| Division of Social Sciences |
A "social" science is one that examines human cultural institutions and the human behaviors that support them. People invent and continually modify their societies to serve a variety of cultural needs. Therefore, the study of human society is a complex undertaking. Social scientists can be found recording the language of a tribe in the highlands of New Guinea or defining the effects of stockbrokers on Wall Street. They can study the rules that attempt to hold a society together, or the effects that follow when people bend or break those rules. Social and behavioral sciences take as their laboratory the entire global sphere of human interaction, and often form interdisciplinary teams to examine these complexities. To this enormous 'laboratory,' social science applies rigorous theoretical, empirical, and experimental analysis to the objective study of cultural, economic, and political institutions, and how humans behave within them.
The Division of Social Sciences at Abington offers courses in fields such as administration of justice, American studies, biobehavioral health, business, economics, exercise science and kinesiology, human development, labor and industrial relations, management, marketing, political science, psychology, and sociology. We administer the baccalaureate degree programs in Administration of Justice, American Studies, Business, and Psychological and Social Sciences. In addition, the division offers minors in American Studies, Anthropology, Business, Psychology, and Sociology. Students enrolled in our programs take courses from our division as well as from the division of Arts and Humanities and the division of Science and Engineering.
There is usually no single path to a particular career or vocation. Students from all of our majors have found positions in the business world and they have pursued further study in graduate or professional schools.
Faculty in the Division of Social SciencesSpecial Opportunities
Undergraduate Majors and Programs at Penn State in Social Sciences:
(Please click on the appropriate academic area to display a list of majors offered)