Learning Goals and Objectives


Sociology majors graduating from Lehman College should be able to demonstrate knowledge of the following five learning goals and the related objectives:

  • compare and contrast a sociological perspective with other scientific perspectives
  • identify the contributions of key figures and events to the historical development of sociology as a scientific discipline
  • identify, define, distinguish and illustrate core sociological concepts (society; social structure; culture; religion; social institutions, e.g., family, economy; social change; social class; status; race; ethnicity; gender; social conflict; deviance; etc.)
  • define theory and describe its role in building sociological knowledge
  • identify, describe and compare the major theoretical paradigms (functionalism, conflict, symbolic interactionism, positivisim, feminism etc.)
  • distinguish middle-range theory from theoretical paradigm and describe applications of middle-range theories in the study of specific social institutions and processes
  • propose a research design to answer sociological questions or test hypotheses
  • describe, compare and contrast some of the basic quantitative and qualitative methodological approaches employed to gather social science data e.g., sampling, survey, observation, experiments, interview, secondary data analysis, etc.
  • implement methods of social data collection
  • calculate and interpret descriptive and inferential statistics
  • summarize the content of qualitative data
  • describe and apply the principles of ethical practice required in social research
  • access original and peer-reviewed published sociological research and data
  • distinguish credible peer-reviewed published sociological research and knowledge from other information
  • use standard computer software for basic data analyses
  • use word-processing and other software to produce sociological reports
  • document writing with ASA style citations and bibliographies
  • write a complete account of a social event, topic, issue or problem using sociological concepts, arguments or theories
  • review and critically assess published research papers
  • write annotated bibliographies
  • write a sociological literature review
  • write up a complete research proposal designed to answer sociological questions or test hypotheses