Читать книгу Our Social World - Kathleen Odell Korgen - Страница 40

There is not a simple answer to this belief! Marriage and divorce rates differ by age, education level, income, location, and other variables. Those who marry at age 18 or before, have less education, and have lower levels of income than the average person have the highest divorce rates (Kennedy and Ruggles 2014). Those who are middle class or higher tend to have more stable marriages, and most of their marriages do not end in divorce. Overall, noted researcher Paul Amato predicts that the lifetime risk of divorce is from 42% to 45%; “throw in permanent separations that don’t end in divorce, then the overall likelihood of marital disruption is pushing 50 percent” (DePaulo 2017; Pew Research Center 2018a; Stanton 2018). Thus, research shows that divorce rates average below 45% depending on demographic variables.

As these examples illustrate, the discipline of sociology provides a method to assess the accuracy of our commonsense assumptions about the social world. To improve the lives of individuals in our communities and in societies around the world, decision makers must have accurate information. Sociological research can be the basis for more rational and just social policies—policies that better meet the needs of all groups in the social world. The sociological imagination, discussed next, helps us gain an understanding of social problems.