What is Sociology? Sociology is a challenging and exciting subject. Its aim is to understand how societies work, and to study and explain how society makes us who we are.
Studying Sociology offers the opportunity to gain a greater understanding of society and to make sense of your own experiences within it. It observes the day to day experiences of people in groups, for example: workers, criminal gangs or children and seeks to explain them.
In studying Sociology, students will be actively involved in exploring and asking questions about the society in which we live, such as:
Students will learn basic 'Perspectives' or ways of looking at society; 'Consensus and Conflict' theories, such as Marxism, Functionalism and Feminism, that attempt to explain how societies work.
Students will learn about the different methods of data collection: experiments, questionnaires, interviews; their advantages and disadvantages and how they have been used in sociological studies.
Sociology is valuable for a number of wide-ranging careers, for example: social work, politics, teaching, policing, the justice system and a range of people and service centred occupations. It is equally as valuable as a subject which develops ideas about the world and makes students consider different opinions on, and the causes of, social behaviour and patterns over time in our society.
Student comments on studying Sociology: "It was so interesting that it was my first option at A Level" "It has made me think about why I agree and disagree with things that others say" "I did not realise how much society influenced our behaviour" "It has helped me understand the topics in English and History more — it links with so many other subjects".
Sociology will help make sense of society and give students new ways of seeing the social world around us. Students will question aspects of it that had previously been taken for granted. It will provide 'tools' which allow students to become a better informed and a more socially aware member of society.
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