s o c i o l o g y    

SOC 1001 College: An Introduction

1 QH

Intended for freshmen in the College of Arts and Sciences. Seeks to introduce freshmen to the liberal arts in general, as well as to familiarize them with their major; help them develop the academic skills necessary to succeed (e.g., analytical ability and critical thinking); provide grounding in the culture and values of the University community; and help them develop interpersonal skillsin short, to familiarize students with all skills needed to become a successful university student.

SOC 1100 Introduction to Sociology

4 QH

Explores basic concepts and theories concerning the relation between individuals and society. Emphasizes the influence of culture, social structure, and institutions in explaining human activity. Discusses and analyzes social groups, socialization, community, class, power, and social change, among other substantive issues. (Core Category II)

SOC 1101 The Sociology of Everyday Life

4 QH

Examines the development, application, and consequences of rules for everyday activities (for example, walking, talking, eating, drinking, sitting, smoking, laughing, crying, and sleeping). Considers the effects of artifacts, culture, space, and territory on these activities, on social life, and on the expression of emotions.

SOC 1103 American Society

4 QH

Focuses on American society, culture, and major social institutions: economic, religious, governmental, familial, educational, welfare, and recreational. Examines social classes and stratification, mobility, and individualism. Prereq. SOC1100 or equivalent.

SOC 1104 Contemporary Japanese Culture and Society

4 QH

Focuses on contemporary Japanese urban society. Examines major values, family structure, sex roles, social control, the economy and the division of labor, mass media, religion, arts, and social problems. (Core Category IV)

SOC 1105 Society and Culture in Russia and the Former Soviet Union

4 QH

Focuses on contemporary Russian society. Emphasizes the social, economic, and political reforms of the Gorbachev period and the ways in which the Soviet Union has evolved since 1917 and in the post-Soviet period. (Core Category IV)

SOC 1120 Sociology of Boston

4 QH

Examines Boston from the perspectives of environmental development, neighborhood and intergroup relations, institutional services, and symbolic meanings. Explores current issues in the city through term projects. Requires field trips. (Core Category II)

SOC 1121 Doing Sociology

4 QH

Takes a research approach to sociology. Focuses on students' participation in their own learning about sociology as a body of knowledge and as a method of studying social life. Requires students to use a computer during the course. (Core Category II)

SOC 1125 Social Problems

4 QH

Analyzes in both empirical and theoretical terms many of the social problems currently facing Americans. Focuses on the deepening inequality and poverty among working and middle-class Americans, particularly racial minorities, women, and youth; related problems of racism and sexism; the disintegration of the family; growing unemployment; the international ecological crisis; the deterioration of the health system; crime; war and militarism; and strategies and political options for solving these problems. (Core Category II)

SOC 1135 Social Psychology

4 QH

Examines the effects of social interaction on individual behavior. Surveys major theoretical orientations and substantive topics such as presentation of self, effect of television, conformity in fads, gossip and rumor, mass and serial murder, and bystander apathy. (Core Category II)

SOC 1140 Sociology of Prejudice and Violence

4 QH

Examines factors in the development and maintenance of prejudice and discrimination. Discusses American race relations, anti-Semitism, sex roles, and stereotyping.

SOC 1146 Environment and Society

4 QH

Examines the political economy of the global environmental crisis. Topics vary from quarter to quarter and include such issues as world resource availability, energy, pollution, ecological degradation in the Third World, environmental policy, and social movements. Involves practical experience in environmental problem solving. (Core Category VI)

SOC 1147 Urban Social Problems

4 QH

Focuses on the foundations of urban life in historical perspective. Analyzes relation of city life to environment, population, social organization, technology and cultural values. Examines growth trends, urbanization, urban planning, and citizen action. (Core Category II)

SOC 1150 Introduction to Women's Studies: Image, Myth, and Reality

4 QH

Surveys the issues and methodologies involved in the interdisciplinary study of women. Examines the political, economic, social, and historical processes that have created both the image and the reality of women in societies. Guest lecturers provide an overview of the diverse disciplinary approaches to the study of women. (Core Category II)

SOC 1155 Sociology of the Family

4 QH

Focuses on the family as a social institution in several selected cultures; interrelations of the family and political, economic, and educational institutions; social nature of personality; role taking; individualism, mobility, and industrialism. (Core Category V)

SOC 1156 Violence in the Family

4 QH

Examines physical, emotional, and sexual violence in families, with emphasis on child, sexual, and spouse abuse. Covers definitions, prevalence, causes, prevention, and treatment of specific cases of domestic violence. Focuses on social policy issues and problems of legal intervention in cultural and family issues. (Core Category II)

SOC 1160 Gender in a Changing Society

4 QH

Considers why and how gender is constructed in American society, and looks at different theories of gender. Includes topics such as the expression of gender in everyday life; its development in childhood; its centrality in the traditional family, the workplace, and sexuality; and its role in violence against women. (Core Category II)

SOC 1168 The Social Movements of the 1960s

4 QH

Considers the social and cultural movements of the 1960s and their origins in the Civil Rights movement. Examines the opposition to government policies and social norms that developed into the Civil Rights, student, New Left, antiwar, countercultural, and women's movements in order to understand their grievances, goals, composition, and impact. (Core Category II)

SOC 1170 Race and Ethnic Relations

4 QH

Focuses on racial and religious groups, particularly with reference to the United States. Places special emphasis on historical development, specific problems of adjustment and assimilation, and specific present-day problems and trends. Prereq. SOC1100 or equivalent.

SOC 1175 Sociology of Work

4 QH

Analyzes dramatic changes occurring in the work lives of Americans and considers the future of American workers within the global economy. Explores emerging labor markets, gender, race, and technology in shaping contemporary American work settings. (Core Category VI)

SOC 1176 Sociology of Business/Industry

4 QH

Focuses on the role of industry in modern society. Examines similarities and dissimilarities among industrial societies, bureaucracy and its alternatives, unions, supervision democracy and manipulation, the worker on the assembly line, sabotage of the organization, and the role of wages and alienation.

SOC 1177 Social Roles in the Business World

4 QH

Analyzes the social structure of corporate and business life in contemporary America. Presents and discusses case studies from major accounting and/or industrial firms. Examines the `career line' in the world of business and management, with a special focus on age/sex, racial/ethnic, and class/income barriers. (Core Category II)

SOC 1178 Women Working

4 QH

Discusses the fact that differences in the labor force experience of men and women workers generally go unrecognized, and the work experience most common to womenhousehold workis rarely analyzed. Covers women's market and nonmarket activities, their rewards, and their problems, in addition to empirical and theoretical analyses of the work roles of women. Overall, underscores the differences between work experiences of men and women.

SOC 1185 Deviant Behavior and Social Control

4 QH

Explores the conditions under which people categorize others as deviant; processes by which persons so defined are assigned deviant status and assume appropriate roles and self-images; development of deviant careers and their relation to deviant subcultures; situations in which people transform deviant identity. (Core Category II)

SOC 1190 Juvenile Delinquency

4 QH

Examines the sociological and psychological approaches to and their implications for a typology of delinquency. Discusses problems of prevention, treatment, and rehabilitation. (Core Category II)

SOC 1195 Drugs and Society

4 QH

Offers an introduction to the sociology of drugs. First examines social definitions of drugs, conditions of their use, and socialization into drug use. Then considers deviant drug use and effects of social control on definitions and use. Considers a range of licit and illicit drugs, but gives major emphasis to alcohol, marijuana, and heroin. (Core Category II)

SOC 1200 Sociology of Alcoholism

4 QH

Focuses on social responses to deviant alcohol use. Examines drinking cultures and drinking practices in the United States; processes by which people are labeled `alcoholics'; and the role of agencies of social control, such as the criminal justice system and the health-care system, in labeling and in rehabilitation.

SOC 1205 Law, Crime, and Social Justice

4 QH

Analyzes the impact of the legal system on the creation and perpetuation of criminality in contemporary American society. Devotes particular attention to the study of the creation of criminal law, the judicial process, and the role of law in the gap between crime and social justice. Suitable for students in prelaw, criminal justice, political science, and allied fields. (Core Category II)

SOC 1206 Class, Crime, and the Police

4 QH

Summarizes the major psychological, social, biological, economic, and political theories about the cause of crime. Applies these theories to the daily operations of the police, courts, and prison system in the United States. Examines white collar crime and the class bias inherent in the more lenient treatment of elite criminals. (Core Category II)

SOC 1225 Aging and Society

4 QH

Offers a survey of issues and questions on aging, paying special attention to social and economic consequences of the aging process, including retirement and productivity, health care problems, nursing home residences, widower and widowhood, and the approach of death. Examples of aging in other cultures are also given. Seeks new answers to the social problems of aging in the United States. Gives students an opportunity to learn to anticipate, cope with, and even prevent problems of aging that concern self, family, and clients/patients.

SOC 1240/ HS 1240 Sociology of Human Service Organizations

4 QH

Introduces selected theoretical perspectives on human service organizations, emphasizing defining organizational goals and effectiveness. Gives students an opportunity to become familiar with the nature of human service organizations, to compare these organizations to business and industrial organizations, to outline specific problems that human service organizations face, and to propose potential solutions. (Core Category VI)

SOC 1245 Sociology of Poverty

4 QH

Analyzes American poverty in historical perspective, drawing on comparisons with other countries. Critically evaluates sociological research and theories relating to poverty. Considers causes and effects of poverty, as well as societal responses to poverty and its consequences. Suitable for students in applied fields, such as nursing, criminal justice, education, allied health, premed, and prelaw. (Core Category II)

SOC 1255 Sport in Society

4 QH

Analyzes the social origins and functions of leisure activities, with special emphasis on games and sports as forms of leisure. Gives considerable emphasis to cross-cultural and historical analysis, as well as to the relation between leisure activities and various social institutionseconomy, polity, family, and religion. (See SOA1255.) (Core Category II)

SOC 1276 Sociology of Popular Culture

4 QH

Presents a sociological analysis of popular culture, focusing on the relationship between pop culture and social institutions such as religion, the law, education, the economy, and the family; the organizations and artistic communities that produce pop culture such as the music industry, theatrical groups, advertising agencies; and the social roles and socialization processes associated with individual artists. Examines changes in popular culture from the viewpoint of changes in the larger society.

SOC 1285 Environment Technology and Society

4 QH

Discusses the following questions: Does society control technology or is technology directing society? Has technology become dehumanized? How valid is the doctrine of technological inevitability? Can the technological `fix' be viewed as a solution to social problems? Is technology itself a social problem? What can be expected of technology assessment? What of the back-to-nature and antitechnology movements today: are they the waves of the future? Expects students to do considerable independent study and research. (Core Category VI)

SOC 1300 Classical Social Thought

4 QH

Traces the development of sociology from the history of social thought. Prereq. Three sociology/anthropology courses.

SOC 1301 Current Social Thought

4 QH

Reviews the dominant theoretical traditions in contemporary sociology, particularly the pluralist, managerialist, Marxist (or class), and feminist paradigms. Emphasizes Parsonian functionalism; symbolic interactionism; power elite and conflict theory; and neo-Marxist theories of the state, family, economic crisis, imperialism, and global ecological crisis. Prereq. Three sociology or anthropology courses.

SOC 1302/ INT 1302 Feminist Perspectives on Society

4 QH

Examines social science and interdisciplinary feminist literature that focuses on women in families and at work, and that deals with physical issues including violence against women and abortion. Incorporates the perspectives of women of color. Considers and evaluates women's views of social life as well as recognizes the differences among women. (Core Category VI)

SOC 1310 Class, Power, and Social Change

4 QH

Focuses on theories of social inequality as applied to the exercise of power and large-scale social change. Examines contemporary events in order to understand power structures. Required of majors. (Core Category V) Prereq. One sociology course and middler standing or permission of instructor.

SOC 1320 Introduction to Statistical Analysis

4 QH

Examines the application of the principles of measurement, probability, measures of centrality, tests of significance, and techniques of association and correlation to social data. Prereq. SOC1100 or permission of instructor.

SOC 1321 Research Methods 1

4 QH

Introduces students to the research process through an examination of the rules of evidence in empirical research and the place of values. Gives students the opportunity to learn how to design and critique types of sociological research, how to collect qualitative and quantitative data, and how to sample populations. Prereq. SOC1100 and SOC1320, or permission of instructor.

SOC 1322 Research Methods 2

4 QH

Requires students to complete the research project begun in SOC1321. Focuses on practice coding, building indexes, scaling, table construction; introduction to use of the computer. Prereq. SOC1100, SOC1320, and SOC1321, or permission of instructor.

SOC 1324/ HS 1260 Human Services Research and Evaluation

4 QH

Covers basic issues in applied research and the evaluation of services, including the purposes of evaluation, ethics, formulating questions and measuring answers, designing evaluations and planning oriented research, utilizing evaluation results, and the turbulent setting of action programs. Suitable for students majoring in human services, sociology, psychology, nursing, health education, and related fields. Prereq. SOC1320 or other statistics, SOC1240, or permission of instructor.

SOC 1347 Community Analysis

4 QH

Explores types of human settlements, focusing on the interaction between people and their political, economic, and social environments. Discusses power structure and citizen action to influ- ence institutions; skills in community analysis, including use of documents, survey, observation, and evaluation of needs and resources; strategies of conflict, cooperation, and negotiation to attain community and group ends.

SOC 1350 Women in Jewish Culture

4 QH

Uses some of the tools of contemporary feminist theory and methodology to focus on questions about the resurgence of ethnic/religious identities in the United States and the meaning of this for contemporary Jewish women. Analyzes the changing relationship of women to Judaism by trying to recover Jewish women's experiences in America since the turn of the century by looking at some key institutionswork, family, religion, the feminist movement, the media, literature, and film.

SOC 1470 Sociology of Religion

4 QH

Offers a comparative and analytic treatment of religion as a social institution, focusing on the relations between religious organizations and other social institutions, with particular emphasis on the American experience. Analyzes religion as an agent of social change and stability. Prereq. SOC1100.

SOC 1485 Computers and Society

4 QH

Examines the impact of the computer revolution on the conditions of work and life in contemporary society including legal and theoretical issues. Discusses ethical and professional issues in computer use. (Core Category VI) Prereq. Junior in computer science or middler standing with ability to program.

SOC 1500 Applied Sociology: Practice and Theory

4 QH

The academic component of the experiential education requirement for sociology majors; to be taken after students have completed the experiential component. Provides a seminar format in which students will reflect upon their approved experience (e.g., co-op, internship, community service, etc.) and integrate it into a research project. Students who have completed study abroad or a service-learning course in the department may not have to take this course. Prereq. Sociology majors only.

SOC 1501 Social Policy and Social Intervention

4 QH

Focuses on study of the formation of social policies in response to social problems; analyzes policies and problems, supporters and opponents of policy change, conditions under which control agencies adopt new policies, and effects of policy change. Places particular emphasis on case studies of social action and legal change.

SOC 1601 Seminar in Current Emphases in Sociology

4 QH

Reviews and discusses selected sociological topics. Prereq. Junior or senior standing in sociology/anthropology or permission of instructor.

SOC 1700 Introduction to Sociology (Honors)

4 QH

Honors equivalent of SOC1100.

SOC 1710 Class, Power, and Social Change (Honors)

4 QH

Honors equivalent of SOC1310. Any Honors Program member is eligible to enroll in this course.

SOC 1800, SOC 1801, SOC 1802, SOC 1803 Directed Study

4 QH each

Offers independent work on a chosen topic under the direction of members of the department. Limited to qualified students with approval of department chair. Prereq. Junior or senior standing in sociology or permission of instructor.

SOC 1821, SOC 1822, SOC 1823, SOC 1824

4 QH each

Junior/Senior Honors Project For details, contact the honors office.

SOC 1888, SOC1889 Experiential Education Directed Study

4 QH each

Draws upon the student's approved experiential activity and integrates it with study in the academic major. Prereq. Restricted to those students who are using it to fulfill their experiential education requirement.

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