William J. Hauser

Solution-Centered Sociology: Addressing Problems through Applied Sociology

PART ONE: SETTING THE STAGE A World of Problems When Structure Is the Problem When Process Is the Problem PART TWO: LIGHTS, CAMERA, ACTION! Organizing the Group Leading the Pack Strategies for Leadership Maneuvering the Multicultural Minefield Understanding and Organizing Change Deviating from the Norm Good News and Bad News Making Sense out of the Unexpected Responding to Demographic Challenges Applied Sociology PART THREE: CURTAIN CALL Appendix One Putting It All Together Appendix Two The Ethical Sociologist PART FOUR: TAKING THE SHOW ON THE ROAD Appendix Three A Basic ToolKit for Applied Sociologists

Class, Religious Participation and Psychiatric Symptomology

The theories of Marx and Freud suggest that religion can reduce psychiatric symptomology by promoting authoritarian submission. Previous research is inconclusive. Data from a community survey is analyzed with controls for agreeing response-set bias, social desirability bias, and with tests for curvilinearity. It is found that authoritarianism is not related to either religious participation or denomination, nor is psychiatric symptomology related to participation or denomination. Authoritarianism is not related to symptomology. Lower class position is the principle determinant of psychiatric symptomology. Religious participation, denomination, and authoritarianism have no real affect on this. This particular aspect of the theories of Marx and Freud is rejected.

Through the Looking Glass: An Identity Crisis in Sociology?:

As the discipline of American sociology enters its second century, the debate over its goals and purpose still remains. This philosophical debate can no longer continue if sociology expects to survive and thrive as a discipline in the twenty-first century. How will the discipline be judged by a society in need of solutions to problems? Does the discipline have an identity crisis or is it in urgent need of defining and setting its direction for the future? The following symposium discusses what twenty-first century sociology might look like and then links it back to the founding principles. It then discusses whether an identity crisis exists and how sociology can better be defined within and outside the discipline.