Group 3 - Individuals and Societies

Aims

• Systematic and critical study of human experience and behaviour, of the varieties of physical, economic and social environments in which we live, and of the history and development of the social and cultural institutions we have created.
• Development of the capacity to identify, to analyse critically and to evaluate theories, concepts and arguments concerning the nature and activities of the individual and society.
• Understanding of the various methods of data collection, description and analysis used in studies of society, and the ways in which hypotheses are tested and complex data and source material interpreted.
• Appreciation of the way in which learning is relevant to both the culture in which the student lives, and the culture of other societies.
• To recognise that human attitudes and opinions are widely diverse and that a study of society requires appreciation of such diversity.
• To recognise that the subject matter of the disciplines in this group is contestable and that their study requires the toleration of uncertainty.