Department of Sociology

The B.S. degree requires 30 semester hours of sociology courses and 30 semester hours in an interdisciplinary concentration. Below are the concentrations offered:

Applied Research Methods Concentration
This concentration focuses on the research methods used by social scientists to learn about the social work. By research methods we mean the systematic strategies for investigating social behavior and interpreting the patterns we discover.
Criminology
Criminology, Deviance and Law Concentration
This concentration focuses on the causes of crime and society's responses to criminal behavior.
Families and Intimate Relationships Concentration
This concentration focuses on people in groups, with particular emphasis on the family as a group.
Health and Aging Concentration
This concentration focuses on the study how societal forces shape the experience of individuals and groups when facing issues dealing with health and healthcare. Particularly, for an aging population around the world.
Individually-Designed Concentration (Requires Department Approval)
This concentration gives students a chance to select classes that inform a particular field or occupation of interest.
Power and Social Change
Power and Social Change degree at Appalachian State University examines how power serves to structure human relationships and how the contestation of power leads to a variety of social changes. Students in this concentration will learn not only about institutionalized power relationships, such as those pertaining to elections, political parties and policy-making, but also about less conventional power struggles, such as those involving social movements and war. To help students better understand the U.S. experience, many of these issues are placed in comparative and global contexts.
Social Inequalities 
This concentration examines how differences in such dimensions as gender, race, ethnicity, social class, sexuality, age, and nationality may lead to unequal outcomes in terms of power, status, and income.