The sciences in which the study is carried outsocial processes are divided into two groups: humanitarian and social. Each of them uses its own methods and approaches to research. The social sciences include history, economics, political science, and so on. The number of humanities disciplines include art history, philology, psychology, ethnography, etc. Philosophy equally applies to the one and the other group. Social sciences are dominated by social sciences. They are focused on the study of relationships and relationships between people. The humanitarian approach involves the study of the individual characteristics of a person, his emotional background, spiritual world, personal aspirations.
Public life
Man is not only a part of nature, but alsosocial being. Social patterns are short-lived. They manifest themselves through the activity of people. This causes the specificity of social cognition. The subject of the research is primarily the activities of people. Equally important are the relationships that develop in its implementation. Besides, social cognition methods used to study the resultsactivities of people. They are manifested in the culture of society. Accordingly, a person or a social association, society as a whole, acts as a subject of knowledge.
Research Features
The specifics of the knowledge of social realitydue to the fact that the history of mankind is not only studied, but also created by the people themselves. Other features follow from this key characteristic of the study:
- The real processes of social life are included in the context of a particular epoch, nation, country. In this regard, great importance has a historical method in social cognition. It allows you to analyze and compare the results of human activity in different eras.
- Events that take place in a particular territory are never and exactly the same never repeated.
- Due to the fact that social phenomena are complex and variable, it is impossible to identify constants in them.
- Spiritual and social processes cannot be studied in the laboratory.
- The study is carried out by an interested person. This, respectively, determines the subjectivity of the results.
- Studied social processes may not be mature enough. This complicates the identification of trends in spiritual and socio-economic development.
- Reflections on forms of being are carried out on the basis of the available results of human activity.
- Investigated processes in a short time become history. And her study is influenced by the present.
- The results of development acquire for many people the only permissible form of life. In this regard, their analysis is carried out in the opposite direction of their development.
- Significant shifts in the development of human thought coincide with the periods of crisis in existing relations.
Sources of information
Особенностью социального познания выступает то, that for the study does not matter the ability to directly observe the processes. Objects of study may be memoirs documents, other materials. For social disciplines, an important source is the results of extra-scientific knowledge of reality. These include works of art, value orientations, political sentiments, beliefs, and so on.
Nuances
Many works of art, because of theirintegrity, carry more valuable information than scientific literature. Humanitarian studies require the interested subject to be able to take the place of the observer in relation to himself, his feelings, actions, motives. The result of the study is the inner world of the researcher. Studying other people, a person knows himself. Studying his inner world, the individual looks at himself from the side, the look of others.
Socio-scientific methods of knowledge societies and a humanitarian approach to researchpersonalities are not mutually exclusive. On the contrary, they have a close relationship. Today, society faces various global challenges. Under these conditions, the humanities and social sciences become especially relevant. Methods of knowledge are often used in a complex.
Economic tricks
There are various methods of knowledge of social phenomena. The most close to the natural are consideredeconomic tricks. Among them, the most common is the method of abstraction. It allows you to simplify the situation. Like any other discipline, economics is based on facts. However, they are so numerous that without generalization it is impossible not only to predict new processes and foresee the tendencies of their flow, but also to understand them.
Algorithm
In the study of economic facts firsttheir exact characteristic should be a step. After that, you need to identify the links between them. To do this, the facts are divided into groups. They are classified and systematized. The more facts that confirm a generalization, the more reliable and reliable it is. Accuracy and completeness will ensure the formulation of tested hypotheses. This, in turn, will allow the development of various economic theories.
Существует несколько сформулированных fundamental concepts. These include, for example, labor and monetarist theories. In addition to the general, there are private concepts. They consider problems in specific economic sectors: consumption, distribution, production, exchange. In turn, they have their own theories. For example, the concept of pricing for production factors. It exists within the framework of the theory of distribution.
Basic methods of social cognition
They can be divided into 2 groups:theoretical and empirical techniques. The latter differ in a rather wide variety. This is due to the fact that explores many aspects of society. Accordingly, for each aspect may be provided social cognition methods. The most popular method is survey.The reliability of its results (representativeness) depends on the quality of the sample. It should provide an adequate view of the general population.
Enabled monitoring
This technique involves direct participation.researchers in the activities of the selected team. He acts as his member, performs the duties assigned to him. Along with this, the researcher performs pre-stipulated observations. So you can get reliable information. It will be more reliable than information received from the outside. This technique is especially effective in cases where the researcher is anonymous in the team. When external social cognition methods, subjects often change their behavior. With anonymous observation included it is excluded.
Social experiment (cognition method)
The application of this technique is associated with a number of difficulties:
- Upon observation, the group may change its behavior. This significantly affects the purity of the study.
- Social experiment is difficult to reproduce. This makes it difficult for other researchers to verify the results.
- Variable measurements are difficult to quantify. This is due to the fact that when assessing it is difficult to distract from subjective factors.
- Variables can be measured apart from each other. Therefore, only correlations can be identified between them, not causal ones.
These problems create obstacles to the widespread use of the experimental method.
Humanitarian approaches
These include the methods of studying the spiritualhuman development. The principles of interpretation and awareness of the processes of cultural activity of people act as the initial base. In the field of humanitarian cognition, such branches as art history, literary criticism, art criticism, translation practice, etc., are distinguished.
Conclusion
Methods of social cognition withhumanitarian approaches provide reliable and extensive knowledge about the life of society in general and the individual in particular. These techniques allow you to analyze and compare the course of certain processes, to observe their dynamics. The results of the analysis, in turn, make it possible to predict the occurrence and development of certain phenomena in the life of society. The knowledge gained is applied in various fields of activity: economics, politics, government, and so on.
