Social Research: Week One

At the end of the first chapter of my Social Research textbook is this discussion question: "Select a social issue that interests you. List at least four of your beliefs about this phenomenon. Try to identify the sources of each of these beliefs."

I picked the topic of Homelessness, and as I prepared my answers to the question, I realized that my beliefs on the subject are illogical, full of overgeneralizations, and based purely on my own limited experiences. Here are my answers:

1. Homeless people sit on street corners begging for money, and probably more often than not, they take it straight to the bar or to their neighborhood drug dealer. I gave money to a beggar in Guatemala. Minutes later, I saw her buying local beer in the same bar where I was drinking high-end Italian liquor. Essentially, I bought her that beer. But that's okay, I rationalize. In my experience, people buy drinks for one another all the time. But I gave her that coin because I felt sorry for her lack of hands. How do I even know she was Homeless? 


2. If Homeless people don't use my money to buy drugs and booze, they might be paying their evil slave masters, like in the movie "Slumdog Millionaire" or the book Oliver Twist. If they aren't drug addicts, Homeless people can't be stooping to this behavior out of their own free will, can they? Someone told me they saw a street-corner beggar get into a shiny new car and drive away after he had made his money for the day. How much cash does a Homeless person bring home each night? I don't have a shiny new car. 


3. I used to think that Homeless people are probably homeless because they are lazy or weak and so they must deserve to live without a roof over their heads or clean running water. I believed that if they were as hardworking or as intelligent as I am, they wouldn't be standing on that street corner. And then a member of my family became Homeless. Does my family member deserve to live on the streets? My personal experience makes me wonder if anybody's family member deserves to be Homeless. 


4. Reading Barbara Kingsolver's essay "Household Words" and considering the Homelessness of someone I love leads me to reevaluate the issue. One of my favorite authors, Kingsolver chastises the United States for condemning Homelessness and at the same time allowing it to happen. She asks who works harder in a day to stay alive: the Homeless person on the street corner, or the passerby in an idling air-conditioned car? Her polished storytelling ability makes me feel guilty for judging someone I do not know and for criticizing a social problem I do not understand. 

Throughout the course of my undergraduate studies and including this exercise I am reminded that just because something is true for me, it is not true for all or most people. Our world is a complex place, and my experiences are limited. 

Textbook: Investigating the Social World: The Process and Practice of Research by Russell K. Schutt, 6th edition, 2009