Social Science Fair Categories
Anthropology - The study of humanity.
Anthropology's basic concerns are "What defines human life and society?", "How are social relations among
humans organized?", "Who are the ancestors of modern Homo sapiens?", "What are humans' physical traits?",
"How do humans behave?", "Why are there variations among different groups of humans?", and "How has the
evolutionary past of Homo sapiens influenced its social organization and culture?".
Archaeology - The study of human society.
Which is primarily through the recovery and analysis of the material culture and environmental data that they
have left behind, which includes artifacts, architecture, and cultural landscapes (the archaeological record).
Archaeology has various different goals, which range from studying human evolution to cultural evolution and
understanding culture history.
Geography- The science that studies the lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena of Earth.
A translation would be "to describe or write about the Earth". Four traditions in geographical research are the
spatial analysis of natural and human phenomena, area studies (places and regions), study of man-land
relationship, and research in earth sciences. Modern geography seeks to understand the Earth and all of its
human and natural complexities—not merely where objects are, but how they have changed and come to be.
Economics - The analysis of the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services.
Economics aims to explain how economies work and how economic agents interact. Economic analysis is
applied throughout society, in business, finance and government, but also in crime, education, the family,
health, law, politics, religion, social institutions, war, and science.
Government/Political Science - A science concerned with the study of the state, government and politics.
It deals extensively with the theory and practice of politics, and the analysis of political systems and political
behavior. Political scientists see themselves engaged in revealing the relationships underlying political events
and conditions. And from these revelations they attempt to construct general principles about the way the
world of politics works.
Sociology - The study of society.
It is a social science which uses various methods of critical analysis to develop and refine a body of knowledge
about human social activity. For many sociologists the goal is to conduct research which may be applied
directly to social policy and welfare. Sociology is both topically and methodologically a very broad discipline.
Its traditional focuses have included social class, social mobility, religion, secularization, law, deviance.
History - The discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events.
It is a field of research which uses a narrative to examine and analyze the sequence of events, and it sometimes
attempts to investigate objectively the patterns of cause and effect that determine events. The modern study of
history has many different fields including those that focus on certain regions and those which focus on certain
topical or thematic elements of historical investigation.
Philosophy - The study of general and fundamental problems.
This includes problems such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and
language. "Moral philosophy", is concerned primarily with the question of the best way to live, and
secondarily, concerning the question of whether this question can be answered. Ethics are more concerned with
the questions of how one ought to act, and what the right course of action is. Lastly, applied ethics go beyond
theory and step into real world ethical practice, such as questions of whether or not abortion is correct.
Psychology - is the science of behavior and mental processes.
Its goal is to understand individuals and groups by both establishing general principles and researching specific
cases. Psychologists attempt to understand the role of mental functions in individual and social behavior, while
also exploring the physiological processes that underlie certain behaviors. Psychologists explore such concepts
as perception, cognition, attention, emotion, motivation, brain functioning, personality, and behavior.