Social Sciences

The methodology in the social sciences is the set of procedures used to obtain scientific knowledge of social facts. It encompasses a series of data collection procedures, whose nature also conditions the methods of analysis.

Social research allows new knowledge (basic research) or to study a social situation to diagnose needs and problems for the purpose of applying knowledge for practical purposes (applied research). Common observation and experimentation are used in other sciences, but more specific procedures such as surveys, documentation (working in library or other documentation centre), statistical analysis of secondary data and qualitative methods are available.

Social research methodologies can be classified into quantitative and qualitative. While they are different in many respects, both approaches imply a systematic interaction between theory and data. The choice of social science methodologies is related to the foundations of the social sciences and the peculiarities they present in relation to other sciences.

Many of the social scientific disciplines have had epistemological discussions about what science is. In its beginnings it was taken as a model of science to physics and other experimental natural sciences. However, over time the particularity of the study object, which is society, has been identified, which does not fit into the methods and assumptions that study the natural sciences.^{[chuckles]required]} In particular, social systems generally do not allow certain experiments to be performed under controlled laboratory conditions, and in other cases the predicted effects are qualitative and it is difficult to establish quantitative limits for such predictions.

Anthropology (from the Greek cedeνθρωος anthrōpos, "man (human)", and λόγος, logos, “knowledge”) is the science that studies the human being in an integral way, his physical characteristics as animals and his culture, which is the only non-biological trait. To cover the subject matter of their study, anthropology uses tools and knowledge produced by social sciences and natural sciences. The aspiration of anthropological discipline is to produce knowledge about the human being in various spheres, trying to encompass both the current social structures, the biological evolution of our species, the development and the ways of life of peoples who have disappeared and the diversity of cultural and linguistic expressions that characterize humanity.

The diverse facets of the human being involved a specialization of the fields of anthropology. Each of the fields of human study involved the development of disciplines that are currently regarded as independent sciences, although they maintain constant dialogue among them. It is about physical anthropology, archaeology, linguistics and social anthropology. Very often, the term anthropology It only applies to the latter, which in turn has diversified into numerous branches, depending on the theoretical orientation, the subject of its study or, as a result of the interaction between social anthropology and other disciplines.

Anthropology was constituted as an independent discipline during the second half of the centuryXIX. One of the factors that favored his appearance was the diffusion of the theory of evolution, which in the field of studies on society gave rise to social evolutionism, among whose main authors is Herbert Spencer. The first anthropologists thought that as species evolved from simple organisms to more complex ones, human societies and cultures should follow the same process of evolution to produce complex structures such as their own society. Several of the pioneer anthropologists were lawyers of profession, so that legal issues frequently appeared as the central theme of their works. At this time it is up to the discovery of parenting systems by Lewis Henry Morgan.

From the end of the centuryXIX the approach adopted by the first anthropologists was questioned by the following generations. After Franz Boas' criticism of the evolutionary anthropology of the centuryXIX, most of the theories produced by the anthropologists of the first generation are considered obsolete. From then on, anthropology saw the emergence of several currents during the centuryXIX and XX.including the U.S. cultural school, structural-functionalism, anthropological structuralism, Marxist anthropology, procesualism, indigenism, etc.

Anthropology is, above all, an inclusive science that studies the human being in the framework of the society and culture to which he belongs, and at the same time as a product of these. It can be defined as the science that deals with studying the origin and development of the whole range of human variability and the modes of social behaviors through time and space; that is, the biosocial process of the existence of the human species.

Political science or polytology is the social science that studies the theory and practice of politics, systems and political behaviors in society. Its objective is to establish, from the observation of facts of political reality, as accurate explanations as possible about its functioning. It interacts with other social sciences: these are, among others, law, economy and sociology. It employs a multiplicity of methodological tools typical of social sciences. Among the different possible approaches to discipline are institutionalism and the theory of rational choice. Historically, it has originated in political philosophy, but it is essential to distinguish it from it.^{[chuckles]required]}

The demography (from the Greek διμος dēmos 'people' and γραφία X-ray 'trace, description' – population study) is a science that statistically studies human populations; its dimension, structure, evolution and general characteristics, as well as the concrete processes that determine their formation, conservation and disappearance. Such processes are fertility, mortality and migration: emigration and immigration. The variety of combinations of these phenomena, interdependent among themselves, represents the speed of the modifications of the population, both in its numerical dimensions and in its population structure.

Demography is an interdisciplinary scientific field that studies the size of the population, its composition and spatial distribution, as well as the changes in it and the components of such changes, such as fertility, mortality and migration. This scientific field has evolved thanks to the theoretical and methodological contributions of different disciplines, such as sociology, economy and geography.

The economy (from the Greek ος oîkos "house" and νομός We didn't 'rule, law, prescription'; 'house administration') is the social science that studies the laws governing the production, distribution and consumption of goods and services, as well as the economic models and systems in which the various human economic activities are carried out.

For its study, the economy is generally divided into two large branches, on the one hand the microeconomy that studies the behaviors of individual economic agents and on the other the macroeconomy that studies the effects of all interactions between individual agents as a global set.

Since its origin, man has sought ways to meet his needs, which presents many obstacles as the source of most assets is non-renewable and perishable resources. The combination of these factors, the availability or not of goods, human needs and their social nature at the time gave rise to the economy.

The economy is born from the ever-growing needs of the main core of society, which is the family. As the etymological origin of the term "economy" indicates, in a house many decisions must be made between which one must decide what tasks will be performed by each of its members and what they will receive in return. An example of the natural administration given in a house is the one that, giving its "workman", cooks or washes the clothes and as a payment receives an extra dessert at dinner or decides what will be seen on television. In addition, in a family the resources, which are exhaustive, must be distributed among the different members according to their abilities, efforts and desires. Like a house, society faces numerous decisions day by day.

A society must find a way to decide what work should be done and who will perform these tasks. People are needed with different professions and trades that work the earth, others that make clothes, others that design and build buildings, etc. Once the various tasks have been assigned to the individuals who will perform them (as well as land, buildings and machines), the different goods and services that will be produced and the way in which the allocation of resources will be made in society must be appointed.

The economy does not have much difficulty since it is a natural activity of the human being that derives to a large extent from its Gregorian behavior, as it is appreciated in other animals that exhibit the same type of behavior as the ants or bees that among their individuals present a very specific division of tasks, which has as the sole purpose to ensure the survival of the complex colonies that form in their ants and beehives respectively. Regardless of whether it refers to the economy of a city, a country or the world, the economy is simply a group of people interacting daily with each other. The behavior of an economy reflects the behavior of its individuals.

The economy as such exists since man had to face the shortage of resources and the excess of demand, as well as the fair and effective sharing of them.

Human geography is the second great division of the general geography. As a discipline it is responsible for studying human societies from a spatial perspective, the relationship between these societies and the physical environment in which they live, as well as the cultural landscapes and the human regions that they build. According to this idea, human Geography could be regarded as a regional geography of human societies, a study of human activities from a spatial point of view, a human ecology and a science of cultural landscapes. It analyses the unequal distribution of the population on the land surface, the causes of such distribution and its political, social, economic, demographic and cultural consequences in relation to existing or potential resources of the geographical environment at different scales. Part of the premise that human beings are always part of broad social groups. These societies create a social and physical environment through processes of transformation of their own social structures and of the land area in which they are settled. Their action modifies both aspects according to the needs and interests that the social agents that form them, especially the dominant social agents. These changes are due to economic, political, cultural, demographic, etc.

The knowledge of these geographical systems formed by society and its physical environment (human regions, cultural landscapes, territories, etc.), is the object of study of human geography. We can consider as an initiator of human geography to Elisée Reclus in France, having as a precedent the work of Karl Ritter in Germany.

It was Vidal de la Blache who defined geography as a science of synthesis that studies the interaction between the human being and his medium, a definition that has lasted until now in the French school of Geography.

History is the narration of the events of the past; generally those of humanity, though, may also not be centered on the human. It is also an academic discipline that studies such events. Academic science or discipline is also called historiography to distinguish it from history understood as the objective facts that have happened. It is a social science because of its classification and method; but, if it does not focus on human, it can be considered as a natural science, especially in a framework of interdisciplinaryity; in any way, it is part of the classification of science that encompasses the previous two, that is, a factual science (also called factual).

Its purpose is to find out the facts and processes that occurred and developed in the past and interpret them according to the criteria of the greatest possible objectivity; although the possibility of fulfillment of such purposes and the degree to which they are possible are in themselves objects of study of historiology or theory of history, such as epistemology or scientific knowledge of history.^{[chuckles]required]}

The person responsible for the study of history is called a historian or historian. The professional historian is conceived as the specialist in the academic discipline of history, and the non-professional historian is often called a chronicler.

Linguistics (of French linguistiquethis one linguis, "linguistic" and that of Latin "lingua", "language") is the scientific study of the origin, evolution and structure of language, in order to deduce the laws that govern the languages (old and modern). Thus, linguistics study the fundamental structures of human language, their variations through all families of languages (which also identify and classify), and the conditions that make understanding and communication possible through the natural language (the latter is particularly true in the generation approach).

While grammar is an ancient study, the non-traditional approach to modern linguistics has several sources. One of the most important is the Neogrammatiker, which opened historical linguistics and introduced the notion of law in the context of linguistics and, in particular, formulated various phonetic laws to represent linguistic change. Another important point is the terms of synchrony, diachronicity and structural notions popularized by the work of Ferdinand de Saussure and the Cours de linguistique générale (inspired by his lessons). The centuryXX. from the structuralism derived from the works of Saussure, the "boot point" of modern linguistics is considered. From that time on, the use of the word "linguistic" seems to have been widespread. The word "linguist" is for the first time on page 1 of Volume I of the work Choix des poésies des troubadourswritten in 1816 by Raynouard.

Psychology (also psychology, of less frequent use) (literally ‘study or treatise of the soul’; of the classic Greek. psykhé, ‘psyche’, ‘soul’, ‘mental activity’, and λογία, ., ‘treated’ or ‘study’) is, at the same time, a profession, an academic discipline and a para-science that deals with the study and analysis of the behavior and mental processes of individuals and human groups in different situations, whose field of study covers all aspects of human experience and does so for both research and teachers and work, among others. Today, psychology is not a unitary science, since there are various psychological perspectives, which correspond to approaches, currents or schools, each of which has its own conceptual and methodological systems. Among them, there may be coincidences or, on the contrary, clear incompatibility; this variety gives rise to multiple perceptions and approaches. Some currents define themselves in an exclusive way, that is, as the only way to achieve solid or scientific knowledge and an effective intervention in psychology (e.g. Watsonian conductism or Freudian psychoanalysis), although over time, their followers have become increasingly permeable to the influences of other schools. For their part, approaches such as humanism consider that the scientific method is not adequate to investigate behavior; others, such as conductism, employ it for observable behaviors that can be objectively measured. Finally, there are currents—such as applied psychology or cognitive-behavioral therapies—that integrate various elements of other schools to the extent that they are useful for their purposes, generally, intervention (clinical, educational, in organizations, etc.).

Through its various approaches, psychology explores concepts such as perception, attention, motivation, emotion, the functioning of the brain, intelligence, thought, personality, personal relationships, consciousness and unconsciousness. Psychology employs quantitative and qualitative empirical methods of research to analyze behavior. Other qualitative and mixed methods can also be found, especially in the clinical or consulting field. While psychological knowledge is frequently used in the evaluation or treatment of psychopathologies, in recent decades psychologists are also being employed in the human resources departments of the organizations, in areas related to child development and ageing, sports, the media, the world of law and forensic sciences. Although most psychologists are professionally involved in therapeutic activities (clinics, consultancy, education), a part is also engaged in research, from universities, on a wide range of topics related to behavior and human thought.

The study areas of psychology present relationships of some complexity. physiological psychology, for example, studies the functioning of the brain and nervous system, while experimental psychology applies laboratory techniques to study topics such as perception or memory.

Semiology or semiotic (from the ancient Greek σημειωτικός sēmeiōtikós) is the study of symbols and signs, and the way humans create them. A sign is anything that communicates a message, which must be interpreted by the receiver. It is a branch of philosophy that deals with communication systems within human societies, studying the general properties of sign systems, as a basis for understanding all human activity. Here, it is understood by sign an object or event present that is instead of another object or event absent, by virtue of a certain code.

Semitic means systematic study of signs and applies to a particular field of study, is given with the French philosopher Saussure. Although the semiotic is combined with the structuralist term, the latter may or may not be regarded as a system of signs, while the semiotic applies structuralist methods.

Charles Sanders Peirce was the American founder of the semiotic and distinguished between three kinds of signs: Iconic (where the sign looks like what it represents), Indexetico (where the sign is somehow associated with that of which it is a sign) and symbolic (where the sign is only an arbitrary link). There are many more classifications such as denotation (what the sign means), connotation (other signs associated with it), Pragmatic (signs among which one can represent the other) and Sintagmatico (where the signs are linked to form a chain).(Eagleton, 1994)

The semiotic distinguishes between denotation and connotation; between keys or codes and the messages they transmit, as well as between the paradigm and the syntagmatic (Eagleton, 1994).

These dimensions give rise to homonymous disciplines that govern relations between sign and designated thing: the Semanticrelationships between signs: the syntaxand between signs and their conditions of use: pragmatic. From the dimensions we analyze the phenomena, objects and systems of meaning, languages and speeches in the different languages as processes to them associated (production and interpretation). Every production and interpretation of meaning constitutes a significant practice, a process of semiosis that is vehiculated by signs and materialized in texts.

Sociology is the social science that is responsible for the scientific analysis of human society or regional population. Succinctly it can be said that it studies human society, human groups and the relationships that form society. This means that sociology analyzes the relationships (of production, distribution, consumption, solidarity, division of labour, etc.) that are established among these human groups (family, clubs, gangs, associations, institutions, etc.). It generally seeks to account for social interactions, institutions, production and forms of existing societies.

Sociology uses interdisciplinary research methodologies for analysis and interpretation, from various theoretical perspectives, of the causes and meanings that motivate the emergence of various social behavior trends. While some sociologists conduct research that can be applied directly to social policy and well-being, others focus on refining the understanding of social processes. It ranges from the level of microsociology of interaction and organizations to the macro level of systems and the social structure.

The different traditional approaches of sociology include social stratification, social class, social mobility, religion, law, gender and social deviation. As all spheres of human activity are affected by the interaction between the social structure and the individual agency, sociology has gradually expanded its approach to other issues, such as environment, health, economy, penal institutions, the Internet, education and scientific knowledge, among others.

The origins of sociology are associated with the names of Alexis de Tocqueville, Ibn Jaldún, Karl Marx, Henri de Saint-Simon, Auguste Comte, Herbert Spencer, Émile Durkheim, Georg Simmel, Ferdinand Tönnies, Vilfredo Pareto, Max Weber, Alfred Schütz, Harriet Martineau, Jane Addams, Anna J. Cooper, I

Some of the most outstanding sociologists in the centuryXX. have been Talcott Parsons, Erving Goffman, Robert K. Merton, Wright Mills, Michel Foucault, Pierre Bourdieu, Niklas Luhmann and Jürgen Habermas. Currently, some of the most cited sociologists are George Ritzer, Anthony Giddens, Manuel Castells, Bruno Latour, Zygmunt Bauman, Norbert Elías, James S. Coleman and Alain Touraine, among others.