Category: Essays on Controversial Topics
Browse our collection of essays on controversial topics. Each topic in this category represents a controversial issue and thus is a good choice if you are looking for argumentative or persuasive essay topics. When writing an argumentative essay or a persuasive essay you should focus on picking a topic that is current and relevant to society and can be argued logically.
While a strong interest in a topic is important, it’s not enough to be interested. You have to consider what position you can back up with reasoning and evidence. It’s one thing to have a strong belief, but when shaping an argument you’ll have to explain why your belief is reasonable and logical. As you explore the topics, make a mental list of points you could use as evidence for or against an issue.
Moods or emotions change with experience and environment, sometimes reflecting happiness and other times sadness. In emotionally healthy individuals, moods are controllable, but for people with mental depression, the mood itself is in control of both body and thoughts. Mental depression is a mood disorder characterized by specific …
Mental health was once defined as the psychological state that exists in the absence of mental illness. Contemporary social scientific thought, however, has abandoned the view that mental health and mental illness are antithetical to one another. Now, lack of mental illness no longer simply implies the presence …
Methadone, a synthetic narcotic with a suppression effect lasting 24 to 36 hours, is the most effective medication to help heroin patients overcome their addiction. Methadone maintenance treatment (MMT) rapidly expanded following its demonstration as an effective medical intervention in the mid-1960s. In the United States, there are …
Middleman minority refers to cultural minority populations living in complex interethnic situations and to theories about their livelihood and social position. Their occupational niche generally has been the small family firm or self-employed merchant rather than agro-industrial producer or employee of a large corporation. Accordingly, one can speak …
Human geographic mobility is as much part of human life as of human history, for human beings are a migratory species and migration is a continuum in history. International migration is the crossing of international borders, the movement from one nation state to another that falls into the …
Militarism refers to the influence of the military as an institution and of the preparations to use military force on the overall social organization of society. The concept has four parts. The first is the direct participation of military officers in the most important governing structures. This feature …
In his 1961 farewell address, President Dwight D. Eisenhower warned of the dangers of the military-industrial complex. While arguing for its necessity, he also stated that we must guard against its potential dangers to our democratic processes and liberties. This was not the first use of the term …
Minimum competency tests (MCTs) measure the knowledge and skills deemed critical for the test-taker, establishing that he or she possesses these skills at a baseline level. Although often used synonymously with basic skills testing, the term can take some different twists. The typical use of MCTs is at …
The term minority group has an array of meanings. However, the key element in every definition is the relative lack of power. Traditionally, minority group referred to racial and ethnic groups. Anthropologist Charles Wagley and Marvin Harris identified five defining elements of a minority group in 1964: The …
Miscegenation refers to the marriage or interbreeding of races, particularly of whites with nonwhites. The Spanish equivalent is mestizaje, from which we get the Spanish term mestizo, whose English equivalents, derogatory or otherwise, include terms such as half-breed, half-caste, mulatto, or hybrid. When the first recorded interracial marriage …
The most common way of classifying crime is by seriousness, or misdemeanor versus felony. Misdemeanor crimes are less serious than felonies. The person who commits a misdemeanor is called a “misdemeanant” and the person who commits a felony is called a “felon.” In early English law, felonies were …
Missing children are young people whose whereabouts are unknown or who are not where they are supposed to be. There are several types of missing children. The most common categories are children who become lost (these tend to be young children, and most are recovered fairly quickly) and …
The term mixed economy typically describes an economic system that combines the use of market and command mechanisms to guide economic activity. A mixed economy is typically considered a middle ground—a “third way”—between laissez-faire capitalism and state socialism. Virtually all developed economies, including that of the United States, …
Modernization theory focuses on the development and progress of societies. In its examination of social formations evolving from lower levels of organization and production to higher ones, its essence lies in terms of a process of economic, social, and cultural development and change. Of the two major intertwined …
Gender discrimination in the labor market manifests in a variety of forms. For decades, researchers have documented asymmetry in the types of work performed, remuneration for labor, and workplace climates for men and women. The concept of the mommy track emerged in the late 1980s, ostensibly as a …
Monopolies (from the Greek monopolion, “one seller”) are markets with a single producer or distributor of a certain product or service. In addition, this exclusivity serves as a barrier to free market entry, product differentiation, and a stable (inelastic) demand for products due to the non-availability of close …
Moral entrepreneurs are individuals committed to the establishment and enforcement of rules against behavior they define as deviant. As such, they are especially visible and active agents of social control. Howard S. Becker, who coined the term moral entrepreneurs and introduced it in his classic 1963 book Outsiders: …
Mortality rates provide information about deaths in a population. The most basic measure, crude death rate (CDR), is the number of deaths in a population per 1,000 individuals in that population in a given year. CDR is an inadequate, and sometimes misleading, descriptor of mortality because it obscures …
Multiculturalism is a belief, ideology, movement, or policy that has several interpretations, but essentially advocates the peaceful coexistence of different cultural, ethnic, and/or racial groups within a single society interacting with one another on a mutually respectful, equal basis. Generally, nativists and those favoring assimilation oppose multiculturalism in …
One of the most important phenomena of the latter half of the 20th century in international business was the emergence of the multinational corporation (MNC). The many different definitions of MNCs usually rest on one of the following common characteristics: (a) company headquarters far removed from the country …
