All individuals function within social frameworks.
Courses in contemporary societies introduce students to the study of social groups, including social institutions and processes, the values and beliefs shared by their members, and the forces that mold and shape social groups. They prepare students to approach social phenomena of all kinds in an informed and critical way, and to describe, analyze, compare, and contrast them. Such study also provides students with new vantage points from which to view their own socio-cultural assumptions and traditions. These courses, which treat societies of the 20th century, study an individual society or compare several societies. All explicitly attempt to deepen the students' understanding of the cultural, political, economic, or social contexts that shape people's lives.