The sciences within which the study of social processes is carried out are divided into two groups: humanitarian and social. Each of them uses its own methods and approaches to research. Social sciences include history, economics, political science, and so on. The humanitarian disciplines include art criticism, philology, psychology, ethnography, and others. Philosophy equally applies to both groups. In social sciences, social methods of cognition prevail . They are focused on the study of connections and relationships between people. The humanitarian approach involves the study of individual characteristics of a person, his emotional background, the spiritual world, and personal aspirations.
Public life
Man is not only a part of nature, but also a social being. Social patterns are short-lived. They appear through the activity of people. This determines the specificity of social cognition. The subject of research is primarily the activity of people. Of no less importance are the relationships that develop during its implementation. In addition, methods of social cognition are used to study the results of people's activities. They are manifested in the culture of society. Accordingly, a person or a social association, society as a whole, acts as the subject of knowledge.
Research Features
The specificity of knowledge of social reality is determined by the fact that the history of mankind is not only studied, but also created by people themselves. Other key features follow from this key characteristic of the study:
- The real processes of public life are included in the context of a particular era, nation, country. In this regard, the historical method in social cognition is of great importance. It allows you to analyze and compare the results of human activity in different eras.
- Events that take place in a particular territory are nowhere and never exactly repeated.
- Due to the fact that social phenomena are complex and variable, constants cannot be identified in them.
- Spiritual and social processes cannot be studied in laboratory conditions.
- The study is carried out by an interested person. This, accordingly, 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 the forms of being are carried out on the basis of the available results of human activity.
- The investigated processes in a short time become history. And her study is influenced by the present.
- For many people, the results of development acquire the only acceptable form of life. In this regard, their analysis is carried out in the opposite direction to their development.
- Significant shifts in the formation of human thought coincide with the crisis periods in existing relations.
Sources
A feature of social cognition is the fact that for research it does not matter the ability to directly observe the processes. The objects of study may be memoirs, documents, other materials. For social disciplines, the results of extra-scientific knowledge of reality are considered an important source. These include works of art, value orientations, political moods, beliefs, and so on.
Nuances
Many works of art, due to their integrity, carry more valuable information than non-fiction. Humanitarian research requires an interested subject to be able to take the place of an observer regarding himself, his feelings, actions, motives. The result of the study is the inner world of the researcher. Studying other people, a person learns himself. Studying his inner world, the individual looks at himself from the side, with the gaze of others.
Socio-scientific methods of cognition of society and the humanitarian approach in the study of personality do not exclude each other. On the contrary, they have a close relationship. Today, society faces various global challenges. In these conditions, the humanities and social sciences are becoming especially relevant. Cognition methods are often applied in a complex manner.
Economic tricks
There are various methods of cognition of social phenomena . The closest to natural are considered economic methods. 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 predict the trends of their course, but also to understand them.
Algorithm
In the study of economic facts, the first step should be their accurate characterization. After that, you need to identify the relationship between them. To do this, the facts are divided into groups. They are classified and systematized. The more facts that confirm the generalization, the more reliable and reliable it is. Accuracy and completeness will ensure the formulation of testable hypotheses. This, in turn, will allow the development of various economic theories.
There are several formulated fundamental concepts. These, for example, include labor, monetarist theory. In addition to general, there are private concepts. They consider problems in specific economic sectors: consumption, distribution, production, exchange. They, in turn, have their own theories. For example, the concept of pricing for production factors. It exists within the framework of distribution theory.
Basic methods of social cognition
They can be divided into 2 groups: theoretical and empirical techniques. The latter are quite diverse. This is due to the fact that explores many aspects of the life of society. Accordingly, for each aspect its own methods of social cognition can be provided. The most popular technique is survey. The reliability of its results (representativeness) depends on the quality of the sample. It should provide an adequate picture of the general population.
Surveillance Included
This technique involves the direct participation of the researcher in the activities of the selected team. He acts as his member, performs the duties assigned to him. Along with this, the researcher performs predetermined observations. So you can get reliable information. It will be more reliable than information received from outside. This technique is especially effective when the researcher is anonymous in the team. When external methods of social cognition are used , subjects often change their behavior. With anonymous observation enabled, this is excluded.
Social experiment (method of cognition)
The use of this technique is fraught with a number of difficulties:
- When observed, a group can change its behavior. This significantly affects the purity of the study.
- A social experiment is difficult to reproduce. This makes it difficult to verify the results by other researchers.
- Measurements of variables are difficult to quantify. This is due to the fact that the assessment is difficult to distract from subjective factors.
- Variables can be measured separately from each other. Therefore, only correlation relationships can be identified between them, and not causal ones.
These problems create obstacles to the widespread use of the experimental method.
Humanitarian approaches
These include methods for studying the spiritual development of a person. The starting points are the principles of interpretation and awareness of the processes of cultural activity of people. In the field of humanitarian knowledge, such industries as art criticism, literary criticism, art criticism, translation practice, etc. are distinguished.
Conclusion
The methods of social cognition together with humanitarian approaches provide reliable and extensive knowledge about the life of society as a whole and of an individual in particular. These techniques allow you to analyze and compare the course of various processes, to observe their dynamics. The analysis results, 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, public administration, etc.