The National Institutes of Health (NIH for short) is the United States Federal Government's focal point for health research. The agency conducts and supports research: in the causes, diagnosis, prevention, and cure of human diseases; in the process of human growth and development; in the biological effects of environmental contaminants; in the understanding of mental, addictive, and physical disorders; and in directing programs for the collection, dissemination, and exchange of information in medicine and health. It employs about 18,000 people in various occupations, all of whom support the research efforts for a healthy nation. There are many different position at the NIH that are appropriate for sociology graduates, including Health Informatics Specialists, Health Scientist Administrators, Epidemiologists, Health Scientist Administrators, and Environmental Health Scientists, to name a few. Read more about careers at the NIH, including qualifications and salary.

The index of qualitative variation (IQV) is a measure of variability for nominal variables, such as race, ethnicity, or gender. It is based on the ratio of the total number of differences in the distribution to the maximum number of possible differences within the same distribution. Let's say, for instance, that we are interested in looking at the racial, ethnic, and cultural diversity of various cities over time in order to see if the populations of those cities has gotten more racially or culturally diverse, less diverse, or stayed the. The index of qualitative variation is a good tool for measuring this. Read more about the IQV, including how to calculate it.

Questionnaires are used a lot in social science research and knowing how to construct a good questionnaire can be an important and practical skill to have. There are a lot of things that go into constructing a good, quality questionnaire, including question wording, ordering of the questions, formatting the questions, formatting the overall survey, and providing clear instructions for the respondents. Here you will find tips on all of the items just mentioned.

Social inequality is characterized by the existence of unequal opportunities and rewards for different social positions or statuses within a group or society. It contains structured and recurrent patterns of unequal distributions of goods, wealth, opportunities, rewards, and punishments.

There are two main ways to measure social inequality: inequality of conditions, and inequality of opportunities. Inequality of conditions refers to the unequal distribution of income, wealth and material goods. Housing, for example, is an inequality of conditions with the homeless and those living in housing projects sitting at the bottom of the hierarchy while those living in multi-million dollar mansions sitting at the top.

Inequality of opportunities refers to the unequal distribution of "life chances" across individuals. This is reflected in measures such as level of education, health status, and treatment by the criminal justice system. For example, why do upper-class white males typically have more opportunities for wealth and success compared to lower-class black males, who have a higher chance of landing in the criminal justice system?

Read more about social inequality, including how and why sociologists study it.