History of Various Social

Sciences
Sociology
 Sociology is the study of human groups in interaction or
human social life.

 concerned with the social rules and processes that bind and
separate people as individuals and as members of
associations, groups, communities and institutions

 Sociology includes the examination of the organization and

development of human social life.
The history of sociology
 Long before the word sociology had been invented,
philosophers were thinking in sociological terms

 Confucius 580BC

 Greek philosophers

 The sociological imagination: the ability to situate personal

troubles within an informed framework of social issues.
The history of sociology
 The discipline of sociology emerged in an attempt to
understand the social changes that were taking place
 The industrial revolution
 French revolution (the creation of empires)
 The age of enlightenment or scientific reasoning

 Early sociologists wanted to find out

 what holds society together
 solutions to the breakdown of social solidarity
Auguste Comte (1798-1857)
 The ‘father’ of sociology

 believed sociology held the potential to improve society and direct human
activity

 3 stage theory of social progress

 theological stage
 metaphysical stage
 scientific or positivist stage
Herbert Spencer 1820-1903
 Society like a living organism – an harmonious whole

 the various parts of society - the state, the economy, social institutions –
are interdependent

 societies evolved naturally

 social reform unnecessary

Karl Marx 1818-83
 Conflict theory of society

 Capitalism had created class conflict between the workers and the owners
of the means of production - the capitalists.

 eventually the workers would rise up and revolt and overthrow the ruling
class.
Pyramid of Capitalist System
Later sociologists
 Realised that the methods used in the natural
sciences were not so easily applied in the social
sciences because human beings have culture

 Instead, sociologists should seek to understand

behaviour
Emile Durkheim 1858-1917
 He wanted sociology to be recognized as an academic discipline

 society is real - it’s out there

 society constrains what we can do

 this external reality is what sociology is about

 we should "consider social facts as things".

 Society has solidarity: social solidarity (shared belief systems and values)
is the ‘social glue’ that holds societies together
 Social factors that influence individual behavior
 He studied suicide rate among different groups and concluded
that social integration, the degree to which individuals are tied to
their social groups was a key social factor.
 Sociology should not only diagnose the cause of
social problems but should develop solution for
them.
Max Weber 1864-1920
 sociology is about individual actions that are socially orientated

 relations of men whereby some men have a legitimate right to expect

people to willingly obey their command.
 types of authority

 a trend to greater social equality was inevitable

 sociologists should be value free

 Plato 427 b.c. - 347 b.c
 Aristotle: 384 BC. - 322 BC.
 Thomas Hobbes 1588-1679
 John Locke – 1632-1704
 Jean Jacques Rousseau 1712-1778
 Auguste Comte (1798-1857)
 Herbert Spencer 1820-1903
 Emile Durkheim 1858-1917
 Today it is accepted that a good sociological
argument needs to balance both individual
agency and structural constraint

 “neither the life of an individual nor the

history of a society can be understood without
understanding both" (Mills 1959).

 Why?
 Because humans "make their own history, but they
do not make it just as they please; they do not make
it under circumstances chosen by themselves, but
under circumstances directly encountered, given and
transmitted from the past" (Marx 1852)
 A good sociological argument takes into
account both individual agency and
structural constraints

 “The individual is free to make choices”

versus
“Society made me do it”
How do sociologists gather their evidence?
What methods and approaches do they use?

 Quantitative
 surveys, censuses, and statistics

 useful for studying large-scale social processes, such as

income inequality, population changes, changes in social
attitudes, etc.

 Quantitative data produces a measurement of subjects'

characteristics and behavior
How do sociologists gather their evidence?
What methods and approaches do they use?

 Qualitative
 in-depth interviews, data and texts, researcher's own impressions and
reactions

 gives insight into the way people actively construct and find meaning
in their world.

 qualitative research generates information on their meanings and

practices
Sociology today

 the family:
 marriage, divorce, child-rearing, domestic abuse

 large organisations:
 businesses, governments – their structures and hierarchies

 social movements and political protest

 divisions and inequality within society:

 race, gender, class

 It is the perspective, not the topic, that makes a paper

sociological
Anthropology

 Anthropos: from the Greek word for human being or

person.

 The study of the relationship between human

biological traits and their social characteristics
acquired by living in groups
History of anthropology
 Physical anthropology: Includes looking for evidence about how humans
evolved; how the natural environment influenced physical characteristics
of humans; racial difference; population genetics

 Origins in archaeology which developed as people discovered or dug up

artifacts from the distant past

 Charles Darwin 1809 -1882. The Origin of the Species

 Today, physical anthropologists are specialists

History of anthropology
 Cultural anthropology: the study of the way in which societies and
cultures develop

 Herodotus, in 5th century BC wrote about his travels in eastern Asia and
Egypt

 In the 19th century a distinct field of study, anthropology, developed and

efforts began to get more consistent data directly from informants

 The recognition that study of other cultures also provided insight into our
own cultures led to anthropology becoming a social science at the
beginning of the C20th.
Anthropological terms:Fieldwork
1. longterm residence in the community studied – at least a year.

2. Learning the language.

3. Participant observation – the anthropologist participates in the lives of

the locals, living as they live, doing what they do. Virtually impossible
but the attempt & willingness to try is important.

Malinowski is generally associated with the concept of fieldwork. He went off

to do long term fieldwork in the Trobriand Islands at the eastern tip of
New Guinea
More Anthropological terms
 Informants

 Culture shock
Anthropologists today
 study a huge range of topics

 the range of locations where they work has

expanded

 anthropology at home is common

Psychology
 The scientific study of mind and behaviour.
 Focus on how and why an organism does
something.
 What are the underlying cause of behavior
and the mental processes involved?
History of Psychology
 Interest in the interrelationship between our mental
processes and our physiological processes (mind and
body) appears in the writing of:

 Greek philosophers
 Locke
 Rousseau
How much of our consciousness is…

 Innate, or biologically based?

 A result of our experience?

William James 1842-1910

 psychologist and philosopher

 the mind-world connection

 Pragmatism – what is true is what works

for us
Sigmund Freud 1856-1939
 The unconscious mind
 Believed many physical and mental problems were
caused by traumatic experiences in childhood which
had been repressed Id
 Dreams
B.F. Skinner 1904-1990

 Behavioral psychology: how behaviors are

learned and reinforced.

 Positive reinforcement

 Social psychology: the study of an

individual’s behaviour as it influences and is
influenced by the behaviour of others.
Carl Rogers 1902-1987

 Combined psychology and sociology

 the actualizing tendency: we all have a built

in motivation to develop to our fullest
potential

 Humanistic psychology: emphasizes the role

of motivation on thought and behavior.
Cultural psychology
 assumes that culture and mind are inseparable
 Studies the ‘collective mind’ of a culture
 Psychological theories that work in one
culture may not work in another
Geography

 The study of the natural environment of human

beings and how that environment influences human
social and cultural development

 Geographers attempt to understand the earth in terms

of physical and spatial relationships
History of geography

 an organized field of knowledge in ancient

Greece

 geographers make maps

 became a social science much more recently

Geography is divided into subfields:
 Human geography: focuses on the built environment, how
space is created, viewed and managed by humans as well as
the influence humans have on the space they occupy.
transportation, health, military operations, cities.

 Physical geography: examines the natural environment and

how climate, vegetation & life, soil, water & landforms are
produced and interact.

 Environmental geography: looks at the interaction between

the environment & humans.
History
 The study of past events

 Relating these events to each other and the present

 When history provides theories, rules and organization of

rules, it can be considered a social science

 Historians who take a social science approach draw on

material & information from other social sciences.
Trends in the Social Sciences today

 Boundaries between different disciplines are

becoming blurred

 The boundaries of the various disciplines are

changing

 New social sciences are developing

Trends in the Social Sciences today…An
Integrated Approach
 Interaction is taking place between the various social
sciences and between social science and natural
science

 Why is this? Because complex subjects and issues

require an integrated approach
Blind Men and the Elephant John Godfrey Saxe
(1816-1887)

It was six men of Indostan

To learning much inclined,

Who went to see the Elephant

(Though all of them were blind),

That each by observation

Might satisfy his mind
The First approached the Elephant,
And happening to fall

Against his broad and sturdy side,

At once began to bawl:

"God bless me! but the Elephant

Is very like a wall!"
 The Second, feeling of the tusk,
Cried, "Ho! what have we here

So very round and smooth and sharp?

To me 'tis mighty clear

This wonder of an Elephant

Is very like a spear!"
 The Third approached the animal,
And happening to take

The squirming trunk within his hands,

Thus boldly up and spake:

"I see," quoth he, "the Elephant

Is very like a snake!"
The Fourth reached out an eager hand,
And felt about the knee.

"What most this wondrous beast is like

Is mighty plain," quoth he;

" 'Tis clear enough the Elephant

Is very like a tree!"
The Fifth, who chanced to touch the ear,
Said: "Even the blindest man

Can tell what this resembles most;

Deny the fact who can

This marvel of an Elephant

Is very like a fan!"
The Sixth no sooner had begun
About the beast to grope,

Than, seizing on the swinging tail

That fell within his scope,

"I see," quoth he, "the Elephant

Is very like a rope!"
 And so these men of Indostan
Disputed loud and long,

Each in his own opinion

Exceeding stiff and strong,

Though each was partly in the right,

And all were in the wrong!
What is your UNDERSTANDING of
basic human rights as expressed by
Thomas Hobbes, John Locke and Jean
Jacque Rousseau. Discuss