4.6 Other disciplines

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Del curso dictado por The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology

Social Science Approaches to the Study of Chinese Society Part 1

9 calificaciones

The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology

Social Science Approaches to the Study of Chinese Society Part 1

9 calificaciones

This course seeks to turn learners into informed consumers of social science research. It introduces concepts, standards, and principles of social science research to the interested non-expert. Learners who complete the course will be able to assess evidence and critically evaluate claims about important social phenomena. It reviews the origins and development of social science, describes the process of discovery in contemporary social science research, and explains how contemporary social science differs from apparently related fields. It describes the goals, basic paradigms, and methodologies of the major social science disciplines. It offers an overview of the major questions that are the focus of much contemporary social science research, overall and for China. Special emphasis is given to explaining the challenges that social scientists face in drawing conclusions about cause and effect from their studies, and offers an overview of the approaches that are used to overcome these challenges. Explanation is non-technical and does not involve mathematics. Statistics and quantitative methods are not covered. Explore the big questions in social science and learn how you can be a critical, informed consumer of social science research. Course Overview video: https://youtu.be/QuMOAlwhpvU After you complete Part 1, enroll in Part 2 to learn how to be a PRODUCER of Social science research. Part 2: https://www.coursera.org/learn/social-science-research-chinese-society

De la lección

The Social Science Disciplines

In Week 4, we will focus on The Social Science Disciplines. By the end of this week, you should have a better understanding of the emphases of each of the major social science disciplines, and the differences between the disciplines.

4.1 Overview1:35

4.2 Sociology15:12

4.3 Political Science14:51

4.4 Economics13:27

4.5 Anthropology6:33

4.6 Other disciplines5:26

4.7 Summary1:53

Conoce a los instructores

Cameron Campbell
Professor of Social Science
Associate Dean of the School of Humanities and Social Science

[MUSIC]

Hi, now I'd like to introduce some other disciplines.

Some of which are actual social science disciplines and some of which are other

disciplines that are very closely related to, or

often have connections with social science.

I'd like to begin by talking a bit about psychology.

Now at most universities, psychology is not considered a social science.

It's considered a behavioral, or life science in some cases.

The reason is that the focus of psychology is on the individual,

and specifically the mind.

It's essentially the idea of trying to understand how the mind works,

and how people make decisions, and so forth.

Nevertheless, there are some areas within psychology that have very strong

interactions with, or overlaps with social science disciplines.

The most important are social and health psychology.

Essentially, these in the case of social psychology,

try to understand how the mind, mental processes of an individual

are shaped by interaction with the broader social context.

In the case of health psychology,

the emphasis is on the interaction between the mind and the body.

And then the, again, larger social context that people experience.

Now to mention a few other disciplines.

One, geography, is generally recognized as a social science discipline.

This is the effort to systematically study the role of space and

place in shaping human social and economic organization.

So probably speaking, this is the effort to understand how

the geographical features of a country including its climate,

and many other factors shape its characteristics.

Of course, it doesn't have to be a country, it could be a region.

Why do different regions of a country have different fortunes?

And how is that related to their various aspects of their physical locations?

Another area that's very closely related to social science, and which interacts

a great deal with social science, is science and technology studies.

So this is the systematic effort to understand the processes that

drive the advance of science and technological innovation.

There are close connections between science and technology studies, and

sociology, and economics, and politics.

And it's an area that's been getting a lot of interest and

attention in recent decades because of, on the one hand,

the recognition that we have experienced so much scientific and technological

advancement over the few recent decades and indeed the last century or two.

But also as governments seek policies to try to promote technological

innovation and scientific advances, people doing research on science and

technology studies have been looking to sociology, and

economics, and other disciplines for inspiration for methods,

and for theories to help offer ideas for suggestions for policies.

Another very applied area, which has very close connections to social science,

is public policy.

So broadly speaking, public policy relates to the design,

the implementation, and the evaluation of public policies.

Because all public policies operate in a world of people, they are designed

by people, they are implemented by people, and they affect people.

Obviously, perspectives from sociology, and

economics, political science, geography, and

other disciplines are all important in forming research on public policy.

Finally, and very much related to public policy,

there are areas such as social work, social welfare, and education,

which have more specific focus on particular areas of policy.

For example, social welfare and social work is often concerned with policy

related to the delivery of various kinds of services to the population,

to the improvement of the welfare of the population through government policy.

And obviously, education, a very broad and diverse field,

spends a lot of time trying to think about how to improve education.

And all these areas, because again, they're so related to people and

the interaction of people, draw heavily on sociology,

political science, economics, and geography, and

other disciplines in advancing their own research.

So, hopefully you'll either, perhaps pursue studies in one of these areas,

or at least have the opportunity to learn more about them in the future,

especially if you pursue postgraduate studies in social science.

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