Departments & Programs

Sociology

Course Descriptions
  • SOC-H 100 Introduction to Sociology—Honors (3 cr.) CASE S&H Introduction to the central concepts, methods, and theoretical orientations of sociology. Develops a critical/analytical attitude toward societal institutions.
  • SOC-S 100 Introduction to Sociology (3 cr.) CASE S&H Introduction to the concepts and methods of sociology with an emphasis on understanding of contemporary American society.
  • SOC-S 101 Social Problems and Policies (3 cr.) CASE S&H Introduces sociology through in-depth study of a major social problem; examines research on the problem; and explores alternative policies. Problems treated vary by section. Examples include the environment; women, men, and work; medicine in America; the sociology of sport; alcohol and drug use. May be repeated with different topics for a maximum of 15 credit hours. May be counted only once in the major toward departmental requirements.
  • SOC-S 105 Community Problems and Outreach (3 cr.) CASE S&H By combining traditional classroom learning with community outreach, this course offers the unique opportunity to acquire both academic and experiential knowledge of social problems currently facing the Bloomington community. The focus of our academic inquiry and community outreach will center around, but will not be limited to, the following social problems: poverty, homelessness, child abuse, and domestic violence.
  • SOC-S 110 Charts, Graphs, and Tables (3 cr.) CASE N&M Introduces sociology by developing students’ skills as consumers and producers of charts, graphs, and tables. Data displays are used to illustrate social trends in crime, divorce, and the economy; to assess political programs; and to test social science theories. Students will learn how to find information on the World Wide Web and in government documents; how to read, interpret, and evaluate the accuracy of graphical information, and how to present social trends and comparisons in interesting visual formats.
  • SOC-S 122 Envisioning the City (3 cr.) CASE S&H Students conduct field research in a city in order to understand the relationship between the built environment and social problems such as obesity and residential segregation. Addresses approaches to resolving these problems through community action.
  • SOC-S 201 Social Problems (3 cr.) CASE S&H Social problems analyzed from the perspective of major sociological theories. Specific problems include poverty and inequality; crime, violence, and law enforcement; institutional problems (education, economy, family, health); globalization in the twenty-first century.
  • SOC-S 210 The Economy, Organizations, and Work (3 cr.) CASE S&H Explores the transformation of capitalism and industrialized societies, the evolution of organizations such as corporations, government agencies, educational systems, and others, and the changing world of work.
  • SOC-S 215 Social Change (3 cr.) CASE S&H Introduction to theoretical and empirical studies of social change. Explores issues such as modernization; rationalization; demographic, economic, and religious causes of change; and reform and revolution.
  • SOC-S 217 Social Inequality (3 cr.) CASE S&H P: 3 credit hours of sociology or consent of instructor. Why are income, wealth, and status distributed unequally? Is social inequality good for society? Explores the economic basis of social class, education, and culture; social mobility; social inequality in comparative and historical perspective.
  • SOC-S 220 Culture and Society (3 cr.) CASE S&H Explores changing beliefs about the role of ideas, values, and symbols in society. Considers recent public debates over the content and practices of science, morality, art, and popular culture.
  • SOC-S 230 Society and the Individual (3 cr.) CASE S&H Introduction to the concepts, perspectives, and theories of social psychology from the level of the individual to collective behavior. Credit not given for both S230 and H230.
  • SOC-S 302 Organizations in Society (3 cr.) CASE S&H Analysis of the internal structure of firms and other complex organizations, and their power in society. Considers how organizations are shaped by the state, suppliers, competitors, and clients; investigates how organizational structure shapes attitudes of managers and workers. Other topics include technology and organizational culture, organizational birth, death, and adaptation processes.
  • SOC-S 305 Population (3 cr.) CASE S&H P: 3 credit hours of sociology or consent of instructor. Population composition, fertility, mortality, natural increase, migration; historical growth and change of populations; population theories and policies; techniques in manipulation and use of population data; and the spatial organization of populations.
  • SOC-S 308 Global Society (3 cr.) CASE S&H, CASE GCC P: 3 credit hours of sociology or consent of instructor. Multinational corporations, new information technologies, and international trade have made the world increasingly interdependent. This course considers how business, technology, disease, war, and other phenomena must be seen in a global context as affecting national sovereignty, economic development, and inequality in resources and power between countries.
  • SOC-S 309 The Community (3 cr.) CASE S&H P: 3 credit hours of sociology or consent of instructor. Introduction to the sociology of community life, stressing the processes of order and change in community organization. Major topics include the community and society, the nonterritorial community, analysis of major community institutions, racial-ethnic differences in community behavior, community conflict and community problems.
  • SOC-S 311 Politics and Society (3 cr.) CASE S&H P: 3 credit hours of sociology or consent of instructor. Interrelations of politics and society, with emphasis on formation of political power, its structure, and its change in different types of social systems and cultural-historical settings.
  • SOC-S 312 Education and Society (3 cr.) CASE S&H P: 3 credit hours of sociology or consent of instructor. The role of educational institutions in modern industrialized societies, with emphasis on the functions of such institutions for the selection, socialization, and certification of individuals for adult social roles. Also covers recent educational reform movements and the implications of current social policies on education.
  • SOC-S 313 Religion and Society (3 cr.) CASE S&H P: 3 credit hours of sociology or consent of instructor. The nature, consequences, and theoretical origins of religion, as evident in social construction and functional perspectives; the social origins and problems of religious organizations; and the relationships between religion and morality, science, magic, social class, minority status, economic development, and politics.
  • SOC-S 315 Work and Occupations (3 cr.) CASE S&H P: 3 credit hours of sociology or consent of instructor. Treats work roles within such organizations as factory, office, school, government, and welfare agencies; career and occupational mobility in work life; formal and informal organizations within work organizations; labor and management conflict and cooperation; and problems of modern industrial workers.
  • SOC-S 316 The Family (3 cr.) CASE S&H Explores the role of the family as a social institution. Topics include variations in courtship behavior, family formation, and kinship patterns; the care of children and other dependents; changes in work patterns, marriage, divorce, and cohabitation over time; the linkages between the family, the workplace, and the state.
  • SOC-S 317 Inequality (3 cr.) CASE S&H P: 3 credit hours of sociology or consent of instructor. Nature, functioning, and maintenance of systems of social stratification in local communities and societies. Correlates and consequences of social class position and vertical mobility.
  • SOC-S 319 Science, Technology, and Society (3 cr.) CASE S&H P: 3 credit hours of sociology or consent of instructor. Issues such as development and structure of the scientific community; normative structure of science; cooperation, competition, and communication among scientists; scientists’ productivity, careers, and rewards; development of scientific specialties; and relationship between science and society.
  • SOC-S 320 Deviant Behavior and Social Control (3 cr.) CASE S&H P: 3 credit hours of sociology or consent of instructor. Analysis of deviance in relation to formal and informal social processes. Emphasis on deviance and respectability as functions of social reactions, characteristics of rules, and power and conflict.
  • SOC-S 321 Sexual Diversity (3 cr.) CASE S&H Sociological examination of diversity in several dimensions of human sexuality: sexual definitions, incidence of various behaviors, intensity of sexual response, sexual object choice, and other modes of sexual expression.
  • SOC-S 324 Mental Illness (3 cr.) CASE S&H P: S230 or consent of instructor. Social factors in mental illness: incidence and prevalence by social and cultural categories; variations in societal reaction; social organization of treatment institutions.
  • SOC-S 325 Criminology (3 cr.) CASE S&H P: 3 credit hours of sociology or consent of instructor. Factors in genesis of crime and organization of criminal behavior from points of view of the person and the group.
  • SOC-S 326 Law and Society (3 cr.) CASE S&H P: 3 credit hours of sociology or consent of instructor. Social origins of civil and criminal law, social bases of legal decision making, and social consequences of the application of law.
  • SOC-S 329 Women and Deviance (3 cr.) CASE S&H Using theoretical models of women and deviance, this course examines gender norms and roles in crime, detective fiction, mental illness, alcoholism, drug addiction, lesbianism, rape, and abortion.
  • SOC-S 335 Race and Ethnic Relations (3 cr.) CASE S&H, CASE DUS P: 3 credit hours of sociology or consent of instructor. Relations between racial and ethnic minority and majority groups; psychological, cultural, and structural theories of prejudice and discrimination; comparative analysis of diverse systems of intergroup relations.
  • SOC-S 338 Gender Roles (3 cr.) CASE S&H P: 3 credit hours of sociology or consent of instructor. Exploration of the properties, correlates, and consequences of gender roles in contemporary societies. Emphasis on defining gender roles, tracing their historical development, and considering their implications for work, marriage, and fertility with cross-cultural comparisons.
  • SOC-S 339 The Sociology of Media (3 cr.) CASE S&H P: 3 credit hours of sociology or consent of instructor. The mass media (print, radio, and television) have come to play an increasingly important role in society. This course explores the effects of the mass media on public opinion, crime and violence, social integration, and values. Mass media messages and audiences will also be considered.
  • SOC-S 340 Social Theory (3 cr.) CASE S&H P: 3 credit hours of sociology or consent of instructor. Sociological theory, with focus on content, form, and historical development. Relationships between theories, data, and sociological explanation.
  • SOC-S 342 Asian American Communities and Identities (3 cr.) CASE S&H, CASE DUS This course takes a sociological approach to examining the communities, cultures, and identities of Asians in the United States. It situates Asian American experiences within broader social and historical contexts in order to address questions about who is viewed as American and how Asian Americans establish and maintain their ethnic identities.
  • SOC-S 344 Sociology of Childhood (3 cr.) CASE S&H P: 3 credit hours of sociology or consent of instructor. Analysis of childhood as a structural form and children as social agents who contribute to societal reproduction and change. Considers the relation of childhood to other social institutions and children’s contributions to society historically and cross-culturally. Examines how social policies in education, family, and work affect children’s lives.
  • SOC-S 346 Topics in Cross-Cultural Sociology (3 cr.) CASE S&H, CASE GCC P: 3 credit hours of sociology or consent of instructor. Study of selected sociological issues with an emphasis on cross-cultural analysis. Specific topics announced each semester; examples include work, family, childhood, religion, and education. May be repeated with different topics for a maximum of 9 credit hours.
  • SOC-S 359 Community-Based Research (3 cr.) CASE S&H P: 3 credit hours of sociology or consent of instructor. Introduces students to a topic of sociology and to applied sociology through a community-based research project that addresses some community need. Hands-on experience in all stages of the project, including conceptualization, sampling, questionnaire construction, data collection, and analysis.
  • SOC-S 360 Topics in Social Policy (3 cr.) CASE S&H P: 3 credit hours of sociology or consent of instructor. Specific topics announced each semester; examples include environmental affairs, urban problems, poverty, and population problems. May be repeated three times for credit with a different topic.
  • SOC-S 370 Research Methods in Sociology (3 cr.) CASE S&H P: 3 credit hours of sociology or consent of instructor. The logic of scientific work in sociology; theory construction; major research designs, including experiments, sample surveys, and ethnographic field studies. Methods of sampling; measurement of variables; and descriptive statistics. Commonly used rates and indices in social research; using software to produce graphical displays and descriptive statistics.
  • SOC-S 371 Statistics in Sociology (3 cr.) CASE N&M P: MATH M014 or equivalent. R: 3 credit hour mathematics course approved for College of Arts and Sciences mathematics requirement. Introduces the logic of statistical inference. Students will learn how to use sample data to reach conclusions about a population of interest by calculating confidence intervals and significance tests. Estimating the effects of multiple independent variables using cross-tabulations and/or regression. Credit given for only one of S371, ANTH A306, CJUS K300, ECON E370 or S370, MATH K300 or K310, POLS Y395, PSY K300 or K310, STAT K310 or S300 or S301, or SPEA K300.
  • SOC-S 409 Social Context of Schooling (3 cr.) CASE S&H P: S210, S230, or S312; S370; or consent of department. Interactional processes within schools and classrooms, focusing on ability grouping and curriculum tracking, educational decision making, peer group culture and interaction, and gender and ethnic differences in socialization.
  • SOC-S 410 Topics in Social Organization (3 cr.) CASE S&H P: S210 or S340; S370; or consent of department. Specific topics announced each semester, e.g., social stratification, formal organizations, urban social organization, education, religion, politics, demography, social power, social conflict, social change, comparative social systems. May be repeated three times for credit with a different topic.
  • SOC-S 412 American Political Behavior (3 cr.) CASE S&H P: S100, S210, S215, or S340; S370; or consent of department. Sociological and social-psychological antecedents, correlates, and consequences of political behavior, with emphasis on the American scene and politics of nongovernmental organizations.
  • SOC-S 413 Gender and Society (3 cr.) CASE S&H P: S210, S230, or S338; S370; or consent of department. Explores several theories of sex inequality in order to understand the bases of female-male inequality in American society; examines the extent of sex inequality in several institutional sectors; and considers personal and institutional barriers women face, including those resulting from socialization, discrimination, and other structural arrangements.
  • SOC-S 417 Conversation Analysis (3 cr.) CASE S&H P: S370 or consent of department. Sociological investigation of conversational interaction in ordinary life and institutional domains such as education, law, business, and medicine. Topics may include how participants open and close conversations, talk topically, deliver news, tell stories, accomplish goals and agendas, and communicate delicate matters. Students work with audio and video recordings of conversations.
  • SOC-S 419 Social Movements and Collective Action (3 cr.) CASE S&H P: S215 and S370, or consent of department. Change-oriented social and political collective action and consequences for groups and societies. Resource mobilization, historical and comparative analysis of contemporary movements and collective action.
  • SOC-S 420 Topics in Deviance (3 cr.) CASE S&H P: S320 and S370, or consent of department; may vary with topic. Specific topics announced each semester; e.g., crime, juvenile delinquency, law enforcement, corrections, mental illness, sexual deviance, drug use, violence, and physical disability. May be repeated three times for credit with a different topic.
  • SOC-S 422 Constructing Sexuality (3 cr.) CASE S&H P: S370 or consent of department. A sociological examination of a variety of forms of human sexuality from the perspectives of social constructionism and politics of sexuality.
  • SOC-S 427 Social Conflict (3 cr.) CASE S&H P: S210, S230, or S340; S370; or consent of department. Origin, development, and termination of social conflict; its organizing and disorganizing effects; its control.
  • SOC-S 431 Topics in Social Psychology (3 cr.) CASE S&H P: S230 and S370, or consent of department; may vary with topic. Specific topics announced each semester; e.g., socialization, personality development, small-group structures and processes, interpersonal relations, language and human behavior, attitude formation and change, collective behavior, public opinion. May be repeated three times for credit with a different topic.
  • SOC-S 433 Adult Socialization (3 cr.) CASE S&H P: S230 and S370, or consent of instructor. Socialization into adult roles, including marriage and family, occupation, sex, age, and ethnicity. Focuses on the nature of these roles, the organizational constraints involved, the agents of socialization, the organizational and individual consequences of outcomes, and the relationship between self structure and social structure in the process.
  • SOC-S 435 Social Psychology of the Self (3 cr.) CASE S&H P: S230 and S370, or consent of department. The nature of the self and its development and consequences from various perspectives. Topics include identity dissolution, shame, guilt, anxiety, and alienation. Techniques of measurement and analysis of self concept.
  • SOC-S 438 Childhood Socialization (3 cr.) CASE S&H P: S230 and S370, or consent of department. Human learning and social development in childhood. Topics include review of theoretical approaches and research methods of childhood socialization, language acquisition and thought, interactive competence and self-development, culture/class variation in socialization, sex role development, and classroom socialization. Emphasis on transmission of cultural communication and acquisition of basic social skills by children.
  • SOC-S 439 Social Interaction (3 cr.) CASE S&H P: S370 or consent of department. Explores how social interaction modifies status and power structures, produces and reduces stress and affective fulfillment, and enables the accomplishment of work and organizational tasks. Topics covered may include nonverbal communication, cognitive structuring of interaction, the functioning of attitudes and emotions, presentations of self, and negotiation activities.
  • SOC-S 441 Topics in Social Theory (3 cr.) CASE S&H P: S340 and S370, or consent of department. Topics may include structuralism, evolutionary theory, symbolic interaction theory, functionalism, social action theory, exchange theory, history and development of social theory, sociology of knowledge.
  • SOC-S 450 Topics in Methods and Measurement (3 cr.) CASE S&H P: S370 and S371, or consent of department. Topics may include logic of inquiry, model construction and formalization, research design, data collection, sampling, measurement, statistical analysis.
  • SOC-S 491 Sociological Research Practicum I (3 cr.) P: Both S370 and S371, or consent of instructor. Participation in all aspects of a sociological research project, including conceptualization and design, data collection, analysis, and report writing.
  • SOC-S 492 Sociological Research Practicum II (3 cr.) P: S491 or consent of instructor. Continuation of S491 with emphasis on analysis and report writing.
  • SOC-S 493 Professional Strategies for Sociology Majors (1 cr.) Documenting what has been learned, assembling a portfolio, writing a resume and letters of application; getting ready for graduate school or the labor market, using the World Wide Web.
  • SOC-S 494 Field Experience in Sociology (1-6 cr.) P: Consent of instructor and prior arrangement. Faculty-directed study of aspects of sociology based on field experience, in conjunction with directed readings and writing. Specifically, each intern is required to (1) keep a daily or weekly journal, which is given at regular intervals to the faculty sponsor; (2) give an oral report once the fieldwork is completed; and (3) depending on academic credit, write a journal or an analytic paper or both. Limited to a total of 9 credit hours of both S494 and S495.
  • SOC-S 495 Individual Readings in Sociology (1–6  cr.) P: Consent of instructor and prior arrangement, usually in conjunction with honors work. Limited to a total of 9 credit hours of both S494 and S495.
  • SOC-S 498 Honors Thesis Seminar I (3 cr.) P: Consent of honors thesis seminar instructor. Research and preparation of senior honors thesis.
  • SOC-S 499 Honors Thesis Seminar II (3 cr.) P: S370 and S498, and consent of honors thesis instructor.
  • SOC-Y 398 Internship in Professional Practice (1–3 cr.) P: Two sociology courses (including one beyond the 100 level) and approval of the director of undergraduate studies in the Department of Sociology. Provides opportunities for students to receive credit for selected, career-related work in a cooperating institution, agency, or business. Research paper that relates work experience to materials learned in sociology courses is required. Evaluation by employer and the director of undergraduate studies in the Department of Sociology. Three credit hours to count in the major or minor. Limited to a total of 9 credit hours of Y398, S494, or S495 combined.