Overview
Students will have a "basic understanding of … the social sciences and their significance in contemporary society" (PASSHE BOG Policy 1993-01) and will have an "awareness of the social, economic, political and environmental interdependence of countries and regions of the world" (PASSHE BOG Policy 1993-01). The social sciences focus on human behavior, how people interact with each other in the past and present; how people interact with the environment; and how people organize, govern and trade among themselves.
Educational Goals:
- To discuss, explore or utilize the scientific method to understand human behavior and address the question of "why do people do what they do?";
- To identify major concepts in one or more social science disciplines and provide insight into the breadth of these disciplines and their relationship to other disciplines; and
- To recognize how critical analysis and reasoning are used to address problems in the social sciences.
Additionally, a social science course must demonstrate at least one of the following goals:
- To identify, explain, apply or evaluate the moral and ethical codes of a social science discipline; and/or
- To recognize, describe or analyze how cultural differences impact human behavior (where culture is defined broadly to include issues such as gender, ethnicity, racial diversity, religious belief, lifespan, etc.).