Review the six (6) rules of critical thinking (Chapter 1) and the steps of “Doing Sociology: A Student’s Guide to Research” (Chapter 2).

Student Success Tip: As you review the steps, jot a few notes or thoughts down. Relax and prepare to write a concise and accurate essay.

Write a one to two (1-2) page essay in which you:

1. Identify the first step in the student’s guide to research.
2. Define the first step of research in your own words.
3. Identify the major assumptions and bias of the drug industry that underlie drug research.
4. Identify the personal bias that you, as a consumer, have on the drug industry’s influence over research.

Sociological Research

First step to research

Sociologist, same as other social scientist are bound by the codes of ethics related to doing a scientific research. Sociologists also need to follow steps that would guide them do a research in a scientific manner based on facts and figures and not assumptions. For this reason, the first step that sociologists must take while doing a research is to identify the problem. A problem may be a social issues or phenomenon that exist in the society or that interests the researcher.

If I had to do a research, the identification of a problem would be an important aspect of my research. I would primarily focus on what the problem is, how and why it has been causes and what are the factors that influence it. Existing literature can be utilized to answer some questions to the problem at hand. If the problem identification is not successful, the research process may be jeopardized.

Drug Research

After reading the article in Washington post, I have realized that drug companies invest money in researches that could draw conclusions that in favor of the company, especially its financial interests. The example of diabetes drug that was promoted, in the light of many research articles eventually by the company, to be better than other diabetes drugs but eventually turned out to have disastrous side effects that were overlooked in the research.

After reading the article, I have suddenly developed a bias towards drug companies that may not have existed before. I am now thinking that all the drug companies that refer to researches that favor the sale of their drugs in drug advertisement may be lying to us. I know it’s a much generalized statement but this is how I think now.