BA Sociology

Sociology is the systematic study of social life. It is based on the assumption that there are certain patterns to the way people live and think and that by studying their behavior and attitudes, these patterns can be discovered and explained. Sociologists investigate how the group influences behavior, from the smallest (a two-person relationship) to the largest (huge organizations, such as General Motors or the Catholic Church). Any­thing having to do with social behavior is the subject matter of sociology.

The Bachelor of Arts program at Stony Brook seeks to develop in students both an understanding of a history of social thought and skills in the collection and analysis of social data. The core program includes one semester of Introduction to Sociology, one semester of sociological theory, one semester of research methods, and one semester of statistics.