Sociology: Sept. 11 Terrorism Continues To Impact Mental Health Of Americans

You're missing my point, home-brey. The scientific process always matters, but it's level of relevance to everyday lives is what is at stake. For example, if I had never read this article common sense could've explained to me that we're more stressed out after 9/11, but in my specific case maybe my girlfriend has been pissing me off, or any other of a million variables could be affecting my life. Just the world as a whole sucks right now, we all need to chill out.

Sure, the results of this study panned out as expected. Exactly like the study my professor is performing (detailed in "The Language Gene" thread in the science forum) has expected results. Science isn't all about inducing astonishing paradigm shifts all the time. Sure, that's what gets hailed in the media, but in general, that is not what science is. It's a slow, gradual process. It's about confirming, and reconfirming what you already know until it's established beyond any doubt. This study does exactly that.

It's not as though there aren't unexpected results in sociology as well. For instance, you may be interested in the panic myth.

But nevertheless, I think sociology is an important field of study. It shows us how social forces shape individual attitudes and behaviors, it shows how societies are developed and maintained, allows us to see the bridge between the individual and society, allows us to better appreciate the diversity in the human populations, and, contrary to what you say, challenges our commonly held beliefs about society as a whole among other things.

This is pretty well a generally understood phenomenon. It was a strike below the belt and makes us feel a lot less safe.

That's where I was getting at, and MJ you're just reiterating my point. It's over-analyzed, we already have basic human instinctions and interactions down pat beyond any unreasonable circumstances, because we've already had almost everything happen to us.