Courses tagged with "Course+Type:+diploma" (3)

This course is about the fundamental concepts of sociology; foundations of group life; social change, processes, and problems. This class describes the discipline of sociology—the study of social life. It is a fundamental social science (in good company with Economics, Psychology, History, Anthroplogy, Communication, and Political Science). What is interesting about sociology is that it actually tackles fundamental questions in each of these sub-disciplines. You might even call it the “father” of the social sciences. That said, it is a pretty new discipline (younger than our country). Still, we have done a lot in just a very short time. It is very likely that you have heard of some of its early founders—the most famous is Karl Marx but others include Max Weber and Emile Durkheim.

Sociology is the scientific study of society. As such, it closely examines human interactions and cultural phenomena, including topics like inequality and urbanization and the effects of these on groups and individuals. To do their work, sociologists rely on a philosophy of science called positivism, which you will study in Unit 1. The philosophy of positivism asserts that authentic knowledge, or truth, can only be gained through empirical observations. In other words, we need to be able to experience our observations or use scientific measurement with a form of sensory experience, as opposed to using faith-based or emotional experiences. Another central concept to sociology is that of the sociological imagination. The sociological imagination allows sociologists to make connections between personal experiences and larger social issues. For example, did you know the U.S. has the highest rate of teen pregnancy in the industrialized world? In order to understand this trend, sociologists use scientific methods…

Psychology 102 takes a look at why we behave the way we do , and applies that information to the classroom setting. This is valuable to students of psychology and education alike.

Dr. Wind Goodfriend and Dr. Melissa Hurst combine classic psychological theories and experiments with practical applications for classroom teachers. These bite-sized video lessons are accompanied by free, self-grading quizzes for self-assessment. Watch the videos, test your knowledge, and then let us know what you think using the thumbs up/thumbs down buttons on the top right-hand corner of each video.