May 16, 2024

2024-2025 SLCC General Catalog

Social & Behavioral Sciences: AA

Associate of Arts | 61 credits

Program Website
Academic Advising

Program Description
The A.A. in Social & Behavioral Sciences is a “general transfer degree” designed to function as the default degree for all students in the “Social & Behavioral Sciences Area of Study” if a declared major program hasn’t been selected.

The degree serves students by providing structured guidance toward developing knowledge and skills in the social and behavioral sciences, including research skills and language skills. It prepares them to declare a major at SLCC or upon transfer to a university. The degree can fulfill two or three foundational courses or some other requirement in a major program at a university, along with ample flexibility to fulfill general elective requirements.

Other benefits of this general transfer degree are:

It may act as an exploratory degree for students who may be unsure about a specific program or programs,
It can work as a way for students who have changed majors from another school to move into the Social & Behavioral Sciences “Area of Study” more readily.

Students will be assessed according to how well they achieve the following learning outcomes:

Demonstrate an understanding of science as a way of knowing about the social world.
Apply disciplinary theories, concepts, and methods to increase understanding of human behavior, social interaction, and social institutions.
Explain the diverse ways in which humans organize, structure, rationalize, and govern their societies and cultures over time.
Demonstrate fundamental skills in research, such as rigorous and ethical scientific thinking, how issues are objectified for study, how data is collected and analyzed, and how new understandings of social phenomena are achieved, evaluated, and disseminated.

Disciplines that make up this Social and Behavioral Sciences degree include:

Anthropology
Economics
Education
Ethnic Studies
Family and Human Studies
Political Science
Psychology
Social Work
Sociology

Transfer/Articulation Information
Please refer to the Student Resources section of the SLCC University Transfer webpage.

Estimated Cost for Students
Tuition and student fees: http://www.slcc.edu/student/financial/tuition-fees.aspx
Books: $35 to $125
Supplies: $0 to $20
Course Fees: $0 to $50

General Education Requirements

Complete all General Education courses. Refer to Notes for program-specific requirements and recommendations.

Associate of Science (AS) / Associate of Arts (AA) Degree General Education Requirements

Courses that meet General Education requirements may be used to meet program requirements where indicated. If this option is chosen, students must complete additional program or elective courses to meet the total credit hour requirement. Please meet with an academic advisor to discuss options.

Program General Education Notes

American Institutions (AI) (Recommended):

ECON 1740 , POLS 1100

Quantitative Literacy (QL) (Recommended):

MATH 1030 , MATH 1040 , MATH 1050

Communications (CM) (Recommended):

COMM 1020 , COMM 1500 , GEOG 1800 , PHIL 1250

International & Global (IG) (Recommended):

ANTH 1010 , GEOG 1300 , GEOG 1400 , HLTH 1050 , INTL 2240 , POLS 2100 , POLS 2200

Humanities (HU) (Recommended):

ANTH 2120 , ENGL 2030 , ENGL 2280 , ENGL 2640 , ENGL 2760 , ENGL 2850 , HIST 2200 , HIST 2600 , HIST 2800 , INTL 2040 , PHIL 1120 , RELS 2400

Life Science (LS) (Recommended):

ANTH 1020 , ANTH 2281 , BIOL 1120 , ENVS 1400

Physical Science (PS) (Recommended):

ATMO 1010 , ATMO 1020 , GEOG 1700

Social Science (SS) (Recommended):

FHS 1500 , PSY 1010 , SOC 1010

Social Science + Diversity (SS/DV) (Recommended):

CJ 1010 , EDU 1400 , ETHS 2400 , ETHS 2410 , ETHS 2420 , ETHS 2430 , ETHS 2440 , SOC 2370 , SOC 2630

Program Requirements

Required Courses (13 credits)

Pathways Course (1 course)

Choose one “Pathways” course or any “SS” or “SS,DV” course. Requirement met if taken to fulfill General Education “SS” area. Take instead a course from the “Allied” category.

Research Foundations Course (1 course)

Choose one “Research” course.

Allied Course - 1 course

If needed, choose any course at the 1000-level or higher with the following prefixes:

ANTH, ATMO, BUS, CHL, COMM, CJ, CPS, ECON, EDU, ENGL, ESL, ETHS, FHS, FIN, GEOG, HIST, HUMA, IDS, INTL, LE, MATH, MGT, MKTG, POLS, PHIL, PSY, RELS, SOC, SLSS, SW (with or without “SS” or “SS,DV” designations)

Or from the following individual courses:

ENVS 1400, BIOL 2220, CSIS 1070, CTEL 1010, ENGR 1070, FLM 1070, HLTH 1050, HLTH 1110, HS 2050, LANG 1010, LS 1010, LS 1020, LIS 2030, MORT 1010, MORT 1100, MUSC 1040, MUSC 1080.

Allied courses cannot already fulfill other degree requirements.

Language Course - 1 course

Take a language course with the “LN” designation (numbered 1020, 2010, 2020 or SPN 2040 or another “heritage-speaker” course), or by taking a language proficiency exam that awards 5 credits at the 1020-level.

Note: 1000-level LANG courses are 5 credit hours; 2000-level LANG courses are 4 credit hours.

Exploration Course - 1 course (if needed)

Take only if threshold of 13 credit hours has not been met by other program categories above.

Choose any course at the 1000-level or higher with the following prefixes: ANTH, ECON, EDU, ETHS, FHS, POLS, PSY, SOC, or SW (with or without “SS” or “SS,DV” designations).

Exploration courses cannot already fulfill other degree requirements.

Elective Courses (14-15 credits)

Choose any courses at the 1000-level or higher in any discipline.

Note Taking language conversation courses (1 credit hour) can be repeated; CLAC courses (1-2 credit hours) may be combined with “parent” courses (3 credit hours); and special topics (1-3 credit hours), or other language-prefix courses, can be arranged to arrive at 13 or 14 credit hours.

Time to Completion & Graduation Map

Social & Behavioral Sciences AA: Full-time
Estimated time to completion is Four (4) semesters.

Program Learning Outcomes

Program learning outcome alignment with Student Learning Outcomes in brackets.

Demonstrate an understanding of science as a way of knowing about the social world. [1,2,3,4,6,8,9]
Apply disciplinary theories, concepts, and methods to increase understanding of human behavior, social interaction, and social institutions. [1,2,3,4,6,8,9]
Explain the diverse ways in which humans organize, structure, rationalize, and govern their societies and cultures over time. [1,2,4,6,8]
Demonstrate fundamental skills in research, such as rigorous and ethical scientific thinking, how issues are objectified for study, how data is collected and analyzed, and how new understandings of social phenomena are achieved, evaluated, and disseminated. [1,2,3,4,6,7,8,9]