Final answer:
Anthropology, psychology, and sociology are considered sciences because they systematically study human behavior and societies using empirical methods and strive to understand and explain aspects of human nature and social structures.
Step-by-step explanation:
Anthropology, psychology, and sociology are known as 'sciences' because they apply scientific methods to understand human behaviors and societies. These disciplines may focus on various aspects of human life but are unified by their systematic pursuit of knowledge and insights into human nature and social structures.
Psychology was the first of the social sciences to be recognized as a discipline, concentrating on individual mentality, perception, and psyche, and offering frameworks to grasp the complexities of the human mind. Similarly, anthropology extends beyond the study of human culture to a broader sense of the human condition, including the relationship between culture and biology. Sociology complements these by attempting to formulate patterns and rules guiding human behavior and social organization.
Despite their different focal points, these disciplines contribute to the understanding of the social world, each with their unique methodology and analytical perspective. Anthropologists, for example, study human cultures from a broad viewpoint, engaging with other fields in a multidisciplinary approach without confining to a single aspect like economics or political science. Likewise, sociology seeks to discern universal truths about societal structures and behaviors comparable to empirical findings in the natural sciences, such as biology or geology.