Sociology
JAMIE DOLAN, PH.D., DEPT CHAIR
Mission
The mission of the Sociology program is to provide students with the requisite analytical tools for delving beneath the surface of everyday reality and perceiving the deeper meanings, recurring patterns, and concomitant structures that constitute the social world. As a department within a liberal arts college, we endeavor to integrate students’ study of Sociology and Anthropology with Carroll’s broader and publicly articulated Mission. Specifically, as a department within a distinctly Catholic liberal arts college, we are committed to honoring students’ search for “Ultimate Truth” as we focus on social justice throughout the program.
Goals
- An understanding the discipline of sociology and its role in contributing to the Carroll College Mission.
- The ability to apply the “sociological imagination.”
- The ability to demonstrate the application of theory and concepts in sociology.
- The ability to analyze data sociologically.
- The development of values based on social justice.
- The ability to demonstrate research competency.
Student Learning Outcomes
Students will be able to:
- Apply the sociological imagination, sociological principles, and concepts to matters of social justice.
- Demonstrate how culture and social structure vary across time and place and the effects of such variations.
- Distinguish between personal troubles and public issues.
- Demonstrate how societal and structural factors influence individual behavior and the self’s development.
- Compare and contrast theoretical orientations in sociology.
- Describe and apply theory to original sociological research.
- Accurately convey data findings in writing.
- Analyze social science data using statistical software (such as SPSS).
- Articulate the importance of reducing the negative effects of social inequality.
- Design and carry out original research.