Sociology Learning Outcomes

Knowledge: Understanding Society for Real-World Application

Demonstrate an understanding of how sociologists use data to understand the social world and apply key concepts and ideas to interpret patterns and relationships (for example, using graphs, surveys, or observations to explain a social trend).

Demonstrate understanding of how sociologists explain social life and apply these ideas to real-world examples (such as families, schools, or workplaces).

Demonstrate an understanding of ethical issues and quantitative and qualitative methods, appropriately select and apply research designs, interpret data, determine the significance of findings, and compare and assess research results.

Demonstrate an understanding of how societies define, explain, and respond to crime and deviance and of criminal and juvenile justice systems, patterns and causes of crime and deviance, and the major perspectives used to explain criminal and deviance behavior.

Demonstrate an understanding of race, ethnicity, and gender inequality in the United States. Specifically, students will be able to identify and apply sociological concepts, such as prejudice and discrimination, to historical and contemporary examples of race, ethnicity, gender, and related inequalities in the United States.

Demonstrate an understanding of major social institutions (e.g., family, (e.g., family, law, education, religion, the economy, mass media, etc.) and examine how they operate, interact, and shape social life. Students will also evaluate how systems of inequality are embedded within and reproduced through these institutions.

Demonstrate an understanding of theoretical perspectives on sex and gender, how gender is embedded in institutions, shapes interactions, and contributes to inequality, as well as how gender norms and expectations change over time.

Demonstrate an understanding of stratification, theories related to stratification, how race, class, and gender affect social stratification, as well as how to reduce stratification in society.

Skills: Professional Competencies for the 21st-Century Workforce

Demonstrate the ability to use evidence to debunk common understandings of social life.

Understand how people’s position is impacted by systems of power and privilege.

Engage in and facilitate civil discourse designed to build consensus through writing and dialogue.

Use theory to inform research and synthesize information at the micro, meso, and macro levels of analysis.

Engage in activities of personal and public concern that are both individually life enriching and socially beneficial to the community.