SOC 419: Inequalities and Health (Professor Roche)

Once you have chosen someone to interview, create a short list of very open-ended questions that allow you to learn about your interviewee’s experiences. I offer tips about interviewing at the end of this assignment description.

Take notes during your interview – then type them up after the interview is completed. You don’t need a direct transcription from a recorded interview since that is A LOT of work – if you record your interview with your interviewee’s permission, you should still take notes “just in case”  (many students' recordings in previous years have not worked). Your typed notes should be submitted, with your interview questions, to Turnitin at the end of your paper.

Our research librarian will lead a workshop in how to find information to build foundational knowledge of your topic.  This should be represented in your reference page, and used in your introduction. 

Find Literature: Locate at least one sociological, scholarly article to frame your discussion. We will be doing an online Literature Workshop where you will work with your peers to navigate the scholarly literature. It will help if you have already conducted your interview before the workshop.

Once you have collected all of your interview data, please format your paper in the following manner and PLEASE USE HEADINGS:

1. Introduction:

Begin your paper by briefly introducing the person that you interviewed. Who is this person in your life? How do you know them? What is their race, class, gender, occupation and/or other information that you think might be useful? How did you first learn about their health issue? What is the diagnosis or health problem?

How did you approach this person about an interview? What was their reaction?

Describe the setting in which you conducted your interview and the tone. Provide details about your feelings, as well as about how your interviewee seemed during the interview (nervous, calm etc.). Try your best to “set the tone” of the interview.

2. Literature Review:

Re-introduce the health issue that your interviewee experiences. Find one scholarly, sociological, reviewed journal article that connects to this person’s experience. You can use a broad framework to find literature as it can be tough to find sociological literature about a particular health issue (be careful that you are not finding medical literature!). Rather, you should find an article that discusses the health experience, versus the health category.

Provide a review of the journal article you found by first describing how the literature helps to frame your analysis, then by discussing the article’s research question (what is the article about?), method of inquiry, findings and recommendations. Conclude this section by linking to back to your own research focus and how the article connects.

3. Interview Findings: (Note: please do not call this section “Findings”. Rather, think of a heading that describes your findings. You can use more than one heading for the body if necessary).

Discuss what you learned about your interviewee and share their experiences as an “unhealthy” person. Describe in concrete terms, using at least a few quotes and excerpts from your interview to illustrate your point, what you learned from this person and their experiences with their health issues. In other words, tell the person’s health story, but be selective about which parts to share. Do not simply use the entire interview.

As you gather information about what happened to this person and their physical health, do your best to also learn about interactions with doctors, hospitals, other health practitioners and insurance companies.

Consider learning about discussions and interactions with family and friends and how their social world has been impacted. Although some focus will be about the physical experiences of being ill, in this class we are also learning that there is a social context that exists in all health matters. Can you also ask about particular experiences, conversations and observations that help you to understand their experience?

My point here is that while the “nuts and bolts” about this person’s health are important to the story, so too are their feelings, worries, triumphs and experiences.

Professor Roche recommends that you use as many direct quotes as possible, rather than only summarizing what your interviewee said. This aspect of the paper is a chance for you to “tell their story” in a concrete, kind and compassionate manner.

4. Analysis:

Please provide a sociological discussion of what you learned from your interviewee. This means that you must draw upon topics, readings, discussions and other class data to complete a sociological analysis of this person’s experiences. Professor Roche also expects at least some connections to the literature that you found in an effort to discuss your interviewees experiences sociologically.

The most important aspect of the analysis sections is your ability to 1) Use your interview data to make your point. This paper is an opportunity for you to listen, read and express what you have learned from the experience of others. 2) Remain sociological. The more connections that you can make to a sociological understanding of the issue, the better your grade will be. 3) Connect to the course theories, themes and perspectives throughout. Offer a detailed discussion of how you can make sense of this persons experience using a sociological perspective that you have learned in this class.

There are so many ways to explore health experiences sociologically. For example, you may want to use a gender analysis (norms of femininity and masculinity), a discussion of structural violence, race inequality and/or privilege, a class perspective that connects to how poverty or wealth shapes their experiences, a political discussion that pursues the underlying motives of the medical community etc. My point is that you should link to our course material to frame your analysis. Please note that Professor Roche is asking for depth, versus breadth so she prefers that you choose one or two of the course topics and perspectives rather than several.

5. Conclusion:

In your conclusion, please describe what this experience was like for you personally. Did it deepen your understanding of what it is like to experience illness? Drawing upon some of our readings, what is the importance of listening to those who have experienced grave illness? How does a sociological perspective deepen our understanding?

6. References:

Include a reference page using ASA, APA or MLA formatting (https://biblio.csusm.edu/guides/citations).

Also, for each of your academic, sociological references, please explain how you know the article is sociological – what is the author(s) affiliated university and department, for example (remember, this means that at least one author must have a background in sociology).

7. Appendix (to be included at the end of your paper, after your reference page)

Append typed notes from your interview, or a portion of your transcribed interview (if you chose to tape record, which Professor Roche highly recommends – with permission from your interviewee) and submit with your paper.

Please consult Cougar Courses for full assignment guidelines.

Our research librarian will lead a workshop in how to find information to build foundational knowledge of your topic. This should be represented in your reference page, and used in your introduction. 

Literature Review

Locate at least one sociological, scholarly article to frame your discussion. We will be doing an online Literature Workshop where you will work with your peers to navigate the scholarly literature. It will help if you have already documented your story before the workshop.

The paper itself should include the following sections:

1. Introduction:

Introduce yourself – tell me a little bit about you to help frame the paper. Perhaps describe your race, class, gender, occupation and/or other information that you feel might be important to share. Then, describe your health issue including a timeframe and how you sought/are seeking help. How are you doing now and what is the status of your health issues?

2. Literature Review:

Re-introduce your health issue and provide a short framework for how the course material helps you to understand your experiences. Find one scholarly, sociological, journal article that connects to your experience. You can use a broad framework to find literature as it is tough to find sociological literature about a particular health issue (be careful that you are not finding medical literature!). Rather, you should find an article that discusses the health experience, versus the health category.

Provide a review the scholarly journal article that you found and include the following:

• Describe the focus of the article. This can be the research question or simply a description of what the article is about.
• Briefly describe how the authors gathered their data.
• Describe the major findings of the article. What did the authors learn in their study and how does this connect to YOUR topic?
• Briefly review the conclusion or discussion. For example, does the author offer ideas for policy or future research?

Conclude this section by linking to back to your own experience and how the article connects.

Please note** I am here to help you find sociological literature but you may wish to access help from our research librarian, Lalitha. If you need guidance in finding sociological, scholarly literature, she is very resourceful and she will lead us in a workshop during the semester. Please begin the process early and set an appointment with her in advance. She is very busy and may not be able to help you at the last minute. We will work on finding literature in class as well

3. Your health story: (Note: Please give this a heading that links to the “findings” rather than title it “health story)

Describe your experiences as an “unhealthy” person. I recommend that you provide your story in a “start to finish” fashion, making decisions about what is most important to include and where you can find opportunities for sociological analysis. You might begin by discussing how the health issues started, how they progressed and how they were treated. Are you still experiencing health issues? Please include a discussion of where things stand today as you wrap up your story. This should be only a portion of your paper, so be mindful of the importance of a sociological analysis the page limit.

I recommend that you include at least some details about your physical experience, but that you also include examples of interactions with doctors, hospitals, other health practitioners and insurance companies. Perhaps discussions and interactions with family and friends and how your social world has been impacted as well. Providing actual stories will really bring the paper to life. Although this is about your body, in this class we are also learning that there is a social context that exists in all health matters. Can you also think of particular experiences, conversations and observations that lend insight to your experience?

My point here is that while the “nuts and bolts” about your health are important to your story, so too are your feelings, worries, triumphs and experiences. Be careful about offering too much technical information – even though some is fine. Also, you cannot include everything from your story, so you will have to choose important highlights that really shed light on your experiences

4. Analysis:

Please provide a sociological discussion must draw upon topics, readings, discussions and other class data to complete a sociological analysis of this person’s experiences.

The most important aspect of the analysis sections is your ability to 1) Use examples of your experiences to make your point. 2) Remain sociological. The more connections that you can make to a sociological understanding of the issue, the better your grade will be. 3) Connect to the literature, course theories, themes and perspectives throughout.

There are so many ways to explore health experiences sociologically. For example, you may want to use a gender analysis (norms of femininity and masculinity), a discussion of structural violence, race inequality and/or privilege, a class perspective that connects to how poverty or wealth shape your experiences, a political discussion that pursues the underlying motives of the medical community etc.

My point is that you should link to our course material to frame your analysis. Please note that I am asking for depth, versus breadth so I prefer that you choose one or two of the course topics and perspectives rather than several.

Conclusion:

In your conclusion, please describe what this experience was like for you personally. Did it deepen your understanding of what happened, or what is happening to you? Drawing upon some of our readings, what is the importance of listening to those who have experienced grave illness?

5. References:

Include a reference page using ASA, APA or MLA formatting (https://biblio.csusm.edu/guides/citations).

Also, for each of your academic, sociological references, please explain how you know the article is sociological – what is the author(s) affiliated university and department, for example (remember, this means that at least one author must have a background in sociology).

Please consult Cougar Courses for full assignment guidelines.

Our research librarian will lead a workshop in how to find information to build foundational knowledge of your topic.  This should be represented in your reference page, and used in your introduction. 

1. You will need to find two, sociological, scholarly articles that connect to your topic. This does not mean book chapters, popular media etc. You must be able to offer an analysis of your topic beginning with a discussion from the scholarly literature. In your paper, please draw from the literature to frame your discussion (I love helping with literature searches, let me know how to help!).

2. You should include at least three other resources to explore your topic. One of these sources must be a newspaper article. I am very open to what the other two might be. As you can see from my course design, I am open to poetry, music, news articles, advertisements, images, speeches, art and anything else that lends insight into understanding a particular topic. Your paper should include an analysis of these resources to help you develop a sociological discussion.

3. Your paper should also explore very specific solutions to the health topic that you choose. Since our task in the course is to look at how political, economic and social forces shape our capacity to be healthy people, your paper should tackle some strategies that address health inequalities connected to your topic. 

The paper itself should include the following sections:

1. Introduction:

Introduce yourself – tell me a little bit about you to help frame the paper. Perhaps describe your race, class, gender, occupation and/or other information that you feel might be important to share. Then, describe your health issue including a timeframe and how you sought/are seeking help. How are you doing now and what is the status of your health issues?

2. Literature Review:

Re-introduce your health issue and provide a short framework for how the course material helps you to understand your experiences. Find one scholarly, sociological, journal article that connects to your experience. You can use a broad framework to find literature as it is tough to find sociological literature about a particular health issue (be careful that you are not finding medical literature!). Rather, you should find an article that discusses the health experience, versus the health category.

Provide a review the scholarly journal article that you found and include the following:

• Describe the focus of the article. This can be the research question or simply a description of what the article is about.
• Briefly describe how the authors gathered their data.
• Describe the major findings of the article. What did the authors learn in their study and how does this connect to YOUR topic?
• Briefly review the conclusion or discussion. For example, does the author offer ideas for policy or future research?

Conclude this section by linking to back to your own experience and how the article connects.

Please note** I am here to help you find sociological literature but you may wish to access help from our research librarian, Lalitha. If you need guidance in finding sociological, scholarly literature, she is very resourceful and she will lead us in a workshop during the semester. Please begin the process early and set an appointment with her in advance. She is very busy and may not be able to help you at the last minute. We will work on finding literature in class as well

3. Your health story: (Note: Please give this a heading that links to the “findings” rather than title it “health story)

Describe your experiences as an “unhealthy” person. I recommend that you provide your story in a “start to finish” fashion, making decisions about what is most important to include and where you can find opportunities for sociological analysis. You might begin by discussing how the health issues started, how they progressed and how they were treated. Are you still experiencing health issues? Please include a discussion of where things stand today as you wrap up your story. This should be only a portion of your paper, so be mindful of the importance of a sociological analysis the page limit.

I recommend that you include at least some details about your physical experience, but that you also include examples of interactions with doctors, hospitals, other health practitioners and insurance companies. Perhaps discussions and interactions with family and friends and how your social world has been impacted as well. Providing actual stories will really bring the paper to life. Although this is about your body, in this class we are also learning that there is a social context that exists in all health matters. Can you also think of particular experiences, conversations and observations that lend insight to your experience?

My point here is that while the “nuts and bolts” about your health are important to your story, so too are your feelings, worries, triumphs and experiences. Be careful about offering too much technical information – even though some is fine. Also, you cannot include everything from your story, so you will have to choose important highlights that really shed light on your experiences

4. Analysis:

Please provide a sociological discussion must draw upon topics, readings, discussions and other class data to complete a sociological analysis of this person’s experiences.

The most important aspect of the analysis sections is your ability to 1) Use examples of your experiences to make your point. 2) Remain sociological. The more connections that you can make to a sociological understanding of the issue, the better your grade will be. 3) Connect to the literature, course theories, themes and perspectives throughout.

There are so many ways to explore health experiences sociologically. For example, you may want to use a gender analysis (norms of femininity and masculinity), a discussion of structural violence, race inequality and/or privilege, a class perspective that connects to how poverty or wealth shape your experiences, a political discussion that pursues the underlying motives of the medical community etc.

My point is that you should link to our course material to frame your analysis. Please note that I am asking for depth, versus breadth so I prefer that you choose one or two of the course topics and perspectives rather than several.

Conclusion:

In your conclusion, please describe what this experience was like for you personally. Did it deepen your understanding of what happened, or what is happening to you? Drawing upon some of our readings, what is the importance of listening to those who have experienced grave illness?

5. References:

Include a reference page using ASA, APA or MLA formatting (https://biblio.csusm.edu/guides/citations).

Also, for each of your academic, sociological references, please explain how you know the article is sociological – what is the author(s) affiliated university and department, for example (remember, this means that at least one author must have a background in sociology).