History and Scope of the Social Sciences

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The social sciences have and will continue to be in the future will play an important role in studying and solving problems for both society and its individuals. The disciplines that it encompass vary widely but often need to come together to solve issues and study certain facets of humanity. For my personal use social science is a tool to better understand others, be more sensitive to issues that people may face and to anticipate the way people and society may act in certain situations. A social science lens can be productive in that it helps people be more indiscriminate though understanding people and their behavior. I hope to use the socials sciences to impact other people’s lives in a positive manner. The social sciences to me when used in a well-intended manner are able to not only explain phenomena but also be a solution and or make a situation better. The intent of this essay is to better understand and define the social sciences, touch on the many disciplines of the science in addition to its relationships with other scientific areas.
The social sciences have always face ridicule from many other of its scientific partners and colleagues of different disciplines, in fact the “fields of social science have occupied a shifting, liminal position within the academy. Condemned by one set of observers for being insufficiently scientific, they are condemned by the other side for being too scientific.”(Gerring xxiii) Although it has faced ridicule for it legitimacy it has held true to studying human society and societal relationships. There are many functioning definitions for social science, but the best one that I have come across state that “Social science is the collection of academic disciplines which study any aspect of soc...

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... more and more in a society that is withdrawing further and further, the development of technology has created a distancing between people and eventually it will have to be dealt with in some manner. Who better to help the divide than social scientists. Social interactions are becoming increasingly less personal and communication is being lost in many areas within life. I believe that the future of social science lies in the belly of communication and interpersonal interaction becoming personal once again.

Works Cited
Behavioral and Social Sciences (BSSR) Definition. (n.d.). NIH Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research (OBSSR). Retrieved February 4, 2014, from http://obssr.od.nih.gov/about_obssr/BSSR_CC/BSSR_definition/definition.aspx
Gerring, J. (2001). Social science methodology: a criterial framework. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

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