Courses I have taken that I learned key concept in:
SOCL 105 – Sociology in Practice: Sociology in Practice is the introduction course to the discipline of sociology. This course examines topics such as social inequality, social issues, social conditions, culture, diversity, social interaction, etc. Some key takeaways from this course include problems of social inequality in society, how culture shapes someone’s being, etc.
SOCL 320 – Sociology of Education: Sociology of Education is a course that focused primarily on education in public schooling. Some key concepts that I took away are school safety, how education institutions affect the family, and how demographic characteristics and social class effect education and the quality of education.
SOCL 333 – Race & Racism in United States: Race and Racism in United States is a course that focuses on issues of racism through history and the present in the United States. Key concepts that I took away from this course is what race is, racist views that are still present today, and how and who racism affects.
SOCL 241 – Marriage and the Family: Marriage and the family is a course that focused on the history of American families and issues within the family. Some key concepts that I took away from this course are the ideas of marriage, cohabitation, families that consist of divorced parents, how socioeconomic status affects the family, etc.
SOCL 220 – Self in Society: Self in Society is a course that focuses on how societal forces and self intersect; how societal forces affect the self. Some key concepts that were examined in this course are behavior tendencies, mass media, and socialization.
SOCL 325 – Gender and Society: This course examines the social construction of gender. Some key takeaways from this course are issues of gender inequality, intersex individuals, how gender is defined, gender identity, etc.
SOCL 331 – Aging and the Life Course: Aging and the Life Course focused primarily on issues of aging in society and in the family. Some key aspects that I have taken away are social gerontology, social security, demographic changes as people age, etc.
SOCL 377 – Sociology of Sport: Sociology of Sport focuses on sport as a social institution. Key concepts that I have taken away from this course include issues of sex & gender, race, professional sports, and NIL deals.
CRIM 323 – Gender and Crime: Gender and Crime is a course that focuses on how gender correlates to crime. Key concepts that were examined in this course consist of which sex is more likely to commit a crime, gendered statistics, crime rates, etc.
CRIM 350 – Race, Crime, & Criminal Justice: Race, Crime, & Criminal Justice is a course that closely examines race within crime and the criminal justice system. Some key concepts that I learned in this course are the statistics of crime reports, the racial makeup of prisons, the racial makeup of law enforcement agencies, etc.
CRIM 387 – Comparative Criminal Justice: Comparative Criminal Justice is a course that examines the institutions of prison systems in the United States and in other countries. Some key aspects that I have taken away from this course are how our prison systems could improve, how prisons operate in other countries, what seems to be working and what doesn’t, etc.
- Through the past eight years that I have spent writing papers, my writing has improved immensely within the past four years that I have spent at Longwood University. While my papers attached focus on different institutions, I have studied and written many papers about each institution many times. Writing papers about a specific topic more than once makes a person more educated and knowledgeable about the topic; being more educated about a topic will make writing better. Throughout my time being enrolled at Longwood, I have taken English classes and other classes that are writing-focused which has made me a better writer. I have noticed that my format, grammar, word choice, structure, etc., are much better in my writing. I have also learned how to not only think but write from a sociological point of view. Writing from a sociological view is writing about many different perspectives and viewpoints; writing and being able to see the whole picture and the why.
- The papers that I have chosen focus on institutions such as law enforcement, gender, and social interaction. The paper that I wrote first in my sociological career is Solving Problems; this paper focuses on issues within law enforcement and the police force. Writing on problems such as issues within law enforcement was nothing I had ever done before this paper, it was new to me and it was a topic that I did not know much about. I had not written much about gender before either, nor Max Weber’s ideas; I had never even written about a sociologist before. Institutions such as law enforcement, gender, and social interaction. Learning about issues within law enforcement has led to a change in my beliefs and attitudes towards law enforcement. The main issue that was studied was police brutality against minority groups. I have come to believe that policy brutality happens much more frequently to members of minority groups and a big percentage of it is not shown in the media. My attitude towards law enforcement has changed in the way that I will never support what they do when they are targeting certain groups. The second institution I wrote about was gender. Prior to writing about gender, I had not known very much about this topic. I learned a lot about the difference between sex and gender, intersex, expression, etc. This new information has led to changes in my behavior, attitudes, and beliefs. Since becoming more educated, I have noticed that my behavior is behavior of femininity, my attitudes have changed about who can express themselves in what way, and my beliefs have also changed in this way. Social interaction was the last institution and this topic was very informative. My behavior has been structured by this theory, this theory explains how humans interact and what causes human interaction. Since learning about this theory, I have been able to apply it to my own social interaction. All of these concepts have shaped my relationships with myself and others around me, I have developed more perspectives and am able to look through different lenses.
- Throughout my years here at Longwood University, lots of theories and institutions have been taught in my classes. From these ideas, I have become more knowledgeable on topics that I had not known before. I am looking to go into the criminal justice field and knowledge in institutions such as law enforcement and social interaction would be very useful. Knowing issues within policing will allow me to have an open eye in case I see these issues in the future or experience them. Having knowledge about social interaction is very important when working in the criminal justice field because this will possibly give you an insight into why someone did what they did. Social interaction is a theory that examines human action in situations, while those are happy or in fear; this will often guide a person’s following action.