Child & Family Studies

• Foster intellectual curiosity. 

• Achieve breadth of knowledge across socio-anthropological substantive areas and depth within one area 

• Write and speak clearly and fluently while also incorporating the socio-anthropological knowledge (i.e. terms, concepts, and theories) that they have gained in their socio-anthropological coursework. 

• Practice the skill of connecting social observations with theory so that the theories alluded to in #3 can be used by graduates throughout their lives to develop sophisticated assessments about the causes and effects of human actions. 

• Develop a foundation of socio-anthropological theory about the way humans interact with the social and physical world such that they can use them to understand and assess a variety of human actions around the world. 

• Develop the skills and knowledge to conduct basic socio-anthropological investigations. This would include being familiar with the process by which an individual can: develop sociological hypotheses; collect pertinent sociological data; analyze data qualitatively and quantitatively; develop conclusions about the issue(s) in question. 

• Find, understand, and critically assess scholarly and analytic socio-anthropological literature. 

• Break free from the leash of cultural conformity by learning to think critically and creatively about issues for themselves without relying on others (authorities) to make the assessments for them. 

Full Course Catalogue  Course Descriptions  

Major Requirements

• Complete Core Research Methods and Statistics sequence and Senior Seminar (PSY200 or SOC 211 fulfills GS quantitative requirement)  
  • SOC 210 Research Methods & SOC 211 Statistics & SOC 490 Senior Seminar  
  • PSY 200 Research Design & Analysis I & PSY 201 Research Design & Analysis II & PSY405/406 Senior Seminar

Psychology Requirements

• Core Psychology requirement:  
  • PSY 100 General Psychology  
• Developmental Psychology Requirement:
  • PSY 230 (Lifespan Development) or PSY240 (Child Development)  
• One from Group I (Social, Developmental, and Clinical Approaches):
  • PSY 206 Social Psychology
  • PSY 210 Health Psychology
  • PSY 250 Personality 
  • PSY 390 Adult Psychopathology
  • PSY 391 Child Psychopathology  
• One from Group II (Biological, Cognitive, and Evolutionary Approaches):
  • PSY 205 Biological Psychology
  • PSY 319 Evolutionary Psychology
  • PSY 340 Cognition
  • PSY 355 Motivation  
• One from Group III (Child-Focused Elective courses):
  • PSY 345 Language Development
  • PSY 346 Social Development
  • PSY 347 Adolescent Development  
• Psychology Elective: Any additional psychology course not previously taken

Sociology Requirements

• All of the following core requirements:
  • SOC 101 Intro
  • SOC 213 Social Theory
• Additional specialized family course requirement:  
  • SOC 261 The Family
• The following lower level specialized courses:
  • SOC 203 Human Services
• Two of the following intermediate specialized courses:
  • SOC 302 Juvenile Delinquency
  • SOC 311 Domestic Violence
  • ANT 320 Sex, Gender, Culture
• The following advanced application courses:
  • SOC 470 Immigration & Transnational Families or another 400-level advanced application course in the family 

Field Study Experiences: The Albright College sociology and anthropology department hosts a variety of opportunities for field study within the City of Reading, and the city, in a way, becomes a socio-anthropological laboratory. Students have worked with faculty to assess local social service agencies, study changes in neighborhoods experiencing reinvestment, explore the impact of hydraulic fracturing (fracking) on communities, measure gang involvement and risk factors for gang membership, interview community members on town-gown relations, and compare religious services, among others.

Some of the field studies in which students have engaged took place in:

• Barber shops
• Pet stores
• Roller rinks
• Childcare facilities
• Nightclubs
• Homeless shelters
• Agricultural animal auctions
• Abortion clinics

Internships and Career Support

Students can connect with the Career Development Center to find internships where they can apply language proficiency in real‑world settings, locally, nationally, or internationally, and these can count toward major requirements with faculty approval.

ACRE Undergraduate Research

Students in any major can engage in interdisciplinary undergraduate research through the Albright Creative Research Experience (ACRE), partnering with faculty mentors to pursue independent research or creative projects and present their work beyond the classroom.