Testing the hypothesis part 1

1. The problem that I would like to focus on is the declining rate of marriage in our country.
2. Our country strives off of stability of the family unit. Researchers have found that the breakdown of this unit is linked to many problems in our society  such as higher crime rates, economic stability, and poor health in our society.
A. Who: I believe everyone is affected by this decline in our society.
B. What: They are unable to reap the supposed benefits that marriage offers, such as better health, better economic status, and an increase in social mobility.
C. Why: The family unit and marriage is a bond that our society depends upon for success.
3.  Testing...
A. Testing The Who: Everyone that I have identified in my who shares this need. As stated before this is a societal issue; which affects everyone.
B. Testing the what: There are no boundaries associated with this need. Increasing the marriage rate in our country is supposed to make the benefits of life, liberty, happiness  boundless, and limitless in our society.
C. Testing the why: As stated before this need affects everyone, and there are not many boundaries. Though many people would like to attest that marriage did more harm than good in their life. But looking at the research those harms are usually associated with outside factors, and less about the institution of marriage itself.
4. Interview’s
#1. I interviewed my mom who has been married for 12 years. She mentioned that marriage itself has helped her. She was afforded the opportunity to be a stay at home mom, and provide the emotional care that she believed we needed, which is something she knew wouldn’t be possible had she been a single mother; well not on the scale she through we deserved.
#2. I then decided to interview my father who is viewed as the breadwinner of our family to gain his perspective. From an economical standpoint he has seen a difference in his life between being a bachelor, to being a family man. He made references to his spending habits specifically, having changed drastically. He knew that with a family he had to become financially responsible. He put more money into stocks, and saving rather than going to unnecessary football games, or visiting bars with his friend frequently.
#3. I interviewed a friend that has been in a committed relationship, and is looking toward being married in the near future. I believed her perspective was important because she’s in the next best thing to being married: a long term relationship. She said she couldn’t really speak on it too much, because she wasn’t legally recognized as being a family member to her significant other. But, she stated that emotionally it all meant the same to her. Her happiness was directly related to her significant other, and she found that her child seemed more happier when she was with the father, rather than the little break they took.
#4. I spoke to a friend of mine who is a strong advocate of feminism. She believed there wasn’t a correlation. That she alone decided her future, and that marriage had nothing to do with our economy or health, and it’s basically a ploy by society used to keep people in a basic state of mind. That family and love determined more than it actually does.
#5. I interviewed my sociology teacher. She obviously believed that our society is better with families. That when the family unit failed, so did we as a society. She referenced times in history that the family unit is what we depended upon. That everyone has roles in society, and marriage helps keep people in their roles, and in turn helps our society run smoothly.
5. Something that I found out was that though some people were straying from the importance of family, the most people would agree that marriage is essentially a building block of our society. Additionally, I learned that taxes are affected by marriage, and with the decline in marriage, the cost to taxpayers increases, while the opposite is true for the increase in marriage.