My Social Sciences Glossary

20 Social Sciences terms

Hello everyone, my name is Rosemarie. I am 18 years old, and I am studying Social Sciences for two years. This program is about the social and psychological sides of humans. It's also a pre-university program that leads people to achieve a profession requiring significant human interactions. I create this glossary in order to dissect and explain clearly and quickly what my program consists of because it is very popular but also very abstract. Thus, this glossary can help all of my classmates but also future students in the Social Sciences.

anthropology: Anthropology designates the scientific study of man, of human groups, in all of their aspects, both physical history and culture.
communication: It's the act of communicating with someone, of being in relation with others, in general through language.
culture: It is the set of material and ideological phenomena that characterize an ethnic group or nation, civilization, as opposed to another group or nation.
discrimination: It's the action of distinguishing and treating someone or a group differently (most often worse) from the rest of the community or from another person.
economy: All the activities of a human community relating to the production, distribution and consumption of wealth. Economics also refers to the management of one's money with the aim of reducing unnecessary expenses.
evolution: It's the set of changes undergone over geological time by animal and plant lineages, resulting in the appearance of new forms.
geography: Science whose object is the description and explanation of the current aspect, natural and human, of the surface of the Earth.
history: Knowledge of the past of humanity and of human societies; discipline which studies this past and seeks to reconstruct it.
human relations: The set of interactions that individuals have within a society. They are based on the links, very often hierarchical, which exist between people and which takes place through communication (which may be visual, linguistic, ...).
individual: It's human being, person as opposed to group, society, community, mass.
mental health: It's the state of good functioning of the organism. It's also psychic balance and harmony of mental life.
methodology: The concept relates to research methods which achieve certain objectives within a science. Methodology is therefore a whole set of methods governing scientific research or in a doctrinal exposition.
philosophy: Set of conceptions bearing on the principles of beings and things, on the role of man in the universe, on God, on history and, in general, on all the major problems of metaphysics.
physiology: It's the part of biology that studies the functions and properties of the organs and tissues of living things.
politics: It's the set of options taken collectively or individually by the rulers of a State in whatever area of their authority (legislative, economic or social, external relations).
psychology: Discipline which aims at the knowledge of mental activities and behaviors according to environmental conditions.
Reason: The faculty peculiar to man, by which he can know, judge and behave according to principles.
sexology: Study of sexuality and its disorders.
sociology: Scientific study of human societies and social facts.
theology: Study concerning divinity and more generally religion.