EMERGENCE OF THE SOCIAL
SCIENCES
I. Defining Social Sciences as
the Study of Society
Social Science, in its broadest
sense, is the study of society and
the manner in which people behave
and influence the world around us.
The uttermost goal of social science
is to answer different questions and
problems about the society and
human condition on how to
improve it. (Hunt, 2002)
It is very important for us humans
to understand social science to
explain specific behavioral pattern
and human phenomena. It tells us
about the world beyond our
immediate experience and can help
explain how our own society works.
What is the difference between
Social Science, Natural Science
and Humanities?
Social Sciences main concern is to
deal with aspects of human
condition. Disciplines within the
Social Sciences:
1. Anthropology
2. Economics
3. Geography
4. History
5. Linguistics
6. Political Science
7. Psychology
8. Sociology & Demography
Natural Sciences main concern is
to
explain
natural
and
environmental phenomena. Two
main branches:
1. Life Science or Biological
Science
2. Physical Science (Physics,
Astronomy,
Chemistry,
Earth Science)
Humanities main concern is more
on the philosophical side which
aims to answer and interpret big
questions like “what is the meaning
of life?”. Branches of Humanities:
1. Philosophy
2. Literature
3. Religion
4. Art
5. Music
6. History
7. Language
How Social Science shapes lives?
II. Introducing the Disciplines
within the Social Sciences
1. Anthropology is the study of
humans; the social science that
seeks to understand human origins
and adaptation, and the diversity of
cultures and worldviews. The term
anthropology comes from the Greek
words anthropos (human) and logos
(study).
According to C. Ember, M. Ember
and Peregrine (2009), the definition
of anthropology is very vague
because it would appear on the
other disciplines in the social
sciences like sociology, psychology,
economics, etc. According to Hunt
(2002), to distinguish anthropology
from other disciplines, it should be
defined to be the “study of the
relationship
between
biological
traits
and
socially
acquired
characteristics”.
Two Broad Fields
1. Physical Anthropology
- sometimes called Biological
Anthropology.
Its
first
main
concern is about how humans
emerged and evolved through time.
This is under the study of human
paleontology. Its second main
concern is how human beings differ
biologically. This is under the study
of human variation.
2. Cultural Anthropology
- Its main concern is the difference
of cultures from time to time.
Subfields:

Archeology: studies past
cultures through tangible
or material remains.

Linguistics:
the
anthropological study of
languages. They explain
the difference of languages
by culture and how it is
constructed.

Ethnology: the study of
recent or present cultures.
They try to explain the
difference
of
cultures
before and the recent
though vigor research,
examples:
concept
of
beauty, marriage practices,
etc.
Methods of Inquiry

Observational
Methods (Participant
and Non-Participant)

In-depth Interviews

Focus group
discussion

Life History

Case Study

Reflexivity Method

Ethnography

Action Research
2. Economics is a social science
discipline that deals with the
optimum allocation of scarce
resources among its alternatives to
satisfy the unlimited human wants
and needs of the people. It is
derived from the Greek word oikos
which means house and nomos
which means laws hence the
definition: “rules of the house”.
Two Major Fields
1. Microeconomics- it focuses on
individual and small organizations
in the system of allocating
resources.
2. Macroeconomics- focuses the
broader sense of economics. It
studies and analyzes the whole
economy.
One of the famous concepts in
economics
are
supply
and
demand. Its focus is to determine
the economic equilibrium for price
and quantity based on supply and
demand.
According to Braeutigam (2010),
there are four principles in
supply and demand:
1. If demand increases, and supply
remains unchanged, a shortage
occurs, leading to a higher
equilibrium price.
2. If demand decreases and supply
remains unchanged, a surplus
occurs,
leading
to
a
lower
equilibrium price.
3. If demand remains unchanged
and supply increases, a surplus
occurs,
leading
to
a
lower
equilibrium price.
4. If demand remains unchanged
and supply decreases, a shortage
occurs, leading to a higher
equilibrium price.
Methods of Inquiry

Survey

Use of Economic Data or
Economic Statistics
3.
Geography
means
the
“description of the earth”. The term
was from the Greek words geo
which means “earth” and graphein
which means “to write”.
According
to
Getis
(2004),
geography is defined as “the study
of spatial variation of how and why
things differ from place to place on
the surface of the earth.
Branches of Geography
1. Physical Geography- Physical
geographers study Earth’s seasons,
climate, atmosphere, soil, streams,
landforms, and oceans.
- Natural environment as the
physical basis of society.
Subfields:

Geomorphology

Climatology

Hydrology

Soil Geography
2.
Human
Geographyconcentrates
on
the
spatial
organization and processes shaping
the lives and activities of people,
and their interactions with places
and nature (Dartmouth, n.d.).
Human geographers also study
how people use and alter their
environments.
- Refers to the relationship of
society to its environment.
Subfields:

Social/Cultural Geography

Population and Settlement
Geography

Economic Geography

Historical Geography

Political Geography




Methods of Inquiry
Cartography
Quantitative/Statistical
Techniques (Specimen
sampling, mapping &
remote sensing)
Filed Survey Methods
Geo Informatics (GIS, GPS
& LIS)
4. History- The term history comes
from the Greek historia, "an
account of one's inquiries".
- History is a means of securely
recording and formally trying to
understand the results of human
agency in the past free from myth
and fiction (Banner, 2012)
- History is the study of people,
actions, decisions, interactions and
behaviors (Morphakis, 2020)
- A common starting point might be
that histories are useful for telling
us how we got ‘here’ (Zaman, 2020)
TYPES OF HISTORICAL
EVIDENCE
1. Primary Sources are unedited
and
immediate,
first-hand
accounts of atopic, from people who
had a direct connection with it.
- This is information before it has
been
analyzed,
interpreted,
commented
upon,
spun,
or
repackaged.
- Primary sources can include:
 Texts of laws and other
original documents.
 Newspaper reports, by
reporters who witnessed
an event or who quote
people who did.
 Speeches, diaries, letters
and interviews - what the
people involved said or
wrote.
 Original research.
 Datasets, survey data,
such
as
census
or
economic statistics.
 Photographs, video, or
audio that capture an
event.
2. Secondary Sources often
written significantly after events by
parties not directly involved but
who have special expertise, they
may provide historical context or
critical perspectives.
- Commentaries, interpretation, or
analysis of events, ideas, or primary
sources
-Secondary sources can include:
 Most books about a topic.
 Analysis or interpretation
of data.
 Scholarly or other articles
about a topic, especially by
people
not
directly
involved.
 Documentaries
(though
they often include photos
or video portions that can
be considered primary
sources).
Fields of History
1. Cultural history focuses on the
study of belief systems, customs,
social forms, political systems,
material traits, and economic
activities of a group or community
usually for the purpose of cross
comparison with others.
2. Social history is concerned with
the study of particular kinds of
phenomena such as family and
marriage, adolescence, and work
and leisure with sociological
theories and approaches.
3. Intellectual history looks into
the history of ideas and theories.
Historiography is one of its primary
subfields wherein the development
of schools and approaches are
documented.
Methods of Inquiry

Paleography

Diplomatic

Chronology

Epigraphy
5. Linguistics is the study of
language
and
its
structure.
Linguistics is interdisciplinary in
nature, intersecting with the
Humanities and Social Sciences as
it inquires on the basic element
that
allows
societies
to
communicate ideas across space
and time. The term linguistics was
derived from the Latin word
“lingua”, which refers to language.
Since the late 1500s, individuals
who study language have been
called linguists.
Three Principal Components:
1. Sound- Phonetics and Phonology
2. Structure- Morphology and
Syntax
3. Meaning- Semantics and
Pragmatics
According to Dizon (2003), there are
five specific functions of language:
1. It makes possible our great
flexibility in the use of words for
both
communication
and
information processing in general;
2. It enables us to acquire
information by providing labels for
the objects and events in our
environment.
3. It helps us encode information
into memory by providing many of
the linkages in the associative
network of memory;
4. It helps us find meanings,
relationships and similarities and
thus, build concepts on top of
concepts.
5. It helps us think and solve
problems.
Fields of Linguistics
1.
Historical
Linguisticsotherwise known as diachronic
linguistics,
studies
how
a
particular language changed over
time.
2. Sociolinguistics examines how
language is used in relation to
people’s sociocultural environment.
It considers the following: (1) the
social background of the addresser
and the addressee; (2) the
relationship of the addresser and
the addressee; and (3) the context
and manner through which the
communication transpired.
3. Developmental Linguistics
analyzes the development of
language acquisition, language
retention, and language loss and
bilingualism.
It
studies
the
development of linguistic ability
among children and the stages by
which they gradually come to use
language.
4. Neurolinguistics studies the
physiological
mechanisms
by
which
the
brain
processes
information in relation to language.
It investigates how the human
brain functions when used in
communication and how it uses
information to experiment and
elaborate
on
linguistic
and
psycholinguistic theories.





Methods of Inquiry
Qualitative Approach with
the use of Secondary Data
(literature
data
and
registration
data)
to
examine old writings and
scriptures
(manual
or
digital excerpts of text).
Interviews (Selfconfrontation Interview)
Observation Method (Textcoding)
Survey (Socio-linguistic)
Experiments (for
phonetics,
psycholinguistics, and
neurolinguistics studies)
6. Political Science