Sociology involves understanding of human society and collective human behavior. The program prepares students for employment in various occupations as well as equips them to enter graduate or law school. Specific focuses include criminology, family studies, social work, and cross-cultural studies.

Career Opportunities

  • Professor
  • Researcher
  • Population Specialist
  • Gerontologist
  • Child Advocate
  • Demographic Analyst
  • Adoption Agent
  • Epidemiologist
  • Clergy
  • Community Planner
  • Career Services
  • Counselor
  • Social Welfare Examiner
  • Advertising

What to Expect

Hub/Support/Tutoring

HUB

Travel/Global Trips

  • Sociology trip to Hawaii  

Club/Social

  • Sociology Club  
  • Alpha Kappa Delta  
  • Phi Delta Psi  

Awards/Honors

  • Alpha Kappa Delt
  • Lambda Alpha Honor Society  
  • Phi Chi Honor Society  

Service

  • The Social Problem class has an embedded service project per semester. 
  • Students in Demography class participate and conduct Point-in-Time (PIT) count for sheltered and unsheltered people experiencing homelessness in the community. 
  • Capstone class completes a service project per semester. 

Capstone

The sociology capstone explores the potentials for, and problems of, a distinctively Christian social science, emphasizing the need for individual integration of one’s social science perspective into his/her own experience of Christian discipleship. This course also examines the unique nature of sociology, as both a calling and profession, which equips it to effectively serve the mission of the Church and to improve human social conditions.  

 

Internships/Practicum

  • Non-profit social service organizations 
  • Churches 
  • Juvenile Detention Center 
  • Bradley County Jail 
  • Tennessee Bureau of Investigations 
  • Homeland Security 
  • Vive for Dream 
  • Child Protective Services 
  • Counseling Field Experience   
  • Adult/juvenile drug court   
  • Bradley/Cleveland Urban Planning Office   
  • The Caring Place      

Research

  • Sociology Research Methods students present their research at the Ollie J. Lee Symposium 
  • Most students in sociology presents their research at the annual Southern Sociological Society.  
  • Students in demography present their research in the stakeholders and/or community members.  
  • Students doing research present their findings in brown bag meetings.  
  • Behavioral and Social Sciences Laboratory (Mayfield Annex)   
  • Ethnographic Research Requirement (ANTH)   

Home/Location

Students spend most of their time in the Humanities building and on the third floor great room.  

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Psychology involves understanding individual human behavior and mental processes. This program prepares students for careers in psychology, human services, and graduate studies in research, clinical practice, and school counseling. This program also offers a teacher licensure option.

Career Opportunities

  • Counseling
  • Health Care Worker
  • Human Resources
  • Employee Manager / Supervisor Researcher
  • Teacher
  • Design Development
  • Computer Applications
  • Production
  • Quality Management

What to Expect

Hub/Support/Tutoring

HUB

Travel/Global Trips

  • Psychology Trip to Europe 

Club/Social

  • Psychology club  

Awards/Honors

  • Psi Chi Honor Society

Service

  • The Lifespan Development course completes a service project each semester.  
  • Students in Capstone complete service projects as part of the course.  
  • Crisis Intervention course completes a service project each semester.  
  • Community Psych course completes a service project each semester.  

 

Capstone

The Capstone course is designed to help graduating students integrate their faith with the academic knowledge they have gained throughout their studies. It is regarded as the final reflection of the essential Core Values of Lee University.

Home/Location

Students spend most of their time in the Humanities building and on the third floor great room.  

Internships/Practicum

  • Counseling Field Experience  
  • Child Protective Services  
  • Bradley Homeless Shelter  
  • The Caring Plac

 

Research

  • Ollie J. Lee Symposium – The department’s annual student research symposium  
  • Behavioral and Social Sciences Laboratory (Mayfield Annex)  
  • Applied Research Methods and Statistics (class with research project)  
  • Students present at regional, national and international research forums such as the Midwestern Psychological Association (MPA) conference and the Southeastern Psychological Association (SEPA) conference.  
  • Play Therapy Center  

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Criminal Justice is an interdisciplinary program that studies institutions and elements of the justice system. This program prepares students for many careers in the professional areas of policy research, intervention and prevention programming, lawmaking, law enforcement, forensics, and corrections as well as preparing students for graduate school.

Career Opportunities

  • Criminologist
  • School Counselor
  • Penologist
  • Parole Officer

What to Expect

Hub/Support/Tutoring

HUB

Travel/Global Trips

Sociology trip to Hawaii  

Club/Social

  • Alpha Kappa Delta  
  • Alpha Kappa Delta Honor Society 

Awards/Honors

 

  • Alpha Phi Sigma  
  • Alpha Kappa Delta 

 

Service

  • The Social Problem class has an embedded service project per semester. 
  • Capstone class completes a service project per semester. 
  • Internship/Practicum and Service are embedded in the curriculum 

 

Capstone

The Criminal Justice capstone explores the potentials for and problems of a distinctively Christian practitioner in criminal justice, emphasizing the need to integrate one’s knowledge of criminal justice into his/her own experience of Christian discipleship. It further examines criminal justice as both a calling and a profession, which equips one to effectively serve the mission of the Church and to improve human social conditions.  

Home/Location

Students spend most of their time in the Humanities building and on the third floor great room.  

Research

  • Criminal Justice students are required to present their research at the Ollie J. Lee Symposium. 
  • Most students in sociology present their research at the annual Southern Sociological Society, the American Criminological Society, and the Southern Criminal Justice Association.   
  • Students in criminology and juvenile justice complete prevention and intervention grant proposals.  
  • Students doing criminology/criminal justice research present their findings in brown bag meetings.  

Internships/Practicum

  • Tennessee Bureau of Investigations 
  • Homeland Security 
  • Non-profit social service organizations (i.e. sex trafficking, diversity, prison advocates, domestic violence, immigration, policing and such) 
  • Churches 
  • Child Protective Services 
  • Juvenile Detention Center 
  • Bradley County Jail 
  • Adult/juvenile drug court  
  • Cleveland Police Department 
  • Bradley Country Sheriff’s Office 
  • Bradley/Cleveland Urban Planning Office  
  • The Caring Place   
  • Counseling Field Experience  
  • Adult/juvenile drug court  
  • Ocoee Mosaic Center  
  • Child Protective Services
  • Bradley/Cleveland Urban Planning Office  
  • Bradley Homeless Shelter  
  • The Caring Place 

Want a Scholarship?

Lee University offers a wide variety of scholarships for all our schools and programs.

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The Department of Behavioral and Social Sciences offers many opportunities for you to engage in research.  Whether you would like to be a participant in one of our studies or you would like to help conduct a study, we have the resources you need to get plugged into research.

Participate in Studies

If you are interested in participating in social sciences research, please click here and request an account from the administrator.  If you already have an account, you may log in and sign up for any available studies.  Please contact the system administrator if you have any questions about participating in our research opportunities.

Research Opportunities

Psychology Research

Dr. Bryan Poole teaches multiple courses that give students an opportunity to explore their interests and gain experience in research.  He is always accepting new students in his research lab, which primarily focuses on (1) testing the relationship between emotion and time perception; (2) examining the effect of motivation on cognitive breadth/load; and (3) assessing empirical ways to teach psychology and enhance self-efficacy toward research methods and statistics.  If you would like more information about conducting research with Dr. Poole, you may contact him via email at [email protected] or visit his website here.

Dr. Heather Quagliana is the director of Graduate Programs in Counseling play therapy and is always accepting new students in her research lab. Her research focuses on parenting from a theological perspective, childhood trauma, burnout, integration of faith and psychology, and how to best integrate Christian faith and scholarship. If you would like more information about conducting research with Dr. Quagliana, you may contact her via email at [email protected].

Sociology Research

Students in sociology are conducting research on broad areas, ranging from crime and deviance, inequalities (race, sex, and gender), identity, and identity formation to more pragmatic research such as community development, need assessments, and quality of life (QOL) assessment. Most students in sociology have presented their research during Lee's Ollie J. Lee Symposium, regional conferences, and national conferences. Several students have focused their research agenda on class and racial dynamics in Appalachia, Christian university settings, global trends, and various organizations (single motherhood, aging gang members, assimilation of international students, dorm life, etc.). In addition, students learn to do both quantitative and qualitative research looking at social phenomena that relate to themselves via their post-Cold War and Post 9-11 geopolitical experiences, as well as via the ongoing transformations of current larger historical and structural backdrops.

Resources

Lee University research website
Human subjects training (NIH)

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The Department of Behavioral and Social Sciences is committed to delivering a valuable and diverse research experience for students who wish to pursue graduate school and a career in anthropology, sociology, and psychology.  Faculty members who teach in these disciplines offer a variety of opportunities to conduct research and present findings at regional and national conferences.  See the resources below for additional information about any of these exciting programs.

News

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Susan Ashcraft

Susan Alford Ashcraft, PhD

Distinguished Professor of Psychology
Behavioral & Social Sciences | Location: HUM 303A
Phone: (423) 614-8132
Email
Julie Gardenhire

Julie Gardenhire, PhD

Assistant Professor of Marriage & Family Therapy
Specialty: Human Romantic Relationships, Clinical Research, & Chronic Illness
Behavioral & Social Sciences | Location: HUM 305A
Phone: (423) 614-6060
Email
Jerome Hammond

Jerome Hammond, PhD

Associate Professor of Human Development
Specialty: Family Studies, Developmental Psychology, & Family Rituals
Behavioral & Social Sciences | Location: HUM 303B
Phone: (423) 473-3820
Email

Barbara McGirt

Behavioral & Social Sciences / Graduate Counseling | Location: HUM 302
Phone: (423) 614-8125
Email
Trevor Milliron

Trevor Milliron, PhD

Professor of Psychology
Behavioral & Social Sciences | Location: HUM 305D
Phone: (423) 614-8135
Email

Melisa Moore

Office Coordinator
Behavioral & Social Sciences | Location: HUM 302
Phone: (423) 614-8125
Email

Benito Nunez

Part-Time Faculty
Behavioral & Social Sciences
Email
Bryan Poole

Bryan Poole, PhD

Director of the Center for Teaching Excellence and for Faculty Development
Behavioral & Social Sciences | Location: HUM 303G
Phone: (423) 614-8319
Email
Heather Quagliana

Heather Quagliana, PhD

Professor of Psychology
Specialty: Childhood Trauma, Play Therapy, & Community Psych
Behavioral & Social Sciences | Location: HUM 302C
Phone: (423) 614-8359
Email
Brandon Rodgers

Brandon Rodgers, PhD

Director of Graduate Studies in Counseling
Specialty: Marriage, Family, & Development Pediatrics
Behavioral & Social Sciences | Location: HUM 302B
Phone: (423) 614-8126
Email
Jeffrey Sargent

Jeffrey Sargent, PhD

Director of Global Engagement/ Professor of Psychology
Behavioral & Social Sciences | Location: HUM 106B
Phone: (423) 614-8357
Email
Edward Stone

Edward Stone, PhD

Associate Professor of Counseling Psychology
Specialty: Emotion-Focused Therapy
Behavioral & Social Sciences | Location: HUM 301D
Phone: (423) 614-8128
Email
Arlie Tagayuna

Arlie Tagayuna, PhD

Associate Professor of Sociology
Specialty: Community Development, & Criminal Justice
Behavioral & Social Sciences | Location: HUM 303E
Phone: (423) 614-8014
Email
Jennifer Thomas

Jennifer Thomas, PhD

Assistant Professor of School Counseling
Specialty: School Counseling, & Child Development
Behavioral & Social Sciences | Location: HUM 302A
Phone: (423) 473-3796
Email
Ruth Wienk

Ruth Wienk, PhD

Chair for the Department of Behavioral & Social Sciences
Behavioral and Social Sciences | Location: HUM 303
Phone: (423) 614-8125
Email
Kirstee Williams

Kirstee Williams, PhD

Professor of Psychology
Specialty: Marriage and Family, Infidelity Research
Behavioral and Social Sciences | Location: HUM 301B
Phone: (423) 614-8064
Email

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A broad liberal arts undergraduate education should expand the students’ understanding of their own social context, increase their knowledge of individual behavior and facilitate their adjustment to a rapidly changing social world by preparing them to recognize and appreciate cultural diversity. Each of the disciplines of anthropology, psychology, and sociology offer distinct, but complementary, approaches to the study of human physiology, cognition, and behavior from a scientific and rational perspective that includes experimentation, observation.

Look Inside

Take a quick tour of the Humanities Center, home to the Department of Behavioral & Social Sciences.
Behavioral and Social Sciences

Nolan Mann

Nolan Mann, from Warrior, Alabama, is a psychology major with a counseling emphasis and a minor in social work. The youngest of four, Nolan says he found exactly what he was looking for in a college at Lee. “The amount of connections you can make here is insurmountable! Don’t be afraid to step outside your comfort zone and find your own family at Lee,” he shares. At Lee, Nolan stays busy both on stage and in the residence halls—he’s involved in Lee Theatre productions, the improv team Shenanigans, and serves as a Resident Assistant. After graduation, he plans to pursue a master’s degree in marriage and family therapy and become a licensed therapist.

The Archaeology Research Center (ARC) at Lee University provides archaeological research services on public and private lands in order to better understand and conserve humanity's cultural heritage. Our work is largely volunteer work that involves students, in some way, at every level. A major part of the mission of the ARC is to highlight the service-learning emphasis of the university mission statement by providing our students with opportunities to work at important archaeological sites in the United States and around the world. We also encourage high standards of ethical and moral behavior in our work and life, believing that Christian values should guide what we do, and how we do it.

Projects

Archaeology Research Center
1120 North Ocoee Street
PO BOX 3450
Cleveland, TN 37320-3450
Richard R. Jones
Curator/Administrator
(423) 614-8352
[email protected]

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