Undergraduate Course Descriptions

The LSU General Catalog serves as both the official undergraduate and the graduate catalog of LSU and should be consulted for course decisions. Below you can see a list of undergraduate courses offered by the Department of Sociology.

SOCL 2001: Introductory Sociology (3)
This is a General Education course. Credit will not be given for this course and SOCL 2002. Major subject areas and principles of sociology.

SOCL 2010: Louisiana in a Global Context (3)
Introduces students to the history, people and culture of Louisiana through academic learning and hands on experience.

SOCL 2002 HONORS: Introductory Sociology (3)
This is a General Education course. Same as SOCL 2001 with a special honors emphasis for qualified students. Credit will not be given for this course and SOCL 2001.

SOCL 2201: Introduction to Statistical Analysis (4)
Prereq.: MATH 1021 or equivalent. Open to sociology majors; open to others with permission of instructor. 3 hrs. lecture; 2 hrs. lab Descriptive statistics; inferential statistical methods including confidence interval estimation and hypothesis testing for one and two population means and proportions; one-way analysis of variance; simple linear regression and correlation; analysis of categorical data.

SOCL 2211: Methods of Sociological Research (3)
Prereq.: SOCL 2001 and SOCL 2201 or equivalent. Open to sociology majors; open to others with permission of instructor. Scientific methods and their application in sociological research, including problem selection, research design, measurement, data sources and evaluation of data.

SOCL 2301: Introduction to Crime Studies (3)
Fundamentals of the causes, correlates, consequences, and controls of crime in society, including definitional and methodological issues.

SOCL 2255: Sociology of Sport (3)
Application of sociological principles, theories, and methods to the understanding of sport.

SOCL 2371: Aspects of Federal, State, & Local Law Enforcement (3) Survey of federal, state & local law enforcement agencies origins, powers, and career expectations.

SOCL 2411: Industrial Sociology (3)
Social organization in industry; relation of industry to community and society.

SOCL 2501: Current Social Problems (3)
This is a General Education course. Sociological analysis of major social problems in contemporary society; focus on both the institutional and personal causes and consequences.

SOCL 2505: Marriage and Family (3)
This is a General Education course. Current issues and trends regarding marriage and family.

SOCL 2511: Race Relations (3)
Also offered as AAAS 2511. Designated as a Service-Learning Course. Examines relations among persons of different racial groups in an interdisciplinary setting that includes sociological, psychological, political, anthropological and historical viewpoints.

SOCL 3101: Sociological Theory (3)
Prereq.: SOCL 2001 or equivalent. Open to sociology majors; open to others with permission of instructor. Dominant theorists and schools of thought in sociology.

SOCL 3371: Sociology of the Criminal Justice System (3)
Prereq.: SOCL 2001 or equivalent. The criminal justice system and its organizational components.

SOCL 3401: Sociology of Culture (3)
Prereq.: SOCL 2001 or equivalent. Current theoretical perspectives, methodological issues and empirical work in the sociological study of culture.

SOCL 3501: Sociology of Deviance (3)
Prereq.: SOCL 2001 or equivalent. Sociological theories of deviant behavior; sup-porting research on mental illness, crime, sexual deviance, drug abuse and suicide.

SOCL 3505: Poverty in the United States (3)
Prereq.: SOCL 2001 or SOCL 2501 or equivalent. Definition of poverty, its meaning, measurement, causes, correlates and consequences; strategies for its amelioration and elimination.

SOCL 3510: Criminal Violence (3)
Prereq.: SOCL 2001 or equivalent. An in-depth study of criminal violence, including its forms, myths and facts regarding victims and offenders, and the causes, consequences and control of violence.

SOCL 3601: Social Interaction (3)
Prereq.: SOCL 2001 or PSYC 2000 or equivalent. Human behavior as social interaction.

SOCL 3900: Sociology Internship (1-3)
Prereq.: 75 hours of course work completed, 2.50 overall GPA, written consent of department head and supervising faculty member. May be taken for a max. of 3 hrs. of credit. Faculty supervised field study/research with an agency or organization whose mission is considered relevant to the student's curriculum.

SOCL 3901: Directed Reading and Research in Sociology (1-3)
Prereq.: SOCL 2001 or equivalent. May be taken for a max. of 3 sem. hrs. credit. Student registers with a faculty member before registration to select the area of reading or research. Topic must not substitute for regularly offered courses unless reading goes beyond a standard course's offerings.

SOCL 3905 HONORS: Senior Thesis Research (3)
Prereq.: SOCL 3901. Open to seniors who are candidates for a bachelor's degree with honors in sociology. Supervised research and preparation of a senior thesis.

SOCL 3911: Research Practicum in Sociology (1-3)
Prereq.: SOCL 2211 and SOCL 3101. May be taken for a max. of 3 sem. hrs. credit. Student registers with a faculty member and, in consultation, selects a research problem. Supervised research experience in sociology, including design, execution and reporting.

SOCL 4091: Topics in Sociology (3)
Prereq.: SOCL 2001 or equivalent. May be taken for a max. of 9 sem. hrs. of credit when topics vary. Recent topics have included:

Corrections
Environmental Sociology
Racial Inequality
Social Construction of Whiteness
Sociology of Disaster
Sociology of Mental Health

SOCL 4321: The Community (3)
Prereq.: SOCL 2001 or equivalent. Classical and contemporary perspectives on the community; theoretical and methodological issues associated with community studies.

SOCL 4331: Social Stratification (3)
Prereq.: SOCL 2001 or equivalent. Class and rank structure in society; determinants of social class, mobility, and changes in class position of both individuals and groups; attitudinal and behavioral consequences of class position.

SOCL 4401: The Family (3)
Prereq.: SOCL 2001 or equivalent. The family as a social institution.

SOCL 4402: Modeling Communication Within Marital and Family Relationships (3)
See CMST 4118.

SOCL 4421: Political Sociology (3)
Prereq.: SOCL 2001 or equivalent. Social structure and politics.

SOCL 4431: Sociology of Education (3)
Prereq.: SOCL 2001 or equivalent. Designated as a Service-Learning Course. Theoretical approaches to understanding the roles of the institution of education, socialization processes, the linkages between education and stratification and educational change.

SOCL 4441: Sociology of Religion (3)
Prereq.: SOCL 2001 or equivalent. Nature of religion; societal and cultural factors in religion; role of religion in social change and in contemporary society.

SOCL 4451: Sociology of Medicine (3)
Prereq.: SOCL 2001 or equivalent. Sociological analysis of the structure and function of health agencies and occupations; social and cultural factors in the cause and treatment of illness.

SOCL 4452: Sociology of Mental Health (3)
Prereq.: SOCL 2001 or equivalent.This course will provide a broad overview of the sociology of mental health.

SOCL 4461: Criminology (3)
Prereq.: SOCL 2001 or equivalent. Crime, the criminal justice system and penology.

SOCL 4462: Sociology of Youth and Crime (3)
Prereq.: SOCL 2001 or equivalent. The sociological study of adolescent deviance and crime; the socio-demographic correlates and social psychological causes of youthful offending and the juvenile justice system.

SOCL 4463: Gender and Crime (3)
Prereq.: SOCL 2001 or equivalent. Examination of gender as a socially, culturally and historically situated accomplishment and its relationship to criminal offending and victimization.

SOCL 4464: Rural Crime (3)
Prereq.: SOCL 2001 or equivalent. Focuses on the nature, extent, causes, consequences and control of crime in rural America; topics include violence, property crime, fear of crime and agricultural and wildlife crime.

SOCL 4465: Drugs and Society (3)
Prereq.: SOCL 2001 or equivalent. Designated as a Service-Learning Course. An exploration of the net of social relations in which drugs, drug users, drug dealers and drug laws are embedded; involves critical analysis of popular claims about drugs and the development of a sociological understanding of substance use and abuse in the modern U.S.

SOCL 4466: Crime Mapping (3)
Also offered as GEOG 3043. Designated as a Service-Learning Course. Fundamentals of crime mapping and crime analysis with spatial data using Geographic Information Systems (GIS)

SOCL 4467: Crime GIS (3)
Prereq.: Any one of the following courses: GEOG 2040, GEOG 4044, GEOG 4047, GEOG 4048, SOCL 4466. Also offered as GEOG 4043. Advanced spatial crime analysis, modeling, and mapping using Geographic Information Systems (GIS).

SOCL 4468: Sociology of Gangs (3)
Prereq.: SOCL 2301 or equivalent. The sociological study of gangs in modern society.

SOCL 4469: Policing and Race in the US (3)
Prereq.: SOCL 2301 or equivalent. Explores the relationship between policing and race in the United States.

SOCL 4471: Sociology of Law (3)
Prereq.: SOCL 2001 or equivalent. Law and social change; evolution of legal institutions; group conflict and law; influence of legal controls and sanctions on human behavior.

SOCL 4521: Sociology of Gender (3)
Prereq.: SOCL 2001 or equivalent. Gender differences in families, education, the workplace and the state; understanding the social, economic and cultural factors that shape the lives of men and women; theoretical analysis of how different women and men experience the social world.

SOCL 4531: The Aged in Contemporary Society (3)
Prereq.: SOCL 2001 or equivalent. Social, demographic, psychological, cultural and health factors related to the aging process in contemporary society.

SOCL 4532: Death and Dying in the US (3)
Prereq.: SOCL 2001 or equivalent. Understanding death and dying as it relates to individuals and society in the US.

SOCL 4551: Global Society (3)
Prereq.: SOCL 2001 or equivalent. Presents central concepts and major perspectives on international development, globalization and world poverty and income inequality.

SOCL 4561: Magic and Technology (3)
Prereq.: SOCL 2001 or equivalent. Analysis of the knowledge, practices and social interactions of humans and nonhumans, including animals, spirits, cyborgs and robots.

SOCL 4601: Personality and Social Structure (3)
Prereq.: SOCL 3601 or PSYC 3140 or equivalent. Interaction of social structures, such as the family, peer group and school, with the personalities of individuals; processes by which each affects the other.

SOCL 4621: Small Groups (3)
Prereq.: SOCL 2001 or equivalent. Analysis of groups, their structure and functions.

SOCL 4701: Population (3)
Prereq.: SOCL 2001 or equivalent. Processes that influence size and composition of human populations; determinants and consequences of demographic trends.