Social Sciences
The Social Sciences department offers courses in Anthropology, Economics, Psychology, Sociology, and Human Services. Students may major in three of these areas: Human Services, Psychology, and Sociology. Lasell also offers minors in Psychology, Women’s Studies and Child and Adolescent Studies. The Social Sciences and Justice Studies departments cooperate in offering interdisciplinary minors in Youth and Crime, and in Forensic Studies. Social science courses are anchored in a liberal arts approach to education with the goal of helping students apply critical thinking skills to social and psychological questions.

Human Services. Students who elect this major are introduced to a perspective integrating psychological and sociological approaches. Students learn about how small groups operate, the roles of community and family, contemporary social problems, how social policy is formulated, and the impact of economics on social service issues.

Psychology. Contemporary psychologists study human behavior, feelings, and thought. Students learn how functional and dysfunctional behavior patterns develop, and they learn how individuals’ experiences are transformed through biological and neurological processes and psychological events.

Sociology. Sociology courses focus on the relationship between social behavior and the institutions of human society. Students study the relationship between the individual and culture, the stratification of individuals into groups, and how social institutions, such as the family, education, and political systems, develop, operate, breakdown and get repaired.