100-Level Social Science Courses

HSS 121    Cities and Civilization I   (3-0-3)
An examination of the origins, nature and progress of urban society. Selected readings focus on recurrent and persistent urban problems: overcrowding, traffic congestion, political corruption, faulty sanitation systems, etc. A student may also engage in field analysis projects that relate either to hometown areas or to the North Jersey region.

HSS 122    Cities and Civilization II   (3-0-3)
A continuation of HSS 121. Major emphasis is on current economic, environmental and social problems.

HSS 127    Political Science I   (3-0-3)
An introduction to the evolution and operation of the U.S. federal government. This course focuses on problems in energy policy, foreign policy, elections, and civil rights.

HSS 128    Political Science II   (3-0-3)
A survey of the evolution of juries and recent legal and social scientific analysis of jury rules. Case studies are used to explain the scope of issues decided by juries and conceptions of justice used to evaluate their performance.

HSS 175    Psychology: Brain, Mind, and Behavior   (3-0-3)
This course emphasizes the biological underpinnings of behavior and of mental processes. What do we know? How do we come to know? What do we want? Why do we act the way we do? In this course these fundamental questions of psychology are mainly looked at from a biological perspective that emphasizes the study of the brain and nervous systems. Historical, philosophical, as well as evolutionary perspectives on mental processes are considered as well.

HSS 176    Psychology: Development, Personality, and Pathology   (3-0-3)
An introduction to issues and theories in Life Span Development, Personality Theory and psychological disorders. Topics include cognitive and social development, attachment, moral thinking, psychoanalytical theory. Focus is placed on those seminal theories that have had lasting import for psychology as well as other disciplines. These theories include, but are not limited to, those of Piaget, Erikson and Freud.

300,400-Level Social Science Courses

HSS 321    Modern Urban Culture   (3-0-3)
The course examines aspects of modern subcultural American life including deviancy and delinquency, crime, drug abuse and ethnicity.

HSS 324    Comparative Ethnic Culture   (3-0-3)
This course is a survey of various cultural traditions. Typical study units include Afro-American, Asian, Hispanic and American ethnic cultures in historical perspective.

HSS 371    Computers and Society   (3-0-3)
An introduction to arguments about the relationship between computing and society, the impact of computing activities on social relationships, and the evolution of institutions to regulate computer-mediated activities.

HSS 373    Social Choice Theory   (3-0-3)
An introduction to the history of and theoretical principles associated with using voting techniques to resolve conflicts. Emphasis is placed on the analysis of operational rules. Student projects constitute a major part of the course.

HSS 375    History of Psychology   (3-0-3)
An analysis of the historical development of psychology. Issues such as perception, learning, cognition and memory are explored within the context of various schools of thought.

HSS 376    Theories of Personality   (3-0-3)
What is theory? What is personality? A review of Freud, Adler, Sullivan, Jung, Rogers, et al., on the nature of personality.

HSS 377    Cities and the Global Economy   (3-0-3)
An analysis of major socioeconomic trends impacting modern American cities. Topics covered include: the nature of globalism, major economic and social trends, U.S. competitiveness, urban economic restructuring and the roles of government.

HSS 379    International Politics   (3-0-3)
An analysis of the contemporary international political framework. The course explores the character of the state system, the nation-state, the role of leadership personality, transnational actors, the balance-of-power, security and economic issues, the nature and limitations of power, the uses of terrorism and Third World issues.

HSS 401    Seminar in Leadership Studies   (3-0-3)
This course will study the human phenomenon of leadership, focusing on the two main (and oft-times competing) analyses of leadership: the Humanistic approach and the Behaviorist approach.

HSS 410    Arab Nationalism and the Formation of the Middle East   (3-0-3)
This course will explore the birth, triumph and fall of Arab nationalism, focusing not only on intellectual and political leaders of the movement but also incidents in history which in one way or another shaped political and/or social traits of the movement. Factors which contributed to the development and/or decline of the movement will be examined are: the rise of colonialism, the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire, the World War I and WW-II, the Cold War, emergence of the State of Israel and the recent incidents in the region and the world. The ideological links between Arab nationalism and modern radical movements will also be examined.

HSS 415    Islamic Political Thought   (3-0-3)
This course surveys the philosophical foundations and developmental stages of Islamic political thought from the Prophet to the modern ages. In the first part of this course, the theories of early Muslim philosophers, i.e. Avicenna, Al-Farabi, Al-Ghazali, Averreos and Ibn Khaldun, on the state, government and politics will be examined. The second part will concentrate on pre-modern (Al-Mawardi) and modern Muslim intellectuals who contributed to the genre of Islamic political philosophy, including liberal and radical trends.

HSS 475    Introduction to Sociology

HSS 477    Psychology of Religion   (3-0-3)
A survey of different approaches to the psychological interpretations of religious phenomena such as the image of God, rituals, myths, faith healing, meditation, mysticism and conversion.

HSS 478    Psychology of Gender   (3-0-3)
An analysis of gender differences and perceptions in contemporary society.

HSS 480    Introduction to Anthropology   (3-0-3)

HSS 481    Cultural Anthropology   (3-0-3)
An examination of the varieties of organization of human societies in a comparative ethnographic context.

HSS 489    Freud and Jung   (3-0-3)
An in-depth and extensive study and discussion of the theories of Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung. Each theory is examined individually; the nature of the unconscious, dream interpretations, religious symbolism and the aim of psychotherapy are critically examined. Students read from primary sources including Freud's Interpretation of Dreams, Totem and Taboo, Jung's Man and His Symbols, Modern Man in Search of a Soul as well as from biographical material and other secondary sources. Emphasis on points of confluence and of departure between the two. The course is limited to 15 students.
Prerequisites:  HSS 376 or permission of the instructor.