Sociology Majors Research Articles

Taming the APA Style Writing Beast: Outcomes from a Structured Workshop for Newly Enrolled MSW Students

ABSTRACT The study examined (1) the extent of APA Style writing knowledge and understanding among a purposive sample (N = 118) of incoming MSW students; (2) determined the impact of a structured workshop on their level of APA knowledge; and (3) examined the influence of undergraduate academic major on level of knowledge and understanding of APA Style writing rules. The predominantly White female sample were new enrollees attending the MSW Program orientation. Most were undergraduate psychology, social work, and sociology majors. Other undergraduate majors included child/family studies, history, communications, and interdisciplinary studies. Data were collected using the APA Knowledge and Understanding (AKU) pretest and posttest Survey that includes 18 Likert-style items. The scoring range on the AKU Survey is 1 (Not difficult at all) to 5 (A great extent of difficulty), and the alpha coefficient for the survey items was 0.925. The overall mean pre-test score for the sample was 2.96. Posttest scores following the workshop were significantly improved for all APA study variables, with a combined mean score of 4.36. Undergraduate academic major significantly impacted level of APA knowledge and understanding among the sample (Lambda (162, 729) = 0.119, p = .005). Study results strongly support the use of structured workshops for APA Style writing rules instruction.

Reimagining HBCU Sociology in the Post Floyd-Era

ABSTRACT America’s reckoning with structural racism thrust historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) into the national spotlight. Over the last two years, some HBCUs have received an influx of philanthropic contributions and entered into partnerships with corporations such as Google, Netflix, Ralph Lauren, and Bank of America. I discuss how sociology faculty can leverage the renewed interest in HBCUs to cultivate a sense of identity among sociology majors while simultaneously increasing their program’s visibility on campus.

Social dimension of higher education: definition, indicators, models

The article deals with the problem of strengthening the social dimension of higher education. It discusses the definition of social dimension, its indicators, models of student retention and student engagement. The article argues that students should act as active researchers of the topic of social dimension and present the ways to update the content of university courses for Sociology majors, such as "Mathematical and statistical methods of social information analysis", "Social statistics and demography", "Multivariate data analysis", "Structural equation modeling" and other courses for bachelors, master students, and PhDs in Sociology.

Teaching the sociology of popular music: It’s all about family!

I teach the sociology of popular music online to undergraduate students. My course is intended for upper division students, some of whom are sociology majors, but the majority of whom take the course as an elective, largely out of personal interest in the topic. I use my textbook, Understanding Society through Popular Music (3rd edition) as our primary text. We cover a range of timely topics, but a – if not the – link among them is the family as a context for all facets of the popular music experience, either directly or indirectly. Overall, I use a life course model to organize a discussion of the important role music plays in all segments, stages episodes, etc. of life. I prefer to use the concept of space by which the total experience of music varies through life, but is only determined to some degree by age, the classic life course variable. To point, family is a feature of all music spaces, again directly or indirectly. Family can be found in all segments or spaces of life. Being refers to the space, generally occupied by children, in which people accept the music provided to them by adults and use it as building blocks for an emerging sense of self. Becoming refers to the way later adolescents and adults actively manage their music through categorization and evaluation. Been there refers to the ways the elderly accept music without much need for self actualization from it. I have organized this article chronologically, in terms of the evolving role the concept of ‘family’ holds in the life history of my work conducting research on and teaching about music. My forthcoming book, Music across the Course of Life (Routledge, 2022) applies experiences from my 50 years of teaching and research on popular music to flesh out this model.

From Measures of Association to Multilevel Models: Sociology Journals and the Quantitative Literacy Gap

While most sociology majors must take a statistics course, the content of this course varies widely across departments. Starting from the assumption that sociology students should be able to engage effectively with the sociological literature, this article examines the statistical techniques used in 2,804 journal articles—from four generalist sociology journals from 1990 to 2019 and 11 additional sociology journals from 2019—in order to assess which techniques have risen or fallen in prevalence. Although stalwarts such as ordinary least squares regression, chi-square tests, and t tests maintain strong presences, the rise of logistic regression, interaction effects, and multilevel models has been dramatic. After assessing the proportion of articles students hypothetically could understand given various levels of statistical training, the article ends with suggestions for how to revamp the statistics course to help our students become more numerate citizens, both in their sociology courses and in the world at large.

Using Twitter in Ukrainian sociology majors training

The article deals with the problem of using cloud technologies in the training of sociology students in Ukraine. The popularity of Twitter in Ukraine is analyzed. The possibilities of using Twitter as a learning tool in classroom are discussed. List of recommended tweeters, including Ukrainian resources as well as resources related to population censuses is proposed. The article offers examples of student activities for Social Statistics and Demographics courses. The article demonstrates that new forms of student’s activity related to data analysis introduced by academics and practitioners (building art objects and storytelling based on data; shared data collection by citizens through mobile devices, “play with data” modern data visualization services) can be realized with Twitter resources and can help overcome the barriers that arise while studying quantitative methods.

Getting Uncomfortable with Difficult Knowledge: A Reflexive Account of a Community-Based Research Project

The article provides a critical reflexive account of a community-based research project from the perspective of four undergraduate students and their professor. The project came out of a partnership with a local nonprofit organization that has long offered social justice-focused camps to high school-aged youth. Student-researchers conducted interviews and focus groups with former participants to better understand the camp’s potential longer-term impacts on their social justice knowledge and actions. Findings underscored the sometimes unsettling nature of social justice education as evidenced in how campers grappled with critical understandings of race, class, and gender. The paper presents student-researchers’ reflections on their own struggles in the development of critical consciousness as sociology majors. Utilizing complementary frameworks that encompass how student-researchers engage “difficult knowledge” (Britzman 1998) in the classroom and “uncomfortable reflexivity” (Pillow 2003) in their research, our account captures the sometimes messy, unfulfilled, and alternative possibilities of social justice education and community-based research.

Understanding the Well-Being of Recent College Graduates: Income is not Enough

ABSTRACTGiven difficult economic times experienced during the Great Recession and the years following, coupled with the rising cost of higher education, there is increasing pressure by federal and state governments, accreditors, college administrators, parents, and students to view alumni salaries as the key outcome of a baccalaureate degree. Supporters of a liberal education have decried the growth of the individualistic orientation of those who insist that the main purpose of a college education is to secure a high-paying job rather than personal well-being and civic participation. This article, focuses on a series of measures of college outcomes that are proxy measures for a “great job” and a “great life,” using data from a longitudinal study of sociology majors from the class of 2012. For the relatively small number of respondents answering the third wave of the survey, being a sociology major seems to have positive implications for early post-baccalaureate life. Further, respondents who find that sociological concepts and skills learned as undergraduate majors help on the job are often more likely than others to experience positive outcomes. In general, income from jobs is not the sole predictor in most of the multivariate models, although the sample of respondents may be biased toward those who care less about income.

Implementing a Careers and Professional Development Course for Sociology Students

Sociology students are interested in having meaningful careers that use their sociological knowledge and skills, and higher education institutions are under pressure to show that their graduates achieve career success. A one-credit-hour course focused on careers, professional development, and resources for sociology majors can increase students’ confidence that multiple options exist for them in their postbaccalaureate lives. Sociology faculty can design a course that increases students’ ability to locate and apply for relevant jobs and graduate programs and to practice skills that employers say that want to see in college graduates. Detailed examples of assignments, readings, and class activities are presented that can readily be tailored to the unique circumstances of different institutions and their students.

Mental health literacy: knowledge of depression among undergraduate students in Hanoi, Vietnam

BackgroundMental health literacy (MHL) refers to an individuals’ knowledge and beliefs about mental disorders that aid their recognition, management, and prevention. This study aims to investigate the MHL of depression among public health and sociology undergraduate students in Hanoi, Vietnam.MethodsA cross-sectional survey was carried out from May to September 2015. Data was collected using an anonymous, self-administered questionnaire distributed to 350 undergraduate students (213 public health majors; 137 sociology majors). Questions about MHL of depression were adapted from the Australian National Survey of Mental Health Literacy and Stigma. Question topics included recognition of depression, help-seeking intentions, first-aid support, and knowledge about interventions to help people with depression. Chi squared tests were conducted to compare proportional statistics across groups for multiple measures.ResultsWith regard to recognition of mental disorders, 32.0% of the respondents used the accurate label “depression” for the vignette. Among those who correctly identified depression, 82.1% would seek help. The corresponding statistic was 81.1% from those who did not recognize depression. Both groups would seek help from counselor, psychologist, family members, and close friends. First-aid support suggested by the respondents in both groups were informal sources (to listen to her problem in an understanding way, to encourage her to be more physically active, etc.). The interventions considered most helpful by the respondents were self-help strategies such as learning how to relax, getting physically active, doing exercise early in the morning, and reading a self-help book. Joining a group of individuals with similar problems was chosen to be a helpful intervention among those who did not recognize depression (p < 0.001), but those who correctly identify depression believed that people with depression should be admitted to hospital for psychiatric treatment (p < 0.05).ConclusionThere is a need for education about MHL of depression among undergraduate students in Vietnam. The training can focus on symptoms of depression, appropriate help-seeking intentions, and first-aid support relevant to the Vietnamese context.

Linking Sociology Majors to Labor Market Success

Colleges and universities face pressures from multiple stakeholders to attend to the labor market success of their graduates. In this article, we argue that it is in the best interests of sociology students and the discipline that sociology programs respond proactively to these pressures. We encourage sociology programs to design curricula that develop student skills in critical sociological thinking as well as explicitly connect skills to career-related interests. After reviewing research on what employers expect, what students want to learn, and sociology graduates’ first labor market experiences, we offer suggestions about how programs can respond to the requests for accountability for employment outcomes without substantially revising the traditional undergraduate sociology curriculum or expending excessive amounts of faculty time on new initiatives. We argue that integrating liberal learning and applied learning is the best way to serve students and the discipline.

Social Work as a Career: Comparative Motivations of Black and White Social Workers

This research investigated differential career choice factors (CCFs) that motivated Black and White graduates to enroll in MSW programs. The purposive sample (N=1,020) was mostly White (66.4%), and consisted of individuals living primarily in Tennessee (71%) and Florida (13.2%), with MSWs from CSWE-accredited schools in 45 states. Most (36%) were social work majors as undergraduates, followed by psychology (27.3%) and sociology (7.2%) majors. Data were collected using the Career Development Subscale of the Preparation for Graduate Social Work Education Scale. Influential CCFs were different for Blacks and Whites, with the former emphasizing a desire for increased income and the latter emphasizing a desire for recognition and acquiring new skills. Results affirmed the idea of data-based MSW program recruitment strategies based on race and cultural preferences. BSW faculty were found to be ideally suited to influence MSW program recruitment and should be more deliberate toward that end.

Statistics Education for Undergraduate Sociology Majors: Survey Findings across Institutions

Statistics Education for Undergraduate Sociology Majors: Survey Findings across Institutions

Take It or Leave It

This study employs a cross-sectional design to explore sociology majors’ attitudes toward research methods. Survey data from a convenience sample of students enrolled in 16 departments are used to compare the attitudes of students who have and have not completed a research methods course. Despite consistent anecdotal claims that students harbor disdain or anxiety about research methods, the results indicate that students’ attitudes are lukewarm, at worst. Completion of a research methods course is associated with more positive affect toward research methods and feelings of greater cognitive competence in research methods knowledge and skills. The results also indicate that completion of a research methods course is not associated with being more interested in research methods or feeling the subject is less difficult.

First-Generation Sociology Majors

First-generation immigrants studying as sociology majors see excellent employment outcomes.

2015 Hans O. Mauksch Address

While the popularity of the psychology major and the sociology major were comparable in 1970, sociology witnessed a decline while psychology witnessed expansion. This article considers strategies of expanding the popularity of the sociology major, considering data from a variety of sources. Primary recommendations are to configure programs to maximize prospects that students discover sociology early in their college careers and to limit the number of barriers that might prevent students from enrolling in sociology courses. Departments that expanded the number of sociology majors from 2008 to 2014 are identified. These departments prioritized expanding the major as an objective and developed a variety of methods to increase access, visibility, and vitality of the sociology program at their institutions.

Socio-ecological influences of attitudes toward disability among Kenyan undergraduate students

This study examined personal and contextual variables as predictors of attitudes toward disability at a Kenyan higher education setting. Participants were a convenience sample of 309 undergraduate students at a Kenyan university enrolled in Sociology, Social Work, Psychology, Political Science, and Public Administration majors. Data on attitudes were collected using the Attitudes Towards Disabled Persons scale (ATDP: Antonac & Livneh, 1988). A cross-sectional survey design was employed for data collection, and a multiple regression analysis was used for data analysis. Results revealed that the model was significant: F (9, 250) = 2.784, p = 0.004. However, only age (β = 0.173, p = 0.044) significantly predicted attitudes towards disability, indicating older students held more positive attitudes than their younger counterparts. Older students had a more favourable attitude towards people with disabilities than younger students. Seniority, by age, is highly valued in Africa than perhaps anywhere in the world. Kenyan older adults may be key to enhancing favourable attitudes toward individuals with disabilities in Kenya as well as interventions aimed at changing negative attitudes towards people with disabilities.

Assessing learning in a sociology department: what do students say that they learn?

Assessment plays a central role in evaluating and strengthening student learning in higher education, and sociology departments, in particular, have increasingly become interested in engaging in assessment activities to better understand students’ learning. This qualitative study builds on previous research on assessment by asking what students in one American university department see themselves learning in the sociology major. Rather than asking students to reflect on what we think they are learning, we asked open-ended questions about skills, topics and modes of education they considered most significant to their learning. The 25 sociology majors in our study included second-year students, graduating fourth-year students and alumni who had graduated five years prior, enabling us to compare what students have learned or are learning across cohorts. Our findings demonstrate that students emphasise a common collection of skills, topics and – especially – modes of learning in the major, despite their various course selections and interests within the discipline, and also that majors’ orientations to sociology vary as they move through, and beyond, the undergraduate curriculum.

How Our Majors Believe They Learn

In this study, I set out to gain a better understanding of the learning strategies typically used by sociology majors, whether and to what extent they engage in metacognitive strategies, and whether teaching about learning results in students reporting greater use of self-regulatory behaviors. I discuss the importance of self-regulated learning and metacognition for student success and describe the ways in which I incorporated instruction in these skills into an undergraduate theory course. Data collected over the past five semesters illustrate the positive effects of these activities on student motivation and use of cognitive and metacognitive strategies. Students report greater use of higher-level cognitive learning strategies such as critical thinking and are more intrinsically motivated as a result of taking the course. This quantitative investigation of students’ use of cognitive and metacognitive skills adds to McKinney’s (2007) qualitative research on the process of learning sociology.

The Coordinated Curriculum

Content analysis of 77 college and university catalogs and department websites assesses conformity with select recommendations for the sociology major. The majority of institutions have programs that fulfill some recommendations examined, but the minority fulfills most of the recommendations. Some sociology programs are much more coordinated than others. Fewer than one in three institutions with sociology majors have programs that fully or nearly fully conform to the measured recommendations. Benchmarking current levels of curricular coordination leads to identification of institutions that may represent “gold standards” and aspirational models. Institutional theory informs methods of using benchmark data to advance curricular coordination.