Category: Teaching Sociology
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Sociology is dangerous! Why authoritarians and their supporters attack sociology
The Trump Administration censors sociological knowledge In 2025, the Trump Administration banned words that sociologists regularly use from appearing on government websites and publicly-funded school curricula materials, according to a report from The New York Times. In the banned word list: activism, inequality, intersectionality, gender, historically, political, underrepresentation, socioeconomic, and…
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Quantitative Research in the Social Sciences and ChatGPT
We covered a basic approach in How to use ChatGPT in Social Science Research; in this post, we focus on specific issues of using ChatGPT for quantitative research. Caveat: This post reflects what I’ve learned until March 2024. Remember that the AI tools develop quickly. Some of the problems or…
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Writing Peer Review in the Social Sciences: Constructive, Honest, and Respectful
Peer review is a fundamental activity in social science. Whether you are a student or a seasoned professor, constructive feedback on your article by your colleagues is a necessary step in the writing process. A hallmark of feedback is an honest assessment of the strengths and limitations of the work…
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What is an empirical research article in the social sciences?
Definition and purpose Empirical research articles in the social sciences are documents that communicate research ideas. Articles present the answers to the social scientist’s research questions. The purpose of an article is to communicate ideas from one researcher or research team to an audience. There are many ways to do…
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Arcs and Flow: Good academic writing with examples
What is good academic writing in the social sciences? How to write academic research articles well? We provide the building blocks of good academic writing with examples. In short, good academic writing builds arcs and achieves flow. How? This is done through point-first paragraphs and logical structures within paragraphs. Don’t…
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Research Questions with Examples
All research starts with a question. We define “research question” and provide examples of research questions in the social sciences. What is a research question? A research question is a clear and concise goal that is derived from the knowledge gap. Researchers ask questions to obtain valuable knowledge about the…
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Knowledge gap and examples
Researchers often talk about the “knowledge gap.” What is the “knowledge gap?” This post explains what the “knowledge gap” is and provides examples from the social sciences. See also At a glance… What is the knowledge gap? The knowledge gap is the space between what we know and what we…
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How to use ChatGPT in Social Science Research
In this post, I discuss how to use ChatGPT and other AI assistants in social science research. The take-away message is: The AI is the assistant and you are the director. See also Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the Social Scientist Quantitative Research in the Social Sciences and ChatGPT Many AI…
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Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the Social Scientist
As AI increases in use and popularity, the profession of the social sciences will change. AI will eventually change the daily job of the social scientist in terms of research, teaching, and administration. There are ethical issues of plagiarism, defined as “pretending to write something that is not yours –…
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How to write the results section of a research article in the social sciences
When you analyze data, your readers will want to know the results. But, you have lots of data and lots of analyses. How can we best write the results section of an empirical research article in the social sciences? Articles on writing empirical research articles in the social sciences Some…
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How to write the theory section of a research article in the social sciences
Every empirical research article in sociology and political science requires a theory section. When you conduct research with data, there are dozens of concepts and theories to choose from. However, only some can fit into the theory section. What to do? This post provides some commonsense tips on how to…
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Sociological Methods for Psychology Students
University of Warsaw: Social Research Specialization Course title Current Topics in Sociology – A Methodological Approach Instructor dr. hab. Joshua K. Dubrow Contact details jdubrow2000[at]gmail.com Affiliation Institute of Philosophy and Sociology, and the Graduate School for Social Research (GSSR), of the Polish Academy of Sciences Course format Seminar Number of…
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Sociology and AI Text-to-Image: A Practical Guide
AI text-to-image — where users input textual descriptions into an Artificial Intelligence website or app to generate a unique picture — is a new way for sociologists to understand society and teach sociology. This post provides a practical guide for sociologists to use AI text-to-image for research and classroom instruction.…
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