Black, White and Gray
Apparently yes, if it is spent correctly. I wonder if this makes routine tithing as a path to happiness? Read more
Apparently yes, if it is spent correctly. I wonder if this makes routine tithing as a path to happiness? Read more
About a week ago a curious story began to make the media rounds. Apparently porn stars’ lives aren’t nearly the mess they are often presumed to be. Instead, the news cycle declared, they display greater self-esteem and deeper “spirituality” than the average woman. These were two of the findings from a study published in the Journal of Sex Research, a fair journal in which yours truly has appeared a few times. I skimmed the actual article, which is interesting. Despite... Read more
In the spirit of bringing up politically incorrect research for discussion allow me to introduce this. For those who just want the executive summary basically this research suggests that conservatives are happier than liberals. Moreover, activists on both sides of the political fence are happier than their moderate brothers and sisters. But conservative activists are happier than liberal activists. So both Tea Partiers and Occupy Wall Street folks are happier than the moderates who sit out the protests but there... Read more
Much of the material I teach on racial, gender, and class inequalities is US based, but given the increasing relationship between the US and the rest of the world, I’m learning to add more to my repertoire on the push factors that bring new immigrants to the US and the life conditions of the people there. Sometimes documentaries help me figure out the big frameworks for a particular issue, and that helps me to dig my way into the literature... Read more
As Margarita Mooney so ably put forth in a previous post, Sociology is in need of an attitude adjustment (my words, not hers). Namely, the focus of so much sociology is on the problems of society (in fact, many sociological courses are taught as a variation of the theme social problems), but this shunts aside an equally interesting and important question: What makes people, groups, and society prosper? We shouldn’t just assume that the solutions in society are simply the... Read more
I enjoyed celebrating Thanksgiving with my family. I’m thankful for the lives of my three daughters, for my husband; I’m thankful for my parents, my siblings, and my extended family through marriage. This season, I was especially thankful that my husband and I are able to provide for our family, to meet our children’s needs, and be able to see them thrive. Yet even as I am grateful for these things, I feel a sense of unease in thanking God... Read more
OK, I’ve been at it again, meaning that I’ve been exploring associations between various measures in the New Family Structures Study (the NFSS). I realize I’ve treated readers to blog entries like this before, including here, here, and here, but I can’t help myself. Such are social science data nerds. I’ve come across another puzzle worth sharing with you. At the risk of sounding blunt, crass, and insensitive, the NFSS data clearly reveal that—for whatever reason—more politically liberal 18-39-year-old women... Read more
This past summer I lost a friend at church and a family friend to terminal illness and through these experiences, I’ve grown more aware how often death and dying emerges at my stage in the life course. Apparently I wasn’t alone in this either. I happened to be in conversation with the university chaplain one day a couple of months ago, and he remarked that while he had a total of 40 cases in which students lost a parent or... Read more
One of the joys of being an academic is reading in a wide range of research literatures and learning from them. Yesterday I was reading about the Self-Determination Theory. It’s a theory of human motivation, and it holds that humans have three general needs that they must meet for optimal function and growth: relatedness, autonomy, and competency. Relatedness is being connected to others. Autonomy isn’t being independent of others, rather it’s “being a causal agent” in one’s own life. Competency is... Read more
Would you consider donating money to help personal friends of mine in Santiago de Cuba who were severely affected by Hurricane Sandy? A friend of the family will visit Santiago de Cuba at the end of November and will deliver the money to them personally. I will send 5% of my monthly income to help. Keeping in mind that the average monthly salary for a professional (such as a doctor or an accountant) in Cuba is just $20, any amount... Read more
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