Social Science: Political Science

• Social science is the study of society and the relationships among individuals within that society
• Encompasses a variety of disciplines, each examining different facets of human social behavior and societal structures
• These disciplines typically employ empirical methods to investigate social phenomena

Political Science

• Political science studies the theory and practice of politics
• Focuses on the description and analysis of political systems and political behavior
• Includes areas like political theory, public policy, national politics, and international relations
• Political scientists study the origins, development, and operation of political systems
• Research political ideas and ideologies
• Analyze institutions, political behavior, and public policies
• Subfields include comparative politics, which compares different political systems, and international relations, which focuses on the interactions between states
• Employs both qualitative and quantitative methods
• Qualitative methods involve case studies, interviews, and historical analysis
• Quantitative methods involve statistical analysis and modeling

Economics

• Economics studies the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services
• Focuses on how individuals, businesses, governments, and nations make choices about allocating resources to satisfy their wants and needs
• Attempts to determine how these groups should organize and coordinate efforts to achieve maximum output
• Can be broken down into microeconomics and macroeconomics
• Microeconomics focuses on the behavior of individual agents, like households and firms, and their interactions in specific markets
• Analyzes topics like supply and demand, market structures, and consumer behavior
• Macroeconomics examines the behavior of the economy as a whole
• Deals with issues such as inflation, unemployment, economic growth, and monetary and fiscal policy
• Economists use models and data analysis to understand economic phenomena and make predictions
• Models often involve mathematical formulations and statistical techniques
• Key concepts include scarcity, opportunity cost, supply and demand, and market equilibrium

History

• History is the study of the past
• Involves investigating, interpreting, and analyzing past events to understand the trajectory of human civilization
• Historians use primary sources, such as documents, artifacts, and oral histories, as well as secondary sources, to reconstruct and interpret the past
• Not just a collection of facts but an interpretation of those facts
• Historical analysis involves considering the context in which events occurred and the perspectives of different actors
• Subfields of history include political, social, cultural, and economic history
• Political history focuses on the history of governments, political leaders, and political movements
• Social history examines the lives and experiences of ordinary people
• Cultural history explores the cultural values, beliefs, and practices of societies
• Economic history studies the economic development of societies over time
• Historical methods include archival research, textual analysis, and oral history interviews
• Historians often use interdisciplinary approaches, drawing on insights from fields such as sociology, anthropology, and literature

Geography

• Geography studies the Earth's physical features, its inhabitants, and the interactions between them
• Examines the spatial distribution of phenomena and the processes that create and change those distributions
• Can be divided into physical and human geography
• Physical geography focuses on the natural environment, including landforms, climate, vegetation, and soils
• Human geography examines the spatial organization of human activities, such as population distribution, urbanization, economic development, and cultural patterns
• Geographers use tools and techniques, including maps, geographic information systems (GIS), remote sensing, and spatial statistics
• GIS is a tool for analyzing and visualizing spatial data
• Key concepts include location, place, region, movement, and human-environment interaction
• Location refers to the absolute or relative position of a place on Earth
• Place refers to the physical and human characteristics of a location
• Region refers to an area with common characteristics that set it apart from other areas
• Movement refers to the flow of people, goods, and ideas across space
• Human-environment interaction refers to the ways in which humans interact with and modify the environment