In this assignment, you will use scholarly resources and instructor feedback from your Milestone One and Milestone Two assignments to draft your research paper. The incorporation of your assessment of existing conditions and social change, as well as your expanded knowledge of your topic using the information that you have gained in this course thus far and though the development of your PowerPoint presentation should enable you to expand your paper submission to a minimum of three pages in length. Specifically, the following critical elements must be addressed: Creating Connections: Now that you have broken the social issue into smaller pieces in the PowerPoint presentation (Cultural Beliefs and Biases, Social Roles, Social Inequalities, Existing Conditions, and Social Change), you will write a paper and use the PowerPoint that you created in Module Four to explain the connections you made and how these connections will help you better understand the issue, using your knowledge from the course. You will use your knowledge from the course to describe the connections between the sociological concepts and the social issue and demonstrate the value of using a sociological view when examining social issues. Cultural Describe the relationship between the cultural beliefs and biases identified in the PowerPoint and the social issue and provide specific examples to support your description. For example, you might describe how the cultural belief is related to bias based on race, ethnicity, gender, expression of gender, age, sexual orientation, or social class. Explain how the cultural beliefs and biases identified in the presentation help you better understand the social issue. Social Roles Describe the relationship between the social roles identified in the PowerPoint and the social issue and provide specific examples to support your description. For example, you might describe how the relationship is positive, negative, or strained. In your response, you might consider what expectations are in place because of the social roles. Explain how the social roles identified in the PowerPoint help you better understand the social issue. Social Inequalities Describe the relationship between the social inequalities identified in the PowerPoint and the social issue. How are the social inequalities present in the issue? Explain how the social inequalities identified in the PowerPoint help you better understand the social issue. Impact of Social Change Describe how the social issue is challenging the existing state or conditions, providing specific examples. How might the social issue facilitate change for the existing state or conditions? Provide specific examples. What to Submit This milestone must include at least four scholarly references, be a minimum of 3 pages in length, a Word document, and written in APA format. Use double spacing, 12-point Times New Roman font, and one-inch margins..
Compare and contrast classical and operant conditioning. How do they both contribute to learning? Both classical and operant conditioning involve learning by association. In classical conditioning, responses are involuntary and automatic; however, responses are voluntary and learned in operant conditioning. In classical conditioning, the event that drives the behavior (the stimulus) comes before the behavior; in operant conditioning, the event that drives the behavior (the consequence) comes after the behavior. Also, whereas classical conditioning involves an organism forming an association between an involuntary (reflexive) response and a stimulus, operant conditioning involves an organism forming an association between voluntary behavior and a consequence. Provide 1 additional source. https://oercommons.org/courseware/unit/8477
From the key figures presented in our course material, who do you think has made the most significant contribution to cognitive psychology? Provide 1 additional source. https://nmoer.pressbooks.pub/cognitivepsychology/chapter/history-of-cognitive-psychology/
How do bottom-up and top-down processing influence perception according to current theories? Can you give an example of when each might dominate your perception? Provide 1 additional source. https://nmoer.pressbooks.pub/cognitivepsychology/chapter/chapter-3-introduction/
Compare and contrast short-term memory, working memory, and long-term memory. How do each of these types contribute to your daily cognitive functioning? https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Cognitive_Psychology_and_Cognitive_Neuroscience/Memory Provide 1 scholarly source
How does language not only represent words but also represents our values? Utilize one academic, scholarly resources. Integrate APA style in-text citations throughout the work.
Why do you think decision-making is considered essential to learning and cognition? And explain how it supports or enhances the other cognitive functions. https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Cognitive_Psychology_and_Cognitive_Neuroscience/Reasoning_and_Decision_Making Utilize one academic, scholarly resources. Integrate APA style in-text citations throughout the work.
In response to your peers, discuss how these inequalities are reproduced. In other words, explain why you think this inequality continues to happen in our society. Faith Post Individual discrimination is when a person is treated poorly or differently because of age, race, gender, religion or sexuality. Institutional discrimination is when a group or agency practice discriminatory policies to a group of people. To put simply, individual is discrimination to one person while institutional is towards a group of people. My example of institutional discrimination is how women are generally paid less in the workplace and denied higher positions because of their gender. This shows institutional discrimination because of it is an agency discriminating on a group of people because of gender. It's also not just an issue here in America, Higher Education published an article talking about the wage gap between men and women in Italian academia. "Previous literature has shown that women are less likely than men to be promoted to full professor positions. The significant gender gap in career advancements in academia results from many factors, including discrimination against female researchers in recruitment and promotion" (et.al,2026). There is an underrepresentation of women in high pay roles because of the discrimination of women in recruitment in these roles. Haley Post Individual discrimination – one person making personal decisions based on their own biases – the example of an employer believing women aren't leadership material or a landlord denying housing to someone because of their race. Individual discrimination is a result of a single individual's personal prejudice. Institutional discrimination – the system is not fair; the policies, rules and official procedures in place create unfair outcomes for specific groups of people. As an example of how the systems we are part of create inequalities is when government agencies roll back previous protections for preventing discrimination, which clearly illustrates that large-scale systemic decisions have a direct effect A recent example of institutional discrimination that is both both humorous and appalling came with a 2026 investigation of airport and mall "Smart" automatic hand dryers powered by artificial intelligence. The "Smart" hand dryers were designed to turn on as soon as an individual put his/her hands underneath them -- however they were developed with training data based on mostly male hand sizes and male skin reflectivity. As a result, these "Smart" hand dryers activated immediately for men, while they did not always turn on for women, unless she waved her hands in front of the hand dryer like she was attempting to summon a demon (Consumer Technology Safety Commission, 2026). One report literally stated that the sensors "Failed to Register Smaller or Lower-Reflectivity Hands," which is the most polite way of saying the machine looked at women and said, "I do not recognize this object." This was not one sexist employee -- this was the entire design of the hand dryer quietly discriminating against women. That's institutional discrimination -- a public hygiene device acting like half the population does not exist, unless they perform a full séance under the hand dryer.
DISCUSSION QUESTION 1 Chapter 10 and the articles "Decade of Research on the Rich-Poor Divide in Education: Many Studies Show Large and Growing Inequities" and "Why White School Districts Have So Much More Money" suggest that education in the United States reflects social stratification, which, you may recall from Module Four, is the division of society into groups that are arranged in a hierarchy. Your discussion posting for this module should explain the following: What does it mean to say that education reflects social stratification? Based on the readings, consider how educational reform could potentially break the cycle of inequality. What do you think individuals can do to help combat inequality in education? What can social agencies do to help combat inequality in education? How is racial discrimination reflected in educational social stratification? Please provide evidence and specific examples from the readings or other sources to support your argument. Remember to use in-text citations and references when you use ideas or information from other sources. DISCUSSION QUESTION 2 There have been many social changes and social movements in the past several decades. The Civil Rights Movement, Black Lives Matter movement, Gay Rights Movement, and the #MeToo movement are just a few examples of social movements that accompanied social change. Sociologists often describe social change as the only constant in society. Your post should explain what they mean by that and provide an example of social change that has occurred during your lifetime. Your post should also address how this social change has impacted or changed society's understanding of social roles or inequalities.
