Bill Graveile, age 14, of Carson, City, Nev., for his question:
WHAT ARE SOCIAL SCIENCES?
Social sciences focus on man's life with other men in groups. They include sociology, anthropology, economics, history, political science, criminology and the science of law.
Generally, scholars identify three categories of knowledge: the natural sciences and mathematics; the humanities; and the social sciences. The natural sciences concern nature and the physical world while the humanities try to interpret the meaning of man's life on earth rather than to describe his physical world or society.
In looking at man's life with other men in groups, as the social sciences does, some scholars include education, ethics, philosophy and psychology. Some studies in other fields, such as biology, geography, medicine, art and linguistics, may be said to fall within the broad category of the social sciences.
Scholars in the social sciences have developed certain ways of studying people and their institutions. Generally these scholars have borrowed from the natural sciences the methods they use to study, simplify and classify the observed behavior of human society.
Observations made by the social science scholars of the regularity of human behavior have lead them to form hypotheses or propositions and then to test their validity.
The social sciences are still a comparatively new field of learning. History and geography have existed as separate disciplines for a long time. But attempts to organize man's endeavors into systems of economics, sociology and political science are so new that many scholars doubt that the scientific method can be used with complete success to know and control any aspect of society.
The scholars see a wide gulf between the clear and exact nature of the natural sciences and the inexact nature of the social sciences. One of the most powerful tools of the natural sciences is the controlled experiment. Such a method is difficult to use in experiments involving human beings.
The interdependence of the social sciences and the humanities is important. In a social science, the scholar must note the underlying values of a society, which are stated by the scholars of the humanities.
Here's an example of this. If a political scientist wishes to determine scientifically whether a particular community should have an authorian or a representative form of political organization and control, he must first learn the importance which that community attaches to such values as the right of the individual to differ with authority, or to have a voice in political policy and laws. Then he can formulate the principles that govern its political action.
Social psychology is the study of social behavior, including its origins and effects. Social psychologists study the influences that persons have on one another individually and within groups. They also study relationships between groups.
Social psychologists also study learning, adjustment and other psychological processes that are affected by social factors