<p>
</p>
<p>…noooooooo. Some university professors do manage to become activists and do things to ‘change the world’ - or at least a small part of it - but they are the exception instead of the rule, and it takes a lot of hard work to get there. Most academic research papers are written in pretty technical language and are only easily understood by others in the field, and research can take years to actually impact anyone - because as a professor, generally speaking you are not the one putting the research into action. You can ‘change the world’ - as @snarlatron alludes to - by being a great teacher and mentor to your students, but that doesn’t seem to be what you were getting at.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Nooooooooo, you wouldn’t. First of all, no university is going to allow you to get a second PhD in such a closely related field to the first one anyway. Second of all, as someone who just finished a PhD I’d be willing to bet a lot of money that after you finish the first one, you WON’T want to start that crap all over again.</p>
<p>But thirdly - and most importantly - it’s completely unnecessary. Sociology and psychology are so closely related that you could easily select one or the other but also take classes in the other one and take a somewhat integrated/interdisciplinary approach to your understanding of the world. There’s a whole subfield of sociology called social psychology. This is quite different from the subfield of psychology known as social psychology: sociological social psychology focuses on how social actions and how personality, personal values, and a person’s understanding of themselves interact with the social structure and culture. (Psychological social psychology is actually kind of the opposite - we’re more interested in how people’s thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by others. We also use very very different methods.)</p>
<p>You can also attend an interdisciplinary program that allows you to take classes in both fields. I went to a program like this, actually; my main concentration was psychology but also took classes that used sociological and anthropological theory to understand the world. I still take a social psychological approach, but sociology flavors my theoretical orientation and my interests. Really, a PhD just teaches you how to learn; once you have one, you pick up the rest of the stuff you need some other way. And if you wanted to do cross-disciplinary research you could always collaborate with someone in another field.</p>
<p>*</p>
<p>With that said, addressing the larger question here - generally speaking, there are many ways to impact the world and make change. You can do that in a micro way (by directly influencing the lives of the few people you get to interact with in some positive way) or in a macro way (by indirectly influencing lots of lives through policy). The good news is that virtually any career field will allow you to do this, depending on your interests.</p>
<p>For example - you’re getting a BBA in economics. One of the major reasons for social inequality is the unequal distribution of wealth. Many economists work on problems of inequality and how to resolve those issues. With a BBA in economics, you could work in the field for a few years and later get a master’s in policy, and then go work for the World Bank or the IMF trying to shape economic policy for developing nations, for example, or welfare policy in the U.S. or whatever. That’s more macro. On a micro level, if you’re doing accounting and IT, you can go into management of nonprofits. One of the major problems nonprofit organizations face is management and financial accounting - because nonprofits often forget that they need someone to balance the books and are populated with the sociology and psychology majors who wanted to ‘change the world’. You could manage a hospital or a community clinic. You see where I’m going with this?</p>
<p>The idea is that</p>
<p>1) You don’t have to major in sociology or psychology in order to save the world. Likewise, you do not have to major in political science to go into politics; in fact, political science is really different from politics, and most politicians have never studied it before.</p>
<p>2) In fact, I would wager that you would be MORE useful if you did not major in sociology or psychology. And I say that as a psychologist myself. However, you may be interested in taking a few classes or minoring in sociology if you are interested in societal change and social movements.</p>
<p>3) Don’t expect to make this decision in the next week. Take the classes you’re enrolled in. This is really a decision you need to sit down and think about. You can probably use the classes you are taking now in some capacity - either as electives, or general credits. And accounting and IT knowledge are going to be useful to you regardless of what you do, so don’t worry. Take some time, do some Internet research.</p>