Sociological Perpectives

You can choose if you would like to use a mixture of essay-form, list and/or chart/table.

*NUMBER 1 IS ESSAY FORM!!
1. State & define the selected the social problem: Why is it a social problem (site periodical and academic sources)?  What social institution is it aligned? Who is being affected? How are they being affected? For instance, if it is COVID-19, it would be social (healthcare, education, family); economic (employment), and political (policy (face masks, unemployment benefits, loan deferment).  The latter are just samples. 

2.  Using the three sociological perspectives, explain how the social problem is understood from each perspective and offer a solution/recommendation for each. 

3.  Develop three research questions that could be studied, cite the theoretical perspective and methodological approaches to study each of the research questions.  For example, To what extent are Black faith leaders addressing the epidemic of the pandemic in their Sunday morning sermons?  If you take a functionalist perspective, then we would look at the sermons as messages grounded in maintaining stability and order with church attendees.  A survey could be developed utilizing a questionnaire as a tool to capture the social problem and the perspectives of the church attendees.

You can choose if you would like to use a mixture of essay-form, list and/or chart/table except for #1.

II.  Identify three journal articles that represent each of the three sociological perspectives with a social problem

– Provide a journal analysis: What social problem/issue is discussed? What sociological theory did they use to frame the study (state it and then any concepts addressed such as power, stability, self-concept, individualism, meritocracy, prestige, learning, morality, inequality, etc.)? What methodological approach did they utilize (quantitative or qualitative – research design (survey, field research, comparative historical), tool used questionnaire, focus group, interview, content analysis, etc.)? What recommendations were made? Did the article help you better understand how to apply theory? Did their use of theory align with your understanding?

You can choose if you would like to use a mixture of essay-form, bullet point, list and/or chart/table.

Be smart, your journal analysis can be aligned with your first response so you won’t have to double work.

III.  Identify ONE media source (songs, videos, speeches, sitcoms, etc.) that represents concepts aligned with one of the three sociological perspectives

– Provide the lyrics, speech (a live link is okay) or post the lyrics and include the source.

– State the sociological perspective you believe is mostly aligned with the selected media source

– Explain why it is aligned to the sociological perspectives by highlighting concepts in conjunction with the media source (State excerpts as quotes from the media source)

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