Hernan Ramirez
SBS 402
Dr. Bales
4/15/2018
MLO III
Students at California State University, Monterey Bay in the Social Behavioral Science
department require a Major Learning Outcome 3 (MLO III) in which it requires to provide a
discipline that concentrates on the profession within the major. What students need to know are
basic understandings of the sociological thoughts for researching literature and are able to
analyze issues from such given scholars within the division. Also Social Behavioral majors are
obligated to provide within the disciplinary two different types of deliverables. The deliverables
need to include any research projects or a presentation that relates to your concentration such as
research topic, investigation of a social issue, or scholarly peer reviews. In addition, MLO III
serves as a building block for students when it comes to developing an investigation and also to
have the ability to carry their chosen research project.
As a student of social behavior science, I have chosen two core disciples that helped me
understand my concentration. These two disciples are my Upper Division Service Learning in
which I volunteer assisting migrant students. My concentration is on sociology. Sociology is
defined as “the study of social life, social change, and the social causes and consequences of
human behavior. Sociologists investigate the structure of groups, organizations, and societies,
and how people interact within these contexts” (American Sociological Association2005). As a
student with a concentration of sociology, I will apply the types of research methods that include
qualitative and ethnographic research method in understanding sociological social issues among
society. Students were instructed within the social sciences to fulfill our concentration that
involved a combination of lectures and discussions among different topics. In my concentration I
was instructed to analyze and annotate all scholarly reading materials. While in the field I was
instructed to conduct research were I would incorporate existing research from scholars in the
field into my research essays.
The courses I have completed in the discipline of sociology include the following: SBS
330 (Crime & Violence), SBS 331 (Self Defense) and HDEV 365 (Adolescence). In my SBS
330 course I created a city profile report and a crime & demographics report about Watsonville
using the census data and information from the factfinder website. In the profile report, I provide
information about the change in total population, change in sex, poverty, change in race, and
housing status from the year 2000 to 2010. In 2000, the total population in Watsonville was
approximately 44, 264 and in 2010 the population increased to approximately 51,199, consisting
in a 14% increase. As is evident, the number of males and females also increased, 13% among
males, and 14% among females. From an estimate of 50,124 people living in Watsonville in the
years 2008-2010, approximately 20% of the total population lived below the poverty line level.
From 2000 to 2010, there was a 15% increase in the white population, 7% increase among
African Americans, 13% increase in the Asian community, and 15% increase among other race
(as defined by the census) living in Watsonville.
In the crime and demographics report, I describe and compare the crimes (reported to law
enforcement) of murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault in Watsonville in the years 2005
and 2010. There were 2 murders, 17 rapes, 81 robberies, and 137 aggravated assaults in
Watsonville in the year of 2005. In 2010, there was a decrease in the number of murders (1
murder) and rapes (13 rapes) compared to the year 2005, while there was an increase in robbery
(98 robberies) and aggravated assaults (215 assaults). In this report, I also compared
Watsonville’s 2010 violent crime statistics (murder, rape, robbery, and aggravated assault) with
statistics of violent crimes in California and the USA.
In my HDEV 365 (Adolescence) I created a pamphlet which was presented to the class.
This pamphlet was about teen pregnancy. In this presentation I introduced the important
consequences about teen pregnancy. During this presentation I explained what teen pregnancy
really is and the aftermath of teenagers after giving birth. The consequences for those teenagers
are that reality is much harder than other teenagers which brings huge emotional crisis and those
feelings turn into shame and fear. Furthermore, I discussed some of the campaigns that the
government has contribute with in order to prevent teen pregnancy. I concluded my presentation
by showing data of teen pregnancy is still increasing even though the government has contribute
with campaigns in order to decrease the number of teen pregnancy cases.
In this concentration /discipline of sociology scholars face ethical issues related to the
information they present or publish. Scholars must to be aware of reporting unbiased information
and try to maintain all research information that meets the standards of the institution that they
represent without breaking the law.
