The Importance Of Social Science And Its Branches

If we look upon our lives, all of us need a better and safer place to live in where our basic rights and needs are fulfilled. But there are some sources which are influencing our lives without us, being aware they are doing so. They are the social scientists working that have made their mark in the area of human welfare and development. Social scientist work on the world’s major issues such as crimes, alternative energy and other security measures. They have a very significant role in society to make a better place to live. Whereas social scientist research for all the professions; either you are a parent, councilor, business executive, police officer and layman. To know the importance of social scientists that how they have evolved in this whole time we need to understand the branches of social science which are influencing in our lives.

Social science is a study of society and how the people behave in a certain way and how they influence the world. The study of social sciences equips individuals with tools to improve understanding of the issues related to people and society and to explore solutions to our problems. It helps in the evolution and approaches toward problem-solving. Knowledge of social sciences broadens one's horizons and enables us to analyze key social concepts. Social science tells us about the world beyond our immediate experience and can help explain how our own society works. David willets-Minister for Universities and sciences define it as;

“Social science means understanding our society and of course the societies around the world and it are very important we understand how human behaves and interacts. Social science is the explanations of outcomes and development of social world”.

Social scientist research covers all the lengths of human behavior and nature either it is economics, sociology, linguistics, geography, education to psychology even the business management subjects too. They look how society works, how we react and adopt the changes. Their results help all of us; government, ministers, businesses, charities which helps how society changes. The impact this can have on individual lives with their long-term effects. ”From the causes of unemployment or what helps economic growth, to how and why people vote, or what makes people happy. It provides vital information for governments and policymakers, local authorities, non-governmental organizations and others. It is all about how human behaves and interact with each other and helping to make our society a better place to live”.

When we talk about social sciences it has different branches by which we can study more about the specific topic. Like how the human brain works in a specific manner can be cover in psychology whereas if we need to study about the interaction between human and society can be cover in sociology so in this way its branches are divided. We have humanities, liberal arts, mass communication, anthropology, and many other which helps to study deeper on a specific topic.

Humanities:

Study of human lives and aspects are often referred as humanities. Science and scientists are expected to uncover the truth and enhance our knowledge. Concepts and skills that are intellectual rather than occupational are classified under humanities. Studies related to cultures are the significant part of this subject which includes literature, languages, philosophy, religion and visual arts. These subjects of humanities are not clubbed as sciences as their main focus is on human or social aspects of sciences.

Humanities as well as social sciences cover human lives and human nature but the only different between them is humanities are descriptive and make use of analytical methods to explain concepts whereas social sciences are sciences and have more scientific approach.

Liberal Arts:

Liberal arts are one of the oldest subjects to be studied. It goes back to the ancient times when people used to consider the student of liberal arts as an unlimited educated person. So many subjects falls under this nowadays such as humanities that focuses on the study of literature, linguistics, philosophy, religion, ethics, music speech etc. it also includes social sciences such a sociology, psychology, history and law.

Anthropology:

“Anthropology is the study of what makes us human. Anthropologists take a broad approach to understanding the many different aspects of the human experience. Anthropologists try to understand how people interact within the societal boundaries. They look at the different ways like how people dress and communicate in different societies. Anthropologists sometimes use these comparisons to understand their own society. Many anthropologists work in their own societies looking at economics, health, education, law, and policy. When trying to understand these complex issues, they keep in mind what they know about biology, culture, types of communication, and how humans lived in the past”.

Though all the social sciences are inter-related, Anthropology incorporates them all. Anthropology asks among other things that how one culture has impacts on personal behavior. What is perceived as healthy and normal in one culture but for others it may be seen as an illness. Anthropology focuses on how different aspects of culture impact the individual as well as how the individuals impact a culture.

Psychology:

While the other branches focus on creating descriptive generalizations about the functioning of social groups psychology focuses on the behavior of individuals. It is the study of human’s behavior, performance and mental operations. The reasons behind our every actions psychologically and how the brain works. Psychologist works on understanding the events and mental health issues. It analyzes the way people think and act and analyzes their behavior, how individuals act within a group. Whereas the social psychology focuses that how the individual performs within the social groups. It comprises of how human interact in a certain ways and what are the reasons behind it.

Sociology:

Sociology is the systematic study of human society and social interaction. in order to develop theories of how human behavior is shaped by group life and how in turn group life is being affected by the individuals.(Diana Kendall) It helps us to gain a better understanding of the social world that the society where we live in how it forms and shape their behaviors. Living under the same boundary line how the cultural norms are shaped and how rigorously people are following it. For one nation it has become a norm and unique cultural identity. So sociologist work on these to know the core values and make studies on human's social lives, activities, interactions, processes, and organizations within the context of larger social, political, and economic forces. Sociologist examines why there is a societal impact influence on individuals and social groups, and how does different institutions affect people's lives.

Mass Communication:

The name itself defines its function, that communication at mass level. It can be done by different people, groups or specific organizations help in sending a message or communicate with the larger audience. For example, Advertising by which consists of communications attempting to induce purchasing behavior, Journalism, Public relations and other.

Media psychology:

We live in a media-centric era when minute to minute we get new updates about all the events happening all around the world. Bombarded us whenever we turn on televisions or internet, in magazines and newspapers, and even on our Smartphone. Media outlets influence people that how should they eat, walk, wear, drink even how they should feel in a certain way. It is only because we are so much connected with the media outlets. No matter how much we ignore but media has affected all of us in some way or another. But the question which arises here that how the media does has affected people’s lifestyle and to answer this question we have media psychologist. According to Pamela Rutledge “media psychologist goal is to answer those questions by combining an understanding of human behavior, cognition, and emotions with an equal understanding of media technologies. Unlike some types of media studies, media psychology is not just concerned with content. Media psychology looks at the whole system. It is to understand the interaction among individuals, groups, society, and technology and make sense out of it so we can make decisions and go about our lives in the most positive and productive way possible. There is no beginning and no end. It is a continual loop including the technology developer, content producer, content perceptions, and user response.”

Media psychology is related with the interaction between the people and the media technology. Media technologies function in a system, a chain between the users and producers that are individually influenced by it. As much as we’d like to blame “the media” for a bunch of stuff, it is not separable from society. Human experience does not happen independently of the current social, political, and technological environment. (Pamela Rutledge) Professionals in this field study how people interact with media and within the groups due to media influence. It main focuses on how media affects us and how we perceive elements of media in a certain way. It also helps to create more positive media experiences as well, such as enjoyable television shows. Whereas advertising and marketing companies also uses media psychology which help them to create powerful and impactful ads for the growth of businesses.

Media has influenced our behaviors so deeply that people are so used to of this nature. For example, we have seen that from last 20 years we have ads for “fairness creams” in which they only promote that if you have a brighter skin tone people will definitely adore you so people have started believing on this and their concentration was to improve their skin tones. Similarly changing nature of audience due to the marketing strategy of known brands. Whereas there are numerous researches which prove that the content which media portrays has the long-term effect on human’s mind. There is a research which says “Those who watch the violent clips tend to behave more aggressively than those who view non-violent clips, and they adopt beliefs that are more “accepting” of violence.”

Have we ever notice that why we have associated some human stimulus to specific behaviors? Why we always consider guns as a horrifying object rather than assuming it as a safety weapon? Because all of these years mass media has conveyed this message through all their platforms that they are harmful. This is how the people linked media’s message to their own self. Research says “The external stimulus can be inherently linked to a cognition, e.g., the sight of a gun is inherently linked to the concept of aggression or the external stimulus can be something inherently neutral like a particular ethnic group (e.g., African-American) that has become linked in the past to certain beliefs or behaviors (e.g., welfare). The primed concepts make behaviors linked to them more likely. When media violence primes aggressive concepts, aggression is more likely.”

Thus media psychology seeks to understand that media plays an important role among the masses in building perceptions and shaping one’s opinion.

Media sociology:

If we look upon the era of 80’s we have different kinds of concepts, behavior, nature, the way people talk, dress up and everything was so different if we compare to the today’s human’s lifestyle. Who changed the norms? Who has influenced the human nature that they have apparently changed their living standards? So the answer is media. Media has an influence people mind so much that they are used to of this. They believe whatever the media shows are the correct one. While there is a research which supports this that people beliefs about how powerful media are and how they affect the self, other individuals, and society. The purpose of sociologist is look on the broader side that how mass media has helped in building norms, values, behavior, beliefs and perception.

In an advertisement or other platforms, they are reshaping our perception of our society. So the focus is how they shape one’s opinion gradually that it becomes a norm for a culture. Like there is a believe which has only become valid because of the message that media is portraying nowadays that if they want to show a characterless girl they would dress up her in western clothes while she’s driving a car by herself so now our society has made this norm that all the girls who dress up in western clothing are like this. This is how media sets the societal boundaries. Similarly, media helps in reshaping one’s opinion. For example, before the election, the main focus of all the political leaders is to set a good image and sale their ads to media houses so people would attract towards it. So the media is shaping our perceptions about our societal boundaries. Medium characteristics such as television’s ability to provide sound and pictures as evidence supporting the claims of the news stories, and the possibility to use hyperlinks to external sources in online news, explained why television news was perceived as more credible compared to print journalism in the 1960s, and online news was perceived as more newsworthy than television news early in the twenty-first century.