Psychology or sociology a level?

I have never taken a sociology class but I take psychology and I absolutely love it. Psychology is considered a science (held on the same level as biology, chemistry etc.) whereas sociology is only a social science (not regarded as highly by unis and such). I think sociology is more about whole societies and psychology is more about individuals, however there is a lot of content (theories and such) that overlap and are taught in both subjects. If you are good at science then psychology would be good as you learn about things like drugs, genetics, the brain and how they work/can affect people

Reply 2

OP

Thank you @olivia.francesca! And yes I am good at science (currently a 7 in mocks) but I was just searching for a science that is more to humanity but no such to much experimental sciences involved.. :smile:

Reply 3

olivia.francesca

Sounds like sociology would be good for you if you are not that interested in much experimental stuff however if your goal here is to study architecture I think as long as you get a good grade it wouldn’t really matter which one you picked as I don’t think there are any actual subject requirements for that degree. Pick what you think sounds the most interesting for you personally

Reply 4

malechk

10

neither.

no i’m kidding, if you’re more into theories and debates pick Sociology - my teacher always advises us to “write as if it’s a story” when writing essays because there’s a lot of theories you can bounce off each other and if you can argue your point correctly and back it up, then you’ll be fine - a lot of sociology is also subjective. Sociology examiners also tend to be a LOT more lenient with their grading because Sociologists disagree with exams so they give you as much help as they can. If you’re more into hard facts where it’s either this or that, then pick Psychology.
Sociology is sort of similar to Social Psychology and is mostly about different views on how modern society is run. Personally, I prefer Psychology because i find learning facts easier than ideas, but if you’re into keeping up with current issues in the world and linking that back with Sociologist views (which i find interesting) then Sociology would be more suited to you.

(edited 4 years ago)

Reply 5

nintysixthousand

18

I did both AQA psych and sociology at A-level. Psychology was split into topics like research methods, memory, attachment, social influence, schizophrenia. It focuses on the mind/individual. Where as sociology is much more essay based and is focused on society. we had topics like families, education, research methods. we learned theories like marxisim, femenism and functionalism and applied those to the different topics eg why the education system is racist/sexist/classist and explanations for rising divorce rates and increased family diversity. As i said sociology is more essay based, I think you have 30 markers, where as psychology you have 16 markers max. They were both interesting, I got an A in psych and A* in sociology but it took much longer to understand sociology as i found there was less structure, however that may have just been my teacher and the bad text book we were given.

Reply 6

OP

Thx @nintysixthousand, @km2k01, and @olivia.francesca

Reply 7

OP

@nintysixthousand based on your experience on both sociology and psychology, if i want to apply the humanitary knowledge to architecture, which one do you think will fit best? Because i have the idea that its worth to search for something that would help in future career but also alongside a passion and interest onto it.
For how much writing it takes, It doesn't really matter actually coz i do like writing, esp. if there are many things to write.

Reply 8

random_matt

Sociology is the study of society, looks more at groups, even extends within psychology, it's called social psychology. Psychology is the study of the mind and behaviour in it's most basic form.

Reply 9

OP

What kind of experimental stuff r u referring to for psychology? I thought psychology was only theoretical :confused:

Original post by olivia.francesca

Sounds like sociology would be good for you if you are not that interested in much experimental stuff however if your goal here is to study architecture I think as long as you get a good grade it wouldn’t really matter which one you picked as I don’t think there are any actual subject requirements for that degree. Pick what you think sounds the most interesting for you personally

Reply 10

OP

Yea.. i think sociology it is, then. Thx :smile:

Original post by random_matt

Sociology is the study of society, looks more at groups, even extends within psychology, it's called social psychology. Psychology is the study of the mind and behaviour in it's most basic form.

Reply 11

username3040480

11

Original post by hhj_

I am confused between those two, psychology and sociology :/
My main reason choosing psychology a level for this August 2019 college first year after y11 was cos I thought sociology is more to crime solving and etc. (Social services) but i want to do architecture at uni, and I am thinking to either choose one of them because they're both v similar.

Anyone has any experiences or advice related that might help me out?
Thkx :smile:

I've never taken sociology but personal I prefer psychology. everyone I know who does sociology tells me it's really hard and that theres just too much content to learn to the point where they can't revise it because they finish learnt it too close to exams. but that's probably just my college. go for what you think will be much better. Maybe get some careers advice and ask which one will be better for your career options?

Reply 12

nzy

17

Original post by hhj_

What kind of experimental stuff r u referring to for psychology? I thought psychology was only theoretical :confused:

Theory has to be based on evidence, doesn’t it?

If you’re less interested in the science side of things, psychology probably won’t be for you. Research methods is integral to pretty much every topic in psychology, and for pretty much every bit of theory you learn you’ll have to evaluate it based on scientific methods.

As a side note, I don’t really think Social Psychology and Sociology overlap that much. Social Psychology doesn’t really cover social issues or how society functions (although its supposed to be able to explain them) like Sociology does. The biggest part of Social Psychology is Social Influence, which is about how and why individuals’ behaviours are affected by the presence of other people.

Reply 13

OP

Thx. Yes i know what you meant. I just thought the experimental stuff would be like chemistry's or bio you know. If its research, then that's the good thing! At school i picked travel and tourism btec level 2 and it was 80% research, which i was predicted a l2 D overall

Original post by nzy

Theory has to be based on evidence, doesn’t it?

If you’re less interested in the science side of things, psychology probably won’t be for you. Research methods is integral to pretty much every topic in psychology, and for pretty much every bit of theory you learn you’ll have to evaluate it based on scientific methods.

As a side note, I don’t really think Social Psychology and Sociology overlap that much. Social Psychology doesn’t really cover social issues or how society functions (although its supposed to be able to explain them) like Sociology does. The biggest part of Social Psychology is Social Influence, which is about how and why individuals’ behaviours are affected by the presence of other people.

Reply 14

OP

So how much science (in percentage) do you think are in psychology (overall)?

Reply 15

username3040480

11

Original post by hhj_

So how much science (in percentage) do you think are in psychology (overall)?

psychology is easy if you are willing to revise and memorise a lot of content a lot of psychology is based on science, some is just theories. I personally find it interesting. I'd say a good 60-70% is scientific. you learn about biology and genes, drug usage, inheritance, mental illness. As well as learning about learning process, OCD and phobias etc. a lot of these you'd have to evaluate the approach and theories and say if they are scientific etc

(edited 4 years ago)

Reply 16

OP

Yup, interesting. I like bio most compared to chem and physics. If you're saying there are so many facts to learn, do you mean like, e.g. in bio that we have to know the names of each organs, scientific names, etc like that? It's like bio then, isn't it?

Original post by Mystery Panda

psychology is easy if you are willing to revise and memorise a lot of facts. a lot of psychology is based on science, some is just theories. I personally find it interesting. I'd say a good 60-70% is scientific. you learn about biology and genes, drug usage, inheritance, mental illness. As well as learning about learning process, OCD and phobias etc. a lot of these you'd have to evaluate the approach and theories and say if they are scientific etc

Reply 17

username3040480

11

Original post by hhj_

Yup, interesting. I like bio most compared to chem and physics. If you're saying there are so many facts to learn, do you mean like, e.g. in bio that we have to know the names of each organs, scientific names, etc like that? It's like bio then, isn't it?

yea you have to know parts of the brain and organs such as the endocrine system and fight and flight or the para/sympathetic nervous system. as well as neurons, and how drugs work in your body. so a lot of science. the content is huge so i mean that a lot of psychology is remembering many points to back up a theory. like in an exam paper in another class you may put a point and evaluate it yourself but i. psychology you sort of memorise every detail and then if the question comes up you gotta write like 6 points that are descriptive, and 6 evaluative points. and if you've put in the effort to revise you've got 12 marks which is the highest in AS, if you don't revise it's kinda hard to pass whereas in other classes you may not know what questions you will get or how to answer it, but in psychology if you get a question and have learnt and revised well to what your questions is related to you should be able to get an answer quite well. but there are confusing questions to, so I'm not saying it's at all easy 😊 not sure if that explained it well

(edited 4 years ago)

Reply 18

random_matt

The university will give you a slap if you say it's full of facts.

Reply 19

OP