Anyone want to compare psychology, anthropology, sociology, and cognitive science for me? What are their different focuses and possible courses you would take in each? Thank you
Psychology is the study of mind, brain, and behavior. Sociology is the study of society and social behavior. Anthropology is the study of humanity, especially its evolution, culture, language and society. Although they have overlapping topic areas and some subfields that intersect, they’re three distinct fields.
Psychology, overall, is more concerned with the individual - individual behavior, cognition, emotion, etc. Psychology has has some more common intersections with the natural sciences, both content-wise and methodologically. Much of scientific psychology is driven by experiments and observational studies; some of it is driven by survey research. A psychology major usually has you taking 1-2 semesters of general psychology (where you learn a little bit about the major subfields - biological, perception/sensation, cognition, social, developmental, clinical/abnormal), a semester of research methods (in which you will primarily learn about experimental manipulations), and a semester of statistics. Then you usually have to take an extra 5-7 classes in other areas of psychology. A lot of colleges have divisional or area requirements - i.e., you may have to take at least one class in the area of biological, sensation and perception, and/or cognition; one class in the area of social, developmental, abnormal, health, or community; and then another class in a more research methods area like an advanced statistics class or theory of psychometric instruments (which is how to construct surveys). Some departments have concentrations or minors in mental health or clinical psychology; some have classes in less-offered areas like human sexuality or industrial/organizational psychology.
Sociology, overall, is more concerned with groups of people and how those groups interact with and impact each other. There are some traditional subfields of sociology - they include social stratification and social class, social mobility, religion, sexuality/gender, and deviance. There are also more applied areas of sociology that many departments have at least some coursework in. Sociology has a strong theoretical component, so your coursework will be a mix of reading dense theoretical works by prominent sociologists and learning about empirical research methods. Sociologists use a mix of methods - survey, a little experimental, some interview work, sometimes a bit of ethnography. Generally, a sociology major would require an intro to sociology course (an overview of the entire field and the major subfields), a semester of statistics, a semester of research methods (some universities try to cover all of the research methods in one semester, so you get a little exposure to all the types I said above; some universities allow you to pick one course), and 1-2 semesters on sociological theory. Some departments require a class on social stratification and social class - it’s often called “Social Stratification” or “Race, Class, and Gender” - just because these topics are so central to sociology. Then you usually have to take classes in at least two of the subfields I list above, and electives. Some departments may have a concentration or special coursework in medical sociology or religion or another niche area.
Anthropology I am a lot less familiar with (I was a sociology major in college, and then changed to psychology). As I understand it, though, anthropology has an even larger scope than sociology - it is concerned with entire cultures of humans, or with humans as a whole and our evolution. There are three main areas in anthropology: cultural anthropology, which strives to define and describe societies and cultures (large and small); linguistic anthropology, which is about the development of language in humans and how language influences our social life and vice versa; and biological or physical anthropology, which is concerned with the origin of humans and our evolution across time. Archaeology is also often (usually?) considered a branch of anthropology, although departments vary in how much they have classwork and concentration on archaeology and archaeological methods. Anthropology is more theory-dependent than psych and sociology and the research methods tend towards the qualitative: ethnography is a big one, but also interview-based methods, observation, and focus groups. An anthropology major will usually have you take an intro class in cultural anthro and one in biological/physical anthro; one semester of ethnographic research methods; 1-2 semesters of anthropological theory (which has some overlap with sociological theory); at least one upper-level course in social/cultural anthro and in physical/biological anthro, and then electives. Some departments require a course or two in archaeology depending on whether they have the resources. Some departments may have a concentration in medical anthropology or in evolution or linguistic anthro that you can pursue. Some might have a concentration or minor in archaeology.
Cognitive science is an interdisciplinary field that is concerned with the process of cognition and the mind. It’s concerned with intelligence and behavior, and how cognition is related to both of those concepts and how they affect how cognition is transformed into other largely psychological principles (emotions, perceptions, sensations, attention, memory, etc.) I am covering this one last because it’s not a discipline; the field pulls from psychology, neuroscience and biology, linguistics, philosophy, computer science, and anthropology.
How much it pulls from each, and what classes you take, are going to vary a lot with your interests and where you major in the field. For example, the cognitive science major at UCLA requires coursework in psychology, chemistry, biology, computer science, philosophy, and physics as a foundation; the mid-level coursework is heavy on psychology; and the upper-level electives can be taken from any of those areas plus anthropology, communications, linguistics, musicology, neuroscience, or statistics. UCSD’s seems like more of a mix of psychology and computer science, with math requirements that mirror a comp sci majors and lots of coursework in those two fields. The concentrations you can select in this department - Clinical Aspects of Cognition, Computation, Human Cognition, Human-Computer Interaction, or Neuroscience - also reflect it’s interpretation of cognitive science as primarily the province of the sciences plus psychology. UVa’s major is basically the wild west; you just need to take at least one intro cog sci-related course in each of what they consider the five core areas (cognitive psychology, computer science, linguistics, neuroscience and philosophy), two semesters of calculus, and a two-course sequence in any of the core areas - after that, you can take whatever cognitive science courses you want with the approval of your advisor. Vassar College’s cognitive science major is the oldest undergraduate cog sci major in the world, and as such they have actually developed a department of courses. So instead of taking classes from a bunch of different departments, you are taking cognitive science classes in a cog sci department taught by cog sci professors, rounded out by electives from other majors. A friend of mine majored in cog sci at Vassar and the coursework there is a mix of linguistics, psychology, computer science, and philosophy with touches of neuroscience.
If you are interested in cognitive science as a potential major, I strongly encourage you to review the course catalog at each department and take a look at what their cog sci major looks like - since each university takes a different approach to the major. Anywhere you go the psych, sociology, and anthro majors are going to be very similar, with the same courses teaching the same theories/basic principles and the same research methods. That’s because they are disciplines. But cognitive science is so different and so interdisciplinary - with so many routes you can go - that it’s really important to understand the way your college frames it.
Another thing to consider is that even if a college doesn’t have a cognitive science major, you can probably make an interdisciplinary cognitive science major if the college has decent departments of psychology, computer science, linguistics, philosophy, and neuroscience (or neuroscience coursework).