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AbstractAs evidenced by the popularity of animal behavior shows and books, online viral pet videos, and the presence of dogs or cats in two‐thirds of American homes, pets clearly play an important role in many Americans' lives. At the same time, however, millions of pets are abandoned, abused, and euthanized every year. What should we make of these seemingly conflicting realities? How do Americans really feel about and treat their pets? And what explains the differences? In recent years social scientists have begun to investigate the various and changing interactions between humans and animals. In particular, a growing body of research examines humans' relationships with pets, most often dogs and cats. This paper reviews recent research in this field. After discussing what differentiates pets from other animals, the paper begins with a review of research investigating the meanings and roles of pets in people's lives and the nature and benefits of human‐pet attachments. Secondly, it reviews research on the factors that help explain why some people have a higher regard for pets than others. The paper concludes with a discussion of some of the limitations of existing research and some suggestions on how to expand future investigations.

Twenty years ago, Pescosolido and Milkie (1995) reported that 50 percent of U.S. and Canadian sociology graduate programs offered formal teacher training. Despite pronouncements that offerings have increased substantially, no similarly thorough and direct investigation has been published since. In this time of dramatic change and increasing scrutiny of higher education, graduate teacher training is arguably more important than ever before. Thus, we seek to provide a new baseline of teacher training in the discipline. Using a 2013 survey of U.S. and Canadian sociology graduate programs ( N = 173), we find that 94 percent involve graduate students in teaching, almost 68 percent provide formal training for graduate student instructors, and 54 percent provide formal training for teaching assistants. We discuss the kinds and frequency of teacher training, as well as the type of graduate programs most likely to offer teacher training, and we provide suggestions for future research.

One of the major selling points of service-learning courses is their potential to mutually benefit communities, universities, and students. Although a great deal of research reports numerous pedagogical and personal benefits for students—from improved grades and increased civic engagement to increased understanding and appreciation of diversity—there is relatively little research on the impact of service learning on the community. To understand when and how service-learning courses benefit the community, we conducted in-depth interviews with representatives of local community-based organizations that have worked with service learners. We report on the primary benefits and costs associated with service-learning courses. We identify three types of obstacles to successful service-learning courses: issues related to student conduct, poor fit between course and organizational objectives, and lack of communication between instructors and organizations. We develop practical guidelines for addressing these obstacles and for ensuring that service learning fulfills teaching and learning goals and provides valuable service to community-based organizations.

AbstractAnalyzing a unique module of the General Social Survey, we test hypotheses that three religion dimensions — affiliation with specific religious traditions (belonging), service attendance (behaving), and religious orthodoxy (believing) are associated with compassionate feelings, and that these feelings carry over into support for government efforts to help the poor, blacks, and the sick. The religiously orthodox report more compassionate feelings toward others than do modernists and, partly because of this, are more supportive of government intervention to help the poor. Yet attending religious services frequently does not increase compassionate feelings and makes people less supportive of government efforts to help the poor. There are no differences among religious traditions in compassionate feelings, and the only difference on economic policy preferences is for Black Protestants to support government assistance to blacks. Compassionate feelings have comparable effects to political ideology and party identification on support for government assistance to the disadvantaged and misfortunate. We conclude that people of faith, variously defined, do not constitute a monolithic "Religious Right" and are potentially open to policy appeals from both political parties.