Disciplines and Ideas in the Social Sciences

Governor Pack Road, Baguio City, Philippines 2600

Tel. Nos.: (+6374) 442-3316, 442-8220; 444-2786;
442-2564; 442-8219; 442-8256; Fax No.: 442-6268 Name:
Email: [email protected]; Website: www.uc-bcf.edu.ph

S.Y. 2020-2021 Third Trimester Grade Level/Section: HUMSS 11

MODULE 2 – Soc Sci 11 Subject Teacher: KIMBERSON P. ALACYANG

DISCIPLINES IN THE SOCIAL SCIENCES: GEOGRAPHY, history, AND

ECONOMICS
I. LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
Through discussion, the learners are able to:
A. compare and contrast the various Social Science disciplines and their fields, main areas of
inquiry, and methods;
B. understand the importance of the disciplines as Social Sciences;
C. appreciate the contributions of the disciplines in the Social Sciences formation; and
D. complete the activity that follows at the end of the module

II. DISCUSSION
A. GEOGRAPHY
✓ The term "geography" comes to us from the ancient Greeks, who needed a word to
describe the writings and maps that were helping them make sense of the world in
which they lived. In Greek, geo means “earth” and -graphy means “to write.” (Murphy,
2015)
o GEO + GRAPHY literally means "to write about the Earth" (Corson, Doe, Thomas, &
Thomas, 2020)
✓ Geography is an eclectic subject that ranges from the physical sciences through the
social sciences to the arts and humanities (Boehm & Petersen, 1994)

1. Geography as a Social Science Discipline

✓ Geography is essentially a social science because in its modern development it
deals with man, his distribution, and his activities, but is distinct from the other
social sciences in respect to its purpose, which is to study man or society in its
environmental aspects, that is, in relation to its natural environment (Huntington,
1928)
✓ Geography is the study of places and the relationships between people and
their environments (Murphy, 2015)
▪ geography is not defined by one particular topic. Instead, geography is
concerned with many different topics—people, culture, politics,
settlements, plants, landforms, and much more.
✓ The Geographic Perspective. Geography’s concern not just with where things
are, but with “the why of where” (National Geographic Society)
▪ The Spatial Perspective
o The essential issue of whereness—embodied in specific questions such
as, “Where is it? Why is it there?” —helps humans contemplate the
context of spatial relationships in which the human story is played out.
o Understanding spatial patterns and processes is essential to
appreciating how people live on Earth.
▪ Ecological Perspective
o Humans are part of the interactive and interdependent relationships
in ecosystems and are one among many species that constitute the
living part of Earth. Human actions modify physical environments
o Understanding Earth as a complex set of interactive living and
nonliving elements is fundamental to knowing that human societies
depend on diverse small and large ecosystems for food, water, and
all other resources.
Important Notes to Remember:
✓ Relationship is a fundamental principle in geography.

This module is an intellectual property of the University of the Cordilleras Senior High School. Unauthorized reproduction, modification, distribution, display or
transmission in any form, medium and manner of any of the contents of the modules (digital or printed) for whatever purpose is strictly prohibited.
 Disciplines and Ideas in the Social Sciences
Governor Pack Road, Baguio City, Philippines 2600
Tel. Nos.: (+6374) 442-3316, 442-8220; 444-2786;
442-2564; 442-8219; 442-8256; Fax No.: 442-6268 Name:
Email: [email protected]; Website: www.uc-bcf.edu.ph

S.Y. 2020-2021 Third Trimester Grade Level/Section: HUMSS 11

MODULE 2 – Soc Sci 11 Subject Teacher: KIMBERSON P. ALACYANG

2. Divisions of Geography
Because the study of geography is so broad, the discipline is typically divided into
specialties. At the broadest level, geography is divided into physical
geography, human geography, geographic techniques, and regional geography

a. Physical Geography
✓ Physical geography is the study of our planet and its systems (ecosystems,
climate, atmosphere, hydrology).
✓ Physical geographers study Earth’s seasons, climate, atmosphere, soil,
streams, landforms, and oceans.
✓ Some disciplines within physical geography:
geomorphology, glaciology, pedology, hydrology, climatology,
and oceanography.
✓ Natural environment as the physical basis of society
✓ Physical geography is a process, conducted by people, of integration
and synthesis of ideas and observations to advance scientific
understanding of Earth’s surface and atmosphere and to apply this
knowledge to the greater good of the planet and its people (Harden,
Luzzadder-Beach, MacDonald, Marston, & Winkler, 2020)

b. Social Geography
✓ human geography concentrates on the spatial organization and
processes shaping the lives and activities of people, and their interactions
with places and nature (Dartmouth, n.d.)
✓ Human geographers also study how people use and alter their
environments.
✓ Human geographers study how political, social, and economic systems
are organized across geographical space.
✓ Refers to the relationship of society to its environment
✓ Human geography is concerned with the distribution and networks of
people and cultures on Earth’s surface.

B. HISTORY
✓ The term history comes from the Greek historia (ἱστορία), "an account of one's inquiries,"
✓ History is a means of securely recording and formally trying to understand the results of
human agency in the past free from myth and fiction (Banner, 2012)
✓ History is the study of past events.
✓ History is the study of people, actions, decisions, interactions and behaviors (Morphakis,
2020)
✓ A common starting point might be that histories are useful for telling us how we got
‘here’ (Zaman, 2020)

1. History as a Social Science Discipline

✓ As a discipline – a distinct branch of knowledge possessing an agreed-on
general subject matter, particular methods of inquiry and presentation, and
specific canons of evaluation – history’s beginnings belong to the nineteenth
century (Banner, 2012)
✓ It is a social science in the sense that it is a systematic attempt to learn about
and verify past events and to relate them to one another and to the present
(Pearson Higher Education, 2020)
o Every event has a historical context within which we commonly say the
event must be studied.
This module is an intellectual property of the University of the Cordilleras Senior High School. Unauthorized reproduction, modification, distribution, display or
transmission in any form, medium and manner of any of the contents of the modules (digital or printed) for whatever purpose is strictly prohibited.
 Disciplines and Ideas in the Social Sciences
Governor Pack Road, Baguio City, Philippines 2600
Tel. Nos.: (+6374) 442-3316, 442-8220; 444-2786;
442-2564; 442-8219; 442-8256; Fax No.: 442-6268 Name:
Email: [email protected]; Website: www.uc-bcf.edu.ph

S.Y. 2020-2021 Third Trimester Grade Level/Section: HUMSS 11

MODULE 2 – Soc Sci 11 Subject Teacher: KIMBERSON P. ALACYANG

✓ The historian must attempt to give the past some integrity and wholeness and
serve as the grand mediator between science and art- humanizing one and
formalizing the other (Flynn, 1974)
2. Primary and Secondary Sources (Seattle University, 2021 & University of Massachusetts,
2021)
a.Primary Sources
✓ Raw Data
✓ Primary Sources are unedited and immediate, first-hand accounts of a
topic, from people who had a direct connection with it.
✓ This is information before it has been analyzed, interpreted, commented
upon, spun, or repackaged.
✓ Primary sources can include:
o Texts of laws and other original documents.
o Newspaper reports, by reporters who witnessed an event or who quote
people who did.
o Speeches, diaries, letters and interviews - what the people involved
said or wrote.
o Original research.
o Datasets, survey data, such as census or economic statistics.
o Photographs, video, or audio that capture an event.
b.Secondary Sources
✓ often written significantly after events by parties not directly involved but
who have special expertise, they may provide historical context or critical
perspectives.
✓ Commentaries, interpretation, or analysis of events, ideas, or primary
sources
✓ Secondary sources can include:
o Most books about a topic.
o Analysis or interpretation of data.
o Scholarly or other articles about a topic, especially by people not
directly involved.
o Documentaries (though they often include photos or video portions
that can be considered primary sources).

C. ECONOMICS
✓ Sought to show how scientific research reflects the rational distribution of scarce
research resources in the face of uncertainty (Rosenberg, 2008)
✓ Economics is generally classified as a social science and uses the scientific method as
the basis for its investigation. Economics is the study of how groups of individuals make
decisions about the allocation of scarce resources (Pearson Higher Education, 2018).
✓ Economics is the study of how humans make decisions in the face of scarcity. These
can be individual decisions, family decisions, business decisions or societal decisions
(Rice University)
✓ Economics is the scientific study of the ownership, use, and exchange of scarce
resources – often shortened to the science of scarcity (Economics Online, n.d)

1. Economics as a Social Science Discipline

✓ Economics is the science which studies human behaviour as a relationship
between ends and scarce means which have alternative uses (Robbins, 1945).
✓ Economics is regarded as a social science because it uses scientific methods to
build theories that can help explain the behaviour of individuals, groups and
organisations.
▪ Economists, like other social scientists and scientists, use models to
assist them in their analyses (The Field of Economics, n.d)
This module is an intellectual property of the University of the Cordilleras Senior High School. Unauthorized reproduction, modification, distribution, display or
transmission in any form, medium and manner of any of the contents of the modules (digital or printed) for whatever purpose is strictly prohibited.
 Disciplines and Ideas in the Social Sciences
Governor Pack Road, Baguio City, Philippines 2600
Tel. Nos.: (+6374) 442-3316, 442-8220; 444-2786;
442-2564; 442-8219; 442-8256; Fax No.: 442-6268 Name:
Email: [email protected]; Website: www.uc-bcf.edu.ph

S.Y. 2020-2021 Third Trimester Grade Level/Section: HUMSS 11

MODULE 2 – Soc Sci 11 Subject Teacher: KIMBERSON P. ALACYANG

✓ Economics attempts to explain economic behaviour, which arises when scarce

resources are exchanged.
✓ Economists give special emphasis to the role of opportunity costs in their analysis
of choices (The Field of Economics, n.d)
▪ Economists assume that individuals make choices that seek to maximize
the value of some objective, and that they define their objectives in terms
of their own self-interest.

2. Macroeconomics and Microeconomics (Rice University)

✓ Microeconomics and macroeconomics are not separate subjects, but rather
complementary perspectives on the overall subject of the economy.
✓ In a similar way, both microeconomics and macroeconomics study the same
economy, but each has a different viewpoint.
• the micro decisions of individual businesses are influenced by whether the
macroeconomy is healthy
• the performance of the macroeconomy ultimately depends on the
microeconomic decisions made by individual households and businesses.
MACROECONOMICS MICROECONOMICS
• looks at the economy as a whole. focuses on the actions of individual agents
• It focuses on broad issues such as growth within the economy, like households,
of production, the number of workers, and businesses and the impacts
unemployed people, the inflationary those choices have on individual markets
increase in prices, government deficits,
and levels of exports and imports

EXPRESS YOURSELF.

How have the people in your area changed the environment?

______________________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________________

III. ACTIVITY:
A DAY IN HISTORY. Search for a historical event that happened on your birthday. The year may or
may not be your birth year. Refer to the example and follow the format. (20 points)
*note: answers such as ‘I was born!’and ‘the best person in the world was born’ will be invalidated
and will incur the lowest score set by your teacher.
Example:
Birthday: August 25
Historical event: On August 25, 1994, the Technical Education and Skills Development
Authority (TESDA) was established through Republic Act No. 7796
Significance of the event:
✓ TESDA aims to encourage the full participation and mobilization of the industry, labor,
local government units and technical-vocational institutions in the skills development
of the country's human resources.
✓ Promote and strengthen the quality of technical education and skills development
programs to attain international competitiveness.

This module is an intellectual property of the University of the Cordilleras Senior High School. Unauthorized reproduction, modification, distribution, display or
transmission in any form, medium and manner of any of the contents of the modules (digital or printed) for whatever purpose is strictly prohibited.
 Disciplines and Ideas in the Social Sciences
Governor Pack Road, Baguio City, Philippines 2600
Tel. Nos.: (+6374) 442-3316, 442-8220; 444-2786;
442-2564; 442-8219; 442-8256; Fax No.: 442-6268 Name:
Email: [email protected]; Website: www.uc-bcf.edu.ph

S.Y. 2020-2021 Third Trimester Grade Level/Section: HUMSS 11

MODULE 2 – Soc Sci 11 Subject Teacher: KIMBERSON P. ALACYANG

✓ Recognize and encourage the complementary roles of public and private institutions in
technical education and skills development and training systems; and
✓ Inculcate desirable values through the development of moral character with emphasis
on work ethic, self-discipline, self-reliance and nationalism.
Reference/s:
Republic Act 7796: TESDA Act, 1994. Retrieved from https://pcw.gov.ph/republic-act-
7796-tesda-act-of-1994/
Philippines News Agency archives

IV. ADDITIONAL REFERENCE:

Kagan, J. (2009). The Three Cultures: Natural Sciences, Social Sciences, and the Humanities.
Cambridge University Press.
Pearson Higher Education. (2020). In Introduction: Social Science and Its Methods (pp. 1-27).

V. REFERENCES:
Banner, J. J. (2012). The Discipline and Profession of History. In J. J. Banner, Being a Historian: An
Introduction to the Professional World of History (pp. 1-10). Cambridge University Press.
Boehm, R. G., & Petersen, J. F. (1994). An Elaboration of the Fundamental Themes in Geography.
Social Education, 211-218.
Corson, M., Doe, W., Thomas, M., & Thomas, G. (2020). What is Geography. Retrieved from GEOG 882:
Geographic Foundations of Geospatial Intelligence: https://www.e
education.psu.edu/geog882/l3_p4.html
Dartmouth. (n.d.). Human Geography. Retrieved from
https://researchguides.dartmouth.edu/human_geography
Economic and Social Research Council. (n.d.). Retrieved from Social Science:
https://esrc.ukri.org/about-us/what-is-social-science/
Economics Online. (n.d.). What is economics. Retrieved from Economics Online:
https://www.economicsonline.co.uk/Competitive_markets/What_is_economics.html#:~:text=E
conomics%20is%20the%20scientific%20study,of%20individuals%2C%20groups%20and%20organi
sations.
Flynn, G. Q. (1974). History and the Social Sciences. The Hstory Teacher, 434-447.
Harden, C. P., Luzzadder-Beach, S., MacDonald, G. M., Marston, R. A., & Winkler, J. A. (2020). Physical
Geography Contributes. SAGE, 1-9.
Huntington, C. (1928). Geography as a Social Science. International Honor Society in Social Sciences,
262-265.
Morphakis, F. (2020, August 8). What is History. History Today.
Murphy, A. (2015). Geography. Retrieved from National Geographic:
https://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/geography/
National Geographic Society. (n.d.). Looking at the World in Multiple Ways. Geography For Life:
National Geography Standards, Second Edition. Retrieved from
https://www.nationalgeographic.org/education/about/national-geography-
standards/geographic-perspectives/
New World Encyclopedia Contributors. (2020, June 19). Retrieved from New World Encyclopedia:
https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/p/index.php?title=Social_sciences&oldid=1038400
Pearson Higher Education. (2020). Economics as a Scocial Science.
Rice University. (n.d.). Principles of Economics. Retrieved from opentextbc.ca:
https://opentextbc.ca/principlesofeconomics/chapter/1-2-microeconomics-and-
macroeconomics/#navigation
Robbins, L. (1945). An Essay on the Nature and Significance of Economic Science: Second Edition,
Revised and Extended. London: MacMillan and Co., Limited.
Rosenberg, A. (2008). Philosophy of Social Science: Third Edition. Boulder: Westview Press.
This module is an intellectual property of the University of the Cordilleras Senior High School. Unauthorized reproduction, modification, distribution, display or
transmission in any form, medium and manner of any of the contents of the modules (digital or printed) for whatever purpose is strictly prohibited.
 Disciplines and Ideas in the Social Sciences
Governor Pack Road, Baguio City, Philippines 2600
Tel. Nos.: (+6374) 442-3316, 442-8220; 444-2786;
442-2564; 442-8219; 442-8256; Fax No.: 442-6268 Name:
Email: [email protected]; Website: www.uc-bcf.edu.ph

S.Y. 2020-2021 Third Trimester Grade Level/Section: HUMSS 11

MODULE 2 – Soc Sci 11 Subject Teacher: KIMBERSON P. ALACYANG

Seattle University. (2021, January 11). Primary vs. Secondary Sources. Retrieved from Lemieux Library:
https://libguides.seattleu.edu/c.php?g=647121&p=4536883
The Field of Economics. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://saylordotorg.github.io/text_principles-of-
economics-v2.0/s04-02-the-field-of-economics.html
University of Massachusetts. (2021, March 12). Primary Sources: A Research Guide. Retrieved from
Healey Library: https://umb.libguides.com/PrimarySources/secondary
Zaman, F. (2020, August 8). What is History? History Today.

This module is an intellectual property of the University of the Cordilleras Senior High School. Unauthorized reproduction, modification, distribution, display or
transmission in any form, medium and manner of any of the contents of the modules (digital or printed) for whatever purpose is strictly prohibited.