Social Science: Definition And Why They Are Important

What is social science?

Social science is the study of human behavior within society, addressing both individual and collective perspectives. This discipline seeks to understand how people organize, interact, and behave in different social situations.

Some Important points

  • Its objective is to know and understand human behavior in social contexts.
  • They help improve our communities and quality of life by better understanding our social interactions and structures.
  • They officially emerged in the 18th century.

The different branches that include social science

These branches are as follows:

  • Economics. Another important branch is this one, which deals with studying, evaluating, and researching the economic processes of distribution of services, the consumption carried out by society, and the different types of economy that exist: national, international, and local, among others.
  • Psychology. One of the most prominent branches within the social science. Its objective is focused on understanding and investigating the mental health of human beings, as well as their behavior in different situations. In order to study it individually, it has also been necessary to compare these investigations when related to a group level. Within psychology, different specifications have emerged such as: clinical psychology, educational psychology, social psychology, or psychology related to organizations. Each of them focuses on a specific field of study.
  • Pedagogy. Education is essential, and this branch is primarily responsible for studying teaching processes in general, and more specifically with regard to children who study at school.
  • Communication. This is another branch that studies, assesses, and investigates the exchange of messages that take place between humans, through the media, institutions and how they affect the human being. The function of the sender of the message, who is the one who sends it, of the receiver who receives it, and exchange or feedback actions are also taken into account throughout this process.
  • Politics. The aim of this branch is to study the different types of political behaviour that exist, as well as their organisation, objectives, practices, and related agents. Politics occupies an important social aspect since society depends to a certain extent on these organisations and their decisions.
  • Law. The set of laws, institutions, their rules, regulations, and actions based on these is the main focus of research in this branch.
  • History. This branch aims to understand and trace the eras that human beings have lived through. To interpret what happened in those stages, and the evolution that has arisen as a result of them. There are sub-branches within this option such as: the history of art, the history of religion, among others.
  • Geography. Natural aspects and how we relate to them are the most important aspects of this branch. It is responsible for studying and researching the different places that make up the Earth.
  • Sociology. It is responsible for assessing how human beings relate to each other, their relationship with institutions, and how beliefs and social actions that occur in their behavior impact them.
  • Anthropology. It is based on the studies carried out on human beings through their physical characteristics, evolution throughout history, as well as the way of relating socially and culturally.

Social Science: Simple Explanation

In other words, social science focus on studying how we live and organize ourselves in society.

Its goal is to better understand our interactions, behaviors, and social structures, which can help us improve our communities and our quality of life.

This science helps us analyze and understand social phenomena, allowing us to make more informed and effective decisions in areas such as politics, economics, and education. They help us understand why we act in certain ways and how we can improve our social interactions and structures.

Within social science, there are various branches such as: economics, psychology, archaeology, anthropology, etc. A wide variety of options aim to understand and investigate the human being in all types of areas.