Avila University B.A. in Liberal Arts with a concentration in Behavioral and Social Science Online

Expand your horizons with a versatile liberal arts education that empowers you to think critically, communicate effectively, and collaborate with others to creatively solve problems.

Apply by: 4/26/24 Apply Now
Start class: 5/6/24 Apply Now

Program Overview

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See a snapshot of our online B.A. Liberal Arts – Behavioral and Social Science

Prepare for a variety of satisfying careers when you earn an online Bachelor of Arts in Liberal Arts Studies with a concentration in Behavioral and Social Science from Avila University. Develop humanities expertise in topics such as religion, pop culture, and psychology while also selecting elective courses that align with your personal interests. Make your passion your profession with this uniquely personalized degree that provides you with a strong educational foundation in a range of highly marketable fields.

At Avila, we combine the flexibility of a 100% online, asynchronous format with the support of a highly engaged, attentive faculty dedicated to developing you as a whole person. Enjoy the benefits of a values-based, private school education for an affordable price.

Career opportunities:

  • HR Coordinator
  • Sales Associate
  • Program Administrator
  • HR Coordinator
  • Sales Associate
  • Program Administrator

$275 Per Credit Hour
Up to 90 hours Transfer Credits
120 Credit Hours

Personalized learning experience

You will receive a personalized learning experience online. Faculty regularly engages in value-added comments and feedback providing the same level of instruction as if you were in person.

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Need More Information?

Call 888-941-1120

Call 888-941-1120

Tuition

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Choose our cost-effective online program

The B.A. Liberal Arts – Behavioral and Social Science online program tuition is the same affordable, pay-as-you-go rate for all U.S. residents. Fees are included in the total tuition, and financial aid may be available.

Plus, a Prior Learning Assessment evaluates knowledge gained outside traditional academic environments and may help reduce your tuition and time to completion.

Transfer Your Credits for Lower Tuition

Use our Tuition Estimator to see how affordable your degree could be. Slide the notch to the number of credits you've already earned—which may qualify for transfer credit—to get an estimate of what your degree might cost.

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Transcripts sent from other colleges and universities will be evaluated, and accepted credits will be added to the student’s Avila record. The Tuition Estimator is not a guarantee or predictor of the number of credit hours that will be accepted. Amount of transfer credits accepted varies by program. View the desired program’s webpage for information about its transfer credit parameters.

Tuition breakdown:

$275 Per Credit Hour

Calendar

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Know our application deadlines and class schedules

Ideal for working professionals, the B.A. Liberal Arts – Behavioral and Social Science online program features 8-week courses and multiple start dates each year so you can begin at the time that works best for you. View the full calendar for all upcoming starts and corresponding deadlines.

TermStart DateApp DeadlineDocument DeadlineRegistration DeadlineTuition DeadlineClass End DateTerm Length
Summer 1 20245/6/244/26/245/1/245/3/245/5/246/29/248 weeks
Summer 2 20247/1/246/21/246/25/246/27/246/30/248/24/248 weeks
Fall 1 20248/26/248/12/248/21/248/22/248/25/2410/20/248 weeks
Fall 2 202410/21/2410/7/2410/16/2410/16/2410/20/2412/15/248 weeks

Now enrolling:

4/26/24 Apply Date
5/6/24 Class Starts

Ready to take the next steps toward earning your degree?

Admissions

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Explore our admission requirements for this behavioral science degree online

We’ve simplified the admission process to help you get started quickly and easily. You can find all requirements for admission to the Avila online B.A. Liberal Arts – Behavioral and Social Science below.

Admission Requirements:

  • Official transcripts
  • 2.0 GPA in prior coursework
  • Transfer up to 90 credits

In order to be eligible to receive a bachelor’s degree from Avila University, you must have the following:

  • High school diploma
  • Minimum 2.0 GPA on college coursework or 2.0 GPA on high school conferred transcript
  • Official transcripts from all institutions previously attended

Submit all official transcripts to:

Email: [email protected]
Mail: Avila University
11901 Wornall Road
Kansas City, MO 64145

Courses

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Read about our social science degree online courses

In order to earn the B.A. in Liberal Arts with a concentration in Behavioral and Social Science online, you will complete 120 credit hours, including 35 credit hours of general education requirements, 15 credit hours of major requirements, 21 credit hours of concentration courses, and 49 credit hours of electives.

Duration: 8 Weeks weeks
Credit Hours: 3
This course provides an introductory and practical approach to the process of developing, understanding and refining communication skills. In this class, we will focus on several communication areas, including but not limited to: perception of self, language, interpersonal communication, cultural communication, small group dynamics, and public speaking skills. This is a Skills Level course. FA, SP, SU.

Course objectives:

  • Develop and maintain interpersonal, small group and public communication skills for use in a career and social context.
  • Apply verbal and non-verbal components of oral communication to real life situations.
Duration: 8 Weeks weeks
Credit Hours: 3
Development of a robust composition process centered on considerations of audience and purpose. Introduction to argument, including collegiate research practices and integration of reputable sources. Intense practice in close reading for understanding and analysis. Includes refinement of writing mechanics necessary for academic discourse in Standard American English. This is a skills level course. Prerequisite: EN 095 with a grade of "C" or better or appropriate placement exam scores. FA, SP

Course objectives:

  • Use the computer to generate multiple drafts and demonstrate writing as a process.
  • Strengthen skills in the construction and logical development of a clear and concise thesis.
Duration: 8 Weeks weeks
Credit Hours: 3
A survey of major artists, artwork, styles, and techniques, from the Renaissance through the 20th Century with the primary focus on the major Western art movements (including architecture) and the relationship between the social function of art and its form, content, and context. 2015 CORE: Creativity & Culture, Acquire. 2020 CORE: Liberal Arts, Arts. SP.

Course objectives:

  • Identify and explain the significance of major works of art.
  • Recognize & describe the aesthetic elements which mark selected periods & artists.
Duration: 8 Weeks weeks
Credit Hours: 4
A survey of cell theory (cellular structure and function) and molecular genetics that illustrates the nature and limits of science and two of the fundamental concepts of the life sciences. Elements of evolutionary theory will be discussed throughout the course and examples from all kingdoms of life will be used. Laboratory will introduce students to methods of microscopy, modeling, and experimental design and analysis. This course will identify key theories of science, including contributions and limitations of scientific discovery. 3 hours lecture, 3 hours laboratory per week. 2015 CORE: Explorations of Nature, Acquire. 2020 CORE: Liberal Arts, Natural Science. FA, SP.

Course objectives:

  • Identify the basic molecules of life and to predict their properties and reactions.
  • Connect the genetics of all biological life and understand the basic flow of genetic information.
Duration: 8 Weeks weeks
Credit Hours: 3
Through the lens of literature, this course explores the flows of people and their culture and labor across borders. Each text is examined in terms of its artistic and political dimensions with a focus on identity, gender politics, and historical revision. Rather than discrete nations and single cultures, the course concentrates on movement, hybridity, and multiplicity. In addition to physical movement, the course examines other possessions that move across the borders including information, language, traditions, and beliefs, examining ways in which people remember, reimagine, and reshape their sense of self and community. Prerequisite: EN 111 or EN 112. 2015 CORE: Social Justice & Civic Life, Acquire, Global Studies. 2020 CORE: Liberal Arts, Literature/Rhetoric. FA, SP.

Course objectives:

  • Appreciate the aesthetic qualities of literary texts and develop an awareness of influential critical and interpretive methods
  • Analyze and interpret works from different historical and cultural traditions using appropriate critical terms of literary analysis and responding to questions about genre, style, and content or theme
Duration: 8 Weeks weeks
Credit Hours: 3
This course is a survey of major political, social, cultural, and economic changes in United States history from 1865 to the present, with emphasis on the development of industrial society, consumerism, the expanding role of the United States in world affairs, as well as civil rights and other social movements. Meets the lower-division requirement for American History in the history major. 2015 CORE: Social Justice & Civic Life, Acquire. 2020 CORE: Liberal Arts, History.

Course objectives:

  • Knowledge: Identify and characterize the major questions of United States and World history in terms of continuity and change using relevant political, economic, social, religious, and cultural institutions, traditions, and beliefs.
  • Theory: Demonstrate an understanding of the effects of race, gender, class, ethnicity, or religion on the experiences of ordinary and extraordinary people of the past using current historical theory and methodology.
Duration: 8 Weeks weeks
Credit Hours: 4
The purpose of this course is to provide a comprehensive overview of the skills required to navigate the mathematical demands of modern life and prepare students for a deeper understanding of information presented in mathematical terms. Emphasis is placed on improving students’ ability to draw conclusions, make decisions, and communicate effectively in mathematical situations that depend upon multiple factors. 2020 Core: Liberal Arts, Mathematics. SP, SU.

Course objectives:

  • Perform operation with real numbers. Evaluate algebraic expressions.
  • Solve and apply linear equations and inequalities.
Duration: 8 Weeks weeks
Credit Hours: 3
This course is a critical examination of a range of major ethical theories, where students will systematically reason through and discuss major ethical notions as well as notions of ethical agency. Questions that might be covered include but are not limited to: How do we as members of communities live? How ought we live? What are the differences between good and bad choices? Why should I act other than what is in my self-interest? Do I have duties to myself and others? If so, what are those duties? What kinds of actions are morally significant or irrelevant to moral thinking? 2015 CORE: Social Justice & Civic Life, Transform. 2020 CORE: Liberal Arts, Philosophy. FA, SP.

Course objectives:

  • Obtain knowledge of basic ethical theories and how they apply to all areas of live: personal, professional and societal.
  • Recognize the differences between moral absolutism, relativism and pluralism.
Duration: 8 Weeks weeks
Credit Hours: 3
This course provides an introduction to the discipline of sociology. The course emphasizes how a scientific approach can be used to understand the social world, with a particular focus on inequality, social institutions, and social change. 2015 CORE: Social Justice & Civic Life, Acquire. 2020 CORE: Liberal Arts, Social Sciences. FA, SP.

Course objectives:

  • Develop an understanding of the sociological perspective
  • Compare and contrast the major concepts, ideas and methods of sociology
Duration: 8 Weeks weeks
Credit Hours: 3
This course offers both a historical and critical look at human religious experience through a study of the world’s many religious traditions. Topics include: the varieties of religious belief and the historical/political experiences that inspired them, including ideas of the holy and sacred, scriptures, myths, symbols, rituals, and morality. 2015 CORE: Belief & Reason, Acquire, Global Studies. 2020 CORE: Liberal Arts, Religious Studies, Global Studies. FA, SP.

Course objectives:

  • Learn the primary features of the major world religious systems, with special focus on scriptures, social and cultural formations, history, myths and rituals, ethics, and the category “sacred”
  • Learn to interrogate the methodologies used in discussing the categories of “world religions” and “religious experience,” with particular focus on the role that dominant narratives and elite discourses play in the formation of these systems
Duration: 8 Weeks weeks
Credit Hours: 3
This course provides an interdisciplinary (religious studies, communication, philosophy, sociology, history, and economics) approach to achieving peace on a personal, local, national, and international level. The focus is on developing practical strategies for creating peace and living peacefully in a global society. 2015 CORE: Social Justice & Civic Life, Contribute, Interdisciplinary Studies, Global Studies.

Course objectives:

  • Examine the development of peace research and peace studies over the last 50 years.
  • Understand the breadth and scope of the interdisciplinary field of peace studies.
Duration: 8 Weeks weeks
Credit Hours: 3
This course will provide students with a broad understanding of the value of this course of study. Along with a theoretical understanding, practical applications that cross an array of disciplines will demonstrate the efficacy of the major through readings, speakers, in-class discussion, and projects. Required of all Liberal Arts Studies majors.
Duration: 8 Weeks weeks
Credit Hours: 3
Integrative seminar for Liberal Arts Studies majors designed to allow students to integrate the perspectives gained in previous courses in their emphasis areas. Meets capstone requirement in the major. Prerequisties: Senior standing. Liberal Arts Studies majors only.

Course objectives:

  • Synthesize the learning from previous learning into a comprehensive reflection on growth of mindset and understanding of various topics
  • Synthesize various research and self-assessment activities into a plan for development that is applicable in modern organizations.
Duration: 8 Weeks weeks
Credit Hours: 3
Synthesize the learning from previous learning into a comprehensive reflection on growth of mindset and understanding of various topics. Synthesize various research and self-assessment activities into a plan for development that is applicable in modern organizations.
Duration: 8 Weeks weeks
Credit Hours: 3
This course helps students build critical analytical tools to study religion as a cultural phenomenon using popular culture as its primary data. Students will become conversant with major themes, issues, and figures that have been instrumental in religion’s social description and analysis. Case studies from popular culture (including film, TV, social media, politics, fashion, etc.) will provide an analytical lens through which to explore how these various theories on religion might be applied. The course will pay special attention to the dynamics of gender, race, and class. 2015 CORE: Belief & Reason, Acquire. 2020 CORE: Liberal Arts, Religious Studies, Global Studies.
Duration: 8 Weeks weeks
Credit Hours: 3
A general overview of the etiology, characteristics, and determinants of deviations from normal behavior; general information about therapeutic approaches; the study of the role of behavioral sciences in community mental health action. Prerequisite: PY 101. 2015 CORE: Social Justice & Civic Life, Transform. FA, SP.

Course objectives:

  • Use logical approaches in processing information and forming conclusions.
  • Make and evaluate decisions based on set criteria and projections.
Duration: 8 Weeks weeks
Credit Hours: 3
This course focuses on various strategies for dealing with conflict in a positive manner. It is designed to help students develop the skills necessary to resolve conflicts and have successful outcomes. The skills of listening, assertion, problem solving, and conflict management are emphasized. Prerequisite: CO 110. 2015 CORE: Social Justice & Civic Life, Transform.
Duration: 8 Weeks weeks
Credit Hours: 3
This course prepares students to navigate the information technology that defines and permeates our society. Students will acquire a working vocabulary about information technology and an understanding of its fundamental concepts in the context of social justice and civic life, equipping them to make effective, informed information technology decisions for both personal and professional use as they participate in our society. Students will also develop intermediate- and high-level skills in information technology tools commonly used in our society: e.g. word processing, spreadsheet, database, and presentation software packages. 2015 CORE: Social Justice & Civic Life, Transform. FA, SP.

Course objectives:

  • Operate a computer using productivity applications to accomplish tasks
  • Show knowledge of social and ethical issues relating to computer use
Duration: 8 Weeks weeks
Credit Hours: 3
Introduction to basic statistical techniques for students in business and economics. Prerequisite: MA 117 or higher. FA, SP.

Course objectives:

  • Organize data into appropriate graphical and tabular representations.
  • Calculate and interpret measures of central tendency and dispersion.
Duration: 8 Weeks weeks
Credit Hours: 3
An introduction to the theories, methods, and perspectives that psychologists use to describe and explain behavior and mental processes. 2015 CORE: Explorations of Nature, Acquire. 2020 CORE: Liberal Arts, Social Sciences. FA, SP.

Course objectives:

1: Knowledge Base in Psychology

1.1a: Use basic psychological terminology, concepts, and theories in psychology to explain behavior and mental processes.

1.1b: Explain why psychology is a science with the primary objectives of describing, understanding, predicting, and controlling behavior and mental processes.

1.2a: Identify key characteristics of major content domains in psychology (e.g., cognition and learning, developmental, biological, and sociocultural).

2: Scientific Inquiry and Critical Thinking

2.1b: Use psychology concepts to explain personal experiences and recognize the potential for flaws in behavioral explanations based on simplistic, personal theories.

2.1a: Describe the value and limitations of using theories to explain behavioral phenomena.

2.1b: Describe common fallacies in thinking (e.g. confirmation bias, post hoc explanations, implying causation from correlation) that impair accurate conclusions and predictions.

2.2b: Describe what kinds of additional information beyond personal experience are acceptable in developing behavioral explanations (i.e., popular press reports vs. scientific findings).

3: Ethical and Social Responsibility in a Diverse World

3.1a Describe key regulations in the APA Ethics Code for protection of human or nonhuman research participants.

5: Professional Development

5.1d Describe how psychology’s content applies to business, health care, educational, and other workplace settings.

Duration: 8 Weeks weeks
Credit Hours: 3
This course has a two-fold emphasis. It is first an overview of theories about leadership, including the traits, skills, and behaviors associated with those theories. Secondly, it focuses on one’s personal leadership, whether at work, in the community, within groups, or in any other form of organization. Students learn about the evolution of theories on leadership and relate those theories to case studies and their own leadership. Throughout the course, they explore the meaning of leadership to their own goals and assess their interests, values, priorities, and qualities that support or test those goals. Students use the knowledge gained in this course to plan for their own development as a leader so that they are better equipped to meet the challenges of new opportunities and a changing world. 2015 CORE: Belief & Reason, Contribute.

Course objectives:

  • Identify the principal theories that describe leadership behavior.
  • Identify the models for analyzing leadership behavior and leadership effectiveness.
  • Synthesize various theories and self-assessment activities into a plan for development that is applicable in modern organizations.
Duration: 8 Weeks weeks
Credit Hours: 3
This interactive course increases your understanding of a variety of models of individual, cultural, and social group identities, focusing on several contemporary frameworks for understanding differences. Special emphasis is placed on providing the skills and competencies necessary for working with multicultural, inclusive teams. Prerequisite: PY 101. 2015 CORE: Creativity & Culture, Contribute, Global Studies, Community Engagement. FA, SP, SU.

Course objectives:

  • Define and describe terms and concepts associated with, and identify actual examples of, diversity in the context of various environments.
  • Differentiate between Cultural Awareness, Cultural Appreciation, and Cultural Appropriation.
  • Describe the roots and current state of the feminist movement and how it relates to today’s diversity oriented workplaces.
  • Analyze the data and claims surrounding the gender wage gap.
Duration: 8 Weeks weeks
Credit Hours: 3
A general overview of the etiology, characteristics, and determinants of deviations from normal behavior; general information about therapeutic approaches; the study of the role of behavioral sciences in community mental health action. Prerequisite: PY 101. 2015 CORE: Social Justice & Civic Life, Transform. FA, SP.

Course objectives:

  • Employ active listening techniques, including summarizing, paraphrasing, questioning and nonverbal response.
  • Make a clear, well-organized verbal presentation
  • Employ skeptical, evaluative, and logical approaches in processing information and drawing conclusions
  • Analyze one’s own thinking processes, including how one’s experiences, feelings, ideas, and intuition affect thinking.
  • Critically examine the relationship between belief and reason and the integration and influence of each.
  • Know the foundational elements (concepts, terms, theories, figures, methodologies, and historical contributions) in cognitive psychology.
  • Learn how researchers in the field of cognitive psychology can study mental processes that cannot be directly observed (i.e. attention, memory).
  • Know the key vocabulary and concepts in the field well enough to discuss them with an audience, both written and oral.
  • Use knowledge of cognitive psychology to help others.

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