Sociology or Social Work?

Question

I'd like to become a social worker in the future but I'm not sure what to pick as my major. I know, it should be obvious but would taking sociology give me a better range of jobs?

One of the colleges I'm applying to offers a reduced tuition for Sociology but not Social Work and I have noticed that many others don't even offer Social Work!


What's the difference between the two? Which should I pick?

Is the pay for a social worker really that bad?

Answer 1

Sociology is the study of the humans' social world. It includes topics like discrimination, social class, social order, social status, social structure and stuff. If you want to do social work, the social work degree is definately better because you will be studying more about how to help a divorced family or how to help a teenager who got into some teenage crisis sth like that. So, sociology or psychology are the ones who's finding out all those theories and stuff and social worker are the one who use it. They are not the same. Well, in fact, my mom was a social worker and from what I heard, you need a social work degree to become a more specific or official social worker, so I would recommend social work over sociology.

Just for your information, social workers are the one who are solving those serious and insane problems. The bad things is they do work really hard and get paid very little. You also go to dangerous neighbourhood, talk to insane people and face very difficult challenges with difficult kids. But in my opinion, its one of the most meaningful job and you really get to help a lot of people. One of the important thing is you have the ability to change people's lives. You will be helping hopeless kids who cuts schools because someone is bullying them in school, teachers think they're lazy and parents are too busy to care. And you will be supporting them and help them face those diffcult things in life. Its difficult, and low paid, but it makes you a hero.

Answer 2

* Sociology is the academic study of how people behave in groups and why. It's all about the "why do they do that" and is related to psychology. Where psychology seeks to understand individuals, sociology seeks to understand societal groups. * Social Science is the broad term referring to the academic fields that look at society from a social perspective. The social sciences include anthropology, economics, geography, history, political science, organizational behavior, sociology, psychology, and the like. It is a multi-disciplinary approach to learning how people behave and why. * Social Work is a professional field interested not as much in "why" people do what they do but instead in "how" can I fix this right now. It is related to counseling and includes some counseling education. The social worker seeks to solve problems whereas the social scientist seeks to explain them. So given a situation that we have an individual that steals other people's property: The sociologist will examine why he behaves this way and seek to understand his motivations and how he came to not respect other people's property. The generalist social scientist will consider whether economic or politic conditions contributed to his behavior. The social worker will meet with him and try to find a way to get him to not steal people's property any longer by considering what the social scientists studied and applying that information to this client. Let's say he stole food because the economy is bad: The sociologist will say that he was simply meeting his needs (maybe Maslow's Hierarchy) and everyone would behave the same in his situation. The social scientist might show us that throughout history, this has been the case when the economy is bad. The social worker will determine if some additional training in a job skill or having him move somewhere else to find a job will solve the problem. Social sciences are so cool! Be warned though - these professionals tend to need an advanced degree (MA, MSW, PhD) and they tend not to get paid very well. You can't find too many BSW programs because of the need for counseling education for social workers. Counseling is usually taught at the graduate level. A BA/BS is sociology or social sciences is sufficient to enter the profession in some lower-level jobs and to enter graduate study for the MSW. Econ and Organization Behavior in the business school are also social sciences as is Education.

Answer 3

Ken is clearly NOT a social worker. The pay in social work actually is NOT that bad. It actually is one of the higher paying human service related professions at the MA level. Also as others have pointed out here in the choice between social work and sociology - social work is a much better career choice in terms of actually getting a job with a BSW. Now it is true you do not need a BSW to go for an MSW - though with a BSW you can apply for advanced standing saving yourself a year of study - this can be a huge financial and time saver. So if you want to pursue social work there are lots of advantages over sociology (and the saving for soc. now may cost you more later if you pursue a MSW.

DA

Answer 4

Social workers do a very wide range of things. Sociologists study society and ect. I would head more towards psychology and sociology. A lot of psychiatrists actualy do a lot of social work. If you are wanting to do social work specificly, your 4 year university should have a list of required classes for you. You need to start there at the university that teaches social work and find out what they require you to have so you know what to take before you get there.

Make sure you look in to it though. Social workers work their butt off, often with very rude people and the pay is not much more then minimum wage.

Answer 5

If you want to work as a social worker, get a degree in social work. A sociology degree is not as focused on working with people. You will get a better social work job with a degree in social work.

Answer 6

Social workers have more jobs in the real world than sociologists, but if you want to do social work, you will need your master's (MSW). You should really consider that anyway, no matter what you finally select as your major. Social workers can do a lot of the same work as sociologists, but sociologists can't much of the same work that social workers can.

Also, you don't have to major in social work to get an MSW. I didn't.

Answer 7

do social work, sociology majors often end up living in boxes

Answer 8

Social Work... if that is what you like, you OUGHT to pursue it!!

GOOD LUCK!