Psychology vs. Sociology

[tgf123]

I have been fixed on Psych for a long time, but have recently decided to explore Sociology. My main problem with Psych is that as it studies such narrow processes, it may be hard to get a holistic view of the human person. I am also very interested in society and culture, in relation to the individual. I'm still an undergrad though, and I still have a lot of time to think it over, and will read a lot more about both areas, and try to find research opportunities in both.

More concretely, and prematurely I must admit, I was wondering how the graduate school situation compares between the two disciplines. Is there a lot of overlap in sociology and social psych in academia? What about from the admissions standpoint? Which is more competitive?

Thanks!

[LJK]

Psychology tends to look at the individual within a cultural context or across cultural contexts, looking at how culture affects the individual. Sociology looks at the culture which is made up of individuals but tends not to look so narrowly at each individual. I think its a micro/macro type difference. You really need to decide which viewpoint you would like to come from to decide between the disciplines. Anthropology is also at the broader cultural level but tends to infer it from individual level experiences. If you are being drawn toward sociology, you should take a look at anthropology also.

As far as overlap, my current institution has a few classes that are cross listed at the undergrad level. I believe at the grad level there are classes that can count across the departments but it is rare for a student to use a class in the other department for their degree.

As far as competition, there are way more psychology majors than there are sociology majors at most universities (I believe) but then there are probably also more spots in psychology grad programs than in sociology programs. So that may be a wash. The real issue is funding. Psychology is considered a STEM field. That translates into more funded students, a larger stipend for students who are funded and an overall better funding atmosphere. If everyone in a program is funded, there is less financial based competition among students. STEM profs tend to believe that students should be paid to work as graduate students, other profs don't necessarily believe the same thing when it comes to work that directly relates to the student's degree. If the work is to benefit the prof, paid; if the work is to benefit the student, school work and therefore unpaid. That might not be true everywhere or of every prof but that seems to be the general difference.

[lewin]

Great points by both posters.

The psychologists around here joke that sociology has all these grand theories but they can't predict how people will act in any given situation. You say psychology is "narrow", they'd say it's "precise".

[Lisa44201]

My personal interest is criminal behavior, which is right on the border of psychology and sociology. A psychologist will look at someone who has committed a crime and try to figure out what happened in that person's life that caused that person to commit that crime. Sociologists (criminologists, really) will look at social factors, such as poverty, social support, presence or absence of social welfare programs, etc. As another poster stated, it's the difference between the micro view and the macro view: are you looking at individual trees, or the forest?

It's going to depend on what you want to do, career-wise. Social psychology is pretty cool, if you're interested in why groups of people do things, or why individuals behave in certain ways in certain situations. I have a hard time wrapping my brain around some of the macro theories in Sociology, which is why I'm majoring in Psychology

I have been fixed on Psych for a long time, but have recently decided to explore Sociology. My main problem with Psych is that as it studies such narrow processes, it may be hard to get a holistic view of the human person. I am also very interested in society and culture, in relation to the individual. I'm still an undergrad though, and I still have a lot of time to think it over, and will read a lot more about both areas, and try to find research opportunities in both.

More concretely, and prematurely I must admit, I was wondering how the graduate school situation compares between the two disciplines. Is there a lot of overlap in sociology and social psych in academia? What about from the admissions standpoint? Which is more competitive?

Thanks!

[tauren]

My personal interest is criminal behavior, which is right on the border of psychology and sociology. A psychologist will look at someone who has committed a crime and try to figure out what happened in that person's life that caused that person to commit that crime. Sociologists (criminologists, really) will look at social factors, such as poverty, social support, presence or absence of social welfare programs, etc. As another poster stated, it's the difference between the micro view and the macro view: are you looking at individual trees, or the forest?

It's going to depend on what you want to do, career-wise. Social psychology is pretty cool, if you're interested in why groups of people do things, or why individuals behave in certain ways in certain situations. I have a hard time wrapping my brain around some of the macro theories in Sociology, which is why I'm majoring in Psychology

Just wanted to add that psychologists may also look at social factors but at an individual level(e.g. SES of the individual, social support network, family structure) instead of the community level.

[neuropsych76]

Great info in the above posts.

I'm a psychology major and sociology minor but I would never consider going to grad school in sociology. I like learning about sociology but for me I like the neuroscience involved with psychology

[Mr. Tea]

Don't just think about the kinds of questions that researchers in either discipline have explored historically. Think about the methods that you will learn in one discipline or the other. Which can best answer the questions that YOU want to explore? In my opinion, higher education departs from early education primarily because you learn more methods rather than concepts. Disciplinary boundaries are fuzzy in terms of the questions they try to answer, but different disciplines have different traditions regarding how they try to answer those questions.

[cautiouslyoptimistic]

Sociology is vastly less competitive, particularly if you have research experience. So, you may want to ask yourself, is it better to be at a top soc program or a less prestigious psych program?