Disciplines and Ideas in Social Sciences

ANTHROPOLOGY

Anthropology - is the study of humans and their societies in the past and present

Biological anthropologists – carry out systematic studies of the non-cultural aspects of humans and
near-humans

Non-cultural – refers to all of those biological characteristics that are genetically inherited in contrast
to learned

Near-humans – is a category that monkeys, apes, and other primates as well as our fossil ancestors

Human Biology – concerned with learning about human diversity, genetic inheritance patterns, non-
cultural adaptations to environmental stresses.

Homo sapiens primatologists – carry out non-human primate studies.

Paleoanthropologists – recover the fossil record of early humans and their primate ancestors in
order to understand the path of our evolution.

Cultural (or socio-cultural) anthropologists – are interested in learning about the cultural aspects of
human societies all over the world.

Linguistic Anthropologists – study the human communication process.

Archaeology – is interested in recovering the prehistory and early history of societies and their
cultures.

Classical Archaeologists – concentrate on the ancient civilizations of the Middle East and the
Mediterranean world.

Historical Archaeologists – work on recovering the unrecorded aspects of life in historically more
modern societies.

Prehistoric Archaeologists – focus their attention on the more ancient pre-literate societies around
the world.

Underwater Archaeologists – discover and excavate ancient shipwrecks and submerged cities.

Zoo Archaeologists – analyze and interpret the animal remains found in archaeological sites.

Applied Archaeologists – uses knowledge and methodology of problem solving for practical
purposes

Forensic Anthropologists – are employed around the world principally by police, courts, and
international organizations to identify murder and disaster victims.

Medical Anthropologists – learn about cultural differences in explaining what causes illness and
what people from different cultures believe is acceptable as treatment.

Ethnobotanists – work with indigenous people in order to discover unknown plants and their uses.

ECONOMICS
Economics – is a social science that describes those factors that determine the reproduction,
distribution, and consumption of goods and services.

Comes from Ancient Greek (oikos, “house”) and (nomos, “custom or law”), hence “rules of the
house (hold for good management)”

The areas of inquiry in economics is markets.

Macroeconomics – examines the economy as a whole. It includes measures of total output, total
employment, total income, aggregate expenditures, and the general price level. It is general
overview examining the forest, not the trees.

Microeconomics – looks at specific economic units. It is concerned with the individual industry, firm
or household and the price of specific products and resources. It is an examination of trees, and not
the forest.

Positive Economics – describes the economy as it actually is, avoiding value judgements and
attempting to establish scientific statements about economic behavior.

Normative Economics – involves value judgements about what the economy should be like and
desirability of the policy options available. Most disagreements among economists involve
normative, value-based questions.

GEOGRAPHY

Geography – is a science that deals with the location of living and non living things on earth and the
way they affect each other.

Physical geography – focuses on geography as an earth science.

Human geography – is a branch of geography that focuses on the study of patterns and processes
that shapes the human society.

Integrated geography – branch of geography that describes the spatial aspects of interactions
between humans and the natural world.

Geometrics – branch of geography that has emerged since the quantitative revolution in geography
in the mid-1950s

Systematic – examines systematic relationship between categories that can be explored globally.

Regional – examines systematic relationship between categories for a specific region or locations on
the planet.

Descriptive – simply specifies the locations of features and populations

Analytical – asks why we find features and populations in specific geographic areas

Cartography – studies the representation of the Earth’s surface abstract symbols.

Geographic Information System (GIS) – deal with the storage of information about the earth for
automatic retrieval by a computer, in an accurate manner appropriate to the information’s purpose

Remote sensing – science of obtaining information about earth features from measurements made
at a distance.
Geostatistics – deals with quantitative data analysis, specifically the application of statistical
methodology to exploration of geographic phenomena.

HISTORY

History – it is a branch of knowledge that records and explains past events.

Military History – concern warfare, strategies, battles, weapons, and the psychology of combat.

History of Religion – it has been a main theme for both secular and religious historians for centuries
and continues to be taught in seminaries and academe

Social History – is sometimes called the new social history, is the field that includes history of
ordinary people and their strategies and institutions for coping with life.

Cultural History – examines the records and narrative description of past knowledge, customs, arts
of a group of people.

Diplomatic History – focuses on the relationship between nations, primarily regarding diplomacy and
the cause of wars.

Economic History – In recent years, academic have shifted more and more toward economics
department and away from traditional history departments

Environmental history - Is a new field that emerged in the 1980s to look at the history of the
environment, especially in the long run, and the impact of human activities upon it.

World history - Is the study of major civilizations over the last 3000 years ago so world history is
primarily a teaching field, rather than a research field.

People’s History - Is a type of historical work which attempts to account historical events from the
perspective of common people.

Intellectual History - Intellectual history and the history of ideas emerged in the mid-20th century,
with the focus on the intellectual and their books on one hand, and the study of ideas as
disembodied objects with a career on their own.

Gender history - Is a sub field of history and gender studies, which looks at the past from the
perspective of gender.

Public history - Describes the broad range of activities undertaken by people with some training in
the discipline of history who are generally working outside of specialized academic settings.

LINGUISTICS

Linguistics – is the scientific study of knowledge.

Lexicon – catalogue of words and terms that are stored in a speakers mind.

Lexicography – science of mapping the words.

Discourse - Is a way of speaking that emerges within a certain social setting and is

based on a certain subject matter.

Dialect - Is a variety of language that is characteristic of a particular group among the

language speaker.

Linguistic Structures – pairing of meaning and form.

Phonetics - the study of the physical properties of speech sound production and perception.

Phonology – the study of sound as abstract elements in speakers mind that distinguish meaning
(phonemes).

Morphology – the study of morphemes, or the internal structures of words and how they can be
modified.

Syntax – the study of how words combine to form grammatical phrases and sentences

Semantics – the study of the meaning of words (lexical semantics) and fixed word combinations
(phraseology) and how these combine to form the meaning of sentences.

Pragmatics – the study of how utterances are used in communicative acts, and the role played by
context and non-linguistic knowledge in the transmission of meaning

Discourse Analysis – the analysis of language use in texts (spoken, written, or signed)

Stylistics – the study of linguistic factors (rhetoric, diction, stress) that place a discourse in text.

Semiotics – the study of signs and sign processes (symbiosis), indication, designation, likeness,
analogy, metaphor, symbolism, signification, and, communication

Sociolinguistics - study of how language is shaped by social factors.

Developmental Linguistics - is the study of the development of linguistic ability in individuals,

particularly the acquisition of language in childhood.

Neurolinguistics - is the study of the structures in the human brain that underlie grammar and
communication.

Applied Linguistics - takes the result of those findings and “applies” them to other areas.

Semiotics - Is the study of sign processes (semiotic), or signification and communication, signs and
symbols, both individually and grouped into sign system including the study of how meaning is
constructed and understood.

Biolinguistics - Is the study of the biology and evolution of language. It is a highly interdisciplinary
field, including linguistics, biologists, neuroscientists, psychologists, mathematicians, and others.

Clinical Linguistics – is the application of linguistic theory to the field of speech, language pathology.

Computational Linguistics - Is the study of linguistics issues in a way that’s computationally

responsible.

Evolutionary Linguistics - Is the interdisciplinary study of the emergence of the language faculty
through human evolution and also the application of evolutionary theory to the study of cultural
evolution among different languages.

Forensic Linguistics - Is the application of linguistics analysis to forensics.

Historical Linguistics - historical linguists study history of specific languages as well as general
characteristics of language change.

POLITICAL SCIENCE

Political Science - Social science discipline that deals with systems of government, and the analysis of
political activity and political behavior.

Comparative politics - science of comparison and teaching of different types of constitutions,

political actors, legislature, and associated fields, all of them from an intrastate perspective.

International relations - deal with the interaction between nation-states as well as

intergovernmental and transnational organizations.

Politics theory - is more concerned with contributions of various classical and contemporary thinkers
and philosophers.

Normative Political Theory and Political Philosophy (N) - This fields interprets, critiques, and
constructs philosophical conceptions and arguments concerning morally appropriate and prudent
standards and purposes for political actors and regimes.

Political Behavior and Identities (BI) - This field is concerned with the formation and acquisition of
political attitudes, beliefs, and preferences by individuals and groups; and those beliefs, attitudes,
and preferences, as well as various social identities map onto political behaviors and decision-
making.

Political Economy (PE) - This field examines the reciprocal relationships between politics and
markets, both within and among countries, using a variety of analytical tools, including those of
economics.

Political Institutions (PI) - This field studies the formal and informal rules, practices, and regularities
at both the domestic and international level that guide and constrain political choices and activities.

Political Methodology (M) - This field focuses on scholarship directed of providing appropriate
methodologies for investigating theoretically motivated political questions.

Security, Peace, and Conflict (SPC) - This field studies political violence, armed conflict both within
and across state borders.

PSYCHOLOGY

Psychology - Study of human behavior, embracing all aspects of conscious and unconscious
experience as well as thought.

Industrial Organizational Psychology - Deals with scientific principles that apply in the workplace.

Industrial Psychology - focused on the management perspective of organizational effectiveness

through the proper use of human resources and people.

Organizational Psychology - is focused more on the individual employee. It is concerned with the
understanding and enhancing the well-being and development of the individual employee.
Counseling Psychology – counseling psychologists tend to focus more on persons with adjustments
problems, rather than on persons suffering from severe psychological disorders.

Clinical Psychology - Assess and treat people with psychological problems.

Developmental Psychology – developmental psychologists study how we develop intellectually,

socially, emotionally, and morally during our lifespan.

Experimental and Human Factors Psychology - This area of specialization includes a diverse group of
psychologists who do research in the most basic areas of psychology (e.g., learning, memory,
attention, cognition, sensation, perception, motivation, and language).

Educational Psychology – educational psychologists are concerned with the study of human learning.

Social Psychology – social psychologists study how beliefs, feelings, and behaviors are affected by
other persons.

School Psychology – school psychologists are involved in the development of children in educational
setting.

Physiological Psychology - One of the psychology’s hottest areas because of the recent dramatic
increase in interest in the physiological correlates of behavior

Environmental Psychology – environmental psychologists concerned with the relations between

psychological processes and physical environments ranging from homes and offices to urban areas
and regions.

Health psychology - Health psychologists are concerned with psychology’s contributions to the
promotion and maintenance of good health and the prevention and treatment of illness.

Family psychologists - Family psychologists are concerned with the prevention of family conflict, the
treatment of marital and family problems, and the maintenance of normal family functioning.

Rehabilitation psychology - Rehabilitation psychologists work with people who have suffered
physical deprivation or loss at birth or during later development as a result of damage or
deterioration of function (e.g., resulting from a stroke)

Psychometric and Quantitative Psychology - Are concerned with the methods and techniques use to
acquire and apply psychological knowledge.

Forensic psychology and psychology with the law - Psychology and the law studies legal issues from
a psychological perspective and psychological questions in legal context. Forensic psychologists are
concerned with the applied and clinical facets of the law such as determining a defendant’s
competence to stand trial or if an accident victim has suffered physical or neurological damage.

Neuropsychology / Psychobiology - Investigate the relation between physical systems and behavior.

Geropsychology/ Psychology of Aging - Researchers in the psychology of aging (geropsychology)

draw on sociology, biology, and other disciplines as well as psychology to study the factors associated
with adult development and aging.

Sports Psychology - Is a study of psychological and mental factors that influence and are influence by
participation and performance in sport, exercise, and physical activity, and the application of the
knowledge gained through this study to everyday settings
Consumer Psychology - Is the study of human responses to product and service related information
and experiences.

Aviation Psychology - Psychology applied to aviation is an integrative field involving knowledge of

about all areas in psychology, including perception and attention, cognition, physiological,
experimental, industrial/organizational, clinical, and educational