Social Probs Final

When did farming become a less common type of work than industrial work (textbook)?

1910/1920

What % of jobs were in farming, manufacturing (industrial work), and the service sector as of 2020 (textbook)?

Farming: less than 10% (abt 3%)

Industrial: little less than 20% (abt 18%)

Service: between 80 and 90% (abt 87%)

What is deindustrialization and what year did it start in the US (textbook)?

the decline of industrial production that occurred in the United States after about 1950.

What were the top 3 occupations in 2024, and what sector were they in (Top Occupations at the National and State Levels)?

1. Home health and personal care aids

2. retail salespersons

3. fast food and counter workers

Many Black Southerners moved out of the South in the 20th century as part of “The Great Migration” – what years did that cover, how many are estimated to have moved, and where did they go (Wikipedia)?

1910-1970.

About 5,000,000 moved to the urban northwest, midwest, and west.

Large cities such as NYC, Chi, LA, San Fran, Philly, Detroit, cleveland, washington dc

What are the benefits of industrial capitalism according to Milton Friedman’s “parable of the pencil?”

all abt the impossibility of making a pencil. Requires materials from all over but still cheap

What are the 3-4 most dangerous jobs in the US (Most Dangerous Jobs article), and what kinds of people tend to work in them (Workplace Fatalities, Table 1)?

Logging workers, roofers, fishing and hunting workers, helpers in construction trades.

Kinds of people: Whites then hispanics. 55 to 64 years old followed by 45 to 54 years old. Men. Wage and salary workers

What kinds of workers are most likely to experience nonfatal workplace violence (Workplace Violence, Table 1 and Chart 1)?

Women in health care and social assistance

What kinds of jobs are the most stressful, according to the psychological demand/decision latitude model (Job Stress as the Intersection of Demands and Latitude, Figure 1)?

“High-strain” jobs=High psychological demands and low decision latitude. (high workload but low control/autonomy)

In class we looked for the most undesirable jobs in the US – what features did those jobs share (SYG2010-sp2026-undesirable-occupations)?

1. High exposure to hazards or trauma.

2. irregular/ rotating shifts.

3. dirty, physically demanding, or outdoor work.

4. Emotional labor with vulnerable populations.

5. Industry disruption/declining outlooks

Some jobs have more “precarity,” especially gig work…which is what (textbook, Trends in Independent Contractor, Temp…)?

Gig work is a flexible, income-earning activity consisting of short-term, temporary, or project-based tasks, often facilitated through digital apps or websites. "Precarity" in gig work refers to a state of employment that is uncertain, unstable, and insecure.

What was the biggest type of gig work in the US in 2023 in terms of receipts & proprietorship (Infographic on Growth in the Gig Economy)?

Couriers and Messengers

Not all gig work is bad – what kinds of workers are most likely to earn more than $100/hr (Trends in Independent Contractor…, first graph)?

1. Independent contractors,

2. traditional W2,

3. Temp Workers

What are the pros and cons of gig work according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (Gig Job Pros & Cons)?

Pros: Flexibility, variety, passion.

Cons: Inconsistency, Scheduling, Lack of Benefits.

Do self-employed workers automatically get to collect social security when they reach retirement age (Gig Worker Taxes in 2025)?

Unlike traditional employees, who split Social Security and Medicare taxes with their employers, self-employed individuals must cover both portions. This means you’ll pay a total of 15.3% in self-employment taxes, which includes 12.4% for Social Security and 2.9% for Medicare.

Horace Mann (1848) envisioned public schools as “the great equalizer of men,” but schools in the South were different by design in terms of black and white students. What did the Florida Constitution of 1885 specify about race and education (Florida Constitution of 1885)?

White and colored children shall not be taught in the same school, but impartial provision shall be made for both.

Resulted in deeply unequal funding and resources for decades in Black schools

How much was the ratio for Florida in 1950-52 (School Funding Per Pupil in the South, 1950-52)?

$3,222 for Whites to $3,008 for blacks. $314 difference

What did the Supreme Court unanimously decide in the 1954 Brown vs. Topeka Board of Education decision (Brown vs. Topeka…)?

Unanimously rules that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional

Where does Florida rank in terms of average teacher salary and in terms of starting teacher salary (Public Teacher AVERAGE Pay…, STARTING Pay…)?

Average: Florida is about 20,000 less than the U.S average salary (US: 72,030 & FL: 54,875).

Starting: Florida is about 2,000 above the U.S starting salary. (US: 46,526 & FL: 48,639)

What surprising news story in the 1970s ultimately led to the government study of public education and the report titled A Nation at Risk (A Nation at Risk…)?

the mean SAT scores had declined for the tenth year in a row

What has been the focus of public school reform since 2000 (A Nation at Risk…)?

standards-based accountability

What are ways that charter schools try to stand out as being unique from traditional public schools (A Nation at Risk…, Charter School Proposals from Class Activity)?

Public school replacement, at-risk/ special needs, specialized curriculum, unique learning environment, character development

We didn’t do well on AP’s weekly news quiz—is that true of people in the US generally?

significant portion of the U.S. public consistently underperforms on weekly news quizzes

How do US adults compare to adults in Western Europe (graphic from Country Differences in Knowledge…)?

US adults have lower levels of political knowledge and higher levels of misperceptions compared to adults in Western Europe.

How many local newspapers in the US disappeared between 2005 and 2025 (Where Do You Get Your News…)?

. Almost 40% of all local U.S. newspapers have vanished.

7,325 in 2005 to 4,482 in 2025= 2843 local newspapers disappeared

How much has our confidence in the press shifted in the past 50 years (Trend in Public Confidence according to the General Social Survey (Trend in Public Confidence…)?

Gone from about 25% to 7%

Are Democrats & Republicans now equally skeptical of the press (Hardly any trust in the press…)?

No, republicans are more skeptical with almost 80% having hardly any trust while only around 30% of democrats had hardly any trust

What’s the biggest difference in where Republicans and Democrats get their news (Where Do We Get News, What Do We Trust?)?

The biggest difference is that Republicans heavily concentrate their news consumption around a few specific sources, particularly Fox News, while Democrats consume news from a wider, more diverse variety of mainstream outlets.

What is the media bias chart created by Vanessa Otero (Ad Fontes Media Bias Chart)?

graphic that helped viewers visualize media bias in the United States

What do the axes of the Ad Fontes media bias chart represent?

vertical scale of reliability and a horizontal scale of political bias.

How are the scores (coordinates) for a media source determined (Efforts to Make Unbiased Ratings)?

Team of over 40 analysts rates. Based on scored of individual articles. Analysts go through 30 hours of training plus additional 40 per year. Include professionals that require high levels of rhetorical and analytical skills.

Are worries about fake news and misinformation overblown? What do worldwide experts think according to the World Economic Forum (How Big a Problem Is Fake News – Figures 2 and 3)?

experts do not consider concerns about fake news and misinformation overblown, ranking them as the top short-term risk over the next two years.

How did the targets of Trump’s tweets change from when he was initially a presidential candidate to after he was elected (Analysis of Trump's Tweets…)?

The targets went from being specific individuals to the media as a whole

from 23 percent of tweets being about media as a whole as a candidate to 63 percent being about media in his first 2 years of presidency.

About what percent of teens say using social media makes them feel more connected to their friends (textbook)?

80%

Among adults, is social media use associated with connectedness or loneliness (Does Time or Frequency of Social Media Use Matter – Figure 1)?

Among adults, social media use is associated with greater loneliness rather than connectedness, especially at higher levels of use.

What percent of people live in urban areas now (textbook)?

80%

What is the most desirable community characteristic according to SYG2010 students (Student Word Cloud…)?

Beach, community, safe, lively

What kinds of communities are the most violent (Most Dangerous Communities)?

Large urban communities

How do those differ from the communities that are the least desirable (Undesirable Communities)?

Communities that are least desirable are smaller areas with high unemployment and poverty. Low homeownership rate

Which Fact/Fiction statements about rural areas are true (Rural America: Fact or Fiction, other readings on Canvas)?

Rural areas next to cities are growing, but not other

What % of renters spend more than 30% of the income on housing & utilities?

22.6 million renters (50 percent)

What was the median price of a single-family home in 2024?

$412,500

How much more than the median household income is that (Housing Affordability Crisis)?

Median price of home is 5 times median household income

How do conservative, liberal, and radical political perspectives differ in their views on how to keep the peace (textbook)?

The Far Right and Conservatives: Peace through Strength

Liberals: The Dangers of Militarism

The Radical Left: Peace through Equality

What was the worldwide death toll from World War II (textbook), and how many fatalities where there specifically in the Soviet Union (lecture)?

Worldwide: over 50 million

Soviet union: Around 27 million

How does the death toll from WWII shape Russia’s population pyramid even today (WWII Impact on the Russian Population Pyramid)?

Every generation connected to the war has been considerably smaller leading to unusual dips in pyramid lasting about 30 years.

How much did the population of Ukraine change since Russia invaded, and what demographic force was the change mostly due to –fertility, migration, or mortality (Ukraine's Population 2015-25, lecture)?

approximately 10 million people (about 25%). This drastic reduction is primarily driven by migration

What three countries were the biggest sources of refugees in 2023 (Top Sources of World Refugees…)?

Afghanistan, Syria, Ukraine

Do Europeans generally tolerate the number of immigrants in their countries (European Views on Immigrants, Refugees, Asylum Seekers)?

Many think illegal immigration is much too high and legal immigration is about right.

What do we call the generation in the US that came from the surge in fertility after WWII ended, and was that population change unique to the US (Fertility Rates and Global Conflict…)?

Baby boomers

This happened in many high-income countries at the same time

What country spends the most on national defense (Defense Spending in Charts)?

U.S

Spends more on defense than the following 9 countries combined.

What does the Prisoner’s Dilemma experiment illustrate about negotiating peace treaties with other countries (Challenges to Diplomacy & Dealmaking)?

2 parties cant communicate with each other directly. If each party acts on their self interest they have the worst outcome for everybody. So for optimal outcome build trust, communication

How do Arab countries view the US and other world powers as of 2025 (Arab Views of US and Other World Powers)?

The European Union received somewhat better marks than the US. The US is less liked now.

Are adults in the US really that worried about Iran developing nuclear weapons (How Concerned Are US Adults about Iran…)?

More than three-quarters of Americans view the development of nuclear weapons by Iran (77%) as critical threat to U.S. vital interests, making these the top concerns of 13 global issues

What “critical threat” worries Republicans the most? What worries Democrats the most (How Concerned Are US Adults about Iran…)?

Republicans: 1. Iran nuclear weapons 2. Immigrants.

Democrat:1. Global Warming, 2. Cybersecurity

What percent of adults in the US think we are living in “end times” (Week 14 Lecture Resources-Pew poll from December 2022)?

4 out of 10

Week 15. Course Wrap-Up: Social scientists look at different types of “capital” when studying the resources that help individuals get ahead, navigate precarity, or persevere in catastrophes: financial capital (wealth), human capital (knowledge), cultural capital (knowledge of dominant cultural norms, customs, values, styles) and social capital. What are the three types of social capital we reviewed (Week 12: Social Capital Defined)?

Economic capital, cultural capital, and social capital

Does social capital help communities or individuals in crisis – specifically, in the face of tsunamis or pandemics (Social Capital Revisited)?

High social capital improves community collaboration in disasters, while in pandemics, it encourages compliance with safety measures

Are states in the South Atlantic region (Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida) relatively well-off in terms of levels of social capital, compared to the Northeast and Midwest (Social Capital Revisited)?

No, the South Atlantic states (Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida) are not well-off in social capital compared to the Northeast and Midwest

What are the costs and benefits of globalization (Peterson Institute for International Economics)?

Benefits: employment went up, national income went up. Costs: some workers lost out people working in manufacturing/  jobs without college degree

How have the labor force participation rates (% working for pay) for women and men changed since the mid-1800s (Census Data 1860-2020)?

For men it’s dipped, but still higher than women. Women increased significantly.

The nature of early agricultural work in places like North Florida was profoundly shaped by slavery – what percent of the population of Leon County, Florida, did slaves make up in 1860 (Free and Slave Populations of Florida)?

¾ of population was slave

In Florida, do we spend more per student in lower income schools, or less per student in lower income schools, compared to higher income public schools (Funding Equity Survey, Florida Public School Funding: Disparity or Equity)?

We spend on average more on lower income schools than we do higher income schools

Week 10. Work & the Workplace: What are the psychological costs of capitalism according to Alain de Botton (textbook, short video in Week 9)?

Feeling/stress of uncertainty

How does assembly line production illustrate concepts of alienation and McDonaldization (textbook, “Clockwork” film)?

reducing human labor to repetitive, specialized tasks, prioritizing efficiency and speed over worker autonomy, creativity, and quality

What is the Coleman Report, and what did it conclude would be the best way to address racial inequality in educational opportunity (Equality of Educational Opportunity…)?

In 1 year find out what's wrong with schools in the United States. Surveyed thousands and used analytic techniques that found desegregation was the best way 

What was the ratio of per pupil funding in white schools vs. black schools in Florida in 1919-20 (Florida School Funding Per Pupil, 1919-20)?

4 times more in black schools than white schools

How does the “Russiagate” story (alleged collusion between Trump’s campaign team and Russia to subvert Hillary Clinton) serve as an example of media bias (lecture)?

In the trump hillary election there was evidence of russian interference. Haunted trump for the first months of his presidency which shows media bias because it was never established that trump actually did that. Then trump started tweeting abt fake news.

Week 13. Urban and Rural Communities: Around what year did the US become half-urban and half-rural (textbook)?

1910