DISCIPLINES AND BRANCHES IN THE SOCIAL SCIENCES
*Anthropological Linguistics – study of
Introduction
 Social science studies the historical, cultural,
sociological, psychological and the political
forces that shape the actions of individuals and
their impact on society
 The different disciplines under the social
sciences all help in providing a better
understanding and appreciation of the complex
issues that face society
Anthropology
 study of ancient societies and their cultural
traditions
 Agham-Tao
 greek words - anthropos (humankind) and logos
(study) (Bonstingl, 1996)
 study the way cultural traditions of different
groups of people have changed over the years
 requires knowledge of the history of the area
being studied
2 Broad Fields of Anthropology (Ember & Ember, 2002)
1. BIOLOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY
 also known as biological anthropology
 studies biological evolution of man
 provides explanations behind biological
variations among contemporary human
population
2. CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY
 Investigates and seeks to understand the
cultural features of societies
3 Sub-Branches of Cultural Anthropology (Ember,
2002)
1. *Archaeology – seeks to reconstruct the past
life of ancient societies, trace the cultural
changes that took place and the reason behind
the changes
2.
language in societies or communities where
language may or may not be written;
emergence , divergence and the changes of
languages across time
3. **Ethnology - studies marriage customs,
kinship patterns, economic systems and
religious rites of cultural groups and compare it
with the way of life of contemporary societies
*uses fragmentary remains of the past
** uses data gathered from living people
Prominent Figures
 Herodotus of Halicarnassus
 Franz Boas
(Father of Modern Anthropology)
Economics
 study of the efficient allocation of scarce
resources in order to satisfy unlimited human
needs and wants
 greek words oikos (home/household) and
nomos/nomia (management)
2 Scopes of Economics
(Pennington, 1999)
1. MICROECONOMICS– study of the choices made
by economic actors such as households,
firms/companies, and individual markets
(consumers, suppliers, demand, supply)
2. MACROECONOMICS– examines the behavior of
the entire economies (national income, GNP,
GDP, aggregate demand and supply, inflation,
economic growth) (Ayers and Collinge, 2004)
Concepts in Economics
1. Factors of Production (Land, Labor, Capital and
*Entrepreneurship)
2. Law of Demand and Supply
3. Aggregate Demand and Supply
4. Gross National Product (GNP)
5. Gross Domestic Product (GDP)
 6. National Income (NI)
7. Inflation
8. Interest Rate
9. Economic Growth
10. Employment/
Unemployment/Underemployment
Prominent Figures
 Adam Smith
(Father of Modern Economics)
 John Maynard Keynes
(Father of Macroeconomics)
Geography
 studies the interaction between the natural
environment and the people living in it
 greek words - geo (Earth) and graphos (charting
or mapping)
 studies where things are on Earth, explains why
they are there, and their relationships to other
people, places and things
2 Main Branches of Geography
1. PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY – studies the natural
features of the earth (climate,water,vegetation,
and soil) ; physical environment as provider of
natural resources like food and water or
physical environment as hazard to human life
2. HUMAN GEOGRAPHY– studies human
population and the impact to its activities on
the planet (agriculture, urbanization, land
reclamation) ; examines how people use the
resources available to them and how they
cultivate their environment to suit their needs
Prominent Figure
 Eratosthenes of Cyrene
(Father of Geography)
- head of the Great Library of Alexandria
- Royal tutor of og King Ptolemy IV
- Geographika
History
 traditionally regarded as the study of the
recorded past
 greek noun - historia (learning)
 as used by Aristotle, meant as systematic
account of a set of natural phenomena,
whether or not chronological ordering was a
factor in the account (Gottschalk,1956)
 attempts to reconstruct the past given the
available resources
 History vs. Kasaysayan (salaysay na may saysay)
by Dr. Zeus Salazar
 Makabagong Kasaysayan
 Herstory , Itstory , Oral History , Local History
 Historians Perspective / “Historians bias”
 Historical Account vs. History
2 Types of Historical Sources
1. Primary Source– testimony as an eyewitness or
an account of someone who has firsthand
information on the subject
 has to be recounted written or recounted by
someone who is contemporary to the event
being narrated
 can be rewritten, recopied or translated version
of the original
 (journal entries, transcripts, interviews,
structures, photographs, manuscripts,
government records)
2. Secondary Source– a testimony or an account of
someone who is not an eyewitness to the event
being narrated
 simply uses the primary materials as the source
of information
 (biography, textbooks, conference proceedings,
book reviews)
2 Types of Historical Criticisms  Politics – process of using power in the
government, while power is the means for the
1. External Criticism - physical testing of sources
government rule the people (Bonstingl, 1996)
for authenticity
 Government – the authority or the bureaucracy
2. Internal Criticism - logical connections to other
that provides the system of rule over its
events connected to the sources
territory and for its people
Prominent Figure
Prominent Figure
 Herodotus
 Aristotle
(Father of History)
(Father of Politics)
Linguistics
-Politics – pioneer in the field of political inquiry
 Studies the nature of language through an
Psychology
examination of the formal properties of natural
language, grammar, and the process of  scientific study of behavior and mental
language acquisition processes
 Latin word - lingua (language)  Includes the physical and mental state and how
this all relates to the environment of the
 considered the province of philosophy and
individual
rhetoric
 greek words – psyche (soul or spirit) and logos
Important Concepts Studied in Linguistics
(study)
1. Phonetics - study of speech sounds ; examines
3 Major Fields of Psychology
how the sounds are made and identifies its
properties 1. CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY– assesses and finds
treatment for people with psychological
2. Phonology - study of speech sound pattern;
disorder
identifies what sounds are there and the categories
of these sounds fall under 2. DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY – studies the
intellectual, social, emotional, and moral
3. Morphology - study of how words are
development across lifespan
categorized or formed
3. EXPERIMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY – studies the
4. Syntax – the study of how words are combined to
most basic concepts of psychology like
form a sentence ; categorizes the type of phrases
cognition, perception, memory and learning but
and type of sentences
mostly conducted on animals instead of humans
5. Semantics – study of meaning-making
Prominent Figures
6. Pragmatics - study of study of language context
 Wilhelm Wundt
Prominent Figure
(Father of Modern Psychology)
 Ferdinand de Saussure
 Sigmund Freud
(Father of Modern Linguistics)
(Psychoanalytic Personality Theory and
Political Science Psychosexual Stages of Development)

 study of politics, power and government Sociology

 greek word - politea (a person who participates  science of society

in the polis)
 systematic study of human society
 latin word – socius (friend or companion) and
greek word - logos (study)
 studies how people relate to each other and
how they work as a whole in the larger society
 Ibn Khaldin – contended that a dense
population growth is generally favorable to the
maintenance and increase of imperial power
Prominent Figure
 Thomas Malthus

Important Concepts Studied in Sociology (Father of Demography)

1. Society

2. Socialization

3. Social Groups

4. Social Interactions

5. Social Processes

6. Social Institutions

Prominent Figure

 Auguste Comte

(Father of Sociology)

Demography

 study of human population

 greek words – demos (the people) and graphos

(char)ing or mapping

 studies how people move from place to plac

(migration)

 the study of human population begins with

how many people are born (Fertility)

Important Concepts Studied in Demography

1. Fertility - incidence of child bearing in a country’s

population (Macionis, 2006) ; number of live births
for every 1,000 people in a population

2. Mortality - incidence of death in a country’s

population; number of deaths for every 1,000 in a
population

3. Migration - movement of people into and out of

a particular territory

Ancient Beliefs on Population

 Kautilya (Arthashastra) – large population is a

source of military, political and economic
strength of the nation
Society Types of Societies

• Refers to the behavior of any group of Hunting and Food Gathering Societies
organisms living in a common interdependent
life through interaction and interrelationship

• universal among humans

• performed major adaptive functions

 human survival

• societal norms determine the behavior of its

members

Characteristics of Human Society

1. Social system

- have an effect to each member

- interact in relatively stable and

patterned manner Horticultural Societies

- sub-parts

2. Relatively large

- largest and most inclusive unit that

exist

3. A society recruits most of its members from

within

- reproduction Pastoral Societies

- socialization

4. A society sustains itself across generations

5. Members share a culture

- gives the individuals the vision and the

sense of purpose to sustain patterns of

interaction that binds society

6. A society occupies a territory

- restricted to a group with specific,

clearly defined geographic area

- human occupies specific habitat

Agricultural Societies

Conditions that will Bring Dissolution to Societies

1. Members are killed-off

2. Members become apathetic

3. Societies falls into a state of chaos

4. Absorbed by another society

Industrial Societies Importance of Society

1. Supplies our values, logic and store information

that constitutes our knowledge

2. Does not only determines what we do but what

we are

3. Controls our movements, shapes our identity,

our thoughts and emotions

Post-Industrial Societies