WHAT IS SOCIOLOGY?: Sociology is the study of human social
behavior. More specifically, sociologists
tend to study the social problems and systems which characterize life
in modern, industrialized societies. Anthropology, meanwhile, tends to
focus on human social behavior in non-Western societies where
industrialization has not yet come to dominate the social order.
American sociology has as many focuses as there are aspects of life to
experience in our society. Among the areas on which sociology courses
at St. Thomas Aquinas College focus are: commodification, consumerism, propaganda, technology, emotions,
ethnic groups, families, ethnographic research methods, and the social
psychology of work,
bureaucracy, and the self. Students are exposed to a
range of sociological resources and approaches which include: classical
and
contemporary social theory (with emphasis on psychoanalytic sociology
and symbolic interactionism), the sociology of literature, qualitative
field methods, and film analysis. Ultimately, sociology gives you a way
to understand and analyze almost any aspect of your life that is
connected to
social experience. It does this by putting individuals' lives in
context and unearthing the hidden
layers of meaning and origins of action that usually go undetected in
our
day to day routines.
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