Sociology Program Information

What is Sociology?

Society and Social Life
Sociology is the study of social life, social change, and the social causes and consequences of human behavior. Sociologists investigate the structure of groups, organizations, and societies, and how people interact within these contexts. Since all human behavior is social, the subject matter of sociology ranges from the intimate family to the hostile mob; from organized crime to religious cults; from the divisions of race, gender, and social class to the shared beliefs of a common culture; and from the sociology of work to the sociology of sports. In fact, few fields have such broad scope and relevance for research, theory, and application of knowledge.

Sociology provides many distinctive perspectives on the world, generating new ideas and critiquing the old. The field also offers a range of research techniques that can be applied to virtually any aspect of social life: street crime and delinquency, corporate downsizing, how people express emotions, welfare or education reform, how families differ and flourish, or problems of peace and war. Because sociology addresses the most challenging issues of our time, it is a rapidly expanding field whose potential is increasingly tapped by those who craft policies and create programs. Sociologists understand social inequality, patterns of behavior, forces for social change and resistance, and how social systems work. Sociology is an exciting discipline with expanding opportunities for a wide range of career paths.

The foundation of sociological training is the commitment to understand human relationships in every kind of social group and apply this understanding to the construction of a better life for all. However, people develop their interests in different ways. Sociologists may specialize in families, adolescence, or children; the urban community; education; health and medicine; aging and the life course; work and occupations; the environment, science, and technology; economics, social inequality, and social class; race relations, ethnicity, and minorities; sex and gender; sports; culture and the arts; politics; the military, peace, and war; crime, delinquency, law and justice; social change and social movements; and any other area of human organization. College and university courses, including courses offered within the Sociology Program at Aurora University, reflect these interests.

Aurora University Sociology Program Goals:
Students are prepared for service, interpreted as social action for social transformation; Students are equipped to analyze and reflect on their experiences using the framework of the sociological understanding and critical consciousness refined during their academic coursework; students understand how sociological concepts, such as social power, social class, poverty, inequality, labeling, ideology, social control, rationalization, bureaucracy, discrimination, community, and others, play out in the real world and help people make sense of it.

Students acquire:

• Knowledge of theories, concepts, substantive problems, and methodologies related to sociological
  practice
• Dispositions to build a better community
• The need for research-based inquiry
• Understanding of the intellectual and ethical importance of the sociological imagination and
  sociological mindfulness
• Direction in values formation and moral development: social justice, respect for human life and
  dignity, and social responsibility
• Tools to promote activity that is empowering
• Skills to create new knowledge about social reality and become future leaders of communities and the nation, that is, agents of change.

Sociology-Specific General Education Goals:

• Students develop civic competencies
• Students become empowered when they develop a sense of informed active citizenship
• Students are brought to awareness of the connections and differences between diverse historical and cultural positions in society
• Students are trained to encounter cultures different from their own and understand their institutional and individual manifestations
• Students learn what is the nature of world systems
• Students develop understanding of the human conditions (team dynamics, respect for diversity, etc.)

Sociology Unrelated General Education Goals:

• Develop critical and creative thinking skills, and a scientific approach to problem
  solving
• Become aware of current events and of their significance for them as individuals, for social
  groups, specific societies, and humanity as such
• Develop appreciation and respect for a diversity of viewpoints, interpretations, and diverse
  perceptions of reality, due to biases resulting from individual cultural screens of the observers
• Demonstrate effective written and oral communication skills
• Acquire a higher level of computer literacy
• Participate in assessment of their individual progress
• Learn how to realistically think about their own future