Social Science

This course is designed to introduce students to the interdisciplinary character of international studies, and to acquaint them with major trends and themes in global affairs today. Students will also acquire knowledge regarding the origins and development of the field, and study key international topics that affect all of our lives. There are four components that will be discussed simultaneously: • Discipline-based concepts, analytical tools, research theories, and ideologies. • Region-based information, perspectives, issues, and theories. • Economic, political, and cultural perspectives on globalization and development. • Content topics revolving around food, energy, health, security, and the environment.

This course, which explores a topic of contemporary interest to the study of social sciences, is offered as needed.

This course introduces students to reading, writing and research for social scientists. It focuses on developing skills essential for conducting successful research including summarizing, critiquing, synthesizing, and analyzing scientific research. Emphasis is given to report writing such as literature reviews, lab reports, and research articles through practice and examples as well as critical reading. Students will be introduced to the method by which all scientists conduct research and will go through each stage of the research process beginning with hypothesis formation and ending with writing a research design paper. Along the way students will be exposed to the many types of writing in the sciences including annotated bibliographies, components of a scholarly research paper including abstracts, methods sections, results sections, communicating results in tables and figures, and discussion/conclusion sections. Pre-requisites: ENG 100 and/or ENG 101, and ENG 102 or ENG 103.

This course, which explores a topic of contemporary interest to the study of social sciences, is offered as needed.

The course is designed to train students in a critical area of scientific methodology-analyzing data. Topics include: frequency distributions; central tendency and variability; independent, matched, and repeated measures sample comparisons; simple, factorial, and repeated measures analysis of variance; correlation and regression; nonparametric and binomial analysis; and, analysis of ordinal data. Prerequisites: MAT 102 or higher.

In this course, students learn both the theoretical rationale and the practical application of research methods such as participant observation in naturalistic settings, in-depth interviewing, document analysis and focus group studies. Preparation of field notes and interview data, thematic data analysis strategies and their uses in case studies, program evaluation and interpretive sociology are explored.

Major objectives of this course are to introduce students to the skills and resources needed to design and conduct a survey. The skills include identifying and developing specific survey objectives; designing survey studies, sampling respondents, developing reliable and valid self-administered questionnaires, and administering surveys.

This course introduces students to the framework of evaluation, the development of plans for formative and summative evaluations, and the data collection tools for implementing evaluation. Students will also explore the role of evaluators, funders, program staff, and stakeholders (powerful and less so) in planning, implementing, and responding to program evaluation.

Offers students a personal application of scientifically based principles in regard to leadership, followership, and social structures. Students will examine their personal leadership styles. Students will examine the many obstacles to leadership that may develop both internally, interpersonally, and within and throughout various social structures. The course meets a need to prepare students for positions of leadership and an understanding of the dynamics of social structures and individual agency. The course examines a variety of types of leadership, in a variety of types of structures (for-profit, non-profit, governmental, voluntary associations, etc.) and how one might succeed in these structures.

This practicum is designed to give the student faculty guidance in conducting a research project dealing with a topic in the social sciences. Prerequisite: Completion of junior year and proposal approved by instructor

A supervised program of study for majors in the Behavioral Sciences requiring hands-on experience in criminal justice, government, clinical, political, or nonprofit organizations. Prerequisite: Completion of the junior year and availability of placement approved by instructor

This is a special topics course that examines particular cultures or societies in an attempt to illustrate the differences between the American dominant culture and others either as subcultures within the borders of the United States or cultures outside. The people studied may change for each particular course.