 Well sociology is the study of human societies and that includes individuals within those societies and that you know all the social institutions such as family, how we make decisions, educational processes including just the ones of socialization within your family and also religion and polity or how we make decisions and economics you know how we how we use exchange of goods and services and it is a different way of thinking and understanding the world whether it's the human social world or the natural environment and our relationship with the natural environment and it gives us a kind of tool kit for understanding why we have the experiences we have and why we see the world and the issues the way that we see them so. Sociology focuses on group interactions so the unit of analysis is the group in contrast with psychology that focuses more on the individual the mind and individual behavior. A lot of other social sciences you know they're very much focused on the individual and as they should be but there's this assumption in sociology that people's behavior is influenced by things outside of them. We're all born into this world with identities and genders and racial ethnic identities and all that matters you know and it matters more to some people than others and it doesn't define us and it doesn't you know kind of prescribe us for a particular life outcome but it does influence the pathways that we may find ourselves on. Sometimes I think about it like a like an iceberg how 90% of the mass of an iceberg is under the water and can't see it. Sociologists tend to think about society in that way as well. There's certain aspects of our world that we're well aware of but there's a whole slew of other issues that are hidden or just kind of embedded in in these larger structures and to be a good sociologist or to think like a sociologist does mean that sometimes we try to delve underwater and try to see that 90% that's hidden from the everyday world. So the goal for sociologists is to make the familiar unfamiliar so you don't take for granted the assumptions. You actually might start with the assumptions and look at those critically in terms of how does it how do those assumptions shape the way that we see things. So for example we are trained in the United States to have an individualistic orientation right we're taught that the United States is a meritocracy there's a strong ethos of individualism that people will succeed and fail based on either their work ethic or their talent or their combination of the two right and so that's kind of assumption that's built into basically all of our major social institutions and so as a sociologist we ask the question what is that true right and so you kind of flip it and don't take that assumption for granted you actually interrogate the assumption and then go out and investigate to see if that's the case and so then that opens up an opportunity for you to see things that you otherwise wouldn't see. Our cultures affect often the way we explain our behaviors. Your behavior, my behavior is as much biographical as it is historic. It is historic in the sense that larger social institutions and forces intersect with my biography to completely explain why I do what I do and how I do what I do and where I do what I do but it's not just constraints macro-social structures do facilitate our behaviors. That to me is is is one of the powers of sociology is that we're able to look outside of the individual and see how there's these other things in the world these other powers in the world that are providing opportunities for some providing constraints for others and situating us on particular pathways. Individualism matters you know the individual behaviors and psyche those things matter but but culture is powerful and part of its power is that it's sometimes hidden and it's this embedded unrecognized component of our day-to-day world. Sociology tries to uncover that and tries to you know kind of rip the curtain back so that we can see how it is that these things matter these things influence us they don't dictate our outcomes they they are influential. So sociology is a really valuable tool kit it's a way of engaging systematically with the world we watch patterns and we look at patterns and we look at social institutions like the education system the health care system the criminal justice system and media sociologists are everywhere and they're using sociological perspectives and the work that they do in every day and that could include business it could include marketing it could include social work it could include people who are doing number crunching for either hospitals or for government agencies. If you're working for government people want to assess right their operations what's happening how people perceive you know the services that they're receiving if you look at the education system they've got standardized tests they're doing analysis in terms of students attendance right pass rates truancy issues mastery of content I mean even the private sectors they want to evaluate the effectiveness of their operations right so what are their goals in terms of their business are they meeting their goals are their gaps what can they do better I mean all of that kind of leads you in the direction of evidence-based decision-making processes. We have former students who are lawyers we have some that work for universities where they do institutional research to find out what the trends are for their particular students we have some that work with the Census Bureau we have some that work in social services many who with just a bachelor's degree do go on to work for social services. There are some who are who have been employed by multinational corporations to do marketing research who buys what where when how and with whom those are job opportunities that sociologists tend to fail. I also like to think about sociology as a people science if you're curious about the world you might make a good sociologist if you if you're a people watcher I think that that makes you a good sociologist or if you ever just ask what if you're ever curious about why the world exists the way that it does or why people do the things that they do those are inherently good sociological questions. I like irreverent questions questions that will shake people's belief and then you know we can talk about how do we best answer these questions using evidence empirical evidence not just no folk tales