# Psychology or sociology?



## Chris3322 (Aug 4, 2010)

Hi everyone, I have to take one of these classes as part of my business major. Both are introductory courses. What I want to know is which one is more enjoyable? Do psychology courses include exercises that will make me feel uncomfortable in class? Hate to sound lazy, but since I am taking 16 credit hours of hard business classes, which one is easier? I need one break class out of the five I am going to be taking. Thanks.


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## broseph (Jan 18, 2010)

No one can say. It all depends on the student, the professor, and the school. Take whichever one seems more interesting to you. And check out ratemyprofessor.com


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## lostinlife (Jun 2, 2010)

I was a psych major. Depends on the type of intro class & the professor...is it PSYC 101 or is it like Intro to Neurobiology or Intro to Statistics for Psych? In my experience, most lower psych classes are pretty easy and average on the reading load. If you take a large lecture-based psych class and the teacher posts the lecture slides, you might be able to get away with not coming to class except for exams and studying on your own. You might have to do some sort of research experiment or fulfill a research requirement though, which can take up a significant amount of time.


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## Just Lurking (Feb 8, 2007)

I've taken introductory courses for both subjects and they were run exactly the same: Entirely lecture-based with minimal discussion (completely voluntary), very minimal group work (more along the lines of "fill out this exercise sheet and work with other people if you'd like"), and graded through four multiple choice tests worth 25% each.

Personally, I found Psychology a little easier than Sociology.

That's just my own experience though.. your school could be quite different of course.


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## sherrylee (Aug 23, 2009)

Sociology! I thought psychology was a bit more difficult.


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## Belshazzar (Apr 12, 2010)

broseph said:


> No one can say. It all depends on the student, the professor, and the school. Take whichever one seems more interesting to you. And check out ratemyprofessor.com


This. I never had any in-class exercises for psych courses, except for the occasional presentation for smaller courses. Psych was one of my majors, though, my school never offered sociology courses so I can't compare the two.


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## Cedilla (Dec 25, 2009)

I took Intro to Sociology last semester, my teacher was really easy in that he scaled everyone's grade to the point where almost everyone got an A. However the test were hard in that class. Every test we had, I scored the highest in the class on, and I was only making D's and C's on the test. Most of the people in class failed all the test.

I would ask around to see who the easy teachers are, or use "ratemyprofessor.com". I personally found sociology pretty interesting though. The class I took mostly focused on social interaction on a large scale, by learning about the effects of various social institutions on society as a whole.


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## JEmerson (Mar 25, 2010)

I'm taking both Psych and Sociology right now, actually. In terms of difficulty, I honestly wouldn't call either of them a "break" class, although a lot of that depends on the person teaching it. Some Psych classes will require 5 page papers, others will grade solely on multiple choice tests. 

Looking at the subject matter, I'm finding Psych a lot more interesting. I think it's a fascinating subject, something I can't say about Soc. And for group vs. individual work, that's another thing that is totally dependent on the teacher, not the subject. In my Psych class, we have occasional exercises and things that we have to break into groups for, but we don't get graded on. We haven't and don't have to do any presentations in front of the class though.


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## Monroee (Aug 26, 2009)

Whether you do class interaction is entirely based on your professor. 

I'm a Psych major. I took Intro to Psych last semester, and this semester I'm taking Into to Soc. In my personal opinion, Psych is more interesting (Psych major, duh :b) and also easier to understand. I find the theorists and theories concerning Sociology a bit more difficult to grasp although not too hard. Just go with whatever seems more interesting. Studying individuals or studying how people interact. 

FYI, I'm currently taking Development Psychology: Lifespan. Hardest class I've ever had. :afr


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