re: When did social studies become a science?

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Just me being more of a hard science person.

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And hard science is superior, but some of the issues that social sciences are also important, even if they're harder to study.

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"social engineering" when I see social science.

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That's more of the political use of the science.

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In my experience psychology is much more well respected than sociology.

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The problem with sociology is that the logic is often inductive, and hard to test using deduction, making it unfalsifiable.

And unlike, say Marco economics, they often don't apply the mathematical proofs and/or statistical controls to study it.

That said, I don't think that describes the entire discipline, just too much of it.

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Thomas Kuhn elevated it to a science with his very good book on science - structure of scientific revolutions.

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I have the book and he says some fairly "radical" things towards the end, especially regarding how truth may even depend on paradigm.

I know some scientific-minded people who dislike the book.

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Then again, theoretical physicists aren't really running controlled experiments either

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And we'll realize in 100 years that the theoretical physicists of the 2010's were laughably wrong about pretty much everything so that doesn't really bode well for "social scientists" who are currently spouting a bunch of wacky and biased bullshite in a race to see who can create the most disturbing gender identity.

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And we'll realize in 100 years that the theoretical physicists of the 2010's were laughably wrong about pretty much everything

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What?

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that doesn't really bode well for "social scientists" who are currently spouting a bunch of wacky and biased bull shite in a race to see who can create the most disturbing gender identity.

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Those aren't really scientists. They aren't using the scientific method to study these things.

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Social science cannot perform controlled experiments

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Wrong.

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Social science is the science of manipulating demographic data with statistics.

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and more usually, cherry-picked random events/situations/misinformation.

as in the 'meals on wheels' thread

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Just to be clear, the words "random" and "cherry-picked" mean opposite things in the context of social science.

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True - but that's the point. Many random events/situations arise, some supporting a theory and others either refuting it or irrelevant.

The social "scientists' cherry pick the ones that support whatever theory (political issue) they are pushing.

I speak only from the political viewpoint. No doubt there is good non-partisan analysis being performed that I am totally unaware of - and not particularly interested in. This is a political board - I interpret everything here in terms of current politics.

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The social "scientists' cherry pick the ones that support whatever theory (political issue) they are pushing.

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Yes, that does happen more often than it should. They call it a "case-study" and the problem is that conclusions can't necessarily be generalized to other cases.

As for your point about pushing a political agenda, I think that is more common in some fields (e.g., sociology) than others (e.g., political science).

I am personally in the social sciences -- my personal view is that I have to stand and deliver believable content in the classroom to both liberal and conservative students. I would never publish anything that undermines my ability to do that.

Not everyone shares that perspective, and the "activist academic" is becoming more and more common. It started in the humanities and it is creeping into social science.

Social Studies is an umbrella term used in K-12 education and it includes History and the Social Sciences (Geography, Psychology, Sociology, Anthropology, Economics, and Political Science.) Would-be teachers in secondary education can earn a broadfield social studies certification or, in many states, can qualify for a History certification or one or more of the social sciences.

I was in charge of a social studies department in a large (3500 kids 9-12) suburban high school for 15 years. I had 30 teachers who taught courses under the social studies umbrella. We taught everything from History (US, World, and European)to Pol Sci to Econ to Geog to Psych and Socio.