Outline of social science

The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to social science:

Social science – branch of science concerned with society and human behaviors.

What type of thing is social science?

Social science can be described as all of the following:

• Branch of science – systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe.^[1][2][3]
• Major category of academic disciplines – an academic discipline is focused study in one academic field or profession. A discipline incorporates expertise, people, projects, communities, challenges, studies, inquiry, and research areas that are strongly associated with academic areas of study or areas of professional practice. For example, the branches of science are commonly referred to as the scientific disciplines. For instance, gravitation is strongly associated with the discipline of physics, and is considered to be part of that disciplinary knowledge.

Branches of social science

• Anthropology - study of humans, past and present, that draws and builds upon knowledge from the social sciences and biological sciences, as well as the humanities and the natural sciences.
  • Anthropology of religion – study of religious institutions in relation to other social institutions, and the comparison of religious beliefs and practices across cultures
  • Applied anthropology – application of the method and theory of anthropology to the analysis and solution of practical problems.
  • Archaeology – study of cultures via material remains and environmental data (Outline of archaeology)
  • Cultural anthropology – branch of anthropology focused on the study of cultural variation among humans, collecting data about the effect of global economic and political processes on local cultural realities.
  • Ethnobiology – scientific study of dynamic relationships between peoples, biota, and environments, from the distant past to the immediate present.
  • Ethnography – systematic study of people and cultures.
  • Ethnology – branch of anthropology that compares and analyzes the origins, distribution, technology, religion, language, and social structure of the ethnic, racial, and/or national divisions of humanity.
  • Ethnopoetics – method of recording text versions of oral poetry or narrative performances (i.e., verbal lore) that uses poetic lines, verses, and stanzas (instead of prose paragraphs) to capture the formal, poetic performance elements which would otherwise be lost in the written texts.
  • Evolutionary anthropology – interdisciplinary study of the evolution of human physiology and human behaviour and the relation between hominids and non-hominid primates.
  • Experimental archaeology – Experimental archaeology employs a number of different methods, techniques, analyses, and approaches in order to generate and test hypotheses, based upon archaeological source material, like ancient structures or artifacts.
  • Historical archaeology – form of archaeology dealing with topics that are already attested in written records.
  • Linguistic anthropology – is the interdisciplinary study of how language influences social life.
  • Medical anthropology – interdisciplinary field which studies "human health and disease, health care systems, and biocultural adaptation".
  • Physical anthropology – study of the physical development of the human species.
  • Psychological anthropology – interdisciplinary subfield of anthropology that studies the interaction of cultural and mental processes.
  • Zooarchaeology – study of faunal remains.
  • Anthrozoology – study of human-animal interaction.
• Business studies – academic area that consists of many sub-areas pertaining to the social relationships that comprise the human economic systems.
  • Accountancy – the measurement, processing and communication of financial information about economic entities.
  • Finance – a field dealing with the study of investments.
  • Human resource management – a function in organizations designed to maximize employee performance in service of an employer's strategic objectives.
  • Management – the administration of an organization, whether it be a business, a not-for-profit organization, or government body.
  • Marketing – the study and management of exchange relationships.
  • Organizational studies – the examination of how individuals construct organizational structures, processes, and practices and how these, in turn, shape social relations and create institutions that ultimately influence people.
  • Economics – details of this area and its own sub-areas are provided in this taxonomy below.
• Civics – study of the theoretical and practical aspects of citizenship, its rights and duties; the duties of citizens to each other as members of a political body and to the government.
• Cognitive Science – interdisciplinary scientific study of the mind and its processes. It examines what cognition is, what it does and how it works.
• Criminology – study of the nature, extent, causes, and control of criminal behavior in both the individual and in society.
• Cultural studies – academic field grounded in critical theory and literary criticism.
• Demography – statistical study of human populations and sub-populations.
• Development studies – multidisciplinary branch of social science which addresses issues of concern to developing countries.
• Economics – analyzes the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. It aims to explain how economies work and how economic agents interact. (The term 'economics' is erroneously conflated with the current mainstream Neoclassical economics.)
  • Macroeconomics – branch of economics dealing with the performance, structure, behavior, and decision-making of the whole economy
  • Microeconomics – branch of economics that studies the behavior of individual households and firms in making decisions on the allocation of limited resources
  • Behavioural economics – Behavioral economics and the related field, behavioral finance, study the effects of social, cognitive and emotional factors on the economic decisions of individuals and institutions and the consequences for market prices, returns and the resource allocation.
  • Bioeconomics – applies the laws of thermodynamics to economic theory
  • Comparative economics – comparative study of different systems of economic organization, such as capitalism, socialism, feudalism and the mixed economy.
    • Socialist economics – economic theories and practices of hypothetical and existing socialist economic systems.
  • Development economics – branch of economics which deals with economic aspects of the development process in low-income countries.
  • Ecological economics – an interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary field that aims to address the interdependence and coevolution of human economies and natural ecosystems.
  • Economic geography – study of the location, distribution and spatial organization of economic activities across the world.
  • Economic history – study of economies or economic phenomena in the past.
  • Economic sociology – studies both the social effects and the social causes of various economic phenomena.
  • Energy economics – broad scientific subject area which includes topics related to supply and use of energy in societies
  • Entrepreneurial Economics – study of the entrepreneur and entrepreneurship within the economy.
  • Environmental economics – subfield of economics concerned with environmental issues.
  • Evolutionary economics – part of mainstream economics as well as heterodox school of economic thought that is inspired by evolutionary biology.
  • Financial economics – branch of economics concerned with "the allocation and deployment of economic resources, both spatially and across time, in an uncertain environment".
  • Heterodox economics – approaches or to schools of economic thought that are considered outside of "mainstream economics" and sometimes contrasted by expositors with neoclassical economics.
    • Green economics – one that results in improved human well-being and social equity, while significantly reducing environmental risks
    • Feminist economics – diverse area of economic inquiry that highlights the androcentric biases of traditional economics through critical examinations of economic methodology, epistemology, history and empirical study.
    • Islamic economics – body of Islamic studies literature that "identifies and promotes an economic order that conforms to Islamic scripture and traditions," and in the economic world an interest-free Islamic banking system, grounded in Sharia's condemnation of interest (riba).
  • Industrial organization – field of economics that builds on the theory of the firm in examining the structure of, and boundaries between, firms and markets.
  • International economics – study of the effects upon economic activity of international differences in productive resources and consumer preferences and the institutions that affect them.
  • Institutional economics – study of the role of the evolutionary process and the role of institutions in shaping economic behaviour.
  • Labor economics – seeks to understand the functioning and dynamics of the markets for labour.
  • Law and Economics – application of economic methods to analysis of law.
  • Managerial economics – "application of economic concepts and economic analysis to the problems of formulating rational managerial decisions"
  • Monetary economics – branch of economics that historically prefigured and remains integrally linked to macroeconomics.
  • Neoclassical economics – focuses on goods, outputs, and income distributions in markets through supply and demand.
  • Neuroeconomics – interdisciplinary field that seeks to explain human decision making, the ability to process multiple alternatives and to choose an optimal course of action.
  • Public finance – study of the role of the government in the economy.
  • Public economics – study of government policy through the lens of economic efficiency and equity.
  • Real estate economics – application of economic techniques to real estate markets.
  • Resource economics – study of supply, demand, and allocation of the Earth's natural resources.
  • Welfare economics – branch of economics that uses microeconomic techniques to evaluate economic well-being, especially relative to competitive general equilibrium within an economy as to economic efficiency and the resulting income distribution associated with it.
  • Political economy – study of the production, buying, and selling, and their relations with law, custom, and government, as well as with the distribution of national income and wealth, including through the budget process.
  • Socioeconomics – considers behavioral interactions of individuals and groups through social capital and social "markets" (not excluding for example, sorting by marriage) and the formation of social norms.
  • Transport economics – branch of economics that deals with the allocation of resources within the transport sector and has strong linkages with civil engineering.
  • Economic methodology – study of methods, especially the scientific method, in relation to economics, including principles underlying economic reasoning.
    • Computational economics – research discipline at the interface between computer science and economic and management science.
    • Econometrics – application of mathematics and statistical methods to economic data
      • Mathematical economics – application of mathematical methods to represent economic theories and analyze problems posed in economics.
      • Economic statistics – topic in applied statistics that concerns the collection, processing, compilation, dissemination, and analysis of economic data.
        • Time series – sequence of data points, measured typically at successive time instants spaced at uniform time intervals.
    • Experimental economics – application of experimental methods to study economic questions.
• Education – in the general sense is any act or experience that has a formative effect on the mind, character, or physical ability of an individual. In its technical sense, education is the process by which society deliberately transmits its accumulated knowledge, skills, and values from one generation to another.
• Environmental studies – interdisciplinary academic field which systematically studies human interaction with the environment.
• Gender and sexuality studies – field of interdisciplinary study and academic field devoted to gender identity and gendered representation as central categories of analysis.
• Geography – study of the lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena of Earth.
  • Cartography – study and practice of making maps or globes.
  • Human geography – branch of the social sciences that studies the world, its people, communities, and cultures with an emphasis on relations of and across space and place.
    • Critical geography – takes a critical theory (Frankfurt School) approach to the study and analysis of geography.
    • Cultural geography – study of cultural products and norms and their variations across and relations to spaces and places.
    • Feminist geography – approach in human geography which applies the theories, methods and critiques of feminism to the study of the human environment, society and geographical space.
    • Economic geography – study of the location, distribution and spatial organization of economic activities across the world.
    • Development geography – branch of geography with reference to the standard of living and quality of life of its human inhabitants.
    • Historical geography – study of the human, physical, fictional, theoretical, and "real" geographies of the past.
    • Time geography –
    • Political geography & geopolitics – field of human geography that is concerned with the study of both the spatially uneven outcomes of political processes and the ways in which political processes are themselves affected by spatial structures.
    • Marxist geography – strand of critical geography that uses the theories and philosophy of Marxism to examine the spatial relations of human geography.
    • Military geography – sub-field of geography that is used by, not only the military, but also academics and politicians to understand the geopolitical sphere through the militaristic lens.
    • Strategic geography – concerned with the control of, or access to, spatial areas that affect the security and prosperity of nations.
    • Population geography – study of the ways in which spatial variations in the distribution, composition, migration, and growth of populations are related to the nature of places.
    • Social geography – branch of human geography that is most closely related to social theory in general and sociology in particular, dealing with the relation of social phenomena and its spatial components.
    • Behavioral geography – approach to human geography that examines human behavior using a disaggregate approach.
    • Children's geographies – area of study within human geography and Childhood Studies which involves researching the places and spaces of children's lives.
    • Health geography – application of geographical information, perspectives, and methods to the study of health, disease, and health care.
    • Tourism geography – study of travel and tourism, as an industry and as a social and cultural activity.
    • Urban geography – study of areas which have a high concentration of buildings and infrastructure.
  • Environmental geography – branch of geography that describes the spatial aspects of interactions between humans and the natural world.
  • Physical geography – branch of natural science which deals with the study of processes and patterns in the natural environment like the atmosphere, biosphere and geosphere, as opposed to the cultural or built environment, the domain of human geography.
    • Biogeography – study of the distribution of species (biology), organisms, and ecosystems in geographic space and through geological time.
    • Climatology – Atmospheric physics Atmospheric dynamics (category)
    • Palaeoclimatology – study of changes in climate taken on the scale of the entire history of Earth.
    • Coastal geography – study of the dynamic interface between the ocean and the land, incorporating both the physical geography (i.e. coastal geomorphology, geology and oceanography) and the human geography (sociology and history) of the coast.
    • Geomorphology – scientific study of landforms and the processes that shape them.
    • Geodesy – scientific discipline that deals with the measurement and representation of the Earth, including its gravitational field, in a three-dimensional time-varying space.
    • Hydrology – study of the movement, distribution, and quality of water on Earth and other planets, including the hydrologic cycle, water resources and environmental watershed sustainability.
    • Hydrography – mapping (charting) of water topographic features through the measurement of the depths, the tides and currents of a body of water and establishment of the sea, river or lake bed topography and morphology.
    • Glaciology – study of glaciers, or more generally ice and natural phenomena that involve ice.
    • Limnology – study of inland waters.
    • Oceanography – branch of Earth science that studies the ocean.
    • Pedology – study of soils in their natural environment.
    • Landscape ecology – science of studying and improving relationships between ecological processes in the environment and particular ecosystems.
    • Palaeogeography – study of what the geography was in times past.
  • Regional geography – study of world regions.
• Gerontology – study of the social, psychological and biological aspects of aging.
• History – discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events. History can also mean the period of time after writing was invented. This category includes many sub-domains of history such as, art history, diplomatic history, history of science, economic history, environmental history, military history, political history, urban history, women's history and many others.
• Industrial relations – multidisciplinary field that studies the employment relationship.
• Information science – interdisciplinary field primarily concerned with the analysis, collection, classification, manipulation, storage, retrieval and dissemination of information.
• International studies – study of the major political, economic, social, cultural and sacral issues that dominate the international agenda
• Law – set of rules and principles (laws) by which a society is governed, through enforcement by governmental authorities.
• Legal management – social sciences discipline that is designed for students interested in the study of State and its elements, Law, Law Practice, Legal Research and Jurisprudence, legal Philosophy, Criminal Justice, Governance, Government structure, Political history and theories, Business Organization and Management, Entrepreneurship, Public Administration and Human Resource Development.
  • Paralegal studies – social sciences discipline that is designed for students interested in the study of State and its elements, Law, Law Practice, Legal Research and Jurisprudence, legal Philosophy, Criminal Justice, Governance, Government structure, Political history and theories, Business Organization and Management, Entrepreneurship, Public Administration and Human Resource Development.
• Library science – study of issues related to libraries and the information fields.
• Linguistics – scientific study of natural language.
  • Anthropological linguistics – study of the relations between language and culture and the relations between human biology, cognition and language.
  • Applied linguistics – interdisciplinary field of study that identifies, investigates, and offers solutions to language-related real-life problems.
  • Biolinguistics – study of the biology and evolution of language.
  • Clinical linguistics and speech and language pathology – sub-discipline of linguistics which involves the application of linguistic theory to the field of Speech-Language Pathology.
  • Cognitive linguistics – branch of linguistics that interprets language in terms of the concepts, sometimes universal, sometimes specific to a particular tongue, which underlie its forms.
  • Comparative linguistics – branch of historical linguistics that is concerned with comparing languages to establish their historical relatedness.
  • Computational linguistics – interdisciplinary field dealing with the statistical or rule-based modeling of natural language from a computational perspective.
  • Developmental linguistics – study of the development of linguistic ability in an individual, particularly the acquisition of language in childhood.
    • • language acquisition – the process by which humans acquire the capacity to perceive and comprehend language, as well as to produce and use words to communicate.
  • Dialectology – scientific study of linguistic dialect, a sub-field of sociolinguistics.
    • dialectometry – the study of high levels of structure in geographical dialect networks.
  • Discourse analysis – general term for a number of approaches to analyzing use of written, oral or sign language or any significant semiotic event.
  • Etymology – study of the history of words, their origins, and how their form and meaning have changed over time.
  • Evolutionary linguistics – the scientific study of both the origins and development of language as well as the cultural evolution of languages.
  • Forensic linguistics – application of linguistic knowledge, methods and insights to the forensic context of law, language, crime investigation, trial, and judicial procedure.
  • Geolinguistics – branch of human geography that studies the geographic distribution of language or its constituent elements.
  • Historical linguistics – study of language change.
  • Lexis – total vocabulary or lexicon having items of lexical, rather than grammatical, meaning.
  • Linguistic typology – subfield of linguistics that studies and classifies languages according to their structural features.
  • Morphology – identification, analysis and description of the structure of a given language's morphemes and other linguistic units, such as words, affixes, parts of speech, intonation/stress, or implied context (words in a lexicon are the subject matter of lexicology).
  • Neurolinguistics – study of the neural mechanisms in the human brain that control the comprehension, production, and acquisition of language.
  • Philology – study of language in written historical sources; it is a combination of literary studies, history and linguistics.
  • Phonetics – branch of linguistics that comprises the study of the sounds of human speech, or the equivalent aspects of sign.
  • Phonology – branch of linguistics concerned with the systematic organization of sounds in languages.
  • Phraseology – study of set or fixed expressions, such as idioms, phrasal verbs, and other types of multi-word lexical units (often collectively referred to as phrasemes), in which the component parts of the expression take on a meaning more specific than or otherwise not predictable from the sum of their meanings when used independently.
  • Pragmatics – subfield of linguistics which studies the ways in which context contributes to meaning.
  • Psycholinguistics – study of the psychological and neurobiological factors that enable humans to acquire, use, comprehend and produce language.
  • Sociolinguistics – descriptive study of the effect of any and all aspects of society, including cultural norms, expectations, and context, on the way language is used, and the effects of language use on society.
  • Speech science – Speech science refers to the study of production, transmission and perception of speech. Speech science involves anatomy, in particular the anatomy of the oro-facial region and neuroanatomy, physiology, and acoustics.
  • Stylistics – study and interpretation of texts from a linguistic perspective.
  • Syntax – "the study of the principles and processes by which sentences are constructed in particular languages."
  • Semantics – study of meaning.
  • Writing systems and orthography – representation of language in a textual medium through the use of a set of signs or symbols (known as a writing system).
• Management – act of getting people together to accomplish desired goals and objectives using available resources efficiently and effectively.
• Media studies – academic discipline and field of study that deals with the content, history and effects of various media; in particular, the 'mass media'.
  • Communication studies – academic field that deals with processes of human communication, commonly defined as the sharing of symbols to create meaning.
• Philosophy – study of general and fundamental problems concerning matters such as existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Academic philosophy is considered a science by some.^[4] Others say that philosophy is not a science but it is instead a precursor of it.^[5] The role of philosophy is also a philosophical question.^[6]
  • Philosophy of language – is concerned with four central problems: the nature of meaning, language use, language cognition, and the relationship between language and reality.
  • Philosophy of information – (PI) is the area of research that studies conceptual issues arising at the intersection of computer science, information science, information technology, and philosophy.
  • Political philosophy – is the study of topics such as politics, liberty, justice, property, rights, law, and the enforcement of a legal code by authority.
  • Epistemology – study of how we know what we know; study of the nature and scope of knowledge.
  • Ethics – major branch of philosophy, encompassing right conduct and good life. It is significantly broader than the common conception of analyzing right and wrong.
  • Logic – formal science of using reason
  • Philosophy of mind – branch of philosophy that studies the nature of the mind, mental events, mental functions, mental properties, consciousness and their relationship to the physical body, particularly the brain.
  • Philosophy of science – questions the assumptions, foundations, methods and implications of science; questions the use and merit of science; sometimes overlaps metaphysics and epistemology by questioning whether scientific results are actually a study of truth.
  • Social philosophy – is the study of questions about social behavior and interpretations of society and social institutions in terms of ethical values rather than empirical relations.
  • Aesthetics – is a branch of philosophy dealing with the nature of art, beauty, and taste, with the creation and appreciation of beauty.
  • Philosophy of mathematics – is the branch of philosophy that studies the philosophical assumptions, foundations, and implications of mathematics. The aim of the philosophy of mathematics is to provide an account of the nature and methodology of mathematics and to understand the place of mathematics in people's lives.
  • Philosophy of education – Philosophy of education can refer to either the academic field of applied philosophy or to one of any educational philosophies that promote a specific type or vision of education, and/or which examine the definition, goals and meaning of education.
• Planning
  • Urban planning – studies the development and use of land, protection and use of the environment, public welfare, and the design of the urban environment, including air, water, and the infrastructure passing into and out of urban areas, such as transportation, communications, and distribution networks.
  • Regional planning – deals with the efficient placement of land-use activities, infrastructure, and settlement growth across a larger area of land than an individual city or town.
• Political science – social science discipline concerned with the study of the state, government, and politics.
  • Comparative politics – field and a method used in political science, characterized by an empirical approach based on the comparative method.
  • Game theory – study of strategic decision making.
  • Geopolitics – theory that describes the relation between politics and territory whether on local or international scale.
    • political geography – field of human geography that is concerned with the study of both the spatially uneven outcomes of political processes and the ways in which political processes are themselves affected by spatial structures.
  • Ideology – set of ideas that constitute one's goals, expectations, and actions.
  • Political economy – Political economy originally was the term for studying production, buying, and selling, and their relations with law, custom, and government, as well as with the distribution of national income and wealth, including through the budget process. Political economy originated in moral philosophy. It developed in the 18th century as the study of the economies of states, polities, hence political economy.
  • Political psychology, bureaucratic, administrative and judicial behaviour –
  • Psephology – branch of political science which deals with the study and scientific analysis of elections.
  • Voting systems – methods by which voters make a choice between options, often in an election or on a policy referendum.
  • Public administration – houses the implementation of government policy and an academic discipline that studies this implementation and that prepares civil servants for this work.
    • Public policy – generally the principled guide to action taken by the administrative or executive branches of the state with regard to a class of issues in a manner consistent with law and institutional customs.
    • Local government studies – form of public administration which in a majority of contexts, exists as the lowest tier of administration within the a given state.
    • International politics – study of relationships between countries, including the roles of states, inter-governmental organizations (IGOs), international nongovernmental organizations (INGOs), non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and multinational corporations (MNCs).
  • International relations theory – study of international relations from a theoretical perspective; it attempts to provide a conceptual framework upon which international relations can be analyzed.
• Psychology – science of behavior and mental processes
  • Applied psychology – use of psychological principles and theories to overcome problems in other areas, such as mental health, business management, education, health, product design, ergonomics, and law.
    • Psychological testing – field characterized by the use of samples of behavior in order to assess psychological construct(s), such as cognitive and emotional functioning, about a given individual.
    • Clinical psychology – integration of science, theory and clinical knowledge for the purpose of understanding, preventing, and relieving psychologically based distress or dysfunction and to promote subjective well-being and personal development.
    • Community psychology – Sense of community Social capital
    • Consumer behaviour – study of when, why, how, and where people do or do not buy a product.
    • Counseling psychology – psychological specialty that encompasses research and applied work in several broad domains: counseling process and outcome; supervision and training; career development and counseling; and prevention and health.
    • Educational psychology – study of how humans learn in educational settings, the effectiveness of educational interventions, the psychology of teaching, and the social psychology of schools as organizations.
    • Forensic psychology – intersection between psychology and the courtroom—criminal, civil, family and Federal.
    • Health psychology – concerned with understanding how biological, psychological, environmental, and cultural factors are involved in physical health and illness.
    • Industrial and organizational psychology – scientific study of employees, workplaces, and organizations.
    • Legal psychology – involves empirical, psychological research of the law, legal institutions, and people who come into contact with the law.
    • Media psychology – seeks an understanding of how people perceive, interpret, use, and respond to a media-rich world.
    • Military psychology – research, design and application of psychological theories and experimentation data towards understanding, predicting and countering behaviours either in friendly or enemy forces or civilian population that may be undesirable, threatening or potentially dangerous to the conduct of military operations.
    • Occupational health psychology – concerned with the psychosocial characteristics of workplaces that contribute to the development of health-related problems in people who work.
    • Pastoral psychology – application of psychological methods and interpretive frameworks to religious traditions, as well as to both religious and irreligious individuals.
    • Political psychology – interdisciplinary academic field dedicated to understanding political science, politicians and political behavior through the use of psychological theories.
    • Psychometrics – field of study concerned with the theory and technique of psychological measurement, which includes the measurement of knowledge, abilities, attitudes, personality traits, and educational measurement.
    • School psychology – field that applies principles of clinical psychology and educational psychology to the diagnosis and treatment of children's and adolescents' behavioral and learning problems.
    • Sport psychology – interdisciplinary science that draws on knowledge from the fields of Kinesiology and Psychology.
    • Systems psychology – branch of applied psychology that studies human behaviour and experience in complex systems.
    • Traffic psychology – study of the behavior of road users and the psychological processes underlying that behavior (Rothengatter, 1997, 223) as well as to the relationship between behavior and accidents
  • Behavior analysis – philosophy of psychology based on the proposition that all things that organisms do can and should be regarded as behaviors, and that psychological disorders are best treated by altering behavior patterns or modifying the environment.
  • Biopsychology – application of the principles of biology (in particular neurobiology), to the study of physiological, genetic, and developmental mechanisms of behavior in human and non-human animals.
  • Cognitive psychology – subdiscipline of psychology exploring internal mental processes.
  • Clinical psychology – integration of science, theory and clinical knowledge for the purpose of understanding, preventing, and relieving psychologically based distress or dysfunction and to promote subjective well-being and personal development.
  • Cultural psychology – field of psychology which assumes the idea that culture and mind are inseparable, and that psychological theories grounded in one culture are likely to be limited in applicability when applied to a different culture.
  • Developmental psychology – scientific study of systematic psychological changes, emotional changes, and perception changes that occur in human beings over the course of their life span.
  • Educational psychology – study of how humans learn in educational settings, the effectiveness of educational interventions, the psychology of teaching, and the social psychology of schools as organizations.
  • Evolutionary psychology – approach in the social and natural sciences that examines psychological traits such as memory, perception, and language from a modern evolutionary perspective.
  • Experimental psychology – application of experimental methods to the study of behavior and the processes that underlie it.
  • Forensic psychology – intersection between psychology and the courtroom—criminal, civil, family and Federal.
  • Health psychology – concerned with understanding how biological, psychological, environmental, and cultural factors are involved in physical health and illness.
  • Humanistic psychology – psychological perspective which rose to prominence in the mid-20th century in the context of the tertiary sector beginning to produce in the most developed countries in the world more than the secondary sector was producing, for the first time in human history demanding creativity and new understanding of human capital.
  • Industrial and organizational psychology – scientific study of employees, workplaces, and organizations.
  • Music therapy – allied health profession and one of the expressive therapies, consisting of an interpersonal process in which a trained music therapist uses music to help clients to improve or maintain their health.
  • Neuropsychology – studies the structure and function of the brain as they relate to specific psychological processes and behaviors.
  • Personality psychology – branch of psychology that studies personality and individual differences.
  • Psychometrics – field of study concerned with the theory and technique of psychological measurement, which includes the measurement of knowledge, abilities, attitudes, personality traits, and educational measurement.
  • Psychology of religion – application of psychological methods and interpretive frameworks to religious traditions, as well as to both religious and irreligious individuals.
  • Psychophysics – quantitatively investigates the relationship between physical stimuli and the sensations and perceptions they affect.
  • Sensation and perception psychology –
• Public administration – houses the implementation of government policy and an academic discipline that studies this implementation and that prepares civil servants for this work.
• Social work – professional and academic discipline that seeks to improve the quality of life and wellbeing of an individual, group, or community by intervening through research, policy, community organizing, direct practice, and teaching on behalf of those afflicted with poverty or any real or perceived social injustices and violations of their human rights.
• Sociology – studies society using various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to understand human social activity, from the micro level of individual agency and interaction to the macro level of systems and social structure.
  • Criminology – study of the nature, extent, causes, and control of criminal behavior in both the individual and in society.
  • Demography – statistical study of human populations and sub-populations.
  • Urban and rural sociology - the analysis of social life in metropolitan and non-metropolitan areas.
• Sustainable development – the process of meeting human development goals while sustaining the ability of natural systems to continue to provide the natural resources and natural system services upon which the economy of human society depends.
• Sustainability studies – focuses on the interdisciplinary perspective of the sustainability concept. Programs include instruction in sustainable development, geography, environmental policies, ethics, ecology, landscape architecture, city and regional planning, economics, natural resources, sociology, and anthropology, many of which are considered social sciences in their own right.

History of social science

• History of the social sciences
  • History of anthropology
  • History of archaeology
  • History of area studies
  • History of communication studies
  • History of cultural studies
  • History of development studies
  • History of economics
  • History of education
  • History of environmental studies
  • History of gender studies
  • History of geography
    • History of human geography
  • History of history
  • History of information science
  • History of journalism
  • History of law
  • History of library science
  • History of linguistics
  • History of management
  • History of political science
    • History of international studies
      • History of international relations
    • History of political economy
    • History of public administration
  • History of psychology
    • History of social psychology
  • History of social work
  • History of sociology
    • History of criminal justice
    • History of demography

Education and degrees

• Bachelor of Social Science
• Bachelor of Science
• Bachelor of Arts
• Bachelor of Economics

General social science concepts

• Ethical research in social science
• Open and closed systems in social science
• Philosophy of social science

Social science publications

• List of social science journals

Social scientists

• List of anthropologists
• List of business theorists
• List of developmental psychologists
• List of economists
• List of socialist economists
• List of educational psychologists
• List of geographers
• List of psychologists
• List of political scientists
• List of social psychologists
• List of sociologists
• List of urban planners
• List of urban theorists

See also

• Outline of science
  • Outline of natural science
    • Outline of physical science
      • Outline of earth science
  • Outline of formal science
  • Outline of social science
  • Outline of applied science

References

External links

• Social Science Virtual Library
• UC Berkeley Experimental Social Science Laboratory
• Intute: Social Sciences (UK)
• History of Social Science
• On the Social Sciences Critical Essays
• praxeology as the method of the social sciences
• in defense of extreme apriorism