Sociology is the study of social life, social change, and the consequences of human behavior. Simply put, it’s the study of society. While “sociologist” isn’t a common job title, studying sociology can help in many other aspects of your professional and personal life.
Skills learned in the study of sociology can be extremely useful in our current social and political climate. These skills are numerous, but here are five ways a sociology degree can help you navigate our ever-changing world.
1. Improve your Critical Thinking Skills
Our current society is full of misinformation, echo chambers, and culture wars. Being able to distinguish between fact and fiction, as well as think about the biases in narratives are both very important capabilities. This will help you to avoid manipulation and make more informed decisions, especially within the digital world.
Critical thinking comes in handy in most professional settings, but will also help tremendously with understanding anything you read or see in your personal time.
2. Gain a Greater Awareness of Current Issues
There are many current global issues that are often hot topics in the news, including climate change, economic inequality, and even war. All of these have social roots and consequences which are explored in the field of sociology as you analyze systems like colonialism, capitalism, and globalization.
Sociology also includes learning about social issues such as racism, sexism, and ableism. You get to not only understand the symptoms of these problems, but also the root causes within society. Understanding any and all of these complex issues is the first step to help work to solve them.
3. Work with Research and Data Analytics
Sociology is a social science, but it still is very much evidence-based like the traditional sciences. You get the opportunity to design surveys and interviews, conduct fieldwork studies, and analyze the data you collect, both quantitative and qualitative.
Sociology classes also give you experience with tools like SPSS, R, and NVivo for data analysis. Being familiar with these tools, as well as research procedures in general, is a skill that can be applied in many different fields.
4. Develop Important Communication Skills
Being an effective communicator and empathetic person will help you in all aspects of life. You gain a greater understanding of how social environments will shape an individual and their behaviors. This then helps you to understand people’s different perspectives and humanize them.
Conflict resolution is a vital part of life, no matter what your career is. Sociology trains you to communicate across differences and divides in truly meaningful ways, both one-on-one and within the context of bigger groups.
5. Become Adaptable for a Changing Job Market
It’s been touched on in most previous sections about how diverse the applications of these skills can be. This in and of itself is a major way that the degree helps prepare you for our changing world. Having the abilities to work in many different job sectors is so valuable considering the current state of the job market.
Having the experience and flexibility to fit into a diverse range of career paths is a huge benefit. You can apply skills from a sociology degree to industries such as Human Resources, Government and Policy, Education and Research, Social Services, and Nonprofit, among others. Having this one degree can open a lot of doors.
Earning a Sociology Degree Online
All of these skills that are earned while studying sociology are incredibly vital in today’s world. The best way to get them for yourself is to get a sociology degree. This can be a daunting task for most people though, especially if you’re not able to be a full-time student. The hardest part of any action is always getting started.
SDSU Global Campus offers a Bachelors of Arts in Sociology program that is fully online, can be achieved in just 2 years, and is just as rigorous and research-driven as its on-campus counterpart. You can gain all of these incredibly valuable skills–all in a highly flexible format. All you need is at least 60 transferable credits, and a curiosity about the social world.
Want to complement a different major with some sociology courses? SDSU Global Campus also has a sociology minor that can be easily added on to any degree program. The online minor can be completed in 18 units, and can be a perfect addition to majors like economics, child development, business administration, and criminal justice, among others.
