what is a social science

what is a social science

The Significance and Scope of Social Science Studies

1. Introduction to Social Science

The term “social science” is used particularly when the reference is about scholars exploring aspects of human society and behavior. They are also able to explore any portion of the observable world. In the academic view, social scientists study much more than just interpersonal relations, sociopolitical issues, or individual and collective behaviors. These professionals also reveal the nature and functioning laws of the human groups, and even the phenomena related to the absence of these collectives could have against the reality of human individuals. This scope often confuses people and even some professionals themselves. Even so, the social science courses nowadays present a more appropriate and accurate address, demonstrating the human dimension but going beyond the behavioral argument.

2. Key Disciplines within Social Science

Disciplines may differ in terms of the methods by which conclusions and concepts are generated and verified, and in terms of overarching theoretical frameworks or the picture of the world they use to guide empirical research. Social science can include applied work, accuracy testing, societal goal setting, and the generation of frameworks and concepts that permeate everyday thinking. While these fields have academic and probably practical traditions, they have also undergone changes as scientific, philosophical, political, religious, and technological circumstances have also changed. Of course, these diverse disciplines delineate different areas but can be used in tandem to make sure that findings are meaningful. These different disciplines generate sub-disciplines which, in themselves, help to support and make up the fabric of intellectual life.

The principal disciplines upon which contemporary social science relies for testing frameworks and making conceptual distinctions have academic and professional traditions that are centuries old. Yet these fields have undergone tremendous changes as scientific, philosophical, political, economic, religious, and technological circumstances have also changed, both deliberately creating improvements in the quality of human life. The various fields constituting social science differ in the phenomena with which they deal.

3. Methods and Approaches in Social Science Research

Social science research can be theoretical in one of several possible senses. The “pure” theory may concern itself with the relation of two variables, or it may attempt to provide an explanation of the relations between entire systems of variables and components. These theories are the most significant in the presentation of a logical basis for the integration of empirical data. In addition to their doubtless theoretical functions, they are, in effect, vital instruments for empirical testing and modification. Since a quantitative, especially multivariate, empirical test often becomes, at least in practice, a partial theory test, one of the great contributions of “theorists” is frequently of a truly empirical nature. This relation between theory building and testing is a major cause of the scientific status of social scientists.

The development of a theory presents many problems as only a very small part of the phenomena under study can be isolated at any given time. The very formation of a hypothesis implies that the problem is already partly solved, so the difficulty of legal problems connected with the study of social life develops into the difficulty of empirical verification. The application of untried theories to partial aspects of the complex that forms the field of social science research follows from this loaded term in question. We often find in the accounts of sociological work evidence of superficially shallow examination of the evidence “found”; sometimes such neglect is given more or less forthright; sometimes it is concealed beneath a mock cloak of mathematics and statistical techniques.

Mixed methods research methodology in social science research

4. Applications and Impact of Social Science Studies

The study of social problems does not belong per se to the realm of social science since superficially almost any discipline offers interesting social problems. However, these are dear disciplines of the general literature of human experience, the features of particular social issues, special features such as the accumulation, uniformity, and generalization of facts and norms. The special nature of social science is to be found in the institutional character of social facts. Social issues have made their appearance when the previous attempts made by other groups to solve the social problem have often led to dead-end solutions which are apparently unable to accommodate the demands that the original deviant behavior places on the collective conscience of the social group. Social science problems and their solutions are especially demanding, not only because they are related to a unique reality, but also because the victim of the lack of planning is the society as a whole or a persuasive group within each society.

A knowledge of the social structure is essential both for the purpose of generalization and for the establishment of a reference pattern from which the reality may be measured. The requirements for social information are also a part of everyday life as well, because of the spontaneity and relative informality of social interactions. This informal, unplanned, and non-specialized manner of handling social problems and requirements is generally no protection against the adverse effects of a lack of information or the presence of wrong information. In contrast to economically less developed countries, however, even the planned, collective, and more specialized social science work, characteristic of developed nations, is sometimes conspicuous enough through its absence or its poor execution, with respect to certain, but relatively unprivileged, groups in national societies.