Submission Date:
(Date sent to Honors Program
Subcommittee)
6/18/2012
Document No:
(Leave blank)
12-H-02
Course number and title:
SOC 10000
Submitting Dept:
(Name of dept/pgm)
Social Sciences
Reviewed by Department:
(Date reviewed by department)
6/18/2012
Course instructor:
(Name & Title)
Kim Scipes, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Sociology
Reviewed by Honors
Subcommittee: (Leave blank)
7/3/2012
Approval by
Faculty Senate:
(Leave blank)
Unless marked “Leave blank” all parts of this form must be filled in before sending to the Honors Program Subcommittee.
Current catalog description of course .
(For new courses, or changes to current catalog descriptions or course objectives, a curriculum document must also be submitted)
A survey course designed to introduce the student to the scene of human society. Fundamental concepts, description, and analysis of society, culture, the socialization process, social institutions, and social change. Typically offered Fall Spring
Summer. 3.000 Credit hours
Current course objectives.
(1) Further develop analysis and critical thinking skills necessary to better understand complex social situations.
(2) Acquire a better understanding of the meaning and consequences of social change currently taking place, both in the US and around the world.
(3) Be able to distinguish sociology from other social sciences and professional disciplines
(e.g., psychology and social work).
(4) Understand and apply the concept of “sociological imagination.”
(5) Understand key sociological theories (structural functionalism, social conflict theory and social interactionism) and how they influence our views of the world.
(6) Examine values, attitudes and relationships to people of differing backgrounds and experiences (with regard to race, ethnicity, age, gender, sexual orientation, etc.).

Provide a description of the honors component of the course, showing how the course will meet PNC’s definition of an honors course.
By adding a completely new model of society (Polyconflictualism) to established structural functionalist and structural conflict models, this enables students to theoretically understand the complexity of society in a qualitatively advanced manner. To be required to write a ten-page comparative paper, this allows them to understand the differences—including strengths and weaknesses—of Polyconflictualism in relation to traditional sociological models. Thus, this process is designed to think and learn at the integrative or synthesis level of Bloom’s Taxonomy.
Describe how the honors version of the course will meet course objectives in a more complex, challenging, or enriching way.
1. Honors students will be introduced to a Model of Society called “Polyconflictualism,” to give them a better means of representing social reality, and to help them understand social change.
2. They will meet with instructor every other week to discuss the course and to consider how a polyconflictual model helps them to understand changes in different sectors of society.
3. They will write a 7-10-page paper, explaining developments in one sector of society that they choose. They will do a literature review that covers changes in their chosen social sector (e.g., families, education, gender relations, etc.), report changes, and compares how they understand these changes using a structural functional or structural conflict Model of Society in comparison to a polyconflictual model.
Describe how honors students’ work will be evaluated.
Students will be required to write a 10-page paper in addition to the two other papers required for this course. This paper will be evaluated on the rubric used to evaluate all student papers, but a higher degree of proficiency will be required.
Please also submit a syllabus for the non-honors version of this course.
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