The term
behavioural sciences (or
behavioral sciences) encompasses all the disciplines that explore the activities of and interactions among
organisms in the natural world. It involves the systematic analysis and investigation of
human and
animal behaviour through controlled and naturalistic
experimental observations and rigorous formulations. (E. D. Klemke, R. Hollinger, and A. D. Kline, (ed) (1980))
The term behavioural sciences is often confused with the term social sciences. Though these two broad areas are interrelated and study systematic processes of behaviour, they differ on their level of scientific analysis of various dimensions of behaviour.
Behavioural sciences abstract empirical data to investigate the decision processes and communication strategies within and between organisms in a social system. This involves fields like psychology and social neuroscience (psychiatry), and genetics among others.
In contrast, social sciences provide a perceptive framework to study the processes of a social system through impacts of social organization on structural adjustment of the individual and of groups. They typically include fields like sociology, economics, history, counselling, public health, anthropology, and political science (E. D. Klemke, R. Hollinger and A. D. Kline, eds., 1988).
