Introduction to study branches!

Social Science

Any discipline or branch of science that deals with the sociocultural aspects of human behaviour.

The social sciences generally include cultural anthropology, economics, political science, sociology, criminology, and social psychology. Comparative law and comparative religion (the comparative study of the legal systems and religions of different nations and cultures) are also sometimes regarded as social sciences.


Political Science

Academic discipline concerned with the empirical study of government and politics.

Political scientists have investigated the nature of states, the functions performed by governments, voter behaviour, political parties, political culture, political economy, and public opinion, among other topics. Though it has roots in the political philosophies of Plato and Aristotle, political science in the modern sense did not begin until the 19th century, when many of the social sciences were established. Its empirical and generally scientific orientation is traceable to the work ofHenri de Saint-Simon and Auguste Comte. The first institution dedicated to its study, the Free School of Political Science, was founded in Paris in 1871.

Economics

Social science that analyzes and describes the consequences of choices made concerning scarce productive resources.

Economics is the study of how individuals and societies choose to employ those resources: what goods and services will be produced, how they will be produced, and how they will be distributed among the members of society. Economics is customarily divided into microeconomics and macroeconomics. Of major concern to macroeconomists are the rate of economic growth, the inflation rate, and the rate of unemployment. Specialized areas of economic investigation attempt to answer questions on a variety of economic activity; they include agricultural economics, economic development, economic history, environmental economics, industrial organization, international trade, labour economics, money supply and banking, public finance, urban economics, and welfare economics. Specialists in mathematical economics and econometrics provide tools used by all economists. The areas of investigation in economics overlap with many other disciplines, notably history, mathematics, political science, and sociology.

Cultural anthropology

Branch of anthropology that deals with the study of culture.

The discipline uses the methods, concepts, and data of archaeology, ethnography, folklore, linguistics, and related fields in its descriptions and analyses of the diverse peoples of the world. Called social anthropology in Britain, its field of research was until the mid 20th century largely restricted to the small-scale (or "primitive"), non-Western societies that first began to be identified during the age of discovery. Today the field extends to all forms of human association, from village communities to corporate cultures to urban gangs. Two key perspectives used are those of holism (understanding society as a complex, interactive whole) and cultural relativism (the appreciation of cultural phenomena within their own context). Areas of study traditionally include social structure, law, politics, religion, magic, art, and technology.

Sociology

Science of society, social institutions, and social relationships, and specifically the systematic study of the development, structure, interaction, and collective behaviour of organized human groups.

It emerged at the end of the 19th century through the work of Émile Durkheim in France, Max Weber and Georg Simmel in Germany, and Robert E. Park and Albion Small in the U.S. Sociologists use observational techniques, surveys and interviews, statistical analysis, controlled experiments, and other methods to study subjects such as the family, ethnic relations, schooling, social status and class, bureaucracy, religious movements, deviance, the elderly, and social change.

Criminology

Scientific study of nonlegal aspects of crime, including its causes and prevention.

Criminology originated in the 18th century when social reformers began to question the use of punishment for retribution rather than deterrence and reform. In the 19th century, scientific methods began to be applied to the study of crime. Today criminologists commonly use statistics, case histories, official records, and sociological field methods to study criminals and criminal activity, including the rates and kinds of crime within geographic areas. Their findings are used by lawyers, judges, probation officers, law-enforcement and prison officials, legislators, and scholars to better understand criminals and the effects of treatment and prevention. See also delinquency, penology.

Social Psychology

Branch of psychology concerned with the personality, attitudes, motivations, and behaviour of the individual or group in the context of social interaction.

The field emerged in the U.S. in the 1920s. Topics include the attribution of social status based on perceptual cues, the influence of social factors (such as peers) on a person's attitudes and beliefs, the functioning of small groups and large organizations, and the dynamics of face-to-face interactions.[DOUBLEPOST=1359255033][/DOUBLEPOST]Interesting facts about your brain and intelligence

Your brain has about 100 billion neurons. A typical brain cell has from 1,000 to 10,000 connections to other brain cells.

Studies have shown that children who are breast fed display IQ's up to 10 points higher by the age of three.

Your brain is full of nerve cells, but it has no pain receptors. Doctors can operate on your brain while you're awake and you won't feel a thing.

The right side of your brain controls the left side of your body, and the left side of your brain controls the right side of your body.

Your brain weight accounts for about 2 percent of your body weight. But your brain uses 20 percent of your body's oxygen supply and 20 to 30 percent of your body's energy.

When you are born, your brain weighs about a pound. But by age 6, it weighs three pounds. What happens? Learning to stand, talk, and walk creates a web of connections in your head—two pounds worth!

People with lower IQ are at greater risk of being concussed. A Danish study looked at 520 men who had sustained concussion after having their IQs tested by the national draft board. 30.4 percent of the concussed men had had dysfunctional scores. Experts decided lower IQ is a risk factor.[DOUBLEPOST=1359255191][/DOUBLEPOST]Nobel Prize Facts

1)The Nobel Prize is an international award given annually as per Alfred Nobel’s ( Swedish industrialist and inventor) last will. It is awarded for achievements in Physics, Chemistry, Literature , Medicine / Physiology , Peace and Economic Sciences.


2)The award consists of a prize amount ( 10 Million Swedish Kronor ) , a gold medal and a diploma.


3)Each award can be given to a maximum of three recipients per year.If there are two winners in one category, the award money is split equally between them. If there are three winners, the awarding committee has the option of splitting the prize money equally among all three, or awarding half of the prize money to one recipient and one-quarter to each of the other two.


4)The Nobel Prize in Physics, Chemistry, Literature, Medicine and Peace are being awarded since 1901 while that in Economic Sciences is being given since 1969 by the Bank of Sweden.As the Nobel Prize in Economics was not a part of Nobel’s will so it is not paid for by his money,and is technically not a Nobel Prize.


5)The prize winners are announced in October everyear.They receive their awards on December 10, the anniversary of Nobel’s death.


6)The Peace Prize is awarded annually in Oslo ( Norway ) unlike the prizes in Physics, Chemistry, Medicine, Literature and Economics which are awarded in Stockholm,Sweden.


7)Since 1902, the King of Sweden has formally awarded all the prizes, except the Nobel Peace Prize, in Stockholm.


8)The first Nobel Peace Prize was awarded in 1901, given by the President of Norwegian Parliament until the Norwegian Nobel Committee was established in 1904.


9)758 individuals and 18 organizations have been awarded the Nobel Prize.Out of 758 individuals, 33 Nobel Prize Winners are women and 725 are men.


10)Some Laureates and organizations have been awarded more than one time:

The work of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has been honored by a Nobel Peace Prize three times ( 1917,1944 & 1963). Besides, the founder of the ICRC, Henry Dunant, was awarded the first Nobel Peace Prize in 1901.

UNHCR ( United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees ) was awarded Nobel Peace Prize twice in 1954 and 1981.

Linus Pauling is the only person to have been awarded two unshared Nobel Prizes - the 1954 Nobel Prize in Chemistry and the 1962 Nobel Peace Prize.

John Bardeen was awarded Nobel Prize in Physics twice ; in 1956 & 1972.

Marrie Curie was awarded Nobel Prize for contribution in Physics in 1903 and in Chemistry in 1911.

F. Sanger was awarded Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1958 and 1980.


11)The youngest Nobel Prize Winner , so far , is Lawrence Bragg who was 25 years old when he received the Physics Prize with his father in 1915.


12)The oldest Nobel Prize Winner , so far , is Raymond Davis Jr. who was nearly 88 years old when he was awarded the Physics Prize in 2002.


13)Two Winners who declined the Nobel Prize:

Jean Paul Sartre , awarded the 1964 Nobel Prize in Literature, declined the prize because he had consistently declined all official honors.

Le Duc Tho was awarded the 1973 Nobel Peace Prize jointly with US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. They received the Prize for negotiating the Vietnam peace accord. Le Doc Tho said that he was not in a position to accept the Prize, giving as his reason the situation in Vietnam.


14)Four Winners who were forced by Authorities to decline the Nobel Prize:

Adolf Hitler forbade three German Nobel Prize Winners, Richard Kuhn, Adolf Butenandt and Gerhard Domagq, to receive the Nobel Prize. All of them could later receive the diploma and the medal, but not the prize amount.

Boris Pasternack, the 1958 Nobel Prize in Literature, accepted at first but was later caused by the authorities of his country (the Soviet Union) to decline the Prize.