Overview
Identify a sociological problem or challenge that you believe is present at duke university. It should
be a social problem or phenomenon that affects campus life, meaning one that has negative consequences for groups of people, rather than just one person. Choose a problem that you think warrants attention and intervention. Be creative! In your essay, first, briefly describe your problem. Provide context and/or your own arguments or personal experiences to explain why your problem is a socially significant problem here at Duke, and who it impacts within dukes community. (3 points) Then, analyze your problem related to what we discussed in class on individualistic vs. sociological explanations for phenomena. Specifically, consider at least one individualistic explanation for your problem—what might someone who has never taken a sociology course before think is its key cause? Then consider at least one sociological explanation— what social or structural factors might contribute to the existence of this problem at duke? Be sure to clearly and thoroughly discuss each explanation and why, according to you, it is an individual/sociological explanation. (4 points) Finally, propose a solution to (or at least a way of improving) your problem, and describe an experiment to test your solution. Be creative and have fun with this! In this part of the essay, please include the following: a) a hypothesis about the relationship between an independent variable and dependent variable (the DV should relate to a solution to your problem). Please clearly label what you propose is your study’s IV and DV (eg, “banning classes on Fridays (my IV) will improve students’ mental health (my DV)”), (2 point) b) a brief discussion of how you might conduct your experiment—again, feel free to be creative and imagine Duke admin, etc. will let you do whatever you want, (3 points) c) a brief discussion of the two hallmarks of experiments, as we discussed in class, and how you will ensure those hallmarks are present in your experiment, (4 points) d) one benefit to doing an experiment (rather than another research method), and one possible problem/downside to your particular experiment that a critic might come up with. (4 points) A great essay will be in an essay (not a bulleted list, etc.) format, be clearly and thoughtfully written, be proofread, and make use of the material we have considered in class so far—either in lecture, readings, or both. You may write informally. We encourage you to be creative, have fun, and make your essay “you”! There is no strict page limit; you will almost certainly need two double-spaced pages but page/word counts are not what you are graded on (see above for that!). You do not need to (but you may, if you want) rely on any external sources. If you do, please provide a references page (in any citation format you like, so long as it is consistent and accurate). No need to provide a references page if you rely only on course material and/or course readings. You do not need a formal conclusion.