Principles of Sociology

Catalog description

This course is an introduction to the study of society and the interaction of individuals within society. Topics include basic sociological theory and concepts, socialization, cultures, institutions, patterns of social structure, and social inequality. Sociology takes seriously the total context in which individuals, groups, organizations and institutions find themselves, in order to understand how they are shaped by historical, cultural, and technical forces. Society breaks individuals into categories, and status as members of various categories constrain and open up the number of choices available. In this course, students examine how we come to function in society, making judgments about how to behave and think given what we see around us, and how this may differ according to our membership in certain categories such as gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity and class.