Psychology

[Wolf Kanno]

Sociology is interesting but I found it to be pretty depressing. I find that the main difference in Psychology and Sociology is that Psychology feels humans have free will whereas Sociology pretty much tells you we don't have free will and are products of society.

Um. What?

Psychology - The study of the individual mind
Sociology - The study of individuals in relation to groups, societies, inter-personal dynamics.

Sociology has nothing to do with denying the idea of free will (nor is the main point of Psychology to promote the idea of free will). Sociology has everything to do with taking the basics of Psychology (brain development, behavior, personalities, etc) and applying it to real world social situations.

Example. My University's Psych department offers a class on Abnormal Psychology which deals with abnormal behavior and psychopathology. Our Soc department offers a class on Deviant Behavior which takes people who are deviant either by relative societal standards or suffering from mental disorders and see how they function, integrate, and relate to societies, communities, families. Get it?

My sociology class mainly focused on the Nurture aspect of human growth and developement and rarely if never focused on genetics as a factor (unless we were' discussing ethnic minorities). It focused on how society affects the individual and believe me when you look at the research it was terribly depressing. I'm bad with names, but the experiment involving authority and obediance, which used two test subjects (one being an actor in on the experiment) doing the shock treatment is not my idea of human beings showing the strength of their personal moral beliefs but rather proof that the vast majority are sheep.