Category: Sociology

Historicity Checklist Worksheet/Analytical Memo   Purpose As we have discussed in class, historicity refers to the idea (or fact) that anything currently happening in society is shaped by the events that happened before it, and was necessarily affected by this in important ways, so we cannot fully understand any social topic without some understanding of its history. Because human social life is patterned, there are some common patterned ways that the history of sites shape their characteristics (including, for us, the ways inequities occur or are reproduced) today. The purpose of this checklist is to help make sure you consider some common questions or important characteristics related to the history of your site; this is not an exhaustive list of historical phenomena that may matter – please do include anything else that is important – but investigating these should help you think carefully about the history of your organization and understand it well enough to consider how it shapes today’s equity environment.   Task List     •    Investigate each question on the worksheet in any and all ways you know how (internet research, scholar.google.com, insider informants, historical documents, etc.). Check off each axis as you investigate it to make sure you are considering all salient axes; as your investigation yields results that may be related (not that you will use while writing, but that you may need to consider in later thinking) to your research, write or copy/paste them in a separate document.     ◦    Remember that intersectionality means there may be more going on that isn’t captured one axis at a time, and you need to look for those patterns yourself.     ◦    Make sure you are also keeping track of where this info is coming from, so you can cite it correctly and fully!     ◦    This step is just about data collection; you may want to also re-organize the information in a way that is useful to your thinking, such as by axis or in a timeline.     •    Separately, in a different document or at the bottom of this one, write a memo that considers the implications of this history. Why does this matter? What does it help you understand?     ◦    Memos are a pretty informal kind of writing – you don’t need to worry about full sentences, spelling, grammar, formal tone, etc. Feel free to write it like you would talk to a friend, or like you are just making notes for yourself to read later (just make sure there is enough there and written clearly enough that your classmates can understand it and give good feedback).     ◦    Make sure to include the story or stories you are seeing (the argument), the details on the worksheet that tell the story (the evidence), any connections you see to course concepts and materials or to your previous findings, and any ideas you have about why it might be happening, whether it is positive or negative, what seems likely to happen long-term, who is being helped or harmed, etc.     ◦    There is no length requirement, but memos are usually pretty short. Half a page is fine, three pages is too much; one solid paragraph per story/pattern is about right.     •    Upload your worksheet and memo to this discussion.     •    Read your groupmates’ memos and give feedback.     ◦    Directly reference the criteria section below and discuss where you feel your classmate succeeded and where they could put more attention.     ◦    Help each other out, even more than you think is ok. If you see a different story or a patter the author didn’t write about which you find interesting, tell them about it! If you have a suggestion for a reading or quote related to their ideas, give them that info! If it feels like cheating, you are probably just starting to help.     ◦    Make sure your feedback is big-picture, ideas-related stuff. Don’t bother giving feedback on grammar/spelling/punctuation unless it is bad enough that you are struggling to understand what’s going on.     ◦    Feel free to tell the author about your own life experiences if you think there might be an interesting comparison to make, or they could learn from your life.     ◦    Make sure you tell classmates if/when you think they are wrong or are missing something important! This is hard but really crucial.     ◦    Don’t forget, you can learn a lot from seeing your classmates’ worksheets and thoughts – making some notes or even adding to/editing your own memo after seeing your classmate’s is probably a good idea in the long run! Criteria You will know your historical analysis is successful if you can (1) tell a clear, coherent story about the history of your site, that (2) illustrates the changes in the site’s inequality regime (how multiple intersecting inequalities show up here: policies, demographics, culture, roles, etc. for all axes, all together) over time and (3) helps us understand some things about why the site’s current inequality regime looks how it does. Nota Bene: you don’t need to actually write out this whole coherent story for the assignment, nor do you have to include a full history in your final paper – you just need to know enough that if you decided it would help your paper, you could do it!

Analyze the relationship between Christianity and racism by showing how a religion can contribute to both to tolerance/understanding and to racism at the same time. Your answer should be at least 250 words and contain your thoughts and chapter material.

Please find a documentary film or an animation related to one or more topics you’ve learned during the course and write a review making use of one or more concepts such as liminality, schismogenisis and scapegoating mechanism. The following questions/topics might be helpful in finding a film or an animation. 1- Critically discuss contemporary issues of globalisation and/or development. 2- Is it possible that with a change of world power different values might inform a different form of development? What forms might that take? (Bearing in mind BRIC countries as emerging powers). What is likely to happen in the future –greater alienation/leisure time/risk? 3- The benefits of globalization have not been spread evenly. Discuss. *Please read and refer to academic texts in all essays. All essays should contain in-text citations and a bibliography.

Evaluating Intimate Relationships Exercise: The purpose of this exercise is to reflect on the different aspects of significant relationships in your life. (These can be positive, negative, or mixed relationships.) Choose one relationship you would like to evaluate. Answer the following questions: Name three things you like about this person and three things you dislike. In what ways do you consider your relationship to be healthy and/or unhealthy? In what specific ways is this person supportive of your relationships with others and in activities you engage yourself in? Are you supportive of the other person’s relationships and activities? How would you characterize your communication style or patterns with this person? How are decisions made in your relationship with this person? How do you handle conflicts? Discuss healthy and unhealthy relationships and how interpersonal experiences are involved in shaping other biopsychosocial developmental outcomes. Paper should be a minimum of 4 pages, Times New Roman 12 point font, and APA format.

Review the sections in the chapter on middle adulthood related to employment and financial planning. Discuss the financial needs of families and individuals when parents are approaching late adulthood. Think of events that can create financial crises or radically change the family’s or individual’s financial security. As a social worker working with this age group, what financial questions should always be included in the assessment? What are the sources of income, and how long will the middle-aged adults continue working? Consider who, besides the individual or couple in middle adulthood, is aware of his, her, or their financial arrangements? How well does the couple or family communicate about finances? What family discussions would be good to have regarding future planning (not only regarding finances but also things like advance directives). Paper should be a minimum of 4 pages, Times New Roman, 12 point, and APA.

General guidelines for written assignments: All writing assignments in this class should be
typed, double spaced, Times New Roman 12pt type, and with no larger than 1” margins. Do
not leave blank lines between paragraphs. For the rough and final drafts there should be a title
page with the title, your name, and the course title on it. There should be a separate
bibliography page at the end of the paper. The title page and the bibliography do not count in
the 10 page required length.
You should assume an intelligent but uninformed reader for your paper, meaning the reader
knows something about sociology but not about the specific topic of your paper. The best way
to do this is to give the paper to a friend of yours and have them read it to see if it makes sense
to them. If it does not make sense to someone who has not been in class, you should clarify
your arguments.
Your task in this paper will be to look at a social problem or condition of your choice from each
of the three Sociological perspectives discussed in class. While you can choose almost any topic,
be aware that certain topics are very common. These include abortion, divorce, teen
pregnancy, legalization of drugs, capital punishment, video games and violence, and social
networking. Also, some common topics are difficult to discuss from a sociological perspective.
Eating disorders is an example. Papers on eating disorders tend to slip into a psychological
framework if the author is not very careful, and that will result in a reduction in the grade, since
the task is to take a sociological perspective.
Please note that due to changes in class size over time, there are limitations on what I can
grade and return in terms of feedback on the paper process. However, I promise you that I will
read your final paper very closely, and will give you feedback along the way during the process
to the extent that you individually ask for it.
You will be required to write a 10 page paper. This paper is worth 400 points. In addition, you
will turn in a paper proposal (worth 40 points) and a rough draft of your paper (worth 160
points). This means that your paper and related work are worth a total of 600 points.
.

Adolescent Movie Analysis Paper
You can download the Instructions here: Adolescent Movie Paper instructions 2022.pdf Grading Rubric: Adolescent Movie Paper rubric.pdf Example Paper: This is an exemplary paper that earned the full 100 points. Note that this student cited the time stamp in the movie of their examples. This is not required. Otherwise, this is a model paper if you are aiming to earn an A on this assignment. Movie Paper Example.pdf
100 points
For this assignment you will view and analyze a movie depicting adolescent development, observing the individual physical, cognitive, and social development of the characters and family, peer, and romantic relationship dynamics depicted in the film.
You may choose any film listed below. You may choose a film that is not listed, however, it must be approved by your instructor. If you want to use a movie not on the list, you must ask for approval no less than 2 weeks from the paper due date. If you write a paper on a movie not on the list without approval you will receive a zero. You do not need approval for the movies on the list. Make sure to make plans for how you will access your chosen film in advance. Set aside time to view the movie and be aware of its running time. If you choose a film that you have already seen, please view it again. It will be important to view the film to focus on concepts about adolescent development. Poor planning that results in you being unable to access the film in a timely manner is not a valid excuse for an extension.
The Adolescent Movie Analysis paper will consist of your observations and analysis of the film. Your paper should be in APA format (i.e., title page, reference page, citations and references in APA style) and be 1500-2500 words (i.e., about 5 pages) of text (not including title page or references). An abstract is not necessary. Make sure to link your observations to course content and cite your sources. When including course content, make sure to go beyond just stating what the concept is. Make sure explain why the movie scene is an example of that concept, including explaining what the concept is. Follow the rubric to help maximize your score.
Instructions for the Adolescent Movie Analysis Paper
**You may need to read ahead in the textbook for information to include that we have not covered yet.
Your paper should begin with an introduction to how the film depicted adolescent development and family, peer, and/or romantic relationships. In other words, you should tell the reader what your take-home message will be up front and summarize what you will discuss in your essay.
In the body of your paper give at least 1 example of each of the following that you observed in the film:
normative physical development
normative cognitive development
normative social/personality development
the association of relationships (family, peer, and/or romantic) and adolescent development/how relationships change over adolescence
non-normative events and/or cohort effects (i.e., are there events not tied to normative development at are important to the character(s) development and/or relationships? How is the time period in which the film occurs related to development and/or relationships?)
social context – for example, what are important cultural, racial, socioeconomic status, sexual orientation, etc. factors that are related to the character’s experience/development (you do not have to comment on all of these, they are examples).
You should describe each of your examples from the film and clearly link them to concepts you learned in class – citing course material such as lecture or the textbook. Quality papers will take this description a step further, making connections across characters, time, and context. Think about whether what you observe in the film is consistent with what we learned in class and the possible reasons for any discrepancies. Note: You may include examples of development from any main character in the film. You do not have to restrict your examples to a single character.
Please do not write your paper in chronological order of the movie. Instead, organize it by developmental concept as listed above. This results in better written papers and it is also much easier for us to see what your examples of each developmental domain are. Conclude your paper with a brief summary of your paper and a take-home message about what can be learned from this film’s depiction of adolescent development.
**Unfortunately, papers on Clueless or Mean Girls will not be accepted.**
Preapproved Movies:
Real Women Have Curves
Diary of Anne Frank
Dazed and Confused
Boyhood
Thirteen
My Girl
My Girl 2
Now and Then
Inside Out
Turning Red
Luca Brave
Encanto
Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants
Moxie
Eighth Grade
Empire Records
Goonies

Assignment Content
Sociologists conduct research to collect information about society and they apply their findings to better understand the human condition. Sociologists can investigate people in their natural environments by becoming part of their everyday settings to observe and study participants.
In this assignment, you will observe groups of people in social settings to better understand social patterns and group dynamics and then you will write about your findings.
Complete Parts 1 and 2 below.
Part 1: Social Group Observation
Imagine you are a sociologist who is researching the behavior of social groups in social settings.
Conduct an in-person observation in a setting where a group of people gather. Examples of places with groups include malls, grocery stores, libraries, restaurants, coffee shops, parks, schools, employee break rooms, parking lots, pubs, sporting events, or your local neighborhood.
Station yourself in a safe location where you can observe people for 30–60 minutes without having to approach or engage them. You will just observe people, not interact with them.
Use the Social Group Observation Template to collect field notes on the following data about the individuals in your observation, as you perceive it:
Gender/sex
Race/ethnicity
Age
Note: Your numbers do not need to be exact but try to make them as accurate as possible. You do not need to submit your field notes with your assignment—they are for you to reference as a guide during your observation.
Part 2: Findings
Write a 350- to 525-word explanation of your observation findings. Do the following information in your discussion:
Describe the setting for your observation, including the location, time of day (morning, afternoon, evening), and the weather, if relevant.
Describe the patterns of group behavior you observed that may have been influenced by each of the following factors:
Setting
Gender/sex
Race/ethnicity
Age
Describe any cultural norms you may have observed in the social groups.
Explain any social or economic factors that may have influenced the dynamics of the social groups.
Explain how observing social patterns and group dynamics may help you succeed in culturally diverse environments.
Submit your written findings for this assignment.

Resources
Center for Writing Excellence
Reference and Citation Generator
Grammar Assistance

The submitted paper should be
between 8-10 pages.
5 Peer
Reviewed Articles with APA Format
BackgroundDiscuss a thorough history of the social problem and the way that society and government has addressed the problem.Include relevant legislation and executive action concerning the problem. Describe the problem in terms of human needs and scope – who is affected by this problem and how are they affected? Include demographic data in this section.
How has public discourse defined the problem? What does the public believe is the main cause of the problem and how is this different than what research about the problem shows? Discuss relevant policy initiatives that are currently dealing with this same problem on the local, state, national, and international levels. Discuss how you might construct a persuasive argument referring to issues, such as equity, liberty, security, welfare, efficiency, democracy to advance your argument.
Discuss and critique at least two efforts that have already been made to address this issue.Identify advocacy groups, individuals, legislators, etc. who are involved in generating solutions to this issue. Human Rights IssuesWhat are the social justice issues we need to focus on to bring attention to this social problem? What do you predict would happen if nothing was done to address this social problem?
As human rights are the bedrock of social justice, what human rights are we speaking about in the context of the social problem you have identified?Using Article II of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as the starting point, apply 2 UDHR articles to your argument for justice to address the social problem your paper is focused on.
Social Action Change StrategyDesign a social action change strategy by generating a potential solution to the identified social problem.
Describe each step in your solution and what each step is intended to achieve.
Provide specific illustrations of how your group will deal with the problem in a way that will change behavior (campaigns, media, stakeholder consultations, awareness raising events, etc.). Discuss what your group has done specifically to affect change in the chosen social problem area.
Describe successes and failures in moving toward an effective policy solution to the problem.
Possible levels of intervention include giving testimony, writing reports, information packets, or newsletters, create a Facebook page, make a film, engage in fundraising, utilize the DGSW Facebook page, prepare a musiccomposition, paint a piece of art, implementing a socially just clinical intervention.Lots of Latitude!
What was achieved?What impact did your social action project have? Propose what successive steps would need to be taken to affect change in this area.
Advanced Generalist PerspectiveIllustrate the actual micro, mezzo, macro impact and the potential future micro, mezzo, macro impact as relates to the profession of social work.
ConclusionWhat did you learn about the social problem and what would an effective social policy to address the problem look like from a human rights perspective?
What feedback did your group receive from participants in your social action project?
What did your group do well and what could your group have done better?

In the final paper, each student will describe the role play and relate the administrative intervention to the relevant literature on the topic (5-7 pages NOT including the cover or reference pages, APA style). This assignment is an individually written summary of what was presented in the role play exercise and accompanying oral presentation. Students are asked to demonstrate their ability to clearly explain a research-informed theory or well-established administrative approach (with citations from reliable sources to back-up the use of the theory or administrative approach) and its direct applicability to inform an appropriate response to address a human services administration issue. The topic C. State of Technology in the Organization:
Describe the current state of technology in your field agency.
 What are the areas and functions the technology is designed to address in your agency?
 What are strengths and weaknesses of the different technological systems?
 What is the level of staff competency using technology?
 If you were put in charge of a committee whose charge was to make technology.
recommendations for the agency over the next five years, what technology issues would you
prioritize as important?
 What will need to be in place for your recommendations to be realized?
 What might be some barriers to implementation?