Everyday Sociology Blog

Correlation vs. Causation: Decoding Autism Research

By Sally Raskoff

Recent news reports cite a huge increase in autism rates. Autism, a disorder involving problems with social interaction and communication, is estimated at 1 in 88 children. The rates by gender are 1 in 54 boys and 1 in 252 girls, so it’s much more prevalent in boys.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) website has a great discussion of these numbers and speculation about increase.

A large part of the reason for this increase may be because autism is more often reported and diagnosed now than it was in the past. The CDC also mentions that older parents, premature births or parental drug use are risk factors. Scientific studies continue to investigate genetic factors and other biological factors.

Culture (a)Drift

By Sally Raskoff

Some exciting studies have been making the news lately. Human society will be better understood once the data from such studies are analyzed.

Based on what we’ve been learning from life lived on the International Space Station, plans are continuing for sending a carefully chosen group of men and women out into space to reproduce. How will the biological and psychological processes work when not on the planet? This study should yield important information.

If we are to send humans out into space for missions to other planets or to establish colonies on the moon or elsewhere, we need to know if humans can reproduce and parent their offspring in such environments. While the Biosphere 2 and similar projects did not have tremendous success in establishing a self-contained sustainable ecosystem and social system, research continues into whether or not we could sustain and generate human life off the planet.

Science, Resistance and Cognitive Dissonance

By Sally Raskoff

Science is the tool we have to get the most accurate information possible. But do we believe what science tells us? Especially when that information may counter what we want to believe or when authority figures tell us not to believe it?

The current debate on climate change is an excellent example, as is the older environmental debate on evolution and, of course, the even older debate about heliocentrism, or how the earth revolves around the sun (instead of the reverse). Science clearly shows that evolution occurs and the climate is changing. Yet there are groups that do not accept such information or the supporting evidence for it.

Research Methods and Standardized Tests

By Sally Raskoff

This weekend I helped a young relative with her homework. She’s six and in first grade. Her spelling homework consisted of various words, most with the “ook” ending, for which there were sentences to be copied and pictures to be drawn.

We spent quite a few minutes learning about how we took ourselves to the brook, put a worm on a hook, and, well, you can see where this is going.

I was amazed to see some of the worksheet as it didn’t make much sense to me, much less to her. One phrase had to do with how the worm “shook the hook” which, of course, left it empty. I say “of course” sarcastically since I did not assume that was what it meant but that is what the last sentence said.

Testing "Stereotype Threat" Theory

By Sally Raskoff

Have you heard that gender affects math skills? There are many studies and reports that document the different achievements of men and women in math.

This phenomenon can be explained in a number of ways, but one recent study attempted to analyze one specific theory.

Geary and Stoet’s study, soon to be published in the journal Review of General Psychology, assesses whether or not the “stereotype threat” theory can explain gender differences in math skills.

Studying Classrooms Sociologically

By Janis Prince Inniss

After many years, I returned to teaching a couple years ago.Some of my initial joys and highs in this job have been tempered by some intense frustrations. I have found some comfort in the fact that my colleagues have expressed similar frustrations. Ever the student and researcher, I have been attending training and reading about teaching to be better at my job. This has helped me to focus on what I can do to be a more effective teacher.

Research and Privacy

By Karen Sternheimer

A team of researchers from Harvard and UCLA recently faced criticism for conducting research using Harvard students’ Facebook pages. The researchers studied an entire class of 1,700 students starting in 2006, examining how their connections and interests shifted over time.

According to the project’s Harvard website:

This snapshot of an entire class over its four years in college, including supplementary information about where students lived on campus, makes it possible to pose diverse questions about the relationships between social networks, online and offline.

Everyday Sociology Talk: Nikki Jones on Managing Relationships with Research Informants

 

Nikki Jones, author of Between Good and Ghetto: African American Girls and Inner-City Violence, discusses how she negotiated relationships with the people she studied in her field research.

For more videos, see www.youtube.com/nortonsoc

The Crime Fiction Sociologist

By Shawn Van Valkenburgh

Instructor, Allan Hancock College

Recently I have become obsessed with mystery novels—the kind I am slightly embarrassed to read in front of my more learned peers—and I have started to notice is that there are parallels between the work that a crime fiction detective will do and the work of sociologists.

Sampling Bias and Twitter

By Sally Raskoff

A recent study using data from Twitter reports on human mood swings throughout the day. The sociologists gathered and analyzed English language tweets from 2.4 million people in 84 countries for over a year. They used software that analyzed the meaning of words in the tweets and assessed their connections to moods and emotions among other things.

Throughout the day, there are more positive feelings expressed mid-morning and in the late evening. More negative feelings are expressed late at night.