Social science perspectives broadly include the aspects of economics, politics, sociology, psychology, and social anthropology. Therefore, there are many common things between behavioral and social sciences. Both sciences are integrated and therefore, all medical professionals must have a sound background in these subjects to appreciate fully the impact of the social environment on human beings.

The Economics

Studying the economic aspect of man in society gives us an idea about the production, distribution, and consumption of human resources within the society or country.

Basic Needs of Human Beings in Social Science Perspectives

The basic needs of man in society are food, shelter, and clothing. Therefore, the excess or shortage of basic needs will seriously affect every society’s activity. The per capita GNP is the most accepted measure of economic activities in the society.

In most developing countries, the economy’s growth has been considered a major factor in reducing mortality, and morbidity, and increasing longevity with elevated quality of life. The economic status of any country determines the purchasing capacity, standard of life, quality of life, disease prevalence, and deviant, or fluctuating human behavior. It is also a measure of the healthcare activities of any society or country.

All professionals, the administrative executives and health professionals in particular must have a thorough knowledge about the economic conditions of the country. Some important natural resources might be agriculture, fisheries, manpower, gases, coal, forestry, etc.

Politics in Social Science Perspectives

Politics: politics deals with the constitution, the government, and laws of the state, which impose some sort of discipline on man’s movements, activities, or behavior. The political system of any country must have a political commitment to people’s affairs. This political commitment and leadership should be oriented toward social development and not merely economic development.

The social, economic, and political activities must be integrated to eliminate social or people’s problems. The health-related activities and progress sometimes are restricted because of wrong political judgments and decisions. The decisions on resource allocations, budget provision, health and manpower policy, choice of technology, people’s participation, etc.; all these are vitally concerned with the politics of the country.

WHO Recommendations

The World Health Organization, therefore, has recommended a 5% expenditure on each country’s GDP in the health sector. But this expenditure may not be possible on the part of some poor developing countries, where the food shortage is compelling the government to spend the maximum budget to procure food. Thus technical politics always clash or contradict with the practical application of political philosophies and ideals.

We should, therefore, always make a provision of compromise in politics, which in other words are called adjustments or rather political adjustments. An adjustment is considered a great virtue in political science, social science, and human behavior, too.

Sociology

Sociology is the science of society which makes a systematic study of people in society. The unit of study of sociology is the group. It studies man in the context of society and man and only man is part of it. As the prime factor of society, the rest of the things come later as a secondary factor.

Sociology simply indicates observing, understanding, and interpreting the social world to understand social needs and obligations. The study of sociology is a complex phenomenon in which societies of all types are less developed or modern, need to be thoroughly studied and understand its needs, and requirements, and set directions of activities to be performed for the benefit of the society.

Lately, sociology has become an increasingly important discipline in which the entire world population has taken an active interest. Even in the Soviet Union, sociology was a neglected discipline before the reforms had taken place in sociology. In 1988 by a resolution of the communist part in the Soviet Union, the subject of sociology was put on the top of the priority list to fulfill the obligations of society. Learn More

Social Psychology

Social Psychology is the science of the behavior of an individual in society.  Read more.

Anthropology

The Greek word Arthropos means man, human, and logos means study. It is the science, which deals with all aspects of man. Like all other branches of science, the subject anthropology is the key to understanding various social sciencesItit consists of the total and continuous study of man including the evolution, birth, heredity, race, environment, behavior, physical, psychological, and cultural characteristics.

Anthropologists are interested in discovering the human beings of the ancient world and exploring the differences between men of both the ancient and present world. This science provides a bridge between the world of biological and zoology, it emphasizes the kinship between man and lower animals. Knowledge of anthropology narrates our past achievements and indicates our failures in many things, because of primitive behavior mostly during the prehistoric age.

The knowledge of our past achievements gives us full confidence in our ability to solve problems of the future. As a social science, anthropology can find something very special, distinctive, and unique in mankind. It has helped us to a great extent to find the differences between man and other animals both in kind and degrees. Read More

Usefulness of Anthropology

It is very useful. It helps us understand and avoid misunderstandings between people. From the knowledge of anthropology, we can understand the differences between different groups of people of different races and can tolerate other’s odd behavior, which seems very strange to us.

This subject further helps us realize that human differences are the products of physical and cultural adaptations to different environments.  It thereby helps us to be more tolerant of others’ feelings and respect other’s points of view so that we can solve many conflicts, violence, and war conditions between nations because we can find these results of contradictory human behavior.

This subject explores the bear truth that the earth changes, the environment changes, and humanity itself changes, too. What has survived and flourished today might not do so in the future. Anthropology has been divided into physical, cultural, and social anthropology.

Physical Anthropology in Social Science Perspectives

Physical anthropology regards man as a biological entity and studies the physical characteristics, structure, and functions of the body. These elements are anatomy, physiology, and biochemistry, etc. In other words, it is the study of a man as a biological organism.

Cultural Anthropology Because of Social Science Perspectives

Cultural anthropology regards man as a human being and studies the cultural and social characteristics of his fellow beings. It deals with man’s behavior and products. Cultural anthropology overlaps with other disciplines that focus on some particular aspect of human existence such as sociology, psychology, economics, political science, art, music, and comparative religion.

The distinctive feature of cultural anthropology is its variability of human existence from society to society, in all historical periods, and all parts of the world. Cultural anthropology also explains the divergence in sexual customs and habits; in approval or disapproval of street fighting, gang rule, and other activities among the majority groups and underprivileged classes of the population. It is divided into Linguistics, Archaeology, and Ethnology.

Archaeology

Archaeology means knowledge of ancient things and primitive people. The study of antiques and ancient culture is now extinct. It studies the daily life and customs of people who lived in the past. It traces the cultural changes and offers thoughtful explanations of those changes. Archaeologists try to reconstruct history from the remains of human cultures and civilizations of the past.

The most striking feature of archaeology is historical archaeology. Archaeologists collect data, borrow findings, and use techniques from several other disciplines in the studies of recent and contemporary cultures.  Archaeology, therefore, deals with past cultures and civilizations as the principal source of information.

Historical Archaeology: Social Science Perspectives

The major archaeology studies include field surveys, field exploration, excavation, classification, dating, and analysis of the findings from their records, as it is appropriate for documentation and display of dissemination of knowledge and information.

Ethnology: Social Science Perspectives

Ethnology is the study of ways of life and culture of existing races and societies. It is a comparative study of cultures. It simply means observation and descriptive study of a small group of people or societies. Ethnologists seek to understand the differences between people of today and of the recent past in the customary ways of thinking and acting. Ethnology, therefore, concerns the patterns of thought and behavior, such as marriage customs, political and economic systems, religion, folklore, art, music, organization of kinship, etc.

Ethnologists study the dynamics of culture and how various cultures develop and change. They are also interested in the relationship between beliefs and practices within culture. Ethnologists generally use data collected through observation and interviewing of living people. The other type of ethnologist is the ethnographer who usually lives with people for a specified period to study and observe the customs of the same people. They try to correlate the economic and political behavior of people.

There is another type of ethnologist, known as an ethnohistorian, who is prepared to study how the ways of life of a particular group of people have changed overcome time. Ethno-historian usually investigates written documents meticulously over a substantial period and tries to correlate the cultural changes that take place within a particular group of people.

The Ethno-Historian Research

The ethno-historian’s research is almost similar to that of a historian except that the historian is usually concerned with the history of a people without any written documents or records. The ethnohistorian always tries to reconstruct the recent history of a people and may also suggest why certain changes took place in the way of their life.

The work of a third type of ethnologist, the cross-cultural researcher can be done easily with the help of the data collected and analyzed both by the ethnographer and ethno-historian. The ethnographer not only lives with the people but also observes and interviews people to describe their customs. In recent years, more emphasis has been given to ethnographic field studies for collecting data based on observation and participation.

Social Anthropology: Social Science Perspectives

Social anthropology is essentially the same as cultural anthropology. It demonstrates social behavior, generally in institutionalized forms such as family, kinship system, political organization, legal procedures, and religious cults. In recent years, social and cultural anthropology has facilitated these studies of modern societies. The central theme of cultural anthropology is that human behavior is not just biologically determined but human beings usually borrow culture to adapt to new environments and situations of life.

Medical Anthropology: Social Science Perspectives

Medical anthropology focuses on the practice of medicine and the cultural aspects of providing and receiving health care. It is very much concerned with the study of cultural aspects of health care, illness, and healing.

Medical Sociology: Social Science Perspectives

Medical sociology is a specialization within the field of sociology. It studies how a man’s body and mind react to stimuli originating from society. It shows how a man is affected either physically or mentally or both, when he is surrounded by other fellow beings. The illness or disease is not only to be counted as a medical problem but also as a psycho-social problem. Social factors in most cases act as a trigger mechanism and form the basis of causation of diseases.

Social factors such as social epidemiology, cultural habits, traditions, ethnic background, group concept about the disease, food habits, and social participation of both men and women simultaneously. All these factors play a great role in the causation of the diseases.

A very substantial part of the majority of contagious and infectious diseases has a social basis as the origin of diseases. Such diseases are tuberculosis, leprosy, sexually transmitted diseases, and AIDS. The main interest of medical sociology is in the study of health, health behavior, and medical institutions. It also includes the application of social principles to prevent, control, and treat diseases; which in other words, is the practice of social medicine.

The medical scientists of the present day are now concentrating more on the study of social, behavioral, and cultural factors of illness.