Social Problems
- This course is about social problems. What is a social problem? How might a social scientist look at social problems differently than most other people?(Hint: one might take a more individualistic perspective, one might look for structural or situational causes).Pick an example of a social problem. How might a sociologist examine this problem differently than most other people?
- Do you regard drug use as a social problem?(You might regard some drugs as problematic, but not others).If so, why? If not, why not? You can focus on just one drug or a small number of them if you wish? If drug use is a problem, what sort of problem is it? What solutions might you suggest for dealing with the problem? How would you evaluate current efforts to deal with the drug problem?
- Do social problems usually have simple solutions? Why or why not? Are there some social problems that we will likely not be able to fully solve? Give an example of a social problem and some of the difficulties in solving or easing that problem.
- Why is research and research methods important to the study of social problems? Give an example of a social problem and how research methods and results might help us analyze and offer solutions to that social problem.
- Pick some other topic that we have discussed so far in class or that has been discussed in your reading so far.Describe and analyze that problem.
- To what extent is poverty a problem in the U.S. and/or the world?(You could tackle this on a national level or a global level. Whatever you prefer)What should be done to reduce poverty? Why do we have poor people?
- In class and the text we discussed myths about welfare. Pick two of those myths and, for each, describe why it is incorrect or misleading.
- Related to poverty, unemployment and under-employment are common now in the U.S. What are some of the main causes of unemployment and under-employment? What should be done to address this problem?
- Your text emphasizes a system blame approach to social problems rather than a person blame approach. Explain. Give an example of a system blame approach to some social problem that we have discussed (poverty or unemployment for example).
- We saw videos about drug addiction featuring the views of Johann Hari. What are some of Hari’s main points about drug addiction? Do you agree or disagree with them and why?
- In class, the text and in a video you were presented information about world population growth. Is this a problem?Why or why not? What are some of the important effects of increasing population?
- We discussed the demographic transition and the epidemiologic transition. Describe each. What are some of the important effects of these transitions or trends?
- Your text and the video on population discussed environmental issues related to population growth. Pick one of those issues or problems. Discuss it and what might be done to alleviate it.
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Solutions to Social Problems
The definition of social problems is one of the most of the most effective ways using which one can define the solutions based on which one can address such issues. One of the definitions of social problems according to Spector and Kitsuse (2017) views the issues as a result of disorganization in the society’s social construct. Therefore, developing solutions that would address such issues would require an extensive evaluation of the problem and inclusion of the different institutions whose involvement would be critical to developing and implementing the solution in question. For instance, addressing drug use problems among the youth may require the participation of different institutions that actively involved in youth activities to realize the most appropriate solutions to the problem.
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