Social Science minor students must complete 18 credits from at least three different disciplines from the following list of courses:

COURSES:

COM 231 Mass Media and Society
This course examines the nature of mass communication systems, the communication industries, the media support systems, and the impact of mass communication on society.  Form, content, and consequences of mass media are emphasized through lectures, research, discussion, and application to the student's own media experiences.  (3 credits)

COM 301 Communication Theory
This course is an overview of theoretical perspectives on the dimensions and forms of communication in diverse contexts such as interpersonal, group, organizational, and rhetorical.  Prerequisite: COM 111 (3 credits)

COM 340 Persuasion and Attitude Change
This course examines the basic theories and techniques of influence, providing the student with a critical awareness of the nature, function, and scope of persuasion.  The class covers such concepts as attitudes, credibility, resistance to persuasion, ethics, logic and argumentation, and propaganda. (3 credits)

ECO 211 Microeconomics
This course is the study of allocation of scarce resources at the level of the individual, the household, and the firm.  Included are human motivation and preferences, the market, the function of prices, supply, demand, perfect and imperfect competition, and selected policy questions.  Christian perspectives on the nature of mankind, market outcomes, the role of government, and the presuppositions of modern economic analysis are explored.  (3 credits)

ECO 212 Macroeconomics
This course is an introduction to the major problems facing national economies: inflation, unemployment, growth, and poverty.  The role of fiscal, monetary, and other government policies is examined.  Christian perspectives on mankind's stewardship responsibilities are explored. (3 credits)

POL 201 American Government and Politics
This is a course in the organization and processes of American national government.  It examines the contemporary socio-political culture, constitutional foundations, and major institutions and processes of American politics.  (3 credits)

PSY 101 General Psychology
This course includes an overview of human development, personality, mental abilities, motivation and emotion, psychological disorders and treatment, and health psychology.  These issues are viewed in the light of a biblical view of humans. (3 credits)

PSY 201 Psychology of Lfespan Development
This course provides an opportunity for the student to explore and evaluate both secular and Christian theories related to the study of human development and the self.  The course will examine biological, cognitive, spiritual, and psychosocial perspectives on our growth and maturation from conception to old age.  The student will utilize research, observation, interviews, field work, and self-evaluation to gain a more comprehensive understanding of their own experience as a person in relationship with God, others, and creation.  (3 credits) (Cross-listed as EDU 202)

PSY 202 Educational Psychology: The Nurture of Students
This course answers the epistemological question: How does a student know?  Views of motivation, behavior, classroom management, and learning that emerge from or are in harmony with the Bible are explored.  Special emphasis is placed on a biblical approach both to knowing and to truth, as personified in Jesus Christ.  Prerequisite: PSY 201. (3 credits) (Cross-listed EDU 202)

SOC 101 Principles of Sociology
This course focuses on the importance of Christian involvement in sociology and how this relates to the three major areas of the field: social interaction, social concerns, and social institutions.  In-class and out-of-class research projects are included in order to provide the beginning student exposure to important methodological tools. (3 credits)

SOC 153 Cultural Anthropology
This course involves the study of cultural diversity around the world, both historically and geographically.  The course intorduces the foundational elements of cultural anthropology including topics fieldwork, cultural relativism, ethnocentrism, participant observation, ethnography, as well as major anthropological theories.  The course addresses the diversity as well as commonality of cultural systems, both in time and space, through studying major components of cultural systems, such as kinship, religion, politics, and economics.  Students are exposed to an awareness of their place within a particular cultural context, as well as their culture's place within a global and historical context.  (3 credits)