Sociology: Program Overview, Universities, Careers & Salaries

Program Overview

Sociology explores the complex structures, behaviors, and interactions that shape human societies. This discipline examines how individuals and groups influence social systems, and how those systems, in turn, affect personal identity, opportunity, and collective action across diverse communities.

• Social theory: Core frameworks and philosophical perspectives that explain the development, functioning, and transformation of societies over time.
• Sociological research methods: Systematic approaches to gathering, analyzing, and interpreting data about human behavior and social patterns through qualitative and quantitative techniques.
• Social organization and structure: The study of how institutions, roles, and formal and informal rules shape the stability and dynamics of social life.
• Social stratification and hierarchies: Analysis of systems that rank individuals and groups based on factors like class, race, gender, and power, and how these systems perpetuate inequality.
• Dynamics of social change: Investigation into the forces and processes that drive transformation in societies, including technology, migration, revolution, and cultural evolution.
• Family structures: Examination of the evolution, diversity, and functions of families across cultures, including their roles in socialization and economic support.
• Social deviance and control: Exploration of behaviors that violate social norms and the mechanisms—legal, institutional, and cultural—used to regulate conduct and maintain order.
• Applications to social groups and institutions: Practical engagement with real-world issues by applying sociological insights to analyze and address challenges within education, healthcare, criminal justice, and other key societal domains.