short essay about social science

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2.1 Sociology as a Social Science

Learning objectives.

• Explain what is meant by saying that sociology is a social science.
• Describe the difference between a generalization and a law in scientific research.
• List the sources of knowledge on which people rely for their understanding of social reality and explain why the knowledge gained from these sources may sometimes be faulty.
• List the basic steps of the scientific method.

Like anthropology, economics, political science, and psychology, sociology is a social science. All these disciplines use research to try to understand various aspects of human thought and behavior. Although this chapter naturally focuses on sociological research methods, much of the discussion is also relevant for research in the other social and behavioral sciences.

When we say that sociology is a social science, we mean that it uses the scientific method to try to understand the many aspects of society that sociologists study. An important goal is to yield generalizations —general statements regarding trends among various dimensions of social life. We discussed many such generalizations in Chapter 1 “Sociology and the Sociological Perspective” : men are more likely than women to commit suicide, young people were more likely to vote for Obama than McCain in 2008, and so forth. A generalization is just that: a statement of a tendency, rather than a hard-and-fast law. For example, the statement that men are more likely than women to commit suicide does not mean that every man commits suicide and no woman commits suicide. It means only that men have a higher suicide rate, even though most men, of course, do not commit suicide. Similarly, the statement that young people were more likely to vote for Obama than for McCain in 2008 does not mean that all young people voted for Obama; it means only that they were more likely than not to do so.

A generalization regarding the 2008 election is that young people were more likely to vote for Barack Obama than for John McCain. This generalization does not mean that every young person voted for Obama and no young person voted for McCain; it means only that they were more likely than not to vote for Obama.

Wikimedia Commons – CC BY 2.0.

Many people will not fit the pattern of such a generalization, because people are shaped but not totally determined by their social environment. That is both the fascination and the frustration of sociology. Sociology is fascinating because no matter how much sociologists are able to predict people’s behavior, attitudes, and life chances, many people will not fit the predictions. But sociology is frustrating for the same reason. Because people can never be totally explained by their social environment, sociologists can never completely understand the sources of their behavior, attitudes, and life chances.

In this sense, sociology as a social science is very different from a discipline such as physics, in which known laws exist for which no exceptions are possible. For example, we call the law of gravity a law because it describes a physical force that exists on the earth at all times and in all places and that always has the same result. If you were to pick up the book you are now reading—or the computer or other device on which you are reading or listening to—and then let go, the object you were holding would definitely fall to the ground. If you did this a second time, it would fall a second time. If you did this a billion times, it would fall a billion times. In fact, if there were even one time out of a billion that your book or electronic device did not fall down, our understanding of the physical world would be totally revolutionized, the earth could be in danger, and you could go on television and make a lot of money.

People’s attitudes, behavior, and life chances are influenced but not totally determined by many aspects of their social environment.

redjar – Cheering – CC BY-SA 2.0.

For better or worse, people are less predictable than this object that keeps falling down. Sociology can help us understand the social forces that affect our behavior, beliefs, and life chances, but it can only go so far. That limitation conceded, sociological understanding can still go fairly far toward such an understanding, and it can help us comprehend who we are and what we are by helping us first understand the profound yet often subtle influence of our social backgrounds on so many things about us.

Although sociology as a discipline is very different from physics, it is not as different as one might think from this and the other “hard” sciences. Like these disciplines, sociology as a social science relies heavily on systematic research that follows the standard rules of the scientific method. We return to these rules and the nature of sociological research later in this chapter. Suffice it to say here that careful research is essential for a sociological understanding of people, social institutions, and society.

At this point a reader might be saying, “I already know a lot about people. I could have told you that young people voted for Obama. I already had heard that men have a higher suicide rate than women. Maybe our social backgrounds do influence us in ways I had not realized, but what beyond that does sociology have to tell me?”

Students often feel this way because sociology deals with matters already familiar to them. Just about everyone has grown up in a family, so we all know something about it. We read a lot in the media about topics like divorce and health care, so we all already know something about these, too. All this leads some students to wonder if they will learn anything in their introduction to sociology course that they do not already know.

How Do We Know What We Think We Know?

Let’s consider this issue a moment: how do we know what we think we know? Our usual knowledge and understanding of social reality come from at least five sources: (a) personal experience; (b) common sense; (c) the media (including the Internet); (d) “expert authorities,” such as teachers, parents, and government officials; and (e) tradition. These are all important sources of our understanding of how the world “works,” but at the same time their value can often be very limited.

Personal Experience

Let’s look at these sources separately by starting with personal experience. Although personal experiences are very important, not everyone has the same personal experience. This fact casts some doubt on the degree to which our personal experiences can help us understand everything about a topic and the degree to which we can draw conclusions from them that necessarily apply to other people. For example, say you grew up in Maine or Vermont, where more than 98% of the population is white. If you relied on your personal experience to calculate how many people of color live in the country, you would conclude that almost everyone in the United States is also white, which certainly is not true. As another example, say you grew up in a family where your parents had the proverbial perfect marriage, as they loved each other deeply and rarely argued. If you relied on your personal experience to understand the typical American marriage, you would conclude that most marriages were as good as your parents’ marriage, which, unfortunately, also is not true. Many other examples could be cited here, but the basic point should be clear: although personal experience is better than nothing, it often offers only a very limited understanding of social reality other than our own.

Common Sense

If personal experience does not help that much when it comes to making predictions, what about common sense? Although common sense can be very helpful, it can also contradict itself. For example, which makes more sense, haste makes waste or he or she who hesitates is lost ? How about birds of a feather flock together versus opposites attract ? Or two heads are better than one versus too many cooks spoil the broth ? Each of these common sayings makes sense, but if sayings that are opposite of each other both make sense, where does the truth lie? Can common sense always be counted on to help us understand social life? Slightly more than five centuries ago, everyone “knew” the earth was flat—it was just common sense that it had to be that way. Slightly more than a century ago, some of the leading physicians in the United States believed that women should not go to college because the stress of higher education would disrupt their menstrual cycles (Ehrenreich & English, 1979). If that bit of common sense(lessness) were still with us, many of the women reading this book would not be in college.

During the late 19th century, a common belief was that women should not go to college because the stress of higher education would disrupt their menstrual cycles. This example shows that common sense is often incorrect.

Steven Depolo – Female Black College Graduates Cap Gown – CC BY 2.0.

Still, perhaps there are some things that make so much sense they just have to be true; if sociology then tells us that they are true, what have we learned? Here is an example of such an argument. We all know that older people—those 65 or older—have many more problems than younger people. First, their health is generally worse. Second, physical infirmities make it difficult for many elders to walk or otherwise move around. Third, many have seen their spouses and close friends pass away and thus live lonelier lives than younger people. Finally, many are on fixed incomes and face financial difficulties. All of these problems indicate that older people should be less happy than younger people. If a sociologist did some research and then reported that older people are indeed less happy than younger people, what have we learned? The sociologist only confirmed the obvious.

The trouble with this confirmation of the obvious is that the “obvious” turns out not to be true after all. In the 2008 General Social Survey, which was given to a random sample of Americans, respondents were asked, “Taken all together, how would you say things are these days? Would you say that you are very happy, pretty happy, or not too happy?” Respondents aged 65 or older were actually slightly more likely than those younger than 65 to say they were very happy! About 40% of older respondents reported feeling this way, compared with only 30% of younger respondents (see Figure 2.1 “Age and Happiness” ). What we all “knew” was obvious from common sense turns out not to have been so obvious after all.

Figure 2.1 Age and Happiness

Source: Data from General Social Survey, 2008.

The news media often oversimplify complex topics and in other respects provide a misleading picture of social reality. As one example, news coverage sensationalizes violent crime and thus suggests that such crime is more common than it actually is.

Wikiemedia Commons – CC BY-SA 2.0.

If personal experience and common sense do not always help that much, how about the media? We learn a lot about current events and social and political issues from the Internet, television news, newspapers and magazines, and other media sources. It is certainly important to keep up with the news, but media coverage may oversimplify complex topics or even distort what the best evidence from systematic research seems to be telling us. A good example here is crime. Many studies show that the media sensationalize crime and suggest there is much more violent crime than there really is. For example, in the early 1990s, the evening newscasts on the major networks increased their coverage of murder and other violent crimes, painting a picture of a nation where crime was growing rapidly. The reality was very different, however, as crime was actually declining. The view that crime was growing was thus a myth generated by the media (Kurtz, 1997).

Expert Authorities

Expert authorities, such as teachers, parents, and government officials, are a fourth source that influences our understanding of social reality. We learn much from our teachers and parents and perhaps from government officials, but, for better or worse, not all of what we learn from these sources about social reality is completely accurate. Teachers and parents do not always have the latest research evidence at their fingertips, and various biases may color their interpretation of any evidence with which they are familiar. As many examples from U.S. history illustrate, government officials may simplify or even falsify the facts. We should perhaps always listen to our teachers and parents and maybe even to government officials, but that does not always mean they give us a true, complete picture of social reality.

A final source that influences our understanding of social reality is tradition, or long-standing ways of thinking about the workings of society. Tradition is generally valuable, because a society should always be aware of its roots. However, traditional ways of thinking about social reality often turn out to be inaccurate and incomplete. For example, traditional ways of thinking in the United States once assumed that women and people of color were biologically and culturally inferior to men and whites. Although some Americans continue to hold these beliefs, these traditional assumptions have given way to more egalitarian assumptions. As we shall also see in later chapters, most sociologists certainly do not believe that women and people of color are biologically and culturally inferior.

If we cannot always trust personal experience, common sense, the media, expert authorities, and tradition to help us understand social reality, then the importance of systematic research gathered by sociology and the other social sciences becomes apparent.

The Scientific Method

As noted earlier, because sociology is a social science, sociologists follow the rules of the scientific method in their research. Most readers probably learned these rules in science classes in high school, college, or both. The scientific method is followed in the natural, physical, and social sciences to help yield the most accurate and reliable conclusions possible, especially ones that are free of bias or methodological errors. An overriding principle of the scientific method is that research should be conducted as objectively as possible. Researchers are often passionate about their work, but they must take care not to let the findings they expect and even hope to uncover affect how they do their research. This in turn means that they must not conduct their research in a manner that “helps” achieve the results they expect to find. Such bias can happen unconsciously, and the scientific method helps reduce the potential for this bias as much as possible.

This potential is arguably greater in the social sciences than in the natural and physical sciences. The political views of chemists and physicists typically do not affect how an experiment is performed and how the outcome of the experiment is interpreted. In contrast, researchers in the social sciences, and perhaps particularly in sociology, often have strong feelings about the topics they are studying. Their social and political beliefs may thus influence how they perform their research on these topics and how they interpret the results of this research. Following the scientific method helps reduce this possible influence.

Figure 2.2 The Scientific Method

As you probably learned in a science class, the scientific method involves these basic steps: (a) formulating a hypothesis, (b) measuring and gathering data to test the hypothesis, (c) analyzing these data, and (d) drawing appropriate conclusions (see Figure 2.2 “The Scientific Method” ). In following the scientific method, sociologists are no different from their colleagues in the natural and physical sciences or the other social sciences, even though their research is very different in other respects. The next section discusses the stages of the sociological research process in more detail.

Key Takeaways

• As a social science, sociology presents generalizations, or general statements regarding trends among various dimensions of social life. There are always many exceptions to any generalization, because people are not totally determined by their social environment.
• Our knowledge and understanding of social reality usually comes from five sources: (a) personal experience, (b) common sense, (c) the media, (d) expert authorities, and (e) tradition. Sometimes and perhaps often, the knowledge gained from these sources is faulty.
• Like research in other social sciences, sociological research follows the scientific method to ensure the most accurate and reliable results possible. The basic steps of the scientific method include (a) formulating a hypothesis, (b) measuring and gathering data to test the hypothesis, (c) analyzing these data, and (d) drawing appropriate conclusions.

For Your Review

• Think of a personal experience you have had that might have some sociological relevance. Write a short essay in which you explain how this experience helped you understand some aspect of society. Your essay should also consider whether the understanding gained from your personal experience is generalizable to other people and situations.
• Why do you think the media sometimes provide a false picture of social reality? Does this problem result from honest mistakes, or is the media’s desire to attract more viewers, listeners, and readers to blame?

Ehrenreich, B., & English, D. (1979). For her own good: 150 years of the experts’ advice to women . Garden City, NY: Anchor Books.

Kurtz, H. (1997, August 12). The crime spree on network news. The Washington Post , p. D1.

Sociology Copyright © 2016 by University of Minnesota is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

The Critical Turkey

Essay Writing Hacks for the Social Sciences

What Should Be in a Social Science Essay? Fundamentals and Essential Techniques

This blogpost is also available as a PDF download , so it can be stored on your desktop and used as a checklist before submitting your essay.

The following is a condensed overview of the most important features of social science essay writing. Its aim is to cut through the noise, and focus on the most essential (and important) elements of essay writing. Read it carefully, and use it as a check-list once you have completed your essay.

Before we get into the details, however, be aware: The purpose of writing essays in the social and political sciences is not so much to just demonstrate your knowledge. Rather, it is about applying this knowledge, using it to make a well-informed, well-reasoned, independently-reflected argument that is based on verified (and verifiable) evidence. What should be in an essay, and how you should write it, is all informed by this purpose.

What’s in an Essay?

The main focus of an academic essay, article or book is to address a research or essay question. Therefore, make sure you have read the essay question carefully, think about what aspects of the topic you need to address, and organize the essay accordingly. Your essay should have three parts:

• Introduction
• Provide context to the question. Be specific (not ‘since the dawn of time, social scientists have been arguing…’, but ‘one of the key debates in the study of revolutions revolves around…’, ideally providing references to the key authors of said debate).
• It is almost always a good idea to formulate an argument – an arguable statement – in relation to the essay question (e.g. if the question is ‘Evaluate Weber and Marx’s accounts of capitalism’, an argument could be ‘I am going to argue that Weber is most insightful on X, but Marx is important for Y’). This builds a nice critical element into your essay, your own take on things, going beyond merely describing what others have written.
• Essay plan: Tell the reader about the points you are going to cover, and the order in which you are going to do this (e.g. ‘First, the essay looks at…, second… third…’ etc.). Think of it as a roadmap to the essay.
• Define key concepts as necessary for understanding. Do not use general dictionaries, as they often contain notions that social scientists try to challenge. Use definitions from the readings, and from sociological dictionaries.
• Length: Intro should be between 5 to 10%, and no more than about 10 per cent of the overall word count.
• Main Part / Body
• The structure of the essay body is informed by the research/essay question: What points do you need to include in order to address the question? What sub-questions are there to the big question? Concentrate on the ‘need-to-knows’ rather than the ‘nice-to-knows’ .
• The order in which you arrange these points depends on what makes the most convincing line of argument. This depends on the essay question, but as a rule of thumb you want to build up your argument, from the basics to the more elaborate points, from the weaker to the stronger, from what contradicts your argument to what supports it.
• The different points should be addressed in appropriate depth. Make sure you explain not just what something is, but also how it works, and use examples and illustration.
• There should be a coherent thread running through the essay and connecting the various points to one another and the overall argument. Indicate these connections in strategic places with appropriate signposting. These signpostings should also help you develop your argument as you proceed.
• Excellent essays often raise counter-arguments to the argument presented, and then provide arguments against those counter-arguments. Think about why and how someone might disagree about what you are saying, and how you would respond to them.
• Use peer-reviewed academic sources and present evidence for the points you make, using references, reliable statistics, examples etc. Any opinion you express should be built on reliable evidence and good reasoning.
• What, finally, is your answer to the question? Bring the various strings of the essay together, summarize them briefly in the context of the essay question, and round off by connecting to the bigger discussion that the essay question is part of. It is usually a good idea to have a differentiated conclusion, in which you e.g. agree with a statement to a certain extent or under specific circumstances (and explain which and why), but disagree with some other aspects of it, rather than making undifferentiated black-or-white statements. You can also contextualise your argument with your ideas from the introduction. It is normally not a good idea to introduce new material in the conclusion. You are wrapping up here, and rounding off, not starting new discussions.
• Conclusion should be about, and no longer than, 10 per cent of the overall word count.

Notes on Writing Style

• Find the right balance between formal and informal. Avoid being too informal and conversational on the one hand. But also don’t use overly convoluted and complicated language, as it makes your writing inaccessible, and can lead to a lack of clarity. You may at times encounter academic writing that seems deliberately obscure or overcomplicated, but those are not examples you should try to emulate.
• Clarity and specificity should indeed be a top priority. Are the words you are using expressing what you want to express? Is it clear who specifically is doing what or saying what? Pay attention to this when proofreading the essay. Could someone understand this differently? Avoid ambiguities.
• Key concepts should be clearly defined and  used throughout the essay in the way you defined them. Choose the definitions that are most useful for your discussion.
• Avoid hyperbole (don’t do ‘shocking statistics’ or ‘dire consequences’ etc.).

Notes on the Writing Process

• Proofreading: When you are first writing, don’t think of it as the final product, but treat it as a first draft. Go through several drafts until you are happy with it. At a minimum, proofread the entire essay once or twice. Don’t be perfectionist when you start out, as you can always come back and improve on whatever you’ve written.
• Small steps: Focussing on the small, concrete steps of your writing process rather than constantly thinking of the big task at hand will help you feel in control.
• Procrastination: Feeling overwhelmed, as well as being too perfectionist, are among the leading causes for procrastination. The two previous points should therefore help you address this issue as well. Don’t be too harsh on yourself when you do procrastinate – almost everyone does it to some extent .
• Over the years, keep addressing areas you want to improve on, and keep looking for information. Search online, for example ‘how to cite a book chapter in Harvard Sage’, ‘developing an argument’, ‘ using quotations ’, ‘memory techniques’, ‘how to read with speed’, ‘understanding procrastination’, or ‘ what does peer-reviewed mean ’. There is plenty of information, and some seriously good advice out there. See what works for you. Read the feedback you get on your writing, and incorporate it into your next essay.

Final Thoughts

Essay Writing skills are good skills to have in any situation (except maybe in a zombie apocalypse). They will make the studying process easier over time, and hopefully also more fun. But in a wider sense, they are general skills of critical engagement with the world around you, and will help you filter and prioritise the overload of information you are confronted with on an everyday basis. In that sense, they might actually even be helpful in a zombie apocalypse.

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1 What are the social sciences?

Learning Objectives for this Chapter

After reading this Chapter, you should be able to:

• understand what the social sciences are, including some fundamental concepts and values,
• understand and apply the concept of ‘phronesis’ to thinking about the purpose and value of the social sciences.

History and philosophy of the social sciences

Some of the earliest written and spoken accounts of human action, values, and the structure of society can be found in Ancient Greek, Islamic, Chinese and indigenous cultures. For example, Ibn Khaldoun , a 14th-century North African philosopher, is considered a pioneer in the field of social sciences. He wrote the book Muqaddimah , which is regarded as the first comprehensive work in the social sciences. It charts an attempt to create a universal history based on studying and explaining the economic, social, and political factors that shape society and discussed the cyclical rise and fall of civilisations. Moreover, indigenous peoples across the world have contributed in various and significant ways to the development of scientific knowledge and practices (e.g., see this recent article by Indigenous scholar, Jesse Popp – How Indigenous knowledge advances modern science and technology ). Indeed, contemporary social science has much to learn from indigenous knowledges and methodologies (e.g., Quinn 2022 ), as well as much reconciling to do in terms of its treatment of indigenous peoples the world over (see Coburn, Moreton-Robinson, Sefa Dei, and Stewart-Harawira, 2013 ).

Nevertheless, the dominant Western European narrative of the achievements of the enlightenment still tends to overlook and discredit much of this knowledge. Additionally, male thinkers have tended to dominate within the Western social sciences, while women have historically been excluded from academic institutions and their perspectives largely omitted from social science history and texts. Therefore, much of the history of the social sciences represent a predominantly white, masculine viewpoint. That is not to say that the concepts and theories developed by these male social scientists should be outright discredited. Nevertheless, in engaging with them we must understand this context; they are not the only voices, nor necessarily the most important. Indeed, it is crucial therefore that the history of the social sciences is continually re-examined through a critical lens, to identify gaps within social scientific knowledge bases and allow space for critical revisions that broaden existing concepts and theories beyond an exclusively masculine, Western-centric perspective. We seek to adopt such an approach throughout this book. However, to critique and question Western social scientific perspectives, we must first understand them.

Social sciences in the Western world

The study of the social sciences, as developed in the Western world, can be said to emerge from the Age of Enlightenment in the late 17th Century. Beginning with René Descartes (1596-1650), both the natural and social sciences developed from the concept of the rational, thinking individual. These early Enlightenment thinkers argued that human beings use reason to understand the world, rather than only referring to religion. Other thinkers around this time such as Jean-Jacques Rousseau  (1712-1778), M. de Voltaire (1694-1778) and Denis Diderot (1713-1784), began to develop different methodologies to scientifically explain processes in the body, the structure of society, and the limits of human knowledge. It was during this period that the social sciences grew out of moral philosophy, which asks ‘how people ought to live’, and political philosophy, which asks ‘what form societies ought to take’. Rather than only focusing on descriptive scientific questions about ‘how things are’, the social sciences also sought answers to normative questions about ‘how things could be’. This is one of the central differences between the natural sciences and the social sciences. This era of Enlightenment marked an important turning point in history that gave way to further developments in both the natural and social sciences.

Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) is often regarded as one of the most influential philosophers for the development of the social sciences. In his work, Kant develops an epistemology that accounts for the objective validity of knowledge, due to the capacities of the human mind. In other words, how can we as individual people come to know facts about the world that are true for all of us. Social scientists, such as Émile Durkheim (1858-1917) and Max Weber (1864-1920) critically developed the work of Kant to explain social relations between individuals.

Émile Durkheim prioritised the validity of social facts over the values themselves, continuing the tradition of ‘ positivism ‘ (an ontological position that we discuss later in this Chapter). Durkheim argued that there is a distinction between social facts and individual facts. Rather than viewing the structure of the human mind as the basis for knowledge like Kant, Durkheim argued that it is society itself that forms the basis for the social experience of individuals. Social facts should therefore, “be treated as natural objects and can be classified, compared and explained according to the logic of any natural science” (Rose, 1981: 19). Durkheim developed his methodology using analogies to the natural sciences. For example, he borrowed concepts from biology to understand society as a living organism.

TRIGGER WARNING

The following section contains content which may be triggering for certain people. It focuses on the sociology of suicide, including discussion of self-harm and different forms of suicide as it exists within society.

Durkheim and Suicide

Emile Durkheim’s 1879 text ‘Suicide: a Study in Sociology’ is a foundational work for the study of social facts. Durkheim explores the phenomenon of suicide across different time periods, nationalities, religions, genders, and economic groups. Durkheim argues that the problem of suicide can not be explained through purely biological, psychological or environmental means. Suicide must, he concludes, “necessarily depend upon social causes and be in itself a collective phenomenon” (Durkheim 1897: 97). It was and continues to be a work of great impact that demonstrates that, what most would consider an individual act is actually enmeshed in social factors.

In his text, Durkheim identifies some of the different forms suicide can take within society, four of which we discuss below.

Egoistic Suicide

Egoistic suicide is caused by what Durkheim terms “excessive individuation” (Durkheim 1897: 175). A lack of integration within a particular community or society at large leads human beings to feel isolated and disconnected from others. Durkheim argues that “suicide increases with knowledge”(Durkheim 1897: 123). This is not to say that a particular human being kills themselves because of their knowledge; rather it is because of the decline of organised religion that human beings desire knowledge outside of religion. It is thus, for Durkheim the weakening organisation of religion that detaches people from their (religious) community, increasing social isolation. According to Durkheim, the capacity of religion to prevent suicide does not result from a stricter prohibition of self-harm. Religion has the power to prevent someone from committing suicide because it is a community, or a ‘society’ in Durkheim’s words. The collective values of religion increases social integration and is just one example of the importance of community in decreasing rates of suicide. Isolation of individuals, for Durkheim, is a fundamental cause of suicide: “The bond attaching man [sic] to life relaxes because that attaching him [sic] to society is itself slack” (Durkheim 1897: 173).

Altruistic Suicide

Durkheim notes another kind of suicide that stems from “insufficient individuation” (Durkheim 1897: 173). This occurs in social situations where an individual identifies so strongly with their beliefs of a group that they are willing to sacrifice themselves for what they perceive to be the greater good. Examples of altruistic suicide include suicidal sacrifice in certain cultures to honour their particular God, soldiers who go to war and die in honour of their country, or the ancient tradition of Hara-kiri in Japan. As such, Durkheim notes that some people have even refused to consider altruistic suicide a form of self-destruction, because it resembles “some categories of action which we are used to honouring with our respect and even admiration”(Durkheim 1897: 199).

Anomic Suicide

The third kind of suicide Durkheim identifies is termed anomic suicide. This type is the result of the activity of human beings “lacking regulation”, and “the consequent sufferings” that are felt from this situation (Durkheim 1897: 219). Durkheim notes the similarities between egoistic and anomic suicide, however he notes an important distinction: “In egoistic suicide it is deficient in truly collective activity, thus depriving the latter of object and meaning. In anomic suicide, society’s influence is lacking in the basically individual passions, thus leaving them without a check-rein” (Durkheim 1897: 219). 

Fatalistic Suicide

There is a fourth type of suicide for Durkheim, one that has more historical meaning than current relevance. Fatalistic suicide is opposed to anomic, and is the result of  “excessive regulation, that of persons with futures pitilessly blocked and passions violently choked by oppressive discipline” (Durkheim 1897: 239). These regulations occur during moments of crises, including economic and social upheaval, that destabilise the individual’s sense of meaning.  It is the impact of external factors onto the individual, where meaning is thrown to the wind for the individual, that characterises fatalistic suicide.

Durkheim’s sociological study of suicide was a groundbreaking work for social sciences. His methodology, multivariate analysis, provided a way to understand numerous interrelated factors and how they relate to a particular social fact. His findings, particularly the higher suicide rates of Protestants, compared to Jewish and Catholic people, was correlated to the higher rates to individualised consciousness and the lower social control. This study, despite criticisms of the generalisations drawn from the results, has had a remarkable impact on sociology and remains a seminal text for those interested in the social sciences.

Max Weber was also influenced by the work of Kant. Unlike Durkheim, Weber “transformed the paradigm of validity and values into a sociology by giving values priority over validity” (Rose, 1981: 19). Culture is thus understood as a value that structures our understanding of the world. According to Weber, values cannot be spoken about in terms of their truth content. The separation between values and validity means that values can only be discussed in terms of faith rather than scientific reason. For Weber, only when a culture’s underpinning values are defined can facts about the social world be understood.

The philosophy of G.W.F. Hegel (1770-1831) also greatly shaped the development of the social sciences. As argued by Herbert Marcuse (1941: 251-257), Hegel instigated the shift from abstract philosophy to theories of society. According to Hegel, human beings are not restricted to the pre-existing social order and can understand and change the social world. Our natural ability to reason allows human beings to create theories about our world that are universal and true.

Karl Marx (1818-1883), often regarded as the founder of conflict theory, was deeply influenced by the philosophy of Hegel. For example, Hegel emphasises that labour and alienation are essential characteristics of human experience, and Marx applies this idea more concretely to a material analysis of society, dividing human history along the lines of the forces of production. In other words, Marx understood that labour was divided in capitalist society according to two classes that developed society through a perpetual state of conflict: the working class, or ‘ proletariat’ , and the class of ownership, or ‘ bourgeoisie’ (we talk more about Marx’s conflict theory in Chapter 3).

Overall, the social sciences have a long and complex history, influenced by many different philosophical perspectives. As alluded to earlier, however, any account of the historical beginnings of the social sciences must be understood to be embedded within dominant systems of power, including for example colonisation, patriarchy, and capitalism. Indeed, any history of the social sciences is already situated within a narrative, or ‘discourse’. Maintaining a critical lens will allow for a deeper understanding of the genesis of the social sciences, as well as the important ability to question social scientific approaches, understandings, findings, and methods. It is this disposition that we seek to cultivate throughout this book. After all, as Marx famously wrote, “The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways. The point, however, is to change it.”

Defining Key Terms

Descriptive : A descriptive claim or question seeks to explain how things work, what causes them to work that way, and how things relate to one another.

Normative : A normative claim or question seeks to explain how things ought to work, why they should work a certain way, and what should change for things to work differently.

Labour : For Marx, labour is the natural capacity of human beings to work and create things. Under capitalism, labour primarily produces profits for the ruling class. (Please note, we return to the notion of labour in later chapters, and explore other understandings and definitions of this term.)

Alienation : Workers, separated from the products of their labour and replaceable in the production process, become separated or ‘alienated’ from their creative human essence. (Please also see Chapter 3 for a further explanation of the concept of alienation under Marxism.)

What are the social sciences?

The social sciences are a ‘broad church’, including lots of different disciplinary and sub-disciplinary areas. These include, for example, sociology, anthropology, criminology, archaeology, social policy, human geography, and many more. At their core, they apply the ‘scientific method’ to the analysis of people, societies, power, and social change.

Before we move on, let’s touch briefly on what we mean by the scientific method . At its core, the scientific method is essentially a series of steps that scientists take in order to build and test scientific knowledge. These steps include:

• Observation :  Scientists observe the world around them, in order to better understand it. 
• Question :  Scientists ask ‘research questions’ about how the world works.
• Hypothesis: Scientists come up with ideas or theories about how they think the world works, which they then seek to test through their research.
• Experiment: In experimental research, scientists use a specific experimental design (which includes a control and experimental group) to test hypotheses. This is not always possible or desirable in the social sciences, so social scientists tend to rely on a broader array of methods to collect data that can help them test their hypotheses about the social world. 
• Analysis:  Scientists use various different approaches to analyse the data they collect; the approach to analysis depends on the kind of data collected, and what questions are being asked of the data. 
• Conclusions:  Scientists develop conclusions, based on the results of their analyses. They consider how these either reinforce or further develop existing knowledge and understandings, as well as what there is left to find out (the latter of which informs future research endeavours). 

Over time, social scientists have developed their own ontological and epistemological leanings, which in many ways represent a departure from the typical positivist approaches of the natural sciences. While the natural sciences tend to assume there are objective ‘truths’ waiting to be discovered through, for instance, sensory experience (seeing, looking), social scientists tend to understand truth as being socially constructed. Thus, social scientists tend to adopt interpretivist and constructivist approaches to understanding the world, seeing knowledge as being co-constructed, rooted in context, and an important source/expression of power.

Consolidate your learning: ‘Introduction to the social sciences’ video

To consolidate your understanding of the social sciences, watch the following short video – Introduction to the social sciences (YouTube, 8:34) .

Flyvbjerg (2001) referred to the ‘science wars’, by which he meant the ongoing battle between the natural and social sciences. Often in public and political discourse, the natural sciences are seen as being more ‘scientific’ and a source of ‘stronger’ or ‘more objective’ knowledge than the social sciences. However, the reality is that both have equally important but different things to offer. As Flyvbjerg (2001: 3) argued:

…the social sciences are strongest where the natural sciences are weakest: just as the social sciences have not contributed much to explanatory and predictive theory, neither have the natural sciences contributed to the reflexive analysis and discussion of values and interests…

As Flyvbjerg (2001) sees it, social scientists should not try to replicate the natural sciences but should instead embrace their ability to take a different ontological and epistemological outlook, which enables deep, reflexive, and contextualised analysis about people and societies as a point of departure for values-based action . He called this ‘phronetic social science’ (which we elaborate on later in the Chapter).

Defining key terms

‘Ontology’: Ontology is the study of reality and being. When we refer to ‘ontology’, we are not just talking about people’s views of the world, but also their lived experience and actual being in the world, as well as their beliefs and claims about the nature of their existence. Some key questions are ‘what and who exists in the world?’ and ‘what are the relationships between them’?

‘Epistemology’ : Epistemology concerns the origin and nature of knowledge, including how knowledge claims are built and made. Some key questions are ‘what is knowledge?’ and ‘how is knowledge acquired’?

Positivism: Positivism is an ontology that assumes there is an objective ‘truth’ waiting to be discovered. Positivism involves, therefore, the search for a universal/generalisable ‘truth’.

Constructivism: Constructivism is an ontology that assumes that there are multiple ‘truths’ that are subjective and socially constructed. Truths are not, therefore, universal but are instead rooted in social, historical, and geographical context. These ‘truths’ are also bound up with power. For instance, those who hold power get to say what is ‘true’ and what isn’t.

In addition to the above,  Argentine-Canadian philosopher Mario Bunge ‘s (2003: 285ff) glossary of key terms includes a range of ontological concepts used in the social sciences that are useful to think with:

“Definitions of Twelve Ontological Concepts

•   Ontology: The philosophical study of being and becoming.
•   Realism (ontological): The thesis that the world outside the student exists on its own.
•   Phenomenalism (ontological): The philosophical view that there are only phenomena (appearances to someone).
•   Constructivism (ontological): The view that the world is a human (individual or social) construction.
•   Dialectics: The ontological doctrine, due to Hegel and adopted by Marx and his followers, according to which every item is at once the unity and struggle of opposites.
•   Materialism: The family of naturalist ontologies according to which all existents are material.
•   Naturalism: The family of ontologies that assert that all existents are natural-hence none are supernatural.
•   Idealism. The family of ontologies according to which ideas pre-exist and dominate everything else.
•   Subjectivism. The family of philosophies according to which everything is in a subject’s mind (subjective idealism).
•     Holism: The family of doctrines according to which all things come in unanalyzable wholes.
•     Individualism: The view that the universe is an aggregate of separate individuals: that wholes and emergence are illusory.
•     Systemism (ontological): The view that everything is either a system or a component of some system.”

Source: Bunge, M. (2003). E mergence and Convergence: Qualitative Novelty and the Unity of Knowledge . University of Toronto Press. Pp. 285ff

Reflection exercise

Take a few moments to think about what you have read above. Then, write a short (~100 word) reflection explaining:

• primary ways in which the natural and social sciences differ, and
• some things that the social sciences offer that the natural sciences cannot.

Why study the social sciences?

In their 2019 publication, Carré asked, ‘what are the social sciences for’? In response, they propose a framework for thinking about the different approaches and contributions of social science research, which encompasses three continuums: 1) return on investment versus intrinsic value; 2) citizen (societal) relevance versus academic relevance; and 3) applied research versus basic research (see the Figure below, adapted from Carré [2019: 23]).

While Carré (2019) argues that social scientists move along these continuums, he also suggests that there is good justification for finding middle grounds between the extremes. For instance, while applied research will tend to focus on and find solutions for specific social issues (e.g. youth crime), ‘basic’ research tends to adopt a more high-level theoretical approach to shaping how we understand the world, which can lead to longer-term substantive change (such as changing the way we think about and understand youth crime). As Carré (2019: 22) explains: “either research is conducted to directly solve pressing social issues, or it takes a full step back from the social word, in order to reflect about it without directly meddling [and] being involved in its events and discussions.” However, both are incredibly useful for moving knowledge forward and making crucial contributions. Similarly, they can have important symbiotic relationships; applied research might be informed and guided by the knowledge created through basic research, and conversely, applied research studies might be meta-analysed (a type of combined analysis) to inform broader theoretical development that is often the purview of basic research.

A central question raised by Carré (2019) is, what should social science ‘give back’ to the society that supports it? Take a piece of paper and write down some responses to this, based on your own views and beliefs.

According to Flyvbjerg (2001), and as also covered by Schram (2012), the concept of ‘phronetic social science’ can help bring social scientists back to the central value of the social sciences, rather than seeing them try to emulate the natural sciences and their search for universal and generalisable theories and truths. Instead, phronetic social science recognises that ‘truth’ is dependent on context, is in constant flux, and is bound up with power. This is not to say that we live in a ‘post-truth’ world where anything goes, but merely that we need to interrogate how knowledge and truth are created and how societies and social structures can play a role in this. Famous sociologist, Michel Foucault (1926-1984) referred to this as a ‘politics of truth’: something we’ll continue to discuss in greater detail over coming chapters.

‘Phronetic’ social science

Phronetic social science draws on the concept of phronesis, a term coined by Aristotle (384-322 BC) to refer to practical wisdom that arises from experience. Thus, phronetic social science “is designed not to substitute for, but instead to supplement, practice wisdom and to do so in ways that can improve society” (Schram 2012: 16). In terms of improving society, phronetic social science is then also concerned with praxis, or the practical application of knowledge to the betterment of society. Finally, phronetic social science is not attached to particular methods (e.g. quantitative versus qualitative), instead being “open to relying on a diversity of data collection methods in order to best inform attempts to promote change related to the issues being studied” (Schram 2012: 20).

Schram (2012: 18-19) presents four justifications for phronetic social science as follows:

• “Given the dynamic nature of human interaction in the social world, social inquiry is best practiced when it does not seek general laws of action that can be used to predict courses of action, but instead offer a critical assessment of values, norms and structures of power and dominance. Social inquiry is better when it is linked to questions of the good life, that is, to questions of what we ought to do.
• While the social world is dynamic, social research is best seen as dialogical. Social inquiry is not a species of theoretical reason but of practical reason. Practical reason stays within a horizon of involvements in social life. For Flyvbjerg, this entails a context-dependent view of social inquiry that rests on the capacity for judgement. Understanding can never be grasped analytically; it is a holistic character. Understanding also has intrinsic subjective elements requiring researchers to forgo a disinterested position of detachment and enter into dialogue with those they study.
• As the study of dynamic social life, dialogical social inquiry is best practiced when we give up traditional notions of objectivity and truth and put aside the fact-value distinction. Instead, we should emphasise a contextual notion of truth that is pluralistic and culture-bound, further necessitating involvement with those we study.
• Dialogical social inquiry into a dynamic and changing social world provides a basis for emphasising that interpretation is itself a practice of power, one that if conducted publicly and in ways that engage the public can also challenge power and inform efforts to promote social change.”

This concept of phronetic social science is a helpful means of understanding how the social sciences differ to the natural sciences, and can add value in different ways. However, it doesn’t tell us  how  to do  social science, or how to  be  social scientists. What tools, for instance, might we use to undertake the sort of dialogical social inquiry that Schram refers to above? And how might we start ‘thinking’ like social scientists? We turn to these questions in the chapter that follows.

‘Phronesis’: Described by Aristotle as ‘practical wisdom’, and juxtaposed with techn é (‘know how’ of practice) and epistem é (abstract and universal knowledge).

‘Dialogical’: Exploring the meaning of things and creating knowledge through dialogue/conversation.

‘Quantitative’ : A term used to describe research methods that typically involve measurement and counting of phenomena, regularly involving numerical data.

‘Qualitative’: A term used to describe research methods that typically involve understanding and interpretation of lived experiences (how people think, feel, act), regularly involving textual data.

Think about the concept of phronetic social science. Write a short paragraph (~30-40 words) to explain it in your own words. Then read back over the content in this chapter content to check your understanding.

Resources to support further learning

Relevant readings:

• Gorton, W. ‘ The Philosophy of Social Science .’
• Flyvbjerg, B. 2001. ‘The science wars: a way out.’ In. Flyvbjerg, B. Making social science matter, chapter 1. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge.
• Carré, D. 2019. ‘ Social sciences, what for? On the manifold directions for social research .’ In. Valsiner, J. (Ed.) Social philosophy of science for the social sciences, pp. 13-29. Springer: Cham.
• Schram, S. 2012. ‘Phronetic social science: an idea whose time has come.’ In Flyvbjerg, B., Landman, T. and Schram, S. (Eds.) Real social science: applied phronesis. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge.
• Bunge, M. (2003). E mergence and Convergence: Qualitative Novelty and the Unity of Knowledge . University of Toronto Press.

Other resources:

• Video: Soomo, ‘An animated introduction to social science’ (YouTube, 4:35) .
• Video: ‘Introduction to the social sciences’ (YouTube, 8:34) .
• Podcast: Theory and Philosophy Podcast, ‘Bent Flyvbjerg – Making Social Science Matter’ (YouTube, 44:06) . (Note, discussion of  phronesis  starts at 7:51)
• Video: ‘Importance of social science with Professor Cary Cooper’ (YouTube, 4:13) .

Introduction to the Social Sciences Copyright © 2023 by The University of Queensland is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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A Short Handbook for Writing Essays in the Humanities and Social Sciences (Allosso and Allosso)

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A retired master teacher of English and Comparative Literature teams up with his son, a History professor, on a new version of the writing manual he wrote and used for decades at the University of California, Davis.

101 Social Science Essay Topics

🏆 best essay topics on social science, ✍️ social science essay topics for college, 🎓 most interesting social science research titles, 💡 simple social science essay ideas, ❓ social science research questions.

• Interdisciplinary Approach in Social Science
• Humanities, Social Science, and Natural Sciences
• Social Sciences: A World Without Leadership
• Saputo Inc. Cage Analysis: Humanities and Social Sciences
• What Is Meant By Social Science Paradigms?
• Advertisements in Terms of the Social Science
• Social Sciences: Current Realities, and Future Trends
• Application of Research in Social Sciences Reflection Paper The purpose of this reflective paper is to explore the roles of research and its relevant applications in the disciplines of social science.
• Social Sciences and Organizational Behavior The contribution of psychology and sociology to the individual and group level of analysis of organizational behavior as applied science.
• Social Sciences: Postdevelopment Literature and Theories The paper is on Post-development literature where the fundamentals of development are evaluated from the perspective of Rostow’s development theory and Wolfgang Sachs’ approach.
• Action Research and Its Types in Social Sciences To assess action research, one should describe different types of it and identify the differences between it and more conventional kinds of social science research.
• Rational Choice Theories in Social Sciences Rational choice theories (RCT) are examined in terms of the economic, political, criminal, and religious aspects, as well as the everyday application of RCT.
• The Meaning and the Purpose of Social Science Social sciences are essential for exploring the relationships and interconnections of human beings, including the conditions that limit their lives.
• Plastic Pollution Through the Lens of Social Sciences When analyzing the problem through the lens of social sciences, it becomes clear that the problem of plastic pollution is complicated.
• Social Science and Sexuality: Aspects of Feminism The life of human beings on this Earth has always been a very complicated matter. This has been so due to some factors – natural, physical, psychological, and others.
• Ethics as a Social Science Field The paper aims to highlight some of the primary conceptualizations integrated into the study of morality, including natural law, human rights, ethics of care, and virtue ethics.
• The Problems and the Future of Social Sciences it is difficult to predict the future of social sciences, but I believe that the efficiency of political and economic scientists will depend on the mindset of elected leaders.
• Social Sciences: African American Stereotypes Dating back to the colonial years of settlement, stereotypes have been part of America, especially after inheriting slavery.
• Philosophy of Social Science and Education Research This paper will be aimed at examining various issues such as the concept of falsifiability and the use of various research paradigms.
• Research Methods for Business and Social Science Students When conducting rigorous research into a topical issue, it is natural to expect serious challenges at each stage.
• Theories of Aging in Social Sciences By studying sociological theories of aging, one can discover many important aspects of personality and society, taking into account each person’s many years of experience.
• Cultural Artifacts Through History and Social Science Lenses Cultural artifacts tell different stories based on the lens being viewed. This paper aims to explore the interaction between history and social science perspectives.
• Sexual Health Through Natural and Social Sciences Lens The paper aims to analyze the issue from a scientific perspective and recognize the way it can help to address and resolve the sexual health and identity problem.
• Art Therapy in Social Sciences Mood and emotional reactions to various art during therapy are crucial pointers to the psychological aspects of a person.
• Sampling Strategies for Social Sciences Study In simple random sampling techniques, each component of the population is given an equal opportunity or probability of being selected into the sample.
• Social Science Perspectives on the Autism Spectrum This report will discuss autism, its characteristics, causes, diagnosis, and management. Autism refers to developmental disorder that impedes a person’s ability to communicate and relate to people.
• The Definition of Social Sciences This paper explains the definition of social sciences. It is the study of human beings in a society that explains the choices they make and their consequences.
• Predicting the Replicability of Social Science Lab Experiments The quality of work is the most significant factor for any academic organization. A research process for any scientific project requires careful evaluation of information sources.
• Course Social Sciences of Sport Soccer is a popular sport known to promote the sustainable existence of community members. Plays have a special place in human culture.
• Social Sciences: Religious Individualization Seneca does not object to slavery in and of itself, and there are several reasons for it. The author sees the reality as slavery.
• Philosophy and Social Sciences The paper describes the theory of knowledge skepticism and considers the skeptic’s charge that we can never be confident about the reliability of our usual sources of knowledge.
• Analyzing Tests and Scales in Social Science The paper at hand provides a brief review of the tests and scales applied to data measurement in social science.
• Development of Meaning: Social Science Value The paper argues that social science is an instrumental lens through which the development of meaning occurs, and new ideas are created to address social ills and injustices.
• Theory and Methodology in Social Science Research It is vital to provide research on the methodology applied to work out mass media influence on perceptions of gender.
• Natural & Social Science Grade 3 Classroom Library One of the professional tasks of a teacher is to compile a methodologically adequate list of literature-references, which can be organically incorporated into the learning process.
• Sociologists as Heroes of Social Sciences The paper presents short biographies of outstanding sociologists. The historical significance of their activities is rather difficult to overestimate.
• Social Science Loosely Defined Critique Commonsense Commonsense Word Refers
• Evolutionary Social Science and Universal Darwinism
• Bibliometric and Altmetric Analysis of Three Social Science Disciplines
• American Social Science Fraternity and Gover
• Sociology and the Disciplines of Social Science
• Analytical Sociology and Computational Social Science
• Social Science and Neuroscience: How Can They Inform Each Other
• Way of Social Science and History Teaching in Hitler’s Germany
• Human Behavior Paradox and a Social Science Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics
• Conversion and Departure Between Science and Social Science
• Biblical Religion and Social Science in the Modern World
• Naturalist and Interpretations Social Science
• Cumulative Inequality Theory and Social Science
• Social Science and the Philosophy of Science
• Correlation Between Sociology and Other Social Science Streams
• Can Social Science Help Us to Understand Society
• Geographically Referenced Data for Social Science
• The Difference Between Natural Science and Social Science
• Best Practices for Social Science Writing
• Social Science and Its Impact on the Development of a Child
• Darwinism and the Standard Social Science Model
• Elementary Quantum Mechanical Principles and Social Science: Is There a Connection
• Social Science Research: Principles, Methods, and Practices
• The European Corporation: Strategy, Structure, and Social Science
• Indigenous Social Science and Economic Development in Kenya
• Global and Sociology and Social Science to Students
• Anti-semitism and Progressive Era Social Science: The Case of John R. Commons
• The Contributions of Social Science to Family Policy
• How Important Are Prison Officer’s Social Science, Penology
• Nursing — A Discipline between Social and Medical Sciences
• Gendered Citation Patterns Across Political Science and Social Science Methodology Fields
• Family Structure, Children’s Well-Being, and Social Science
• Social Science and Remedies for Social Engineering
• The Financial Crisis and the Failure of Modern Social Science
• Epistemology of Social Science: The Scientific Status, Values and Institutionalization
• Social Science and the Middle of the Two Inside Social Order
• Social Science Knowledge and Economic Development: An Institutional Design Perspective
• Christopher Freeman: Social Science Entrepreneur
• Reflexivity, Complexity, and the Nature of Social Science
• Social Science Theory and Methodology Overview
• What Is the Importance of Social Science in Real Life?
• How Can Social Science Perspectives Be Used to Process Information?
• What Are the Distinctive Emphases and Approaches of a Multicultural Philosophy of Social Science?
• Why Is Social Science Important in Society?
• How Can Social Science Theory Help Reduce Crime?
• What Is Social Science and How Can It Be Used to Study and Understand Society?
• How Do Applied Social Sciences Help Understanding Individual or Group and Organizational Issues and Concerns?
• What Are the Benefits of Social Science Research?
• How Does Social Science Focus on and Interpret Sociology?
• What Are the Fields of Study in the Social Sciences and What Does Each Field Study About?
• How Can Studying Social Sciences Help Us to Understanding Ourselves More?
• What Is Interpretation in Social Science?
• How Does Social Science Help to Understand the Past and Present Problems?
• What Is the Branch of Social Science That Deals With the Study of the Past?
• How Can We Apply Social Science in Our Daily Life?
• What Is Global Social Science?
• How Can the Social Sciences Help Understand and Solve Social Problems?
• In What Way Do Social Science Disciplines Play an Important Role in Our Society?
• How Can the Disciplines of Applied Social Sciences Be Used in the Development of the Students?
• What Is the Main Purpose of the Social Science Approach?
• How Does Social Science Help in Improving Our Educational System?
• What Is the Role of Social Science in the ‘Urban Age’?
• Does Social Science Study Human Behavior?
• How Can the Social Sciences Help in Addressing and Resolving Present-Day Social Problems?
• What Is the Best Way to Study Social Science?

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These essay examples and topics on Social Science were carefully selected by the StudyCorgi editorial team. They meet our highest standards in terms of grammar, punctuation, style, and fact accuracy. Please ensure you properly reference the materials if you’re using them to write your assignment.

This essay topic collection was updated on December 28, 2023 .

Interdisciplinarity

What I Have Learned from Social Science

I’ve spent my adult life in and around social science. Academically through studying psychology and linguistics (alongside philosophy), professionally through working at SAGE for over 30 years and personally through an abiding amateur interest in various fields sometimes expressed in my own writing of books or articles.

In light of my recent election as a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences. I’ve been reflecting on what social science has meant to me, and why my interest continues to this day.

These reflections are a quite personal take. They are not meant to be a ‘defence of social science’ or a comprehensive review of its impact in various domains, though when people who aren’t familiar with social science ask me what the point of it is I find myself responding in this kind of vein. It’s a personal view on why I think a social science imagination can benefit us as individuals and improve society more generally, especially at a time of such upheaval and reconfiguration.

The starting point for me is in human psychology, the subject of my undergraduate degree. In my first week in October 1985 as a fresher at Exeter University, I met Steve Reicher, who was assigned as my first-year tutor.  Steve was a ‘new blood’ lecturer at the time who had a year earlier published what was to become a seminal article analysing the St Paul’s riots in Bristol in April 1980. Through my encounters and discussions with Steve and other psychologists in the department I learned about certain features of human nature. While I didn’t go quite as far as Steve, who would say ‘the nature of human nature is its capacity to transcend itself’, and while the very idea of human nature is, I realise, contested and felt confusing to me initially, I started to learn how profoundly social that nature was.

While this may sound obvious to many – we are social animals who cooperate and learn from each other, of course – I nevertheless find it hard to see myself that way consistently. And I’ve learned that it’s not just me. While social science shows how our natures are deeply social it also explains why we don’t always see this fact that well. When not looking through a social science lens we (in the West at least) tend to see ourselves and our place in the world as more individual than that, like fish swimming around unaware of the environment in which they are suspended.

It’s not that the idea of the individual is a myth. Rather it is one of many identities, all shaped by historical and cultural forces, which tends in our daily lives to be overly emphasised. We see the figure more easily than the ground along which she walks. For instance, what’s known as the ‘fundamental attribution error’ leads me to look at someone’s behaviour and explain it too quickly in terms of their imagined individual characteristics and ignore the context. So if someone cuts me up in traffic I more easily think ‘selfish!’ rather than ‘maybe there’s an emergency’.

A key value of social science, it seems to me, is to counter-balance that self-image , to help us see the ground as well as we see the figure. We know when it comes to physical health that what we want and what is good for us are not always aligned. Well so it is for the social health of this social animal. Our interests, it seems to me, are best served by a more balanced understanding of human circumstances and contexts, but for all sorts of reasons evolutionists like to explore, we don’t do this as fully as we might. The tendency mentioned above for instance, to see the individual more easily than her circumstances, has deep consequences for the chances of human flourishing – for our attitudes toward each other – if left unchecked.

And this point, the need to see more context, can be extended in various ways. Here are 10 examples of tendencies we have which a social science imagination can and should help us to counter-balance, each of which have moral or political implications for how to organise ourselves and society better. This is not to say that each tendency is a problem in itself, or that we can’t reverse it under certain conditions, it’s that a social science imagination is useful in helping us do just that. 1 I’ve added a reference for each one to help provide a bit more insight for those who are interested. But as I say these reflections are personal and highly selective rather than anything systematic. For that you should talk to the experts! I’ve put these 10 into three broad buckets:

Those tendencies which assume we have more agency, more control over our circumstances, than we do, e.g.:

• Judgement over luck. It’s easier, thanks to the ‘just-world hypothesis’ and even the idea of meritocracy to assume people have more responsibility for their outcomes than they generally have. So people who end up worse off in life can be blamed for their individual failure to measure up.
• Cure over prevention. It’s easier to say ‘lock ’em up’ and harder to be tough on the causes of crime. The same goes for health interventions. We will typically pay more for treatment rather than preventative measures.
• The conscious over the unconscious. It’s easier to focus on explicit thoughts and feelings, and to assume we are rational and objective in our judgments while ignoring the less obvious underlying tendencies such as revealed by studies of unconscious bias.

Then there are those which favour the near over the far, whether in terms of time, space or social categories, such as:

• Short term over long term. It’s easier to spend now than to save for a pension. Similarly, we can underrate the significance of climate change for future generations.
• The near at hand over the far away. It’s easier to care about the incidence of COVID-19 in our own locale rather than further afield. There’s even evidence of a ‘propinquity effect’ which describes how we find people and things more appealing merely by being physically closer to us.
• Us over Them. What’s called ‘ingroup favouritism’ makes it easier to sympathise with people ‘like me’ than the members of an outgroup. The recent surge in political polarisation, from Brexit to the recent US election, bears on this tendency.

We have tendencies to oversimplify, to prefer the status quo and then to generalise, such as when we favour

• The dominant over the marginalised. It’s easier to see a tall, white middle class man as an authority figure than almost anybody else!
• The vivid example over statistical data . It’s easier to fear terrorism and plane crashes than driving cars. And remember the line often attributed to Stalin, that a single death is a tragedy, while a million deaths are a mere statistic.
• Choosing the status quo over alternative explanations. It’s easier to say ‘that’s just how things are’, than this is how they got this way and could be different. Much of what feels immutable is in fact socially constructed.
• The simple over the complex. It’s easier to skewer politicians on the journalistic jab of ‘answer the question yes or no’, than to accept a more nuanced response. Many social problems are known as ‘wicked’ and don’t always have right or wrong answers, though hopefully better or worse ones.

It’s a simple list which reveals my starting point in psychology, and others (from sociology, anthropology, political science etc) would choose different examples I’m sure. But I hope it shows that tending to think people have more freedom and agency than they do, or tending to favour the near over the far, or to see the social world as fixed rather than constructed comes easily to us, while hampering the possibilities of human progress in many ways.

A social science imagination helps us put a thumb on the scales to counter-balance those tendencies. This offers possibilities to recalibrate society to better suit our social natures than an individualistic essentialising view will be inclined to do. Meanwhile politicians, media outlets, and more generally people with power and wanting to hold on to it exploit these tendencies; and social science analyses that, too.

Social science has a hard time breaking through because it tends not to offer up easy answers and solutions (see point 10 above). But as one physicist pointed out, it is child’s play to understand theoretical physics compared to understanding child’s play. Understanding molecules offers more law-like generalisations and predictions than understanding people and culture. The problems addressed by social science are complex and often don’t have right or wrong answers, but hopefully offer better or worse ones. And often those answers depend on some mix of different levels of analysis.

The complexity of social science reflects the complexities of humanity at many scales and magnitudes. At a global level, scientists study wars and conflict, trans-national migration, cultures and religions, international cooperation and diplomacy between nations. Zoom into a country and they look at forms of government and how power is gained, how the economy works. Zoom further into policy domains and see social scientists looking at crime, aging, mental health, physical health (obesity, vaccine uptake, physical distancing), education, social care, the use of technology, the nature of work, the media, social cohesion, inequality and social injustice. You’ll find them analysing organizations like companies, political parties, schools, prisons, cities, football clubs, unions and the forms of organization that describe how they work, and don’t work, such as leadership, crowd behaviour, discrimination, power. Zoom in further to see them study interpersonal behaviour whether in groups, teams or relationships. Looking into family systems offers yet more levels of complexity even before turning to individual differences and subjective experiences (of love, loneliness, stress, addiction, emotion, memory, motivation) let alone those who dive into perception, cognition, the unconscious and more.

These levels are intersecting and overlapping as much as we are, and the study of them leads social science to interact with other disciplines, from natural sciences on the one side to humanities on the other.

Of course there’s good and bad, deep and trivial, applied and abstract work in social science as in all fields, and the mechanism of generating scholarship which translates to everyday impact and relevance is complex and sometimes badly broken through the many mixed incentives that come from trying to create academic reputations in higher education settings. As the social scientist Garry Brewer once pithily remarked ‘the world has problems while universities have departments’.

With all that said the cumulative intellectual labour of social scientists across the globe does have a powerful effect over time. And it is particularly satisfying watching Steve Reicher, now at St Andrews, commenting influentially on many of today’s political issues. Many of you will have seen his work on government responses to COVID-19 as part of the behavioural science advisory committee to what we call ‘the other SAGE’ and latterly independent SAGE.

But the moment that struck me most forcibly was after the death of George Floyd and the subsequent protests, one of which was the pulling down of the statue of Edward Colston in Bristol — the same city where the St Paul’s riots occurred 40 years before. Steve commented on how this event did not trigger riots this time around. And he gave particular credit to Chief Constable Andy Marsh, suggesting that if he had been there in 1980 there wouldn’t have been riots. But the police have evolved in their training and tactics since then in part thanks to social scientists like Steve and his PhD students, now professors themselves in UK universities and often advising police on their responses to handling protests to avoid them turning into riots. The key point being to see crowds not as mad or bad but as highly minded and acting with reasons, and in contexts partly shaped by how the police themselves intervene. 3 Here’s a representative article urging shifts in the police’s construals of crowds at the time of the poll tax riots:  https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/(SICI)1099-0992(199807/08)28:4%3C509::AID-EJSP877%3E3.0.CO;2-C Social science imagination in action! I don’t know if Steve’s, his colleagues’ and others’ impact has been obliterated through incorporation, but I can see the link through time.

This is just one example. Play it out over the various domains I described earlier and you might see why I’m incredibly grateful to the social scientists present and past who through their work have shaped and framed my way of thinking and a stance toward the world which I believe would, in countless ways, be much poorer for its absence.

Ziyad Marar

Ziyad Marar is an author and president of global publishing at SAGE Publishing. His books include Judged: The Value of Being Misunderstood (Bloomsbury, 2018), Intimacy: Understanding the Subtle Power of Human Connection (Acumen Publishing, 2012), Deception (Acumen Publishing, 2008), and The Happiness Paradox (Reaktion Books 2003). He tweets @ZiyadMarar.

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This is interesting, and thought-provoking reading; I am reading it as part of the content for my MA in Creative Writing at Kingston School of Art. I am interested in your example of the ‘fundamental attribution error’ where we instantly ‘frame’ someone in a negative light in traffic, and your exposition on how this feeds through into many other examples. I think it is a shame though that you framed this as ‘imagined’, and that the imagination is often blamed for instances like this. As elucidated in A Critique of Pure Reason (Kant), you will note that it is the …  Read more »

The most unkind remark made about the social sciences is that they are fuzzy science. Here in this article Ziyad Marar correctly explains that they are complex. And that they are infinitely worth pursueing. However, as Jordan Peterson and from a slightly different angle Douglas Murray might argue, there is a danger today that in this field the academic world has shifted so much to the left that University students are being misled in believing dismantelling statues for “righteous causes” is something brave and praiseworthy. I feel sure Mr. Marar would not be amongst those encouraging them, realising that different …  Read more »

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Essay On Social Issues

500 words essay on social issues.

Social Issues is an undesirable state which opposes society or a certain part of society. It refers to an unwanted situation that frequently results in problems and continues to harm society . Social issues can cause a lot of problems that can be beyond the control of just one person. Through an essay on social issues, we will learn why they are harmful and what types of social issues we face.

Drawbacks of Social Issues

Social issues have a lot of drawbacks that harms our society. They are situations that have an adverse and damaging result on our society. They arise when the public leaves nature or society from an ideal situation.

If you look closely, you will realize that almost all types of social issues have common origins. In the sense that they all are interconnected somehow. Meaning to say, if one solves the other one is also most likely to resolve.

Social issues have a massive lousy effect on our society and ultimately, it affects all of us. In order to solve some social issues, we need a common approach. No society is free from social issues, almost every one of them has some social issue or the other.

For instance, in India, you will find a lot of social issues which the country is facing. It ranges from the caste system to child labour and gender inequality to religious conflicts. Thus, we are going through a critical time where we all must come together to free our society from undesirable social evils.

Get the huge list of more than 500 Essay Topics and Ideas

Major Social Issues

There are a lot of social issues we are facing right now, some more prominent than the others. First of all, poverty is a worldwide issue. It gives birth to a lot of other social issues which we must try to get away with at the earliest.

Further, countries like India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and more are facing the issue of the caste system since times unknown. It results in a lot of caste violence and inequality which takes the lives of many on a daily basis.

Moreover, child labour is another major social issue that damages the lives of young children. Similarly, illiteracy also ruins the lives of many by destroying their chances of a bright future.

In developing countries mostly, child marriage still exists and is responsible for ruining many lives. Similarly, dowry is a very serious and common social issue that almost all classes of people partake in.

Another prominent social issue is gender inequality which takes away many opportunities from deserving people. Domestic violence especially against women is a serious social issue we must all fight against.

Other social issues include starvation, child sex abuse, religious conflicts, child trafficking, terrorism , overpopulation, untouchability, communalism and many more. It is high time we end these social issues.

Conclusion of the Essay on Social Issues

A society can successfully end social issues if they become adamant. These social issues act as a barrier to the progress of society. Thus, we must all come together to fight against them and put them to an end for the greater good.

FAQ on Essay on Social Issues

Question 1: What is the meaning of social problem?

Answer 1: A social problem refers to any condition or behaviour which has a negative impact on a large number of people. It is normally recognized as a condition or behaviour that needs to be addressed.

Question 2: What are the effects of social issues?

Answer 2: Social issues affect our society adversely. Most importantly, it disturbs the harmony of society and gives rise to hostility and suspicion. Moreover, it creates large-scale social dissatisfaction, suffering and misery.

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