES

- refers to the study of the ways in which the human experience is processed and documented. -
encompasses the field of philosophy, literature, religion, art, music, history and language.

Social Sciences and Natural Sciences

Things in Common

- both sciences employ the scientific model in order to gain information. - both sciences use
empirical and measured data evidence that can be seen and discerned by the senses. - both
sciences’ theories can be tested to yield theoretical statements and general positions.

Social Science and Humanities

Things in Common

- Both the humanities and social science are concerned with human aspects like, law, politics,
linguistics, economics, and psychology as well as human lives and nature
Concepts and Principles of the Social Science Theories

A. Functionalism
- also called structural- functional theory, sees society as a structure with interrelated parts
designed to meet the biological and social needs of the individuals in that society.
B. Marxism
- a social, political, and economic philosophy named after Karl Marx, which examines the
effect of capitalism on labor, productivity, and economic development and argues for a
worker revolution to overturn capitalism in favor of communism.
C. Symbolic Interactionism
- is a major frame work of the sociological theory. This perspective relies on the symbolic
meaning that people develop and build upon in the process of social interaction. Although
symbolic interactionism traces its origins to Max Weber's assertion that individuals act
according to their interpretation of the meaning of their world
D. Psychoanalysis
- is defined as a set of psychological theories and therapeutic techniques that have their
origin in the work and theories of Sigmund Freud. The core idea at the center of
psychoanalysis is the belief that all people possess unconscious thoughts, feelings, desires,
and memories (Cherry 2020).
Sigmund Freud (Source: (WGBH 1998)
- Father of Psychoanalysis - Jewish background, though avowed atheist.
- He had a medical background wanted to do “neurophysiologic research”.
- He had a private practice in nervous and brain disorders.