Basic methods of social cognition

The sciences, in which the study of social processes are carried out, are divided into two groups: humanitarian and social. Each of them uses its own methods and approaches to research. Social sciences can include history, economics, political science, and so on. Among the humanitarian disciplines are art history, philology, psychology, ethnography, etc. Philosophy applies equally to both groups. In the social sciences social methods of cognition prevail . They are focused on the study of relationships and relationships between people. The humanitarian approach involves studying individual characteristics of a person, his emotional background, the spiritual world, personal aspirations.

Public life

Man is not only a part of nature, but also a social being. Public patterns are short-lived. They are manifested through the activity of people. This determines the specificity of social cognition. The subject of research is primarily the activity of people. Of no small importance are the relationships that are formed when it is implemented. используются для изучения результатов деятельности людей. In addition, the methods of social cognition are used to study the results of people's activities. They are manifested in the culture of society. Accordingly, as a subject of cognition is a person or a social association, society as a whole.

Research Features

Specificity of knowledge of social reality is due to the fact that the history of mankind is not only studied, but also created by people themselves. From this key characteristic of the research follow other features:

• Real processes of social life are included in the context of a particular era, nation, country. . In connection with this, the historical method in social cognition is of great importance. It allows you to analyze and compare the results of human activity in different epochs.
• Events that occur on a certain territory, nowhere and never exactly repeat.
• Due to the fact that social phenomena are complex and variable, they can not reveal constants.
• Spiritual and social processes can not be studied in the laboratory.

• The study is carried out by the person concerned. This, accordingly, determines the subjectivity of the results obtained.
• 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 its study is influenced by the present.
• The results of development acquire for many people the only acceptable form of life. In this regard, their analysis is carried out in the direction opposite to their development.
• Significant shifts in the formation of human thought coincide with the crisis periods in existing relations.

Sources

The peculiarity of social cognition is that for the study it does not matter whether it is possible to directly monitor the processes. Objects of study can be memoirs of documents, other materials. For social disciplines, an important source is the results of a non-scientific knowledge of reality. These include works of art, value orientations, political sentiments, beliefs and so on.

Nuances

Many works of art, due to their integration, carry more valuable information than scientific literature. Humanitarian research requires the interested subject to become an observer about 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 outside, the eyes of others.

общества и гуманитарный подход при исследовании личности не исключают друг друга. Socio-scientific methods of knowledge 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 is faced with various global problems. In these conditions, humanitarian and social sciences are becoming especially relevant. The methods of cognition are often applied in a complex manner.

Economic methods

. There are various methods for understanding social phenomena . The most approximate to natural methods are economic methods. Among them, the most common is the method of abstraction. It allows you to simplify the situation. Like any other discipline, the economy is based on facts. However, they are so numerous that without generalization it is impossible not only to predict new processes and to anticipate trends in their flow, but also to understand them.

Algorithm

In the study of economic facts, the first step should be their precise characterization. After that, we need to identify the links between them. For 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 verifiable hypotheses. This, in turn, will allow the development of various economic theories.

There are several formulated fundamental concepts. For example, they include labor, monetarist theory. In addition to general, there are private concepts. They consider the problems in specific economic sectors: consumption, distribution, production, exchange. In their turn, their theories operate. 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 methods. The latter are quite diverse. This is due to the fact that many aspects of the life of society are being investigated. . Accordingly, for each aspect, their own methods of social cognition may be envisaged. The most popular method is a survey. The reliability of its results (representativeness) depends on the quality of the sample. It must provide an adequate understanding of the general population.

Enabled monitoring

This method assumes the direct participation of the researcher in the activity of the chosen collective. He acts as his member, fulfills the duties assigned to him. At the same time, the researcher performs pre-planned observations. So you can get reliable information. It will be more reliable than the information received from outside. This method is especially effective in those cases when the researcher is anonymous in the team. , испытуемые часто меняют свое поведение. When external methods of social cognition are used , subjects often change their behavior. With anonymous monitoring enabled, this is excluded.

Social experiment (method of cognition)

The use of this technique involves a number of difficulties:

1. When observing, the group can change its behavior. This significantly affects the purity of the study.
2. Social experiment is difficult to reproduce. This makes it difficult to verify the results of other researchers.
3. Measurements of variables are difficult to express quantitatively. This is due to the fact that it is difficult to be distracted from subjective factors when evaluating.
4. Variables can be measured separately from each other. Therefore, only correlations can be identified between them, not causal ones.

These problems create obstacles for the wide application of the experimental method.

Humanitarian approaches

They include methods of studying the spiritual development of man. As a starting point, the principles of interpretation and comprehension of the processes of people's cultural activity appear. In the sphere of humanitarian knowledge, such branches as art history, literary criticism, art criticism, the practice of translation, etc., are singled out.

Conclusion

Methods of social cognition, together with humanitarian approaches, provide reliable and extensive knowledge of the life of society in general and of an individual in particular. These techniques allow you to analyze and compare the flow of certain processes, 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 received knowledge is applied in different spheres of activity: economy, politics, public administration and so on.