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The social sciences, especially sociology and psychology, are neither soft nor indoctrinating disciplines. We should stop dismissing them as such. Register for these courses at Hillsdale to develop your critical thinking skills and gain a richer understanding of human behavior.

Affirming the intellectual rigor and legitimacy of sociology and psychology is bound to provoke strong reactions. On campus, these subjects carry a reputation. They are often treated less like fields of study and more like ideological territory. You either step into them or steer clear.

That framing is the problem.

 Strip away the labels. The questions at the center of these disciplines are disarmingly simple, yet fundamental. Why do people act the way they do? What shapes our decisions, our habits, our beliefs? How much of what we call “individual” is actually social? Those questions do not belong to the left or the right. They belong to anyone willing to take them seriously, as Aristotle did when he described human beings as inherently social creatures.

 In “The Sociological Imagination,” American sociologist C. Wright Mills extends an invitation to sociology: “Neither the life of an individual nor the history of a society can be understood without understanding both.” It is a simple claim with uncomfortable implications. Your life is not just yours. Society is not a distant abstraction. The two are tied together whether you notice it or not.

 Once you recognize the link between personal experience and social structures, however, you can’t ignore it. The struggle to find affordable housing, the pressure of a competitive job market, and the challenge of adjusting to a campus culture very different from home can take on a meaning beyond the purely personal. They can come into clearer focus when placed within the social, economic, and cultural contexts that shape the opportunities available to everyone. 

 That shift in perspective is not ideological. It is analytical.

 Social psychology turns the lens inward. It asks how attitudes shape behavior, why we hold onto certain beliefs, and why we double down when challenged. It is less about labeling others and more about interrogating ourselves. In other words, there is no overt political program at work here. There is simply a demand for honesty. 

 In that light, judging an entire discipline by its most controversial interpretations is a mistake. Sociology is often reduced to left-wing theoretical framework, like Critical Race Theory or Marxist analysis. Psychology suffers a similar fate when it is dismissed as cold experimentation that reduces human complexity to quantified data points. Both are far more than the narrow snapshots critics sometimes use to define them. As a result, writing off an entire discipline because of a few flawed examples is both shortsighted and misguided.

 The social sciences also help us to better understand the liberal arts. If the goal is to stay within a set of comfortable ideas, then avoiding the social sciences — especially sociology and psychology —  might make sense. If the goal is to sharpen perception, test assumptions, and better understand human life, they are hard to ignore, and this is precisely what the liberal arts demand of us. 

The liberal arts are meant to give students a well-rounded and well-ordered education. This is why Hillsdale’s core curriculum spans courses from theology to mathematics to biology. The aim is not just breadth but depth: to wrestle with the highest questions of what it means to live well, to be just, and to orient oneself toward the good. 

Properly understood, sociology and psychology do not turn away from these questions. Instead, they often examine how these ideals can take shape in lived experience and human behavior. 

 Sociologist and Lutheran theologian Peter L. Berger situated sociology at the heart of a liberating education. By revealing the hidden forces that shape our beliefs and behaviors, sociology demonstrates how a liberal education can free the mind from unexamined assumptions. Its purpose goes beyond mere curiosity: It rests on the conviction that “it is better to be conscious than unconscious and that consciousness is a condition of freedom.” 

This kind of consciousness is not easily won. Berger is equally clear that it “entails a certain amount of suffering and even risk.” To see more clearly, then, is to unsettle what once felt stable. This very tension, where greater awareness brings both freedom and discomfort, is what gives sociology and psychology their place within the liberal arts. 

 In practice, registration is where this understanding gets tested. You are not just filling time slots. You are deciding what kinds of questions are worth your attention. Sociology and psychology ask some of the oldest ones there are.

 You can dismiss them with a label. Or you can take them seriously and see where they lead.

 

Widley Montrevil is a junior studying politics.