Social Problems

Course Description

SYG2010 – Social Problems is a 3-credit-hour course that applies the sociological perspective to the analysis of contemporary social problems in the United States and globally. The course examines how social conditions become defined as problems, how they are explained through major sociological perspectives, and how individuals, communities, and policymakers respond. Topics typically include economic inequality and poverty; racial and ethnic inequality; gender inequality; sexuality and society; family problems; education problems; healthcare and the healthcare system; mental illness; alcohol and drug use; crime and criminal justice; population, urbanization, and the environment; war, terrorism, and political violence; and other contemporary issues.

Students develop the analytical capability to distinguish individual-level explanations from structural-level explanations, evaluate competing causal claims about social conditions, and assess proposed policy responses. The course is among the most popular sociology offerings at Florida institutions and serves both as a follow-on for students who have taken SYG2000 (Introduction to Sociology) and as a standalone introduction for students whose first exposure to sociology comes through this issue-focused approach.

SYG2010 is a Florida common course offered at approximately 32 Florida institutions and satisfies general-education social-science requirements at most Florida public colleges and universities. It transfers as the equivalent course at all Florida public postsecondary institutions per SCNS articulation policy.

Learning Outcomes

Required Outcomes

Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to:

• Define social problems sociologically, distinguishing objective conditions from subjective social-construction processes by which conditions become defined as problems requiring response.
• Apply the major sociological perspectives — structural functionalism, conflict theory, symbolic interactionism, and contemporary perspectives (feminist theory, critical race theory, social constructionism) — to the analysis of social problems.
• Apply the sociological imagination (C. Wright Mills) to connect personal troubles to broader public issues and structural forces.
• Analyze economic inequality and poverty, including measurement of poverty, the U.S. social class structure, the working poor, homelessness, and policy responses.
• Analyze racial and ethnic inequality, including the social construction of race, prejudice and discrimination (individual and institutional), wealth and income gaps, residential segregation, and racial disparities in education, employment, criminal justice, and health.
• Analyze gender inequality, including the gender wage gap, occupational segregation, gender violence (domestic violence, sexual assault), gender and family responsibilities, and gender in politics.
• Analyze problems related to family, including divorce, single-parent families, domestic violence, child abuse and neglect, and changing family structures.
• Analyze problems related to education, including educational inequality (by race, class, geography), school finance, achievement gaps, school discipline, and higher-education access and affordability.
• Analyze problems related to healthcare, including the U.S. healthcare system, health insurance, health disparities, access, costs, and pharmaceutical issues.
• Analyze problems related to mental illness, including stigma, access to care, the mental health system, deinstitutionalization, and contemporary mental health crises.
• Analyze problems related to alcohol and drug use, including the social context of substance use, the opioid crisis, drug policy, and the public health vs. criminal justice approach to substance use.
• Analyze problems related to crime and criminal justice, including types of crime, the criminal justice system, mass incarceration, racial disparities, and criminal justice reform debates.
• Analyze problems related to population, urbanization, and the environment, including population trends, urban issues, housing, environmental degradation, and environmental justice.
• Analyze problems related to war, terrorism, and political violence, including the social context of conflict, militarism, and political violence at the introductory level.
• Evaluate policy responses to social problems, distinguishing among individual-level, community-level, and structural-level interventions.

Optional Outcomes

• Apply sociological perspectives to contemporary issues in Florida, including the state's economic inequality patterns, immigration, urbanization, and environmental issues.
• Engage in service-learning or community-based research connecting course concepts to local Florida community contexts.
• Engage with global social problems, including global poverty, refugees, climate change, and global health.
• Apply quantitative literacy to data on social problems (interpreting statistics, polls, and trend data critically).
• Engage with sexuality and society, including LGBTQ rights, sexual violence prevention, and contemporary sexual politics.

Major Topics

Required Topics

• The Sociological Approach to Social Problems: Defining social problems; objective vs. subjective dimensions; the social construction of social problems; the sociological perspectives (functionalist, conflict, symbolic interactionist, and contemporary perspectives); the sociological imagination.
• Economic Inequality and Poverty: Measuring poverty (absolute, relative, official); the working poor; homelessness; the U.S. social class structure; economic inequality trends; poverty across the lifespan; policy responses (TANF, SNAP, housing programs, EITC, minimum wage debates).
• Racial and Ethnic Inequality: Race as social construction; minority and dominant groups; prejudice and discrimination (individual, institutional, systemic); racial wealth gap; residential segregation; racial disparities in education, employment, criminal justice, and health; immigration and Latino/Hispanic communities; Asian American experiences; Native American experiences; contemporary racial dynamics.
• Gender Inequality: Gender as social construction; gender wage gap and occupational segregation; gender violence (domestic violence, sexual assault, sexual harassment); reproductive rights; gender and family; gender in politics and leadership.
• Sexuality and Society: Sexual orientation and identity; LGBTQ rights and contemporary issues; sexual violence prevention; sex work and sex trafficking.
• Family Problems: Divorce; single-parent families; blended families; domestic violence; child abuse and neglect (including Florida mandatory reporting); intimate partner violence; the impact of poverty on families.
• Education Problems: Educational inequality by race, class, geography; school finance; achievement gaps; school discipline (school-to-prison pipeline); higher-education access and affordability; student debt; charter schools and school choice debates.
• Healthcare Problems: The U.S. healthcare system; health insurance (employer-based, public, uninsured); health disparities (race, class, gender, geography); access and cost; pharmaceutical industry; medicalization; the COVID-19 pandemic and its sociological lessons.
• Mental Illness as a Social Problem: Stigma; access to care; the mental health system and its limitations; deinstitutionalization and its consequences; mental illness and homelessness; contemporary mental health crises (youth mental health, postpandemic mental health).
• Alcohol and Drug Use: Social context of substance use; the opioid crisis; alcohol use and consequences; tobacco and vaping; cannabis legalization debates; drug policy approaches (criminalization vs. harm reduction vs. treatment); the war on drugs and its legacies.
• Crime and Criminal Justice: Types of crime; measurement of crime (UCR, NCVS); the criminal justice system (police, courts, corrections); mass incarceration in the U.S.; racial disparities in criminal justice; criminal justice reform debates; capital punishment.
• Population, Urbanization, and Housing: Population trends and demographic change; urbanization patterns; suburbanization; housing problems; gentrification; affordable housing crisis (particularly relevant to Florida).
• Environmental Problems: Environmental degradation; climate change; environmental justice; pollution and health; consumption patterns; sustainability.
• War, Terrorism, and Political Violence: Social context of war; militarism; terrorism; political violence; refugee crises.
• Globalization and Global Social Problems: Global inequality; transnational labor; global migration; global health; climate change as a global problem.

Optional Topics

• Florida-Specific Issues: Florida's affordable housing crisis; immigration; environmental issues (Everglades, hurricanes, sea level rise); educational issues; the demographic transformation of the state.
• Aging as a Social Problem: Ageism; care for older adults; Social Security and Medicare; particularly relevant given Florida's aging population.
• Technology and Social Problems: Digital divide; social media and youth mental health; misinformation; surveillance; AI and the workforce.
• Service-Learning: Community-engaged learning addressing local social problems.
• Solutions and Policy Analysis: Detailed analysis of specific policy responses; movement-building; community organizing.

Resources & Tools

• Common Textbooks: Social Problems (Macionis), Social Problems (Eitzen/Baca Zinn/Eitzen Smith), Social Problems: Continuity and Change (Barkan — open access via University of Minnesota Libraries), Social Problems (Henslin), Social Problems in a Diverse Society (Kendall)
• Open Educational Resources: Social Problems: Continuity and Change (Barkan, free OER), Lumen Learning, Saylor Academy
• Online Platforms: Connect (McGraw-Hill), Revel (Pearson), MindTap (Cengage)
• Reference Resources: American Sociological Association (asanet.org); Pew Research Center; U.S. Census Bureau; Bureau of Labor Statistics; Bureau of Justice Statistics; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; Florida Office of Economic and Demographic Research; Brookings Institution; Urban Institute
• Multimedia: Documentaries on contemporary social problems (varied current sources); ProPublica investigations; Florida public media (WLRN, WUSF, WUFT); The Atlantic, ProPublica, NPR public-interest reporting

Career Pathways

SYG2010 develops analytical, research, and policy-evaluation skills valuable across many fields. Career pathways supported include:

• Social Work — Required or recommended prerequisite for many BSW programs.
• Criminal Justice — Required or recommended for criminal justice programs at most Florida institutions.
• Public Service and Public Administration — Federal, state, and local government roles addressing social conditions.
• Nonprofit and Advocacy Work — Direct service, advocacy, organizing, policy analysis with community-based and national organizations.
• Public Health — Foundation for public health career paths emphasizing social determinants.
• Education — Foundational for educators serving diverse student populations and addressing achievement gaps.
• Healthcare — Healthcare professionals engaging with social determinants of health.
• Journalism and Communications — Strong foundation for analysis of contemporary social issues.
• Law (Pre-Law) — Foundational for law school applicants interested in public-interest law, criminal law, family law, civil rights law.

Florida's substantial diversity, rapid demographic change, large healthcare and human services sectors, and ongoing engagement with major contemporary social issues create strong career value for graduates with sociological literacy in social problems.

Special Information

General Education and Transfer

SYG2010 is a Florida common course number that satisfies general-education social-science requirements at most Florida public colleges and universities. It transfers as the equivalent course at all Florida public postsecondary institutions per SCNS articulation policy and is part of the standard social-science options on the A.A. transfer pathway.

Course Approach Variations

Florida institutions vary in their pedagogical approach:

• Traditional survey approach: Even coverage across the major social problem areas.
• Issue-emphasis approach: Concentrated treatment of selected high-priority issues.
• Service-learning approach: Substantial community-engagement component.
• Comparative approach: Examination of social problems comparatively across nations and contexts.

Most approaches address the major required topics through different framings; the difference is one of organization and emphasis.

Relationship to Introduction to Sociology (SYG2000)

SYG2010 is closely related to but distinct from SYG2000. SYG2000 emphasizes the discipline of sociology — its theories, methods, and substantive findings across the breadth of social life. SYG2010 emphasizes the application of sociological perspectives to contemporary social problems. Either course typically satisfies the introductory sociology requirement at most Florida institutions, and the two courses are often interchangeable in transfer pathways. Students should consult an advisor about which course better fits their interests and degree plan.

Considerations for Sensitive Content

SYG2010 by its nature engages with topics that students may find emotionally or personally challenging — domestic violence, sexual assault, racism, poverty, mental illness, substance use, criminal violence, and others. Programs introduce trauma-informed pedagogical approaches and connect students to support resources where needed. Students with personal experience of the topics covered are encouraged to engage thoughtfully and to access support resources as helpful.