The four Sociology Program BA degree options share a set of standard requirements. These requirements combine to contribute the Cal State LA Sociology Department’s degree-specific, student learning outcomes listed below. Those who successfully complete the program should be able to do the following things.
Sociology BA Program Student Learning Outcomes
1 / Explain the general role of methods in social research and, at a basic level, the importance of generalizability, validity, and reliability in social research.2 / Apply appropriate, basic statistical tests and qualitative methods and, at a basic level, interpret sociological findings expressed through data.
3 / Describe the fundamental ethical issues pertinent to social research.
4 / Write, present, and discuss subjects from a scientific method approach that emphasizes socially informed, theoretically grounded, or empirically supported positions as opposed to personal opinion.
5 / Communicate fundamental sociological issues in a manner that identifies the premises in given arguments, underlying assumptions, and opposing views.
6 / Explain what theory is, what distinguishes it from individual beliefs or viewpoints, and how theory contributes to sociological knowledge.
7 / Describe key theoretical approaches and, at a basic level, explain how these approaches apply to given social events and interactions.
8 / Identify particular broad factors and social forces, such as urbanization or globalization, that affect social structures and individuals.
9 / Define socialization and provide key examples of social systems, social institutions, social structures, and related social processes.
10 / Describe how social institutions, structural factors, and social systems contribute to individual behavior and self-development.
11 / Generally describe the processes whereby social systems, institutions, and structures contribute to the social construction of difference, social inequalities or stratification, differential socialization, or differential life paths and life chances.
12 / Provide examples of the interplay among social institutions and the impact of social institutions on human groups, including the stratification processes by which inequalities are created and perpetuated.
13 / Describe how individual and group social interaction influences society and social structures;identify opportunities for community engagement, social agency, civic responsibility, ethically-aware practice, social justice advocacy, and social change.
14 / Describe the interrelation between personal biography, social context, social structure, power relations, socio-historical period, and consequently, the importance of the sociological imagination in daily life.