In her articles “Correlates of Success in the Sociology Major” and “The Student Voice: Sociology Majors Tell Us About Learning Sociology” Kathleen McKinney examines factors contributing to success and comprehension within the sociological field. McKinney finds this important as it challenges the belief that graduating with a Bachelor’s in sociology or any other field, guarantees a thorough understanding or proficient application of their discipline. McKinney draws on previous studies that report a positive correlation between grades and class attendance, frequency of doing the assigned readings, scores on practice exams, pre-test scores, grade point average (GPA), and some background variables. McKinney also mentions previous research that shows a limited …show more content…
The most important independent factors were demographics and background, study experiences and behaviors, sociological imagination, and learning style. McKinney hypothesizes that success in the major is based on doing well academically and feeling engaged in the discipline. The data was collected from self-administered questionnaires of 114 senior sociology majors at Illinois State University, a mid-sized, public, Midwestern university. No sampling was used as almost the entire population of graduating sociology majors was analyzed, minus seven students who did not complete the questionnaire. The research method used was a voluntary, anonymous, self-administered questionnaire with closed- and open-ended questions. The closed questions were coded and the open-ended questions were analyzed for recurring themes. In “The Student Voice: Sociology Majors Tell Us About Learning Sociology” McKinney uses multiple research methods to analyze themes that sociology majors report about their discipline. McKinney utilizes group interviews, analysis of learning logs, and face-to-face intensive