Question: Research Paper Instructions: SOCY B360 - Sociology of Medicine and Health Spring 2018-Teixeira

Purpose: The purpose of the research paper is to give each student the opportunity to demonstrate that they can investigate the effects of social factors on health. The goal of the assignment is to strengthen scientific thinking and writing. The objective is for each student to write an objective, logical, fact-based paper using evidence from high quality scientific research sources.

Option 1: Investigate the effects of one social factor on one specific disease - example, gender and lung cancer. Thesis: gender is a significant causal factor in lung cancer morbidity and mortality. (This is not a factual example.)

Option 2: Investigate the relationship between one specific disease and multiple social factors
- example, stroke and the three social factors with the greatest impact on stroke mortality or morbidity or both. Thesis: age, race, and gender have the greatest social impact on mortality due to stroke. (This is not a factual example.)

Option 3: Investigate the relationship between one social factor and three different diseases that are related with the chosen social factor - example, three main causes of death for women. Thesis: lung cancer, heart disease, and influenza are three leading causes of death among women. (This is not a factual example.)

Option 4: Investigate one social factor and one or more health occupations- example, gender differences among nurses and physicians. Thesis: Changes in the proportion of men and women who are nurses and physicians are more reflective of changes in gender roles than in health professions. (This is not a factual example.)

Option 5: Investigate social differences in health or illness behavior- example, gender and age differences in health services utilization. Thesis: during childhood and after age 50, differences in health services utilization for men and women are similar, but during the middle years women use health services much more than men. (This is not a factual example.)

Option 6: Investigate something more adventurous. Must be approved in advance.

The Major Social Factors

• Social class-the most common set of categories or attributes for social class are: upper class, upper-middle, lower-middle, working class, and lower class (see Chapter 3);

• Gender (see Chapter 4);

• Race/ethnicity (see Chapter 4); a very good example of racial categories is shown in Table 4-5, page 85 in Cockerham.

• Age (see Chapter 4).

Your Paper Must Have A Thesis!

Your research paper must have a thesis. At the beginning of the paper, you must state your research thesis. It can be part of a short introductory paragraph or it can stand alone.

The following explanations include materials that are courtesy of Empire State College, Online Writing Center.

Research Topic: When you start working on your paper, you begin by selecting a topic. A topic is what the essay or research paper is about. It provides a focus for your writing. Choose an appropriate topic or issue for your research, one that actually can be researched. Many topics can be found in your textbook. Example: "Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)"

Research Question: The next step in developing a thesis is to formulate a research question. Start by listing all of the questions that you'd like answered yourself. (This assumes you are curious about the topic!) Choose the best question, one that is neither too broad nor too narrow. In the early stages of your research, you can use a search engine to learn about the question and explore what high quality sources are available. Sometimes the number of sources you find will help you discover whether your research question is too broad, too narrow.

Example: "Why have ADHD diagnoses risen so rapidly in recent years?"

Research Thesis: A research thesis is your proposed answer to your research question, which you finalize only after completing the research. (It's okay to modify and revise the working thesis as you research more about the topic or issue.) Thesis example: "The rise of A.D.H.D. diagnoses coincided with more available knowledge about the disease among physicians, other healthcare professionals, teachers, and parents."

I will be glad to help you as you work your way toward your thesis, especially with topic selection and research question development.

Your Analysis: You may approach your thesis as a question that needs to be answered or as a statement that needs evidence to support it. Either way, your task is to compile factual evidence that supports or refutes your thesis or helps you answer your question. You should include statistics showing the importance or lack of importance of other social factors or other diseases, as the case may be. Scientific papers are honest about evidence, presenting facts that both support and refute the thesis or hypothesis.

You should think critically about your thesis and ask yourself, Why does this happen or not happen? What causes this difference or lack of difference? Include answers to these critical thinking questions in your paper.

Remember, we are looking for social causes, not biological ones. I don't want a research paper on the microbiology or genetics of cancer.