What is sociology exactly?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I took Sociology 101 as an elective. I remember nothing from it. No substance to it at all.

And I remember nothing from the required calculus class I took freshman year. What’s your point?

Same

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Malcom Gladwell is a sociologist if that helps.

Wow. No way. Really?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It is a very easy, useless major.

That’s why a lot of jocks major in it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Malcom Gladwell is a sociologist if that helps.

Gladwell is a journalist.

[Anonymous]

it's the study of the causes and consequences of human behavior. you can go on to work in urban planning (traffic patterns, housing developments, school planning), law, Human Resources...any number of things.

[Anonymous]

I always thought my kids’ AP Human Geography class was sociology. My kids loved it. Pairs well with Econ in my opinion. My daughter became an Econ major and the interest originated from AP Geo. Her interest is on how some nations become “wealthy”’and others do not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I took Sociology 101 as an elective. I remember nothing from it. No substance to it at all.

I took it to satisfy a Gen Ed (general education) requirement. I remember 2 things:

1. the Peter Principle - essentially the idea that people will be promoted until their level of responsibility exceeds their level of ability

2. the idea that societies follow a common cyclical progression in which:

A. The power differential starts off relatively modestly between the leaders and the followers.

B. Those with power and wealth use their power and wealth to accrue more power and wealth creating tension between the classes.

C. The process repeats until -

D. The tension snaps like a rubber band, creating (often violent) social upheaval. At that point the former elite (who survive) become the new inferior class and the former lower classes assume positions of power, which completes the circle as the country has cycled back to step A.

I figure America has been tottering on the edge of step D since the 2016 campaign and unless we relieve some pressure by reducing the wealth gap, the country is liable to snap.

[Anonymous]

It is a glimpse into the obvious

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I always thought my kids’ AP Human Geography class was sociology. My kids loved it. Pairs well with Econ in my opinion. My daughter became an Econ major and the interest originated from AP Geo. Her interest is on how some nations become “wealthy”’and others do not.

Guns Germs and Steel - best book.

[Anonymous]

There’s a Sociology professor from the Pennsylvania State University who leads a discussion based class, Soc 119, that he uploads to Youtube. While this is just one class, it might give you some ideas about the types of subject matter sociology addresses (and the discussions tend to be interesting).

https://m.youtube.com/@SOC119

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:it's the study of the causes and consequences of human behavior. you can go on to work in urban planning (traffic patterns, housing developments, school planning), law, Human Resources...any number of things.

This is the first sensible answer on the entire thread.

[Anonymous]

I was a sociology major. Yes, a lot of athletes majored in it at my college, but I think it’s because the grades for a social science can be subjective, as opposed to math/science, not because it’s dumb or worthless. And they can miss class for games and still be competent in the subject because they didn’t miss some huge lesson on a mathematical concept that would impede their ability to understand more advanced math later in the semester or another math course.

I’m not in a sociological related field right now, but my friends who are are are mostly PhD professors who are published authors on their focused topic. One friend has studied immigration patterns and gets invited to do talks all around the country and internationally.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It is a very easy, useless major.

This. My college boyfriend was a sociology major and I don't think he had 10 minutes of homework over 4 years of college combined. Everything he learned was common sense.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is a very easy, useless major.

This. My college boyfriend was a sociology major and I don't think he had 10 minutes of homework over 4 years of college combined. Everything he learned was common sense.

I was the pp sociology major. I was constantly doing required reading and writing papers. At my university, sociology was one of the only majors that required an undergraduate thesis. We had an entire semester to devoted to writing our thesis and it had a lot of requirements. Just because your boyfriend didn’t do his homework doesn’t mean nobody had any.

[Anonymous]

Sociology majors go on to do a wide variety of things- many end up in the nonprofit sector doing programmatic or development work (that's what I did), others pursue law school, social work, HR, or go on to get a MBA. It's not a particularly lucrative undergraduate major, and it does have the reputation of having been 'dumbed down' in many schools over the past few decades. I found it fascinating and I went on to get my MPA in nonprofit administration.