Interdisciplinary Examination of a Social Problem

The purpose of the assignment is for you to demonstrate the learning achieved in the course. To do so, you will be analyzing one of the social issues from the list below from the perspective of two social science disciplines, both of which were selected in week 1 of this course. To examine this social issue, and how these disciplines examine this issue, you will use the four scholarly sources that you selected in weeks 2 and 3, as well as your textbook and any other additional sources from the course. You will then compare and contrast how the different disciplines have examined this topic, use your analysis to discuss the importance of interdisciplinarity in the social sciences, and conclude with how the findings from your collective research could be used to help address the social problem. Make sure to give yourself time to proofread and reviseLinks to an external site. your work.

Social Issues to Examine: 

• Gender Inequality (#MeToo Movement, Gendered pay inequality, LGBTQ Movement)
• Racial Inequality (Racial Profiling, Black Lives Matter Movement)
• Income Disparity in the U.S. (Low Wages and Minimum Wage, Working Poor, Homelessness, Unemployment)
• Substance Abuse (Opioid and Heroin Crisis, Medical-Industrial Complex, Youth Binge Drinking)
• Healthcare (Childhood Obesity, Accessibility to Healthcare, Medicaid, Medical bills, Healthcare for Veterans, Mental Illness, Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010)
• Deviance (Decriminalization and Legalization of Drugs, Mass Incarceration, Hate Crimes, Death Penalty, White Collar Crime)
• Environmental Issues and Sustainability (Climate Change, Air Pollution, Water Policy)
• Political Extremism (The Rise in Nationalism, Misinformation and Disinformation, Extremism in geopolitics, Conspiracy Theory)
• Global Issues (Human Trafficking, Child Labor, World Hunger, Globalization, Fair Trade, migration, refugees, immigration)
• Education (Gender Inequality in Schools, Bullying, Dropout Rates, School Funding, Learning disabilities) 

Social Science Disciplines to Examine

• Sociology
• Anthropology
• Psychology
• History
• Economics
• Political Science

Your assignment should include the following:

• A brief discussion of your social issue, and how it rises to the level of social concern.
• A brief discussion of each of the social science disciplines you have selected to gain insight on this social issue. Discuss the main goals of these disciplines as discussed in Part II of your textbook.
• Using the sources selected in week 3, analyze how your selected social science disciplines have examined your selected social issue.
  • In your examination, identify if the authors used qualitative or quantitative methodologies and why they selected these methods.
  • Discuss one similarity and at least two key differences in the approaches or conclusions of these studies and relate these to the disciplines involved.
• Explain, based upon your research, how using research from two social science disciplines can lead to a more complete understanding of social issues than only using research from a single discipline. In other words, how do the approaches and conclusions of your sources contribute to an interdisciplinary understanding of the topic? How is this a more complete understanding than a set of conclusions from sources only in one discipline?
• Finally, explain how this interdisciplinary understanding might be applied within a social context in order to attempt to address this social issue.

Assignment Organization

Your assignment should generally be organized according to this structure and include the following content:

• Introduction: Introduce the social problem and the two social science fields you will use to explore it.
  • State the thesis of your assignment. Your thesis should relate to how these disciplines could be used to address this social problem.
• Define the social issue selected as a social problem using relevant concepts from the course (1 paragraph).
  • Definition of social problem as a social problem.
  • Discussion of disciplines and their applicability to this social problem.
• Discussion of disciplines and their applicability to this social problem (1 paragraph).
  • Describe how the concepts and theoretical approaches of your first social science field contribute to the understanding of your social problem.
  • Describe how the concepts and theoretical approaches of your second social science field contribute to the understanding of your social problem.
  • Discuss at least two differences between the approaches or findings of your chosen social science fields.
• Analyze how the selected sources have examined your social problem (2-4 paragraphs).
  • Identify the methodologies used in the studies as quantitative or qualitative, and why these methodologies were used.
  • Discuss one similarity in the approach or findings of these studies.
  • Discuss at least two differences in the approach or findings of these studies and relate these to the disciplines you have examined.
• Usefulness of approaching the issue from two social science fields (1-2 paragraphs).
  • Discuss how examining social issues from more than one social science field contributes to understanding society.
  • Explain how the interdisciplinary approach of looking at your problem from more than one social science perspective helps you to gain a more complete understanding of your social issue compared to using only one perspective.
• Explanation of how social science research can help address social problems (1-2 paragraphs.)
  • Explain how the findings of these sources can be applied within a social setting.
• Conclusion
  • Sum up the primary points of the assignment
  • Restate your thesis.

Be sure to incorporate the feedback provided by your instructor throughout the course, especially the Week 3 Assignment. 

Formatting and Citations

Assignment: 

• Must be five to six double-spaced pages in length (not including title and references pages) and formatted according to APA Style as outlined in the Writing Center’s APA StyleLinks to an external site. resource.
• Must include a separate title page formatted according to APALinks to an external site..
• Must document any information used from sources in APA Style as outlined in the Writing Center’s Citing Within Your PaperLinks to an external site. guide.
• Must include a separate references page that is formatted according to APA Style as outlined in the Writing Center. See the Formatting Your References ListLinks to an external site. resource in the Writing Center for specifications.
  • For further assistance with the formatting and the title page, refer to APA Formatting for WordLinks to an external site..
• Must use at least four scholarly or peer-reviewed sources in addition to the course text.

The Scholarly, Peer-Reviewed, and Other Credible SourcesLinks to an external site. table offers additional guidance on appropriate source types. If you have questions about whether a specific source is appropriate for this assignment, please contact your instructor. Your instructor has the final say about the appropriateness of a specific source for a particular assignment.

To assist you in completing the research required for this assignment, view this Quick and Easy Library ResearchLinks to an external site. tutorial, which introduces the University of Arizona Global Campus Library and the research process, and provides some library search tips.

• Must be organized effectively
• Must include an introduction and conclusion paragraph. Your introduction paragraph needs to end with a clear thesis statement that indicates the purpose of your paper.
  • For assistance on writing Introductions & ConclusionsLinks to an external site. as well as Writing a Thesis StatementLinks to an external site., refer to the Writing Center resources.
  • Include body paragraphs that are organized effectively, including presenting evidence and the analysis of this evidence. See the Body ParagraphLinks to an external site. resource for additional guidance.
• Must utilize academic voice. See the Academic VoiceLinks to an external site. resource for additional guidance.