Students learn sociology by “doing” sociology, in addition to reading and thinking about it. Chapter 3 describes the different methods of sociological research. Since we are in the era of COVID-19, we will be doing an individual interview with someone who is in your social circle – or someone with whom you can use technology to interview. Your interview will begin with demographic characteristics: how do they identify in terrms of race, gender, age, religion (and so forth). The next part of your interview will focus on their perspectives of recent changes and challenges in our society.  Be careful to be objective and ethical.

Your discussion will first discuss interviews as part of a broader array of social research methods. You will then describe your interviewee’s perspective. Last, you will discuss how you felt about the process and what you learned.