2024-2025 Pierce College Catalog 
    
    Nov 21, 2024  
2024-2025 Pierce College Catalog
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SOC& 101 Introduction to Sociology (5 credits)



Distribution Area Fulfilled Social Sciences; General Transfer Elective
Formerly SOC 110 - CCN

Course Description
An introduction to sociology – the study of society and human interaction. Includes the systematic study of social phenomena, developing one’s “sociological imagination,” and exploring human relationships in a rapidly changing world. 

Course Content
A. Introduction to the discipline of sociology, its history, personalities, methods, and accomplishments
B. Sociological perspectives: Functionalism, conflict theory, symbolic interaction, and possibly postmodernism
C. Research methods
D. Socialization
E. Social structure: social institutions; statuses & roles; groups
F. Deviance
G. Social stratification: social class; race & ethnicity; sex & gender; gender identity & sexual orientation; age
H. Social institutions: the family & intimate relationships; education; economy; politics; health care; religion
I. Population, industrialization, urbanization, and climate change
J. Collective behavior, social movements, and social change

Student Outcomes
1. Distinguish how sociology describes, explains, and attempts to predict social phenomena from the way other social science disciplines approach social phenomena

2. Identify key personalities in sociology and the contributions, theories, and/or approaches they are identified with

3. Discuss how sociologists use theory and research to describe, explain, and sometimes predict social phenomena

4. Define the concept ‘social fact’ and apply it to a real life situation

5. Apply specific sociological perspectives to one or more social phenomenon

6. Explain how the scientific method can be used to study social phenomena

7. Define and be able to apply the concept of ‘culture’ to human social behavior

8. Describe and explain how sociologically and non-sociologically oriented theories attempt to explain socialization

9. Apply the concept of socialization to sex, gender, race, and ethnicity

10. Discuss the essential elements of social groups and how individuals both influence and are influenced by them

11. Discuss the relationship between social class; race and ethnicity; sex and gender; gender identity and sexual orientation; and social stratification

12. Recognize and discuss the effects of social stratification and inequality, including poverty, both in the US and globally

13. Use one or more social theories to “explain” social deviance

14. Identify how developments in discrete social institutions (e.g. the family, economy, politics, religion, and health care) both contribute to and challenge the society in which we live

15. Use established criteria to distinguish between capitalism and socialism as economic systems

16. Identify and discuss how social and economic systems influence the way people relate to each other

17. Identify how and/or use Malthusian, neo-Malthusian, and Demographic Transition Theory to explain population growth

18. Use the following concepts in a discussion of climate change: agriculture, population growth, industrialization, capitalism, and consumerism

Degree Outcomes
Social Sciences: Graduates acquire skills to critically interpret, analyze and evaluate forms of human expression, and create and perform as an expression of the human experience.

Intercultural Engagement: Graduates demonstrate self-efficacy in intercultural engagement to advance equity, diversity, and inclusion through reflections and expressions of cultural humility, empathy, and social and civic engagement and action. Further, graduates examine how identities/positionalities such as races, social classes, genders, sexual orientations, disabilities, and cultures impact perceptions, actions, and the distribution of power and privilege in communities, systems, and institutions.

Lecture Contact Hours 50
Lab Contact Hours 0
Clinical Contact Hours 0
Total Contact Hours 50

Potential Methods
A. Objective exams
B. Essay questions
C. Papers
D. Whole class and/or small group discussion
E. Individual and/or group projects
F. Individual and/or group presentations
G. Professor and/or peer feedback
H. Media file
I. Portfolio



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