Popular Self-Help Book
Group Project
Family Sociology
Professor Gager
FIRST AND FOREMOST
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Follow the Directions
Follow the Directions
Follow the Directions
An important part of following the directions is
reading the project assignment directions.
 See Project Assignment in word
5.
All materials are on Blackboard in the:
Project Assignment folder
under Course Documents folder
Groups for Project
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Your groups are the same as on the wiki
Work out your differences…I am not a referee!
COMMUNICATE ON YOUR GROUP SITES
ON THE WIKI!!!
Available books are listed under the Project
folder under course document folder on
Blackboard
PowerPoint Group Project
assignment
You will create a PowerPoint Presentation
which you will present in class
Presentations should be 10-12 minutes
MAX!!!
This is about 12 - 14 slides
Time limits will be strictly enforced!
Think about your audience when creating
your presentation
Make it interesting and be creative!
Powerpoint Group Presentations
Monday –Wed class:
Presentations are due Friday, April 22
You present in class on Monday, April 25
& Wednesday, April 27
Tuesday class:
Presentations are due Monday, APRIL 18
You present on Tuesday, April 19
Don’t leave it until the last minute,
sometimes Blackboard is down
Class PowerPoint Project
 The main idea of the assignment is to choose a
popular self-help book on
relationships/families/etc. and critique the book
using “real” data on families/relationships.
 By REAL data, I mean the kind we use in this
class from the Census, National Center for Health
Statistics, national government or university
surveys.
 Most self-help books use stories from friends,
therapy clients, audience members (OPRAH, Dr.
Phil)
The Self Help Movement
The Rise of Individualism
“It’s all about me!”
Shulevitz article:
Why are marriage and relationship
manuals so bad?
Marriage is an important institution in
almost every human society
And yet instead of enlightenment on
marital intimacy, we get ''Men Are From
Mars, Women Are From Venus.''
Step 1: Choosing a popular self-help
book
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Choose a book from the list or suggest one for approval
to me
New self-help books come out ALL THE TIME
After you choose the book, you will need to buy or
borrow the book from the library (I also have a few you
may borrow)
Next – surprise - surprise – you will need to READ the
book!
You can divide up sections of the book and assign to
various members of the group
But please make sure to read the entire book !
Doing Group Work
 Make sure to clearly assign tasks to all members
of the group
 You will be asked to grade your own role in the
project and to grade the other members of the
group
 No free riders!
 Hold members of the group accountable!
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Remember: you will all fill out an evaluation form for
each group member at the end of the project
Evaluation form is under Project Assignment folder on
Blackboard
Doing Group Work
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I find it helpful when having a
meeting/completing a group project to:
End a meeting by deciding on and
recording a list of “action items” to be
completed by the next meeting.
Send everyone in group a copy of tasks
and deadlines.
Use your group website on wiki to post
this list and deadlines and to
communicate!
Structure of the PowerPoint
Presentation
 Introduction
 Data
– Data used to write the book
– “Real” data from an official on-line data source
– U.S. Census or National Center for Health Statistics
 Results
– Does on-line data refute or support claims in book?
– Is the book helpful?
 Discussion/Conclusion
 3 Potential Final Exam questions
Introduction
 Start with a cover slide with the TITLE of the
book and the author’s name
 Identify the thesis of the book
 What is the book about?
 Be prepared to summarize the main points,
arguments of the book
 What is the main thesis of the book?
 What is the argument the author makes for
why this book is important?
Introduction
Contextualize the topic
Provide a background for the book topic
For example: Suppose the book is: Divorce
for Dummies, on helping people through
divorce
You might provide some background on
the divorce rate in the U.S. over the past
years
Annual Divorce Rate per 1,000 Married
Persons
Introduction
 Contextualize the topic
 Provide a background for the book topic
 Possibly identify some trends that are associated
with the increase in divorce
– Legal changes
– More women working for pay
– Lessened stigma of divorce
 You must use 2 or more scholarly source, (one
must be from a scholarly journal) as a source for
background information
 Is any of this background data in the book?
Introduction
Contextualize the topic
Background on divorce in the U.S.
– How do women versus men do emotionally
following divorce?
– What does an increase in divorce mean for
children?
Again - is any of this background
information in the book?
Introduction
Contextualize the topic
If the book is on helping women to meet
and marry a man…
You might identify whether the likelihood
of marrying is increasing or decreasing
over time
Or you might discuss how have attitudes
changed about marriage?
 http://www.census.gov/prod/2005pubs/p70-97.pdf
Data
Describe the data utilized by the author
and/or how they collected (or did not
collect) that data used in the book
For example, many self help books rely
on nonrepresentative samples of friends,
family members, or patients
How did the author of your book choose
her/his sample?
Evaluate the data used in the book
 Identify the major types of data used to make the
arguments in the book.
 For example, if you were using John Gray’s: Men
are from Mars, Women are from Venus, what
data does Gray use to compare men and women?
 Evaluate whether Gray is picking anecdotal
stories about why women and men are different.
 Just saying men never ask for directions is not
based on fact!
Data
Use fact-based statistics to critique the
authors’ claims
You can find these types of data on the
U.S. Census website www.census.gov
Or the National Center for Health
Statistics (NCHS)
www.cdc.gov/nchs
See Project Assignment directions for a
complete list of data sources
Data
Find “real” data that the author might have used
or data that shows their isn’t REALLY a problem
of women finding men to marry
Data must be from an academic or government
source
Discuss the data that you identify on-line and
SHOW IT IN GRAPH/TABLE form
You can create a table or graph
Or cut and paste from a report
But provide a full reference to your data source
Data
Find “real” data that the author might have
used or data that shows their isn’t REALLY a
problem of women finding men to marry
What is the quality of your on-line data?
1) Is the source of the data reputable? Why or
why not?
2) Is it based on a national or regional
sample?
3) Who collected the data?
Using the Census
www.census.gov
Click on “Publications” on left panel
Then click on “Population” link
 Then click on “Population Characteristics”
Then scroll down to report “P20-544 Men
and Women in the United States
http://www.census.gov/prod/www/abs/p20.
html
Using the Census
www.census.gov
You can also search on men and women
See results listed below on frequently asked
questions on educational attainment and
earning differences by gender
 Or scroll down and click on the report: We the
People: Women and Men in the United States:
http://www.census.gov/prod/2005pubs/censr
-20.pdf
Results: Evaluate the data used in
the book
For example, many self help books help
women get married
But is it really that hard to find men?
Q: Are there so many more women than
men who are unmarried?
A: Marital status by gender
 Look closely at ages and sex
http://www.census.gov/prod/2003pubs/p20-544.pdf
Results: How “helpful” is this selfhelp book
 Evaluate the book
 Is the book helpful?
 What has the book left out – is there an
important related topic they have missed?
 Perhaps suggest what self help books
are really needed
Results: Evaluate the author
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Is the author reputable?
Are they really an expert?
Evaluate the author’s credentials – do they have the
background to write such a book?
 Is he or she trained in a field related to the book
topic, like psychology, family studies, counseling,
sociology, or fashion design?
 Are they a therapist or researcher, or just a lay
person who had a book idea that they thought
would sell?

According to John Alexander, the author of The Alpha
Male, “Relationship books for men can be hard to read.
Some of them are written by guys who should never be
allowed to get within ten feet of a pen.”
Results: Evaluate the author
 Evaluate the author’s credibility
 Do a little background check on the author, don’t
just go by the description in the book.
 Remember they are trying to market the book –
but you want the facts!
 Often you can find info on the authors on
publishers’ websites
http://www.4seasonsofmarriage.com
Discussion/Conclusion
1) Summarize your project findings
2) Give an example, how a person might go
about writing a better book on this
topic?
3) Describe how using the real data you
found supported the book thesis or how
it have might have made the project
undoable – because for example, the
problem does not actually exist.
Discussion/Conclusion
 For example, for a book on how to get
married: Does the author note that many
more alternatives to marriage now exist
compared with the past?
Remaining single longer
Higher rates of cohabitation
Divorce
 You could use all these factors to critique
the authors correct framing of the
“problem”
Discussion/Conclusion
 Many people are simply choosing to
postpone marriage or not to marry at all
 In other words, does the “problem” the
author writes about really exist?
 Many couples are postponing marriage
with the bad economy in mind
 http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/29/us/29
marriage.html
Discussion/Conclusion
 You might also suggest future research or
book ideas
 Maybe better topics are out there to write
self-help books on?
 Or are there better ways to collect data for
these books?
 In sum:
 what are the overall contributions of the book?
 what are the biggest problems with the book?
Sources: Background materials
 FIRST: You will also need to do some
background reading related to the topic of your
self-help book.
 You must find 2 background sources on the topic
–
 AT LEAST ONE OF THESE SOURCES MUST
BE AN ARTICLE FROM A SCHOLARLY
JOURNAL!
 This could be an article in a
psychology/sociology/family studies journal or in
an edited volume on the topic.
 The other can be another journal article, book
chapter, or description from
APA Formatting
Provide a full reference for each source
and the data that you use at the end of
the presentation in APA format.
Smith, R. L., & Duenas, P. E. (2006). The
sky is blue. Journal of Marriage and the
Family, 22, 1269-85.
Be sure to paraphrase your sources and cite
them in the presentation i.e. (Smith,
2006)
APA format source:
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/07/
Sources: On-line data
You must have data, from a government
or academic data source (on-line)
You MUST include a table or chart to
show your on-line data
Make sure to fully cite your data source,
so that I can easily find the link
Provide source on slide with chart And a
FULL reference on References page
For example, on slide:
 Source: http://www.census.gov/prod/2003pubs/p20-
Using the library’s resources
 http://www.montclair.edu
 From QUICK LINKS, choose library or quick on
link on left panel.
 Choose ARTICLES & MORE
 Click DATABASES BY TITLE
 Choose Letter “E”
 Choose Ebsco Academic Search Premier
 Type in subject words or author
 Be flexible with word choices!
Using the library’s resources
 using PSYCHINFO
 Type in keywords:
 “divorce” “effects” & “gender”
 Maybe add “United States” to keyword search
 Article: “Divorce and Adult Psychological Well-Being:
Clarifying the Role of Gender and Child Age.
by Williams, Kristi, Dunne-Bryant, Alexandra, Journal of
Marriage and Family, 68, 1178-1196.
 Note the references in that abstract, that could help you
find other articles
Using the library’s resources
 From Montclair Home page choose QUICK LINKS
 Choose Library
 Click ARTICLES & MORE
 Choose Psychology/Sociology
 One search engine is “Proquest”
 Always try many different key words
 For example “divorce and United States”
 Maybe add “women” to search
Sources
 In summary your presentation must include:
1) Background information from 2 sources that
relate to the topic of your self-help book (At least
ONE source MUST be an article from a scholarly
article)
2) A graph or table with data from an academic of
government source such as the U.S. Census or
the National Center for Health Statistics or a
survey conducted by other government, academic
group like those we examine in class
Beware of googling – you must go to a firsthand
source like those above
Searching for data on-line
 Be careful using Google
 A random website does not count as finding a good data
source
 Make sure you check the source used on websites
 Often interest groups, who may have very biased
opinions, “pick and choose” among available statistics
to support their beliefs
 You should always go to the original source if possible
 For example: A recent N. Y. Times blog
http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/02/22/gendertrade-offs/?hp
Has inks to main studies
Searching for data on-line
National Center for Health Statistics
(NCHS)
Collects Vital Statistics data on the
number of:
1) Marriages
2) Divorces
3) Births
4) Deaths
Searching for data on-line
 National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS)
 Collects Vital Statistics data
 http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/
 Click on Vital Statistics link on left side of page
and choose “Marriages and Divorces”
 Choose link to “National Vital Statistics Reports”
 Scroll down and click on link to different
volumes/years
 ON the Census, when looking for data on
cohabitation, marriage or divorce, search on
LIVING ARRANGEMENTS
Note tips on project assignment
 Proof read
 Practice the presentation!!!!!!!!!!!!
 Presentations should be 12 - 14 minutes MAX
 This is about 12 -15 slides
 Time limits will be strictly enforced!
 Think about your audience when creating your
presentation
 Make it interesting and be creative!
 Hints on PowerPoint are available all over the
web
PowerPoint Group Presentations
 Presentations are due MONDAY: APRIL, 26 by
4:00 P.M.
 Submit your presentations to the digital dropbox
through blackboard
 Don’t leave it until the last minute, sometimes
blackboard is down
 Presentations schedules to be announced
 Presentations will be November 30 in class
 You must be present for your presentation or you
will NOT receive credit for the assignment
Exam Questions
 All groups will be responsible for writing 3 final exam
questions based on their presentation
 You will need to write them in multiple choice format
with 4 possible answers.
 Include these at the end of the presentation you submit to
blackboard, but remove them from the in-class
presentation
 EXAMPLE:
 1: What major social movement made the book Get a life
then get a man possible
 A. Civil rights movement
 B. Feminist movement
 C. Gay rights movement
 D. None of the above
Example Exam Questions
 In her book, Get a Life, Then Get a Man, author
Jennifer Bawden, says she will show you how to
A) follow “The Rules.”
B) become the woman you want to be then attract
your perfect man.
C) identify your love language.
D) None of the above.
 Answer: B