Substance Abuse (Opioid and Heroin Crisis, Medical-Industrial Complex, Youth Binge Drinking)

The purpose of the Final Paper is for you to demonstrate the learning achieved in the course. To do so, you will be analyzing one of the social issues from the list below from the perspective of two social science disciplines, both of which were selected in week 1 of this course. To examine this social issue, and how these disciplines examine this issue, you will use the four scholarly sources that you selected in weeks 2 and 3, as well as your textbook and any other additional sources from the course. You will then compare and contrast how the different disciplines have examined this topic, use your analysis to discuss the importance of interdisciplinarity in the social sciences, and conclude with how the findings from your collective research could be used to help address the social problem. Make sure to give yourself time to proofread and reviseLinks to an external site. your work.

Social Issues to Examine:

  • Gender Inequality (#MeToo Movement, Gendered pay inequality, LGBTQ Movement)
  • Racial Inequality (Racial Profiling, Black Lives Matter Movement)
  • Income Disparity in the U.S. (Low Wages and Minimum Wage, Working Poor, Homelessness, Unemployment)
  • Substance Abuse (Opioid and Heroin Crisis, Medical-Industrial Complex, Youth Binge Drinking)
  • Healthcare (Childhood Obesity, Accessibility to Healthcare, Medicaid, Medical bills, Healthcare for Veterans, Mental Illness, Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010)
  • Deviance (Decriminalization and Legalization of Drugs, Mass Incarceration, Hate Crimes, Death Penalty, White Collar Crime)
  • Environmental Issues and Sustainability (Climate Change, Air Pollution, Water Policy)
  • Political Extremism (The Rise in Nationalism, Misinformation and Disinformation, Extremism in geopolitics, Conspiracy Theory)
  • Global Issues (Human Trafficking, Child Labor, World Hunger, Globalization, Fair Trade, migration, refugees, immigration)
  • Education (Gender Inequality in Schools, Bullying, Dropout Rates, School Funding, Learning disabilities) 

Social Science Disciplines to Examine

  • Sociology
  • Anthropology
  • Psychology
  • History
  • Economics
  • Political Science

Select the blue headings to expand the text in each section.

Final Paper Components:

Your final paper should include the following:

  • A brief discussion of your social issue, and how it rises to the level of social concern.
  • A brief discussion of each of the social science disciplines you have selected to gain insight on this social issue. Discuss the main goals of these disciplines as discussed in Part II of your textbook.
  • Using the sources selected in week 3, analyze how your selected social science disciplines have examined your selected social issue.
    • In your examination, identify if the authors used qualitative or quantitative methodologies and why they selected these methods.
    • Discuss one similarity and at least two key differences in the approaches or conclusions of these studies and relate these to the disciplines involved.
  • Explain, based upon your research, how using research from two social science disciplines can lead to a more complete understanding of social issues than only using research from a single discipline. In other words, how do the approaches and conclusions of your sources contribute to an interdisciplinary understanding of the topic? How is this a more complete understanding than a set of conclusions from sources only in one discipline?
  • Finally, explain how this interdisciplinary understanding might be applied within a social context in order to attempt to address this social issue.
Final Paper Organization

Your Final Paper should generally be organized according to this structure and include the following content:

  • Introduction: Introduce the social problem and the two social science fields you will use to explore it.
    • State the thesis of your paper. Your thesis should relate to how these disciplines could be used to address this social problem.
  • Define the social issue selected as a social problem using relevant concepts from the course (1 paragraph).
    • Definition of social problem as a social problem.
    • Discussion of disciplines and their applicability to this social problem.
  • Discussion of disciplines and their applicability to this social problem (1 paragraph).
    • Describe how the concepts and theoretical approaches of your first social science field contribute to the understanding of your social problem.
    • Describe how the concepts and theoretical approaches of your second social science field contribute to the understanding of your social problem.
    • Discuss at least two differences between the approaches or findings of your chosen social science fields.
  • Analyze how the selected sources have examined your social problem (2-4 paragraphs).
    • Identify the methodologies used in the studies as quantitative or qualitative, and why these methodologies were used.
    • Discuss one similarity in the approach or findings of these studies.
    • Discuss at least two differences in the approach or findings of these studies and relate these to the disciplines you have examined.
  • Usefulness of approaching the issue from two social science fields (1-2 paragraphs).
    • Discuss how examining social issues from more than one social science field contributes to understanding society.
    • Explain how the interdisciplinary approach of looking at your problem from more than one social science perspective helps you to gain a more complete understanding of your social issue compared to using only one perspective.
  • Explanation of how social science research can help address social problems (1-2 paragraphs.)
    • Explain how the findings of these sources can be applied within a social setting.
  • Conclusion
    • Sum up the primary points of the paper.
    • Restate your thesis.

Be sure to incorporate the feedback provided by your instructor throughout the course, especially the Week 3 Assignment. 

Formatting and Citations

The Final Paper: 

The Scholarly, Peer-Reviewed, and Other Credible SourcesLinks to an external site. table offers additional guidance on appropriate source types. If you have questions about whether a specific source is appropriate for this assignment, please contact your instructor. Your instructor has the final say about the appropriateness of a specific source for a particular assignment.

To assist you in completing the research required for this assignment, view this Quick and Easy Library ResearchLinks to an external site. tutorial, which introduces the University of Arizona Global Campus Library and the research process, and provides some library search tips.

Carefully review the Grading RubricLinks to an external site. for the criteria that will be used to evaluate your assignment.

Waypoint Assignment Submission

The assignments in this course will be submitted to Waypoint. Please refer to the instructions below to submit your assignment.

  1. Click on the Assignment Submission button below. The Waypoint “Student Dashboard” will open in a new browser window.
  2. Browse for your assignment.
  3. Click Upload.
  4. Confirm that your assignment was successfully submitted by viewing the appropriate week’s assignment tab in Waypoint.

For more detailed instructions, refer to the Waypoint TutorialLinks to an external site..

    This tool needs to be loaded in a new browser window

    The session for this tool has expired. Please reload the page to access the tool again

    The following content is partner provided

    The preceding content is partner provided

    PreviousNext

    Do you need help with this paper? 🏆 - Let us help you write it!

    Why Choose Our Essay Writing Service?

    • ✅ Original writing: Our expert writers will write each paper from scratch, ensuring complete originality, zero plagiarism and AI free content.
    • ✅ Expert Writers: Our seasoned professionals are ready to deliver top-quality papers tailored to your needs.
    • ✅ Guaranteed Good Grades: Impress your professors with outstanding work.
    • ✅ Fast Turnaround: Need it urgently? We've got you covered!
    • ✅ 100% Confidentiality: Customer privacy is our number one priority. Your identity is anonymous to our writers.
    🎓 Why wait? Let us help you succeed! Our Writers are waiting..

    Get started

    Starts at $9 /page

    How our paper writing service works

    It's very simple!

    • Fill out the order form

      Complete the order form by providing as much information as possible, and then click the submit button.

    • Choose writer

      Select your preferred writer for the project, or let us assign the best writer for you.

    • Add funds

      Allocate funds to your wallet. You can release these funds to the writer incrementally, after each section is completed and meets your expected quality.

    • Ready

      Download the finished work. Review the paper and request free edits if needed. Optionally, rate the writer and leave a review.