Choose one theory or sociological factor covered in class that helps explain why people in your study would hold the beliefs that they do. Discuss and describe why your chosen theory or factor explains why people in the same society hold varying or contradictory beliefs on your chosen topic.

Assignment Question

Introduction to Sociology SOC 1101, FALL 2023 Final Paper

CONTENT Throughout this course, you have learned various ways that sociologists study the historical, cultural, structural, and other factors that shape why people behave and think the way they do.

For your Final Paper, you will demonstrate your understanding of sociological method and theory by designing a research project to collect empirical data that might help explain why people hold certain beliefs about a social problem or controversy and choose at least one of the theories or factors (cultural, historical, structural) covered in class or your readings to provide a sociological explanation for why different people in the same society might hold conflicting views on your topic. Your chosen topic can be anything of interest to you, but an example might be that some people claim that giving people welfare causes them to be lazy and not want to work, while others view it as an effective way to help individuals and families out of poverty.

Your task is not to design a project to determine which of your chosen claims is true. Rather, it is to design a research project that would uncover why different people hold varying and contradictory beliefs on a particular topic using theoretical or cultural, historical, and structural factors as possible explanations. As you design your research project, be sure to consider what methods of data collection you would use (qualitative or quantitative) and justify your choice, describe the variables you would need to collect data for, including how you would collect data pertaining to your sociological explanation of choice), and provide a few example questions that you would include in your data collection instrument.Throughout your paper, be sure to show that you understand the topic through referencing the textbook and using definitions from the textbook as appropriate

Your 1,000 to 1,500 word paper may be formatted and structured any way you would like, but if you would like a template, consider using the following structure: Your Name Title Introduction (about 200 words). Use this first paragraph to introduce the social problem or controversy you chose and describe the different sets of beliefs people hold on the topic. You might also explain why you chose the topic you did.

Research design (about 400 words ). In one or two paragraphs, describe the method that you would use to explain why people have different beliefs about your chosen social problem or controversy. As part of this, you should identify whether you will use a qualitative or quantitative research design and explain why you chose the one you did. You should describe the pros and cons of your chosen method. You should also describe the variables you would need to collect data on and briefly explain why.

Finally, you should provide a few examples of the questions you would include on your data collection instrument (i.e., provide several survey or interview questions you would use). Sociological explanation (about 400 words). Choose one theory or sociological factor covered in class that helps explain why people in your study would hold the beliefs that they do. Discuss and describe why your chosen theory or factor explains why people in the same society hold varying or contradictory beliefs on your chosen topic.

Conclusion (about 200 words). Wrap up your paper by summarizing what you just wrote and re-emphasizing why you chose the method and sociological explanation for your chosen topic that you did. References/Works Cited (if you have citations) Using a standard style guide (APA, MLA, Chicago, etc.), list the sources that you quote from and/or cite, including the textbook. For help with citing using various style guides, consider visiting the excellent resources from Purdue University’s Purdue Online Writing Lab. For example, here is how to cite the textbook in APA format: OpenStax. (2021). Introduction to sociology (3rd ed.). Chapter 1. https://openstax.org/details/books/ introduction-sociology-3e

As long as its a sociology research method https://openstax.org/books/introduction-sociology-3e/pages/1-introduction This is the text book that is used as the only source. https://assets.openstax.org/oscms-prodcms/media/documents/IntroductiontoSociology3e-WEB_9QTqRGQ.pdf This is the text book