A Levels Essay Questions for Social Science

Essay Questions for Social Science (including Humanities and History) 1. 'The social sciences are not really sciences, because they do not construct their knowledge according to scientific methods.' Discuss. (2008 A Levels) 2. Discuss critically the extent to which the investigator’s opinions and beliefs can influence enquiries in the field of either history or science. (2009 A Levels) 3. Given its failure to predict economic crises, such as the 2008 downturn, economics does not deserve to be called a field of knowledge. Critically evaluate this view. (2011 A Levels) 4. The sciences are more successful than the humanities because they are based on empirical facts as opposed to opinions. Discuss. (2011 A Levels) 5. Critically assess the view that we can never know what happened in the past. (2012 A Levels) 6. *We will never know whether playing violent computer games causes people to be violent.' Critically assess this view with reference to knowledge construction in social science. (2013 A Levels) 7. *Critically assess the view that good political decisions are the product of luck and not knowledge of what is for the best. (2014 A Levels) 8. To what extent do we learn about the world through literature? (2014 A Levels) 9. History is written by the winners.' Critically assess this view. (2014 A Levels) 10. Critically discuss the claim that quantitative research is more significant than qualitative research in the social sciences. (2016 A Levels) 11. To what extent can society and behaviour be studied scientifically? (2017 A Levels) 12. Critically assess the view that we cannot know any historical facts. (2017 A Levels) 13. Humans are free therefore their behaviour cannot be explained through social science research.' Critically discuss this view. (2019 A Levels) 14. Assess the extent to which science gives us knowledge of the world. (2020 A Levels) 15. We see what we expect to see.' To what extent do human biases or prior expectations distort knowledge construction in the Social Sciences? (2021 A Levels) 16. Assess the extent to which the social sciences are genuinely scientific. (2022 A Levels)