Credit Hours - 3

Definition of basic concepts: Culture and reproductive health; Culture, empowerment and development approaches; Reproductive health trends and prevalence; Components of reproductive health; HIV and AIDS, Inequalities and reproductive health; Biological differences and gender inequalities; Individual, household and policy level inequalities; Cultural contexts of reproductive health: family and kinship, marriage, status of females, culture and sexuality, cultural practices and issues of vulnerability; Major socio-economic issues: poverty, unemployment, education and illiteracy, women‘s equity issues; Health care situation of women; Cultural and societal diversities in reproductive health; Reproductive health services/ programmes and policy issues.

Credit Hours - 3

 Evolution and development of tourism; Tourism as a global phenomenon; Motivations, characteristics and destinations of tourists; Motivations to receive tourists: characteristics and national policies of recipient countries; Impact of tourism on recipient countries; History of Tourism development in Ghana; Tourist sites, resources and potentials; Ecotourism; Perceptions and attitudes of tourists and that of their host communities; Economic and socio-cultural impacts of tourism: on arts and crafts industry, sacred places, community values, the commodification of social life and relations, crime, prostitution, child exploitation, issues of local/community participation; Domestic tourism; State institutions and private organizations in the tourism industry; International and regional linkages; Problems and challenges facing the Tourism industry in Ghana.

Credit Hours - 3

Concept of penology; Correctional concepts; Cultural context of punishment and the treatment of offenders; Socialization and social control; Computing and measuring crime statistics and correctional statistics; Correctional populations and correctional staff; Theories of deviance; Physical, economic, social and psychological sanctions; Principles of punishment: jails, detention and community corrections; The prison experience; Correction of juvenile offenders; Capital punishment or the death penalty.

Credit Hours - 3

Major influential ideas in sociology of science through historical, colonial, post-colonial and contemporary studies, changing relationship among science, technology and society and the consequences of the production, distribution and consumption of scientific and other forms of technology, the normative structure of science, the ethos of science, genetic engineering, social media, environmental planning and disasters, ongoing sociological debates on the strengths and limitations of social constructionism, popular public debates about nature vs. nurture, the environment, ethnicity, sexual difference etc. science as embedded in the social, cultural, political, racialized and gendered worlds of modernity.

Credit Hours - 3

Modelling Society;  Probability distributions;  Point  estimation;  Confidence Intervals; Hypothesis Testing; ANOVA; Correlation Analysis; Simple Regression; Maximum Likelihood estimation of Simple Logistic Regression

Credit Hours - 3

Philosophies of positivism and phenomenology; Structuralism in Sociology; Consensus and conflict approaches; Neo-Functionalism; Marxism and Neo-Marxism: critical theory, the ideas of Habermas, and cultural analyses of modern societies; Historically-oriented Marxism; Macro and Micro or Structure and Agency debate; Interpretative tradition in Sociology and definition of the situation; social construction of reality; Exchange and rational choice theories; Feminist theories; Structuralism, poststructuralism— the ideas of Focault; sociolinguistics; Recent integrative developments in sociological theory; Postmodernism and postmodern social theories.

Credit Hours - 3

Nature and scope of the Sociology of Law; Law and its social significance; Social norms and law in traditional and modern societies; Major classical studies on Law; Living law and state/formal law;  Legal pluralism; Sociological approaches to law:  Functionalist, Marxist/Conflict, Durkheimian, Weberian, etc. perspectives; Deviance and social control in society; Mechanisms for conflict resolution: mediation, arbitration, adjudication, trial by ordeal, mob justice; honour killings, etc.; Types of law and citizens‘ invocation of law in modern society; Crime: its measurement and forms; The Justice Administrative System: the structure and role of the Police, Judiciary, Prison and Human Rights Institutions; Punishment and Corrections.

Credit Hours - 3

Historical perspectives on gender studies; Concepts in gender analysis; Feminist theories and Movements; Definition of status and roles of men/women in Africa and Ghana; Legal provisions for women‘s rights in Ghana; Women and men in politics in Ghana; Media and women in Ghana; Gender issues in rural communities (rights and access to land, households & rural production, etc.); Gender issues in rural development politics; Gender issues in urban communities (household & urban production); Gender issues in urban production and politics; Gender and reproductive health problems in Ghana; Gender issues and the environment; Gender based discrimination, violence and the law.

Credit Hours - 3

Definition, nature and scope of demography; Sources, uses and limitations of population data: Population census; sample surveys; vital registration; population registers; non-traditional sources (parish registers, baptismal records; administrative records); international sources; Population data in sub-Sahara Africa; Major demographic methods: balancing equation; rates and ratios, rates of population growth, standardization; Population composition: analysis of sex and age structure; age-sex pyramid; educational; economic and ethnic characteristics; The life table: assumption, types and functions, the conventional life table (construction; interpretation and use); Introduction to migration analysis: internal migration and moves; international migration.

Credit Hours - 3

Conceptualizing globalization; Historical analysis of globalization; Forces of globalization: neo-liberalism— market and democracy, multinationals, international organizations and financial institutions, ICTs, etc.; Issues of globalization— westernization and imperialism; Globalization and the transformation in the global economy, impact on employment within nation-states and state capacities; Impact of globalization on Third World Societies: the state, economic productive systems, consumption patterns and culture; International migration and its implications, labour activity and power in the Third World; Globalization and the Ghanaian Society: opportunities, constraints and contending issues.

Credit Hours - 3

Theories of industrial relations: the systems theory, Marxist model, social action model, human relations model, etc; Forces influencing patterns of industrial relations; Sources of conflicts and conflict management; Trade Unions: their aims and objectives, growth and development; Structure of Unions; Government and unions; Trade unions in the developing world especially Africa; Differences in social characteristics, growth and roles of trade unions in the developing world and the developed world; Trade unions in Ghana: an analysis of the various industrial relations Acts e.g. Acts 1958,  1965, 1971 etc.; The urban African industrial worker: a discussion of the earlier image and the later image of the urban African industrial worker; Trade Unions in a globalizing World: problems and challenges.

Credit Hours - 3

The nature, history and scope of Industrial Sociology; Nature of work and its centrality in human lives; Growth of formal organizations and bureaucracy; Sociological theories of formal organizations: classical and human relations schools; Management in formal organizations: the various levels, functions, managerial philosophies and styles of management; Industry and society; Sociology of worker participation in management and worker self-management.

Credit Hours - 3

Development as ideology and comparative study of conditions facilitating or impeding development in Third World countries (Africa, Asia and Latin America): State and postcolonial development policies/strategies and impacts; IMF and World Bank policies; Aid and Development; Population, urbanization and education; Agriculture and rural development in different contexts; Women and Development; Science, technology and industrialization; Culture, attitudes and development in different contexts; Quality of life and happiness, Environment and sustainable development. Illustrations from comparative case studies of selected countries on selected topics in development.

Credit Hours - 3

Inequalities among nations; Affluence and socio-economic deprivations; The Three Worlds: their characteristics, emergence and dynamism; European contact and colonialism in the world, Nationalism; Post-World War II context and origins of development as planned change; Meanings and measurement of development: socioeconomic indicators, human development indicators, human poverty indicators, etc; Theories of development and sociological approaches to social change: evolutionism, neo-evolutionism,  modernization theory, theory of underdevelopment or dependency theory, Political economy of international relations: ideologies of development: liberalism/capitalism, economic nationalism, Marxism, socialism/communism; Neo-liberalism and democracy.

Credit Hours - 3

Defining Africans and tracing their origin; The African environment and diversity and similarities of its people; Worldviews of Africans; Religious belief systems: the supernatural, witchcraft, sorcery, magic, etc.; Cultural norms, values and practices; Marriage practices, family, lineage and clan systems, kinship and descents; Land tenure systems and modes of economic production, distribution and exchange; Traditional political institutions; Law, religion and social control in African societies; European contact: impact of mercantilism, evangelism, slavery and colonialism on African peoples and cultures; Nationalism and independence; Westernization and domination of Africa and Africa‘s adaptations and responses. Illustrations of African societies and cultures from specific case studies of selected groups/societies in Eastern, Western, Northern, and Southern African regions.

Credit Hours - 3

Anthropology and its sub-fields;  Nature, scope and methodology of social/cultural anthropology; Evolution and diversity of humans; Culture; Environments and modes of making a living/Adaptive Strategies; Marriage, family, kinship and descent; Economic production, distribution and exchange; Political systems, Religion; Motivations for and impact of Colonialism, the Evolution of the World System; Cultural Exchange: Contact and Domination, adaptation and resistances of the weak; Contemporary Development in social anthropology; Applied social/cultural anthropology.

Credit Hours - 3

Family as basic social institution; the nexus between marriage, family and kinship; Importance of kinship, descent groups, descent systems; Inheritance and succession; Marriage: processes and forms; Marital stability, divorce and its Implications; Types of extended family in comparative perspective with reference to sub-Saharan Africa; Family in theoretical perspective: functionalist and conflict perspectives; Major key studies of the family; Social change and the family: emergence of the nuclear family and its implications for authority, power and interpersonal relations, decision-making, inheritance, welfare of members. Alternative family lifestyles in marriage of contemporary societies: singled; unmarried, cohabitation; single parenthood, blended families, gay couples, etc.

Credit Hours - 3

Health as a human value; Medical Sociology: Rationale and Scope; Culture, Health and Illness; Medical pluralism and hierarchy of resort; The doctor-patient encounter; Pharmaceuticals in the Developing World; Socio-cultural aspects of women‘s Health; The hospital as a social system; Technology and the Sociology of health care; The socio-cultural context of nursing in Ghana; Theoretical Perspectives in Medical Sociology/Anthropology.

Credit Hours - 3

Development and scope of political sociology; Power, domination and legitimacy; Authority patterns in society; Social stratification and political domination; Theories for analyzing the state and power: Structural Functionalism, Pluralism, Marxism, Neo-Marxism, and Weberian, Elite theory; Political socialization and participation; Politics in Africa: traditional political institutions, past and present; Colonialism and origin of the African state; Nationalism and postcolonial politics, political authoritarianism, corruption, military in politics; Economic and political elites in Africa; Economic liberalism and democratic governance in Africa; Class, ethnicity and political behaviour; Political parties, civil society organizations and the media.

Credit Hours - 3

Deviance as a universal phenomenon; Definitions; Development and scope of Sociology of Deviant Behaviour; Historical trends; Predisposition of individuals to deviate from social norms;  ―Causal‖  theories:  biological, psychological and sociological explanations (Functionalism, Marxism, etc. ), the positivists, measurement of crime, crime statistics, twins studies, somatotypes, theory of anomie, differential association, sub-cultural theories, principles of criminal law (concept of crime); white collar crime, victimless crime, etc.

Credit Hours - 3

Nature and field of the sociology of religion; Sociological, anthropological and psychological perspectives in religious phenomena; Mutual interaction of religion and other social institutions; Theoretical and substantive content of the sociology of religion. Theories of religious behaviour: Comte, Tylor, Frazer, Durkhein, Malinowski, Marx and Max Weber; Types of religious activity and modes of expression and organization in historical and comparative situations; religion in simple societies: totemism; ancestral veneration, magic, sorcery and witchcraft, myths and rituals; Religion in complex societies; Religious pluralism; Sectarianism, religious conflicts and accommodation; Traditional religion; Islam; Christianity and Asiatic religions; Scientific and technological development and secularization; ‗Post-modern‘ religious expressions.

Credit Hours - 3

The scope of population studies; History of world population, its growth and relation to development; Elements of demography; Population: composition, structure and characteristics; Population Theories: Malthusian Population Theory, Demographic Transition Theory, etc.; Population and development debate; Fertility and Reproductive Health, Family Planning and HIV/AIDS; Mortality; Urbanization, migration and its impact, Population growth and development in Ghana; Population policies.

Credit Hours - 3

The nexus between Culture and Development; Definition of culture, its attributes and components; Cultural values, attitudes and development in comparative perspectives; Kinship systems and development; Land tenure systems; Intangible assets in development; Gender and development; Concept of time, trust, property rights, institutional support and enabling environments for development;  Dynamics of global cultural industries; Governance and human rights; culture and health; Education culture and social capital, etc.

Credit Hours - 3

Concept of sociology as applied to the urban society; theoretical perspectives; basic structure of urban life; Development of the city; Industrialization and urbanization; Urbanism as a way of life; Urbanism and Politics, Religion; Economics, Family; Education, Health; urban growth and the development of shanty towns; Urban social relations and associational lives and their integrative functions; Urban social problems: crime; juvenile delinquency, drug abuse, prostitution, over crowing, waste management, etc.

Credit Hours - 3

Imperatives of African rural development; Development and underdevelopment theory and comparative perspectives; Globalization and the political economy of rural poverty; Rural poverty indicators; The roles of the state in rural development; Social infrastructure and rural development; Women, children and rural poverty alleviation; The land question and rural development; NGOs and local initiatives in the rural sector; Environmental issues in rural development; A critique of selected rural development projects.

Credit Hours - 2

Historical overview of Rural Sociology; Conceptual problems in Rural Sociology; Basic structure of rural societies; Settlement patterns; Family arrangements; Politics; Religion; Health; Education; Economy; Migration and rural communities; Social change and rural communities; Agents of rural transformation: District Assemblies, NGOs/Civil Society Organizations, Faith Based Organizations, Community-Based Organizations; Conducting research in rural communities; linkages between rural and urban communities.

Credit Hours - 3

Populations and samples; frequency tables and graphs; measures of central tendency (mode, median, mean); describing the variability of distributions; Introduction to inference: the normal Curve; distribution of sampling means; standard error of estimates; Inference with the Normal Curve: hypothesis testing and interval estimation; confidence interval using the normal distribution; hypothesis testing with the normal curve; Inference with the ‗’t‘ Distribution: the ‘t‘ distribution and unbiased estimates; relationship between the normal and ‗’t‘ distribution; degrees of freedom when estimating parameters; when to use the ‗’t‘ distribution; confidence interval using the ‗’t‘ distribution; Inference with the Chi-Square Distribution: the chi-square test for goodness of fit; the chi-square test for independence; Predictive Techniques: the regression model; criterion of best fit; calculating the slope; calculating the Y intercept; estimating the regression line; using the regression equation for prediction; Correlation: correlation as a descriptive technique; correlation as an inferential statistics.

Credit Hours - 3

Importance of social research in the Social Sciences and Sociology; Proposal writing: statement of the problem, objectives, hypotheses, operationalization of key concepts, Literature Review; Types of research; quantitative and qualitative research paradigms, research design/plan; Sampling Procedures; Sources of data: primary and secondary; Methods of data collection: questionnaires and interview guides design, observation participant, observation, use of key informants, content analysis, focus-group discussions, advantages and disadvantages of the methods for data gathering, etc. Ethical considerations; Techniques for data presentation and analysis; Report writing: abstracts and executive summaries, referencing, sectioning, formatting, editing, etc.

Credit Hours - 3

Group dynamics from a social psychological perspective: intra-group process; the dimension of group structure; communication; role; influence and power structure; collective influence on individual behaviour; de-individuation and the spread of group effects; intra-group and inter-group conflict and its resolution; organizational behaviour; social influence processes and social exchange; environmental influence on social behaviour and the social developmental implications of social psychology.

Credit Hours - 3

The field and definitional issues; Strategies of enquiry: problems with social psychological research; Social learning: the humanizing process; Social perception: impression formation, social attribution; Social motivation: the achievement motive and its practical implications; Social cognition: cognitive consistency theories; Interpersonal attraction; Social attitudes: attitude measurement: attitude formation and attitude change; communication: persuasive communication; Dissonance: concept, nature, effects: Prejudice its causes, consequences and cure or prevention; Aggression: frustration-aggression hypothesis: modelling of aggressive behaviour; Prosocial behaviour: bystander intervention in emergencies: effects of altruism.

Credit Hours - 3

Meaning of perspectives in social theory; Structuralism versus agency/action debate in Sociology; Philosophies of positivism and phenomenology and their influence on sociological theories and research methods; Structural functionalism: from Durkheim, Parsons, Merton to Alexander; Marxism and Conflict Theory: from Marx, Neo-Marxism (Althusser, Lukacs, Gramsci) to Critical Theory; ―Non-Marxist‖ Conflict theory: Dahrendorf and Coser.; Historically-Oriented  Marxism (Dependency and  World  System  Theory) Symbolic Interactionism: Mead, Blummer and Goffman; Ethnomethodology: the works of Garfinkel, etc., Feminist Theory.

Credit Hours - 3

Nature of social thought and social theory; Context and development of Sociology; Founders of Sociology: Comte, social context, major ideas and evaluation of Comte‘s contribution to social theory; Herbert Spencer, social context, major ideas and evaluation of Spencer‘s contribution to social theory; Emile Durkheim, social context, major ideas and evaluation of Durkheim‘s contribution to social thought; Karl Marx, the context, major ideas: the notion of dialectics; historical materialism, social classes and their transformation, vision of a new society, Marx‘s analyses of political economy and Marx‘s contribution to social theory; Max Weber: context and major ideas: definition of sociology; methodology of the social science: categories of social action; patterns of authority, rationality and bureaucracy; the protestant ethic thesis and its critics and Weber‘s contribution to social theory; Vilfredo Pareto: elite theory; George Simmel- formal sociology and analysis of conflict; Sigmund Freud and the significance of his ideas for social analysis.

Credit Hours - 3

Concept of social structure; Social change: transition from tradition to modernity: impact of colonialism; Demographic changes: rural-urban migration; Political institution in transition: democratic governance, local government structure (District Assemblies); Religious institution in transition: the impact of Christianity and Islam; Family and functions, family in transition; new marriage markets: inheritance and interstate succession law; Economic modernization, Formal education and new elites; Social stratification, Health institutions in transition; Contemporary social issues and problems: urbanization and urban life, bribery and corruption, ethnicity, etc.

Credit Hours - 3

The Social Structure of Ghana; The land, people and their spatial distribution; Traditional world view;  Family, kinship and lineage system; Population trends in traditional societies; Traditional religious beliefs and their social functions; Witchcraft, magic, sorcery and divination; Traditional Economy: land tenure system, modes of production and distribution; Chieftaincy: structure and function; Modes of socialization: Rites of passage; Crime and crime Control in Traditional Societies.

Credit Hours - 3

Nature and functions of social institutions; Social institutions in comparative perspective; Marriage, family and kinship systems; Religion and modes of religious expression; Political Organizations: the maintenance of law and order in contrasting political systems; Formal organizations and bureaucracy; Contemporary social issues: population and development, ethnicity, bribery and corruption, problems of the urban and rural environments.

Credit Hours - 3

Man as a social animal and the basis of social life; Social interaction and the constitution of society; The sociological perspective on society; Building blocks of social organization; Concepts for analyzing social structure and culture: norms, folkways, mores, mores, values, status and role, ethnocentrism, cultural relativity, assimilation and multiculturalism, etc.; Social hierarchy and differential rewards; groups and organizations; Cultural background of personality; Socialization; Social institutions: the family, etc.; Social order and social conflict, Deviance and social control; Social change; Major founders of Sociology; Careers in Sociology.

Credit Hours - 3

Evolution and diversity of humanity; Unities and diversities in social organizations; Ecology, economy and society; Modes of subsistence and adaptation: hunters and gatherers/foraging, horticulture,  agriculture, pastoralism,  modern industrialized economies –  capitalism, communism/ socialism, mixed economies; Exchange systems; Marriage, family and kinship; Religious beliefs, values, and practices; Political organizations; Health, disease and culture; Imperialism, colonialism, development and underdevelopment.

Credit Hours - 3

Context and origin of sociology; Major founders of Sociology; Sociology and other social sciences; Sociological imagination/mindfulness; Importance of social research and sociological methods for investigating the social world: social surveys and field studies, tools for gathering data: questionnaires, participant and non-participant observation; interviews, focus- group discussions, uses of documentary sources and historical materials, ethical issues etc.; Sociological concepts and terms for analyzing society and culture: social structure, institutions; social functions; social system, social change etc.; Socialization; Social and gender stratification; Family and other social institutions; Deviance and social control; Population, communities and urbanization; Uses of sociological knowledge and careers in Sociology.