Assessing course goals is often challenging; assessing an abstract goal, like empathy, can be especially so. For many instructors, empathy is central to sociological thinking. As such, fostering empathy in students is a common course goal. In this article, we report the initial findings of a semester-long assessment of empathy change in undergraduate students ( N = 619). We employ a mixed-methods research design that utilizes qualitative instructor data to determine independent instructor-level variables and student surveys to measure student empathy change. We compare empathy change between students enrolled in introductory sociology classes to students not enrolled in sociology classes and test which student and instructor variables predict empathy change. We find that students taking sociology classes have positive empathy change compared to those who do not. We interpret these findings as evidence that study of sociology promotes empathy development and discuss implications for the classroom and further research.
Transgender adults face a health care system rife with stigma, including a lack of culturally responsive providers and high likelihood of discrimination and mistreatment. However, there is a gap in knowledge about trans men—those assigned a female sex at birth who identify as men or as transmasculine—including subgroups, such as trans men of color. Using data from the U.S. Transgender Survey, the largest transgender survey conducted in the United States, this study analyzes whether trans men’s access to knowledgeable providers and their experiences of mistreatment in health care were related to demographic and mental health characteristics and degree of being “out” to providers. Among 7,950 trans men, respondent race and ethnicity, education level, disability status, psychological distress, suicidality, and being less “out” were associated with assessing one’s health care provider as not knowledgeable about trans-related care. Mistreatment in health care was more common among Alaska Native/American Indian trans men; those who lived in or near poverty; those who were queer, pansexual, bisexual, or an orientation not listed; those with a disability; those experiencing distress or suicidality; and those who were more “out.” This article discusses how findings can inform culturally responsive health care interventions with trans men.
A new nuclear power station is currently being built in the Southwest of the UK at Hinkley Point. The construction of the cooling water system for Hinkley Point C is underway but there is controversy over the tunnelling required to install the huge pipes that will run for over 3 kilometres into the Bristol Channel. EDF, the operating company, want to deposit 600,000 tonnes of sediment on the far side of the Channel, at the licensed site for such disposal, the Cardiff Grounds. The Cardiff Grounds are in Wales and there is a public outcry at the prospect of the arrival of this English mud, and the concern that it might carry toxic sediment from the previous, far less regulated material deposits produced over the past 60 years by the adjoining stations at Hinkley Point A (now decommissioned) and Hinkley Point B (currently operational). Earlier disposal of sediment led to protests and a petition that triggered a debate in the Welsh Parliament. EDF have supplied evidence that levels of radiation in the mud are so low as to be not classed as radioactive under UK law. They offer comparisons with naturally occurring radiation: the levels of radiation in the mud would be 10,000 times less than an airline pilot's annual dose, 750 times less than the average dose received by a resident of Pembrokeshire due to naturally occurring radon, equivalent to eating 20 bananas a year. These comparisons do not convince local people. This paper explores the difficulties inherent in producing public trust in radiation measures. Radiation cannot be seen, smelt or felt. It must be detected through instruments, evaluated through calculations and interpreted by experts. Experts are often exasperated by the distinctions that people draw between natural and human‐made radiation. Still, they also miss the point that most people approach radiation as a social, rather than a physical or chemical, relation. The political and social histories through which nuclear imaginaries are produced and reproduced shape understandings of toxicity in ways that lead people to place more trust in correlation than in causality.
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