Mathematical sociology

“Do not allow yourself to be overawed by traditional beliefs and institutions. Slavish regard for the past prevents society from achieving a happier future.” Is a strong statement that would trigger an opinionated response from almost anyone especially if you ask any of these three great thinkers. Although it is impossible to predict their exact response to such a question by looking at their writings and other historical texts related to them one could could create a general idea of what…

Throughout the twenty-first century, swift development of information and communication technology and the ageing of the population are both principal movements of the world, mainly in developed countries (Guzzo, Ferri and Grifoni 2014, 8). Social media and mobile technology play a central role as a modern communication tool among several internet user groups with different purposes. In particular, the elderly individuals over 60-75 years old of age or ‘older baby boomer’, who frequently use a…

The year is 2015, the world is diverse and filled with lots of different morals and values. Due to the fact America has become the melting pot of cultures it shows most people have become cosmopolitan. People have become more open-minded and understanding of values other than their own. New technology is responsible for spreading those ideas across the world, which allowed Kwame Appiah’s vision of cosmopolitanism to come back to life because it helped promote social change. Society in the past…

5 Levels of Leadership Leadership potential is an attribute that has been noticed by an existing leader, which in turn makes a recommendation to place an individual in a leadership role. This attribute sets a leadership journey and will instill leadership qualities. They become a leader in an organization, responsible for supervising, decision making, networking and developing others, amongst many other challenging roles. The five levels of leadership are a great model of following the…

The choice of social work as a career was inevitable. Being reared in a family of helpers it would seem that I would have embraced a career as a helper, however I actually wanted a career in business. Although I was passionate about helping others, I thought I would do that in my spare time not as a career. Looking back there were several contributing factors to my choice to become a Social Worker, my up bring, my personal experience and my personal struggles/ convictions . All of these…

1. Phillips discusses in, “Clinical Social Workers as Diagnosticians: Legal and Ethical Issues” the changes made to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders of the American Psychiatric Association which have impacted clinicians. Initially, the DSM was based on the psycho-social model, however, it was later changed to focus on the medical model. The result of this change caused clinicians to have to diagnose individuals and include a diagnosis in most cases. Insurance companies…

One question of which the biological explanation asks is could we identify genetic markers in those with a predisposition to crime? Lombroso’s atavism theory is one of the earliest theories of inherited criminality and links outward physiological features to inherited criminal behaviour arguing it is easy to spot criminals as they are not fully evolved and criminality is innate rather than made. He stated that criminals had distinct facial features for example a large protruding jaw, large ears,…

Constructivism started out as a critical theory in response to Realism and Liberalism. Realists believe the pursuit of power and relative gains are the motivating factors of states’ actions, while liberalists believe that the pressure of the international system is what pushes states into action. Constructivists say that both of these factors are socially constructed, and therefore not everything is as black and white as it is presented in Realism and Liberalism. The constructivist critique of…

In Saussure’s, Course in General Linguistics, he conceives of the linguistic sign as a psychological entity with a concept and a sound-image (Saussure, 66). He does this in order to avoid the fallacy of examining only the sound-image, or phonetic pronunciation of the word, for according to him, each recalls the other, and a concept without a sound-image is voiceless, and a sound-image without a concept is meaningless (Saussure, 67). The main crux of Saussure’s argument is that because “because…

Technology has had a profound affect on the individual, which in result has had a great impact on the world around us. People see technology as a way to better themselves and to connect with various people around the globe or to come together online with others to create a revolution. The affect of technology on the individual is shown in Sherry Turkles essay titled “Alone together”. She argues that robots and technology gives the individual false hope of companionship and love. As a result, the…