The aims for the programme for Group 3 - Individuals and Societies are as follows:
The 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 which we have created
The development in the candidate 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
The 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
The appreciation of the way in which what has been learned is relevant to both the culture in which the candidate lives and those 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.