Course Descriptions
Sociology
SOCL 100
Principles of Sociology
3 Semester Hours
Development of the perspectives, concepts, and methodologies needed for objective, analytical thinking about human interaction. Relationships explored in terms of the development of the self through interaction, basic types of social organization, collective behavior, types of institutions, and aspects of the total social system such as social change and population phenomena.
SOCL 105
Cultural Anthropology
3 Semester Hours
An introduction to the social organization and culture of preliterate and modern societies. Major emphasis is on cultural anthropology, a study of how humans have learned to cope with their world, and the varieties and similarities of this coping.
SOCL 109
Social Research Methods
3 Semester Hours
An introduction to scientific inquiry and research in the social sciences, with special emphasis on conceptualization and operationalization process, various data collection strategies, and the use of computers in data analysis.
SOCL 210
Elementary Social Statistics
3 Semester Hours
An introduction to basic inferential and descriptive statistics commonly used in the social sciences. Among the topics covered are: table construction; central tendency; variation; probability, sampling distributions, and the normal curve; hypothesis testing; and measures of association.
Recommended to be taken concurrently with SOCL 109.
SOCL 301
Development of Sociological Theory
3 Semester Hours
An introduction to 19th century contributions to sociological thought: Comte, Tocqueville, Marx, Durkheim, Weber, and others are examined within their historical settings.
SOCL 401
Contemporary Theory
3 Semester Hours
A survey of the variety of 20th century sociological perspectives, including symbolic interactionism, ethnomethodology, functionalism, critical theory, and others.
SOCL 495
Sociology Seminar
3 Semester Hours
Designed as a senior seminar for sociology majors. Stress will be on organization and integration of sociology studies, bringing together in a meaningful way sociological facts, understandings, and knowledge. Students must have 90 semester hours completed at time of registration.
Prerequisites: SOCL 209 and SOCL 301 or 401. Senior majors only.
I. Deviance and Social Control
SOCL 322
Deviant Behavior
3 Semester Hours
A social interactionist approach to the study of deviant behavior; an examination of the process whereby society defines and labels an act as deviant, trends in deviance theory, deviant careers, and the mechanisms involved in confronting the label.
SOCL 422
Criminal Justice
3 Semester Hours
An introduction to the system of criminal justice in contemporary America with a focus on how criminal behavior is processed by the system’s agencies: police, courts, and correctional institutions. Legal concerns such as the rights of the accused and due process will also be discussed in terms of their application in each of these areas.
SOCL 423
Criminal Law
3 Semester Hours
This course examines the criminal law in the U.S. from a sociological perspective, as a set of “social control” processes by which norms are transmitted and enforced. Topics include how the law defines crime and particular forms of crime, drug abuse and alcohol-related crime, and various legal defenses available to the accused.
SOCL 424
Crime and Delinquency
3 Semester Hours
An introduction to the nature and dynamics of criminal and delinquent behavior from a sociological viewpoint. Topics to be covered: the nature of crime and the criminal law, the measurement of crime, major theories—both historical and contemporary, and patterns of criminal and delinquent behavior.
II. Social Inequality
SOCL 332
Gender and Society
3 Semester Hours
An examination of processes resulting in socio-cultural sex role differences and the cultural consequences relating to opportunity, power, and prestige in society. An attempt to understand the effects of social organization and change on the status of women and men.
SOCL 333
Men and Masculinities
3 Semester Hours
An exploration of masculinity through critical examination of men, women, gender, politics, identity, and social change from a social scientific perspective. Topics include: gender socialization, the diversity of masculinities, race and ethnicity, class, age, sexuality, and men’s social movements.
SOCL 334
Race and Ethnic Relations
3 Semester Hours
An examination of the interaction between ethnic and racial minorities and the dominant group in the light of current sociological theories of social conflict and social change.
SOCL 335
Sociology of the Black Community
3 Semester Hours
A survey of the effects of long-standing discrimination and deprivation upon family structure, occupational patterns, health and education conditions, motivation, and personal as well as group identity. An analysis of the black power concept and its
influence upon the concept of Afrocentrism and the focus on community control.
SOCL 336
Social Stratification
3 Semester Hours
An examination of the historical roots and contemporary patterns of social and economic inequality in the United States. Distribution of income and wealth, social mobility, life chances, education, and race and ethnicity will be discussed.
SOCL 338
Sociology of Racism
3 Semester Hours
An exploration and examination of the interaction between the major ethnic and racial groups in the United States with emphasis on the current context, the social contact, intergroup conflicts, and social changes affecting the various groups.
III. Urban, Population, and Demographic Processes
SOCL 340
Urban Sociology
3 Semester Hours
An examination of the basic historical processes which have shaped cities, including spatial differentiation. Topics may include the formation of community, metropolitan deconcentration, urban poverty, housing segregation, and third world urbanization.
SOCL 341
Community
3 Semester Hours
This course examines a wide range of American community studies, ranging from the 1920s to the present. Primary attention is directed toward an understanding of the scope of change in community structure and process in industrial society.
SOCL 342
Demography and Population Analysis
3 Semester Hours
An analysis of major international population trends, problems of overpopulation, and population control, with an introduction to the methods and techniques of demographic and ecological analysis.
SOCL 348
Urban Anthropology
3 Semester Hours
A comparative analysis of urban social relationships. Emphasis is directed to the use of ethnographic methodologies in understanding contemporary American urbanism and to the problems associated with pluralistic urban society.
SOCL 349
Research in Urban Society
3 Semester Hours
An examination of the methodologies and strategies employed by social scientists researching urban society. Case studies and research agendas are drawn from modern and postmodern cities, including metropolitan Los Angeles.
IV. Social Structure, Culture, and Process
SOCL 351
Sociology of Sport
3 Semester Hours
An examination of the social nature of sport in society. Topics may include the interrelation of sport and culture, sport and the socialization process, deviance and violence in sport, sport and race, the status of women in sport, and the political and economic ramifications of sport.
SOCL 352
Political Sociology
3 Semester Hours
An analysis of the relationship between forms of social organization and the exercise of power in society. Among the subjects considered are: types of political regimes, cross-cultural patterns of voting, voluntary associations, social classes, social movements, and revolution.
SOCL 354
Social Organization
3 Semester Hours
The study of large-scale, highly structured groups, such as athletic teams, local school systems, colleges and universities, hospitals, businesses, and governmental agencies.
SOCL 355
Social Psychology
3 Semester Hours
The interrelationships between individual behavior and the larger social order. Language and communication, the self, interaction and interactional strategy, aggression, perception and attribution theory, prejudice and discrimination, and collective behavior.
SOCL 356
Sociology of Law
3 Semester Hours
A survey of the important theoretical and research traditions and recent empirical developments in sociology of law. A variety of law-related topics will be covered, including law and social structure, the economy and culture, law and inequality, law and social control, courts and alternative dispute resolution, and the legal profession.
SOCL 357
Media and Society
3 Semester Hours
An examination of the social role of the media in our lives and our society. Topics include: culture, race, class, and gender, as well as alternative media and the political struggles over social change and the media system.
SOCL 358
Medical Sociology
3 Semester Hours
Development of the field of medical sociology, with emphasis on changing patterns in the health care and delivery systems, doctor-patient relationships and health care.
SOCL 359
Sociology of Popular Culture
3 Semester hours
The study of the artifacts of everyday life—newspapers, films, sports, music, and such—as important sources of sociological knowledge.
SOCL 454
Religion, Culture, and Society
3 Semester Hours
The study of religion as an expression of culture, its diverse subcultural characteristics as a social institution, and the interrelationships of religion and other social institutions.
V. Family and Life Cycle
SOCL 361
Sociology of Marriage and Families
3 Semester Hours
A study of marriage and family as social institutions, including normative aspects, socialization activities, value orientations, family structures and behavior, and societal influences on families.
SOCL 362
Sociology of Children
3 Semester Hours
A sociological study of the world of children, interactional events in children’s activities, and examination of the cultures of children and of adults.
SOCL 363
Concepts and Issues in Aging
3 Semester Hours
A general introduction to the study of physiological, psychological, and sociological aspects of aging. The focus is on the individual in society throughout the adult phase of the lifespan.
SOCL 367
Sociology of Adolescence
3 Semester Hours
An examination of the adolescent society with particular focus on the high school. Topics to be discussed: peer socializations, cliques and crowd formations, lifestyles, fads and fashions, and changing patterns and relations resulting from globalization.
VI. Globalization
SOCL 370
Social Change
3 Semester Hours
An examination of the social, economic, and political sources of social change.
SOCL 371
Social Ecology
3 Semester Hours
An analysis of the interaction and interrelationship of population, natural resources, and environment as they affect social organization and place limits on life on the earth.
SOCL 372
Sociology of Work and Occupations
3 Semester Hours
Explores the social dynamics of work and occupations in terms of culture, ideology, race, class, and gender. Topics will include the day-to-day experiences of the workplace, the politics of the economic system, and the social changes related to globalization and the international economy.
SOCL 374
Gender and Migration
3 Semester Hours
Studies the globe's migrants and how their movements shape gender in their everyday lives, families, and workplaces-as well as ours-and in the global economy.
SOCL 378
International Tourism
3 Semester Hours
A survey of the social, cultural, economic, and environmental elements of international tourism with special emphasis on the impacts of the expansion of tourism from the developed nation into the less developed realm. Modern trends in tourism, such as ecotourism, are analyzed for their potential costs-benefits and their implications for careers in the tourist industry.
SOCL 379
Sociology of Immigration
3 Semester Hours
An investigation into current and historical immigration trends as they encompass the economy, education, language, identity, politics, and culture. There is a particular focus on globalization and Los Angeles as an immigration center.
VII. Special Areas
SOCL 398
Special Studies
1-3 Semester Hours
SOCL 399
Independent Studies
1-3 Semester Hours
SOCL 498
Special Studies
1-3 Semester Hours
SOCL 499
Independent Studies
1-3 Semester Hours
back to the top