Social Science Concepts Overview

Social Science Terms and Concepts

• Social science is the scientific study of human society and social relationships.
• Humanities study philosophy, religion, history, language arts, performing arts, and visual arts.
• Anthropology is the study of human societies, cultures, and their development.
• Psychology is the scientific study of the human mind and its functions in an individual.
• Sociology studies groups, organizations, and societies, and how people react within these contexts.
• Positivism is a scientific approach that emphasizes observable phenomena and empirical evidence.
• Class conflict is conflict between different classes in a community. This conflict results from different social or economic positions.
• Conscious mind refers to memories we can recall.
• Unconscious mind refers to memories we cannot recall.
• Free association is a state of complete relaxation (often induced by hypnosis) where a list of words is read out to the patient. The patient responds with the first word or thought that comes to mind.
• Id is a part of our personality that operates using the pleasure principle.
• Ego operates using the "reality principle".
• Superego is the moral center of the mind.
• Archetypes are understood as universal, symbolic patterns or images that occur across cultures and are reflected in myths, rituals, and art.
• Individual psychology focuses on the individual's personal goals and values.
• Analytical psychology takes account of the individual unconscious and its relationship to the collective unconscious.
• Unconditioned stimulus leads to an immediate response.
• Conditioned stimulus is a stimulus that eventually triggers a conditioned response.
• Unconditioned response is an automatic response to a stimulus.
• Conditioned response is a learned response to a stimulus.
• Hierarchy of needs is a theory of psychology. Maslow's hierarchy is diagrammed as a pyramid with basic needs at the bottom and secondary needs higher up. A person needs to satisfy basic needs before they can address more secondary needs.
• Classical conditioning is interested in the relationship between a stimulus and response.
• Operant conditioning is a learning process where voluntary behaviours are modified by association with a reward or punishment.
• Ethnography is the scientific description of the customs of individual peoples and cultures.
• Culturally constructed means something created or shaped by a culture.
• Reflexivity is an awareness of the self and how it shapes an individual's understanding of the world.
• Subculture is a cultural group within a larger culture, often having beliefs or interests at variance with those of the larger culture.

Steps of Inquiry

• Identify a problem or question.
• Focus.
• Develop a hypothesis.
• Collect data.
• Assemble/analyze data.
• Stop and check.
• Draw conclusions.
• Reflection.

Research Methods

• Experiment
• Sample Survey
• Interview
• Case Study
• Observational Techniques
• Correlation Study
• Historical Analysis
• Content Analysis

Sociological Schools of Thought

• Functionalism focuses on how society provides its members with the requirements to function as a system.
• Conflict School/Neo-Marxism emphasizes economic power and how it creates social classes.
• Symbolic Interactionism analyzes how individuals perceive and interpret social interactions.
• Feminist Theory examines issues of sex and gender, highlighting their historical disadvantages.

Anthropological Schools of Thought

• Cultural Relativism argues that cultures should be examined and understood in their own terms.
• Functional theory argues that every belief, action, or relationship in a culture functions to meet the needs of individuals within it.
• Cultural Materialism is the idea that the environment fundamentally shapes cultures.
• Feminist anthropology ensures female voices are heard and included in research by comparing cultures to see how many have been dominated by men.
• Postmodernism argues that there's no true knowledge about the world: our understanding is based on our culture.

Subfields of Anthropology

• Cultural
• Comparative
• Biological
• Linguistic