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SOCI 108 - Thinking Critically about Social
Issues
Spring 2012

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 See what I just did there?
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What?
Never forget the importance of ‘why’

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 Recall the ways that humans come to have knowledge
 Define empirical
 Ask a variety of levels of critical thinking questions

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 Intuition
 Common sense
 Authority
 Tradition

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 Where does this come from?
– Ex: Truthiness

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True or False:
U.S. black/white income gap has narrowed significantly in recent years.
The ratio of black-to-white family income has consistently been around 55-60% ever since the major civil rights laws were passed in the 1960s.
There has been some fluctuation, but not much
(Farley 1995, in Farley 1998).

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True or False:
On average, men have a higher tolerance for both pain and temperature extremes than women do.
On average, women tolerate pain, heat, and cold better than men do when physiological tests are performed. However, U.S. culture socializes men to be “tough” more than it does women–so women may often act wimpier!

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True or False:
Most homeless people choose to be homeless.
Only ~ 6% of homeless people are that way by choice (Kendall 2000). 40+% of homeless adults are actually employed. (Population Review Bureau supplement). Over 1/4 of homeless women get that way fleeing domestic violence.

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True or False:
Teenage pregnancies have increased dramatically since the 1950s.
Actually, they decreased over past half century; teens less likely to marry/start family. Percentage of teen pregnancies involving unmarried teens increased dramatically (but even that has been dropping since the early 1990s). (Kendall 1996)

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 Where does this come from?
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Where does legitimacy come in?
Weber’s three types:
– Legal-rational
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Traditional
Charismatic

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 Empirical – observable through one or more of the five senses
– Sight
– Hearing
– Smell
– Taste
– Touch
 Does California exist empirically?

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 An empirical question is answered by observing and analyzing the world?
– What are the standardized test scores of 9 th grade algebra students?
– Why do people commit suicide in some societies more than other societies?

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 Social sciences often look for things that cause other things
 We know that:
– Size causes length of life (smaller dogs live longer than larger dogs)
– Fertilizer on your lawn causes a greener lawn
– Lower education causes lower income

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 Often we confuse causality with causation
 Correlation, sometimes called association
 Relationship between two or more variables
 Increases in ice cream sales correlates with an increase in violent crime

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 Science describes repeating patterns
 Pseudoscience describes idiosyncratic
(peculiar) phenomena that are non-reliable and non-repeatable
– Often appears to be scientific

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 Debunking or teasing out the truth through the use of critical thinking
 Always be skeptical

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 Errors are false assumptions
– Type 1 error: believing a falsehood
– Type 2 error: rejecting a truth
 Hits are correct assumptions
– Type 1 hit: Not believing a falsehood
– Type 2 hit: Believing a truth

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3)
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What is the quality of the evidence supporting this claim?
A fuzzy photograph
My best friend’s wife said this…
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What are the credentials and background of this claimant?
A writer for the National Enquirer
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 Dr. Phil (re: a diet)
Does the “thing” work as claimed?
Does Miss Cleo have the right to answer all the time or just some of the time?